Tips for Pronunciation The importance of applying Metacognition in Classroom Activities for Pronunciation
To the Reader Welcome! For those who want to improve and practice their pronunciation and speaking skills through interactive exercises, this magazine is the perfect choice for you because it collects some of the most interesting and dynamic pronunciation exercises that are aimed for learners of all ages. This magazine has a wide variety of activities for English Language Learners of all ages where they can practice their pronunciation with some interactive and helpful exercises. The importance of pronunciation has a very huge impact on English. Nonnative speakers should be aware of the different sounds they learn as they hear during conversations. Likewise, students with lack of pronunciation tend to face some issues when they speak to Native people. They only focus on fluency. However, in order for a student to become an English speaker, he or she should also take into account accuracy. Therefore, accuracy as
well as fluency must be balanced in order to express ourselves clearly and concise. Lastly, we included our activities attached with the instructions for you to enjoy practicing your pronunciation while you are studying. We hope you get a good experience from these activities because they will help you increase your
pronunciation skills and improve your speaking skills as well.
Introduction This magazine aims to improve learner’s pronunciation with a wide variety of activities that might be helpful for him to keep practicing inside and outside the classroom. Likewise, the reason why pronunciation is important is because it makes you express your ideas and thoughts clearly when you speak to Native people. On the other hand, the purpose of this magazine is to help learners to pronounce words, phrases, and sentences clearly in a way that they can often use it as a guideline for their conversations, discussions, or speeches. Pronunciation drills are very important for students if they want to sound like a Native speaker because they will be able to identify each sound. Lastly, this magazine will serve students as an appropriate workbook where they can do the activities that we designed. Our main goal is to help a student to do better in pronunciation and encourage him to be confident about himself. Likewise, at the end of the activities, we have prepared an article where we reflect the importance of pronunciation and the best activities that a student or a teacher can use.
Index To the readers…………………………………………………2 Introduction…………………………………………………….3 Minimal Pair…………………………………………………….6 Homophones Memory Game…………………………..8 Role-play Dialogue……………………………………………11 Stand up and Sit- down…………………………………….16 Consonant Activity……………………………………………18 Fruit Salad…………………………………………………………20 Tips for pronunciation……………………………………….22 The importance of Applying Metacognition in classroom………………………………25 Why Metacognition in Learning is Essential…....27
The best way to learn, use video games and learn English easily
Minimal Pair Target sounds: /i- ɚ/, / ε ɚ/ Level: intermediate
Learning style: Visual, social Personality type: Thinking, task-oriented, spontaneous
Materials: Minimal pair handouts, board markers. Objective: To be able to identify, discriminate and produce the target sounds in minimal pairs.
Instructions: 1. Draw two pictures like these ones on the board:
2.Elicit what the pictures are – students should guess ‘ear’ in a few seconds (unless you are a terrible artist, which will take longer but will be really funny). The second picture you can make a joke out of – “look really carefully”, “can’t you see it?” In the end, hopefully someone will guess “air”. 3. Elicit the pronunciation and the phonemes /ɪ/ and / ε / and drill them. 4. Give the students the handout and get them to work out what the other pictures are. Make it very clear that the only difference is whether the word has /ɪə/ or /eə/, so if they can guess one
Homophones Memory Game Target sound: /i/, //, /ɑʊ/, /ɔ/, /u/, /iu/, /eɪ/, /aɪ/, Learning style: Logical, visual, social. /ɪ/, /ʊ/. Level: Intermediate Personality type: Thinking, spontaneous, observant. Objective: To be able to identify, discriminate and compare words with the same pronunciation in a memory game. Instructions: 1. Print the homophones handout. 2. Cut the papers into squares. 3. Have students work in pairs or in groups. 4. Each pair/group gets one stack of cards and they should shuffle the cards and place them facing down. 5. Each pair/group take turns, choose two cards and turn them around to see if they match. 6. Have students say the words aloud as they pick cards so that they practice to check pronunciation.
Homophones Words
Homophones Words
Role-play dialogue Target sound: /ʃ/, /tʃ/.
