“Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?”

                                                                      Clarence Darrow (1857 – 1938)



Teaching Pronunciation:


Children naturally need to communicate. This is a precious advantage we can use in our English
lessons. It seems to be easy: just bring challenging activities and children will pronounce and
speak. However, it’s not as simple as it looks at first sight.


Firstly the teacher should use English from the start. “Children acquire language by taking part in
activities, and to take part in activities, they must want and need to communicate. The need to
communicate in English is immediate and from the first lesson activities should take place in
English.” (Dunn 1991) We don’t have to be worried about it as the classroom English used together
with gestures, miming, visual aids and real activities is quite well understandable because the
teacher with the help of the things mentioned above makes the meaning obvious. Besides language
used with games is quite predictable and it can be picked up easily. Children know the routines of
games played in their age which helps them to understand quickly. With constant repetition of the
same routines the language will be soon acquired.


Secondly the language level should be adequate to young learners. The words used in the first
lesson therefore must be very simple. Later we bring more items into the vocabulary used; anyhow it
always should include words bringing the meanings of the children’s world like colours, numbers,
things in the classroom, and personal items. This requires careful planning of the lesson as well
as planning from lesson to lesson.


Thirdly the activities chosen must be adequate to children’s age. That’s why we bring rhymes,
stories, songs, games, and riddles. The same rhymes, stories, songs, games are used repeatedly in
the particular lesson and in the following lessons.


Fourthly the items should be used repeatedly. Children will naturally require repetition because
that’s what they do in their everyday games and activities outside the classroom. In English
lessons it brings them feeling of success and safe progress. It helps to motivate, too.
Surprisingly it doesn’t bore young children as it appears to bore older learners. However, it is
wise to plan one or two new games, activities, rhymes or songs in each lesson. They are first
understood by gist. Later they’ll pronounce them with full understanding. The procedure just
mentioned brings drill into training pronunciation. Obviously it cannot be avoided when teaching
pronunciation.


Fifthly methods of communication should be brought into the classroom to make children speak and
pronounce. In the beginning it’s not easy to start language interaction as the teacher is the only
English speaker in the classroom (unless there is a child who has lived abroad in English speaking
countries and the teacher can make dialogues with him). Then a puppet can be used as the partner in
the dialogue with the teacher. It is possible to create the whole world around the puppet which
imitates the children’s world. This provides opportunities for the use of language and for training
pronunciation.


Young learners have an amazing ability to pick up the sounds and patterns of intonation. They do
not need to be explained pronunciation; they do not need to be taught pronunciation heavily. If the
model pronunciation (the teacher’s speech, the native speaker’s records) is good and the learners
have opportunities to use language in communicative situations, they are able to acquire
pronunciation hardly distinguishable from the model.