OF TEACHING PRONUNCIATION P 10
PRONUNCIATION TIPS
P 15
TECHNOLOGY
P 20
Fun English Volume 2 | Number 8 | April 2014 | MCC MAG / 425 / 08T
| Rs. 20
Volume 1 | Number 8 | April 2014 | MCC MAG JKEN/245/8956 | Rs. 20
WE MAKE FUN PRONUNCIATION GAMES P 26
SPECIAL GROWING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY
MONITOR YOUR PRONUNCIATION? YES! IT IS POSSIBLE
HOW TO USE TECHNOLOGY AS A LEARNING
MALONY ALLEN | P 13 ASK THE EXPERT P 52 HOW CREATIVITY MAKES STUDENTS LEARN PRONUNCIATION?
MADELIN CALVO | P 18
TOOL, NOT JUST THE COOL NEW THING
THE INK OF HISTORY
CONTENTS ARTICLES 13 MONITOR YOUR PRONUNCIATION Malony Allen
18 HOW CREATIVITY MAKES STUDENTS LEARN PRONUNCIATION? Madelin Calvo
WE MAKE FUN 26 HOPSCOTCH 31 BINGO 37 MINIMAL PAIRS 42 TONGUE TWISTERS 44 ENGLISH INTERVIEW 47 METACOGNITION GAME
FEATURES 10 REPORT OF TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
15 FEATURE: PRONUNCIATION TIPS
20 PHOTO FEATURE: TECHNOLOGY
TIDINGS 52 ASK THE EXPERT
50 SPECIAL: GROWING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY
12 RANDOM FACTS
TO THE READER FUN ENGLISH SENIOR EDITOR Madelin Calvo - mcalvo@fe.com ART EDITOR Malony Allen – mallen@fe.com BUSSINESS EDITOR Deivid Calvo- dcalvo@fe.com CONTRIBUTORS Sylvia Méndez, Mónica González, Fernando Brenes
In this edition we wanted to focus on Teaching Pronunciation, why? Because it is important nowadays to be well-prepared in English Language. This magazine will help ESLEFL students, elementary high school, and English teachers. This month´s issue contains different articles, games, and tidings that talk about our cover subject, metacognition, technology, and creativity. I want to invite teachers, students, and parents to take advantage of this magazine, and all its content. Today´s trend is English language, so Fun English thinks that everybody should be up to date.
MADELIN CALVO Senior Editor
PRINTED BY Power Publish www.FunEnglish.com www.facebook.com/FunEnglish MEDIA REPRESENTATIVE Cloud Media San José, Costa Rica T: +506 2280 4090 Email: info@cm.com
EDITORS Malony Allen
is a writer, Journalist, and English expertise, she has over 15 year experience in the field. She lived in USA during her childhood. She also contributes to BBC, CNN, and La Naci贸n.
Madelin Calvo
is a translator, researcher, and writer. She has over 10 year experience in the pedagogic field. Fluent in three languages including French. Her main topics are: creativity and technology.
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Why do teachers avoid this area? HOW TO START TEACHING IT? Nowadays one can find a lot of textbooks, instruction manuals, books, theories, and vast methodologies of learning pronunciation, so why teachers do not use them in class? Easy, because teachers do not have enough time. Certainly, the main goal of an ESL-EFL student is communication, but there is a huge gap between a ship and a sheep. How can we achieve communication if we do not understand what we are saying? THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE. First, teachers need to develop awareness about the importance of knowing and mastering phonetics. Second, they need to develop a plan and research before giving a pronunciation class. Third, the amount of instruction needs be enough and meaningful, and fourth, use metacognition. Students are curious, and they always ask about the
REPORT ON TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
pronunciation. They will be grateful if you take a moment to teach them how to create correct sounds in English. This has two objectives, first improve their speaking skills, and second create selfawareness by motivating them. The fist all teachers need to do is starting with phonemes since it represents a sound. The first lessons in pronunciation should involve your students listening and identifying, rather than speaking. Introduce the phonemes using minimal pairs (sounds alike), repeat those sounds so students can identify them. Use visual aids to show learners the place of mouth and tongue, try to focus on the differences. As a practice you can use a lot of matching games, students can play, learn, and have fun. Once they are prepared, you make them produce the sounds accurately.
Use diagrams to do so. Students should be able to see where to place their lips and tongues in relation with their teeth. This is a new process, so realize that it is going to take a while. Then you should move to pronunciation of words, this is more challenging because students will need to expand physical and neurological limitations. Let them make mistakes, but always provide feedback. Some factors such as cultural identify, exposure, intensity, attitude, amount, motivation, innate skills, and goals could interfere in the learning process, but always take into account that those barriers are necessary to be overcome. Study your students, find out what motivates them, what are their strengths and weaknesses, and what their purpose is when learning English. You will only guide and monitor, they will do the remaining.