Learning style: Visual, social, kinesthetic.
Level: Intermediate
Personality type: Thinking, task-oriented, spontaneous, creative, and interactive.
Materials: Role-play handouts, markers, visual aids. Objective: To be able to practice using -ch and -sh sounds with a dialogue or a role-play activity in order to identify, discriminate and produce the target sound in real-life situations. Instructions: 1. The teacher gives some examples of words with ch and sh, and then does a warm-up activity for students to pronounce these two sounds. 2. Students receive a dialogue script to practice the ch and sh sounds. 3. The teacher organizes students in pairs or small groups of three to practice the dialogue. 4. Each student has to identify the words that have sh and ch. 5. Students circle the words with sh /ʃ/ and ch /tʃ/ sounds. 5. Students have to be very motivated and enthusiastic when performing the dialogue.
Pronunciation Practice Read the following dialogue. Circle the words containing the sound / ch / and underline the words containing the sound / sh / Check your answers with the class. Practice the dialogue aloud with a partner.
Richard: Do you have any change for the washing machine? My wife, Sharon, is visiting her parents in Michigan. I’m watching the children and doing the chores. Tom: Watch out! Don’t put bleach on those shirts. You’ll wash out the color. Richard: Will you teach me how to wash clothes? Tom: Yes, I will. First, be sure to wash white shirts separately. Don’t use too much soap. Richard: I wish Sharon would return. It’s more natural for a woman to wash and shop. Tom: You sound like a chauvinist! I don’t mind doing chores. I’m great in the kitchen, too! Richard: Would you like to take charge? I’ll cheerfully pay you cash. Tom: Listen, old chap, I’m a bachelor and too old to chase after children. I’m in a rush. It’s been nice chatting with you, Richard. Richard: Sure, nice chatting with you, too, Tom. 30 days later, Sharon comes back from Michigan. The scene starts at Richard’s house in the morning. Sharon: Honey, I’m back.
Then, we shared stories together and we laughed a lot. It was so awesome. Richard: Did you exchange your dollars before entering Canada? Sharon: Yes, I did sweetie. When I entered Canada, I met a famous architect who built a round building in downtown Toronto. Then, I bought some cheese because I wanted to make pizza after visiting Toronto. Richard: I’m so glad to hear that. You always find a way to cheer me up. With those cherries that you brought, we can make a delightful cherry pie, make some hot chocolate to drink, and invite our neighbors to welcome the New Year. Sharon: That’s a great idea Richard. Then, we will eat our grapes and make our wishes for the New Year. Richards: May your wishes come true, sugarcube. Sharon: Thank you, my charming prince.
Stand up- Sit down Stand- up, sit down Target sound: Learning style: /a/ /oƱ/ Auditory Level: Beginning
Personality type: alert and participative
Materials: List of words with the sounds /a/ and /oƱ/. Objective: Student will be able to identify the sound /a/ and /oƱ/ listening several words. Procedures: 1- Students have to be in the center of the classroom 2- The vowel /a/ means stand –up and the vowel /oƱ/ means sit down. 3- Teacher with a list of words starts to pronounce each word and student must do the action corresponding.
List of words with the sound
o同 o同
a o March
o Home
o mark
o Joke
o market
o Know
o apologize
o Ago
o blot
o Bingo
o body
o Blow
o car
o Choke
o card
o Chose
o
carpet
o Closed
a and
Consonant Activity
Procedures: Making two groups (Group A and Group B). The teacher distributes one card with several words to each group. Students have to read the words with the other partners and try to guess what symbols can identify these words. The Teacher distributes a set of images to the students. Students have to create sentences with the images using the words read before. Students must write the sentences on the board and read it aloud. Also, it is necessary that students underline the main word and tells to the partners what symbols they identified.
