Linking Sounds Board Game

I love resource books with photocopiable activities; they provide fun and engaging activities to practise a language focus or skill. You can take a break from the course book and get the learners talking, moving and thinking. There are so many available on the market for grammar, vocabulary, speaking and role plays. But, there aren't that many for pronunciation. Mark Hancock's Pronunciation Games is probably the one that is in most teachers' rooms and most well known. To fill this gap, we need to develop our own resources that we can keep and use again and again. It can be time consuming, but it's worth it in the long run.

Although in recent posts I've been promoting including little snippets of pronunciation during vocabulary and grammar lessons, I do believe there is room for longer practise activities. Kelly (2001) mentions that there are three types of pronunciation teaching:
1) integrated
2) remedial
3) practice

In this post, I'm sharing a board game that I've put together to practise linking sounds in connected speech. It is aimed at C1 level learners and focuses on giving opinions and having discussions. I would recommend using the game as a way to revise linking sounds. So, you will need to have introduced the idea of linking /j/, /w/, /r/, and consonant to vowels in previous lessons.

Click below to download the game:

Board game and instructions
Question cards


If you try out the game with your learners, I would appreciate any feedback on improvements that could be made or on whether or not it was successful.

 

 

 

Reference:

 

Kelly, G. (2001) How To Teach Pronunciation. Pearson

Pronunciation Snippet: Disappearing sounds in expressions

One thing we often forget to do when dealing with new lexical items in class is to let our learners know what this language is going to sounds like in a natural setting.

While looking through a course book recently, I came across a vocabulary activity in the post-reading stage of a lesson. I thought to myself, "these are lovely expressions to teach, but I bet they sound very different to how they look on the page." So how could we integrate some pronunciation into this to give our learners a chance a recognising? Very simply!

In the course book they have gone through the meaning and use of the phrases, so I won't describe these steps here. I have also written my own sentences and added a few extra expressions.

The steps below are to demonstrate how easily we can integrate pronunciation, but for those who are not confident enough yet, please feel free to download the worksheet and notes below to use in class.

Procedure

1. Ask the learners to think about how these expressions might sound when spoken in the sentences.

2. Play the recording and ask them to check their predictions.



3. Write the expressions on the board and mark the features that might occur when spoken naturally.

4. Listen to expressions in isolation. You could go through step 3 and 4 for each expression individually.



5. Listen to some new sentences and ask the learners to fill in the blanks with the correct expression.





Select here for the student worksheet

Select here for the teacher's notes.


You can do steps 1 to 3 any time you introduce expressions in your lessons. You don't have to make a recording, you just simply say the expressions yourself naturally. With practice, this can become a regular feature of your teaching whether you are working with one expressions or many.

Pronunciation Snippet: Understanding Colloquialisms

My husband has recently started his first job here in Ireland. He could really write a book about the language-related situations he's experienced in his first few months. For an ELT practitioner, his encounters give quite an insight to how complex language learning can be once you've left the safety of the classroom. Not only does my husband have to become accustomed to a new job, but new language, both technical and colloquial, with the colloquial coming from various parts of the country, meaning very different accents. Of course, it got me thinking that we need to bring more of these types of encounters into the classroom to prepare our learners for the use of English in a professional environment. This can apply to ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) contexts too, where many of the employees speak English as a second Language.

Here is a short activity using some of the more colloquial phrases that my husband encountered. You can apply the same steps to any selection of phrases. You could ask your learners about ones they've heard, you can choose some from an authentic audio or video recording, or maybe choose some vocabulary items from the lesson in your course book that you think will be challenging for learners to understand if heard outside the classroom.

What you need: A set of phrases that are used in a certain context, a synonym or explanation of these phrases on a small hand out or written on the board. For this example, I have provided hand outs for which you can find the links below.

Procedure:

• Give the learners a copy of the phrases and explanations mixed up. Ask them to match the phrases to the correct explanations.
• Play the recording and ask the learners to match the phrases 1-5 on the audio to the phrases a-e on the page.

• Break down the pronunciation of each phrase. Start in citation form, then go through the features of connected speech, and then go through the jungle pronunciation, as Richard Cauldwell calls it. (See this post) 

            Select to view breakdown of forms.

• Give the learners the short dialogues and ask them to put the phrases into the correct dialogue.
• Students practise saying the dialogues a few times. They don't have to say the phrases in the jungle form as they heard in the audio, this is just to give them practise of recognising the context that these phrases are in. Alternatively, you could read out one line of the dialogue and they all have to say the response together as a whole class, or do this in pairs.

           Select to view the hand out for the activities.
           Select to view the hand out with answers.

IATEFL Conference 2015: A summary of listening related talks

When I was in school, I studied Irish, Spanish and French and for all three languages, I had the same problem . . . listening. The teacher only had to say the word and my heart started pounding. There was always a list of questions that we would read before we listened. By the time I read the second question, I'd forgotten what the first one was. Then, the recording was played and all I could hear were streams of sounds which I was supposed to de-code and find the answer to the questions I didn't even remember. I recall one sunny day in my last year of secondary school in Spanish class when I looked around the classroom and watched as everyone else scribbled down answers. I remember thinking, "Aha, I've got it, someone has recorded a subliminal message in English and then have mixed the two audio files together, but it's the English we're supposed to be listening out for. It's the only possible way that anyone can make any sense of what the speaker is saying." So, I understand when the learners start to groan when I say we're going to do a listening activity!

Perhaps it is because of my own experience as a learner that I have an interest in thinking of alternative ways to help our learners to make sense of what sounds like a load of nonsense. And at this year's IATEFL Conference, one of my goals was to attend different sessions on developing listening skills. Here you will find a summary of five sessions I attended that were related to listening.

