Teaching Pronunciation
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Service learning
Activities
Stress, rhythm, intonation
Experience
Techniques
Vowel &consonant sounds
Community
Teaching Pronunciation
Contents VOCABULARY 4 Vocabulary 1 – Johana Gómez 5 Vocabulary 2 – Johana Gómez 6 Vocabulary 3 – Milagro Villalta 7 Vocabulary 4 – Xiaoling Feng 8 Vocabulary 5 – Xiaoling Feng 10 IN CLASS CONTRIBUTION 12 In Class Contribution 1 – Johana Gómez 13 In Class Contribution 2 – Johana Gómez 14 In Class Contribution 3 – Milagro Villalta 15 In Class Contribution 4 – Xiaoling Feng 19 In Class Contribution 5 – Xiaoling Feng 21 OUT OF CLASS CONTRIBUTION 22 Out of Class Contribution 1 – Johana Gómez 23 Out of Class Contribution 2 – Johana Gómez 28 Out of Class Contribution 3 – Milagro Villalta 31 Out of Class Contribution 4 – Xiaoling Feng 32 Out of Class Contribution 5 – Xiaoling Feng 34 REFLECTIONS 35 Reflection 1 - Johana Gómez 36 Reflection 2 - Johana Gómez 37 Reflection 3 – Milagro Villalta 39 Reflection 4 – Milagro Villalta 40 Reflection 5 – Xiaoling Feng 41 Reflection 6 – Xiaoling Feng 42
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To the reader: This magazine was created to reflect the learning process we have gone through this quarter, after taking the teaching pronunciation course. Here you will find our reflections about this learning process, pronunciation rules and some really interesting internet articles that we decided to include in the publication so it will make the experience of reading this magazine complete and pleasant. We hope you enjoy it as we did creating it!
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VOCABULARY
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Vocabulary 1 – Johana Gómez
WORDS ARE IMPORTANT! In this classroom I did not learn any new vocabulary besides the technical terminology related to phonetics. I learned a lot about pronunciation taking this class and phonetics and phonology simultaneously. All this is totally new for me, however I believe it is very important for us as future teachers to have this type of knowledge, especially in our education system (if we are planning to work with MEP) most of teaches lack of this knowledge or simply do not have a good pronunciation. The conversational part needs to be reinforced. The speaking abilities in our public school students are just not good, they have a regular perform writing and reading but they cannot communicate orally. Having new teacher well prepared in this area is crucial to improve English teachinglearning process for all those kids in public schools. Learning English is vital to have an equal opportunity when competing for a job; therefore these kids need good instructors to teach them English in an appropriate way.
I want to be one of
those teachers that make that difference!
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Teaching Pronunciation Vocabulary 2 – Johana Gómez
Aspects of vocabulary knowledge What Is Involved in Knowing a Word? Aspect
Component
Form
-Spoken -Written -Word parts
Receptive Knowledge What does the word sound like? What does the word look like? What parts are Recognizable in this word?
Meaning
-Form and meaning -Concepts and referents -Associations
Use
-Grammatical functions -Collocations -Constraints on use (register, frequency)
Productive Knowledge How is the word pronounced? How is the word written and spelled? What word parts are needed to express the meaning?
What meaning does What word form can be used to this word form express this meaning? signal? What items can the concept What is included in refer to? this concept? What other words could people What other words use instead of this one? does this make people think of? In what patterns does the word occur? What words or types of words occur with this one?
In what patterns must people use this word? What words or types of words must people use with this one? Where, when, and how often can people use this word?
Where, when, and how often would people expect to meet this word?
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Vocabulary 3 – Milagro Villalta
Through the quarter we learn how to create lesson plans and activities that involves pronunciation, goes from beginners to advanced students. Daily, as humans we learn new words in our native tongue but when new words are introduced to our second language we are not sure how to pronounce them; however, is important to enrich the vocabulary. Firstly, because we are preparing ourselves to be English teachers and also we have to be prepared for real life situations where second language comes with expressions and different background. Then, to develop a fluent conversation without hesitating is recommended to improve vocabulary. There are many sources such as TV shows, music in English, videos, audios, readings, and more to learn fresh expressions. Moreover, our future students will be beginners, introducing grammar, reading and listening requires fresh knowledge.
