TEACHING SPEECH WORK

• Pronunciation

• Fluency

• Accuracy

• A “good ear”

We are comfortable with teaching

• Reading

• Writing

• Listening and

• General oral skills

But we have problems with pronunciation

challenges

• When to teach it

• How to teach it

• Error correction

• Psychological factor

• Wrong focus

• Production

• Reception

PRONUNCIATION

• Pronunciation: correct production, close imitation, of the sounds with the

vocal apparatus

• Each language uses the vocal apparatus differently

• If the sound is not received … then it cannot be produced

• When the sound is new and not received properly

• students will use “their” closest sound

• We can predict pitfalls when we understand sounds of both Spanish and English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Sm1DDe0JE

PREDICTABLE PITFALLS

• Arabic speakers confuse the /p/ with /b/

• Japanese speakers confuse the /l/ with /r/

• Spanish speakers have problems with clusters /sts/

PREDICTABLE PITFALLS

• The /th/ of those can be perceived as /d/ and become dose

• The /b/ and the /v/ are indistinguishable

• The /ch/ may be confused with the /sh/

• The /y/ and the /j/ are indistinguishable

• The initial /s/ is produced as /es/

• The /w/ is produced as /gw/

• http://englishspeaklikenative.com/resources/common-

pronunciation-problems/spanish-pronunciation-problems/

ACCENT

Accent: a distinctive manner of expression, characteristic inflection, tone

or chcice of words; a way of speaking typical to a group of people

The way a person speaks and is determined /shows social and geographic

background

We alll have an innate ability to distinguish accents, most of us can place

them

Theory of accent sensitivity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQk92_AfUN0

STEREOTYPES

Heaven is where

the police are British,

the cooks are French,

the mechanics German,

the lovers Italian,

and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lover's

Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians

THE PROBLEM WITH STEREOTYPES

Stereotypes refer to

Characteristics,

Traits

And roles

a group of people are believed to have

Can be positive or negative

Negative ones

More frequent

Result in prejudice or negtive attitude towards something

STEREOTYPES AND ACCENT

Accent leads to stereotypes and this in turn leads to prejudice

Non-native speakers are thought to be…

• less intelligent

• less competent

• less educated

• coming from a poor socio economic class

• and unpleasant to listen to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7GYlId3NNA

Does accent interfere

with communication?

YES: because research demonstrates that non-natively accented speech requires more time to process for native speakers.

NO: No, because research shows that although in the beginning accented speech may take longer to process, listeners adapt quickly to the accented speech, usually in less than a minute. Moreover, stronger accents are sometimes easier to understand

When to correct accent

Accent should be corrected when it interferes with

intelligibility

Intelligibility is the ability to be clear and understood

However, it is more a matter of correcting attitudes towards

accents and foster appreciation of accents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gA7qq7Ja4U

ACCURACY AND FLUENCY

Accuracy is the ability to produce correct sentences using correct

grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.

Fluency is the ability to produce language easily and smoothly.

The communicative approach is the one that favors fluency the most,

while the audio-lingual and grammar-translation approaches favor

accuracy.

Accuracy and fluency are not contradictory,

because they affect each other. Accuracy brings fluency

and fluency brings further accuracy

Typically, at beginner level when the students don't have enough language

to worry about fluency, teachers tend to focus on accuracy.

This carries on through to pre-intermediate when fluency activities like

discussions and debates are introduced.

Later, when the students are reasonably independent language users, a mix

of accuracy and fluency is used, with the focus shifting to fluency as

students advance.

A “GOOD EAR”

Sensitizing the ear to recognize…

• sounds,

• stress,

• intonation,

• syllabication,

• accent.

TIPS

• Speed

• Consistency

• Variety

• Listening

• Frequency

• Clarity

EXAMPLE 1

PORT PIT PAT PERT PET POT PUTT PUT PART PEAT

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

EXAMPLE 2

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled

peppers.

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper

picked.

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled

peppers,

Where's the peck of pickled peppers

Peter Piper picked?

EXAMPLE 3

I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine

shop.

She sits where she shines, and she

shines where she sits.

ACTIVITIES WITH MINIMAL

PAIRS

• Pictures: tell students to draw the words… mouse and

house, 13 and 30

• Odd man out: give groups of four and ask them to

identify which one sounds different: hit sit pit eat

• How many times: give students a small text and then

ask them to count how many times they heard a specific sound

ACTIVITIES WITH

REPETITION

• Play with volume: give students a word or phrase to

repeat, then indicate at what volume they should say it

• Experiment with tone: give students a word or phrase to

repeat, then indicate if they need to say it in anger, in surprise, in

shock…

• Experiment with speed: get students to repeat a phrase

as fast as they can

• Play with rhymes: the first student says a word, then

each consecutive one has to say a different word that rhymes with

the first one sat, bat, hat, fat, pat

ACTIVITIES WITH STRESS

SYSTEM

• Count syllables

• Divide sentences into groups

• Practice identifying stress with two-syllable words

• Identify stress in a sentence or paragraph

• Identify and practice linkage of sounds…. Aw you

shouldn’t’ve