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'Knowing a language' (its grammar and lexemes) is all very well, but the most immediate use is almost certainly in speech, for which the sounds need to be made recognisably enough ~ even, indeed particularly, when some of these are not familiar from the speaker's L1. (Cf. the cautionary tale of the Shibboleth password in the Biblical book of Judges, when the enemy agents to be weeded-out couldn't cope with the affricatives and gave themselves away by only managing 'sibolet'.) Awareness of sound differences and phonetic and tonal patterns can be built into listening materials and the teacher model, but there will often need to be practice and occasional remedial work. A good clear model from the teacher is the readiest resource, rather than faffing about with tiny clips & snippets, but gestures and diagrams (and perhaps playing a video clip with the sound turned down the 2nd time, as an incentive to copy and sync) are some strategies one might also try. Students need not be actively aware of such arcana as the IPA and the detailed taxonomy of English phonetics, but they need to be confident with the practical outworkings if they are to do their deeper language knowledge serviceable justice in a real conversational context.