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Teaching Pronunciation Vocabulary 4 – Xiaoling Feng
Words and Vowel sounds We know that in English every word has a least one vowel. Therefore, other words have two or more vowels. Through the organization of the vowels we are able to know if they are produced as short vowel sounds or long vowel sounds. Then, if we know the rule, it would be much easier for us pronouncing the words. In addition, we could pronounce the word in a correct way. Therefore, here are some rules that we can follow in order to distinguish if the words are pronounced with short vowel sounds or long vowel sounds. Short vowel sounds: They are spelled with one vowel letter. /æ/, / ɛ /, /ɪ/, /ɑ/, and /ʌ/ Examples: man /mæn/, bed /bɛd/, kiss /kɪs/, chop /tʃɑp/and cut /kʌt/.
Long vowels: /eɪ/, /i/, /ɑɪ/, /oʊ/, /ɑʊ/, /ɔɪ/ and /u/ a) They are spelled with two vowels together. b) Examples: bay /beɪ/, teach /titʃ/, pie /paɪ/, throw /θroʊ/, house /haʊs/, coin /kɔɪn/ and blue /bluː/.
A saying in The United States “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking”. c) There is a consonant between the two vowels. Examples: base /beɪs/, fine /faɪn/ and like /laɪk/
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Note: When there are two consonants between the two vowels, the first vowel would be produced as a short vowel sound. Examples: master /ˈmæs.tɚ/ and letter /ˈlɛt.ɚ/ However, there are some exceptions - 15 % of English words do not follow the rules mentioned above. Some of them are: bread /brɛd/, sed /sed/ and does /dʌz/. They are spelled with two vowels together, but they are pronounced with a short vowel sound.
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Vocabulary 5 – Xiaoling Feng
Blends and digraphs The first time I heard the words: blends and digraphs was in the class of teaching pronunciation. By that time, I have no ideas what do they mean. But now, I can tell the definition of them and the difference between them. A consonant blend is when two consonants are together and each consonant is heard when pronouncing the word. On the other hand, a digraph is when two consonants are together are pronounced as a single sound. Below is a list of consonant blends and digraphs for you to practice. Most English learners consider that pronouncing consonant blends is difficult in the beginner, however, over time, through drills they become able to pronounce them in a fluent way. Below is a list of consonant blends and digraphs for you to practice.
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Blends:
Digraphs:
bl blanket /ˈblæŋ·kɪt/
ch chalk /tʃɔk/
br bracelet /ˈbrɛɪs·lɪt/
ck lock /lɑk/
cl claim /klɛɪm/
ff stuff /stʌf/
cr crossword /ˈkrɔsˌwɜrd/
gh ghost /ɡoʊst/
dr driver /ˈdrɑɪ·vər/
gn gnome /noʊm/
fr Fraction /ˈfræk·ʃən/
kn knowledge /ˈnɑl·ɪdʒ/
tr tradition /trəˈdɪʃ·ən/
ll tell /tel/
fl flashcard /ˈflæʃ ˌkɑrd/
mb thumb /θʌm/
gl glass /ɡlæs/
ng finger /ˈfɪŋ·ɡər/
gr grey /ɡrɛɪ/
nk sink /sɪŋk/
pl platform /ˈplætˌfɔrm/
ph photographer /fəˈtɑɡ·rə·fər/
pr prize /prɑɪz/
sh shell /ʃel/
sl sleep /slip/
ss floss /flɑs, flɔs/
sm smell /smɛl/
th bath /bæθ/
sp spinach /ˈspɪn·ɪtʃ/
th clothing /ˈkloʊ·ðɪŋ/
st steak /steɪk/
wh whale /hweɪl, weɪl/ wr writer /ˈrɑɪ·t̬ər/ zz fuzz /fʌz
chalk
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IN CLASS CONTRIBUTION
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Teaching Pronunciation In Class Contribution 1 – Johana Gómez
As future teachers, it is super important that we count with fun, interactive and effective activities to introduce, practice or even evaluate our students. The las weeks we have been exposing about different activities to teach pronunciation either for beginners and advanced students and I have to say this is the part of the course I like the most. This gave the students in the class (specially the new teachers like me) a big help so we can rely in these activities and use them with our own students. At the end this course we will have a list of nice activities we can use in different scenarios with different learners at any level that will allowed us to make our students learning process more fun and enjoyable, and at the same time we will be able to keep them motivated and ready to keep learning!
