Teaching American English Pronunciation

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How to Teach American English Pronunciation

Hello American English Pronunciation Teachers! Here are some books and ideas that will you teach American English pronunciation.

I've posted links to quality noncommercial websites, including the excellent, animated Phonetics Website from the University of Iowa, that your students can use to articulate and practice all of the American English vowel and consonant sounds.

There are several excellent books that will teach you how to teach pronunciation including Avery & Ehrlich's Teaching Pronunciation. I describe these books below.

You may also want to check out my American English Pronunciation Blog.
I post new pronunciation and accent reduction techniques here several times a week. Many teachers subscribe to my blog in order to keep up on the best tips and techniques for teaching American English pronunciation. You'll see the link to my blog below.

The Sounds of English Website from the University of Iowa

LEARN to PRONOUNCE ENGLISH VOWEL & CONSONANT SOUNDS

I use this free online pronunciation software from the University of Iowa in my classes because it uses video and sound clips to show students how to articulate ENGLISH VOWEL & CONSONANT SOUNDS correctly.
Sounds of English from the University of Iowa
I use this online software in all of my pronunciation classes and the students find it very helpful!

My American English Pronunciation Blog

I post new pronunciation tips and activities on my American English Pronunciation Blog every week.

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My Articles on Teaching American English Pronunciation

Click here to read my articles on American English Pronunciation

Click on my logo to read my articles on American English Pronunciation. These articles are free to read and print.

Teaching American English Syllable Stress Patterns

Here are 3 rules for syllable stress

Overview


When you hear Americans pronounce words you'll notice that they always stress one syllable in each word more that the others. We call this syllable stress. The vowels in stressed syllables sound louder, longer and clearer that the vowels in other syllables. The vowel sound in a stressed syllable has a slightly higher pitch. This is VERY, VERY important!


Syllable stress is important in spoken American English because it helps to create the rhythm of the language.


Three Syllable Stress Patterns


Below are three patterns to help you remember which syllables to stress. Read each pattern. Then pronounce the example words and sentences in each section.


1. Stress is usually placed on the syllable that contains the root or base word. Here are some examples


unPAID- The rent was unpaid for three months.
inCLUDE- Please include your name and address.
preDICT-Thomas predicts it will be sunny tomorrow.
unABLE- I'm unable to help you today.
reMIND- Will you remind me to call home after class?
prePARE- Richard said he would prepare dinner tonight.

The vowel sounds in the unstressed syllables are often reduced to a schwa vowel sound.



2. Word prefixes are usually NOT stressed. Here are some examples:


SLOWly-Christina walks very slowly.
FASTer- John walks faster than I do.
SPEAKing- Jean likes speaking in class.
CAREful- Please be careful walking home at night.
SMALLest- Lucy is the smallest person in the class.
DRINKable -The water in the bathroom is undrinkable!

3. Most two-syllable nouns (90%) are stressed on the first syllable. Here are some examples:


MARket-Sally buys bananas at the market.
TEAcher-Mr. Williams is my computer teacher.
FRIday -We're going to the movies on Friday.
PAper- I need to buy paper for the printer.
KITchen -The kitchen is a mess!
BROther Robert's brother is very kind.

These are just some of the rules and patterns that you can teach your students about syllable stress in words. To learn more rules and get activities for teaching syllable stress check out the books for teaching pronunciation books by Avery & Ehrlich and Celce-Murcia above

How to Teach the Schwa Vowel Sound

Learn to teach the schwa sound

The schwa vowel sound is the most common sound in spoken English. So how come we never learned to teach it? This excellent video shows you how to teach the schwa vowel sound in words with multiple syllables.
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More Information on Teaching the Schwa Sound

This excellent resource from the BBC website explains and discusses the importance of the schwa vowel sound.
Teaching the Schwa Sound
This site is meant for English teachers but advanced learners may enjoy it as well.

Teaching English Pronunciation: Free Downloadable Book for Teachers

A FREE downloadable teaching book from Judy Gilbert

Cambridge English Language Teaching is offering an excellent and FREE downloadable book from pronunciation expert Judy Gilbert. This book is called The Prosody Pyramid.

Click on the link below to get this free book that will teach you how to teach American English pronunciation.
Free Book for Teaching English Pronunciation
Read Judy Gilbert's book on Teaching Pronunciation to learn why it's so important to teach syllable stress, sentence stress and intonation to your students. Some of Judy's work is based on the findings on Dr. Olle Kjellin who believes that when teaching a new language to adults, prosody and pronunciation exercises should be taught first. Then teachers should go on to teach the segmental aspects of pronunciation and integrate the teaching of grammar and vocabulary into the prosody and pronunciation exercises.

