Picture 1 – Illustrates tongue and mouth shifts for vowel sounds [2, 25].
Vowels are articulated when a voiced airstream is shaped using the tongue and the lips to modify the
overall shape of the mouth. English speakers generally use twelve pure vowels and eight diphthongs. The
word “pure” here is used to differentiate single vowel sounds from diphthongs.
If you are trying saying [i:], [e], [æ], [ɒ], [ɔ:], [u:] out loud, you should be able to feel that your tongue
changes position in your mouth, yet it doesn’t actually obstruct the airflow. Try moving smoothly from one
sound to the next, without stopping. You will also be aware of the shape of your lips changing, and your
lower jaw moving. It is these basic movements which give vowels their chief characteristics.
There are two key problems with pronunciation teaching. Firstly, it tends to be neglected. And sec-
ondly when it is not neglected, it tends to be reactive to a particular problem that has arisen in the class-
room rather than being strategically planned [3,12]. Whenever teachers teach new language items, they
try and make sure students are exposed to and get enough practice of the correct pronunciation of words
and phrases. Also, in everyday classroom practice, they know that correcting students’ mistakes is crucial
to help them achieve acceptable pronunciation. This is what most of the teachers do at any sign of error.
Such reactive teaching is, of course, necessary, and will always be so. However, teachers can become so
used to hearing recurrent errors that they do not notice them anymore. Every sound in every language has
its own set or collection of these phonetic symbols. Many languages have common or similar sounds and
most languages also have some of their own unique sounds. The combination of sounds are used to make
words and these words make each language unique to or have some similar sounds with other languages.
The teaching of English pronunciation is often a challenge for teachers. This may due to the fact that they
feel doubt about how to teach it. What approach, method will be more beneficial, useful and effective?
However, in my point of view, the most significant aspect of pronunciation teaching may not be how we
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