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Teaching Pronunciation In Class Contribution 2 – Johana Gómez
Last class we expose some good activities that can be used in the classroom when teaching pronunciation. This is usually not an easy task, especially when the student has some previous bad habits pronouncing some words. I believe it is easy when you teach a student from scratch. Most of the activities were very creative and engaging, we had a lot of fun in the class and this is how it should be when you learn a language. I believe all my classmates did a very good job, they took their time to prepare every single detail, they probably will be really good teachers. In our case we prepare an activity that makes them move out of the chair, especially because of the class schedule we need them all awake and participating, I like the fact that the activity ask them to classify the words according to the sound so that makes them think fast and at the same time help you to asses if they learned the sounds. I love the focus this class has about teaching us how to put into practice all the knowledge about phonetic and pronunciation, most of us are new teachers and need all this activities and real life examples you always give us to teach them better.
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Teaching Pronunciation In Class Contribution 3 – Milagro Villalta
How to improve pronunciation Making a little research about pronunciation I found out on a website some tips regarding to it. Below is a list of the best tips to improve English pronunciation. 1) Decide what kind of accent you would like to speak with There are many different kinds of English accents. The two most common are British and American. 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. 2) Learn the IPA and the individual sounds of English The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a collection of symbols that represent the different sounds of a language. When you know all the sounds of English and the symbols that represent those sounds, you will be able to pronounce any word in English. American Pronunciation: An Introduction to the IPA
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British Pronunciation: BBC Learning English Interactive IPA Chart 3) When you learn a new word, learn how to pronounce it correctly The longer you say a word incorrectly, the harder it becomes to learn to say it correctly. You’ve developed a bad habit, and it takes a long time to break a bad habit! This is why it is so important to learn the IPA and use dictionaries specifically for English learners. [Click to tweet this!] For example, let’s say you see a new word when you’re reading a book: outrageous. How do you pronounce this word? Let’s check two of the online dictionaries specifically for English learners: MW Learner’s Dictionary MacMillan Online Dictionary Both of these dictionaries show you the IPA/phonetic transcription of the word (including which syllable you must stress): /aʊtˈreɪʤəs/ 4) Watch YouTube pronunciation videos American accent: Teacher Melanie (me!) JenniferESL
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Lisa Mojsin @ Accurage English Rachel’s English Pronuncian/Seattle Learning Academy Eva Easton British accent: The Phone Voice VirtuAule 5) Try to imitate spoken English To ‘imitate’ means to copy someone/something, to do something the same way, or to do the same things as someone else. Do you really like the way someone speaks English? Try to copy the way they speak. Do you ever try to make fun of someone from another part of your country by imitating his accent? That’s what you need to do in English! This is a great activity to try: Close your eyes while you’re listening to something in English (podcasts, songs, TV shows, movies, etc.). Listen carefully to what the speaker is saying and try to make the same sounds. Hear the sounds, don’t try to see the words. Choose a word or sentence, and listen to it many times. 6) Practice HEARING the sounds of English Before you listen to an English podcast, song, etc. read the words first. Highlight, circle, or underline the sound you want to work on. For example, if you have trouble with the 17
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/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 (or song, etc.). Can you hear the /I/ sound? Practice the sound by trying to imitate what the speaker is saying. 7) Record yourself It’s important to hear what you sound like speaking English so you know what you need to improve! You can compare what you sound like to what you want to sound like. For example, you record yourself reading a sentence from one of my podcasts. Then, listen to me say the same sentence and compare your pronunciation.
Reference English Teacher Melanie. (n.d.). Retrieved August 08, 2015, from http://www.englishteachermelanie.com/study-tip-how-to-improve-your-englishpronunciation/
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Teaching Pronunciation In Class Contribution 4 – Xiaoling Feng
Incorporation of Pronunciation I believe that incorporating pronunciation in English courses is essential in the learning process. As students are aware of the features of pronunciation, they will become more fluent and confident when speaking English. Also, teaching pronunciation in English courses would help the students to learn to speak English quicker. In other words, if you know the pronunciation rules, you won’t make the same mistake repeatedly. On the other hand, learning pronunciation requites a lot of time and effort, but it is possible to reach. As future teachers, we could include pronunciation little by little throughout the course, as we combine listening, reading, speaking and writing in the class; and repeat the same knowledge until students acquire it. Therefore, in order to pronounce each sound in an appropriate way, we have to consider the following aspects:
Place of articulation: Where the sound or articulations is made.
Points of articulation: The specific point of the mouth where the sound is made: upper lip, teeth and roof of the mouth. Manner of articulation: The combination of the position of different speech organs in order to produce a consonant sound.
Stop: The air flow is stopped. 19
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Examples: /P/, /T/ and /k/
Fricative: This type of consonant sounds are produced in a narrow opening position and the air flow is continuous.
