Pronunciation
From LiteracyTentWiki
The discussion below, streamlined here, was taken from messages posted to the NIFL-English Language electronic discussion forum [EnglishLanguage@nifl.gov] in January, 2007.
From: Martin Senger MSenger at GECAC.org
Thu Jan 4 14:31:37 EST 2007
Pax et bonum all! (peace & goodness)
I am an adult ESL teacher in Erie, PA. I am looking for information on teaching pronunciation skills to SE Asian students, who seem to have a particular problem with stops sounds ([p], [b], etc.). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
From: Kathryn Quinn tcqmom at adelphia.net Thu Jan 4 15:50:19 EST 2007
Martin: I know exactly how you feel. I was facilitating an English program with a number of SE Asian students. One very diligent student from Viet Nam came for advisement at the end of the semester. She'd taken a pronunciation class and kept saying what sounded like "I failed. I failed." I kept trying to encourage her telling her that she hadn't failed but she was working hard and making some progress. If she took the course again, she'd do better. Only to find out that what she was trying to say was "I passed. I passed."
Use mirrors! Have them look at themselves in the mirror as they say the sounds, in initial position as well as word final. Help them speak slowly. Have them look at you as you mouth words with stops. Have them listen for the sounds and identify when they hear them. Have them record themselves to see if they can hear them when they've said them. And in pronunciation class, don't pretend you can understand them clearly when you can't. Best wishes.
Kathryn Quinn
From: Tom Zurinskas truespel at hotmail.com Thu Jan 4 22:08:14 EST 2007
A simple phonetic guide for USA English is at truespel.com. Click the converter button and go to the converter page. The first converter is the URL converter. The entire internet can be converted to truespel, the world's first pronunciation guide spelling/writing system.
Further down the page is the text converter. Paste passages into it and click convert to see it respelled phonetically in USA English accent.
The model for the pronunciation is the spoken words of the American Heritage Talking dictionary and m-w.com. This is standard USA accent.
Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+ See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.
From: Bonnita Solberg bdsunmt at sbcglobal.net Fri Jan 5 13:38:17 EST 2007
Tom and Colleagues:
I am very interested in a system of pronunciation that makes spelling easy for adults learning English as a second language with the wide range of education backgrounds, or lack of it, in the immigrant population we serve in public schools. I have investigated a lot of systems with the hope of finding one that students can easily use and have not found one that is effective for both pronouncing a word and spelling it, so I am in the long process of developing a system that includes both. Naturally I was intrigued by "truespel". I think it would work for a student with a solid education background, who could decode well and intellectually confront the system. It is also a good guide for pronunciation for teachers who have little or no background in phonics/linguistics, and in that venue is extremely valuable. I would recommend it to the teahers I train to teach in the ESL classroom. It is not a system I would teach to students because it does not pair spelling with pronunciation. Based on past experience with similar strategies, the conversion process would be confusing and take an enormous amount of classtime to teach the students we serve.
I did find some problems with the system in my short investigation. For instance, and this may be my west coast accent, in number 30 ("sh" sound) of the phonemes, the word "precious" is given the truespel conversion of "preshis". Rather than the "is" sound at the end, I would pronounce it with an "us" sound as in "nut" or "us". In the tutorial about the fox, the word "jumped", the final "d" is given the sound of "d", whereas I would pronounce it with a "t" sound. My computer rendition of the introductory paragraph displayed some grammar and punctuation problems that may be due to the format on my computer. Is this system under still construction? It is an admirable undertaking and one I would like to see at its completion. Thanks for making this available to us.
Bonnita Solberg, Teacher on Special Assignment Oakland Unified School District
From: Steinbacher, Mikal msteinbacher at cascadia.ctc.edu Fri Jan 5 18:40:17 EST 2007
I have put together a document that I share with my classes that helps some .. it is s combination of the pronunciation keys from several dictionaries ... and the different spellings of sounds letters and letter combinations have.
I'll attach a copy for a look to see if it works for you .. I spend ~ 45 min - and hour going over it and also connecting combinations like "ea" with the different sounds they make ... hard a, hard e, soft e, ir, etc .. As you can tell from the document's title, I initially designed it to help students look words up in the dictionary but is also a good tool for pronunciation ... I do tell them that the dictionary is their best "how do I pronounce it" tool, but sometimes that's hard to do ... if they don't know how to spell it1 I suggest that they keep a copy of this document in their dictionary for reference!
If you come up with a system .. I'd be most interested. Good luck!
