Pronunciation / Phonetics Helpers

Education Technologies, Phonemics, Phonetics, Pronunciation, Tech Tip, Web Tools 8 comments

Pronunciation / Phonetics Helpers:

5 Websites to help you out in phonemics class

Have you surfed the Web trying to find suitable sites to help students understand pronunciation concepts, the IPA chart, or the basics for word transcription? If you are like me, you have probably saved those webpages in your bookmarking page or have probably included them on your curated topic to explore its potential and how to integrate it into your teaching or into your out-of-class practices. While venturing myself into cyberspace, I came across several pages to provide students with additional insight or/and practice. To help colleagues with their search, let me share five pages with you.

Website 1 –Prof. Peter Ladefoged’s IPA Sound Chart. For a course on Phonetics at UCLA, Prof. Ladefoged created a sound chart where students are presented with the pulmonic consonants found in languages worldwide. That is, this chart is not language specific, like restricted to English, but language general. This phonemic chart can be used with “linguistics” students, or any other interested in the overall understanding of IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet), since it provides examples of the articulation of pulmonic sounds. It is of great use so students can listen to the differences in terms of point and manner of articulation.

Website 2 –Adrian Underhill’s Interactive Phonemic Chart. Keeping in mind the English variation you are teaching at school, you and your students can benefit from this chart at OneStopEnglish.com. This page provides a great account of British English sounds, but not American. It also provides sample words where the sound is used. Assuming that you are teaching the American English variation, this chart can help students spot major differences to help them cope with differences and increase comprehensibility across major English dialects. Additional, an app for iPods, iPads, or iPhones can be downloaded.

Website 3 –the Cambridge English Online Chart. The Cambridge English Online platform provides teachers and students with a great tool, -an interactive phonemic chart along with several kinds of interactive exercises, such as a phonemic reader, puzzles, hangman, etc. Not only does it include sound presentation but also games and exercises to consolidate or expand students’ learning of the pronunciation subject-matter. But beware! This site is English-variation specific: British English. Yet it can also be used to compare and contrast both major English variations taught worldwide. And don’t forget that this site also allows you to get apps for your mobile devices.

Website 4 –OUP China Phonemic Chart. Oxford University Press in China (Hong Kong) developed this other great tool accessible in English and Chinese. Although you may not have Chinese students in your pronunciation courses, this phonemic chart provides two different sorts of information: Students can work with individual sounds and examples, but they can also read and deepen their understanding of what IPA is and how it is used.

Website 5 -PhoTransEdit. This Webpage provides users three different features to take advantage of: 1) Text to Phonetics: The user types words, phrases or short passages to get an immediate transcription along with some phonological features. Make sure to adjust it to British or American English. 2) Phonemic Keyboard: If you found any incongruence with the IPA variation you use at your teaching location, the site provides you with an editing tool to fix the transcription. Then you can copy/paste it into word if necessary. 3) Phonemic Transcription Library: If you are looking for texts, the page also provides you with some sample texts ready to be used in various types of accents. Additionally, if you needed to work offline, this website gives you the chance to download its freeware, which is highly functional.

One of the best things that PhoTransEdit has is its possibility to embed its transcriber into your blog, wiki, or webpage. Try it below in British English. On the website you can have access to American English trasncriptions as well.

BRITISH ENGLISH

To sum up, you could use these tools with your students to make your phonetics class or blog much more attractive and appealing for your students. Anyhow, make sure that if they use the transcriber, it is to check or compare the transcriptions to what you –the teacher- do in class with them. You will always find incongruence, so let your students know that the use of a transcription checker may fail at times if it is not compared to the subject-matter studied in course books or in class.

ETo fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	American & British differences in pronunciation
2	Why so many Phonetic alphabets
3	Phonetics vs. Phonology
4	IPA
5	Extra sites to work on pronunciation

Professor Jonathan Acuña-Solano

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

Freelance ELT Consultant for OUP in Central America

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/

2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com/

3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/

1. Cambrigde English Online (2003-2011) Phonetics Focus, published at http://cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/

2. Ladefoged, Peter (2008) IPA Sound Chart, Material used at UCLA Phonetics Course, and published at http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/flash.html

