“Socks.”
That’s what the presentation showed. A nice, innocent picture of socks.
“SEKS!” my new Saudi student yelled out, loud and enthusiastic, so proud he knew this word.
The classroom went silent. Then his friends started whispering to him in Arabic. His face went from proud to confused to absolutely mortified in about three seconds flat.
He didn’t come back to class for three days.
When his friends finally convinced him to return, he told me he was grateful he’d made that mistake in my classroom and not at the university bookstore or, you know, literally anywhere else in public. Fair point.
Pronunciation mishaps weren’t new to me. I’d already heard so many that made me turn red on the speaker’s behalf, and I’ve made plenty of doozies myself. Pronunciation isn’t just about sounding “native” or whatever that even means. It’s about not accidentally announcing to strangers that you want to buy sex when you really just need some socks.
The Problem Nobody Warns You About
Here’s what they don’t tell you in your TESOL program: teaching pronunciation to a class full of students from different language backgrounds is a special kind of nightmare.
In a grammar or a speaking class? Mixed backgrounds are amazing. Everyone has to work harder to understand each other. They can’t just slip into their first language when things get confusing. I genuinely love those super-diverse classes.
But pronunciation? Give me a room full of all Saudi students any day. I knew exactly which sounds would trip them up. I could target those sounds specifically and everyone would benefit. Or all Koreans. Everyone from Mexico. Pick ONE place, and it’s easy.
When my classroom had students speaking Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, French, Japanese, and Russian? (The discussions were incredible, by the way.) But pronunciation became impossible. Spending five minutes every class on one sound meant most of the room was sitting there getting nothing out of it. (Pronunciation classes weren’t offered; we were supposed to incorporate it into every class.)
I needed a different approach. Actually, I needed two different approaches.
Way #1: YouTube Teachers Are Your New Co-Workers
I started making lists.
Not exciting lists, and not exactly LISTS. I made YouTube playlists organized by sound. Videos that focused on /v/ versus /f/. Videos about /th/ sounds. Videos tackling /r/ and /l/. You get the idea.
Then I’d share specific playlists to specific students based on what I heard them struggling with. They’d practice at home. Simple.
You know how I could tell who was actually using the videos? It wasn’t always because their pronunciation improved overnight. (That would be nice, though.) It was because they slowed down.
Students who practiced with the videos started taking their time with problem sounds instead of speed-talking through them and hoping nobody would notice. That’s when I knew they were at least trying.
My favorite YouTube pronunciation channels don’t focus exclusively on pronunciation, but you can search their pages for whatever sound you need. They probably have a video on it:
These channels lifted so much weight off my shoulders when I had ten different language backgrounds in one room. I could give each student exactly what they needed instead of trying to help everyone and helping no one.
Way #2: …But What If Everyone Speaks the Same Language?
If all your students share the same first language, you don’t need YouTube to carry you. You can handle this yourself with that age-old technique your professors probably bored you to death with: repetition.
I know. Repetition sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry on a humid day when there’s nothing else to do.
But here’s the thing. Students need to hear a sound many, many times before it starts to feel natural. They need tons of chances to produce it themselves. Sometimes it’ll never feel natural, and they just have to aim for “possible to say without thinking too hard about it.”
When I knew I’d have a bunch of Arabic speakers, I knew which sounds would cause problems. Those weren’t the same sounds that would trip up Vietnamese or Spanish speakers. So I could get specific.
I started running pronunciation workshops. Not full classes, just intensive focus sessions on two sounds at a time. Tackle them from every possible angle. Drill the every lovin’ snot out of them. (to be Okie about it)
Yes, drilling sounds tedious. It can also be effective.
Pick ONE pronunciation difficulty your students share. Just one. Then attack it from every direction you can think of. Drill it. Then drill it again. Have them listen and repeat the sounds set to whatever song is popular right now if that helps keep everyone awake.
Pronunciation Isn’t Just About Speaking
The drills don’t have to be all oral. Sometimes hearing the sounds makes producing them easier, so check if they can even hear the difference first.
This is where minimal pairs become your best friend. Try a quick spelling quiz to see if they can distinguish the sounds before you make them practice saying them.
Or try same/different pairs. Make a list of minimal pairs for the sounds you’re targeting. Then create another list where some are minimal pairs and some are the same word twice. Like: fan/van, ferry/ferry, vine/fine, wave/wave. Students just indicate whether they heard the same sound or different sounds. Use listening labyrinths.
You can flip almost any listening activity into a speaking one. Pair up students. One speaks, one listens. Switch roles. Done.
