Pronunciation often gets ignored over grammar and vocabulary in ESL programs. However, it is just as important because with bad or garbled pronunciation, the spoken message gets lost. “I think” becomes “I sink,” to give a common example. With ESL learners across the world, each country and culture has its own verbal albatross. Here is how can you can begin to use pronunciation for your students’ needs.

Step 1

Get to understand why English words can be so problematic for non-native speakers of English to pronounce. Understanding this difficulty from your students' point of view will better equip you to help them overcome it.

Step 2

Obtain phonetic charts that have symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). These charts are available from teaching supply companies and books such as those in the English File series. Hang this up in your class, and familiarize your students with the pronunciation symbols. You can use these charts to teach pronunciation by helping your students understand the sounds that they get wrong, as well as the correct sounds for a given word or similar words.

Step 3

Keep your lessons as informal as possible. Students might initially be shy about pronunciation. By using fun, silly activities, it creates a more relaxed, effective atmosphere than strict practice. Tongue twisters are one such fun activity. See the Resources section for a link.

Step 4

Use syllable races as an exercise to teach pronunciation. Get a "Snakes and Ladders" board game, and then prepare flash cards that each have a one-syllable, two- or three-syllable word written on it. Instead of throwing a dice, each player will draw a card and if she pronounces the word correctly, she gets to move as many spaces on the board as there are syllables in the word on the flash card. The winner is the player who gets to the end first.

Step 5

Get familiar with the different elements of the spoken word--word stress, minimal pairs, pronunciation, intonation and sentence stress--so that you will be able to explain them and be able to create your own lessons geared towards what your students find difficult.

Step 6

Use a feather to demonstrate the difference between aspirated and un-aspirated sounds, by holding it right in front of your lips as you say the word.

Step 7

Help your students differentiate between minimal pairs by reading phrases for them to draw. For example, have them draw sketches that depict: "A ship’s on the sea" and "A sheep’s on the shore."

quoted From www.ehow.com

It sounds artificial to speak like the British or the Americans when you live in india. Even if you are invited  to make a speech in english  at an international conference, you need not speak with a particular accent. You can speak with your native accent. the Americans don't speak like the British. Nor does an Australian try to speak like a Canadian. So why should an indian imitate a  native speaker.

Mr Narashimharao,

I half agree with you, as I half agree with the previous writer, about the importance of learning to copy a native speaker's accent.  You are 100% right that the non-native speaker's accent is acceptable.  My students are mostly Belgians and, when teaching pronunciation, I make it as plain to them as I can that their accents are not the problem - in fact, a French accent, like an Indian accent, can sound quite charming to English ears.  The problem is my accent.  Their ambition to communicate freely with native speakers isn't held up by their accents, but by the native speakers' accents, which are often incomprehensible. 

The student who has only learnt classroom-English, or written English, will find it very difficult to understand normal conversational English, in which liaison is made between words, in which there can be bewildering stress patterns, and in which small words often seem to disappear.  Teaching conversational English as a subject in its own right, and encouraging students to speak at speed, is the best I can do to prepare them for spoken communication with native speakers.

This line of reasoning may not appear relevant if you deal with English exclusively for use between non-native speakers, in which case, speaking too quickly may be a disadvantage; but do consider the possible needs of your students who want to understand native speakers.

Paul Giles

The interactive software may be a useful tool, but it is probably better to have a trained speech therapist or teacher to give more accurate feedback. It is definitely possible to teach adult learners how to improve their pronunciation.

Yes it is possible to teach pronunciation to adults and to any age group as a matter of fact. You need to set strategies according to the group you are teaching. Usually the students have to listen to the pronunciation through a reliable source (either a teacher who knows the pronunciation well, a software, a presentation, video, etc).

You can teach pronunciations to any age group provided the learner's attention & interest plays the major role, what ever strategy or module you may use.

Ref: www.neutralaccent.com

I'd like to refer you to the article linked below regarding intelligibility, which is far more important than any accent. 

