PRONUCIATION Activities
Articles
Tips to teach pronunciation
The intention of this magazine is to help those who are learning of teaching pronunciation. Learning a second language is not an easy process, which is why it is important to practice and to learn correctly. This magazine helps you improve your pronunciation by doing activities and reading articles from some experts. In this magazine you can find: activities, articles, quizzes, advertisement and games.
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Content To the reader… Metacognition quiz… Articles… Activities… Advertisement… Tips… Back cover…
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Metacognition quiz: You can use this quiz to monitor or improve you pronunciation skills.
1. What sounds did we practice today? 2. What is the difference between them? 3. Is it hard to produce these sounds? Why? 4. Did you learn some new vocabulary? 5. Was the activity challenging and interesting? Why? 6. Did you communicate while you were doing the activities? 7. Did you like the activities? How did they help you? What skills did you improved? 8. Is it important to learn these sounds? Why? 9. Did you listen yourself while you were pronouncing the words? 10. Do you have any question about the sounds we practiced? If so, which one(s)? 11. Was the activity interesting? What did you learn? 12. What skills did you improved? 13. Is the /__/ sound hard to pronounce? Why? 14. What did you like the most in this activity? 15. What are your strengths and weaknesses? 16. What should you do to improve your pronunciation?
Metacognition and self-assessment Andrea Ramirez What can be better than self-assessment? There is a point in which we gain certain fluency; however, if we pay attention to what we are saying, can we say that we are pronouncing as we should? Well, metacognitive approach is the best way in which we can improve. There is no one better than you to know until what point you are able to develop your skills. If you think what you are going to say and how you are going to said it then you will have successful results because first you are aware of what you’re saying and the way you want to say. You are aware of your skills and how to develop them in the most accurate way. We engage in metacognitive activities every day. Metacognition enables us to be successful learners, and has been associated with intelligence. A metacognitive activity looks like for example after reading a paragraph in a text a learner may question herself about the concepts discussed in the paragraph. Her cognitive goal is to understand the text. Self-questioning is a common metacognitive comprehension monitoring strategy. If she finds that she cannot answer her own questions, or that she does not understand the material discussed, she must then determine what needs to be done to ensure that she meets the cognitive goal of understanding the text. She may decide to go back and re-read the paragraph with the goal of being able to answer the questions she had generated. If, after re-reading through the text she can now answer the questions, she may determine that she understands the material. Thus, the metacognitive strategy of self-questioning is used to ensure that the cognitive goal of comprehension is met. After doing an activity you can give these questions to your students so they can reflect on their knowledge:-What did I do right?-What sounds are hard to me?-How can I do it better next time?-Were my ideas clear?-What did I learn from the activity?-How is this going to help improve my pronunciation?
What’s Language? Dennis Escalante For people, it so common to speak, to pronounce a word followed by another that conform an idea expressed in an specific context, with special characters that create a unique communication between determinate speakers. We tend to take language for granted, without thinking on the awesome and special ability that human beings have. The complexity of language. As we life in such a big country we cannot avoid different languages and its variations, and linguistics is the academic discipline in charge of studying this subject. It is also divided into dialects (varieties of a language) and accents (varieties on the pronunciation.) Language is a complex process in which everyone has to go through. An as the txt says is a consequence of being multilayered. The levels of language. This is, in a brief the different system communication that combines meaningless elements into meaningful structures. An interesting aspect that the author point out is that as far as we know only humans can have this meaningful communication, with animals, for instance, they just emit a sound with no gestures or posture and it can have more than one meaning. The sound of language. Sound marks a difference among all the languages worldwide. And of course it is an essential part of it. On the chapter they emphasize that depending on how people pronounce a word or a phrase; their socio-economical status or the region they belong can be reflected. For instance, if someone says “canyut” instead can’t is given essential information to the hearer that might affect the context and the response he/she will get back. Then they define phonemes, allophones and morphemes with such a good example comparing English grammar with Japanese grammar and from my
personal point of view, I think that the example is excellent due to it clarifies a lot of why Japanese speak with a [l] ending. Then the Swahili is also a meaningful example to understand better the differences in prefixes, suffixes, and infixes (term that I did not know before). Something relevant is also, how they define word, as mentioned before, we take those concepts for granted and we never stop to think of what such a common thing is, we tend to think that a word contains specific meaning, however a word can hold more much meanings, I learned that for animals, the word “energy” is not correct, due to it refers to human being’s mental or physical energy, and that the sentence my poppy has a lot of energy may look odd. Grammar, thoughts, syntax, discourse and the nature of language are also some elements that the chapter covers, and I put them together because in my personal opinion I would say that it is the perfect definition for language. Since the very first moment you try to pronounce a word, and create a “well fashioned” sentence unconsciously or not, you are applying grammar, what you think and want to say, the way you want to say it, whether it is orally or written, and who and where are you going to say it. Something relevant from this part is that the author, point out the importance of who are you talk with, due to there is something called “people’s diversity” regarding, for instance, their social status, the speech event, previous knowledge, the intent of the speaker and the hearer. First language acquisition. The chapter concludes with how children acquire their fist language, and how important it is for the development of a good use of it. As we discuss in class, children are capable to learn any language, they need to be exposed to it, but more than that, they need to find a social meaning for the use of that language, for example a family of immigrants in the US who have two children going to the school, they are going to find more much meaning in speaking English rather than Spanish due to those kids socialize with it, and may be at home Spanish will be not required. This is what they named learning by
context, when you acquire a language because the environment that surrounds makes you to do it. In general, when we talk about language it implies a lot of concepts and typical elements that everyday are used all over the world, sometimes in a positive way or sometimes not. I think that what really matters is to give to language the importance that it deservers, due to we, human beings are the only specie who can actually communicate in such a complex but complete way.