Lindsey Gutt - Fun Listening
Lindsey's session was all about easing our learners into listening and finding the fun in this much dreaded skill. She expressed that we need to provide our learners with fun, interactive, varied, interesting, and beneficial activities. That sounds like a lot of work, but the ideas that Lindsey shared don't require much preparation. She recommended activities that help boost learners' confidence and joy in listening rather than jumping in and giving them a list of questions. For example, listen to different sounds, like a door creaking, traffic, someone coughing etc., and guess what they are. Or, listen and draw what you hear. My favourite was a bingo listening. So, say the theme of the lesson is my school. Ask the learners to draw a grid in their notebooks and write one word in each space that they would expect to hear when some talks about their school. Then, play the recording and the learners cross out their words as they hear them. The first to cross out all of their words shouts out Bingo! Alternatively, the students could listen to the teacher or to their classmates talking about their school.
                     
                      

Olga Sergeeva - Authentic listening: stepping from bottom-up processing to understanding
Olga's session focused on authentic videos and how to create lessons around them. Unlike Lindsey's workshop, Olga's lesson plans requires a good amount of preparation, but it would provide some excellent materials for your learners and you could also use them again and again with future classes. Olga recommended using interviews as they convey more natural interaction, appeal to human interest and the interviewers tend to ask interesting questions.
With this idea of bottom-up decoding, Olga uses a lot of references to pronunciation features. So, for example, before watching the video, give the learners a few phrases from a short section of the video and ask them to mark the features of connected speech that they would expect to happen, like linking, elision, and types of assimilation. Then, they listen and try to pick out the phrases. She also uses the transcripts a lot and directed us to the Toronto Public Library channel on YouTube where they provide the transcripts so you can jump to the specific sentence in the video you're working on. So, give the learners six or seven gapped sentences and ask them to watch the section of the video and fill in the spaces. They listen several times and then classify some of the missing phrases according to the pronunciation feature that is being produced, such as elision of final sounds, vowel reduction, and word blending. For more ideas from Olga check out her blog.

Richard Cauldwell - Listening and connected speech: untruthful rules, unruly truths
Richard uses a very clever metaphor for phonology and listening:

1. the greenhouse - where everything is separate just like in citation form
2. the garden - where items are moved out of the greenhouse and organised in arrangements as in ELT materials when pronunciation rules are explained.
3. the jungle - where there is no order and everything is unpredictable as in natural rapid speech.



 

 Richard explained that rules for connected speech are explained on paper, but in reality, we don't speak like that, we speak much faster and even some of those rules are omitted. He commented that many native speakers believe that we are in the garden in the way that we speak, but the reality for our learners in that we are in the jungle!
Richard recommended introducing this idea to learners of the greenhouse, garden and jungle, and when introducing new language, ask the learners how it might sound in each stage, or build up the language item from citation form to a real speech model. For more information on Richard's ideas and materials, go to his website Speech In Action.


Laura Patsko - The ear of the beholder: helping learners understand different accents
In this session, Laura discussed using authentic materials for listening in an ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) context. Many of our learners need English for their jobs in their own countries where they will be communicating with people from various different parts of the world, mainly from others who are speaking English as a second language, so it is essential that they are prepared for this just as much for interaction with L1 speakers of English.
Laura demonstrated a lesson that she designed around an interview with the Spanish actor Javier Bardem and recommended that using celebrities who use English as their L2 as role models. She described a five step lesson plan in the workshop and she has made the presentation and hand outs available on her blog.

Annie MacDonald - Learning listening: the challenge of unscripted listening
Annie started by mentioning the difference between scripted recordings that we find in ELT course books and unscripted recordings that we hear all around us in the real world. So what do unscripted recordings have that scripted ones don't?

• false starts, e.g. I . .I . . .Well what really matters is . .
• fillers, e.g.erm, eh, mmm
• they're very untidy
• incomplete or unfinished sentences

To help our learners understand unscripted real world speech, we need to expose them to it and show them how they can decode it. For this, you will need transcripts of unscripted speech, which is obviously a very time-consuming task, but there are resources out there, such as that which Olga mentioned (see above) or Annie's new resource pack that she wrote with Mark Hancock Authentic Listening Resource Pack by Delta Publishing.
Annie demonstrated many different exercises you can do, such as listening to a short piece of audio and mark where you hear the marker kind of or sort of in the transcript. She highlighted many different things that speakers do in unscripted speech and the importance of giving our learners as much practise as possible. For more information about Annie and her talk, go to her website.

IATEFL PronSIG PCE 2015

IATEFL PronSIG's Pre Conference Event this year was called Practical Pronunciation Teaching. There were a range of talks that had something for teachers at all levels. In this post, I will give a short outline of each of the talks given at this PCE.

Laura Patsko - How to identify pronunciation priorities in the multilingual classroom
  In this session, Laura described to us the steps she takes to decide on what pronunciation features her learners need to develop to be intelligible in an ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) context. She did this by anticipating what areas her learners are likely to have based on their L1. She mentioned that we should not allow stereotypes to influence this step, but rather anticipate based of facts such as those outlines in published literature, and a grid she developed as part of her MA. Deciding on the pronunciation priorities for each set of learners, should be done by looking at what issues overlap.
  Another important step in deciding the priorities is to observe your learners and notice what it is that they need. Laura gave an example of a dictation activity that she uses, and she demonstrated how to go about this. You can find the handouts and more information about Laura's needs analysis process here.

Jane Setter - Flipping Intonation! Making focus on practice practical.
  Jane's decision to introduce the idea of the flipped classroom in her intonation lectures at the University of Reading came about from feedback from her students. They felt that there was too much theory happening in class and that they needed more practical lessons. For anyone who isn't sure, the flipped classroom means that the learners do the homework before to prepare themselves for the next lesson so that they can discuss any problems they have in the lessons and spend more time putting the language focus into practise.
  Jane showed us how she makes her own videos explaining the theory. She then posts the video onto YouTube and her students watch this before going to class. That way, they have plenty of time for practice in class.

Roselyn Young - Articulatory settings: a practical demonstration
 In this session, Roselyn demonstrated how to get in touch with the physicality of pronouncing sounds using French as a model. She used the chart designed by Pronunciation Science which is based on the Silent Way. For many of us, it made us realise how difficult it is for our learners to get in touch the articulators that we require to make sounds in a different language. We starting by discovering a few individual sounds, and then built up those sounds to make words and short phrases. For me, I finally learnt how to make the French oo sound, such as in the word toute.