READ AND& PUT INTO PRACTICE Spend the time! Listen and read every day Focus on words and phrases Take responsibility of your own learning Relax and enjoy yourself!
1 BILLION PEOPLE SPEAK ENGLISH. THAT IS 1 EVERY 7 ON EARTH. 80% OF ALL INFORMATION STORED ON ALL COMPUTERS IN THE WORLD IS IN ENGLISH. ENGLISH WORDS “I” “WE” “TWO” AND “THREE” ARE AMONG THE MOS ANCIENT, FROM THOUSAND YEARS.
Before starting, do you know the definition of
Teachers can use metacognition to help students
Metacognition?
mastering English. For instance, in order to learn
In easy words, metacognition is “thinking
pronunciation, provide enough instruction, then
about thinking�, which can be defined as the
make them notice the importance of being well-
awareness and regulation of the thinking process. It
prepared, knowing the correct pronunciation, and
is the knowledge and control that a person has over
improving their accent. With this, students will
his or her own thinking and learning activities. Teaching metacognitive skills to language
develop a self-awareness that will let them monitor and assess their performance when speaking.
students gives them the key to understand their
As close, you can use metacognition in grammar,
own learning. It shows them ways to take
writing, reading, and listening; this issue is a vital
responsibility for the manner in which they learn, rather than expecting to be a passive recipient waiting for the next transmission of information. Metacognitive skills are important for the learners to
part of any learning process. Remember that it lets students develop new skills to improve their language development. Later you will find some exercises and questions regarding metacognition.
encourage them self- reflection, and help students to be more motivated when learning English.
Malony Allen
FEATURE PRONUNCIATION TIPS VOWELS The /æ/ sound it’s called “Short vowel”. To make the sound your tongue must be raised a little in the back; the front of the tongue stretches forward and presses behind the bottom of the front teeth. For instance: bat, fat, man. The /ᶸ/ sound it is called “Back vowel”, and the reason of its name is because to make the sound your lips must be rounded but in a relax way. Example of it can be: book, could, wood.
The /ᴈ:/ sound it is called “Long vowel”, and to make the sound your tongue must be raised towards the roof of the mouth in the middle, even touches lightly the top teeth. The tip of your tongue hands down, but it’s not close to the bottom front teeth. Example of it can be: bird, purse
HOW CREATIVITY MAKES STUDENTS LEARN PRONUNCIATION? INTROVERSION EXTROVERSION STRESS
VISION
TIME
NAPS
TASTE TIREDENESS RELAX INFORMATION
SMELL
NEW TASKS
MULTI-TASK
TOUCH
MISTAKES
THINKING
SMELL
MEDITATION
EXERICE
PROCESS
HAPPINESS
HEARING
ATTENTION
PERCEPTION
BRAIN
FAMILIAR
AREAS
EXPERIENCE
SCIENCE
HOW creativity Works? WHAT makes people creative? Creativity is the ability to create works that captivates minds, life, time, perspectives, and a bunch of other stuff. Creativity deals with neuroscience, which addresses the study of the nervous system. Everything in our body is made of nervous, vision, taste, touch, smell, and hear, and they are controlled by our brain. Everybody is creative in their own way. In class teachers can take advantage of this “natural skill”. There are a couple of facts I am sure you ignore and will leave you speechless. Humans are more creative when tired. Yes, you read it right, TIRED, You’ll actually have more luck when you’re more tired and your brain isn’t functioning as efficiently. If you’re tired, your brain is not as good at filtering out distractions and focusing on a particular task. It’s also a lot less efficient at remembering connections between ideas or concepts. These are both good things when it comes to creative work, since
this kind of us to connections, new ideas fresh ways.
work requires make new be open to and think in
Another fact is that naps help you improving your memory, and having better learning. It helps to clear information out of our brain´s temporary storage areas. That makes us more creative.
Well, it is interesting to talk about how our brain works, but let´s focus in our topic. How teachers can take advantage of creativity and makes students learn more and better pronunciation? First, you must provide breaks when giving input to your students. They need to be in touch with the subject, and then relax their brains in order to have a better understanding and avoid boredom.
