Pronunciation and Activities

Session overview Aim: To explore different aspects and activities for teaching pronunciation to English language learners

Participants will Activate their prior knowledge by watching a video Share their personal beliefs in regards to teaching pronunciation Brainstorm elements of pronunciation they believe is important to teach second language learners Identify relevant aspects of pronunciation for teaching English language learners Experience five to seven different activities and decide what aspects of pronunciation are being addressed in each activity Design an activity using at least one or two aspects of pronunciation

Materials German coastguard video Laptop Speakers Pronunciation house handouts Pronunciation activities handouts

Workshop plan Stages and purposes (theory of adult learning pieces applied) Activating schema Participants explore and voice their own opinions Procedure Timing Interactio n

Participants discuss about pronunciation aspects that are challenging for their student and for themselves as learners.

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Participants listen to a clip of a Catering to auditory German coastguard trying to learners communicate with a ship that is sinking in the sea. This clip highlights Problem-solving the importance of pronunciation in task speaking and communication. As participants listen, they try to identify Participants will try what was hindering communication to make meaning between the two people talking and sense out of the (sinking and thinking). listening segment Participants share their thoughts in pairs and then with the whole class. Sharing personal Participants discuss their thoughts beliefs and inside and opinions on the following theory statements. Participants have a chance here to share their opinions and beliefs Opportunity to make sense of concepts in their own way Sharing thoughts and ideas in community 1. Pronunciation should be taught by native speakers only. 2. Pronunciation is an easy skill to teach. 3. Pronunciation isnt relevant for elementary/high school students. Participants share their thoughts and ideas in pairs and then with the whole class.

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Problem solving task Participants explore and voice their own opinions Participants share their experience and wealth information Participants encounter, clarify and/or remember pronunciation concepts

Pronunciation House Participants work in groups of three and brainstorm what aspects of pronunciation they teach or feel are important to teach in their contexts. Participants share one idea from each group with the class. The trainer writes these ideas on the board in one of the boxes of a chart divided into five sections. Each section will end up being one of the five aspects of pronunciation being covered in this workshop. The trainer elicits from the participants the different aspects of pronunciation based on the ideas in each of the boxes. 5 different aspects of pronunciation:

20 min. S-S

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Problem-solving task

Rhythm Intonation Sentence Stress Word Stress Sounds The trainer asks the participants what they think the chart on the board might actually be. The trainer elicits a metaphor, a simile and/or a thought. The trainer tells the participants that the chart is actually a house, the pronunciation house, and draws a roof on it. Simile: Pronunciation is like this house where you can bring your students to practice their pronunciation. They can go to any floor and practice whatever they need to practice of the different aspects.

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Activity experience

Participants experience 5-7 pronunciation activities, describe Description and them, decide what aspects of analysis pronunciation are addressed and discuss changes and/or adaptations Participants have a they would make to make the concrete experience activities better fit their contexts. with a number of activities Trainer gives students a worksheet to complete this task. Each activity is at Participants a different station. Participants move describe, analyze around in groups of three to different and adapt the stations. activities to their teaching contexts Pronunciation activities: Problem-solving task Catering to kinesthetic and visual learners 1. Space Battle: student A chooses and says two words aloud, one from the left column and one from the top row. Student B writes a number in the corresponding box. The focus here is on sounds. 2. Love dialogue: students take turns role-playing the dialogue in pairs highlighting the role of intonation and sentence stress. Participants get up and move around to change the pace and fight gravity 3.Tongue twisters: students take turns trying to read saying tongue twisters practicing challenging sounds. 4. Tic-Tac-Toe: students play tic-tac toe and say the words they choose aloud before writing an X or a circle around the word. 5. Humming sentences: student A hums a sentence from a list and student B guesses the sentence. Students take turns humming and guessing. 6. Clapping word stress: students read a list of words and show stress by clapping or drumming on a table.