Examples: /f/, /s/ and /h/
Affricative: Consonant sounds that begins as a stop and followed immediately by a fricative. /tʃ/ /dʒ/
Nasal: The air flow is produced by the nasal cavity. /m, n, ŋ/
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In Class Contribution 5 – Xiaoling Feng
Metacognition
Many people are not familiar with the word METACOGNITION. The simple definition for this word is “thinking about thinking”. Then, you might ask: What is thinking about thinking? Basically, it is the awareness of one’s thinking process to make learning more effective. Once you know how you learn, it would be much easier for you to acquire new knowledge. Perhaps, in some time of our life, we have asked ourselves: Why I study everyday but I haven’t made any progress? What’s wrong with me? Am I stupid? No, you are not stupid, you are as normal as any other human being. The problem with you is that you are not applying the best method to learn a new knowledge. We, as teachers, have the duty to teach students to learn in an effective way and there are some metacognition techniques that we can employ: 1. Jigsaw: The purpose of this metacognitive technique is make students learn by sharing and collecting information about different topics. Students work in groups and each group discuss about a topic. Then, students go to new groups and share the topic as “experts” to the new members 2. Syn-nap: The purpose of this metacognitive technique is to give students some minutes before introducing a new concept or topic. This allowed the student to consolidate the new knowledge. Scientists have showed that an activity of about 20 minutes is enough for students to focus on. After that time, they will need a short break to move for a new content. 3. Mind mapping: The purpose of this metacognitive technique is to connect concepts by drawing a map. In this way, students will easily remember each concept.
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OUT OF CLASS CONTRIBUTION
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Teaching Pronunciation Out of Class Contribution 1 – Johana Gómez
Tips to Drastically Improve Your Pronunciation in English Here is a Here is a publication I found online with seven tips about how to improve your pronunciation. About the Author: Justin was born near Seattle, WA (U.S.A.), and graduated from the University of Colorado (Boulder, Co, U.S.A.). He has lived and taught English in Mexico, Colombia, and currently lives and teaches in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Do you have a hard time pronouncing certain sounds in English? Do you believe that it’s nearly impossible to improve your accent? I´m here to tell you, that you can drastically improve your pronunciation in a short amount of time. It´s going to take an open mind, consistent effort, and experimentation with new strategies, but it’s not as hard as you may believe. With pronunciation, a little effort goes a long way. You just have to want it bad enough and be consistent on the fundamentals.
1. Open Your Ears to Youtube & Podcast Pronunciation There are a lot of very helpful, well-done youtube channels that focus on pronunciation. Beyond our very own RealLife TV, which teaches pronunciation in dynamic ways, Rachel’s English is a series of free pronunciation videos that teach phonetics and English pronunciation. Other recommended youtube pronunciation channels are listed below. It’s recommended to listen to the same sounds every day until you feel like
Five Youtube Channels That Teach Pronunciation
RealLife TV
Rachel’s English
Dave Sconda (English Meeting) English with Jennifer 23
Teaching Pronunciation Amy Walker
2. Lifestyle English: Listen to Podcasts Every Day Podcasts Teaching Pronunciation: There are some phenomenal podcasts dealing with pronunciation. Podcasts are free, downloadable audio programs that you can put on your mp3 player. If you’re new to podcasts, you can learn more about podcasts here, or check out our very own podcast, RealLife Radio. They are an excellent option because you can listen in your car or on the bus while you’re stuck in traffic, or whenever is most convenient for you. Here are few recommended podcasts for pronunciation and in general:
RealLife Radio American English Pronunciation (Seattle Learning Academy) has over 150 free downloadable podcast episodes teaching American English pronunciation. All Ears English Podcast English Pronunciation Podcast Native Speaking Podcasts: Whether its ESL podcasts (English as a Second Language) or podcasts that are made for Native English speakers, exposing yourself regularly to native speaking speakers will naturally condition your brain to understand and produce the sounds of the language in a more clear and smooth way. Here are 3 very extensive podcast directories that can help you find good native speaking podcasts in English. To learn more about podcasts, read “What is a Podcast, and Why You Should Care” NPR Podcast Directory (National Public Radio: American)
BBC Podcast Directory (British Broadcasting Channel: British) The Best Free Podcasts *Check out the RealLife Radio Pronunciation Power Lesson
3. Intonation: Focus on the Music behind the Words Whether you pay attention to it or not, the musical element of a language is essential to good pronunciation. You don’t need to become a musician or listen to more music in English (although both of these could help), but you should pay attention to the intonation of native speakers. It is the melodic pattern of the language that is so fundamental to communication and human connection. 24
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If you had to hum the language, what would it sound like? Making this awareness a part of your learning process is important. Check out this youtube video of an American couple speaking English (the funny part is that it totally sounds like English but they are speaking unintelligible gibberish). If you weren’t paying attention, you wouldn’t notice the difference. The application is more of an attitude rather than a strategy, as it involves constant awareness rather than routine, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind. We also Recommend How Music Can Make You Fluent, Intonation: The Secret Ingredient to Great Pronunciation (with Audio), and Is Bad Pronunciation Killing Your Fluency?