Why this Absolutely Totally Matters (even though some teachers disagree)
I’ve worked with teachers who believe so strongly in preserving accents that they never correct pronunciation. Ever. Even when a student mispronounces a word in a way that changes the meaning entirely.
I think that’s a mistake.
Whether we’re delegating to YouTube teachers or running our own pronunciation workshops, we owe it to students to help them communicate in a way that lets people see them how they want to be seen. They may never sound like native speakers. Most of them don’t need to. But they deserve to speak clearly enough for any social or professional setting they might find themselves in.
The Bottom Line
Pronunciation matters. Small sounds matter. Big embarrassments happen when we ignore them. Help them get control of those sounds.
That’s it from me. See you in the next post!
I loved the funny story about mispronouncing. It reminded me of my own classes and my own experience learning French. I agree with you that recognizable pronunciation is important for adults in the workplace. Striving for sounding like a native speaker, however, should not be a goal since cultural identity is what gives an International workplace its appeal. Your list of the YouTube teachers who specialize in pronunciation is spot on. And your flash cards pairing letters is excellent. Live your work!
^_^ I’m glad you enjoyed the article! Thank you for commenting! Sometimes it feels like I’m writing to myself, so it’s really lovely to have a comment. 🙂
I have to disagree with you about sounding like a native speaker not being a goal worth striving for. I think that is something that is best left to student choice. We cannot demand that anyone keep their accent to preserve cultural identity. Perhaps their culture is not something they wish to identify with. Perhaps their accent interferes with how they want others to perceive them. I think that encouraging students to strive for being easily understood is worthy of consideration as it opens more doors for them. If they have the ABILITY to produce good pronunciation, they can choose when and if they want to speak that way.
For example, and I think that as a fellow Okie, this will resonate with you, speaking with a small town Okie accent, while part of my cultural identity, is NOT something that will open a lot of doors for me. Nope…it’s something that can make all my accomplishments fade away as the listener focuses on how “hick” I sound. (I’m from north of Ponca City, so I definitely used to sound hick.) Now, if I were in a rural part of Oklahoma and “turned on” my accent, I’d blend right in and be accepted far more than if I kept my more neutral accent. So, having the ABILITY to switch back and forth would be the best possible outcome for me, or it would if ending up in rural areas were a common pastime of mine. Instead, I deliberately set out to learn how to speak without my accent and then had so little occasion to use it for my benefit that I’ve pretty much lost it. Don’t get me wrong; I can still say “y’all” with perfect pronunciation. With great effort and forethought, I could manage a sentence or two. But holding an entire conversation in it? Nope. I’ve lost that ability. It wasn’t serving me, and it’s the old story of “you don’t use it, you lose it.” Again, that was my CHOICE. I chose not to keep it. My sister didn’t either. My mother? Different story altogether as she speaks English with a German-flavored Okie accent. 🙂
This brings up another point–some accents are just more valued than others. In a perfect world, all accents would be valued, but we don’t live in that world. I’ve watched people be interested in what someone with a French accent has to say but be rude and dismissive with someone who has a Chinese accent. One time the same person was very friendly to a Chinese person who spoke English with a barely discernible Chinese accent but intolerant of another Chinese person who had a strong Chinese accent. I once taught Kuwaiti Air Force men who were here to improve their English and become air traffic controllers. Is clear, precise English with very little accent, if any, necessary for them? YES! For the student who came here basically as a mail order bride and was studying English for the fun of it? No. She still wanted to though. Her choice. 🙂 I’ve had some university students who wanted to sound like a native speaker and others who didn’t care about it all. With the ones who wanted it, we focused on it. With the others? Naaa. They didn’t want it. Their choice.
One of my favorite posters that I ever saw read, “Your teacher’s goal is simple, to help you reach yours.” And really, isn’t that what it’s all about?
So, yes, if students have a strong accent that makes them difficult to understand, I’m going to find out what their goals are, and if they are going to reach their goals more easily by learning how to speak more like a native-speaker when a situation calls for it, I’m definitely going to suggest that they strive for that. If it’s a hard no from them, hey, they’re the customer. ^_^
Omg…I’ve practically written another article! hahahaha~! I can’t help it. Having grown up with one parent speaking in a strong Okie accent and one parent speaking in a strong German accent, accents have always been interesting to me. The best accent-related childhood story happened to my sister though. The school scheduled a meeting with my mother to discuss concerns my sister’s teacher had with her needing to have speech therapy. Once they gave my mom a chance to get a word in edgewise, they realized that my sister didn’t have a speech impediment–she had an accent. A German one! hahaha~! 😀