Job Discussion Forums

[Isla Guapa]

[hlamb]

Have any of you ever used IPA when teaching pronunciation? One of the schools I taught at it in Mexico used it, and all students learned a modified version, so they could understand phonetic pronuncation written on the board by the teacher. We did a lot of work with mouth positions and students graduating from that school had much better pronunciation than students at other schools I worked at. This was despite (or maybe because) they had teachers from North America, the UK, Australia and Guyana. Not all the students got it, of course, but it seemed a much more effective system to me than the old listen and repeat method. My name has a "th" and almost all students at that school pronounced it correctly.

[jaimem-g]

I've thought about using IPA and do use some of the symbols for teaching vowels but only with classes that have had a lot of previous education.

In my own study I learned IPA in a pronuciation class I had years ago and found it helpful for learning what not to do in Spanish. However, I don't use it today on a regular basis and have to look at a chart to remember many of the symbols for sounds in Spanish or English. That's why I try to limit it to what's highly applicable, for example, sounds that are so different that this is the most practical way to present them -(the two "th's") or sounds that are difficult and very frequently used ( the schwa, for sure!)

I think the best way to teach pronuciation and, in particular, intonation is through music and poetry. On my recent assignment in Oaxaca city I only met two Mexicans with near native pronunciation. One was a trombone player with one of the local town bands. He had spent eight years in the Los Angeles area playing with all kinds of bands and had also attended evening ESL classes.

The other person was a manager with a Mexican hotel chain who had never lived outside of Mexico. I heard him sing Barry Manilow's "Copacabana" at a Karaoke bar and he asked me how he did. Actually, it was just about perfect both musically and pronuciation wise. As we conversed in English, he told me that he had learned to speak English from his extensive collection of Barry Manilow CDs. I am not such a fan of B. Manilow, but all I say is - it had worked.
I know a lot of well educated Hispanics in So. California whose pronuciation is worse than that guy's.

There are a lot of advocates for using song for pronuciation. And if you can't sing, you can always use Carolyn Graham's Jazz Chants or even some authentic rhymes and chants. This is listening and repeating that does work.

I wouldn't knock IPA, either. But it's maybe better used for one on one or very small group lessons, in my opinion.

[Isla Guapa]

I believe that people with musical talent, especially singers, have good "ears", which helps them pick up the sounds of a new language without much interference from L1. When I get a new student who has a pretty good accent already and is able to perfectly mimic me when learning new words, I ask if they can sing well, and the answer is often "yes".