4. Practice: Read Out Loud Every Day I would reserve this one more specifically for people who have already learned some degree of correct pronunciation, because reading without correct pronunciation, or a teacher helping you, you’re just reinforcing poor pronunciation. Before you start, you should at least have some idea of what it feels like to pronounce things correctly. If your pronunciation level has not been stabilized, I don’t recommend reading for more than 10 or 15 minutes, because people tend to lose their concentration, and go back to their vices (which is to reinforce them). Remember, pronunciation can be improved quite quickly with small, concentrated doses even only a few times per week. Here’s a helpful article on reading out loud. One way around this, however, is to listen to the audio book while you read the text and imitate the speaker. For greater effectiveness, record yourself speaking and compare it to the audio book.
5. Self-Awareness: Record Yourself Speaking Record yourself reading out loud on a tape recorder or a computer. At first, it will be really difficult to listen to your own voice. Relax, you will get used to it really quick.
Most people hate their voice, even in their own native language, so the combination of your voice and hearing yourself speak a foreign language for the first time will be painful, but it’s a necessary step in developing the self-awareness to improve. You could even record yourself reading the same reading passage every day or every week as you implement these techniques As mentioned above, recording of a native speaker reading the same passage (such as an audiobook, podcast, or a native speaker friend) could facilitate your process. Here are a few recommended web sites that focus on pronunciation. Ship or Sheep is a good place to experiment with recording yourself.
6. Imitation, Shadowing, and Role Models I’m going to break this one up into two categories: (a) language learning role models, and (b) 25
Teaching Pronunciation role models to imitate. Both of them can help you become a better speaker, but in different ways. LANGUAGE LEARNING ROLE MODELS are people in your life who speak well and have worked hard to get there. Maybe it’s a teacher or a friend, but they are someone who has learned through hard work and can explain the process to you. Even if they don’t have perfect pronunciation, they can help you understand the process and what it takes to improve your pronunciation. Naturally gifted people rarely fall into this category unless they are very aware of the processes that help them speak well, so they would usually be “accent role models to imitate.” Check out Idahosa Ness, Founder of The Mimic Method, as he performs some language learning heroics! ROLE MODELS TO IMMITATE are people with accents that you want to imitate. Native speakers and people who are naturally talented usually don’t understand the processes that guide their pronunciation (although a few do), but they are good role models to imitate. As you watch TV and movies, choose somebody who has your type of voice, communication style, and who you would like to emulate. If you don’t know, ask your friends to recommend somebody. You could even memorize parts of movies you like, imitating the actors. The act of imitating somebody speaks is called SHADOWING. Check out this helpful video below on the topic.
7. Experimentation: Reverse Accent Mimicry This is another idea that deserves its own post, but I’m going to post the article and summarize it here. I’ve met several seemingly gifted language learners who swear this is how they learn languages. Here’s a basic summary from the study/ article by Laurence M. Hilton. Humans possess an innate biological capacity to hear, differentiate and mimic fundamental prosodic and phonological characteristics of any language. My purpose is to describe a mimicry based foreign accent reduction method developed from my own personal experience. I first will present myself as a case study, detailing how using a reverse accent mimicry method rapidly and substantially minimized my own L2 accent. I then will share suggestions for implementing the technique in the classroom or clinic. I have employed it with good success with people from diverse language backgrounds over several decades of clinical experience. Read the whole article The idea, in a nutshell, is to imitate a native speaker of the language that you are learning, speaking your language, and apply it back to the target language. Let me give you two valid examples. If you are Brazilian learning English, you would imitate a native English speaker who is speaking Portuguese, and apply the sounds structure back to English. It sounds like a joke, but if you can effectively imitate a native English speaker speaking Portuguese in the most exaggerated way, it will activate these sounds in your mouth and enable you to use them in English. Here’s a video with native English speakers speaking in Portuguese 26
Teaching Pronunciation In my case, I am American, so I need to find an example of a Brazilian speaking English with a really exaggerated accent, learn to imitate it, and apply it back to Portuguese. IN CONCLUSION, while the title includes “English Pronunciation,� most of these tips and strategies can be applied to any language. Interestingly, as a native English speaker, I would like to point out that my own best insights and teaching do not come from a superior understanding of the English language, but from my own personal learning processes of Spanish and Portuguese.