Second, make students take the active role in the class, instead of you giving instructions and doing activities, confer the teacher´s position for a moment, and let them use their imagination, provide peer feedback, create new activities, and explain the topics. Third, when there is a difficult subject, use icebreakers at the beginning of the class to have a relax environment. That helps the brain, attitude, and motivation. Fourth, make your lessons playful and enjoyable, let students express their own perspective in class. This will increase production and students will have a great time with the learning process. Fifth and final, make mistakes is ok, let students know that there is a learning curve and everything needs to be developed step by step. Do not rush the learning process. Let things flow. Madelin Calvo
PHOTO FEATURE
In Fun English we like to show different technological tools that can be used in the learning process. This month´s instrument is called learning catalytics, believe it or not this program provides feedback to students during class to support instruction. It also gives teachers and students the option to review material outside of class. You can sign up and follow the instructions in this link
www.learningcatalytics.com
According to the company’s website, the program enables educators to “assess students in real time, using open-ended tasks to probe student understanding. Students use any modern Web-enabled device they already have — laptop, smartphone, or tablet. Engage students by creating open-ended questions that ask for numerical, algebraic, textual, or graphical responses — or just plain multiple-choice.
ANYBODY CAN PLAY.
even- and especially- kids.
Age: + 5 year-old
/ei/
Type: speaking Pronunciation Features: diphthongs Instructions: There is no maximum or minimum of players’ number. Each player will have a stone (a normal size). The first player rolls the stone in one of the squares. When the stone falls, the participant must jump on the squares (one foot on a single square, and two feet on two squares, and so on). The participant must get to the end, but without picking up the stone, this is because the player must pronounce the sound correctly and provide an example. After completing the task, the player can pick up the stone and pass it to the next player. In Fun English we strongly believe in taking care of nature and sustainability, that is why we encourage recycling programs. In the following pages you will find the diphthongs that you can cut and paste on a recycle paper sheet and create your own game. Be creative!
/au/
/ai/
/oi/
/ou/
/ei/
/ai/
/au/
/oi/
/ei/
/ei/ /au/ /ai/
/ei/ /oi/ /ou/
/ei/ /au/ /ai/
/oi/
IT IS TIME TO PLAY BINGO Age: + 12 year-old Type: listening and speaking Pronunciation Features: minimal pairs, vowels /ĂŚ/ and /e/ Instructions: cut the bingo sheets (there are four versions), make the photocopies you need, also cut the words you that later will put in a bag. Once you have the material, hand it out. Somebody will need to say the words inside the bag, the rest of the people will mark the word they hear. At the end the winner will have to pronounce all the words correctly. Have fun!
B I NGO AND
THEN
SAND
PAT
SET
GUESS
LEFT
X
THAN
ED
MESS
NEXT
ADD
GAS
LAUGH
SAT
SEND
END
MASS COUGH
B I NGO AND
MESS
GUESS LAUGH
THEN
NEXT
SAT
ADD
SAND
PAT
SET
X
THAN
ED
SEND COUGH
END
MASS
LEFT
GAS
B I NGO SAT
THEN
SAND
PAT
GUESS
SET
MASS
X
MESS
LEFT
ADD
SEND LAUGH
THAN COUGH
AND
GAS
END
ED
NEXT
B I NGO LAUGH
THEN
ADD
AND
SEND
SET
ED
X
THAN
LEFT
MESS COUGH SAND GUESS
PAT
GAS
END
MASS
SAT
NEXT
WORDS SAT
THEN
SAND
PAT
GUESS
SET
MASS
SAD
MESS
LEFT
THAN
COUGH
ADD
SEND
LAUGH
AND
GAS
END
ED
NEXT
ASK
WHAT
TEND
TEXT
MASH
CATCH
TAN
EYES
CASTLE
ICE
MINIMAL PAIRS /p/ & /b/ Age: + 6 year-old Type: reading and speaking Pronunciation Features: minimal pairs, consonants /ĂŚp/ and /b/ Instructions: cut the worksheet and make the photocopies you need, hand them out, and make people read the words and pronounce them correctly. They should be able to compare both sounds. Have fun!
TONGUE TWISTER Age: + 12 year-old Type: reading and speaking Pronunciation Features: consonant sounds /m/ /w/ Instructions: cut the worksheet and make the photocopies you need, hand them out, and make people read the tongue twisters as faster as they can. They are required to pronounce everything correctly and fluently. This is for advanced English students.
Have fun!
Mary Mac Mary Mac's mother's making Mary Mac marry me. My mother's making me marry Mary Mac. Will I always be so Merry when Mary's taking care of me? Will I always be so merry when I marry Mary Mac?
Whether the weather Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not. Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot. We'll weather the weather whether we like it or not
Age: + twelve year-old Type: reading, speaking, and listening Pronunciation Features: -ing endings Instructions: cut the interview worksheet and make the photocopies you need, hand them out, and make people interview different partners, later they will need to gather information and explain the results. This is for intermediate English students.
Have fun!