Sophie Farag - Maximising pronunciation practice through blended learning
  Sophie works for the American University in Cairo. She explained to us how there was little or no pronunciation work included in the curriculum, and so she had to find the tools to be able to increase her learners' awareness and build their confidence in both listening and speaking. She gave the details of a number of online tools and mobile apps that she used both in class to compliment pronunciation homework. She also outlined the various difficulties and technical issues she faced throughout the project.

Robin Walker - IDEAS for teaching pronunciation
  Robin gave a very entertaining and energetic talk on being creative when it comes to pronunciation teaching. He used the acronym IDEAS as guide to how we should teach pronunciation and showed us different activities that he has used by following this guide. Some of his main ideas included demonstrating pronunciation to our learners rather than explaining it to them. Making associations, for example, colours and anecdotes, can be a memorable and fun. Also, try to make pronunciation engaging by taking pronunciation off the page. You can find out more about Robin and his work here.

Pronunciation Snippet: Marking connected speech

  Connected speech is a feature of pronunciation that is often dealt with at higher levels in many materials. Perhaps this is because the terminology or the concept behind some of these features is too complex for lower level learners.
  Marks and Bowen (2012) say that pronunciation cannot be ordered according to level as grammar is "because all aspects of pronunciation are needed right from the start". So, is there a way to raise awareness of aspects of connected speech without overwhelming our learners? Absolutely.

Let's look at the following items that would be taught in an A1 classroom.

•  a cup of coffee
• Where do you live?

Many learners would read the phrases and expect to hear something like this:

But, if they hear these phrases being spoken outside of the classroom by native or fluent speakers, they will probably hear something like this:


These two versions of the same language items sound quite different to a learner and the second can come as quite a shock when they are used to hearing it in citation form. We can help prepare our learners for coming into contact with this rush of sounds. When introducing new language, whether it is lexis, grammar or functional language, we need to teach the meaning, form, use AND pronunciation. And when we say "pronunciation" we mean not just in citation form, but how it is likely to sound when they come into contact with it in the real world.

Here is how we might display these phrases on the board. We can use phonemic symbols, arrows to show that two words are connecting together, and a dot to represent the most stressed syllable.

Teaching notes: Take each phrase individually. Write them on the board. Ask the learners to say the phrase so that they can feel the words in their mouths. Next, tell them that they might hear these being said in a different way. Say the phrase as naturally as you would normally say it. You may need to repeat it more than once. Break the phrase down writing in the reductions, connections and marking the stressed syllable. Drill the phrase a couple of times.

So the next time you are introducing a new phrase or grammar item into your lesson, have a quick think about how you would say this naturally and mark down some ways you can give them a visual aid to your learners on the board.

Reference
Marks, J. and Bowen, T (2012) The Book of Pronunciation: Proposals for a practical pedagogy. Delta Publishing: Surrey

Get excited about teaching pronunciation - ELTed Limerick June 2014

As promised, I'm posting my presentation from Saturday's ELTed event in Limerick:

Get excited about teaching pronunciation from Loueltblog

 

 

Here are just some of the resources that I recommend and that have helped and continue to help me on my pronunciation journey:

 Adrian Underhill

• Sound Foundations: Learning and Teaching Pronunciation (Macmillan)
• This is the video I spoke about.
• Adrian's Pron Chart Blog
• Macmillan short videos

Books

• How to Teach Pronunciation by Gerard Kelly
• English Phonetics and Phonology by Peter Roach
• Phonology for Listening by Richard Cauldwell
• The Phonology of English: An Introduction for Teachers of ESOL by Ray Parker & Tim Graham
• Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca.

Activty and photocopiable resource books

• Pronunciation Practice Activities by Martin Hewings.
• Pronunciation games by Mark Hancock
• The Book of Pronunciation by Jonathan Marks & Tim Bowen
• Test Your Pronunciation by Michael Vaughan Rees

Online Resources

• Hancock McDonald
• English Global Communication
• Pronunciation Bites blog and Facebook Page
• IATEFL Pronunciation Special Interest Group Facebook page 

Thank you very much for the positive feedback on Saturday. If you have any questions or comments on my presentation, please feel free to comment below, or e-mail me at loueltblog@gmail.com

Value your peers in face-to-face CPD

Earlier this year, I was offered a position as a full time pronunciation materials writer for Kaplan International English. It was a dream come true, not only do I get to be creative and develop my writing skills for digital, but it's all about pronunciation! It was an opportunity that I couldn't refuse, although, I did think, "What's the catch?" But there wasn't one; they were really impressed by the pronunciation lessons I had written for Kaplan's print materials, and wanted me to join their team for a new digital project.
  So, at beginning of March, I started working remotely. We hold meetings on skype and my team members are a call or email away if I need them. Everyone on the team are all uber enthusiastic and want to create the best product we can. I have to say, I feel my days are so peaceful and productive as I have very few interruptions. My health has improved as I'm not running around or as stressed. The pressure of a deadline gives me a buzz, but doesn't really stress me out. It's been a very positive experience up until now, and hopefully it will continue that way.
  Recently, however, I realised how much I missed the face to face discussions, idea swapping and general banter that goes on between teachers. I took part in a forum for teachers who wanted to start writing and having their articles published in ELT magazines and journals. The meeting was set up by ELT Ireland and brought a group of like minded teachers together. I was on a high after the forum and it made me realise the value of face to face discussions with peers.

  There are so many CPD opportunities, forums, webinars and twitter chats available online. Don't get me wrong, these are fantastic and give teachers all over the world the chance to exchange ideas and do research that they don't have in their teaching location. But sometimes, simply nothing beats having a good chinwag face to face.
  I love my job and thanks to ELT Ireland,  I have the best of both worlds; I work remotely in my little world of pronunciation and then I have the chance to bounce ideas off my peers at meeting every month when ELT Ireland hold an event.

Right or wrong?

