How do you address pronunciation as a barrier to communication?

Answer 1

As this question is in the section English language I answer it in relation to learning English (as a second language).

The obvious answer is to improve pronunciation.

But this is often 'easier said than done'. Many language learners learn bad pronunciation early on in their language learning that is hard to correct.

Some people say that as there is no right or wrong way to speak English a teacher should concentrate on communication, not perfection. But from my own experience I think aiming for perfection is good - a person who is learning English as their second language will never speak perfectly but that's what they should aim for. (think of somebody shooting an arrow at a target they might aim for the bulls eye but don't always hit it)

You need to be able to recognise the error(s) and then find ways to correct the error(s). For example dropping the final consonant ri = rice. In a case like this you could drill pairs of words with the same vowel sound but one ends in 's' the other doesn't eg rye - rice, die - dice, my - mice. Make sure the student knows where the tongue should be to make the final 's' sound.

Making the student aware of where/how the sound is produced helps. But then the student needs to be thinking about this when they are speaking and I think not many students consciously think about pronunciation as they speak

Another error might be adding a syllable to the end of a word e.g. Englishi, churchi. This kind of error just needs to be corrected every time you hear it. Get the student to repeat the word several times correctly. This error is not a big barrier to communication but it could cause miscommunication with a listener who is not aware of what is happening.

So find what the error is:

is it the way the sound is produced - articulation

is it adding an extra syllable

is it leaving out a syllable (gahment instead of government)

is it missing a final consonant

etc

practice through pair drills or repetition or show correct point of articulation to try and correct.