Pronunciation Techniques for English from a Professional Linguistic Perspective

In general, it can be frustrating for students if they have repeated experiences where communication has broken down because of problems with their English pronunciation. The Pronunciation Techniques class is one that gives primary attention to students about their intonation, stress, and rhythm. At present, the English pronunciation classes in different schools have different curriculum formats. However, all of them have the same aim of improving their students to do well in the pronunciation of English. In writing this paper author would like to report what he learned from his Pronunciation Techniques class at Southern New Hampshire University and how can he apply the knowledge to his class in the future.

The first time that he came to the pronunciation class, he expected only to improve his speaking and was not thinking about something else besides how people can understand him when he speak. The goal of language class, which he really agree with his teacher, is that students do not necessarily have to have a perfect pronunciation, but they should have the development of speech monitoring abilities and speech modification strategies for use beyond the classroom. It has made me more self-confident to practice and improve my own pronunciation. Moreover, he found that there are many techniques and activities of pronunciation teaching that would provide ideas for me to use with my students in the future.

1. Listen to spoken English as often as possible.

Listen to how speakers pronounce various words and phrases and "model" your pronunciation on what you hear.

2. Learn the phonetic alphabet.

Use the phonetic alphabet page (at the beginning of most good dictionaries) as a guide to pronouncing new words.

3. Don't forget to learn the word stress of a new word.

Every English word has its own stress, or intonation. ...