A recent discussion with a Spanish speaker from South America made me quite sad indeed as a language teacher. They said that in their country, they don't speak Spanish correctly. I asked him to repeat and he said the same thing, "In my country, we don't speak Spanish correctly." I asked him to clarify what he meant and he said that they use words differently from their meaning and use in the dictionary. He expanded and said that they also use words and expressions that aren't in the dictionary. He then went on to say that they pronounce the 'z'  as /s/ and not as /θ/ as they do in [parts of] mainland Spain. I then asked him if people in his country could understand each other or did these differences in lexis and pronunciation cause difficulty among local people. He responded that of course they can understand each other. So I asked, "then what's the problem? If people can communicate effectively with each other in their own environment, how is it wrong if they don't speak how others do on the other side of the world?"

   It really got me thinking about my own learners and their expectations as language learners. Do they think that because I'm Irish and have a different variety and pronunciation of English than the Queen of England, that my English is wrong? From what I recall, approximately 3% of English speakers in the world speak RP (Received Pronunciation). Does that mean the other 97% is wrong?

   I tried to reason with the speaker mentioned above; there is no right or wrong, it's all language. What's important is that people can communicate effectively. That is to say, I can get my message across clearly and I can receive another speaker's message clearly, we can understand each other. If I speak to an English speaker from the USA, South Africa, New Zealand or a speaker of English as a Lingua Franca (international language), I don't change my language and pronunciation to sound like something else, I make sure that the language I use is appropriate for the type of exchange. My goal is to understand and to be understood.

                
 

   An example that often comes up, is 'the th sound".  Many learners feel that they have to have perfect pronunciation even if they have contort their mouth and tongue to achieve it. In reality, what they should be aiming for, is to be aware of how words sound and how different people might make this sound. In many places in Ireland, for example, /θ/ is pronounced /t/ and the voiced variation /ð/ is pronounced /d/. Some Londoners pronounce the same sounds /f/ or /v/. Within their contexts, this is normal and, therefore, correct.

 " . . . the primary goal of teaching pronunciation must now be to make learners intelligible to the greatest number of people possible, and not just to the native speakers of the language." (Walker, R. 2010. Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca. OUP.)

   So, as teachers, what should we do? I believe we should make our learners aware of  the fact that there are different varieties of English when you move from place to place, both in terms of colloquialisms, lexis, grammar and pronunciation. We should try to expose them to as many of these different varieties as we can or if not, even make them aware that they exist. In an age where the internet is at our fingertips, we have access to all of this language, it's readily available. Use it in the classroom, set it for homework, but whatever you, open their eyes. It will also make them have realistic goals for their own learning. They can aim to achieve intelligibility which is key. We want to help them to understand and be understood as best they can.

ELT Ireland has lift off!

Saturday 12th April marked a very important day for ELT in Ireland. Following a very successful conference by the IATEFL Learning Technology SIG in November 2013, a new association for ELT teachers was born. ELT Ireland officially launched the association on Saturday with their first event, ELTed, which consisted of eight local teachers giving a twelve minute talk on an area of teaching that they have a particular interest in. This not only allowed others to learn new things, but gave those teachers the opportunity to present in front of their peers - an opportunity they might not have inside their institutions.

                                   

ELT Ireland was set up to provide support for ELT teachers here in Ireland, and to provide a platform for idea sharing with others across the country and to promote opportunities for professional development outside our own institutions.

This is something that is badly needed here in Ireland. When asked what I do, I say that I'm a teacher. When asked if it's primary or secondary, I say that I'm neither, but, in fact, I teach English as a second or other languages. Sometimes people ask me further questions as they find language learning interesting, but more often than not, people look embarrassed and ask if I've been doing it for long and what are my plans for the future. In my responses, I always feel like I'm defending my profession, that I'm trying to prove to the listener that what I do is a real career. And I know I'm not alone. ELT Ireland, I believe, will help EFL teachers to take themselves and their profession seriously and above all, to make them proud of what they do. It was so wonderful at the ELTed event on Saturday, to see so many teachers there who wanted to learn new things, meet other professionals from around Ireland and discuss different ideas. The enthusiasm and excitement that teachers here have been deprived of for so long, has finally arrived.

For more information, check out ELT Ireland's website or Facebook page. They also have a Twitter chat session every second Monday, just add #eltchinwag on Twitter to join.

That's all folks: Day 4 IATEFL 2014

Today was a very emotional day. Every corner you turned, there were people hugging and saying goodbye. It was a day of "wow, what a conference", "keep in touch" and, "see you next year!" There was a surge into the exhibition hall just before 12pm as the stands were giving away free or discounted books and material. The closing plenary brought tears to my eyes as Jackie Kay took to the stage and delivered her poems to an eager, attentive audience.

What can I say about my first IATEFL Annual Conference experience? Well, it was better than I could  have ever imagined. In many contexts and industries, people like to hold their cards close to their chest, but in IATEFL it's the total opposite. Everyone wants to help each other, share ideas and have in-depth discussions about things they've tried and tested. The ELT celebrities, as I call them, are so open and approachable. On the first day, my colleague and I had a wonderful chat with Adrian Underhill about teaching pronunciation. Another day, Mark Hancock, writer of Pronunciation Games, chatted away to me and offered me some valuable career advice. On the first day, I timidly introduced myself to Robin Walker who turned out to be such a warm and passionate person. Today, we shared our last meal in Harrogate with Robin! Jeremy Harmer was my partner in a workshop yesterday and he remembered me in the corridor. 

  Any teacher who is serious about a career in ELT has to go to this conference. Before this week, I had no idea that there were thousands of people out there who have the same level of enthusiasm about their profession as I do. Being in the staff room can often get you down and wondering what you are doing there at all. But this week, I finally felt like I belonged somewhere. The opportunities for comradery, new discoveries and professional development are endless at this conference and I think that every teacher needs to experience that. We need to stand up and be proud of what we do in the TEFL world. I am proud and honoured to be part of IATEFL and connected to some of the most incredibly intelligent and talented people I've ever met. 

  Here's to IATEFL Manchester 2015 and all of the adventures we'll have before then.