- See more at: http://reallifeglobal.com/7-tips-to-drastically-improve-your-pronunciation-inenglish/#sthash.DYm7XsUU.dpuf
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Teaching Pronunciation Out of Class Contribution 2 – Johana Gómez
5 biggest differences between speaking British English and American English
While both versions of the language have the same roots, the last 400-odd years have produced some pretty strong variation in the English language that can seem worlds apart. While we may initially only notice French fries being referred to as chips, and the terms ‘cheeky’, ‘knackered’ and ‘brilliant’ being used just about everywhere, the two dialects actually differ in an abundance of ways.
Depending on the region, American and British English have large differences in spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, punctuation, and tenses. Here are just a few:
1) Spelling:
Many differences between American and British English stem from Latin-derived spellings and Greek-derived spellings. Those differences are seen in the unstressed endings to words such as:
Latin-derived spellings: 28
Teaching Pronunciation American English Behaviour Honor
British English Color Honour
Colour Behavior
Greek-derived spellings:
American English Dialog Analyze
British English Organize Analyse
Organise Dialogue
There are some words that are spelled the same in both dialects, but that are pronounced with a distinct stress on difference syllables: controversy and schedule are just a few. The word ‘aluminium’ in Britain and the English colonies has a curious extra letter and syllable added, to make it ‘alumini -EE-um.’ Then there are words that have both differing spelling and pronunciation: defense (British version: Defence) and axe (British version: ax)
3) Vocabulary: Some words in one dialect may have a completely different meaning in the other, or vice versa. A ‘boot’ to an American would be a pair of shoes, but to a Brit, the boot would refer to the trunk of a car, as in: ‘just getting my tire out of the boot’. So to keep your miscommunications to a minimum, here are some helpful translations: American English –> British English Cookie –> Biscuit Pharmacy –> Chemist’s French Fries –> Chips Highway –> Carriageway Trash –> Dustbin
Phrases such as ‘a week today’, or ‘Tuesday week’, (referring to a week in the future) are common in Britain but are often confusing to the American ear. And ‘fortnight Sunday’ would refer to two weeks following this Friday.
In the UK, dates are usually written differently in the short (numerical) form. Valentine’s Day 2015, for example, is 14/2/15, with the day preceding the month. Image of Carriageway or Highway Photo of a carriageway or a highway- depends where you’re from. With all respect to British culture, I doubt a carriage can ride along these fast lanes. 5) Punctuation:
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Teaching Pronunciation The most common form of differing punctuation is seen through titles. In Americ an English titles such as Dr., Mrs., Ms., Mr., are spelled with the use of a period, while it’s not uncommon for the British version will omit the period altogether. All in all, you’ll find that written forms of British and American English vary surprisingly little, while the most noticeable differences will be in the spoken form of British English. Winston Churchill once said: “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” True then, true now, but perhaps we can make the gap a little bit smaller. Or, as the Brits might say, make it teeny.
