CC BY
80CHALLENGES AND PECULIARITIES OF TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
Ugiloy Khusniddinovna Sayitkulova
Master student of Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
Scientific adviser: assistant professor G. Kh. Obrueva
ABSTRACT
Teaching English pronunciation is a challenging task with different objectives at each level. This article is devoted to a short overview of the main issues to be addressed at each level and some activities which improve leaners' English pronunciation skills. Аннотация: Обучение произношению английского языка - сложная задача, преследующая разные цели на каждом уровне. Эта статья посвящена краткому обзору основных вопросов, которые необходимо решать на каждом уровне, а также некоторым упражнениям, которые улучшают навыки английского произношения у постных.
Key words: vowels, consonants, sounds, silent letters, voiced and voiceless consonants, stress, syllable, intonation, multisyllabic words, internalize
Pronunciation is undoubtedly an irreplaceable element of language learning and teaching, it is necessarily an important element. Indeed, pronunciation is often what is being perceived as redundant and is therefore often neglected and avoided by many teachers of second language [1].
Proper pronunciation is essential when learning English as a second or foreign language. At the beginning level, English learners need to focus on the basics of pronunciation. In general, the use of rote learning is best for this level. For example, the use of grammar chants is a great way to help students pick up pronunciation skills through repetition. Certain patterns such as silent letters in English and the pronunciation of -ed in the simple past is a good starting point for future pronunciation drills. Students should also learn the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants. Improving pronunciation through a focus on stress and intonation is one of the best ways to improve higher intermediate to advanced level English learners. At this level, students have a good grasp on the basics of each phoneme through the use of exercises such as minimal pairs, and individual syllable stress. However, English learners at this level often focus too much on the correct pronunciation of each word, rather than on the music of each sentence. To introduce the concept of stress and intonation and the role it plays in understanding, the students first need to understand the role of content and function words.
The goal of pronunciation teaching and learning is communicative competence, not the complete absence of an accent. Saving non-stressed the need for meaningful
communicative tasks in the language classroom, including those that focus on pronunciation [7].
Many teachers commence teaching English pronunciation with practice as they introduce vocabulary. This is the way many textbooks advise to teach pronunciation. However, for students with a mother tongue that bears no resemblance to English, this actually makes comprehension more difficult. Drilling pronunciation is another less than desirable form of instruction. A set up involves combining the teaching of pronunciation with that of spelling, another important skill, but the real starting point is on the level of the phoneme. Teachers of adults learning English should be aware that the goal of improving pronunciation for many adult learners is mutual intelligibility, not perfection [4].
Following each level are a few suggestions for level appropriate activities. Syllable Stress - students need to understand that multisyllabic words require syllable stress. Point out common syllable stress patterns. Voiced and Voiceless Consonants - Teach the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants. Have students touch their throats to note the difference between 'z' and 's' and 'f and 'v' to demonstrate these differences. Silent Letters - Point out examples of words with silent letters such as the 'b' in 'comb', '-ed' endings in the past for regular verbs. Silent E - Teach the influence of the final silent 'e' generally making the vowel long. Make sure to point out that there are many exceptions to this rule (drive vs. live).
