Russell Stannard practises pronunciation online.
It is amazing how the web has advanced since the shift to ‘Web 2.0’ (the second generation of web development and design, allowing for more interactive content and user participation). I remember writing an article about pronunciation about three years ago and now, revisiting the web, I have found a completely new set of fantastic materials. This really is the time to discover the web, and in this article I will show you some of the best pronunciation sites around.
http://cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus
This site has a lot of different things for practising pronunciation. ‘Half ’n’ Half’ is a fun game where you click on a phonemic symbol in order to hear a word which begins with that sound. You then have to find the rest of the word (written in phonemic symbols) in a list on the right and drag it over to complete the word. Another option is ‘Phonemic Chart’. When you click on a phoneme, you can hear the sound being made and you will also see a picture and an example word. Click on this and you will hear the word spoken. This is a great way to present the phonemic symbols to students. There are many more options to try on this site. Sadly, the recording section is not very straightforward and I couldn’t get it set up on my computer, but the rest of the site is excellent.
This is another great site with lots of sound files. It focuses on minimal pairs. Choose a minimal pair with sounds that you want to work on and click on it. A page will open where you can see pictures illustrating several pairs of words contrasting the target sounds. If you point your cursor at the words, you can hear them pronounced. There is also an example sentence at the bottom of the page which uses a combination of the minimal pairs presented on the page. Again, point your cursor at it and you will hear it spoken. The site is simple, straight to the point, and really useful both for work in the classroom and as reference material for students.
www.spokenskills.com/index.cfm?type=15&content =studentactivities
Choose a sound from a list, click on it and then hear lots of examples of the sound being used in sentences. What I especially like is the ‘record’ feature. (You will need the Java applet to make this work. Don’t worry if you don’t have it, you can download it easily from the site.) One annoying thing is that you do have to run the applet each time you open the site, but please don’t let that put you off: just click ‘Yes’ and within a minute the recorder is ready. If you don’t want to record yourself or your students, you can still make good use of the site. If you scroll down on the opening page, you will see that there is plenty of additional material. I like the idioms section as it is very easy and the meaning is given as well as the pronunciation.
www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/intermediate/ c_pronunciation
There are plenty of great things on this site, but I am going to concentrate here on the pronunciation material. Choose ‘Vowels’, ‘Diphthongs’, ‘Consonants’ or ‘More consonants’ from the menu, and you will get an illustrated phoneme chart. Each picture incorporates the phoneme in an illustration of a word containing that sound. Underneath is the word itself and its phonemic transcription. Click on the picture and you will first hear the word pronounced and then the sound on its own. Try the ‘Stress Monster’ game, too. It can take a while to download, but it is a lot of fun. A monster appears on the screen carrying a word divided into syllables. Use the space bar to fire at the stressed part of the word. The quicker you fire at the right part of the word, the more points you get. I love it!
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron
This part of the BBC site is so rich in material that it can look a little confusing. However, on the right-hand side you will see a menu. Try clicking on ‘Videos’. This will give you a range of videos designed to show how different sounds are pronounced. The great thing is that you can see the sound being pronounced (with a side view of the speaker’s mouth as well as a front view) as well as hear an explanation and example words. Choose the sound you want to focus on by clicking on a phoneme chart. I like this site because apart from the video it also displays the word and the phonemic script as each word is pronounced. The ‘Features of English’ section is also excellent. Look at the material on the schwa and on sounds and spelling. There are some good quizzes, too.
This site gives practice in American English pronunciation and has a big list of minimal pairs. Click on one of these, and it will show you the instructions for an activity which practises pronunciation, followed by a quiz. First, you listen to the pair of words being said. You can listen and repeat as many times as you like just by pointing your cursor at each word. Then you can go on to do the quiz. You hear only one of the words and you have to decide which one. This is simple, good for minimal pairs work and ideal for lower-level students.
Here you will find some really clear simple recordings of short news items. There is also an explanation of some of the words. The material can easily be used for pronunciation practice because the students can play part of the news item and then repeat it by using the play/pause button.
I have produced a free video that will take you through all these sites in more detail. It also includes a few extra sites that I haven’t included in this article. To see the video, go to: www.harbornecomputers.co.uk/~teachertraining/pron/ index.html
Russell Stannard is a principal lecturer at the University of Westminster, UK, where he teaches using technology on multimedia and TESOL courses. He also runs www.teachertrainingvideos.com, a website that trains English teachers to use technology, which has won a Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Initiatives in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
This article first appeared in English Teaching Professional, Issue 61, 2009