From: Bonnie Odiorne bonniesophia at adelphia.net Sat Jan 6 18:57:22 EST 2007
Thanks, Mikal,
This is very helpful. In my university there are a good ma"hidden' ESOL students, whose spoken language can be almost accent-free, but whose difficulties manifest in many ways in writing. I have an ESOL college student who's perfectly fluent in spoken English, but her spelling tends to be random and phonetic; even with the correctly spelled word in front of her she'll misspell it, unless she really concentrates. She doesn't seem to able to auto-correct independently, though when writing while I'm there she'll consciously try to spell words correctly and chances are, does. I used to have a book I really liked, Structures in Spelling, which I really liked, which basically gives word patters and possible ways of pronouncing them, which I found so helpful I lent it to a student and never got it back. She claims that she just "didn't pay attention" in high school (shes been here for quite some time),but I'm wondering about some The student in question is Russian, and there could be some kind of alphabetic "first language interference." Otherwise I'd say learning disability, but as we know that's terribly difficult to diagnose in ELLs. If anyone has any suggestions , please send them along.
Bonnie Odiorne, Ph.D. director, Writing Center, Post University
From: Yeo Jay A yeoj at LVCCLD.ORG Mon Jan 8 14:59:49 EST 2007
I find that "Pronunciation Pairs" by Cambridge University Press is a wonderful book for teaching pronunciation and spelling. The author lists the spelling variations for each sound at the end of the unit. It is very easy to use. We have created pronunciation "workshops" and have found it to be very successful.
Jay
From: Bonnita Solberg bdsunmt at sbcglobal.net Mon Jan 8 19:09:37 EST 2007
Hi Jay: Do you use this with adult ESOL students? If so, I'd like to know more about the workshops, perhaps the general outline of what you present and how you have worked out using Pronunciation Pairs with Literacy level students. Is that too much to ask?
Bonnita Solberg Teacher On Special Assignment Oakland Unified School District
From: Nicole Graves cnaamh at rcn.com Tue Jan 9 20:37:20 EST 2007
Bonnita,
You can simplify stories from the Pronunciation Pairs with Literacy level students.
Nicole
From: Yeo Jay A yeoj at LVCCLD.ORG Thu Jan 11 16:03:04 EST 2007
Hello.
At our program, we have had a good degree of success using the "Pronunciation Pairs" text for "extra-curricular" workshops that are offered before evening classes for the evening folks and on Friday mornings for the morning groups. (We do not offer formal classes on Fridays, so our classroom is available for all of our students on that day.) We typically introduce 2 to 4 sounds per session and review previous sounds at the beginning of each session. We use dictation of minimal pairs to test students' ability to distinguish the learned sounds. We refer to the section at the end of each unit to stress the fact that English sounds can be spelled in a variety of ways and that those words that do not follow the "rules" of spelling must be memorized. Students have the opportunity to listen and repeat the sounds extensively during these 60- to 90-minute sessions. We also have a computer lab equipped with the ELLIS "Master Pronunciation" Program which gives students the chance to test their skills at distinguishing minimal pairs. Our lab is available to students 20 hours per week in different schedules.
I hope this helps.
Jay
From: Nancy Meredith nmeredith1 at austin.rr.com Wed Jan 10 18:59:27 EST 2007
I was planning to use Clear Speech for North American English
(published by Cambridge) in the spring semester, but I'm a little
concerned that it hasn't come up yet in this thread. Has anyone used
this program? If so, is there anything about it I should be
forewarned about? I'm not promoting the text. I'm just wondering if
I'll have cause to regret my choice. Thanks for any advice.
Nancy
___________________
http://2merediths.com
From: Missy Slaathaug mslaathaug at midco.net Thu Jan 11 12:40:38 EST 2007
I love Clear Speech and Clear Speech from the Start. This is a great
choice of text. You won't regret it.
From: Nicole Graves cnaamh at rcn.com Thu Jan 11 16:50:32 EST 2007
Nancy,
I have used Clear Speech with higher level students. It is very useful but can be boring. I used it as a supplement to my Pronunciation Pairs stories/activities.
Nicole
From: Nicole Graves cnaamh at rcn.com Mon Jan 8 20:31:21 EST 2007
Bonnie,
Check the book Learner English which was mentioned in one of these postings.
