Business English pronunciation points
This is a brainstormed list of things that could be included on a syllabus for a Business English and/ or ESP speaking and/ or pronunciation course, including a few teaching ideas on how to tackle those points. For more information and resources on pronunciation practice for Business students, see the Market Leader Practice files (workbooks- the sections near the back) and my article from English Teaching Professional Magazine on the Articles page of TEFLtastic.
Language Points to Include and Possible Words/ Expressions for a Business English Speaking and Pronunciation course
Key Basics
alphabet and acronyms- inc. e-mail address
names of countries and cities
weights and measures???
numbers?
Making distinctions
Stressed and unstressed aux verbs= use of short forms
Short and long vowel sounds
ow and O
or and O
o and O
i and ee
for and four
to and two
we go and we’ll go
e and A- inc. rules
questions and statements (without changes in grammatical form)
Voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds
compound nouns stress- black bird/ blackbird
Am. and Br. pron
intonation- sounding enthusiastic/ interested
being polite
sounding sarcastic
important stress distinctions- 13/ 30 etc.
homographs, homophones and homonyms
hearing differences between tenses
hearing two and to differences (stressed and unstressed)
agreeing strongly and slightly
tag Q intonation
showing polite disagreement/ uncertainty
intonation of turn taking- inc. lists???
dja and wdja
rising and falling intonation in single words
could or would
with and without –r
can and can’t- stress
shifting stress with identical verb and noun forms
in and ing
ow???
defining and non-defining relative clauses
quite and QUITE
showing disbelief in reported speech
accepting and refusing invitations- that would be nice…
ch and j
ways of saying no
Understanding and producing fluent speech
‘missing syllables’
contrastive stress
schwa in unstressed grammar words
linking between words in fixed expressions- ups and downs, on and off, touch and go
linking with extra sounds
pausing in a monologue
sounds that ‘disappear’ and change when words are put together
signposting???
intonation of lists
short forms of modals
short forms of verbs- I’ll’ve etc.
word linking- extra sounds
weak forms in passives
informal equivalents like yeah/ nah/ yep/ howdy/ hiya/ ????- replace formal words in text with what you really hear
contractions of future forms
Accuracy
silent letters- wrong
consonant clusters??
stress of –tion words
th- sounds
-ed endings
saying punctuation marks???
h
absolutely furious!
shifting stress and unshifting stress
individual sounds – or/ sh/ ch/ dark l/
schwa in words
verb and plural endings
stress in phrasal verbs???
correcting politely
showing surprise
saying short forms (Mr. etc.)
air
Coping with unknown words
spelling and pron rules- i before e/ add and e and say the name of the vowel
stress in 2 syllable words (usually 2nd???)
different pronunciations of spelling- ea/ qu/ ch
words from other languages
prefixes and suffixes
alternative pronunciations
unusual pron and stress
Possible Tasks
giving presentations- short forms of verbs- I’ll’ve etc.
presenting figures
meetings
exchanging information- telephone calls- alphabet and numbers??
ranking- shifting stress??
making arrangements- alphabet and numbers??
negotiating- numbers?
making requests- being polite
taking notes
choosing acronym for company name- alphabet
complaining
checking information- fax with lots of spelling mistakes- homophones etc.
famous dates in financial history
polite interruption- intonation of lists
talking about flights- numbers and letters
Possible formats/ activities for pron pages
back formation
replace (formal/ full) words in text with what you really hear
circle the word that’s different