From left to right:
Back row: Robin Walker (PronSIG committee and newsletter editor), Marina Cantarutti, Kristyna Poesova, Wayne Rimmer (PronSIG Coordinator)
Front Row: Anna Morris and Louise Guyett




 

Listen carefully: Day 3 IATEFL 2014

After the events of last night, I had a bit of a slower morning today. It's also my birthday and my boyfriend flew over last night to celebrate with me and my new friends.

  The first session I attended was by Philip Haines and was all about making maximum use of audio scripts. Philip introduced us to many practical activities that can be combined with other skills, such as, pronunciation, grammar, speaking and functions. The session was in a workshop format which allowed us to work in groups and do the activities. 

  Next was a session led by Sandy Millan on stepping into real world listening. We compared a text book listening recording with a real world recording. Sandy then broke this down and gave us ideas on how we can use these real world recordings of natural, spontaneous speech in the classroom. Again, this was a practical workshop and required a lot of group work, which I was delighted with as my partner was the one and only Jeremy Harmer! 

  Before the last coffee break of the day, Arizio Sweeting presented his reasons and ideas for  using action research to empower teachers to teach pronunciation. He discussed his influences in his own teaching and also invited anyone to come forward who would be interested in taking part in his research.

  After a wonderfully passionate discussion with Robin Walker and some other PronSIG members in the corridor, it was time to make a quick dash across the conference centre to get to the next talk. Lucy Palmer from Teachit ELT made a presentation on how to get you material published on the website. She highlighted the areas in which they are looking for more lessons, worksheets and articles and we discussed how to create an effective worksheet or activity.

  The final session of the day was with Sue Kay and Karen Spiller who created ELT Teacher to Writer. This is a database and training programme for teachers who would like to make the transition into ELT writing. We took part in tasks that guided us in the world of ELT publishing, writing rubrics and distinguishing between general comprehension and critical thinking tasks.

  It was then time to have a birthday dinner and celebrate into the wee hours with my lovely new IATEFL friends.

Pron-packed and ready to go: Day 2 IATEFL 2014

So, I'm a little late posting the last few days, but I was having too much too fun and spending time with some really wonderful people, that it thought reflecting when I get back to Dublin would have to suffice! On Thursday, I attended 10 sessions, the most possible in one day, so I will try my best to keep the summary brief.

  The day began at 8.15am with the first session on writing for the IATEFL Voices and other teaching magazines, which gave us practical tips on how to turn an idea into an article.

  We then moved on to the beautiful Auditorium for the plenary session given by Kathleen Graves. She described how she believes that we need to have an ecological approach to our curriculum and being "inefficient", i.e. Straying from the curriculum in order to deal with language and issues that arise, can actually mean focusing on language and increased learning.
  Following the plenary, it was time for PronSIG Day to get underway. Richard Cauldwell kicked off proceedings. His main message was that we need to aim at decoding spontaneous speech. A CSM (careful speech model) can be useful for guidance and informing, but we need something more sophisticated to help our learners deal with casual speech.
  After a coffee and doughnut break, thanks to the publishers at ETp (English Teaching Professional) and MET (Modern English Teacher), scholarship winner, Marina Cantarutti from Argentina, presented her project and findings on pronunciation practice through developing an e-portfolio. She demonstrated how she used social networking and recording facilities for her learner to practise their pronunciation and give them the opportunity to receive feedback, self-reflect and self- evaluate. A fascinating project that I would to set up with my own learners.
  Following this, Kristyna Poesova presented her research on the importance of teaching the schwa and vowel reduction in both word and sentence level. She provided practical tips on how one can achieve this in their lessons.
  Next up was  Mark Hancock who led a very practical and interactive workshop on rhythm and stress. He divides these two pronunciation features into two layers: grammar (layer 1) and discourse (layer 2). He kept us on our toes and gave us the opportunity to try out the activities as students.
   We then had Katy Simpson and Laura Patsko discussing the goal of productive and receptive pron in an ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) context. They presented advice for both monolingual and multilingual classes.
  From Cultura Inglesa in São Paulo in Brazil, Catarina Pontes presented  her reasons for developing a pronunciation course for teachers and also outlined the layout and application of the course.
  The last speaker of PronSIG day was Piers Messum with his holistic approach to teaching pron. He described the value of making pronunciation a physical skill that requires learners to discover and become aware of their bodies.
  The final session of the day was the PronSIG Open Forum where delegates and speakers were invited to ask questions and comment on what had been presented during the day. The biggest question that came out of the discussion was : Why is pronunciation teaching being neglected? Some reasons included: poor training, lack of pron in course books, lack of confidence on behalf of  both teachers and learners, and also learner expectations.

After such a pronunciation packed day,  some PronSIGgers went off to discuss matters further over a meal and some beverages! On arriving back to our apartment at 3am, I made an executive decision that it was too late to blog!

Thought-provoking and inspirational: Day 1 at IATEFL 2014

Today was officially the first day of the IATEFL Conference after yesterday's Pre- Conference Events, although, it was my Day 2.
  I made it to 7 talks in total and even made a trip around the exhibition and time to chat to David Crystal at his book signing!
  I first made my way to the MaWSIG (Materials Writing Special Interest Group) SIG day, which started out with a workshop by Fiona MacKenzie and Russell Whitehead on the challenges and solutions that writers face when writing for digital materials. They examined the similarities and differences between writing for print and digital and then it was over to us. We were given a number of activities and had to discuss how they could adapted for digital purposes.
  After the coffee break and a chat to some other delegates, it was time to get some more pronunciation in because I didn't get enough yesterday!!! Ivelis Montilla presented the results of research she conducted on teaching pronunciation in the Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela. She was followed by Lesley Curnick who demonstrated how we can record students in order to raise awareness of their pronunciation strengths and weakness. She demonstrated how with the help of a set of guided tasks, learners can discover their own strengths and weaknesses, and with the help of their teacher, they can improve their oral production. We heard a recording of a learner at the beginning of the course and then, a second recording of the same text taken from the end of the course.      