I do not speak Russian but have had many Russian students. Russian uses a
different alphabet but some of the letters look like English but may have a
different sound. They also vary in upper case and lower case! Just a few I
remember: a lower case "g" is a [d] sound; a "m" is a lower case [t]; a "p"
is a [r], etc.
Nicole B. Graves
From: Bonnie Odiorne bonniesophia at adelphia.net Tue Jan 9 11:36:54 EST 2007
Hi, Nicole, Thanks for the suggestions. I've also used Pronunciation pairs in these postings, but not with this student. There might be some visual alphabetic confusion, but I find that her problem is mostly w/ vowels, which she spells phonetically in whatever way makes sense for her at the moment...
Bonnie
From: Nicole Graves cnaamh at rcn.com Wed Jan 10 21:44:06 EST 2007
Bonnie,
I don't know too much about vowels in Russian but from Learner English I got that there are no short-long vowel differentiation and no diphthongs.
Nicole
From: Bonnie Odiorne bonniesophia at adelphia.net Thu Jan 11 16:32:44 EST 2007
Thanks, Nicole, That really could be part of the problem, and, as you know, vowels are the most difficult part for any new language learner. I'll have to check this book out; did you give a reference? Best, Bonnie Odiorne
From: Nicole Graves cnaamh at rcn.com Thu Jan 11 21:05:52 EST 2007
Learner English: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge University Press. Be sure to check the book, not the tapes.
Nicole
From: From: Valley Peters valleydemt at yahoo.com Thu Jan 4 20:08:35 EST 2007
I often refer to a text by Peter Avery and Susan Ehrlich - Teaching American English Pronuncation. It's a great resource and has specific suggestions for different language groups.
Valley Peters Director of Adult Programs Teton Literacy Program
From: From: Luri Owen lowen at adult-learning-inc.com Thu Jan 4 15:56:59 EST 2007
Happy New Year!
Check out Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and Other Problems by Michael Swan and Bernard Smith (Cambridge) and Pronunciation Contrasts in English by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen (Waveland).
Learner English describes difficulties in English that speakers of various languages are likely to have. Pronunciation Contrasts provides lots of lists of minimal pairs so that you don't have to think them up off the top of your head in class.
I would suggest that you incorporate pronunciation segments into your regular classes without spending too much time (not more than about 10 minutes) at a time on it, and I would probably start with recognition for a few classes before encouraging production. For a minimal pair practice, I would distribute 2 differently colored index cards to each student and ask them to hold up one color when they hear /p/ and the other color when they hear /b/ {push/bush, tap/tab}--Pronunciation Contrasts will give you lots of examples of these and other sounds in initial, medial and final position.
Also, unless students' difficulties with these sounds greatly interferes with their communicating successfully in English, I wouldn't worry too very much about it! Judy Gilbert's Clear Speech is student textbook that will be helpful, as well. Good luck!
"Faith is not just loyalty to tradition, but a readiness to become something new." Peter Manseau
Luri Owen Bayfield & ESOL Coordinator The Adult Learning Center, Inc. Phone 970-884-7765
From: Nicole Graves cnaamh at rcn.com Mon Jan 8 20:24:36 EST 2007
Hi all,
I have been reading all the postings with great interest. At my program we have tried several of the approaches suggested. Most are excellent. However, we have found that it is often necessary to offer longer lessons to provide more intense practice and repetition. We often use PRONUNCIATION PAIRS by Baker and Goldstein but we vary the order of the presentation. Or we use the information from the text to develop our own stories for lower levels. Each chapter includes a list of words and spellings for the sound.
We proceed this way; First, the teacher read a text focusing on a given sound (start with a simple consonnant sound). Ask the students: which sound? They may not hear it right away. Read again with more emphasis on the particular sound. Ask again: Which sound? Once the students have identified the sound, divide them into pairs or triads. Students have the task of finding all the words with the particular sound and write them on a list. The only way to do this is for them to read the text and/or words multiple times. It provides an opportunity for discovery and repetition without the teacher asking for it. After a while, tell them how many words there are. Most likely, they do not have them all. More practice, repetition, discovery, etc. At this point, students often ask for the teacher to say a particular word because others may have it or not. Great for awareness and discrimination. Students can compare with each other. I usually make cards with the given words. They can be used for checking the number of words or for isolated practice. Students are usually engage manipulating language for about 45 minutes. I end the first segment of the lesson for that day at this point. From there, at another time, you can have students make oral sentences with words on cards or have them read the text which is often a dialogue. You can expand by having them write a story with 5 words from the cards and have them read the story aloud. You can do the minimal pairs exercises from the book and other types of practice. You can do a dictation and so on. I have used this methodology with success at all levels. The book is fine for SPL 5 and up. Don't forget to start from a whole text.