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7. Mirror Mirror: students practice challenging sounds holding a mirror and describe how and where in the mouth the sounds are being produced. The sounds go from being is isolation to having a context. 1. Church / Going to church is fun. 2. Van / My brothers van is old. 3. Teeth / I brush my teeth in the mornings. 8. Friends episode: participants read a dialogue from a clip of a Friends episode and try to guess what the intonation and rhythm for each character might be. Then, they watch the clip and compare their guesses to the actual intonation and rhythm being used. Participants share their thoughts in pairs and then with the whole class. Extension activity Participants apply their own ability to put new concepts and skills into practice and make sense of the theory in a self-directing way Closure Participants explore and voice their own feelings and opinions connected to new concepts and skills In groups of four, participants choose 1 or 2 aspects of pronunciation and design an activity relevant to their teaching context. Participants share the activity they designed with a new group of classmates and then with the whole class. Participants make a circle, toss a ball around and share one idea they are taking away with them from this workshop. Give each participant a handout of the pronunciation house. 5 min.

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Trainers notes

Activating schema stage 1. Some comments you might expect from the participants that work with Latin American students are: vowel (//, //, //, /a/) and consonant sounds (//, //, //, //, /t/, /d/), intonation, sense of confidence with pronunciation, stress. 2. Asking participants about sounds that may be challenging for their students in their contexts will help prepare them to identify the pronunciation challenge addressed in the listening clip. If this piece is not done before listening to the recording, some students might not follow successfully. Sharing personal beliefs and inside theory stage 1. This section is essential in helping participants feel more confident about teaching pronunciation. A good number of teachers will feel discouraged to teach pronunciation because they feel like they do not master the language well enough. Many teachers will also feel that only native speakers of English can teach pronunciation. This is a myth that is important to break away from. You might want to tell your participants that what is needed to teach pronunciation is that the teacher studies the content to be taught and is well prepared before teaching the students. Even native speakers feel scared sometimes about teaching pronunciation! 2. Getting students to share their personal beliefs on teaching pronunciation will allow them to personalize the topic and also see what other perspectives there may be in regards to pronunciation. This might be a good chance to notice that not everything is black and white in teaching. There are many shades of gray. Problem solving task stage 1. In this stage, it is important that the trainer tries to elicit different ideas for each of the five aspects of pronunciation (sounds, word stress, sentence stress, intonation and rhythm). Guiding the participants will be essential here. Giving them clues like saying that the third, fourth and fifth aspects are at the sentence level might help. 2. If you have enough time, you might also want to have the participants think about a metaphor or simile for pronunciation based on the chart with the five aspects of pronunciation before sharing the simile on the pronunciation house.

3. Here are some theory pieces for each of the aspects of pronunciation: Sounds: 23 vowels and 24 consonants according to the International Phonetic Alphabet Word stress: relative emphasis placed on syllables within a word Sentence stress: relative emphasis placed on words within a sentence. Content words (adjectives, nouns, adverbs and verbs) are usually stressed. Intonation: the rise and fall of pitch over a sentence. Rhythm: English is a stress-timed language, which means that the rhythm of a sentence depends on how many stressed syllables there are, not on the number of syllables. The stressed syllables occur on the content words, those that carry the message.

Activity experience and description and analysis stages 1. During this stage, it is important that the students really do complete all the activities fully and participate as if they were the students. This will allow them to see all the aspects of pronunciation that are addressed one each activity. Monitoring students closely here is essential so that they do not rush through the tasks. 2. The handouts could be color coded here in a way that each of the seven activities is a different color. This would help each group of participants know which tasks they have completed and which ones they have not done yet. 3. The main focus for each activity is: Space battle: sounds Love dialogue: words stress, intonation and rhythm Tongue twisters: sounds Tic-tac-toe: sounds Humming sentences: intonation Clapping: word stress Mirror mirror: sounds Friends clip: intonation and rythm

Extension activity 1. For this stage, you might want to already have the aspects of pronunciation each group has to design an activity for ready

on slips of paper. This would help save some time if there were time limitations. 2. You might want to have students actually teach each other something on pronunciation using the technique they have designed. This would make the task even more hands on and meaningful. Closure 1. If you have a large group you may consider having two or more circles for people to share what they are taking away with them from the workshop. This would make help you use time more efficiently. 2. You could also ask, as an alternative prompt, for participants to share what activity they would like to try out in their next English lesson back in their contexts.

