How To Teach Pronunciation

The Book link is given below:How To Teach Pronunciation by Gerald Kelly is a practical handbook for English language teachers, offering a clear introduction to phonology alongside ready-to-use classroom activities. Part of Pearson Longman’s “How To” series, the book covers sounds, stress, intonation, and connected speech without assuming prior linguistics training. It includes photocopiable worksheets and audio models. This article outlines five core strategies from this essential teaching resource.

The Phonemic Chart as a Classroom Tool
How To Teach Pronunciation dedicates significant space to the phonemic chart, arguing that it should be a permanent classroom fixture. Kelly provides step-by-step guidance on introducing each sound through gestures, mouth diagrams, and minimal pair drills. Rather than overwhelming students with 44 symbols at once, teachers present vowels by tongue position (front, center, back) and consonants by voicing and place of articulation. The book includes games like “phonemic bingo” and “sound dictation.” Within three weeks of daily chart work, learners can transcribe new words independently—turning pronunciation from guesswork into a decodable skill.

Integrating Stress and Rhythm Early
Many teachers focus on individual sounds while ignoring the musicality of English. How To Teach Pronunciation reverses this priority, introducing word stress and sentence rhythm from Lesson 1. Kelly provides rubber-band stretching activities to visualize stressed syllables and “backchaining” techniques for long words (photograph → photography → photographic). For sentence stress, teachers use “stress dances” (stomping on content words, tiptoeing on function words). Learners who master rhythm early sound more natural even with imperfect vowels. The book argues that stress is the skeleton of intelligibility—without it, perfect individual sounds still confuse listeners.

Teaching Connected Speech Naturally
Native speakers don’t pause between words. How To Teach Pronunciation breaks connected speech into five features: catenation (an apple sounds like a napple), elision (government loses its first /n/), assimilation (handbag becomes hambag), intrusion (go on gains a /w/ sound), and contraction. Kelly provides “dictogloss” exercises: teachers read a phrase at natural speed, learners write what they heard, then compare to the written form. Rather than drilling rules, the book suggests awareness-raising through authentic listening. Students who recognize connected speech stop asking “Why do they say it like that?” and start mimicking naturally.

Using Mouth Models and Gestures
How To Teach Pronunciation solves the problem of invisible articulators (tongue, soft palate, vocal cords) with visual substitutes. Kelly describes simple gestures: tap the back of your hand for voiced sounds (vibration), draw a snake shape for /s/ vs. /z/, and use a finger to show tongue position for /θ/ (thumb between teeth) versus /t/ (tongue tip behind teeth). For difficult pairs like /l/ and /r/, teachers demonstrate by holding a mirror sideways. The book includes photocopiable mouth diagrams for learners to label. These kinesthetic and visual anchors work for children, adults, and dyslexic students who cannot follow abstract descriptions.

Diagnosing Errors by First Language
The final section of How To Teach Pronunciation provides a “pronunciation problem” chart organized by learner’s L1. Spanish speakers confuse /b/ and /v/; Japanese speakers struggle with /l/ and /r/; Arabic speakers add extra vowels to consonant clusters (*s-p-o-r-t* becomes siporit). Kelly offers targeted minimal pair drills and “ear training” activities for each group. He also includes a classroom observation checklist: note which sounds a student mispronounces, then cross-reference the chart to find the likely cause. This diagnostic approach saves time by treating the root problem, not random sounds. Teachers using this method report faster correction and fewer frustrated learners.