Copyright © 2015 Melissa Mora. All Rights Reserved.

T E A C H I N G

P R O N U N C I A T I O N M A G A Z I N E

V O C A B U L A R Y

T I P S

A C T I V I T I E S

A N D M O R E . . .

I N D E X

To the reader................................................. 1

Vocabulary..................................................... 2

In class............................................................ 3

Out of class.................................................... 21

Tips.................................................................. 25

Activities........................................................ 28

Reflection....................................................... 33

T O T H E R E A D E R While reading the Teaching Pronunciation

Magazine, you will be able to find lots of ideas, tips and activities based on the Teaching Pronunciation course of the II Quarter of 2015.

It is amazing how a four-months course can change the way you see a language. Hope you can feel the way I did during my Teaching Pronunciation adventure, and enjoy it as much as I did.

"If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!"

- William Strunk, Jr.

V O C A B U L A R Y During this months, I haven't learned any

vocabulary. Not because I didn't had the opportunity, but because thanks to my education, I already have knowledge of a lot of vocabulary.

Even though I didn't learned any new vocabulary, I still want to encourage you to look for new words every day of your life. It is very important for us as English speakers and/or learners to learn something new about the language every time we got the chance.

I N - C L A S S

C O N T R I B U T I O N S

During the last four months, we've been learning how to teach pronunciation. This learning process was full of in-class projects and we learned a lot by receiving and applying lots of different activities with our classmates.

V O W E L S This course wasn't about learning

pronunciation, but about learning how to teach it. Because of that reason, we didn't covered the topic as we did in Phonetics & Phonology, but we did reviewed it.

We have knowledge of fifteen English vowels, but there are a lot more of them. All of them are an essential part in our English pronunciation process, and it is very important to know the difference between their sounds and the reason they sound the way they do.

V O W E L S A N D T H E I R

A R T I C U L A T O R Y P O S I T I O N

F R O N T V O W E L S:

• The front vowels are pronounced in the front of the mouth with the front part of the tongue muscle

• The tongue is arched high in the mouth and moves up toward the gum ridge

• It lowers slightly with each front vowel • The tip of the tongue remains low and behind the lower front teeth

for each front vowel

C E N T R A L V O W E L S:

• The tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel

• With the body of the tongue raised towards the roof of the mouth in the area where the hard and soft palates fuse

• They are articulated near the center of the vocal cavity

B A C K V O W E L S:

• The tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction

• They are articulated near the rear of the vocal cavity • Back vowels are sometimes also called dark vowels because they

are perceived as sounding darker than the front vowels • Back vowels are not a single category, but may be either raised

vowels or retracted vowels

E X A M P L E S

F R O N T V O W E L S:

/i/: bee

/ɪ/: ship

/e/: wait

/ɛ/: sell

/ӕ/: mat

C E N T R A L V O W E L S

/ə/: about

/ɝ/: bird

/ɚ/: herder

/ʌ/: but

/a/: my

B A C K V O W E L S:

/u/: who

/ʊ/: would /o/: know /ͻ/: or

/ɑ/: palm

D I P H T H O N G S

A diphthong is a single sound produced when two vowels (one dominant in duration and stress, and other one reduced in duration and stress), are paired together in a sequence.

S Y M B O L S & E X A M P L E S

/aɪ/: five - /faɪv/ /eɪ/: pay -/peɪ/

/oʊ/: no - /noʊ/ /ͻɪ/: boy - /boɪ/

/aʊ/: now - /naʊ/

C O N S O N A N T S

Producing a consonant involves making the vocal tract narrower at some location than it usually is. We call this narrowing a constriction. Which consonant you're pronouncing depends on where in the vocal tract the constriction is and how narrow it is. It also depends on a few other things, such as whether the vocal folds are vibrating and whether air is flowing through the nose.

V O I C E D C O N S O N A N T S

Sounds which are made with vocal fold vibration are said to be voiced.

S Y M B O L S & E X A M P L E S /b/: book - /bʊk/

/d/: dish - /dɪʃ/

/g/: good - /gʊd/

/v/: vanilla - /vənɪlə/

/z/: zero - /zɪroʊ/

/m/: May - /meɪ/

/n/: no - /noʊ/

/h/: hot - /hɑt/

/l/: look - /lʊk/

/r/: red - /rɛd/

/w/: what - /wʌt/

/j/: yellow - /jɛloʊ/

/ð/: they - /ðeɪ/ /ʤ/: jump - /ʤʌmp/ /ʒ/: genre - /ʒɑnrə/ /ŋ/: spring - /sprɪŋ/

V O I C E L E S S C O N S O N A N T S

Sounds made without vocal fold vibration are said to be voiceless.