3. OUP China. Guide to English Phonetic Symbols. Published at http://www.oupchina.com.hk/dict/phonetic/home.html

4. PhoTransEdit (2008) Text to Transcription http://www.photransedit.com/

5. Underhill, Adrian (2000-2012) Interactive Phonemic Chart, Material published at OneStopEnglish http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/pronunciation/phonemic-chart-and-app/interactive-phonemic-chart/#rating_box

Download a copy of this article here.Pronunciation Phonetics Helpers

Friday, November 23, 2012

Active Listening in the EFL/ESL Class

ELT, Listening, Student Tips 2 comments

Active Listening in the EFL/ESL Class:

5 tips for better listening in language learning

Oftentimes I’ve been asked the very same question by different generations of students at the university: “Teacher, what can I do to improve my listening skills?” The good thing about the question is that my pupils are aware of the importance of becoming better listeners. Yet the problem is that learners tend to make the same mistakes repeatedly and are negatively affecting their listening potential.

Do we really listen? Not really. Based on Seth S. Horowitz (2012), an auditory neuroscientist at Brown University, “the difference between the sense of hearing and the skill of listening is attention.” The students’ problem is that they hear a lot, but they can’t focus to listen attentively. Barbara Bray (2012) labels this skill as “active listening.” And this is exactly what students need to develop.

How can students learn to listen actively and attentively? In language learning, a well-developed and robust ear is a must, not only for pronunciation training but also in public speaking and content courses, as well as in real life. This “robust” ear can be developed by working and implementing five basic tips, which are the ones I share with my English-learning students.

Tip 1< LISTENING FOR UNDERSTANDING: Students have the wrong idea that they have to comprehend every single word uttered by a speaker (professors, partners, etc.), and this is not true. Communication is based on the understanding of a message, not of individual words. Students need to learn to extract “the global meaning” of an explanation in class, or a listening task. Vocabulary can be dealt differently in some other occasion to benefit listening. Listening for understanding is the first key towards attentive listening.

Tip 2< CLARIFICATION: Whether it’s a cultural condition, or not, many students are afraid of asking for clarification. And they forget that a good language teacher does not complain because students ask, but s/he simply explains again. Clarification is necessary since a second explanation or repetition can be the difference between understanding or remaining with a gap in one’s learning. So, if we are listening for understanding, and something is not clear to us, it’s always a good idea to ask the speaker to clarify for us. This behavior also reflects one’s search for attentive listening and that one is interested in the topic being discussed.

Tip 3< BODY LANGUAGE: At times students tend to forget that communication is not only verbal; they forget that we also communicate nonverbally. Body language is also important in becoming a good listener since what is being said is usually accompanied with facial gestures and hand movements. Decoding these gestures can definitely enhance people’s understanding of the message that is being conveyed. By asking for repetition when necessary and by reading people’s body movements, we also develop our attentive listening to turn into a better decoder of messages.

Tip 4< OPEN-MINDEDNESS: To become a good listener, the student needs to be curious, and that’s why being open-minded is a must. While listening, we become receptive for new ideas and different points of view other speakers are willing to share with us. And it’s also necessary not to be biased, because prejudice will somehow diminish your listening potential. As it can be seen, open-mindedness is another key element in becoming focused and attentive listeners.

Tip 5< THE ENVIRONMENT: A crucial element in developing one’s listening skill is your surroundings. In today’s world, there are plenty of distractors that hinder one’s listening potential. For that reason, one has to stop what one is doing. Text-messaging with friends in class, listening to your music by having your earphones on, or surfing the Web in your phone or other device affect your listening. Noise is another element to take into account. If practicing your listening, it is always a good idea to look for a quiet place where you can minimize background noise. This will allow you to focus and listen attentively.

As it can be seen, good listening skills don’t just depend on listening per se. There are external elements that need to be considered and improved to be a much attentive, active listener. What you have been provided here is just a collection of tips I give my students at the university. However, there are more extensive lists of recommendations to explore and practice.

Please, explore these two collections of tips that can also help your students become better listeners.

· Kay Lindahl’s Top Ten Powerful Listening Practices

· Barbara Bray’s 10 Tips for Active Listening

ETo fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Steps to effective learning
2	The art of listening
3	Hearing vs. listening
4	Learning to listen
5	Listening training skills

Professor Jonathan Acuña-Solano

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

Freelance ELT Consultant for OUP in Central America

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/

2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com/

3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/

- Bray, Barbara (2012) 10 Tips for Active Listening. Rethinking Learning. Published at http://barbarabray.net/2012/01/10/10-tips-for-active-listening/

- Horowitz, Seth S. (2012) The Science and Art of Listening. The New York Times: Nov 9, 2012. Published at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/opinion/sunday/why-listening-is-so-much-more-than-hearing.html?_r=2

- Lindahl, Kay (2009) Top Ten Powerful Listening Practices. The Listening Center. Published at http://www.sacredlistening.com/tlc_topten.htm

Download a copy of this article here.

