Teaching pronunciation

From the pronunciation session, micro-teaching, and homework, I learned that teaching pronunciation is not just about correcting individual sounds, but about helping learners communicate clearly and confidently. The main principles I want to follow are focusing on intelligibility, building awareness of stress, rhythm, and intonation, and creating a supportive environment where students feel safe to experiment with new sounds. Pronunciation can be intimidating, so the teacher's attitude is crucial.

Based on my online tutoring experience, I have noticed that students often struggle with specific sounds because they have never paid attention to how the mouth moves. That is why I want to include simple articulation explanations, demonstration, and opportunities for students to observe and imitate. At Maple Bear, young learners respond especially well to multisensory activities, so using gestures, songs, and movement works extremely well for practising stress patterns or intonation.

Another important principle is short, frequent practice instead of long, isolated pronunciation drills. I want to integrate pronunciation naturally into vocabulary and speaking activities, for example by highlighting word stress when introducing new lexis or using minimal pairs during warm-ups.

In my teaching, I aim to combine clear modelling, fun activities, and consistent feedback. My goal is not for students to sound like native speakers, but to help them become confident, understandable, and aware of how English pronunciation works.