
Getting a class full of students with varied first language backgrounds is a dream come true, but not when you’re teaching pronunciation. If it’s a grammar or vocabulary class, they all have to make a greater effort to understand and be understood by each other. They can’t just revert to their first language. So, usually, I LOVE super-diverse classes.
Truth: Diverse classes aren’t such a blessing when teaching pronunciation.
I LOVED having classes with all Saudi students, for example. I knew exactly what their pronunciation difficulties were, and I could target them specifically. This wasn’t true when my classroom was filled with students who spoke Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, French, Japanese, and Russian. (But oh my! The discussions we had!)
Although I wasn’t teaching pronunciation in grammar class, they needed it. With that many different first languages, spending five minutes of every class targeting a sound was out. Everyone was NOT going to feel like they were getting something from it. Instead of trying to do it all, delegate!
Tip 1: Put YouTube Teachers to Work for You

I started creating lists of YouTube links for videos that targeting specific sounds. Then I gave specific lists to specific students. They would watch and practice at home. I always knew who was using the videos and who wasn’t. No, it wasn’t always because of an immediate improvement in their pronunciation. It was because almost everyone who practiced with the videos started slowing down. They tried to say the sound correctly instead of just speeding up and hoping no one would notice.
Now, my favorite YouTube pronunciation teachers don’t focus exclusively on pronunciation. However, you can run a search on their page for a particular sound. They probably have a video on it. Sometimes teaching pronunciation involves a little delegating. These were my go-to channels whenever I needed a particular sound covered:
Recommended YouTube channels for teaching pronunciation:
Problem: All the students speak the same language (not counting English).
Your YouTube co-teachers can lift a lot of weight off your shoulders when you have to meet the needs of students of many language backgrounds. For many teachers, a variety of first languages tell the story of their classes, but maybe that’s not your classroom. If all your students share the same first language, you can probably provide all the practice they need by yourself. Implement that age-old technique of repetition. It’s vital for teaching pronunciation.
Repetition’s Bad Rep
Repetition, while not glamorous, is crucial when it comes to reducing an accent. We usually associate doing something over and over again with boredom. However, students need to hear a sound many, many times. They need to have MANY chances to reproduce it before it becomes natural to them. Sometimes it’ll never become natural, and instead, they have to shoot for “possible”.
Tip 2: Hold Pronunciation Workshops

The necessity for repetition is one reason I started to tackle sounds mostly two at a time. When I knew I would have a bunch of Arabic speakers, I knew which sounds would be problematic. They would not be the same ones as a group of Vietnamese or Spanish speakers would struggle with.
Targeting specific sounds and focusing entirely on them produced a highly intensive pronunciation workshop type of class. This tended to get faster results with more staying power.
Try it. Choose ONE pronunciation difficulty your students have and tackle it from every angle you can. Drill, drill, drill, and DRILL them on the sound. Yes, repetition is not glamorous, but it CAN be effective. You can even have them listen and repeat the sound set to a currently popular song.
Pronunciation lessons aren’t just about speaking.
Remember that the drills don’t have to be all oral ones. Hearing the sounds making producing the sounds easier, so check to see if they can even hear them. Again, this is where minimal pairs come in handy. Try doing a quick spelling quiz to see if they can hear the sound before drilling them on the sound’s production. Drill them with same/different pairs.
To do this, get or make a list of minimal pairs for the sounds you want to work with. Then write them in another list. This time, have some of them as minimal pairs and some as same word pairs. For example, fan/van, ferry/ferry, vine/fine, wave/wave. The students indicate whether you just said two words with the same sound or with different sounds. Use listening labyrinths.
Of course, almost any activity for listening can be transformed into a speaking one. Just pair up the students and have one student do the speaking and the other do the listening.
Pronunciation/Accent IS Important

I’ve had co-workers who believe so strongly in preserving accents that they never even correct a student’s mispronunciation of a word. I think this is a mistake. Whether we’re working in conjunction with YouTube teachers or alone, we owe it to students to help them communicate in a way that ensures people see them for who they want to be seen as.
I first learned Saudis have difficulties with vowel sounds during a vocabulary lesson. A new student loudly and enthusiastically yelled out “seks” to identify the socks pictured on the clothing digital presentation. When his friends told him what it sounded like he’d said, he was so embarrassed he skipped the next three days. It took a lot of persuasion to get him back into class.
He later acknowledged being grateful that he’d made that mistake in English class rather than at university or out in the community. While they may never acquire native-like pronunciation and most likely not need it (depending on their goals), we can and should help them speak clearly enough for any social or professional setting they might find themselves in. So, don’t shy away from helping them control their pronunciation/accent because even small sounds matter.
Read more about teaching pronunciation in adult ESL!
- Pronunciation Truly Matters!
- Improve English Pronunciation with 4 Strategies to Overcome Strong Accents
- Sh/Ch: 3 Must-Have Methods for Successful Pronunciation Tweaks
- 4 Surefire Strategies for Refining R/L Pronunciation
- Create Listening Labyrinths Using Minimal Pairs: a Step by Step Guide
Freebie Alert!
Subscribe to get access to a free set of F/V minimal pair flashcards to use when teaching pronunciation.
Ellen says
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!
Rike Neville says
^_^ 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~! 😀