English Interview 1. Choose 3 classmates, interview them, and find out what they do on weekends. 2. Use this pattern to make questions: Do you ever go‌? How often do you‌? 3. Symbolism: Every weekend: E Often: O Sometimes: S Never: N
Activity Name: Go running Go dancing Go running Go to the bank Go swimming Go walking Go dancing Visit de monkeys Buy something interesting Stake in the rink
Name:
4. Explain in front of the class the results gathered, for instance: She/he goes running every day She/he sometimes goes swimming
Name:
English Interview 1. Choose 3 classmates, interview them, and find out what they do on weekends. 2. Use this pattern to make questions: Do you ever go‌? How often do you‌? 3. Symbolism: Every weekend: E Often: O Sometimes: S Never: N
Activity Name: Go running Go dancing Go running Go to the bank Go swimming Go walking Go dancing Visit de monkeys Buy something interesting Stake in the rink
Name:
4. Explain in front of the class the results gathered, for instance: She/he goes running every day She/he sometimes goes swimming
Name:
METACOGNITION Age: + 5 year-old Type: reading, and speaking Metacognitive process Instructions: cut the worksheet and make the photocopies you need, hand them out, and make people answer these questions.
Ask students to be honest and reflect about the proposed question. Then they should be able to provide a personal opinion, at the end make sure you ask them their personal insight. The aim of this game is to create awareness of the importance of having a good pronunciation. Have fun!
Metacognition game 1- Answer these questions
Are you interested in English? Why? Are you motivated to learn English? Is English pronunciation important for you? Why? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your classmates in English pronunciation? Do you often practice your pronunciation? How? Do you feel confident when speaking English?
2- Reflect and provide your personal opinion
Metacognition game 1- Answer these questions
Are you interested in English? Why? Are you motivated to learn English? Is English pronunciation important for you? Why? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your classmates in English pronunciation? Do you often practice your pronunciation? How? Do you feel confident when speaking English?
2- Reflect and provide your personal opinion
Metacognition game
Answer these questions Are you interested in English? Why? Are you motivated to learn English? Is English pronunciation important for you? Why? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your classmates in English pronunciation? Do you often practice your pronunciation? How? Do you feel confident when speaking English? Reflect and provide your personal opinion
HOW TO USE TECHNOLOGY AS A LEARNING TOOL, NOT JUST THE COOL NEW THING. This month´s issue is focused more in technology and applications that can make the learning process easier. Right now one can find a lot of things in the virtual market, from helpful apps to games and useless stuff. Kids are taking advantage of this new technological tools that internet offers us, meanwhile adults are starting to notice them. The important question we can make ourselves is how to use technology as a learning tool, and not just the cool new thing? If you notice, everything in the world now is connected by internet, you have social networks, e-mail, assessment tools, virtual textbooks, and they are quite interesting, but the truth is that these tools are not pushing people to their full potential. People nowadays are lazy, they want everything by just using the click button. By using IT properly in the classroom, teaching and learning are enhanced and given a new dimension. I invite students and teachers to take more advantage of it.
There are some steps that could help you improving your technology usage, first, do not forget about human interaction, and remember that you need to be in touch with your specie, working in groups is a good practice to develop this step. Second, learn by doing, do not wait for a program that will fix and do everything you want. Sometimes you will need to think deeper in order to solve problems, do not wait until that moment to put into practice this piece of advice, and do it meanwhile. Third, create instead of cut-and-paste, it is easy to commit plagiarism, so be honest and exercise your brain by creating something new. Fourth, interact and find new challenges in your way, use your social skills to fulfill your learning expectations. Fifth, let your creativity take place, uniqueness and innovation are always welcomed. All the learners should be exposed to technology, they just need to measure that exposure and expand your knowledge limits.
Advice that will help to develop a technological awareness:
HUMAN INTERACTION. LEARN BY DOING. CREATE. INTERACT AND FIND NEW CHALLENGES IN YOUR WAY. LET YOUR CREATIVITY TAKE PLACE.
Uniqueness and innovation are always welcomed in any place. Education is the key that open doors of success. Technology was made to help us, and not to harm us. If you use it correctly and aware you will obtain good results. Technology is the future of all generations.
ASK THE EXPERT Susana from Chile asked us: Which one is correct to say? A teacher should try to make the lesson more interestingly. A teacher should try to make the lesson more interesting.
Amy thank you for your question. Of your two sentences the second one is correct: A teacher should try to make the lesson more interesting. (You need an adjective here: "interesting" as it describes the noun "lesson". "Interestingly" is an adverb). I hope this helps The expert, P.S.: remember to write to our e-mail asktheexpert@fe.com and we will ask your questions in this section
FUN ENGLISH