Group B
Decision
Snake
Revision
confusion
snow
start
beige
Slow
Supervision
Objective: Students will be able to discriminate two different vowels sounds. Materials: chair and list of words Level: Beginners Personality type: Attentive, alert, participative
Procedures:
The teacher has to choose several words like car, wallet or star which include the sounds a- ɛ. Students must make a circle with the chairs. The teacher will assign one word to each student (it is necessary to repeat the words). The teacher will say one of the words and those students who have this word have to move and find another seat. When the student understands the dynamic of the game the teacher has to steal one of the chairs, so one student is left standing.
If the student losses, he or she has to repeat the word and tell to the rest of the group what vowel identify this word. The winner will obtain a candy or chocolate for her or his effort.
Tips to Teach Pronunciation 1. Vowel Length One of the biggest difficulties in clear pronunciation is vowel length. Short vowels aren’t short enough and long vowels aren’t long enough. It is 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. Example:
The vowels in: beat, boat, boot, bait, bite.
Short vowels: bet, bot, but, bat, bit
2. 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. Therefore, you should tell your students to listen to popular music, TV shows, movies, or anything in English that will work for them to improve their pronunciation and speaking every day.
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.
4. Write Tongue Twisters Everyone knows that tongue twisters are a great way to practice pronunciation. Nevertheless, instead of doing all the work, we share the load with your students. Having students create their own tongue twisters helps them to be more aware of which sounds are in the words they know. They will have to really think about how to say words and to know which ones to include in their tongue twister.
6. Put the Stress on Stress Sometimes our students are misunderstood when speaking not because of the individual sounds, but because of inappropriate stress. Do stress marking activities where you can give students a list of words they already know and have them identify stressed and unstressed syllables until they understand the idea of stress. You should practice knocking on the desks for each syllable. Knock extra loudly on the stress syllables, and very gently for unstressed.
7. Decide what kind of accent you would like to speak with In English, there are many different kinds of accents. The two most common are British and American. Likewise, there are many different accents even within British or American
pronunciation, but most learning materials will help you learn either a standard British accent or a standard American accent. American pronunciation and British pronunciation are completely different. The consonant sounds are the same (except for the letter ‘t’ and an ‘r’ after a vowel), but the vowel sounds are very different. The British accent has more vowel sounds, and some vowel letters are pronounced differently.
8. Practice hearing the sounds of English Before you listen to an English podcast, song, or discussion, you should read the words first. Highlight, circle, or underline the sound you want to work on. For example, if you have trouble with the /I/ sound,
highlight all the words that you think have the /I/ sound. Read the passage out loud to yourself, focusing on the words with /I/. Listen to the podcast. Can you hear the /I/ sound? Practice the sound by trying to imitate what the speaker is saying. 10. Practice for at least 30 minutes every day
It’s all in the lips.
Learning pronunciation is helpful for good communication
The Importance of Applying Metacognition in Classroom Indeed, “metacognition plays a vital role in
planning, monitoring, and evaluation the
In addition, metacognition is applied
learning process, and suggested that teacher
totally different in each student, because
should try to understand learners ‘beliefs
of, this model take into consideration
and knowledge’s language learners”
students´ ages, students’
(Hişmanoğlu,2006, p 3). It is a model that is
among other , such as, students´
knowledge
essential to apply in education, since
motivation,
metacognition brings many advantages for
positive experience in pronunciation
students in language learning, because of in
learning, learning pronunciation by self -
this case does not care the field, namely, it is
effort which are elements that could
a model used for grammar, pronunciation,
affect or help to all learners in the
composition, etc. That is why, metacognition
acquisition
of
has function of helping students to face their
pronunciation.(
Hişmanoğlu, 2006,
weaknesses but also be aware about their
this model is very relevant in all
strengths. Hence, use metacognition in
education fields to achieve that students
pronunciation is the best way to help
know themselves and can identify those
students to recognize all their difficulties and
possible difficulties that they have in
improve it. As Martínez (2006) stated
pronunciation and thus try to switch that
“metacognition is important and
and get in a future only positive
consequential for learners of all ages” (p.4).
feedbacks.
students’
experiences,
an
excellent p.1). So,
So, if you use metacognition in your class you can get the following behaviors in their students. - Learn material more efficiently
Retain information longer Generalize skills
Some strategies for apply metacognition in ourselves: Plan / Organize: Before beginning a task:
-
Set goals. Plan the task or content sequence. Plan how to accomplish the task (choose strategies) Preview a text
Monitor / Identify Problems While working on a task:
-
Check your progress on the task. Check your comprehension as you use the language. Do you understand? If not, what is the problem?
