7 Tips for Teaching Pronunciation

Whether teaching grammar, writing, or reading comprehension to  ESL students, it is essential to be well prepared and knowledgeable. 

Use these seven tips for teaching pronunciation to help your students build confidence in speaking English and succeed in other areas of their lives.

1 Use phonics activities to teach pronunciation

One of the most common and easiest ways to teach pronunciation is through phonics. Phonics activities teach ESL students how to read and write by learning the individual sound of a letter or group of letters, vowels, and consonants when introducing them to reading. 

In addition, teaching phonetics is a fun and creative way to teach pronunciation. It helps ESL students visualize and understand relationships between letters and sounds, sounds and words, and words and syllables. 

Check this excellent article for an idea of phonics activities, called picture flashcards for phonics. 

2 Use mouth positions and tongue twisters to teach pronunciation

When teaching pronunciation, ensure you make pronunciation a physical class activity instead of a mental activity and make sure your students practice and pronounce the words correctly.

Here are a few ideas: 

• Show your students how to use their mouths to make the correct sound.
• Create and give exercises that focus on helping your students build muscle memory.
• Pay attention to how your students practice, and provide feedback throughout the process. 
• Teach your students to properly place the tongue and lips to create a specific sound with your mouth. 
• Ask your students to use a mirror to see their mouth, lips, and tongue while they imitate you.

Another effective way to teach pronunciation is through combining collocations and pronunciation. 

3 Teaching minimal pairs

Minimal pairs are words or phrases that differ in only one sound and have distinct meanings. For example, lot and rot, lack and rack, law and raw, or led and red are minimal pairs. 

Teaching minimal pairs helps distinguish between the sounds of two similar words that have different spellings. 

In addition to improving your students’ pronunciation, minimal pairs also help your students expand their vocabulary. 

Here’s are useful lists of minimal pairs, many with audio, that you can use with your students.

4 Shadowing

Shadowing is an excellent way to develop speaking fluency in English, particularly pronunciation.

Here are my suggestions: 

• Ask your students to choose an audio recording (no longer than 5 minutes).
• Before shadowing, they need to listen to the audio at least twice to get used to the speaker’s accent, intonation, and pace.
• They need to shadow the speaker by repeating what the speaker says quickly and accurately.
• Once they feel confident and comfortable, they should record themselves and share their audio with you and the rest of the class. 

I currently have one of my students shadowing me, he repeats every word and sentence I said. It is always good to know your students so you can use the method that suits them best. 

5 Encourage your students to practice in front of a mirror.

Practicing pronunciation in front of a mirror will help your students see their physical movements. 

You can also encourage your students to use Google pronunciation tools or look at your mouth and face as you pronounce certain sounds.

When your students understand the physical movements used in pronouncing words, their pronunciation will improve. 

6 Use fun pronunciation games

When teaching pronunciation, be creative and fun, using engaging materials and activities such as syllables snap and word games.

Additionally, encourage your students to use fun pronunciation games to reinforce pronunciation outside and in class. Using pronunciation games is an excellent way to keep your students engaged with a bit of competition in the classroom.

Teaching pronunciation is all about building your students’ confidence and encouraging them to practice their English skills. 

Here are 15 top fun pronunciation games that can help your students improve their pronunciations faster. 

7 Phoneme isolation

Phoneme isolation is also an excellent way to develop your students’ phonemic awareness. 

To help your students improve their pronunciation, teach them how to isolate sounds. In other words, instead of reading a sound as part of a complete word in English, they should focus on pronouncing the sound itself repeatedly, particularly with beginner ESL students. 

In addition, you can encourage your students to pronounce the words along with you by focusing on the small to help strengthen the sound pattern in their minds.