2. Teaching Pronunciation:
Pronunciation involves far more than individual sounds.
Word stress, sentence stress, intonation.
Make sure you have these 3 parts in every
pronunciation lesson, and you are sure to see success
or, shall we say, hear it.
1. Imitation: Use a recording from television, radio or the
internet for variety.
2. Explanation: Reviewing the parts of the mouth can
help your students clearly understand how to make
appropriate English sounds. Print off and give your
students a diagram of the mouth. Review the obvious
terms for lips, teeth and tongue.
3. Practice: After imitating the sound and learning the
correct biology for producing it, now is the time
to practice the use of that sound or sound pattern.
3. You can also teach the natural rhythm of English
through songs and poetry. Try reading a limerick with
your class, or have them write their own.
4.
5. Here are some ideas for focusing on specific pronunciation features.
• Voicing: Voiced sounds will make the throat vibrate.
• Mouth Position: Have students use a mirror to see their mouth,
lips, and tongue while they imitate you.
• Intonation: This will take the students' attention off of the meaning
of a word or sentence.
• Linking: To help learners link words, try starting at the end of a
sentence and have them repeat a phrase, adding more of the
sentence as they can master it. For example, 'gowaway,' then
'aymeegowaway,' and finally 'Willaymeegowaway' without any
pauses between words.
• Specific Sounds
Minimal pairs, or words: such as 'bit/bat' that differ by only one
sound, are useful for helping students distinguish similar sounds.
They can be used to illustrate voicing ('curl/girl') or commonly
confused sounds ('play/pray'). Remember that it's the sound and not
the spelling you are focusing on.
Tongue twisters: are useful for practicing specific target sounds, plus
they're fun. Make sure the vocabulary isn't too difficult.
6. Definition of Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics:
Phonetics is the study of sound in speech.
Focuses on how speech is physically created and received, including study
of the human vocal and auditory tracts, acoustics, and neurology.
Phonology:
Phonology is the study (and use) of sound patterns to create meaning.
relies on phonetic information for its practice, but focuses on how patterns in
both speech and non-verbal communication create meaning, and how such
patterns are interpreted. Phonology includes comparative linguistic studies of
how cognates, sounds, and meaning are transmitted among and between
human communities and languages.
Phonetics and Phonology are related, dependent fields for studying aspects
of language.
7. Communication and Contextualisation
The different categories of communication are:
• Spoken or Verbal Communication: face-to-face
• Non-Verbal Communication: body language
• Written Communication
• Visualizations
Communication is simply the act of transferring
information
Contextualise it is means to put the story into context
as in to explain what the story is about simple as that.
To put in order of events.
8. • Pronunciation and perception can make to
repetitive practice of rhythm and sound more
natural and meaningful through the use of
poetry and songs.
• Pronunciation teaching is experiencing a new
resurgence. It has been improved
incorporating more meaningful and
communicative practice in connected speech
rather than practice with isolated sounds.
Teachers should avoid abstract material and
apply rules on more authentic activities.
10. Speaking is a skill.
To learn to speak
you have to practice
a lot.
A skill can be
“imitated and
practiced”.
It is a process.
It must be:
Spontaneous
Time-Constraint
(answer in real
time).
11. Students need a lot of
exposure to the target
language. They should know
the idiomatic expressions and
understand the culture.
“More than knowing the grammar rules , we must know how native
speakers use the language in Context.”
Language
Charac-
teristics
Stress and
intonation
Sounds
(phonology)
Pauses and
fillers
Formal or
Informal
Gestures-
Body
language
Facial
expressions
Accuracy Fluency
-Pronunciation
-Intonation
-Spelling
-Vocabulary
-Stress and
-Grammar
-Spontaneous
-Short answers
-Improvised
-Fluent
-Mistakes
We need to have a balance with accuracy and fluency practices.
Contextualize practice.
Personalize practice (Talk about their feelings and likes)
Maximize meaningful interactions.
Provide enough language input. Correct errors at the end.
12. Factors affecting Adult Learners’ speaking skills
AGE Students who begin learning in early childhood
through natural exposure achieve higher proficiency
than those who begin as adults.
Aural Medium Speaking is closely related to listening.
Sociocultural Factors Language is a form of social action, it has rules of
what, when, how to say and what is appropriate.
Culture also affects nonverbal communication.
Affective Factors • Emotions Self-esteem
• Empathy Anxiety
• Attitude Motivation
1.Grammatical Competence (grammar-vocabulary-mechanics)
Speaking Proficiency 2.Discourse Competence (formal-informal- emphasis-turn taking)
3.Sociolinguistic Competence (appropriate comments, how to respond)
4.Strategic Competence (Know how keep or finish a conversation)
13. It is essential for students to interact
using the language, teachers must
tailor the instructions carefully.
Small Talk: Students must know how to open
a conversation, at the beginning they can start
having short conversations but they can
improve little by little, until they will be able
to have a discussion for example.
Interactive activities:
1. Teachers must create a need or reason to speak.
2.Extensive exposure to authentic language (audio-videos).
3. A lot of rehearsal during the class with real world situations.
4. Listen to radio reports and retell to a friend.
5.Soap operas, films, documentaries, so they can observe the
different intonations, stresses and language usages.
Interaction as the Key to Improving Students’ Speaking
abilities
14. Designing Speaking Tasks
We must consider:
Proficiency Level: Too easy or too difficult
will demotivate students.
A successful Speaking class must have:
• Maximum foreign talk.
• Even participation “Equal.”
• High Motivation.
• Right Language Level.
• Teachers must include a variety of Speaking Activities in
their plans (free practice).
• Interactions SS-SS or S=S
• Different activities for different Learning Styles.
15. •Provide maximum opportunity to
students to speak the target language
by providing a rich environment that
contains collaborative work, authentic
materials and tasks, and shared
knowledge.
•Try to involve each student in every
speaking activity; for this aim, practice
different ways of student participation.
•Reduce teacher speaking time in class
while increasing student speaking time.
Step back and observe students.
•Indicate positive signs when
commenting on a student's response.
•Ask eliciting questions such as "What
do you mean?
How did you reach that conclusion?"
in order to prompt students to speak
more.
•Provide written feedback like "Your
presentation was really great. It was a
good job. I really appreciated your
efforts in preparing the materials and
efficient use of your voice…“
•Do not correct students' pronunciation
mistakes very often while they are
speaking. Correction should not
distract student from his or her speech.
•Provide vocabulary and circulate
around the class.
Suggestions for teachers
16. Let’s see this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sljZ1kPK1Dk
17. Info Gap activities
Takes place between students.
They are excellent activities as they force the students
to ask each other questions; these activities help make
the language classroom experience more meaningful
and authentic.
These activities help move the students from working
in a more structured environment into a more
communicative environment; they are hopefully
Example:
• Shopping Information Gap: What did he buy? How much
Was it? And How did he pay for it?