Evaluate: After completing a task: - Assess how well you have accomplished the learning task. - Assess how well you have used learning strategies. -Decide how effective the strategies were. Martínez.
M.(2006).
What
is
Metacognition.
Retrieved
http://www.gse.uci.edu/person/martinez_m/docs/mmartinez_metacognition.pdf Robbins.J (2010).Calla Content And Language Learning Strategies.. Retrieved from, http://jillrobbins.com/strategies/strategylist.pdf
Hişmanoğlu. M.(2006). Curent Perspectives on Pronunciation Learning and Teaching. Journal of language and linguistic Studies, USA, Vol.2-
from,
Why metacognition in learning pronunciation is essential In English, metacognition is very essential for learners to improve their listening and speaking skills. Likewise,
1.
They are more strategic learners.
2.
Their rate of progress in learning as well as the quality and speed of
there are strategies, which might be
their cognitive engagement is
helpful for students to keep practicing
faster.
pronunciation and English every day. Giving feedback to others is another
3.
are
confident
in
their
abilities to learn.
aspect that needs to be taken into consideration. From my own perspective,
They
4.
the best way to apply metacognition is by
They do not hesitate to obtain help from peers, teachers, or
recording ourselves twice a month to see
family when needed.
how much we improve. Furthermore, the use of dialogues or role-plays allows us to
5.
They
provide
accurate
impersonate a character and imitate his
assessments of why they are
pronunciation as well.
successful learners.
On the other hand, the use of
6.
They
think
clearly
about
metacognitive strategies activates one's
inaccuracies when failure occurs
thinking
during an activity.
and
leads
to
improved
performance in learning in general
7.
Their tactics match the learning
(Anderson, 2002). Learners who have
task and adjustments are made to
metacognitive abilities seem to have the
reflect changing circumstances.
following advantages over others who are not aware of the role metacognition plays in learning another language:
8.
They perceive continual
themselves
learners
and
as can
successfully cope with new
it improves students’ confidence and
situations (Wenden, 1998).
makes them less anxious in the listening process. She also believes that weak
Metacognitive strategies do not only help learning in general but also have a lot to offer to listening
comprehension
listeners in particular benefit much from the training. Expert learners engage in what we call Self-Regulated Learning. A Self-
(1997)
Regulated Learner begins with goal
indicates that metacognitive strategies
setting and planning, taking into account
specifically.
Vandergrift
such as analyzing the requirements of a listening task, activating the appropriate listening processes required, making appropriate predictions, monitoring their comprehension
and motivation for learning. In conclusion, metacognition is essential
for
success of their approach cause the
different
situations.
difference between a skilled and a less-
practice their pronunciation by recording
skilled listener. Similarly, Goh (2008) lists
themselves in order to strengthen their
some
the
metacognitive
evaluating
weaknesses relevant to the learning task,
the
of
and
his or her time constraints, strengths and
positive strategy
effective
learning
Students
in can
effects
of
weakness and endure their speaking
training
on
skills as well.
listening comprehension. She states that References
Anderson, N.J. (2002). The role of metacognition in second language teaching and learning. ERIC Digest, April 2002, 3-4. Wenden, A. L. (1998). Metacognitive knowledge and language learning. Applied Linguistics, 19, 515-37.learning. ERIC Digest, April 2002, 3-4. Goh, C. (2008). Metacognitive Instruction for Second Language Listening Development: Theory, Practice and Research Implications. Regional Language Centre Journal, 39(2), 188 - 213.
Mariana Martínez Solano Nicolás Hernández Muños
listeners: A descriptive study. Foreign Language Annals, 30, 3