by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha
One topic that PronSIG members and followers always ask us about is pronunciation teaching resources: which do we recommend? Which would best suit certain teaching contexts? What are the most recent ones? Knowing how useful it can be to begin our pronunciation teaching and learning journey with a few examples or tips, this blog will discuss a selection of resources to help you get started, find new and engaging ideas and activities and help fill the gaps in your teaching repertoire and knowledge. We will start with tried-and-trusted reference books, then consider some books on how to teach pronunciation and conclude with some quick, easy suggestions of websites and digital tools.
1. Pronunciation practice books
A. PronPack by Mark Hancock
This highly acclaimed series offers a wide range of resources for pronunciation practice. The original four books, Pronunciation Workout, Pronunciation Puzzles, Pronunciation Workouts and Pronunciation Poems, were published in 2017. Then, two more titles followed: Pronunciation of English for Spanish Speakers (2020) and Pronunciation of English for Brazilian Speakers (2021). More recently, Hancock released the Pronunciation for Listening collection: PronPack: Connected Speech for Listeners (2022), PronPack: Word Recognition for Listeners (2023) and PronPack: Minimal Pairs (2024). Further information and free downloadable resources can be found on the PronPack website.
As with any resource by Hancock, these books help teachers get more informed about pronunciation itself, and most importantly, how to teach it. The ready-to-use activities can go straight into your lessons, as long as they suit your objectives and your learners’ needs, or be easily adapted. For both new and experienced teachers, this is an excellent starting point for exploring pronunciation teaching.
Two of my favourite activities for working on connected speech are the Homophone puzzle and the Badly filled gaps in PronPack: Connected Speech for Listeners, Section B1, page 49. In the first, learners are given a phrase and the beginning of a second phrase that sounds identical, e.g. wake up = way ______ (answer: way cup). In the second, they are given incorrect yet similar-sounding words and must identify the intended phrase, e.g. ‘I usually way cup in the morning’ → wake up. Both activities offer a smart and engaging way to improve perception and production of consonant linking, and students love them!
For further information on Hancock’s iconic Pronunciation Games (1995), please check this previous blog post.
B. Be Understood! by Christina Smolder
Be understood! A pronunciation resource for every classroom (Smolder, 2012) links pronunciation features with language skills and functions, helping teachers better integrate pronunciation into their everyday lessons. For example, if you are teaching a B2 (upper-intermediate) lesson on phrasal verbs, you can turn to chapter 27, ‘Move on, go back’, p. 79-81, for practical activities focused on the pronunciation of phrasal verbs, where the verb is typically stressed, while the particle may or may not be, e.g., heard of (the verb ‘heard’ is stressed, and the particle ‘of’ is not). You can use these activities as a follow-up lesson, or simply select one or two to reinforce the main language focus.
Besides the range of tasks, one standout feature of Smolder’s book is the inclusion of English speakers from around the world in the audio tracks. This provides learners with more exposure to a variety of accents, supporting intelligibility as the main goal of pronunciation instruction. Even if the speakers are actors rather than ‘real-life’ voices, this still remains one of the few pronunciation resources that offers accent diversity.
C. Well Said Pronunciation for Clear Communication by Linda Grant
Grant and Yu’s Well Said Intro (2nd ed., 2017) and Grant’s Well Said (4th ed., 2017) are amazing resources for pronunciation practice, especially if you teach pronunciation as a standalone module at university level or as part of a private language course. These two books guide learners through the full pronunciation journey: from identifying their pronunciation goals and needs to practising core features such as segmentals (vowels, consonants and word endings) and suprasegmentals (word stress, rhythm, connected speech, focus, intonation and thought groups). Learners are also encouraged to keep a pronunciation log to support reflection and progress tracking.
One of the key features of these books is that they follow Celce-Murcia’s et al.’s (2010, p. 45) Communicative Framework for Teaching Pronunciation, which keeps communication at the heart of pronunciation work (for more information on how to teach pronunciation communicatively, please check this previous blog post). For instance, Chapter 14, ‘Thought Groups’, p. 111-116, in Grant and Yu (2017) starts with guided noticing and reflection, followed by rules and listening discrimination activities, then controlled practice. It culminates in a communicative pairwork task in which students exchange personal information in a job application scenario (p. 115). This clear progression helps teachers see how the Communicative Framework comes to life in the classroom, especially when aiming to add more meaningful, communicative practice to pronunciation teaching.
2. Books on how to teach pronunciation
A. ETpedia Pronunciation by Hughes and Erasmus
Hughes and Erasmus (2022) ETpedia Pronunciation: 500 ideas and activities for teaching pronunciation is a great resource for both novice and experienced teachers looking to sharpen their pronunciation teaching skills. Organised into six main sections, it offers practical tips, classroom ideas and opportunities for reflection on major areas of pronunciation instruction: getting started, essential tools and techniques, knowledge and problem-solving, integrating pronunciation into lessons, online teaching and technology, and materials design and professional development. It is also a handy reference for trainers delivering teacher-training courses. For a detailed review, see Rocha (2023).