Teaching English pronunciation with phonics exercises: Perhaps the most obvious and conventional method for teaching English pronunciation is through phonics. Phonics focuses on learning the individual sound of a letter or set of letters, vowels, and consonants when learning to read. One has developed a useful diagram for understanding the process of phonics in learning pronunciation: "letters form sounds, sounds form words, words form sentences, sentences form stories, stories form meaning, meaning forms reading." A new frontier for learning to pronounce words is through "visual phonics," which teaches English pronunciation with animated texts, videos, and songs. Visual phonics physically animates sounds and words to help ESL learners internalize what they see and hear, distinguishing between different sounds, words, and meanings. According to one source, "visual phonics shows various reading skills, such as isolating sounds and syllables, segmentation, rhyming, and substitution, to help children visualize relationships between letters and sounds, sounds and words, and words and syllables". Visual phonics lends a fun and creative atmosphere for learning English pronunciation. Teaching phonics to younger students should include pronunciation games (such as clapping the hands when a student hears a specific sound or acting out a word or letter sound), videos, and songs (perhaps singing a word or drawing out the sound of a letter) that incorporate animations, graphics, and total physical response to sounds. Another useful phonics game is having the students create
their own words from individual letters or groups of letters. Voicing should be an active process in your student's learning to pronounce words correctly. It is important for non-native speakers to master the different vowel phonemes in English as they may not be present in your student's primary language. For older students, it may be helpful to show illustrations or to demonstrate with your mouth where to properly place the tongue and lips to create a specific sound. One source suggests, have students use a mirror to see their mouth, lips, and tongue while they imitate teacher. Leader need to ensure that your students know the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants. The voiced sounds (which include vowels and diphthongs) should produce a vibration in the throat whereas the voiceless sounds will not. The reasons why it is important to incorporate pronunciation teaching into the classroom have been already presented. It is important to remember that pronunciation is connected to and interacts with speaking and listening abilities. Students are developing at least two distinct types of skills in speaking a language. First, they are learning to speak the new language with ease and fluency.
An understanding of the features of learner accents and their impact on intelligibility can help teachers identify and address characteristics of learner pronunciation. The primary aim is that students be understood. Good pronunciation is needed for this, but a «perfect accent» is not [2].
A number of problems with and approaches to teaching pronunciation, identifying two key problems with pronunciation teaching. Firstly, teaching pronunciation tends to be neglected. Due to the fact that many experienced teachers lack knowledge of the theoretical basis of pronunciation, they may not feel the need to improve their pronunciation teaching skills. Secondly, when pronunciation is not neglected, it tends to be reactive to a particular problem that has arisen in the classroom, rather than being strategically planned. As a result, a lot of pronunciation teaching tends to be done in reaction to errors made by students in the classroom.
In conclusion, pronunciation can be one of the most difficult parts for a language learner to master and one of the least favorite topics for teachers to address in the classroom. Pronunciation must be viewed as more than correct production of individual sounds or isolated words. Instead, it must be viewed as a crucial and integral part of communication that should be incorporated into classroom activities. Teachers can help students by highlighting elements such as sounds, syllables, stress and intonation. Once the students understand the functions of these elements, they will know what to focus on and can build upon this basic awareness. Teachers can actively encourage the students' actual production, build pronunciation awareness and practice through classes gradually building skills in listening and speaking in both formal and informal situations. It can be concluded that with careful preparation and integration, pronunciation can play an important role in supporting the learners' overall communicative power.
REFERENCES
1. Collins, B., Mees, I. The hundredth anniversary of the first modern English pronunciation dictionary. Proc. PTLC London. - 2009
2. Crystal, D. (2003). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Oxford University Press. - 1988
3. Derwing, T.M., Munro, M.J. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciation teaching: A research-based approach. TESOL Quarterly. - 2005 - 379-397pp.
4. Flege, E., Frieda, E. M., & Nozawa, T. Amount of native-language (L1) use affects the pronunciation of an L2. Journal of Phonetics. - 2010. - 169-186 pp.
5. Jenkins J. A sociolinguistically based, empirically researched pronunciation syllabus for English as an international language. Applied Linguistics. - 2002. - 87-103pp.
6. Levis, M. Changing contexts and shifting paradigms in pronunciation teaching. TESOL Quarterly. - 2005. -369-377 pp.
7. Munro, M.J., Derwing, T.M. Foreign accent, comprehensibility, and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning. - 2007. - 285-310 pp.
8. Pitt, M. How are pronunciation variants of spoken words recognized? A test of generalization to newly learned Journal of Memory and Language. - 2007. - 19-36 pp.
