The teaching of English pronunciation: some useful techniques and resources

Abstract

[eng] In the last few decades the field of pronunciation is gaining in importance as more attention is being paid to the teaching of oral skills. Most teachers of foreign languages and teachers of English aim nowadays at training their students in the use of the language with communicative purposes, thus students should be intelligible, and if possible, fluent and accurate (Kenworthy, 1987; Palacios, 2000). Here I present a number of useful materials and techniques for the teaching of pronunciation. Most of them are adapted versions of proposals, made by pronunciation specialists, such as Hancock (1995), Paz Framil (2002) or Estebas (2009). They can be suitable for any level of education and include tongue twisters, songs, dictations, games, role-plays and dialogues and a classification of websites. After a critical review of some of these materials and techniques, practical examples will be provided together with their corresponding analysis. Key words: pronunciation, materials, techniques, activities.