Job Discussion Forums

[timnevits]

Does anyone know about the market for Pronunciation teachers in Shanghai?

I taught Oral English in Kunming, China for a year, then moved back to New York City for a year. Here, I'm currently teaching Pronunciation at one of the city's largest language schools (with occasional fill-ins teaching Business English, Writing, grammar, etc.), where I've developed a multimedia computer lab cetered around pronunciation.

I would love to head back to China this fall - specifically to Shanghai, and I want to know if I'm marketable, and what kind of salary is available. I'm actually more concerned with having time rather than money, if that makes any sense, as I've grown tired of the hectic life in NYC.

A little more info on me.... I have 2 years teaching experience, a CELTA certificate, and an MFA in Playwriting/Lyric Writing (hence my interest in pronunciation) from New York Univeristy.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

[woza17]

If you held a workshop on teaching pronuciation in China I would be in the first row. It is so important, I try to get material off the internet most is good but not enough that I can find.
I can't help you on the Shanghai thing but in my limited imagination I think maybe you could specialise.
If you could point me to some good workable material, I am in Guangdong so no competion from me.
Cheers Carol

[timnevits]

Carol,

The difficulty I have with my Chinese students is mastering sentence rhythm. Many times, my Chinese students pronounce their vowels too quickly, or pronounce all of their syllables the same length. Fixing this bring about a much more immediate change in intelligibility actually than than work on the individual sounds (which I still think are important, don't get me wrong)...

So I do a lot of games to get them to stretch their syllables... Some are...

1) Stretching our hands with rubber bands on the stressed syllables - I do that from day one...

2) I took the theme song from the old tv show "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" where Will Smith raps - raps are a great way to practice Rhythm. We identify the stressed syllables with elongated vowels, then practice speaking it in slow motion, stretching open our hands on the stressed syllables, eventually working up to full speed.

3) If you have access to Shel Silverstein's poetry on CD - the way he reads it, the stress patters are extremely easy to hear.

4) Sometimes we chant nursury rhymes like gregorian monks, and that helps get the stress patterns right.

a fabulous text book you should get for Chinese students really struggling with pronunciation is Clear Speech.

I reccommend Pronunciation Plus for students with decent pronuncaition to begin with.

I've also got a comptuer lab where I do some fun stuff with my students - so let me know if you've got access to one of those...

-Tim

[struelle]

You'd definitely be marketable, and be at the forefront of much-needed teaching. Most students, especially the ones in my classes, have a high interest in pronunciation and feel it is neglected in most oral classes. So they always ask how to improve it, and what suggestions I can give.

Aside from trivial suggestiopns of recommending books and asking them to tape-record themselves or speak to a mirror, I feel there is much lacking in this area. So if you could fill this gap, well, you'd make a fortune!

Your biggest challenge would be to come up with a marketing strategy and/or join forces with schools or language centres that already specialize in pronunciation.

It's not a question of if, it's a question of how.

Steve

[Roger]

I think too that this is a highly marketable specialty although most Chinese employers may not be aware of the depth of the problem; in fact, I have for years been wondering why Chinese don't notice that our syllables come in short and long versions, in contrast to their own ones; also, they don't pronounce diphtongcorrectly, turning them into monophtongs ("like" becomes "la:k").

But you will probably have to pass yourself off as a simple oral practitioner.

I completely go along with Steve's suggestion of students tape-recording themselves. First thing, they would have to learn to listen to their own kind - apparently a novelty!

[kimo]

Carol and others, the following link offers some useful information on teaching pronunciation. The problem many of our charges have here is, as you're well aware of, the recite method they have used for memory and pronunciation drills. Each word is given equal stress and time believing that makes for good, clear pronunciation.

Go through the stuff at the link and then incorporate drills such as the rubber band method mentioned above. Also, play game where students delete minor, unstressed and short-timed words in sentences. It can be fun and rarely even changes the meaning. Helps to eliminate the robot effect.

http://esl.about.com/library/lessons/blstress_extension_music.htm

As for the original poster. Shanghai seems to have a lot of need for children's teachers if you can handle it. That's where you would be most effective too I would wager.

[sojourner]

For non-Nth American teachers interested in pronunciation,some recommended books are "Ship and Sheep" and "Tree and Three".There is also a teacher's guide for the two books,as well as audio tapes.

Peter

[SueH]

Another useful source is Mark Hancock's book of photocopiable activities from CUP. Some useful activities on stress-timing. Don't think there's enough of that in the Ann Baker books mentioned (Ship & Sheep etc), at least not as particular stand alone activities.

I'd certainly agree with OPs point about sentence rythym for Chinese students and thanks for those useful ideas.

[woza17]

This has been a most useful thread. I can't wait to hit the classroom next week and try out the ideas I have picked up here.
I have started listening carefully to my students and yes the monotonous tones, no stress has become even more apparent to me.
The other day I was walking around Dinghu mountain in Guangdong province.

Thanks everyone
Carol