Job Discussion Forums

astro · Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:33 am Post subject: Pronunciation??

Hello - I'm teaching english to adults who have a pretty good base of english already. I would consider them to be intermediate to advanced however, they still need to work on many things.

They really want to work on their pronunciation. Any ideas as to what type actvities/things to do in order to help them work on their pronunciation? They suggested maybe starting to read a book (and asked about the book "The Lost Boy" - The sequel to "A Child Called It") and I think it`s a good idea, since I can correct their pronunciation while they read. I

would like to change it up sometimes though and have other things for them to do, all the while working on their pronunciation. They also want to be able to read a paragraph and be able to explain it in english. So, I more or less know what they want, I'm just wondering if anyone has ideas about activities that I could do to make them work on their pronunciation.

Any tips would be great!

Thanks!
MG.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:07 pm Post subject:

Just correcting their pronunciation is going to get old fast- especially as a lot of the sounds you correct will be ones they have a heard time distinguishing when they hear them.

There's a good book called Pronunciation Games, which may provide some starting material.

Don't overlook word stress and sentence stress. Many pronunciation errors really stem from misplaced stresses. (Weak forms, meaning the perpetually moving "schwa" sound in English, are my current hobby. When you get the rythm right, and the speed right, the weak forms happen automatically. If you don't, the weak forms probably won't happen, or will sound stupid when they do.)

I would question reading aloud as the basis of too many classes on pronunciation. Most people read aloud more slowly than they would otherwise speak, even in a second language. This creates some pronunciation problems and oddities that may not even be there in natural speech, which you would then spend time correcting...

Best regards,
Justin

Cdaniels · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:45 am Post subject: Classic bloopers

Super Frank · Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 365

Record them speaking, invent a radio show or something, then they will be able to hear their own mistakes and also register their improvement.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:57 pm Post subject:

Thanks C.

I'd edit it, but I kindof enjoyed it myself...

Jt

Jizzo T. Clown · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 8:12 pm Post subject:

I've used this with good results. Helps if you have a photocopier and a computer with speakers, though.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=32916

They can record the tongue twisters in PowerPoint and email them to you for a grade if you so desire.

astro · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 8:49 pm Post subject: Thanks!

Wooh!
Thanks all! Keep the suggestions coming! It's great to have ideas for later classes and or teaching opportunities! I appreciate it!
MG. Very Happy

wildchild · Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 519 Location: Puebla 2009 - 2010

Perhaps this thread would be more appropriately placed in the Applied Linguistics forum, but...oh well... Confused

Astro,

Perhaps you have already thought of this, but I am gonna put it out there, just in case:

First, you might consider evaluating your students to determine with what exactly they need help, for example, while the students are reading, you may want to make a note of their "errors." Once you have compiled a list, you can identify the most common errors and seperate them into some kind of hierarchy of most difficult/complex to understand or explain to least difficult/complex to understand or explain. Once you have done this, you may begin to design lesson plans. Also, be sure to offer word lists (plus the exceptions) which have similar spellings and pronunciations so they may begin to generalize rules e.g. hooked, booked, looked etc. (but not naked).

Good Luck Wink

jillford64 · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 397 Location: Sin City

Reading outloud is often very stressful for students; they may be very self conscious about it. The previous suggestion for making a tape so you can evaluate it good; they will feel much more comfortable about that because they can do it at home (assuming they have a recorder, of course). You can also have them make a tape later so they can hear thier improvement.

There is a good book called �"Accurate English" by Rebecca Dauer (At least, I think so; I will check and make a correction if not) that gives specific excercises for difficult pronunciations and shows the correct position of the mouth very clearly. Often once the students know the difference in the placement of the tongue and lips for different sound they will improve. Have the students bring a mirror and practice making the sounds in front of it after you demonstrate. They will feel silly at first, but if the whole room is participating it will be OK.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Atassi · Joined: 13 Sep 2004 Posts: 128 Location: 평택

I just registered for that forum today.

The good news is that it's instant: you register, get an email, follow the link and you're in. No waiting for your confirmation.

I like abufletcher's recent post asking for more relevent threads, but have yet to see that happen. I'll try to pay closer attention to it though.

Atassi

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Thanks Atassi, I'll be spending even more time here Rolling Eyes

Atassi · Joined: 13 Sep 2004 Posts: 128 Location: 평택

LOL

sonya · Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 51 Location: california

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Not knowing where the OP teaches "pronunciation", I have to define my students' problems: they are Chinese, usually with English as a minor subject but with up to 10 years of formal classroom "teaching" to their belts.
Thus, the main problems I personally feel they are faced with are as follows:
- They have deep-rooted fossilised mispronunciations due to
Chinese style rote-drill and teacher-orchestrated chorussing;
- they don't know how the ENglish of a Chinese English speaker
sounds because they never hear a Chinese speaking it competently
- their teachers don't speak it but speak ABOUT it, and no one
is ever made to talk in entire sentences.

Thus, they get a number of near perfect hits (I am still amazed at how good their "I'd" sounds; the contracted forms of a pronoun and a verb seem to be suitably internalised), but they get a lot wrong in many other departments, including the pronunciation of VOWELS, especially DIPHTONGS that they mispronounce as monophtongs ("bike" comes across as "back", for example).
Also, they speak their sentences HALTINGLY, probably precisely because they have not practised speaking whole sentences but single words all the time.

Thus, their intonation and rhythm are seriously in the off side. While I can certainly focus with them on a few well-defined mispronunciations such as the 'TH' problem, I feel I have to go an extra mile in teaching them to speak not just one word well but a whole sentence.

To do this, I have for some time taught them to learn a poem or a stanza of a song by heart.
Lyrics can be like limericks, which require them to learn more consciously. Obviously, this takes a bit of extra effort on their part as well as it is no longer memorising that they need to do, but actual practice.

And this practice must be done with fellow Chinese as audiences that can critique their pronunciation. By identifying each other's shortcomings they are learning about their own problems, and if they show a willingness of doing this I feel I have achieved half of my goal!

As an alternative, I would use a tape-recorder and record students' reading aloud; this recording then must be replayed so that they can hear themselves.