1. First, you have to provide a clear (don’t be chewing a mouthful of food while modeling pronunciation), audible (don’t shout at your students, but you want the students in the back of the room to hear you) and visible (they have to see how to shape their mouths to pronounce the word or sound) model for your students to repeat. Your own English pronunciation is the model students will imitate!
2. Once you’ve modeled the pronunciation, have the students repeat after you, together as one group (This is called choral repetition). Then model the word again, and get students to repeat again; continue this for a minimum of five repetitions. And as the students are repeating, listen and observe! Look at your students to make sure their mouths are in the required shape, the jaw opened wide enough, and their tongue is in the correct position.
3. When the students are pronouncing the word fairly well, model the word again, and ask individual students to repeat the word. Be sure to randomly select students, so that they are all paying attention and ready to respond when called upon. An open-hand gesture toward the targeted student could be used to indicate who should respond. Remember to praise their responses!
4. At this stage, students are only working with the word through their listening and speaking skills; this is to make sure they establish the correct pronunciation. Their pronunciation should be close to the provided model, consistently pronounced, and comprehensible. As a TESOL teacher, we must ensure our students are hitting the target as close as possible.
