I’ve written quite a few pronunciation activities this year for a regional product (Asia). Here are a few random thoughts on the process…
Pronunciation for… what?
As Laura Patsko mentions in this interesting Pedagogy Pop-up, pronunciation is important for all skills, not just speaking.
A lot of the pronunciation stages in our materials focus on connected speech. The aim of these activities (IMO) is more to help learners decode natural speech rather than to produce a certain pronunciation feature accurately themselves. Of course, it would be nice if they could do both…
If the purpose of a pronunciation activity isn’t clearly communicated to teachers (and to learners) then this could lead to either having the wrong expectations. There is always a production element in our pronunciation activities, but accurate production of a certain feature might not be the primary aim of an activity.
Tags: DipTESOL tips • ELT • General • Learner English • materials writing • pronunciation • tefl • the British Council