Adult ESL Pronunciation Activities Videos
Created by Literacy Minnesota, these videos feature Minnesota teachers working with English language learners on a wide variety of pronunciation skills. Follow the link and click on the “Pronunciation Classes” dropdown menu to view the videos.
Topics include the following:
- Final Consonant Articulation – For adult ESL learners from many language backgrounds, accurately producing the final consonant sounds in words is a major pronunciation challenge. In this classroom demonstration, the teacher demonstrates a series of systematic pronunciation activities with a beginning level adult ESL class that are designed to help learners improve their awareness of the importance of final consonants, develop listening skills, and practice articulating the sounds.
- Word Stress – Observe a beginning level class as the instructor introduces them to the concept of word stress and leads the learners through a series of controlled practice activities. The learners work with their weekly vocabulary words as they practice counting syllables, identifying stressed syllables, and grouping words according to their stress patterns.
- Word Stress Routine – In this beginning level class, the teacher takes the learners through their regular word stress routine where they practice counting syllables, and identify, record, and practice word stress patterns and using words from their weekly story.
- Voice Quality Settings – Observe a multi-level classroom as the instructor introduces the concept of voice quality settings and demonstrates how voice settings influence accent and the ability to generate sounds specific to the English language. The instructor uses videos, mirrors, and lip-reading activities as she leads the learners through several activities to build awareness of the importance of voice quality settings and to give the learners opportunities to practice producing English voice quality settings.
- Intonation – Prominence and intonation are key to conveying meaning in spoken English. The words speakers choose to highlight and the movement of pitch in the voice signal to the listener what is important and indicate the speaker’s attitude and emotion. These spoken cues are often enhanced by the use of body language, providing the listener with visual cues to interpret the main points of the message. In this classroom demonstration, the teacher uses a TED talk video to give learners practice listening for and analyzing prominence and intonation while also observing the impact of the speaker’s body language to her message.
- Contrastive Stress – Observe an intermediate level adult ESL class as they work through a lesson that explains the purpose of contrastive stress and provides them with communicative opportunities to practice this pronunciation feature. The teacher weaves the pronunciation instruction into the class unit to give the learners the opportunity to practice contrastive stress in a familiar context.
(Source: Literacy Minnesota, https://www.literacymn.org/classroom-videos)