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Practice Activities – FP005 T&P

SUBJECT PRACTICE ACTIVITIES: TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

GENERAL INFORMATION: The subject practice activities consist of doing individually five short exercises. The document must fulfil the following conditions: -

Length: 3 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if there are any-). Font type: Arial or Times New Roman. Font size: 11. Spacing: 1.5. Alignment: Justified.

Besides, the activities have to be done in this Word document: leave the activities’ statements where they are and just answer below them. In order to make the correction process easier, please, do not write the answers in bold, and it will then be easier to distinguish between them and the activities’ statements. On the other hand, the document must still fulfil the rules of presentation and edition, and follow the rubric for quoting and making bibliographical references as detailed in the Study Guide. Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject Evaluation” document. Sending it to the teacher’s e-mail is not permitted. In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the “Subject Evaluation” document.

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Practice Activities – FP005 T&P

Name and surname(s): Marina Terrosi Group: TEFL_February 2018 Date: 27th February 2019

Practice Activities You can find attached excerpts of two books to teach pronunciation.  

Excerpt 1: Underhill, A. (2005). Learning and Teaching Pronunciation. Oxford: MacMillan. (pp. 14-24). Excerpt 2: Hancock, M & Donna, S. (2014) English Pronunciation in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University. (pp. 10-19).

Review the two books and answer the following questions. 1. What seems to be the general approach of the books? Segmental or suprasegmental? Exposure-based or explanation based? Humanistic or drill-based? Teacher-centred or student centered? Traditional or unusual? Use what you learnt in Chapter 9 to justify your answer. Both texts seem to follow the communicative approach. Both the book by Underhill and the other one by Hancock & Donna appear to be offering plenty of activities suitable for intermediate learners of English whose pronunciation need to focus on segmental but also on suprasegmental level. Grammar is not the starting point, pronunciation is given the same importance

as the other

language skills, an area of study which has become crucial since having pronunciation difficulties, no matter how “proficient one can be in other aspects of English, may result in limited career advancement opportunities and lower earnings.”1 Certainly, according to Richards (2007), among other ones, nowadays the communicative language teaching theory and practice draw on a number of different educational paradigms and traditions. Indeed, in the materials are present the set of procedural options part of the

“Exposure, Exercise,

Explanation” paradigm (Dalton and Seidlhofer, 1994, in FUNIBER) which allows students to identify and practice sounds but also to understand later on, how certain aspects must be dealt with to be intelligible when communicating in L2. Starting from a more segmental approach, the book by Underhill is highly based on a discovery approach, offering students the opportunity to become more autonomous and responsible of their learning process. The idea pursued and 1

Derwing, M. Diepenbroek,L.Foote,J. (2012). How Well do general-Skills ESL Textbooks Address Pronunciation? TESL Canada Journal, Vol. 30, No.1. P. 23. 2

Practice Activities – FP005 T&P

applied to pronunciation teaching is clearly, as Underhill (2011) himself affirmed the importance to take pronunciation out of the head and put it into the body to make pronunciation a physical activity, not just a mental activity. Pronunciation teaching may well pave the way for better comprehension, boosting communicative competence which is not simply based on linguistic and grammatical competence, but also on the capacity of being more intelligible, that is, undoubtedly the most important aspect, among the other ones, namely comprehensibility and accent: “intelligibility, whether an utterance is understood by an interlocutor, is the most important of the three.”2 The material by Hancock (2014) does start relying a lot on segmental aspects but then also including suprasegmental ones like intonation, nuclear stress, word length and also connected speech. Take for instance the activity 3.2 where there is an example of dialogue working on different levels of pronunciation including both segmental and suprasegmental realities.

As

Gilbert (2011) reminds us, the prosodic features of a language are so peculiar that when they are not taken into consideration and reproduced by speakers, no matter what L1 do they own, not respecting the prosody pyramid upon which English depends, may well result in a lack of comprehension on the side of the listener. “Every language has its own system to signal where we need to focus our attention, has its signals to tell the listener that new information is stressed.”3 The activities proposed by both materials are nice and amusing exposurebased ones thus keeping pronunciation learning enjoyable, not so difficult to acquire responding to a key factor which is simplicity (Gilbert, 2011). In Discovery toolkit a great emphasis is put to the importance of raising awareness of what is involved physically, in the mere production of sounds.Totally immersed in their making of sounds, students are at the centre of the process of learning. There are also students who might feel discouraged by their own pronunciation and even perceive themselves as foreigners when uttering words, phrases, sentences, speeches. By making them well conscious, can mean better and more competent students. 2

Derwing, M. Diepenbroek,L.Foote,J. (2012). How Well do general-Skills ESL Textbooks Address Pronunciation? TESL Canada Journal, Vol. 30, No.1. P. 23. 3

Gilbert, J. [The New School]. (2011, June 23). Teaching pronunciation: seven essential concepts. [https://youtu.be/BPmjGHdK5v8]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPmjGHdK5v8 3

Practice Activities – FP005 T&P

Drilling is part of the activities proposed by both materials. It is true that repetition, especially choral repetition, can help to acquire better ways of pronouncing but also store the material in long term memory. According to Gilbert (2011) choral repetition can give a hand, support to learners who then feel much more confident and stronger. The student at the centre of his/her learning process, can make use of this material both in class, in particular of the text designed by Hancock, to study autonomously or in groups, depending also on the choices made by the teacher who could decide to use it in class, to assign homework to be carried out in little groups and so on. Perhaps the students need more explanation, however, either the practice of the assigned tasks or the production are up to the learners themselves. Rather in an unusual way, not by following a traditional method at all, the activity based approach provided allow students to perform in more fruitful ways what they learn day by day. Up to them there is also that capacity of being ready to solve problems related to more difficult sounds, segments, and other aspects to deal with that all together do contribute to the formation of a relevant product, the best uttered language as possible with all its well uttered and highly comprehensible discourses.

