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.

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.

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.

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.

Leading a workshop for the first time . . .a good learning experience.

Last week I led my first workshop for teachers in my school. I have to admit that I was very nervous, but I was comforted by the fact that I was fairly confident in the topic as I had studied it so much over the last few months.

I was asked several weeks ago if I would lead an in-service workshop. For my Developmental Research Project for the diploma, I chose to explore how to integrate the phonemic chart into my lessons. I fell in love with using the chart and phonology. In fact, I think it's the area of my teaching I developed most during the course and also, the area that I was most terrified of before I started! It was because of this that I decided to base my first workshop on using the phonemic chart.

I started to plan the workshop using a suggestion from Ducan Foord's The Developing Teacher. I went through the steps and planned what I felt would allow people to build on top of what they already knew while also including ideas that would be new, so that they would feel they were learning. I wanted to make sure the session was enjoyable, which the phonemic chart is, especially when you use some of Adrian Underhill's discovery activities! I also had to be careful of the time as the workshop was only an hour long and I didn't want to be over-ambitious or leave myself short either.

From the beginning, I found it a little difficult to find the balance between levels of experience. There were teachers with years of experience, but didn't know anything about using the chart or teaching pronunciation,  those that were more familiar with it and then those that were newly qualified. By the time my plan was ready, I felt happy enough that it was going to cater to the needs of everybody, or that everyone would go away with at least one new thing that they could use or would like to try in their lessons.

Of course, it didn't going exactly according to plan and we didn't have time to go into as much depth as I wanted. However,  I was happy that it generated discussions about the advantages of using the chart. We achieved examining the different sounds and how to read the chart as a map of the mouth. We then had the opportunity to look at some sample learner errors and, in pairs, the teachers decided how they would use the chart to correct learners in class. Finally, I gave the teachers a handout with some suggestions of further reading.


I had intended to ask the teachers to fill out a feedback form, but unfortunately I didn't get the chance to make one. However ,  some teachers approached me to give me some informal feedback. It was all more positive than I thought to my delight! One teacher said that she learnt more in 10 minutes of my workshop about the chart than she had in her entire career (she's been teaching for 15 years!) Many others have to come to me to ask me to do a follow-up workshop so that we can continue to look at more ways of integrating pronunciation.

This first workshop was a great learning experience for me. It hasn't put me off doing further workshops. I definitely recommend that everyone tries it at least once during their career.