The complete integration of pronunciation with everything else

How to integrate pronunciation into everything else that goes on in class is a challenge that seems not to have been resolved. In fact, current practice tends to tip the other way, towards the ‘pron slot’ which looks neat and tidy but which separates rather than integrates pron, putting it in a sideshow of its own, away from the main arena.
I’ll look briefly at the pros and cons of integrating versus separating pron, and then describe a practical approach to integration that I use. Maybe it’s what you already do, or maybe you can experiment with. But first:

Key fact no 1

Pronunciation is everywhere, in everything, all the time. Pronunciation is already completely integrated into all the materials and all class activities simply because it is at the core of the identity of every word. All four skills involve pronunciation either voiced aloud, as in speaking and listening, or voiced internally in the inner voice, as with reading and writing. When silent reading, most learners (and even fluent speakers) say the words subliminally with their inner voice, which has a pronunciation. So any silent reading can be seen as a full rehearsal of pronunciation, either that of the target language or (less happily) the rehearsal of the learner’s own L1 pronunciation overlaid onto English spelling. The act of writing is also intimately linked to pronunciation; while composing and finalising the text in your head, you almost certainly say those words internally and hold them in memory by saying them until you have written them.
No matter what the activity, every lesson is a start-to-finish rehearsal of pronunciation. And every language teacher in the world, whether aware of it or not, is conducting a pronunciation rehearsal throughout every lesson, either by intentionally assisting it as best they can or by doing nothing about it.

The advantages of integrating pronunciation

The array of activities and materials used for grammar and vocabulary learning immerse learners in an experience that gets richer as the lesson unfolds and the subject matter, structures, words and interactions are explored and exploited and gain in familiarity. As soon as the focal language structures are established, then the pronunciation can be included at the point of need so it too takes advantage of being processed and memorised as part of a connected-up language experience.
While the needs of grammar, vocabulary and topic provide the core language to be learnt and practised, the needs of pronunciation provide further practice and improvement for that language without a sense of repetition. While words and word order can be ‘correct’ and, in a sense, quantitative, pronunciation (not just sounds but stress and unstress; energy distribution; connecting and pausing; self-expression; personal meaning) can always be improved. The qualitative bit is: pronunciation is hardly ever ‘super right’ but always on the move towards better.
On the other hand the separate pron slot requires fresh material which has to become familiar and meaningful before it can provide a context that is ‘sticky’ enough to hold new learning. Since this rich context was already provided while the main language items were being explored, why start again from scratch?

Upgrade versus correction

The activity of ‘correcting’ easily boils down to getting the right words in the right order, a kind of black-and-white approach that works for words (they’re wrong or right) and for word order and structure (it works or it doesn’t).
The problem is it excludes much else that matters. There are many ‘non-correcting’ (qualitative) improvements that matter and which need to be constantly in play, but which do not fit into ‘correct / not correct’.
A second problem with correcting is that when a student is indicated as correct, they have nowhere to go, they hit a ceiling, they are on hold.
An upgrade, on the other hand, removes the ceiling; there is always further to go and this is where pron comes in. Pronunciation is rarely right or wrong, it gradually improves across several interconnected strands which all play into each other. As I keep saying, these strands are sounds (stress and unstress; energy distribution; connecting and pausing; self-expression) which knit together and can always be upgraded.

Mistake or upgrade

So, look for upgrades, rather than mistakes. You don’t need a mistake to do an upgrade, but an upgrade includes any mistakes there may be. It might work something like this.

If there is a mistake like a wrong word, then help students find and change it, so everyone is at the starting point. Now the ‘right words’ are in circulation, and one student does it well enough. So you ask him to join the words up more, and he tries that, others too. And someone does it usefully fast and perhaps you ask her to slow it down while keeping the words joined. And others try that too, and it becomes clear that several are over-stressing the unstressed syllable on which everything else depends. So you ask them to ‘disappear’ the vowel in hat syllable, not to fix it but to see what happens (which might fix it). And before leaving it, you return to the first student who ‘donated’ the original mistake that started the upgrade sequence.

This allows a more ‘intelligent’ kind of repetition. In this way the language itself (grammar, vocabulary) is constantly being rehearsed but always with other focuses that stretch everyone at their own level, while also keeping the practice fresh and non-repetitive, and all students are feeding off each other.
It’s as if you are cooking something special without a recipe but with a taste in mind, and you have all the ingredients on the table together and can add any – in any order – according to taste. And in this case, the ingredients are: correct words; sounds; stress and unstress; energy distribution; connecting and pausing; speed; self-expression; intonation; and fun.

Key fact no 2

Every sound is needed from the beginning. While grammar and vocabulary can be taught in a long sequence over time, and there are thousands of bits to each, all the sounds are needed from the start, so they all need to be in circulation – available for use and improvement – from the first lesson. Luckily there are only about 44 sounds, many of which are close enough to learners’ L1 to be very workable. And they only need to be good enough, not perfect.
Grammar and vocabulary shuffle themselves into a learning sequence out of necessity. But there is no need for a learning sequence for sounds. They all affect and improve each other anyway. And whichever one you work on will benefit the others. It is a holistic syllabus. This fact frees you to meet all aspects of pronunciation at the point of need.

Conclusion

Upgrading gives you a wider field across which to engage and challenge students by flipping between pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary to match the challenge needed by each of them as you go round the class. This opens the way to a different approach to correcting that is more individually challenging, more flexible and more inclusive – yet which can be carried out in a class with everyone being challenged on the same language but at their own level. And by the way, I know a lot of people worry about this but teach the way you speak. At the same time expose learners to multiple other English accents via apps and the web. It’s not so difficult these days!