Chapter 12: What Accent? Teaching Pronunciation 173
Soraya: Wik!
Teacher: Rashid weak!
Rashid: Weak!
Teacher: Soraya?
Soraya: Weak!
Teacher: Good! Sanjay weak...
For a sentence, or a word with many syllables, you can use backchaining.
This means that students repeat the last bit first and then go backwards until
they’ve done the whole thing. Take the question ‘What would you like to
drink?’
Teacher: Drink!
Class: Drink!
Teacher: Like to drink!
Class: Like to drink!
Teacher: You like to drink!
Class: You like to drink!
Teacher: What would you like to drink?
Using Phonology: Sound and Spelling
The problem with English is that the spelling is rather misleading. Words
such as recipe and receipt, tough and though and place names such as
Leicester and Southwark are hopelessly illogical for students to pro-
nounce. So, to combat this problem, you use a whole range of symbols,
or phonemes(pronounced ‘foe-neemz’, which in the symbols I mention is /
fəυnimz/), to represent every individual sound in this language. They pro-
vide a great tool in teaching pronunciation and even in reading the dictionary
as most include a phonological transcription. As with many tools, you can
get the job done without phonemes and you may find them difficult to use
at first, but they do help in the long run. After all, you won’t be around your
students forever to correct their pronunciation and if they devise their own
system of writing pronunciation you can’t check it for them.
You teach individual phonemes by drawing the symbol on the board, saying
the sound many times and asking the students to repeat it. It helps to tell the
students which parts of the mouth, neck or other speech organs (perhaps the
nasal cavity, which is the space inside and beyond your nostrils) you use to
