We often present at ELT conferences and events. Just select the title below if you're looking for the handout or download from a talk or workshop you have attended.
Pronunciation is just as important for listening as for speaking. In this workshop, we will look at what features make connected speech difficult to follow. We will try out a series of tasks and games for raising awareness of these features. Finally, I will suggest how teachers can prepare their own micro-listening activities.
In this talk, we will look at ways of exploring sounds in class, in a way which is both meaningful and fun. The slide show for the talk can be downloaded below. Various versions of the sound chart can be downloaded from here.
We teachers have a characteristic way of talking which we can easily identify, even out of context. So what are the features that make it so distinctive? In this session we will look, with the help of a little comedy, at some aspects of teacher talk and classroom interaction.
Unscripted language is usually very different to the spoken language students encounter when doing listening activities in a general English course. Consequently, when students come to listen to spontaneous chat or discussion they are faced with many difficulties. What might these be and what can we teachers do about it?
We will look at features of pronunciation which are relevant for French learners of English. These will include vowels, consonants, spelling patterns, word stress, rhythm, tonic stress and connected speech. Each feature will be explained and demonstrated with an example game. Get the sound charts and other classroom material here.
In this session, I will deal with the question of how pronunciation teaching can be flexible enough to accommodate different varieties of English. We will focus on individual sounds, and I will begin by presenting a new phonemic chart and explain how it is organized. We will then look at areas of the sound system which are particularly prone to variation across different UK accents.
Before we get our students to listen, we prime them for what they are about to hear. However, the types of tasks we use tend to use are similar to (if not exactly the same as) those we use to prepare students before they read a text.
Colegios Arenas, Facultad Filologia, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
Extra info:
Plus downloads
Pronunciation lessons can be both fun and focussed. In this session, we will look at 8 features of English pronunciation which are of particular relevance for Spanish speaking learners of English. These will include vowels, spelling of vowels, consonants, clusters, word stress, stress patterns, tonic syllables and joined up speech.
English UK North Academic Conference 2015, Liverpool
Location:
LILA, New Barrett House, 47 North John Street
Extra info:
Plus downloads
Many students studying English want (or even need) to be able to understand the spontaneous, unscripted speech they find themselves immersed in as people chat away around them. For students schooled on a diet of scripted ELT material the challenge is truly daunting; for teachers wishing to help, the unruly nature of conversational spoken English makes it difficult to know where to start.
LILA, New Barratt House, 47 North John Street, Liverpool L2 6SG
Extra info:
Plus downloads
Do you speak and teach in a standard RP accent? How bad is it if you don’t? In this session, we will look at a phonemic chart and how it is organised. We will then consider some of the ways the sounds are different in the North of England.