S Y M B O L S & E X A M P L E S

p: please - /pliz/ t: ten - /tɛn/

k: king - /kɪŋ/

f: five - /faɪv/

s: sir - /sɝ/ ʃ: she - /ʃi/

ʧ: cheers - /ʧɪrs/ θ: thirthy - /θɝti/

M I N I M A L P A I R S

A minimal pair is a pair of words that vary by only a

single sound, usually meaning sounds that may confuse English learners.

V O W E L S: /i/ and /ɪ/: sit, seat

/ӕ/ and /ɑ/: hat, hot

/ɛ/ and / ɪ /: desk, disk

/ɛ/ and /eɪ/: wet, wait

/ӕ/ and /ʌ/: bat, but

/ӕ/ and /ɛ/: bad, bed

/u/ and /ʊ/: fool, full

/ə/ and /ͻ/: cut, caught

C O N S O N A N T S: /b/ and /v/: berry, very

/p/ and /b/: pie, buy

/n/ and /ŋ/: thin, thing

/f/ and /v/: fan, van

/s/ and /ʃ/: sea, she

/t/ and /ʧ/: cat, catch

T R A N S C R I P T I O N S During the quarter, we used transcriptions as an essential part of our learning process. It was amazing because we got used to the symbols and the rules by practicing instead of memorizing them. It was also very important because we as feature teachers should know how to make a transcription and know if it is worth it doing transcriptions or not.

T E S T I N G & E V A L U A T I O N D I A G N O S T I C E V A L U A T I O N:

Determining a learner's level of proficiency, usually for the purposes of screening or placement.

D I A G N O S I N G P E R C E P T I O N:

Diagnostic tests of listening discrimination should test the learner's ability to distinguish both segmental and suprasegmental features. C O N S O N A N T - V O W E L D I S C R I M I N A T I O N:

In order to determine the learner's ability to distinguish vowel and consonant sounds, the teacher can use minimal-pair discrimination exercises.

W O R D S T R E S S:

Recognition of English word-stress can be tested by asking learners to choose the correct stress pattern for words or sentences in a text or dialogue that is recorded or read aloud by the teacher.

P R O M I N E N C E:

Testing formats that diagnose learners' abilities to perceive the most prominent element can resemble those used for word stress.

I N T O N A T I O N:

It can be tested by listening exercises, tag questions and multiple choice.

R E D U C E D S P E E C H:

For testing the learner's comprehension of reduced speech, we can use a cloze passage in which commonly reduced and unstressed words have been deleted. Students then provide the missing words as they listen to the recorded passage or dialogue.

D I A G N O S I N G P R O D U C T I O N I N T H E C L A S S R O O M:

Two types of spoken production samples:

1. A standardized sample of the learner reading aloud → Diagnostic passage to assess a student's command of pronunciation features that might not necessarily occur in a natural speech context.

2. A sample of the learner's free speech → Students focus primarily on meaning rather than form. This allows confirmation or reassessment of the impressions gained from the analysis of the diagnostic passage.

F O R M A L O R A L - P R O F I C I E N C Y

T E S T I N G I N S T R U M E N T S: • TOEFL iBT • IELTS • Versant

• ILR oral interview • ACTFL oral

interview

• Morley's • UCLA TOP

O N G O I N G E V A L U A T I O N W I T H

F E E D B A C K: The teachers needs to determine the progress of the students to provide as much individualization as possible and to revise the curriculum. Furthermore, in order for each learner to improve, the teacher should provide feedback on individual progress.

• Self-monitoring and correction • Peer feedback • Teacher feedback and correction

C L A S S R O O M T E S T I N G: Classroom tests focus on the material that has been taught and are therefore to indicate the student's progress and achievement within the context of a specific course and curriculum.

T E S T S O F P E R C E P T I O N:

• Consonant and vowel discrimination • Word stress • Sentence stress and prominence • Intonation • Reduced speech

T E S T S O F P R O D U C T I O N:

It allows learners to familiarize themselves with the passage and it provides them with time to think consciously about the pronunciation features we are teaching them and about which rules to apply.

• Reading aloud • Record themselves reading • Dialogues for testing intonation and prominence

T E S T S O F P H O N E T I C K N O W L E D G E:

Learners are asked to apply rules they have learned. That way, they can demonstrate their understanding of how a particular feature operates.