In my opinion, the rhythms and sentence stress of English are the most important factors to consider.

I often hear my students complaining that they have an accent so I always try to put the point across to them that it's no big deal, I have one too!! Actually, it's better for them not to learn a particular accent as this will only get in the way of intelligibility. Only a fraction of English speakers speak with RP, for example, so what's the point in learning that?

You can be as grammatically correct as you want and know as many words as a dictionary but if you can't speak with any degree of intelligibility then your efforts to learn the aforementioned have thus far been a useless exercise for you.

http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/internationalintelligibility.html

Hi Hassanshaffie,

I do think your question is too big to really answer here, but...

There's a great book on that called "Learner English" by Swan & Smith.  The book covers about 20 language backgrounds, I think (ranging from Spanish, to Chinese, to Arabic, and more).  It does cover potential grammar and lexis difficulties but there's a lot more on pronunciation than anything else (which I think indicates that L1 is much more likely to influence pronunciation than other aspects of L2 learning).

Some comments based on my teaching experiences in China - Chinese Mandarin seems to create difficulties with the following sounds, among others:

L1 influence or teacher created? 

The /u:/ sound.

Pronouncing the /u:/ sound when followed by a consonant, especially nasal consonants.  There is a sound in Chinese which is almost the same as the English sound, and most people have no problems using it in words like 'you' and 'two'.  However, in words like 'moon' and 'room' and slightly less often in words like 'food', the vast majority replace it with an /U/ sound (as in 'book') but longer.  To imagine it, say 'boook' and then put that vowel sound in 'mooon'.

I don't know for sure whether it is due to their 1st language, in which /n/ and /ng/ sounds, as far as I'm aware, can follow /U/ but not /u:/... or whether it is due to teaching - their teachers didn't know, taught it as a long /U/, they picked it up, then taught others, and so on.  What I do know is that with a lot of highlighting and having Chinese students drill:  too, too, too, new, new, new, blue, blue, blue, room, room, room... they persistently pronounce it with the long /U/ in room, despite having just repeated /u:/ 9 times in too, new and blue.

Direct L1 influence or lack of practice?   

The 'th' sound (I'm using /@/ for unvoiced 'th' as in 'three').

Chinese Mandarin doesn't have a /@/ sound.  I'd estimate about 80-90% of Chinese learners (non-beginners) have no problem pronouncing the sound in isolation, but rarely pronounce it correctly in communication (instead saying /s/).  It is more likely to be used correctly at the beginning of a word ('three' is pronounced naturally more often than not), but is highly unlikely at the end of a word (My name, Heath, is usually pronounced /hi:s/ - 'Heas').

L1 doesn't really prevent learners from pronouncing /@/, but the fact that the sound doesn't exist in Chinese means they haven't practised using it in natural communication.  So I'd say L1 has had an indirect effect, and that learners are bound to pick it up with practise.

Backwards and forwards influence.  The /v/ and /w/ sounds.

Some Chinese learners have difficulties pronouncing /v/ in some positions in some words (I'm not clear on exactly what positions - I don't feel like 'van' is problematic, but 'very' can be).  As with /@/ Chinese learners can pronounce /v/ but it is not a sound in Mandarin.  However, it is similar to /w/ and is sometimes replaced with a sound that is probably midway between /v/ and /w/. 

The really interesting thing is when words have /w/ in them.  Sometimes, with quite a few learners, they actually pronounce the /w/ using that midway sound too - despite Chinese having a sound that is much more similar to the English /w/.  So it seems the L1 influences /v/ too much, but doesn't influence /w/ enough!

Note 1:  These are all personal and informal observations. 

Note 2:  None of these 3 aspects of pronunciation seem to cause problems with communication.

Note 3:  I haven't talked much about sentence stress and connected speech, but problems associated with those in China seem overwhelmingly teacher caused (ie. teachers encourage students to say each word slowly and distinctly and this results in students avoiding use of contractions, weak forms, elision, etc).