Active Listening in the EFL ESL Class

Friday, November 16, 2012

Short Story Analysis in EFL/ESL

ELT, Reflective Teaching, Short Stories, Teaching Tips 3 comments

Short Story Analysis in EFL/ESL:

A great source of learning and teaching

Short stories can be a great source of learning and a great tool for teaching as well. In ELT, stories can serve different purposes. Roughly speaking EFL/ESL students can benefit from them by acquiring new vocabulary items while appreciating literature. They can also be used to introduce the basics for literary analysis, especially if they need to take narrative or drama as part of the curricula. Short stories, as outlined before, can be of great learning/teaching use if approached properly.

Keeping in mind that my students are A1+ or low A2 (based on the CEF), I try to have them enjoy the experience rather than feel animosity against reading short stories. In addition, using the segmented story approach used by Goodman (2003)[1] in his Literature for English series combined with Manney’s (2012)[2] well-suited workshop approach to reading short stories, I have devised a five-step basic literary analysis for my beginning reading skills students at the university.

Task 1> PLOT UNDERSTANDING: The stories we get to use in class are segmented to ensure student understanding of the plot. As prepared by Goodman in his books, for each segment of the story a set of questions is prepared. This questionnaire aims at facilitating students plot understanding and literary appreciation of the genre. In addition, this segmentation of the plot can help the teacher focus students on key vocabulary items that need to be understood to guarantee the story’s comprehension. This process works better if the instructor assigns the questionnaire for homework to maximize TASK 2.

Task 2> STORY RECONSTRUCTION: In class, as suggested by Manney, a literary workshop starts to ensure that students’ voices are heard when dealing with the questions. Students are either paired or asked to work in small groups to go over the questionnaire. Besides, they are asked to write a “brief” summary of what the story is about, which guarantees that everyone in class understands it. Once students are done with the discussion of the questions and the summary is written, -as a whole class activity-, two questions are posed to be discussed:

· What’s being told by the author?

· How realistic is the story?

Task 3> EVENTS RECOLLECTION: Before students are asked to create their own story’s Feytag’s pyramid, it is advisable to model a diagram for them. When they feel confident with its use and potential, students are also asked to produce their own pyramids by means of Traci Gardner’s [3] Feytag’s Pyramid online tool. Through this exercise, students are confronted with a basic literary plot analysis including conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In our program at the university, this type of analysis guarantees student training for future literature courses in narrative and drama. So, as part of our literature workshop, everyone shares their analysis and then it is corrected or expanded to fully ensure the comprehension of the story plot and its analysis.

Task 4> AUTHOR’S STORY PURPOSE:

As soon as our Feytag’s pyramid analysis is over, I take advantage of the class mood to introduce additional “new” literary concepts that need to be learned. As the instructors, I get to choose key events in the stories we read to introduce irony, foreshadowing, epiphany, and the like. No more than one new literary concept is presented to the students per short story, but as we advance through the course, several literary features can be analyzed in the very same story since some stories combine several literary devices in it.

Task 5> CHARACTERIZATION: Finding the psychological and physical traits of characters in a story is always a great exercise on descriptive lexical items. When shifting from one short story to another (and from author to author), it is rather difficult to find two characters whose traits are alike. For that reason, providing students lists of characteristics (take a look at this one) can also ensure the learning of antonyms and synonyms in the target language. Additionally, students can begin to explore our human psyche, which benefits them when studying literary criticism.

To sum up, a short story reading should not be just a mere reading exercise to accomplish a course objective. The analysis of this pieces of literature, whether they are adapted for CEF levels or not, can be a great way to help students strengthen their vocabulary learning, appreciate great English-speaking (or translated) authors, and explore literature in a participative way through a workshop approach.

ETo fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Storytelling
2	Short stories in ELT
3	The workshop approach in short story’s analysis
4	Short story’s plot analysis
5	Literary concepts for EFL/ESL learners