Mark Hancock's 50 Tips for Teaching Pronunciation

Book Details Explained

Mark Hancock's 50 Tips for Teaching Pronunciation

This book is a part of the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers Pocket editions series.

Publication Information

• Author: Mark Hancock
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Series Editor/Consultant: Scott Thornbury
• First Published: 2020
• Format: Pocket Edition (offering a handy, pocket-sized format)
• ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-108-74496-6
• Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108744966

Purpose of the Book

The book was written primarily for general English teachers who need practical guidance in teaching pronunciation. The author hopes to convince readers that pronunciation teaching can be a pleasure and need not be 'difficult'.

It presents fifty standalone tips, which can be read in sequence or dipped into, providing a balance of detailed focus and a wide view of the subject. It is not intended to be a manual for 'accent training' or for teaching phonology in a linguistics course.

The content is organized around three fundamental questions a pronunciation teacher must answer: Why, What, and How.

Main Sections and Content Overview

1. A: Goals and models (Why)

   Focuses on the purposes of pronunciation teaching.

   • Tip 1: Focus on intelligibility
   • Tip 3: Don't obsess about target models
   • Tips 4-7: Focus on the learners (e.g., motivation, L1, class objectives)
   • Tips 8-11: Focus on the context (e.g., English as a Lingua Franca)

2. B: What to teach (Phonology)

   Focuses on the content, covering consonants, vowels, connected speech, stress, and intonation.

   • Tips 16-19: Consonants and vowels (e.g., showing how sounds are made)
   • Tips 24-26: Connected speech (e.g., word stress, rhythm)
   • Tips 30-32: Integrating pronunciation (e.g., with grammar, lexis, and listening)

3. C: How to teach it (Pedagogy)

   Focuses on materials and techniques, including presentation, practice, and assessment.

   • Tips 35-39: Presentation (e.g., developing class vocabulary, drilling, physical focus)
   • Tips 40-43: Practice (e.g., using communication activities, games, and rhymes)
   • Tips 44-47: Feedback and assessment

Note: The book is organized into fifty tips to provide practical ideas, techniques, and activities for teaching English pronunciation.

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