Section 3

Sound Bits

Being able to produce English sounds clearly and using the correct stress and intonation patterns increases the learner’s chances of being understood. The background information presented and familiarity with a few techniques will be useful for tutors working with beginning and intermediate ESL learners.

Activity A

Introduction

Facilitation tip

Paired conversations allow people to exchange stories in a non-threatening way. You can gather the main ideas that come from the separate stories.


Discussion

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

This activity is adapted from the English as a Second Language Tutor Training Manual published by the Regina Public Library.

  1. Ask tutors, “Why teach pronunciation?” Look for answers that support the goal of having learners speak clearly enough to be understood by native speakers. Be aware that, instead, they might think an ESL learner’s English needs to be “perfect.”
  2. Ask “Can we expect adult language learners to completely master a new sound system?” The tutors will probably reply that that would be difficult. Tell them that adults may never be able to produce certain sounds. That is why people have accents. When immigrants are surrounded by another language, they may unconsciously want to keep a bit of an accent. The way we speak is an essential part of ourselves and they may not want to change everything about their speech because they have many adaptations and changes already to cope with. People also need psychologically to hang onto essential parts of their identity, like their language, and may not want to lose that accent.
  3. Talk about analyzing errors in the following way:
    • The first step to success in teaching the sound system is to focus on and teach the sounds that give the learners trouble.
    • In order to do this, we need to listen very carefully to their way of speaking and analyze their errors.
    • Taping some natural conversation is the most effective way of analyzing the errors that occur in normal everyday speech.
    • Reading information about specific sound problems of the learners’ language group can also be helpful.
    • If you use some informal sound pronunciation tests, show these to your tutors. Explain how to use them if tutors are expected the give the test.
  4. Explain that during this section, you will cover four different areas of pronunciation:
    • our sound system
    • sound production
    • teaching pronunciation
    • stress and intonation

Variation

Knowing tutors will come with different experiences, you can open dialogue by asking if a particular statement fits for them. For example, ask them if they think people with an accent are treated the same as people without an accent when they are looking for work or asking for information.