Teaching pronunciation

Teaching pronunciation
Speaking activities are probably the most demanding for students and teachers in terms of affective factors involved. Trying to produce language in front of others students can generate high levels of anxiety. Students may feel that they are presenting themselves a much lower level of cognitive ability than they really possess; they may have a natural anxiety about being incomprehensible; they may have culture inhibitions about losing face, or they may simply be shy personality who does not speak very much in their first language. It is therefore a major responsibility for the teacher to create a reassuring classroom environment in which students are prepared to take risks and experiment with the language.
For that reason the correction of pronunciation errors, therefore, needs to be done in as positive way as possible. In the use of correction techniques a balance is needed between accuracy and fluency, and many handbooks for teachers stress the importance of not impeding or distracting learners’ attempts to communicate during fluency activities. The teacher’s notes which accompany many coursebooks often instruct teachers to leave correction until the end in fluency activities.
There is a list of strategies for errors correction in a classroom.
1. The teacher frowns and says ‘No, you don´t say that’. What do you say?
Can anybody help Juan?
2. The teacher repeats a sentence the student has just said, which raising intonation up to the point of the mistake, and waits for the student to self-correct.
3. The student has just produce a present -tense answer to a past- tense question from the teacher. The teacher repeats the question, stressing the past- tense form, and waits for the student to self correct.
4. The student uses incorrect intonation, the teacher asks the class for a accurate version, then repeats it, asks the class for chloral repetition and individual repetition, and finally return to the original student.
There is always a need to balance negative feedback on errors with positive on the student’s attempts to produce the language, and this means consideration of affective factors and knowing when to push and when to stop.