Phonology Maria Fabiola Sequeira Phonology is an essential part of English, I think that I like the way how words are pronounced correctly. Also I really think that as future second language teachers we must know what pronunciation is about In order to correct our student in a good way and for this major phonology and phonetics are important because they should teach them in the beginning. I want to say that it could be a good idea to know these branches since the beginning in order to know how to read symbols that it is for knowing how to pronounce a word. Basically, phonology is the study of the sound system of language. Also it involves a system that is vocal tract, vocal tract is really important in the study of phonology just because we can produce sound or speech by vocal tract and also it refers that physical proprieties that it can help or disfavor when we speak. I remember, in the first quarter our teacher from reading and writing basic skills 2, she taught us the phonemic alphabet and it was different I though in that moment why this alphabet has these kind of sounds because I just knew let’s say the normal alphabet. However, it shows the phonemic alphabet and it says that we have to force some letters or vowels even though, some of them we do not have to force (unstressed). It talks about phonemes as well, and I can say that phonemes are how we perceive vowels for instance: ship and cheap that it is kind of tough to pronounce them sometimes. On the other hand, we have consonants I think that it is hard sometimes to pronounced consonants because some of them are quite similar and for example cap and cab, I mean if I see these word written in a paper I can know the difference between them but If I hear them I kind of rough to understand in my case. We have to be careful when we are speaking and being more conscious about the sounds and “phonemic symbols�. There are many manners of articulation such as: stops, fricatives, nasals, liquids and glides. And we can use those manners in other to pronounce correctly the consonants. Finally, there are some phonological rules which we can represent them by its phonemic and phonetic representations. The first one is aspiration what in this rule we can find what differences words have and it has two allophones. The
second one is vowel lengthening in this rule we can see if a word has a long or short vowel by a colon after the vowel and it also has two allophones. The third one is vowel nasalization is about when we try to pronounce a word we ignore a vowel, we do not pronounce it, but I think that in this case we ignore a consonant as gnat and it has two allophones as well. The fourth one is flapping what I understood is we can put intervals in /t/ and /d/ surface as the alveolar flap before an unstressed syllable, so that words such as "metal" and "medal" are pronounced similarly or identically. Finally, we have rule ordering which is about we have to order a word for instance the phonemic form, aspiration, flapping and phonetic form.
Activity #1 Name: Grab Game Target sound: /ɪ/- /i/ Learning style: Auditory. Level: Intermediate. Materials: charts with the minimal pairs. Objectives:
Students recognize the difference between the two sounds.
Learn new vocabulary.
Social interaction.
Encourage competition.
Procedure: Students work in groups of 3-4. Put a few minimal pairs on slips of paper (one word per paper) and give a set to each group. Then call out a word. The students race to grab the correct word. Keep calling until there's none left. Then get the students working within their groups. One student calls out the words, the others grab the word he/she said.
Activity #2 Name: Hot potatoes. Target sound: /Ɛ/-Epsilon. Learning style: Auditory. Level: Intermediate. Materials: Ball. Objectives:
Increased vocabulary.
Make students think faster.
Improve pronunciation.
Procedure: 1) Make a semicircle in the classroom. 2) Say the first word with the target sound- /Ɛ/. 3) Throw the ball to one of the students and ask him/her to say a word with the sound. 4) The student will randomly throw the ball to one of his/her classmates. 5) If one of the students cannot say a word or the pronunciation is not the correct, he/she will receive a challenge for example: try to remember and repeat all the words that your classmates said before.
Activity #3 Name: Tongue Twisters. Target sound: /s/,/w/,/f/,/k/. Learning style: Auditory. Level: Intermediate. Materials: charts with the tongue twisters. Objectives: 
Increased vocabulary.

Make students think faster.

Improve pronunciation.
