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From: Paul Rogers <englishtoday2002@yahoo.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8704] teaching of pronunciation
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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
>
>
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