I got my first teaching job in 1984, working at a large boy's secondary school in El Obeid, Sudan. This experience made it very clear to me that there's a lot more to teaching English than just being able to speak the language!
What are accents? How do they vary from place to place? How do they vary over time? What is the connection of accent to social class? What kinds of accent variation are there? What are the implications for language teaching? These are some of the questions we will be looking at in this guest lecture at NILE Manchester.
Pronunciation poems are rhymes, chants, limericks, raps and song lyrics all written specifically to contain multiple examples of the target pronunciation features. The activities usually begin with an exercise completing or correcting the text and culminate in practising saying or chanting the text out loud.
Pronunciation pairworks are information-gap communication activities for students to do in pairs or small groups. Success in each activity depends upon the students accuracy in producing and understanding the target pronunciation feature.
Pronunciation puzzles are challenging game-like activities which students can do on their own, although they are fun to do in pairs or small groups. They include such puzzle types as mazes, sudoku, word searches and crosswords.
Pronunciation workouts are extended drills focusing on specific areas of English pronunciation. Think of them like the scales and other exercises which pianists use to improve their fingering technique. Or like a fitness workout which a gymnast might use to tone the muscles. But in the case of pronunciation, it’s the vocal articulators which are getting trained – the tongue, lips, jaw and vocal cords.
The PronPack collection is an award-winning set of materials for teachers who want to work on English pronunciation with their students. Each book takes a different angle on the topic.
On the TESOL Spain website (click here), you can now see videos of various speakers from the 2016 conference in Vitoria, conducted by Gerard McLaughlin.
Most teachers of English will have come across a sound chart at some point, but few realise how arbitrary they are. I do not mean 'arbitrary' in the negative sense of 'with no good reason', but rather in the sense that there are choices that the designer has had to make. At every stage in the creation of a chart, the author will have made decisions which could equally well have been otherwise.
Friday, March 11, 2016 - 09:15 to Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 14:15
We're off to the north of Spain this weekend for the 39th annual TESOL Spain convention, which is taking place in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Mark will be presenting a complete pronunciation workout.