  Following a quick chat and photo opportunity with David Crystal, it was time for lunch, and then a dash back to MaWSIG for Rachel Roberts' workshop on how to write effective classroom materials. This practical workshop was applicable to both material writers and teachers alike and provided some valuable tips for getting creative but very definite aims and pedagogical benefits.
  It was then time for another quick dash to the far end of the conference centre to catch Lindsay Clandfield and Duncan Foord perform their Survival Guide. And perform they did! This highly entertaining presentation got us all talking and thinking and splitting our sides laughing!
  Next, we were off to the main auditorium for an invigorating workshop on the importance of listening and receptive pronunciation with Paul Seligson. This was full of fascinating facts about language and very practical tips on how we can raise awareness with our learners of the importance of listening and how we can get them to listen more often and more effectively.
  Finally, we took our seats at the IATEFL Jobs Market Signature Event where the panel discussed and debated the need for more training in this digital age to give teachers advantages in the ELT recruitment process. However, it was most definitely highlighted that technology should be used to enhance our lessons, but not over our lessons. We need to be mindful of the focus and outcomes of the lesson while using technology as a means to deliver these objectives. Likewise, we have to be flexible and have to resort to other means as technology is not always reliable.

PronSIG PCE 2014

  I don't often spring out of bed at 6.30am, my friend the snooze button usually helps me get a few extra minutes sleep. This morning was different. When I opened my eyes and realised where I was, I quite simply . . .sprang! The prospect of spending the day with other pronunciation nerds was truly thrilling!
  As we made our way to the conference centre, the excitement continued to rise and we could see many other delegates flocking to the main entrance who would later be revealed by their badges and red conference canvas bags.
  On arriving through the main door, we were politely guided to the end of the queue for registration. We quickly got to the top and collected our badges and went to collect our conference programme and welcome packs. It was then time to make our way to the Bramham Room to begin our day of pronunciation.
  The title of the PCE (Pre-Conference Event) was, "Integrating pronunciation into your teaching". And so it began, with a few introductions and a lovely welcome from the SIG's coordinator, Wayne Rimmer.
  Alan Tonkyn started the proceedings with his talk entitled, "What makes for perceptions of fluency in L2 speech?" After exploring the connection between pronunciation and fluency, Alan defined fluency and expand on the types. He discussed how assessors perceive pronunciation and fluency, many then went on to talk about what fluency advice we can give our learners, including, time-gaining, reformulating, pausing, and speed.
  Next up, was Wayne Rimmer who highlight the need for a pronunciation syllabus, due to the neglect  of pronunciation teaching in many classrooms. He puts this down to poor training, being bogged down with meta language, a lack of confidence on behalf of teachers and poor curriculum design. Most course books are driven by a grammar syllabus and pronunciation, if any, is tagged on to the end of grammar. In order to change this and for our learners to gain more confidence in pronunciation, we need to give our teachers the confidence and tools. To do this, we should provide teachers with a pronunciation syllabus.
  After a coffee break, it was John Field's turn to take centre stage. His focus was on listening skills and how phonological features are key for learner to make sense of streams of speech. He acknowledged that knowing a word is very different from recognising that word in a chunk of language in a stream of speech. He reinforced the idea that in order to help our learners, we have to expose them to natural spontaneous speech.
  It was then lunch time, which we spent in the lovely Harrogate sunshine outside the conference centre.  Following a packed lunch provided by the centre, we waddled back to the Bramham Room to prepare for Robin Walker's wonderful talk on helping learner deal with accents. He highlighted the importance of awakening students to the fact that there is such a huge variety of accents, both native and non-native. He discussed how phonological features are the best tools to use with learners to improve their receptive skills. Most importantly, however, is that we have to expose our learners to a variety of different accents to aid them in their survival outside the classroom.
  Last, but by no means least, was Richard Cauldwell, who believes that it's the teacher's goal to help their learners understand fast, messy, authentic speech. In order to describe the process of how teachers can do this, he used 3 metaphors: The Greenhouse, where everything is segregated and in its citation or complete form; the Garden, where things begin to mix and we can identify different features of connected speech; and finally, the Jungle, where everything is . . .mushy. In order to help our learners, we must bring them on a journey from the greenhouse, through the garden, to the jungle.
   Many travelled long distances (Argentina, Russia and New Zealand to name a few) to join this inspiring day which demonstrated the importance of pronunciation and bringing to the fore, the importance of the role of pronunciation in developing our learners' listening skills.

I'm off now to make my final decisions about what talks and workshops, which, let me tell you, is not an easy task. So many amazing things to choose from!

The Eve of IATEFL 2014

   My colleague and I have arrived here in the beautiful Harrogate. After 2 hours sleep due to excitement and an early morning flight, I'm ready for some rest before the TEFL-packed week ahead. This year marks my first year to experience the wondrous and inspiring IATEFL Annual Conference and to say that I'm excited, is an understatement. The prospect of learning, new discoveries and meeting ELT gods and goddesses has literally led me to sleep deprivation.
  Since downloading the Conference App last week, I have been searching and planning the next 5 days. It all begins tomorrow with the PCE (Pre-Conference Events). I have chosen PronSIG's (Pronunciation Special Interest Group), mainly because that is where my heart lies in ELT at the moment. For the last 6 months, I have been an administrator for the PronSIG's Facebook page, and I'm truly looking forward to meeting all the lovely people that I have gotten to know through posting and sharing ideas. The line-up is also something that I could not turn down, including, Wayne Rimmer, Alan Tonkyn, John Field, Robin Walker and Richard Cauldwell.
  Over the next few days, I hope to report my experience of each day at the conference, a type of journal if you will. It serves to give myself the opportunity to reflect, but also for those of you who can't make it to the conference in person or online, you can get a taste of it here.

To watch online, go to: http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2014
Also follow on Twitter @iateflonline

Wishing everyone a happy IATEFL 2014!

Giving Elementary learners pronunciation confidence.

