Is it important to learn pronunciation?

mikihui1006
Mar 24, 2024
4 min read

Source: Imgflip

Do you know how to pronounce ‘bed’ and ‘bad’? Do they have the same vowel sound? If you’d like to know more about how to work on your pronunciation, keep reading!

5 Reasons why you should learn pronunciation (Walker et al., 2021)

1. Avoid communication breakdown

It’s common for English learners to make pronunciation mistakes because of the negative transfer of their first language. For example, some Spanish speakers may mix up /v/ and /b/ because both letters (‘v’ and ‘b’) are pronounced as /b/ in Spanish.
Also, English pronunciation can be tricky as there are a lot of irregularities and variations. For example, ‘ch’ can be pronounced as /tʃ/ (e.g. church) or /k/ (e.g. character). The /h/ sound in the word ‘hour’ is not pronounced.
Some of these pronunciation mistakes may become barriers to effective communication.

2. Become more confident in speaking

It’ll be easier for you to engage in conversations with others if you don’t have to worry too much about whether others can understand you. You can focus on other aspects, such as your ideas, vocabulary and fluency.

3. Enhance listening skills

You will become better able to decode sounds and understand the speaker.

4. Develop reading skills

Learning pronunciation can help you decode written words in reading as you’ll be better able to match the sounds to the letter combinations.

5. Improve vocabulary retention

If you learn how to pronounce a word, it’ll be easier for you to store it in your long-term memory and retrieve it later.

How can I improve my pronunciation?

Productive use

Identify and focus on the sounds that helps improve your intelligibility.

Examples:

Consonant sounds (e.g. /p/, /t/, /k/)
Consonant clusters (e.g. splash, complain)
Vowel length (e.g. bit VS beat)

Resources

BBC Tim’s Pronunciation Workshop & The Sounds of English (https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/pronunciation)
English Language Club (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdBJyql_ZEzTfPjLB-mFQNg)

Receptive use

Watch YouTube videos and learn how to analyse the sound features (e.g. connected speech, weak forms, word stress).

Examples:

Learn English with TV series (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOZUTLsJbEAgJ7Jq8ygAtOIn94Q7uSptO&si=h6xBj1gJHiuoT1RZ)
Rachel’s English (American English) (https://youtu.be/q7SAt9h4sd0?si=UVfHoL8TZScVasuC)

What should be my pronunciation goal?

In the past, many English learners tried to attain a native-speaker accent. English is now considered as an international language and non-native speakers constitute more than 75% of English users worldwide (Crystal, 2008). English learners are more likely to use English to communicate with other non-native speakers, rather than native speakers (Kirkpatrick, 2007).

As such, more and more English teachers and learners believe that it’s more important to be intelligible in international communication. Some learners may still regard a native-speaker accent as their pronunciation goal, and that’s perfectly fine too! It is suggested that learners can first aim for high international intelligibility before moving on to pursue their personal pronunciation goals (e.g. to acquire a certain accent, to minimise the negative transfer of the first language) (Walker et al., 2021).

References:

Crystal, D. (2008). Two thousand million? English Today, 24(1), 3–6.

Kirkpatrick, A. (2007). World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Walker, R., Low, E., & Setter, J. (2021). English pronunciation for a global world [PDF]. Oxford: Oxford University Press. www.oup.com/elt/expert

你知道如何 ‘bed’ 和 ‘bad’ 讀音上的分別嗎？不少學生在學習英文時會忽略了發音，這篇文章會講解發音準確的重要性，以及介紹改善發音的方法。

學習發音的五個好處 (Walker et al., 2021)

1. 避免溝通障礙

英語學習者常常因為母語而發音錯誤。例如，一些母語為西班牙的學生可能會將 /v/ 和 /b/ 混淆，因為西班牙語的這兩個字母（'v' 和 'b'）發音都是 /b/。
此外，英語發音有很多變化，例如 'ch' 可以發音為 /tʃ/（例如church）或 /k/（例如character）， 'hour' 中的 /h/ 音不發音。這些發音錯誤可能會在溝通時造成障礙。

2. 增加說英文的自信