Talks by Mark Hancock

There is a write-up of this talk here. Accent can be a problem in English teaching. Which accent do we take as a model? Must it be a native-speaker accent? Must it be a prestige accent?

Come and watch an author/teacher attempt to give series of mini pronunciation lessons in front of a live audience! In doing so, I hope to be able to demonstrate the more collaborative, negotiated, discovery-led approach which I’ve been trying in recent years. This session is suitable for teachers, and participants who wish to work on their own pronunciation – or both! Download below...

For the native listener, homophones, puns, misheard lyrics and the like are the occasional source of delight. For the learner listener, they belong to the surreal soundscapes they inhabit for much of the time. This talk will explore the intersection between pronunciation and listening, in order to identify what it is that makes listening so tricky and weird for the individuals in our classes.

Working on pronunciation can be enjoyable and rewarding, and it is one of the most important ways we can use face-to-face class time. This course aims to give participants an overview of the main issues in pronunciation teaching, including questions of accent, suitable models and evaluation.