Last summer, I started teaching an advanced class. In the first lesson, we were doing a vocabulary exercise when one of the students had problems with the pronunciation of one of the phrases. Automatically, I turned to the IPA and broke down the word for him. It was successful and he was amazed. He asked me if we could look at the IPA in a little more detail as he had never seen it or been shown how to use phonemic script. I referred him to The Pronunciation App by Macmillan until the next class. When he came back the next day, he was so excited and said, "Why didn't anyone show me this when I first started learning English? It would have been so much easier." He went on to say that he could look up any word in the dictionary and could pronounce it using the script. We went on to look at other benefits of it too and how it helps when looking at suprasegmental features of pronunciation.
 A few months ago, I was moved to an Elementary class and made sure that I exposed these learners to the IPA and other aspects of pronunciation, of course. What I witnessed was wonderful and as a teacher, I felt like I had really done my job. Firstly, my Elems really enjoyed working on pronunciation, and as it was integrated throughout the lesson at all stages, it meant that they were always engaged. They would bounce out of the class repeating different expressions or sentences we had drilled throughout the lesson and would often come back into class with tales of different things they had heard in "the real world" that they could now understand. This made them especially excited as it demonstrated the relevance of what they were learning in class to real life.

So what did we do in class to become more confident in our pronunciation? Here are what I feel were the most important:

• Word stress - Any time new lexis is introduced, we counted the syllables and decided which was the strongest syllable. I like to count these on my fingers and I have the students hold up their hands too. Sometimes we would clap, soft and loud and on occasion we would stamp our feet. I feel that making it physical in this way makes it so much more memorable for the learners and engaging too.

• Weak and strong forms - When studying grammar, especially at a low level, the teacher builds the foundation for the learners. That's why it's vital to include pronunciation as part of your grammar lessons. One of the main things I like to introduce is weak forms and vowel reduction in sentences. So, for example:

                        I can SWIM -  /aɪkəˈswɪm/ - The vowel in can is reduced to a schwa /ə/
                        I CAN'T swim - /aɪˈkæntˌswɪm/ or /aɪˈkɑ:ntˌswɪm/ - The full vowel is present to    
                        emphasis that the verb is in the negative form.

• Drilling - Drilling can be a lot of fun, but also it really builds up the learners' confidence. If you drill as a whole class, it gives the students the opportunity practise their pronunciation in a sea of voices so they aren't afraid of being heard. As they become more confident in what you are drilling, you can reduced the numbers and drill in 3's or 2's which will give you the opportunity to monitor their progress. Sometimes I pick out nationalities or men versus women etc. However, drilling isn't just saying something had having the learners repeat it and then move on. You need to break down the sentence and then build it up by adding more and more until you have the complete sentence. You can do the same with words and breaking them into syllables. When you have built up the sentence or word, then drill smaller groups.

• Connected speech - Making your learners aware of features of connected speech will really help their receptive skills. Again, when you're introducing grammar, think about how you would say the sentence yourself if you were talking to colleagues or friends. For example:

          A cup of tea - A cuppa tea - /əˈkʌpəˌti:/

           Do you like swimming? - /ʤəˌlaɪkˈswɪmɪŋ/

• Use other students as models; this gives a real confidence boost. I work in a multilingual context, so I had a variety of L1's in the class. In this particular class there were Spanish speakers from Venezuela, Mexico and Spain, Portuguese speakers from Brazil, Turkish, Saudi and German. Each language group had different pronunciation difficulties, even the Spanish speakers from different countries had unique difficulties. At different stages, instead of me providing the model all of the time, I asked another student who was pronouncing effectively and had the other students listen and repeat. When the students had become comfortable with me drilling, I then had other students drill the rest of the class. There were two benefits to this. First, some weaker students in other skills grew in confidence as they could provide a good model of pronunciation for their peers. Other students realised that certain aspects of their pronunciation were attainable because if another student can do it, so can they.

• IPA - The IPA and phonemic script are incredibly valuable in assisting your learners with their pronunciation. It helps error correction, explaining word stress, weak forms and connected speech. I feel that it's an essential tool to be able to deal confidently with other areas of pronunciation. It's not necessary for your students to know the chart inside out, but it's something that you can build up over time to help them both in class and in their own autonomous learning.

Happy teaching everyone!

To ban or not to ban?

The topic of the use of mobile and smart phones is one that often comes up in our staff room. Do we allow our learners to bring them to class? Do we ban them completely and have them leave them in their bags? Do we restrict how they use them? Perhaps our institution has a policy, but do all of the teachers apply this policy? And if not, what implications does it have for the teachers that do. I feel that recently I've been spending a lot of time trying to get my learners' attention. Their phones seem to have become an extension of their hands. Am I just too old-fashioned or is the situation getting out of control? I could go on to list more and more questions, but how about we look at some solutions before we get a headache?!

Some reasons for the overuse of phones:

• Location - if your learners have travelled abroad to study, they are in a foreign country away from their family and friends and will more than likely be anxious to keep in touch with them.
• Age - Adolescents and young adults will want to contact their friends as much as possible. They will try all of the tricks in the book to continue texting, Whatsapping, Facebooking etc
• Work - Some adult learners will have work commitments and sometimes need to make urgent phone calls or send important e-mails.
• Translation - many learners now come to class equipped with a dictionary or translator on their phone.

Options:

• Introduce a complete ban of phones. Tell them to leave them in their bags or perhaps have a box at the top of the classroom where they can leave them when they come in. (If you do this, it might be an idea to have dictionaries available for them).
• Follow school policy - Talk to your Director of Studies, Senior teacher or to other teachers in your institution. Ask if there is already a policy in place and if not, what do they do or suggest.
• Create your own policy - Talk to your students and come up with a policy that you're all happy with. Include them in the decision. Giving them some agency in this way might motivate them and encourage them to use their phones less or in a more effective way. Get creative and have the class design posters for the classroom or the school if you'd like to expand the policy beyond your classroom.
• Allow the current situation to continue, let your students do what they want while you become more frustrated and miserable!
• Incorprate phones into your lessons and demonstrate how your learners can use them to help them in their studies. There is a huge variety of apps available for Smart phones, Androids and iPhones. If learners enjoy using their phones, using apps could engage and motivate them. My favourites are Sounds: The Pronunciation App by Macmillan and My Word Book by the British Council. We can also use them in other ways, for example, for dictations, we can write the dictation down in a message or memo. We can also use our photos as inspiration for conversation. (Thanks must go to Nicky Hockly who gave me these ideas at the IATEFL LT SIG Conference here in Dublin a few weeks ago.) There are also many more possibilities.