Taken from: https://www.verbling.com/articles/5-big gest-diffe re nces-b etwe en -spe aking -british - english-and-american -e nglish/
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Teaching Pronunciation Out of Class Contribution 3 – Milagro Villalta
English as a Second Language; activities for beginners and advanced The process of learning a new language is always difficult for many adults. By difficult it means that it is going to take time, effort, and is not going to be easy. Many Spanish speakers get overwhelmed by dealing with a new language, especially English. English as a Second Language provides an excellent opportunity to meet new people, learn more about American culture, and also help people to find bilingual jobs. When it comes to teaching pronunciation the professor comes up with activities and explanations to encourage students according to their level. It would be appropriate to teach pronunciation to beginners by making imitate the teacher or using other sources such as videos, audios or Internet. Through Teaching Pronunciation course at ULACIT, I learned that beginner students should go step by step; teachers should explain how to pronounce accurately by explaining lip, teeth and tongue positions to the students. Activities that include minimal pairs or a comparison between two vowels might be useful in class. In the other hand, activities for advanced students of English involve all vowels and consonants. When these students reach this level is important to create activities that offer to the student a creative way of encouraging and challenge themselves. References Busy Teacher. (n.d.). Retrieved August 04, 2015, from http://busyteacher.org/4947-how-to-teachpronunciation-3-essential-elements.html Teaching Centre. (n.d.). Retrieved August 05, 2015, from http://www.canadatesl.com/teachingpronunciation/
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Out of Class Contribution 4 – Xiaoling Feng
Five Basic Word Stress Rules Word stress is another important skill to speak fluent English. You might ask: “What does word stress mean? “ Word stress is when we pronounce one syllable of a word louder, longer and with higher pitch, in other words, we emphasize the syllable. A syllable is a part or unit of a word that has a least one vowel sound with or without consonants around. Every word in English has at least one syllable that is stressed, including one syllable words, such as ten and food. Therefore, the stressed syllable and unstressed syllable together create the rhythm of English. Below are some rules that you can follow to notice where the stress is: 1. Two syllables words
Noun: The stress is in the first syllable. For example: person /ˈpɜr·sən/, money /ˈmʌn·i/
Verb: The stress is in the second syllable. For example: begin /bɪˈɡɪn/ , select /səˈlekt/
2. Heteronym words: For heteronym words (words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings, depending the context), if it is a noun the stress is in the first syllable, and if it is a verb the stress is in the second syllable. For example: progress (noun) /ˈprɑɡ·res/, progress (verb) /prəˈɡres/. 3. Compound nouns: The stress in compound nouns (two words together to form a single word or meaning) is in the first part of the compound noun. For example: mailbox /ˈmeɪlˌbɑks/, living room /ˈlɪv·ɪŋ ˌrʊm/ 4. Proper name: when the proper name has two or three words, the last word is stressed. For example: New York, Queen of England 5. Acronym: For acronyms (initial letters of the words of a name), the stress is in the last letter. UN - Union Nation, FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation
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Also, you can practice the word stress of English by stretching a rubber band when pronouncing the stressed syllable. Then, keep practicing every day and your English would become more fluent and understandable by other people.
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Out of Class Contribution 5 – Xiaoling Feng
Consonant sound /p/ I was practicing the consonant sound, initial /p/ the other day. Now, I want to share with you the characteristics when pronouncing this sound. Some of them I already knew and others that I have just learned. But, I believed that by practicing every time I can I will get better and better pronouncing the sound. First, the consonant /p/ is a voiceless sound. Second, the sound is pronounced by putting the lips together. Third, the air flow is burst; it means that the sound breaks suddenly or the sound stop suddenly. I learned how to move my mouth in order to pronounce the sound correctly. As you know, the movement of your mouth is essential for a correct pronunciation of English. Also, you can practice by contrasting /p/ sound with /b/ sound. You will see the difference between the two consonant sounds. And if you still could not find the difference, you can pick a sheet of paper and put it in front of your mouth. When you pronounce the /p/ sound and the paper is moving that means that you are pronouncing the sound correctly; otherwise, you are pronouncing the /b/ sound. Examples: perfect, pace, and park.
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REFLECTIONS
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Reflection 1 - Johana G贸mez
T
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Reflection 2 - Johana GĂłmez
Service Learning Project “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.� Mahatma Gandhi Starting with this quote I want to express that every time I have a teaching experience, I realize that I did the right choice when I decided to be a teacher. The feeling is even more rewarding when I think about those kids that do not have the opportunity to have a good English education- especially in the pronouncing part- therefore they really appreciate what you are doing for them. The lesson we share with this fourth graders was a very nice experience, the kids were very excited and collaborative. They payed attention and participate in every activity we plan for them however we had a little problem managing the time, because the lesson ended and they still playing with the domino activity, the one we used to assess the lesson. Besides that little inconvenient the experience was awesome and I think we all really enjoyed it. I believe we did our best and planed this lesson with all our heart and expecting the best for this kids and the institution. In this service learning we tried to accomplish the main objective of a service learning which is to combine learning goals and community service in ways that can enhance both, student growth and the common good. I believe it is our responsibility as future teachers to take part of anything that will improve our community and our society. We accomplish both parts, we gave them a little bit of our knowledge and they gave us the opportunity to know them and to share this lesson with them. I hope our work influenced them in a positive way and made them realize English is not a hard subject, learning English can be super fun! To finish, I would like to point out the great work of this university incorporating service learning practices in our university experience. Learning trough 37
Teaching Pronunciation
service learning will give you a lot of benefits, it will not only let you put into practice all the knowledge acquire in the classroom, it will also let you improve your critical thinking, it will create awareness and a time for reflection. It will also give you the opportunity to learn from real life experience.
