Job Discussion Forums

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:48 pm Post subject:

Thanks Mike,
Although a pay rise is unlikely (Bleepity bleep non-profit sector), one of the fringe benefits of my current position is the opportunity to offer a lot of teacher training on this subject.
It's really necessary, because most of the TEFL training I've seen, and done, is really deficient in this area. Anything I know about this, I know through self study. (Mixtecamike's book recommendations are both excellent.)
The fact is, listen and repeat pronuciation techniques, while useful in many ways, often fail to fix some very basic problems, and can be frustrating and repetitive even when they work. It's because we're asking students to repeat a sound that their ears may not be fully able to distiguish, without giving them any specific instructions on how that sound is produced.
So here's my challenge. I can teach your students (my students, anybody's students) to say "would" correctly in about 25 minutes. I don't mean they'll never say it wrong again, but that they can produce the correct sounds, and know the difference between correct and incorrect. It's really simple once they start with their mouths in the right position.
Say "would" to your mirror a few thousand times. Really watch what your lips do. Really think about where your tongue is. Now watch your students do it. See why it comes out "good?"

And good luck,
Justin

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

One of the problems for foreign teachers in Latin America working in this area is that they cannot feel themselves how a Spanish (or English) sound is produced, and when they can, it can be dificult to express how that works

We work on this in our own TEFL course, but admittedly, much more needs to be done. My own education in this area is lacking.

Also, as came up recently, English speakers perceive and produce certain sounds differently. Try describing the -th- sound, as per where your tongue is and what you do with it. From recent experience, student teachers from New Jersey, Alabama, and Texas all described it differently.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:41 pm Post subject:

Another useful exercize is to learn to mispronounce- this can help you to "feel" the difference in sound production between what you normally do, and what your students do.

To carry on with an earlier example, practice saying "gould" as nearly the way your students say it as you can. Then alternate between this "word" and a correct, native sounding "would." Feeling the movement between the two lets you know a lot about the change they need to make.

Thinking about my own weaknesses in this area, I've had very limited success finding a "one size fits all" explanation/practice series that is generally effective for the ship/sheep phonetic difference. Anything that's working for you?

Also, and I'm especially curious about Mike's answer, do you guys use the IPA in class? I like it, and use it, for example, with university students of languages or liguistics, because they already know it. It makes some phonetic tasks a lot easier.

But I still haven't decided if it's worth the time, effort, and frustration involved in teaching it to general English students. Whadayathink?

Regards,
Justin

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

MELEE · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:23 pm Post subject:

I use the IPA, but I don't expect the students to learn it. I want them to know about it. To know that it exsits, know how dictionaries use it and I found that it is helpful in explaining that the sounds of English and the alphabet are two different things. I teach future engineers, if I were teaching future English teachers, I would expect them to become a lot more familary with it. I learned to use it from the English File books, I like the way they work with it.