I hope this helps.
Nicole B. Graves The Center for New Americans Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton, MA
From: Missy Slaathaug mslaathaug at midco.net Thu Jan 4 15:57:00 EST 2007
Hi Martin - here are some tips just off the top of my head:
Most SE Asian speakers don't aspirate their /p/'s, so do some exercises to exaggerate that. Have them hold up a sheet of paper in front of their faces and make /p/ sounds, and watch for the puff of air to move the paper. Demonstrate yourself first. Or if you want to be more adventurous, have them see if they can put out a lit match with a puff of air making a /p/ sound. (under close supervision, of course!) Then work it into words, and then correct them on it during other parts of the class.
Jazz chants are good to work on rhythm and stress. It's hard for them, but worth working on. Also try the exercise where they hold a rubber band taut between their hands, hooked onto their thumbs. Have them stretch it out on the stressed words in a sentence or chant. It's a good kinetic way to have them start to feel the stress patterns of American English.
Don't get too crazy with /l/ and /r/. Do some drill, use mirrors, talk about the tongue and lip placement, but don't drill it to death. Emphasize lip rounding above all for /r/ - that can really change the acoustic (and visual) signal enough for the word to be clearer. And teach them to re-word and re-phrase - lots of negotiating strategies for when communication breaks down. If they know a word is difficult, teach them alternatives to that particular word.
All for now - and good luck.
Missy Slaathaug ESL Instructor The Right Turn 124 East Dakota Avenue Pierre, SD 57501 605-773-4755
From: Steinbacher, Mikal msteinbacher at cascadia.ctc.edu Fri Jan 5 10:15:28 EST 2007
I like the /p/ paper idea. I also discuss the fact that English requires a lot of mouth, lip, tongue and teeth involvement to get the right sounds ... parts of the mouth that many other languages don't visibly involve. I demonstrate the /th/ - /dh/ teeth touching tongue postion for the correct sounds .. suggest that they "kiss" the /r/ to get the right sound .. it's impossible to get the tongue in the /l/ position with pursed lips! I do a lot of exaggerated demonstrations of mouth positions .. /sh/ vs /s/ position, /b/ vs /p/... /j/ vs /y/ ... That always gets a good giggle, but makes the point. And above all.. I stress "speak slowly so your native language accent doesn't get in the way of English pronunciation"! We also use tongue twisters to practice, and when they read aloud, I correct their pronunciation. Combined, these practices seem to help.
Mirrors do help them see what their mouth is doing/not doing while they speak ... and recording helps them hear what they're saying. We must hear what we think we're saying. I had a business woman from Mexico who had the typical Spanish /j/ pronunciation of /y/ problem ... yes=jes, yellow = jellow, etc. I'd correct her but she didn't believe me until we recorded her saying a number of words with /y/ .. she was amazed!
I try to keep the atmosphere light when we work on pronunciation ... that seems to help students get over their shyness. Sometimes I have them share a word or two of their language and try to pronounce them correctly ...HA! That lightens the mood!
From: Kathryn Quinn tcqmom at adelphia.net Tue Jan 9 11:51:38 EST 2007
A few years ago at TESOL (either in Baltimore or San Antonio) there was a poster session about keeping pronunciation journals. The presenters demonstrated clear success on the part of their students. I only remember a few of the details. Someone may remember more.
The first was to identify specific sounds and contrasts the student needs to practice and learn.
Another step was for the students to record in their journals when they heard those sounds. The teachers gave them suggestions where they might listen for them. Sometimes it was in a controlled or semi-controlled listening activity; but the real practice was in real life.
Another step was for the students to record their attempts at producing the sounds, again sometimes in a controlled situation. The real meat, however, was when they recorded their real life experiences with the sounds. They included the words they said, who they said it to, if they were able to produce the sound correctly, how they did it, and whether or not the person was able to understand them. I know there was more to it, but that's as much as I remember.
Kathryn Quinn
From: Bonnita Solberg bdsunmt at sbcglobal.net Tue Jan 9 22:46:53 EST 2007
I am an advocate of students keeping journals, for many reasons. One of which is they track their progress and can see how far they have come. Journals are also a valuable resource for the teacher to whom a student is promoted. If anyone has more information on pronunciation journals, please let us know. Bonnita
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