Pronunciation refers to the way in which we make the sound of words. Learning to pronounce English well takes muscle coordination, and that means practice, it is not just mental activity. The best way to help students improve their pronunciation skills is to encourage them to speak English as much as they possibly can. Key Points A contrastive pair of words are words that have a contrasting letter/sequence of letters, and a corresponding contrastive speech sound/sequence of speech sounds. Below is a list of words that vary only by one having the sound /b/ and the other the sound /p/. The main difference between /b/ and /p/ is that /b/ is a voiced sound, whereas /p/ is just produced by the puff of air. Also, /b/ is pronounced with less air released than /p/, and this can sometimes be a more useful distinction as it is difficult to feel the vocal cords vibrating when making the /b/ sound. For example, bet - pet, bill - pill, band - panned, base - pace, bored - pawed, braise - prays, etc. A contrastive pair of words are words that have a contrasting letter/sequence of letters, and a corresponding contrastive speech sound/sequence of speech sounds. Some examples of contrastive pairs of words: Difficult to hear/say sound differences, like the “i” and “e” sound in “bit” and “bet”. Silent E and the vowel differences in pairs like PIN and PINE. ​Pairs that relate letters and sounds in unique ways, like WOMAN and WOMEN, WHO and HOW.