Clear Speech

by Judy Gilbert

Clear Speech Teacher's Resource Book: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in American English

Amazon Price: $21.12 (as of 02/13/2012)Buy Now

Judy Gilbert's Clear Speech will help you teach pronunciation to your students using clear illustrations and fun activities.

American English Pronunciation and Phonetics

Teaching the sounds of "s" and "c" in American English

Since English is not a phonetic language there is not always a one-on-one relationship between the letters in the English alphabet and spoken sounds. This can cause problems for your students when they are trying to pronounce English from text.

The 26 letters in the English (Roman) alphabet make many different sounds in spoken American English. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, American English has 25 consonant sounds and up to 18 vowel sounds (the exact number of sounds may vary from region to region).

Let's look at some sound-spelling situations that are frequently confusing to students who are learning to speak English. We'll start with the letter "s".

When you are speaking English the letter "s" can represent several different sounds depending on its location in a word.

In the word same the "s" sounds like /s/.
In the word leisure the "s" sounds like /zh/.
In the word design the "s" sounds like /z/.

The fact that "s" has three sounds can be very confusing when students are learning to speak English from a written text!

Let's look at some English words that begin with the consonant "c".
city
century
cat
cut
cot

The letter "c" in the words city and century sound like /s/. The letter "c" in the words cat and cut and cot sound like /k/.

Look carefully at the spelling of the five words above. Can you figure out the rule or pattern used to determine the spoken sound of the letter "c"?

The rule is that 'c' sounds like /s/ when it falls before the vowels "i" and "e". It sounds like the /k/ when it falls before the vowels "a", "o" and "u".

You can see from the examples above that the position of a consonant within a word can change the way it sounds. This happens frequently in American English pronunciation.

One excellent resource for learning about American English sounds is Charles Becker's Best Accent Training. You can check Charles' program out in the module below. I use Best Accent Training myself and I love it!

English Pronunciation Made Simple

A great choice for a class textbook

English Pronunciation Made Simple (with 2 Audio CDs) (2nd Edition)

This book explains each individual sound in American English as well as other key elements of spoken English including rhythm, stress & intonation. English Pronunciation Made Simple uses IPA symbols to help explain American English sounds.

This book is a great choice for a classroom textbook because there are a lot of exercises & ACTIVITIES that teachers can use in the classroom.

Mastering the American Accent

For You and Your Students

I use this book with my ESL students and with my professional clients. Most of my students choose to purchase the book since it is such an excellent value with 4 CDs. There are lots of syllable stress activities in this book.

Don't spend so much time planning for your pronunciation lessons! Get a book like this and make your life easier. I did, and now I have more time to listen and work with the students instead of planning lessons.

Mastering the American Accent with Audio CDs

Amazon Price: $16.06 (as of 02/13/2012)Buy Now

You can use this book/CD set with your students or clients. I have my students purchase it since it is so affordable. They have found it an very effective way to practice away from the classroom.

How to Pronounce the Past Tense "ed' in English

Help your students learn these important sounds!

American spoken English has 3 sounds for the past tense ed . These are the /t/ sound for ed after voiceless consonants, the /d/ sound after voiced consonants and the /id/ or schwa + /d/ sound after sibilant sounds such as /s/ & /z/.

Eva Easton has a nice page on her website that you can use to learn the rules and practice the 3 sounds of ed. Don't forget to take the quiz at the end!

American English ED SOUNDS

A great book you can use to teach these sounds to your students is MASTERING the AMERICAN ACCENT.

Pronunciation Teaching Actvities

Pronunciation Teaching Actvities
Here is a list of interactive activities (with some PDF handouts) from ESL Lounge.

Center for Language Education & Research

CLEAR's Free PDF File on Teaching Pronunciation

Michigan State University's Center for Language Education & Research offers free resources for language teaching. Resources include software, lessons and a PDF newsletter. The Fall 2010 newsletter is about teaching pronunciation.

There are many great tools and resources here so be sure to take a look. The Fall 2010 Newsletter is about teaching pronunciation.
Free PDF file on Teaching Pronunciation.

How to Teach American English Sounds

Consonant Sounds, Vowel Sounds & More

Maybe you are not sure how to teach American English sounds and patterns. Most teachers did not learn how to do this well during their training.

One way that I learned to teach key sounds such as the schwa and the voiced th was using Charles Becker's Best Accent Training Course.

The course is meant for language learners but I use it to learn articulation methods and practice activities that I can use in my pronunciation classes. Learning from Charles saves me time and helps me be a better teacher.

Each sound lesson comes with a printable transcript. There is also a language guide chart that tells you the most problematic vowel and consonant sounds for each native language group. This is a great resource to have!

You can see it here: Best Accent Training.

by

pronunciationteacher

I teach American English pronunciation and accent reduction online and in South Florida.

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