Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h23GXYP18063; Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:33:34 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:33:34 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <01C2E179.BBEC1960.ldpierce@emlc.org> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Lisa Pierce <ldpierce@emlc.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8713] RE: teaching of pronunciation & vowel schematic. X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet E-mail/MAPI - 8.0.0.4211 Status: O Content-Length: 2833 Lines: 86 I agree Paul, my experience both as a language teacher and student has showed the benefit of this. Thank you to all of you who gave me feedback on the schematic. My intention is not to use it to teach pronunciation to students but as a resource to tutors. Regards, Lisa -----Original Message----- From: Paul Rogers [SMTP:englishtoday2002@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 8:45 AM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8704] teaching of pronunciation I usually teach beginning Spanish speaking students, and I put a great deal of emphasis on pronunciation for at least the first month or so. My method is very simple: 1. I focus on those sounds which are difficult for Spanish speakers, such as short i, short u, g, j, v, th, s followed by a consonant, etc. 2. Using exercises, I conduct occasional "drills" during my course. 3. Students are "required" to speak in class and to read out loud. 4. And I do all this as humorously as possible. As we all know, there is a direct connection between being able to speak a language and understanding that language when it is spoken. So, in my opinion, it is vey important to teach pronunciation immediately. I have noticed that students develope more confidence when they are able to speak fairly well. And the converse also is true, I think. It appears to me that students learn English faster with a good foundation in pronunciation. Personally, I have studied 6 languages in my life to one degree or another, and I always learned pronunciation first. Paul Rogers > I just wanted to agree with Charles as regards the > relative ineffectiveness > of using mouth schematics to teach pronunciation. > In fact, I'd argue that > very much time spent explicitly teaching > pronunciation is probably wasted. > A silent period during which students hear a lot of > English, in my > experience, produces better pronunciation among > students. It seems that if > the brain gets used to the new sounds of English by > hearing them a lot, the > mouth then cooperates better. > > If a true silent period is not "politically" > possible, I do believe ESL > teachers should at least de-emphasize speaking at > first. > > Of course, some rough explicit instruction like "put > the tongue against the > teeth and blow" may be useful; but--again--a lot of > time spent on > pronunciation is probably counterproductive. > > I'm not saying that pronunciation isn't important. > It's the "thing" that > keeps English speakers from easily understanding > foreigners. I just think > that we should go easy on explicit teaching of > pronunciation until later. > > Richard Russell > richtiger@cableone.net > > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
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