Handouts and worksheets

Pronunciation Activities Activity description What did you do in this activity? Aspects of pronunciation addressed What levels of pronunciation are being practiced? Sounds, stress, sentence stress, intonation, rhythm? Changes/adaptations What changes would you make to these activities to better fit your teaching context?

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Instructions: Read and role-play the following dialogue with your partner. Focus on the context of the dialogue and use appropriate rhythm and intonation.

SPACE BATTLE
Instructions: Draw 3 little boats in any of the boxes below. Do not let your partner see where the boats are. In pairs take turns choosing and reading aloud 1 word from the left column

and one word from the top row. Your objective is to bomb your partners hidden boats.

goat

got

boat

bought

farther

father

float

sheep ship coast cost leave live pen pan Instructions: Take turns reading the following tongue twisters.

flirt

 Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

There was a fisherman named Fisher who fished for some fish in a fissure. Till a fish with a grin, pulled the fisherman in. Now they're fishing the fissure for Fisher.

I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.

Challenging Sentences

Instructions: The teacher or a student hums one of the sentences. Others guess which sentence it is.

1. Im from New York. 2. Yes, I did. 3. How old are you? 4. Is she leaving? 5. Lets go to a movie. 6. Do you have the time?

Instructions: Play tic-tac-toe and read the words on the board as you circle or mark them with an X.

TIC TAC TOE

cheap

chip

shop

shoe

FREE

ship

sheep

chop

chew

Showing Word Stress

Instructions: 1. Read the list of words below. Show the stress by clapping or drumming on a table.

Mexico / Mexican

Canada / Canadian

Korea / Korean

Egypt/ Egyptian

China/ Chinese

Peru/ Peruvian

Argentina/ Argentinean

France/ French

2. Student A makes a list of fruits and marks the stress on each word. Student B makes a list of vegetables and marks the stress on each word. Then take turns dictating their list to their partner, who marks the stress for each word. Compare lists.

3. Read some of the words from different lists and show the stress by clapping or drumming (or any other technique you can come up with).

Working with a clip from Friends

Instructions:

1. Read the script provided aloud. Each person has to take a role. 2. Try to underline the words that you think are stressed in some of the sentences or questions. Mark the intonation of questions and some sentences. 3. Read it again trying to follow what you marked. 4. Watch the scene. 5. Watch the scene again and follow the reading silently. 6. Practice reading the scene trying to imitate the characters as close as possible. Do this at least 2 or three times until you feel confident with your reading. 7. Discuss with your classmate what you learned about pronunciation in this activity.

The One With Rachel's Dream

Season 9 (disc 4) [Scene: Rachel and Joey's apartment] Joey: (talking to a pineapple in his hand) God, you're beautiful... why are we fighting this? You know you want it to happen as much as I do. (Rachel comes out of her room and starts staring at him unseen) Joey: I want you. I need you. Let me make love to you. Rachel: I don't wanna stand in the way of true love or anything, but I think a canelope might hurt less. Joey: Oh, ehm... I'm... I'm rehearsing my lines. They gave me a big romantic story on Days Of Our Lives. It's the first time my character's got one. I'm so nervous, you know, I really want it to be good! Rachel: Woow! I haven't seen you this worked up since you did that dog food commercial and you thought you were gonna be with a real talking dog! Joey: Yeah, that was a disappointment... (pause) Oh, hey! D'you want to come down to the set and tell me if I'm doing ok? Rachel: (excited) Are you serious? Joey: Yeah! Hey, you just have to promise not to get yourself thrown out again. Rachel: Hey, that was an honest mistake! Joey: Right! (he starts to ape her) "Oh my God, is this the men's room? Oh, I feel so foolish, have you always known you wanted to be an actor? " (he inclines his head as if to look at a man's private parts) Rachel: Yeah, that was an awesome day! Opening credits