Procedure: Students get in pairs and they take one chart with a tongue twisters, student # 1try to said it and students #2 takes note of the mistakes they hear. Then student # 2 says another tongue twister and student #1 takes note of the mistakes. Then they share they notes and give feedback. Here are the tongue twisters: 1. Swan swam over the pond, Swim swan swim! Swan swam back again Well swum swan!
2. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, If a woodchuck would chuck wood? A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck , If a woodchuck would chuck wood. 3. If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch? 4. A flea and fly in a flue, Were imprisoned so what could they do? Said the flea let us fly. Said the fly let us flee. So they flew through a flaw in the flue. 5. The winkle ship sank and the shrimp ship swam. 6. Three sweet switched Swiss witches watch three washed Swiss witch Swatch watch switches. Which sweet switched Swiss witch watches which washed Swiss witch Swatch watch switch? 7. He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts. 8. A Kentukian named Knott could not knit, so Knott invented a knitter called the Knott Knitter, but the Knott Knitter would not knit knots. One day while Knott was not knitting on the Knott Knitter, Knott invented an attachment for the Knott Knitter called the Knott Knitter Knotter. When Knott attached the Knott Knitter Knotter to the Knott Knitter, no man could knit knots like Knott knit on the Knott Knitter.
Activity #4 Name: Mirror-Mirror Target sound: /p/-/b/ Learning style: Auditory. Level: Intermediate. Materials: Mirror and a list with different words. Objectives: •Increased vocabulary. •Make students be aware of their pronunciation. •Improve pronunciation. Procedure: Use a mirror: Giving your students a chance to view their own physical movements while they are working on their pronunciation can be of great value. You can always encourage your students to look at your mouth and face as you pronounce certain sounds, but they will also benefit from seeing what movements they are making as they speak. Sometimes, becoming aware of the physical movements involved in pronunciation is all your students will need to correct pronunciation issues of which they are unaware.
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m p interesting
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Tips to Teach pronunciation 1.
Vowel lenght: One of the biggest difficulties in clear pronunciation is vowel length. Short vowels aren’t short enough and long vowels aren’t long enough. Do contrasting exercises where long vowels are extra long (e.g. ‘seeeeeat’) and short vowels are very abrupt (e.g. ‘sit’). This is especially great if you are doing short/long minimal pair exercises. It’s important to exaggerate in the beginning so that students can hear the difference more clearly. Do competitions where students see who can hold the sound the longest. Over time, make the vowels shorter and shorter until they are the appropriate length.
2.
Mouth Positions: Studies have shown that explicit instruction in how to position the mouth while speaking greatly helps learners tackling difficult sounds. First, demonstrate with videos and exaggerate making the sounds yourself. Then pass out mirrors and have students observe their own mouth positions while forming the sounds. Here are some of the most important mouth positions for tricky English sounds:
Open mouth: bot, bought (note: for some English dialects, there is no distinction between these vowels) Round mouth: boat, boot Neutral position: but, bit, bet Corners of mouth pointed down (makes a frown): beat / bat Tongue between teeth: threat; let 3.
Practice Listening: You need to hear it before you can say it. Encourage students to get as much listening experience outside of the classroom as possible. Assign listening reports in order to check in and see what kinds of English students are listening to outside of class. Listening doesn’t have to be boring; tell students to listen to popular music, TV shows, movies, anything in English will work!
4.
Write Tongue Twisters: Everyone knows that tongue twisters are a great way to practice pronunciation, but instead of doing all the work, share the load with your students. Having students create their own tongue twisters helps them to not only practice their pronunciation, but be more aware of which sounds are in the words they know. They will have to really think about how to say words to know which ones to include in their tongue twister, and everyone will have a laugh sharing the crazy sentences that result.
5.
Feedback: It’s incredibly important that students get feedback early and often before they begin bad pronunciation habits that are difficult to adjust as later learners. As a teacher, it can be difficult to maintain a large classroom and give individualized pronunciation feedback to many students. A good way to manage a large classroom is to make notes while students are speaking, for example during role plays or individual presentations. Make note of specific words/sounds that students struggle with while speaking in front of the class, and after the class, focus on the most frequent pattern of errors for that particular student. Keep a note card for each student that you can make notes on and then give to the student. You can also have the students keep track of errors on their note card; for example, if you correct them during class, they can make a note of the mispronounced word on their card so they can remember to practice later.
6.
Practice Word Stress with Vocabulary:
English has incredibly
erratic word stress patterns which are rather difficult to learn due to all of the exceptions to the rules. The best way to learn word stress is to practice as you introduce new vocabulary words. As students study their new vocabulary, tell them which syllable to place the stress mark on so they can practice accurate pronunciation while learning the word.
Back cover Editors: Andrea Ramirez Chinchilla Maria Fabiola Sequeira Dennis Escalante Ugalde