Pronunciation

In this class, we will address three big questions in pronunciation teaching:
A. Why are we teaching it? We will consider how the needs of learners very according to context, and how this affects what we teach. We will differentiate pronunciation for productive and for receptive purposes.

Many of us who are in the business of teaching English suffer from a feeling of accent anxiety. We are embarrassed that our accent does not match the ideal ‘standard’ accent found in books and dictionaries, and we worry that our speech may not be a good pronunciation model for our students. But perhaps our worries are misguided.

What are the main pronunciation difficulties which Spanish learners have with English? In this practical session, I will suggest my top six, along with some fun ideas for dealing with them in class. Bearing in mind that the purpose of pronunciation teaching is to help learners become more intelligible, we also consider which features of Spanish-accented English are not problematic.