An English pronunciation tip

The aim of this brief blog is to share an English pronunciation tip with you. It's the type of tip you will find on our online video-based Language and Communication Coaching (LCC) courses for language teachers. This type of tip comes under "BGLC language acquisition techniques", one of the four pillars in the BGLC approach to LCC, which are:

1. Advanced language teaching techniques;

2. BGLC language acquisition techniques, divided into performance-based and language-based techniques;

3. Developing oral communication skills, divided into the speaking skill and the listening skill; and

4. Life coaching tools for LCC coaches.

Our courses are full of techniques and tips for English language teaching, coaching and learning, derived from over 20 years of tutoring on the TESOL Diploma course. BGLC courses pack all the best techniques and tips from those many years of experience into short video-based lessons with real English learners. You can check out the courses and syllabuses here.

And if you'd like to keep up-to-date with BGLC news and receive further tips and techniques directly into your mailbox, sign up for our monthly Newsletter here.

But now for the tip... many of our learners confuse the words Tuesday and Thursday and struggle to distinguish between their pronunciation, probably due to their spelling. An easy way to help them remember how to pronounce Tuesday is to call it "the day you choose". If your learners don't know the word choose yet, this is the perfect time to teach it.

We also recommend that learners translate this into their own L1, so "el día de elegir" in Spanish, for example, so that they associate the verb "elegir" or "choose" with the pronunciation of the first syllable in "Tuesday".

Although this tip relates to UK pronunciation, an adaptation can be made for US English, such as relating the word to "two", i.e. "el día de dos" in Spanish, rather than "choose" (two /tu:z-dei/ vs choose /tʃu:z-dei/). The key here is the use of rhyming sounds or homophones and L1 words to aid pronunciation.

As for "Thursday", learners can have problems with the /ɜ:/ sound as in her, third or birthday. So another method we can use is to make memorable rehearsal sentences from rhyming words e.g. "Her birthday is on Thursday the third", which repeats the /ɜ:/ sound four times!