• Allophonic variation • Word stress • Prominence • Consonant-cluster reduction

O U T - O F - C L A S S

C O N T R I B U T I O N S

Our learning process during this course also included a lot of interesting out-of-class activities. We learned by applying our knowledge, and it was an amazing opportunity.

S E R V I C E L E A R N I N G We had to plan and apply a pronunciation class for beginners in a public institution. It was an amazing experience in which the students learned from us, and we learned a lot from them, too.

W E B D I R E C T O R Y

We had to create a web directory, including 8 websites that could help us in pronunciation in some way.

D E S I G N P R O N U N C I A T I O N

A C T I V I T I E S At first, we had to create a pronunciation lesson for beginners and apply it with our classmates. Some weeks later, we had to do the same, but this time with for advanced students.

M A G A Z I N E We had to create a magazine including all the aspects of what we learned and how, during this whole quarter.

M E T A C O G N I T I V E T A S K We had to record ourselves reading two paragraphs from a text the teacher sent us. After that, we had to make an essay about our pronunciation skills according to the recording.

F O R U M S / B L O G S We had to participate in two forums. It wasn't only about giving our answer, but also about commenting them with our classmates.

T I P S • Give mouth positions the importance

it needs • Do contrasting exercises where long

vowels are extra long and short vowels are very abrupt • Practice listening • Write tongue twisters • Give feedback • Put the stress on stress • Practice word stress with

vocabulary

• Run through all the English phonemes, and then focus just on the ones your students have trouble with. Don't waste time on phonemes that overlap with the students' native language. • Teach spelling patterns with word-

level pronunciation practice • Jazz chants and poetry are useful in

working on the rhythm of English • Reading aloud and/or reciting poetry

or memorized passages

• The Big 3s for Consonants, Vowels, Stress & Intonation • CONSONANT SOUNDS – Place,

Type, Voicing • VOWEL SOUNDS – Jaw, Lips,

Tongue • STRESS – pitch, volume, length • INTONATION – fall, fall-rise, rise

A C T I V I T I E S 1. V E R B E N D I N G S:

After going over the differences, divide the whiteboard into three columns. First practice the verb endings for the third person singular in Present Simple. Place each sound at the top of each column. Say a verb and ask a student to say it in the third person singular. Ask the student which column the verb belongs to.

Finally, walk around the classroom and fire off one verb after another. Students must correctly pronounce the verb ending. If they make a mistake, they must try with a different verb till they get one right.

Do the same with the –ed ending of regular verbs in Past Simple.

2. W H A T ' S T H E W O R D ? Here’s a fun, challenging exercise for students who are familiar with the phonetic spelling of words, or those who are not, but are clever enough to figure it out. Give them a list of words spelled phonetically. Students must write the word each describes: /ˈmʌðər/ - mother.

To make it more fun, show each student a card with a word and its phonetic spelling and ask them to say the word out loud. The best way to go about this exercise is to practice words with a similar sound so that students start seeing a pattern.

3. L E T T E R S vs. S O U N D S One of the things students need to know is that although there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are 44 sounds, and that the number of letters in a word is not the same as the number of sounds. For example, the word bat has three sounds and three letters, but batch has five letters and three sounds (the “tch” is one sound).

Divide the whiteboard into six columns and at the top of each write “2 sounds”, “3 sounds”, “4 sounds” and so on till “6 sounds”. Give students a list of words and ask them to place each in the correct column.

4. W H I C H O N E M A K E S

S E N S E ? Present students with two sets of possible answers to a question, for instance: Hit it. /Heat it. Ask: The soup is cold. What should I do?

He took the bait ./He took the bat. Ask: What did he take fishing?

5. T O N G U E T W I S T I N G Tongue Twisters are fun and excellent for pronunciation practice.

Write the tongue twister on the board and read it for them aloud. Then, they have to read it aloud by themselves. After that, erase some of the words and have students say it again, filling in the blanks.

R E F L E C T I O N

During this quarter, I have learned a lot of new things I never thought I would. I have to admit that at first, it wasn't my favorite course. As I started learning new interesting things, I started loving the course. It is amazing to finally understand why do we speak English the way we do, and it is an incredible opportunity for us to learn and then apply it with our future (or actual) students.

After receiving this course, now I am correcting myself every five seconds, which I think is a very good sign to demonstrate to myself how much I learned and how important and useful this course was.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing

-George Bernard Shaw

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