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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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 Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Personally, I think it sounds like the basis for an interesting one-off class; |
Well, with all the possible accents there are, how would you teach a "one-off" class with any sort of efficiency? I just don't see that happening.
| Quote: |
| PS Glenski and Canuck sometimes get sarcastic about things. Just their way, pay no attention. |
Stone, I presume you meant pay no attention to the sarcasm but do pay attention to the points we raise. Right? In any case, I was not being sarcastic. Just realistic and curious. |
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ls650
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia
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| Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 11:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| with all the possible accents there are, how would you teach a "one-off" class with any sort of efficiency? |
Must every lesson be 'efficient'? Sometimes it's fun to just kick back and have a class that doesn't fit into the syllabus. Obviously, I'd pick out just a few of the accents and play with those.
You know, the more I think about this topic of pronunciation and accents, the more I think it'd make for a fun class. I think I'm going to sit down and figure out how I can play with this in my classes next week. |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:20 pm Post subject: Re: It's all in the accent... |
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| dudeabides wrote: |
| I want to do some classes where I teach students to distinguish between different accents. ie; American, British, Australian. |
Here's why people are jumping on you:
"Distinguishing between different accents" is not particularly helpful. What you really want to do is help students be comfortable and confident in their UNDERSTANDING of English speakers regardless of "accent" or variety.
So you might want to teach the variables that change from variety to variety: vowels and consonants in certain positions, intonation and stress, vocabulary. Give lots of examples. You don't want them to remember that somebody from Manchester produces a certain vowel in a certain way. You just want them to be able to understand that the word is still the same as the one spoken by the woman from Johannesburg -- with changes in one of those variables.
But if you simply want to play guessing games with students for a fun time, by all means teach them to distinguish between Glaswegian and Bronxese.  |
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canuck
Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 1921
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:07 am Post subject: |
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| Like a Rolling Stone wrote: |
Yo, I sometimes do put accent in my class. most of my tapes in class have got different accents in them and they are sometimes cofusing for the students. One tape went "I have to pay the bills" in an Australian accent and my students kept thinking he was talking about "pie".  At first I didn't understand why they were writing about pie but when I realized i said that they didn't understand the accent. I put a sentence on the board and kept repeating in differemt accents (My trainer said this is a bad thing to do). So i think that the software will has given is good to stop us mangling accents and give the students an interesting lesson. I agree with ls60 and thnaks Will. fr the software.
PS Glenski and Canuck sometimes get sarcastic about things. Just their way, pay no attention.  |
I think you obviously need some training and rethink your lesson. You decided to do a drilling exercise and changing the accent? 
There is just no useful reason to do a lesson on accents. |
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Like a Rolling Stone
Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Posts: 872
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| Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:24 am Post subject: |
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| canuck wrote: |
| I think you obviously need some training and rethink your lesson. |
Why?
| canuk wrote: |
| You decided to do a drilling exercise and changing the accent? |
No, I said the accent myself to show the students that the man on the tape said the same word in a different accent.
| canuk wrote: |
| There is just no useful reason to do a lesson on accents. |
Why is it not useful to show the diferent accent if the accent was what confused them?
I think you shoueld stop jumping on people before you think, bucko! |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:47 am Post subject: |
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| Really, it is pathetic. Get a life. |
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canuck
Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 1921
Location: Japan
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taikibansei
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:07 am Post subject: |
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| Sweetsee wrote: |
| Really, it is pathetic. Get a life. |
Hey Canuck, it looks like you have a stalker! |
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Atassi
Joined: 13 Sep 2004
Posts: 128
Location: 평택
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| Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:01 am Post subject: |
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Wow, such a nice discussion we have here. I see and respect how Glenski really wanted to know what could be so useful about a "one-off class" on accents.
It's okay to have different styles, and it's okay to disagree. But to say that having a class on accents incorporating some listening and/or speaking/imitation (for fun) is a waste of time......this type of comment in this case is not justified.
| Quote: |
Here's why people are jumping on you:
"Distinguishing between different accents" is not particularly helpful. What you really want to do is help students be comfortable and confident in their UNDERSTANDING of English speakers regardless of "accent" or variety.
So you might want to teach the variables that change from variety to variety: vowels and consonants in certain positions, intonation and stress, vocabulary. Give lots of examples. You don't want them to remember that somebody from Manchester produces a certain vowel in a certain way. You just want them to be able to understand that the word is still the same as the one spoken by the woman from Johannesburg -- with changes in one of those variables.
But if you simply want to play guessing games with students for a fun time, by all means teach them to distinguish between Glaswegian and Bronxese. |
It's pretty clear that Henry_Cowell values analysis in language learning, and analyzing is a useful skill to have. But getting "a feel" for differences is equally important, if not more so. Providing "lots of examples" to teach accent explicitly is not helpful if the students aren't given time to "acquire".
I think it's a great idea to see if students can easily discern English accents from different continents. I would go a step further and let them imitate for the fun of it. Music can be useful if the songs are carefully selected. Imitation doesn't require analysis, and if a student can imitate an accent, they will have an easier time understanding it.
Why not add NNS accents as well? |
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