B. Teaching Pronunciation with Confidence by Guskaroska et al.
Teaching Pronunciation with Confidence: A Resource for ESL/EFL Teachers and Learners by Guskaroska et al. (2024) is a free online resource designed to support teachers and boost their confidence in teaching pronunciation. Written by a group of pronunciation experts led by John Levis, this book is highly accessible and closely aligned with Celce-Murcia’s et al.’s Communicative Framework. It also offers excellent examples of how technology can enhance pronunciation learning and teaching, recommending a range of websites and digital tools for different classroom purposes. It is definitely a must-read! For a detailed review, see Duris (2025).
C. Useful websites and digital tools for pronunciation teaching
As mentioned above, in Hughes and Erasmus (2022) and in Guskaroska et al. (2024), you can find several recommendations of websites and digital tools, so you should definitely check them. As a quick, easy reference, here are five of them:
1. Tools for Clear Speech: this website offers a variety of information and practice on pronunciation features. It is helpful for classroom use when teaching pronunciation, and for students to practice pronunciation on their own. I cannot recommend it enough!
2. Seeing Speech: This website, a collaborative project created by the University of Glasgow and five other Scottish universities, gives teachers and learners a view of how sounds are articulated through MRI, Ultrasound and animation. It is relatively simple to navigate and really helps students visualise sounds, especially those that do not exist in their first language. The IPA animations in particular are definitely a classroom hit!
3. English File Pronunciation Chart by Oxford University Press: if you need to quickly show students the distinction between two sounds during a lesson, here’s an easy and accessible chart. Just click on the picture to hear the sound and the word that corresponds to the picture. For example: /ɪ/ fish; /p/ parrot. It provides a great review of vowel and consonant sounds in English.
4. WASP 2 (Waveform and Spectrogram Program): this is a free tool that displays speech visually as waveforms and spectrograms. You can use it to help students see the differences between their pronunciation and a model recording. For example, learners can compare vowel length, word stress and connected speech by looking at how long sounds are or where the voice becomes stronger. This visual support can make abstract pronunciation features easier to understand, especially for learners who benefit from seeing patterns as well as hearing them. Seeing is believing!
5. Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) tools: these are available in Google Docs and Microsoft Word, to name a few. By speaking directly into the document, learners can see whether their words are correctly recognised in real time, giving instant feedback on accuracy and clarity. On the one hand, this encourages self-monitoring and helps students notice subtle pronunciation differences. On the other hand, not having their speech recognised or having many mistakes can be extremely discouraging for learners. Thus, teachers should definitely provide assistance and guidance.
Finally, with the resources and tools we have explored, from classic reference books and interactive websites to cutting-edge software, teachers have a wealth of options to make pronunciation practice communicative, practical and fun. The key is to experiment, adapt activities to your learners’ needs and remember that even small, consistent pronunciation work can make a big difference, just give it a try!
Obviously, there is a plethora of pronunciation resources available, and this is only one blog post. Hopefully, in a future post we can continue discussing them, especially the ones that involve AI (Artificial Intelligence) (for more on that, check this previous blog post). Meanwhile, why don’t you explore more of our blog posts?
Many thanks for supporting our blog and PronSIG. Happy holidays and we will see you in 2026 with much more. Stay tuned!
References
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (with Griner, B.). (2010). Teaching Pronunciation: A Course Book and Reference Guide. Second Edition. Cambridge University Press.
Duris, M. (2025). Teaching Pronunciation with Confidence: A Resource for ESL/EFL Teachers and Learners (Review). Speak Out! (73), p. 71-75.
Grant, L. (2017). Well Said. Pronunciation for Clear Communication. Fourth Edition. National Geographic Learning.
Grant, L. & Yu, E. E. (2017). Well Said Intro. Pronunciation for Clear Communication. Second Edition. National Geographic Learning.
Guskaroska, A., Zawadzki, Z., Levis, J. M., Challis, K., & Prikazchikov, M. (2024). Teaching Pronunciation with Confidence: A Resource for ESL/EFL Teachers and Learners. Iowa State University, Digital Press.
Hancock, M. (1995). Pronunciation Games. Cambridge University Press.
Hancock, M. (2017). PronPack Series. Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4. Hancock McDonald ELT.
Hancock, M. (2020). PronPack 5. Pronunciation of English for Spanish Learners. Hancock McDonald ELT.
Hancock, M. (2021). PronPack 6. Pronunciation of English for Brazilian Learners. Hancock McDonald ELT.
Hancock, M. (2022). PronPack: Connected Speech for Listeners. Hancock McDonald ELT.
Hancock, M. (2023). PronPack: Word Recognition for Listeners. Hancock McDonald ELT.
Hancock, M. (2024). PronPack: Minimal Pairs. Hancock McDonald ELT.
Hughes, J. & Erasmus, G. (2022). ETpedia Pronunciation. 500 Ideas and Activities for Teaching Pronunciation. Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltda.
Rocha, A. P. B. (2023). ETpedia Pronunciation. 500 Ideas and Activities for Teaching Pronunciation (Review). Speak Out! (69), p. 63-66.
Smolder, C. M. (2012). Be understood! A pronunciation resource for every classroom. Cambridge University Press.
