How can I help to improve my child's, and my, pronunciation?
Ishwori Upadhayay, Nepal
Have you had any experience of helping children with their pronunciation?
Fill in the form below to let us know what you think. We will publish your answers here.
Provide correct models, practise songs and chants with rhyming words, show your child how to place the different articulators to produce consonants and vowels and compare them with the ones in their mother tongue. Children are sponges and they imitate very easily whatever they are told. Pay attention to sounds and intonation.
Maria Fernanda, Argentina.
With my child, I usually play some games which related to English. i think it will improve vocabulary for my child. besides listening to English songs also is a good way.
Ha, Vietnam.
Children will improve their pronunciation by listening to as much English as possible. Listening to stories and songs will help students to ‘tune in’ to how English sounds.
On LearnEnglish Kids we also have a special tool for children to work on their pronunciation. It’s called PronPal and you will find it here in the downloads section:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/parents-downloads-pron-pal.htm
PronPal is really fun to use. First, you listen to the model sentence, then you can record your voice and listen to it. Your child may need you to help him/her at first to understand the activity, so it’s a good idea for you to try the tool yourself before showing it to your child. When you have had a little practice yourself, show your child by demonstrating the tool. The activity is quite repetitive so probably using PronPal for a short time, but regularly, will be more beneficial than doing too many activities at one time. ‘Little and often’ is the key here.
Watching films and cartoons in English is a good way for your children to get a feel for the English language. Even if they don’t understand every word they will certainly begin to understand the rhythm and intonation patterns of the language. Finally, if you read your child stories in English have fun with the pronunciation – if you are confident with your English you can give funny voices to different characters and encourage your child to repeat some of the easy parts of the story as you read it together.
Finally, for more tips and ideas for activities you can do with your child which focus on pronunciation have a look at this page:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/parents-help-pronunciation-menu.htm
Joanna, LearnEnglish Kids.