So, in short, yes we all survived perfectly well before mobile phones, but now that they are here and part of our every day lives, perhaps we should adapt to them and allow our teaching to develop just as it has with so many other changes that have come about over the years.

Nothing like meeting your idols to pick you up when you're down!

The summer is over and usually here in Dublin, it means that us teachers have a bit of a break and a chance to recharge the batteries. However, this year, after a super busy summer, (so much so that we had to open a separate centre), we are still at full capacity. It's absolutely wonderful as our seasonal teachers have work for longer and the school is still buzzing.

 Unfortunately for me, it has been a little bit of a struggle this summer. I got completely burnt out. Since beginning my Trinity Dip this time last year (and working full time pretty much throughout it), I haven't had a holiday. I've had a few days of "staycation", but I've still been contactable and have ended up working on other projects during that time. I had the opportunity to be the Assistant Director of Studies for the summer, which I was terribly enthusiastic about at the beginning of the summer, but thanks to the storms and heavy rain we got flooded and that was the start of my slow descent into burnout.
I felt totally demotivated, my patience completely ran out and everything felt like an uphill battle. I couldn't handle being asked questions by other teachers and they expected me to be at their beck and call. I felt guilty because my other duties took up all of my time and I didn't have time to prep my lessons to the standard I'm used to. My students in class were the only thing that kept me sane and motivated me, but at times, they even began to irritate me. I needed a break, but my contract and other teachers having booked holidays didn't allow me to take holidays until the end of October.

So, I decided that outside of school, I would try to give any ELT related activities a rest and focus on something else. I read an article by Lindsay Clandfield, and I took his advice. I started to do exercise for 30 minutes every day, or most days. I tried to get outdoors as much as possible and I even tried out meditation.

Slowly, I started to feel alive again. I stopped comfort eating and slowly began to lose the 15lbs I had put on over the last year. The spring started creeping back into my step, and, as one of my students told me, my "sparkle" was coming back too!

The final boost came last week when I went to Bath for a conference with the IATEFL PronSIG. My colleague and I took the first flight out of Dublin after only 4 hours sleep and a very long week! I was concerned that I wasn't going to be able to get the most out of the day, but I was excited at the same time as I knew who was speaking at the event.

On walking into the room, I spotted Adrian Underhill, Ray Parker and Mark Hancock. I have to admit I was start struck! Adrian had been one of our guest tutors on the Oxford TEFL Trinity Dip, but we only go to talk to him through the forum. I hold him responsible for awakening my love of phonology and teaching pronunciation! Ray Parker's book that he wrote with Tim Graham provided me with great support for the transcription part of the phonology interview on the Dip. And, well, we all know Mark Hancock's wonderful book of Pronunciation Games. I was in phonological heaven!! I immediately forgot how much sleep I didn't get and had an absolutely wonderfully inspirational day.

To see these guys who are now at the pinnacle of their careers speak and demonstrate with such passion made me realise that I love what I do and that I have so much to more to learn and develop. Their enthusiasm is infectious. The turning point came when I had the opportunity to talk to Adrian. He remembered me from the Dip, we chatted and got excited about using the phonemic chart in class and he was even so kind to give me advice about my career! I bounced into work on Monday morning feeling energised and full of life. My creativity and drive has come back. Yes, it's still a challenge to have a full time position and find the time to work on my own projects, but I feel that I'm now able to manage it all better and find a balance. I've also been able to bring some projects that I'm interested in into my workplace and that has made a difference too.

So, if you feel you might be on the way towards burnout, don't be afraid to take time out. If you can take holidays, great, if your job doesn't allow you, focus on something completely different that makes you feel good or calm. Talk to a colleague, senior teacher or even your DOS. And, when you think you might be on the way back up, seek inspiration. It mightn't necessarily be in the industry, do what works for you. Remember it's only temporary, so give yourself time.

If you want more information on burnout, I recommend this article by Lindsay Clandfield.

The inspirational Adrian Underhill

  What attracted me to the Trinity Diploma in TESOL was the module on Phonology. I have to admit that I was terrified of teaching pronunciation, in fact, I didn't even know how or where to start. I was completely intimidated by it. Now, I find it probably the most rewarding element to teaching and I'm addicted!

  In our first week of the phonology module, it was recommended that we watch the video of Adrian Underhill (below) introducing the chart. I watched it as if I was actually at the workshop and took part! It was the best introduction to the phonemic chart I could ever have had. I highly encourage anyone who finds the idea of the chart daunting to watch this 60 minute workshop. My eyes were opened to a whole new world! It was so much fun and I learned so much in such a short time. It just clicked and made complete sense to me. It gave me a huge boost of confidence as I realised it wasn't as scary as I thought, and using the chart as Adrian does was incredibly engaging.

We were privileged enough to have Adrian as a tutor for that first week of the module. I think it was the highlight of the course for me! One thing that stood out for me was that he advised us not to wait to use the chart in class until we were ready, but to dive in and go on a journey with the learners. This is exactly what I did and what a journey it was! Not only were the learners discovering new things, but so was I. Every time I introduced the chart in a different class I discovered something new about myself, how I spoke and about the English language. It was truly exciting! It then inspired me to undertake action research based on how to integrate the phonemic chart into my lessons with a focus on practice and remedial work.

  The chart is now an integral part of my lessons. My students love it as they find it so helpful when they have pronunciation problems (check out Pronunciation in the bar on the right for more information). It has allowed them to be more confident and autonomous.

  Understanding the chart allows you to understand other aspects of pronunciation much more clearly too. So, watch the video, and your eyes will be opened to the wonderful world of the phonemic chart.  

  Thank you Adrian for the inspiration :)