I’ll never forget the day I realized I was having a real conversation with Shimin. No paper, no pencil, no charades. Just two people talking, and I could understand what he was saying.
If you’d asked me three months earlier whether that would ever happen, I honestly wouldn’t have known what to tell you.
Pronunciation is one of those challenges that can make you feel completely helpless as a teacher, especially when you’re in an under-resourced program. No speech pathologist down the hall. No specialized pronunciation lab. No fancy software or expert consultation. Just you, your students, and whatever creativity you can scrape together on a Tuesday afternoon when you’re already exhausted.
And when a student’s accent makes them truly incomprehensible? That’s when the helplessness really kicks in. Because you know they’re motivated. You know they’re trying. You just don’t know if you have what it takes to help them.
I didn’t know if I could help Shimin. But I knew I had to try.
The Student Who Had Everything (Except Pronunciation)
Shimin was 19 when he landed in my lowest level class. Within the first hour, I knew his accent was going to be his biggest challenge. Actually, scratch that. It was going to be MY biggest challenge, because he devoured everything I threw at him.
Grammar? Loved it. Vocabulary? Couldn’t get enough. Listening exercises, reading, writing? He ate it all up and asked for seconds.
But speaking? That was a different story.
I couldn’t understand him. His classmates couldn’t understand him either. We had another Chinese student at the school, Zhang, who came from a different region and spoke a different dialect. Zhang’s dialect happened to use sounds closer to English sounds, so pronunciation came easier for him. Shimin? Not so much.
This wasn’t a case of a few tricky sounds. Shimin struggled to wrap his tongue around the sound of English itself.
4 Strategies That Worked for Us
Here’s the thing: I had resources I’d turn to when students struggled with specific pronunciation issues. Minimal pair presentations, worksheets, activities, Easel activities… all that good stuff.
None of it was going to help Shimin. He didn’t need help targeting specific sounds. He needed help with ALL the sounds, the tone, the rhythm, all of it.
So I did what you do when you’re out of materials and low on support. I got creative with what I had, patience and the stubbornness to keep trying things until I found something that would help him. Here’s what worked well:
First, Shimin always finished his work way ahead of everyone else, which gave us spare moments throughout class. I’d sit next to him and have him read his assignments out loud to me. I’d say a sentence, tapping out the rhythm on his desk as I spoke, and then he’d repeat it. Sometimes I had to break sentences down into word chunks just so he could get through the sentences, but we kept at it.
Second, whenever I could, I’d record myself reading whatever he’d written in his notebook and send him the audio so he could practice his English pronunciation at home. This meant eating my lunch at double speed, but I knew that with his level of motivation and willingness to keep at it, I wouldn’t have to do it for long.
Third, I encouraged him to WRITE what he wanted to say and then show it to his classmates, BUT STILL say it to them. They would often correct him and make him repeat it until they could make out what he was saying. (Yes, this was awkward. Yes, it was also necessary.) Another student, a much younger Saudi girl who was painfully shy about speaking was at the same time super eager to help Shimin. They traded strengths to work on each other’s weaknesses–grammar and writing flummoxed her. He excelled at it. They were the perfect student partner pair.
Finally, I made him “interview” students in other classes. I’d have him write questions using either the vocabulary he was studying or the grammar structures he was learning and then go to another class and interview a student. (There are always students who finish early—they are perfect for this!)
As his accent became less severe, I added minimal pairs practice targeting the sounds he struggled with most.
The Breakthrough
The day I realized we were having a real conversation, I almost stopped mid-sentence just to appreciate it. Understanding him still wasn’t easy, but it was now possible.
He proudly told me he could interpret for his mother now. That’s when I knew we’d gotten somewhere real.
With his accent more under his control, Shimin became the class tutor. All those strong skills in grammar, vocabulary, reading, and writing? He could finally share them with classmates who needed help in those areas.
The Bottom Line
Sometimes the student who seems impossible to help just needs consistency and creativity. Shimin didn’t need fancy materials or specialized training. He needed someone willing to sit with him during those spare moments and tap out rhythms on a desk. He needed a tough little classmate who was going to drill him without letting up (but with kindness and friendship).
If you’ve got a student whose accent makes them incomprehensible, don’t give up. Start small. Use what you have. Record yourself, make them practice with classmates, and send them to interview other students.
It won’t happen overnight, but it can happen.
That’s it from me. See you in the next post!
Read more about teaching pronunciation to adult ESL students:
When Your Students Want to Reduce Their Accent (And Why That’s Okay)
Pronunciation Truly Matters: The Spelling Quiz That Made My Students Question Everything
Minimal Pairs for ESL Pronunciation: What They Are and Why They Work
Short I and Long E Sounds: 4 Engaging Activities for Adult ESL Pronunciation