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Reflection 3 – Milagro Villalta
Teaching and Learning Pronunciation English language has always been my favorite subject since I was a child. Even when I attended primary school I couldn’t stop thinking of how amazing English was. Years later in 2007 I got registered on a private institution where my 10th grade English teacher thought us how to pronounce accurately, almost as native speakers. However, I asked myself if sometime I could help others in pronunciation area and now I’m doing it. Not many people have the opportunity to pronounce correctly or even to learn a second language. There are many challenges that a Spanish speaker faces when introducing a new language such as add an “e” to the beginning of words that start with s, making words such as “eschool”; that is a common mistake Spanish learners do. Also, English learners tend to struggle with consonants because they say a lot of mispronounced words, which causes confusion when communicating with a native speaker. As teachers, teaching pronunciation should be taught in a motivating and creative way so students are able to produce sounds without feeling frustrated. Many students get upset when they are not achieving a task, so that’s why the person in charge has to encourage the students in order to acquire a native English speaker accent.
Teaching Pronunciation
Reflection 4 – Milagro Villalta
Service Learning Reflection Service-Learning is a teaching method that combines meaningful service to the community with curriculum-based learning. Students improve their academic skills by applying what they learn in school to the real world; they then reflect on their experience to reinforce the link between their service and their learning. This project allowed me to experience how important it is to involve students in the class with activities that they were not used to perform. From the activities that we planned the students were able to recognize different sounds of vowels /I/ and /i/, so they had a unique experience learning a different and new topic. All the class participated and had a wonderful behavior. Also, the learners were motivated with the activities, especially with the Warm-up activity. Besides, I believe that having a Service Learning Project is not only about preparing activities and perform them in a class, it is more than that. It is about to encourage students in English area, to introduce new information that will support in the future for social skills. Moreover, upcoming teachers are able to develop all knowledge seen in class and transfer it to students who certainly are not familiar with pronunciation topics, and also it is a meaningful opportunity to acquire experience.
Teaching Pronunciation Reflection 5 – Xiaoling Feng
Learning Pronunciation
After many years of studying English, I finally learnt how to pronounce English in a correct way and the importance of pronouncing a word correctly. Now, I feel that I am more interested about learning the IPA, the name of sounds and how to pronounce them. I believed that the time for me to figure out English pronunciation has come. As you know, it is not the first time I have been taught the IPA. Unfortunately, I have never learned the correct way to pronounce a word. I always tend to memorize the sound of each word instead of learning the IPA or the rules of pronunciation. But now, I am trying to learn and practice the sound every time I can. Therefore, I realized that in order to have good pronunciation we have to learn: mouth movement, rhythm of English and listen a lot. I believed that the aspects mentioned before are possible to achieve if I am committed to study and to practice a lot.
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Reflection 6 – Xiaoling Feng
Experience of the Course
Throughout this course, I not only learned how to teach pronunciation, but also I have improved my pronunciation. Honestly, I didn’t know nothing about teaching pronunciation before taking this course. I was kind of afraid before the starting of the course. One thing that I was sure was that I will learn English a lot of pronunciation. We went step by step during the course, in avery organized way. First, we were taught the vowels sounds. Then, the diphthongs and finally the consonants. Accompanied with its corresponding points of articulation and manner of articulation. In the same time, we also learned some techniques and activities to teach English pronunciation as future teachers. Some of them were: tongue twister, minimal pair exercises and strip story. Moreover, there are some tools and technology we can apply teaching pronunciation. As tool we can use song and ask students to recognize the long /i/ and short /I/ vowel sounds in the song, for example. Then, as technology, we can provide students useful website for them to practice at home. Therefore, we were able to put what we learn into practice. We designed two activities related with pronunciation, the first activity was for vowel sounds and the second was for consonant sounds, and we carried out the activities in class, pretending that our classmates were the students. Also, we completed a service learning project by planning and performing a whole lesson plan for a group of students in a public school. The experience was really good, because we were helping them to learn and in the same time, we learned how to teach.
Teaching Pronunciation
I realized the importance of knowing pronunciation, it is as important as speaking, reading, listening and writing. I believed that acquiring pronunciation would help you to speak more fluent and confident. Finally, I want to add that learning pronunciation requires a lot of time and practice, but it is worth the effort.
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The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.