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.
Phonemic symbols – we love them or hate them, but often for the wrong reasons. For some, they are symbols of an elite accent which is not our own. But there is an alternative way of viewing them which is less prescriptive and more tolerant of accent variation. From this angle, they can be symbols of empowerment.
Pronunciation teaching can be a joy – it doesn’t have to be all complicated theory and difficult symbols. With a playful and experimental approach, it can be a part of the lesson that your students look forward to most. In this session, we will take a look at some example activities designed to practise some of the pronunciation features that Spanish learners need to focus on.
Most learners today need English to communicate in a lingua franca (ELF) environment. The recognition of this fact has disrupted pronunciation teaching. What model can learners aspire to if not a ‘native speaker’ model? What can be considered ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’? In this talk, we will look at what is to become of pronunciation teaching these post-ELF times.
Collecting information about students' listening abilities and needs is a relatively easy thing to do, and access to such information can be used to inform and guide classroom practice. In this talk, we'll examine some classroom listening data, and share ideas on what it suggests for an emergent classroom listening syllabus.
In this practical session, I present simple tips on how to give more weight to pronunciation by exploiting the book more thoroughly and supplementing where necessary. The Pasta rap activity is here. The handout, slides and game can be downloaded below.
Thanks for coming to this talk! The empty worksheet templates and slides from the talk are downloadable at the bottom of this page. The worksheets and audio for the raps are here: The Brothers and Pasta.
The Alberta Hall, Dunbarton Road, Stirling, Scotland
Extra info:
Includes handouts
Novice listeners often have a long way to go before they can enjoy the ability and agility of the expert listener. What problems do they experience and how can we nudge them in the right direction?
The Albert Hall, Dumbarton Road, Stirling, Scotland
Extra info:
Plus downloads
What is to become of pronunciation teachng in these post-ELF times? Thanks for coming to this talk. The slides can be downloaded below. The pronunciation errors diagnosis game can be found here.
In this workshop, we will consider what counts as success in pronunciation, especially in the light of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). We will then try out some activities which I have found to be successful over 30 years of writing pronunciation materials, and discuss how these can be used in a way which enhances the learner’s communicative success.
