Teaching Pronunciation Differently


Teaching_Pronunciation_Differently

 

 

 

Teaching Pronunciation Differently

 

An EVO 2018 session

 

 

 

Abstract

 

All teachers have tried to teach pronunciation using 'listen and repeat', and most of us have found the results unsatisfactory.

 

But there is a different way, which works very well.

 

The 'Articulatory Approach' teaches students what to do with their mouths to sound right.

 

Join us to explore how to teach pronunciation this way. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audrey Hepburn

in My Fair Lady

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overview

 

Every language requires speakers to use their tongue, jaw, lips, etc in specific ways.

The Articulatory Approach is different from other approaches for teaching pronunciation because the starting point is not listening.

Instead, students explore how they can use their mouths in the way the new language demands. The teacher works as a coach rather than being a model.

In this session, you will explore how English pronunciation works and can be taught from this perspective.

You will come away with a new way of teaching English pronunciation.

 

 

Session objectives

 

In the course of the 5 weeks, you will:

 

And through personal experimentation, you will:

 

 

Target audience

Teachers who are not satisfied with how their students learn to pronounce English. 

 

 

Sponsors

 

IATEFL Pronunciation Special Interest Group (PronSIG)

 

 

 

Weekly content

 

Week 1  (Jan 14-20, 2018)

Introductions and Sensitisation

For our students to learn to pronounce well, they have to become sensitive again to their mouth, tongue, lips etc. We'll look at how to teach them to achieve this.

 

Week 2  (Jan 21-27, 2018)

Stress and Reduction

We'll be working on the particular way that English speakers control their breath; this is the basis for stress in English.

Then we'll look at the schwa family of sounds, from the point of view of how native speakers produce them rather than how they sound.

Teaching how stress and reduction are produced, rather than what they sound like, gives much better results in the classroom.

 

Week 3  (Jan 28 - Feb 3, 2018)

The Articulatory Setting (AS) of English

Just as there is a particular posture that makes it easy to play any given sport, languages have particular ways in which it's best to hold the tongue, jaw, lips etc when speaking them. 

If a student doesn't modify his Articulatory Setting (AS) when speaking English, it is impossible for him to sound right.

We will look at the AS for English and compare & contrast it with those of the session participants.

 

Week 4  (Feb 4-10, 2018)

Teaching Sounds with the Articulatory Approach

The conventional way to teach the sounds of English is by getting students to imitate a model.

We will be experimenting with the alternative, where the teacher doesn't provide a model, but coaches the students towards the sounds of English.

The approach is physical and practical.

 

Week 5  (Feb 11-17, 2018)

How am I going to teach pronunciation differently? Putting it all together and Session Evaluation.

We've worked on classroom techniques in Weeks 2, 3 and 4. Now we will look at integrating pronunciation teaching into the rest of your classroom work.

And we'd like you to tell us how this session has been for you.

 

Readings

There will be suggested readings for each week.

 

Certificates

If you would like a certificate of participation, you will need to write at least one post each week and collect five badges by taking a short quiz on each week's content.

 

 

Session Communication Tools 

We will use Schoology and YouTube/Vimeo. For live sessions, we will use Google Hangouts.


NB: If you wish to speak during the live sessions please use a headset with microphone. Otherwise, we are likely to experience echoes, unwanted noise feedback, etc.

 

 

Join this session

 

Registration starts on January 8, 2018.

 

 

To join this session: 

 

Go to www.schoology.com and Sign Up (top right).

Choose the 'Student' option and use MJ7SP-F9BHG as the course code.

Choose the 'Courses' tab to access TPD 2018 for the first time.

 

This message from Piers through the Schoology network (posted here through Vance)

If you would like to participate, you will need the new access code, MJ7SP-F9BHG, which you should use in the Join option under the Courses tab in the black bar at the top of the screen.

To register, go to www.schoology.com, create an account (choosing to be a student) and when asked, use the code MJ7SP-F9BHG to enter the session.

If you or they encounter any problems, ask us for help at tpd.moderators@gmail.com

 

 

 

 


 


Moderators

 

 

Name (last, first)

Email address

Location 

Biodata (not more than 50 words)  

Picture 

Messum, Piers

p.messum@gmail.com

UK

I teach English freelance in London and Brighton, having previously taught in Japan and France. I taught English pronunciation at the University of Paris III. I have a PhD on how pronunciation is learnt by children from the Department of Phonetics at University College London.


Young, Roslyn

roslynyoung@gmail.com

France

I am a teacher and teacher trainer. I have integrated work on pronunciation into all my teaching for more than 40 years, mostly at the Centre de Linguistique Appliquée at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, France. I completed a PhD on the teaching of languages in 1990.


Terry, Carrie

carrie@clearpronunciation.co.uk

UK

After a career in public relations, I retrained in TEFL and am now an FE lecturer.  As a linguist, I had always been fascinated by pronunciation and have focused on this specialism since beginning teaching in 2012.  In 2014, I passed my Certificate in the Phonetics of English at UCL.