2. Does it cover all aspects we have seen in the materials? Articulation, vowel/consonantal system, phonemic chart, connected speech, stress, intonation, foreign influence? Etc.? Refer back to the materials if any of those aspects needs definition. Both the materials can be used by intermediate students who are more or less at B1 level. If a well detailed phonemic chart is present in Underhill, the one by Hancock gives for each sound, the related picture showing how and where those sounds are produced, and as it has been already said, maybe a more detailed explanation would be necessary. Connected speech is dealt with by both materials as well as the other aspects such as stress, intonation. Foreign influence may be due to the interference of the L1 of the students or even to the one belonging to the non native English speaker. Certainly, Underhill gives plenty of pieces of advice for producing sounds correctly and all the rest. Anyway, I would not let my students either of them without having been trained initially so as to remember the physical sensations and thoughts related to pronunciation, and so until it has become a physical activity indeed. Materials

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Practice Activities – FP005 T&P

as such can be of extreme help and be integrated perfectly in other English courses where pronunciation is not given the attention it deserves. Phonetic and phonology are the areas necessarily faced by both materials, in a very practical way so that student can really understand what they mean, what they entail indeed. 3. Does any of them consider integrated skills? Do they teach vocabulary, as well? If they don’t, could you make a brief proposal for them to include vocabulary? Both books consider integrated skills and can be perfectly part of English courses of very different types, from elementary to advanced level, from courses using a very specific English (English for Specific Purposes), and others using it as general English. Maybe, if we think about vocabulary teaching, the words taught should be recycled many times to make sure that students can reuse it thus decontestualizing from the tasks given to retrieve it when necessary. One of the ideas I’ve come up with is that of using vocabulary in context and so for specific purposes. To a certain extent, this recalls CLIL as a methodology where content is conveyed by means of English and so by using the language, English is taught and learnt without teaching English (Guzman, 2016). “The basis of learning is memorization. You need that for everything. However, if you stay at that level in which you are memorizing and not repeating that’s not deep learning.”4 In saying that, a stronger emphasis is on content rather than on form, at least during the first phase of learning something you that should also be enjoyable, or interesting and engaging. 4. Which contexts of use are they intended for? Are there significant differences among the three of them? The materials can be used to work on various areas of language, and therefore not only for ameliorating pronunciation but also to build up more vocabulary and to improve aspects of grammar. Certainly, the two books are also different in their ways of approaching and levels as well. On the one hand Underhill’s book is more prone to the teaching of theories regarding phonetics, that is more suitable for teachers who can later on use the material to deliver interesting and engaging, very practical lessons on pronunciation. 4

Guzman, R. [TEDx Talks]. (2016, May 26). Teaching English without teaching English. [https://youtu.be/8pZa6R3rmRQ]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pZa6R3rmRQ 5

Practice Activities – FP005 T&P

The book by Hancock et altr. (2014) can be used by teachers and learners and why not? By learners who do want to learn how to pronounce better as if they were self taught students. Segmentals are the ones non natives should pay more attention on since he /she may deviate “from native models in precisely those sounds that are considered to be core sound sin English, and therefore essential to approximate cloely because they figure in all native varieties.”5 That is why a mix of both books is highly recommended. Underhill explains brilliantly how important is to become well self aware about the physical counterpart of sounds that requires much more comprehension compared to what usually happens in school, where pronunciation is just a mental activity and even more, an extra activity to be carried out only if there is enough time, and teachers think it is worth working on it.

5. Which one would you prefer to use as a teacher? Why? Relate you answer to Brinton’s variables. Considering Brinton’s variables, I would rather prefer the book by Hancock et altr. (2014), if I had to teach beginner and intermediate students. The activities, exercises, all the rhymes used are so engaging and really suitable for these kinds of students that I could not say no to it. Activities that also lead to writing production if one wanted to work considering all skills. Also, it would cover all the skills thus fulfilling what institutions very often requires. The activities are all integrated and focus is also on grammar. Anyway, I would also deliver the first lesson on pronunciation by putting into practice what Underhill teaches and who once said that it is exactly what he does whenever he meets a new class, no matter how proficient the students he has to work with are. By putting into circulation the phonemic chart, what seemed to be too mental now acquires a more practical nature. The book by Underhill may be more appropriate once students have reached a pretty good proficiency and need to be more conscious about their pronunciation and the key role it plays.

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Jenkins, J. (1999).”Which pronunciation norms and models of Englisas an International language?”. In ELT Journal 52/2, p. 122. 6

Practice Activities – FP005 T&P

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEBIOGRAPHY Dalto, C. & Seidlhofer, B. (1994). Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Derwing, M. Diepenbroek,L.Foote,J. (2012). How Well do general-Skills ESL Textbooks Address Pronunciation? TESL Canada Journal, Vol. 30, No.1.

Gilbert, J. [The New School]. (2011, June 23). Teaching pronunciation: seven essential concepts. [https://youtu.be/BPmjGHdK5v8]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPmjGHdK5v8 Guzman, R. [TEDx Talks]. (2016, May 26). Teaching English without teaching English. [https://youtu.be/8pZa6R3rmRQ]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=8pZa6R3rmRQ Jenkins, J. (1999).”Which pronunciation norms and models of Englisas an International language?”. In ELT Journal 52/2, p. 119-126.

Richards, J. [www. GPVconz]. (2007, July 22). Communicative language teaching. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYdUB_e8_Zc.

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