General Considerations

Initial Listening Practice

Initial Speaking Practice

Listening Discrimination

Pronunciation Practice

Sound-Symbol Correspondences

Teaching the Sound System

Listening Processes

• Sound recognition– Phonemes, words, intonation, discourse markers

• Speech event recognition– Context (lecture, dialogue, etc.)

• Conceptual recognition– Putting comprehensible input into own words

Types of Listening

• Intensive– Listening for specific sounds, words, intonation

• Responsive– Listening to short segment in order to respond

• Selective– Scanning for information

• Extensive– Listening to long segments for meaning and

understanding (lecture)

What comprises language?

• Clusters• Redundancy• Reductions• Performance variables (false starts, hesitations,

pauses, etc.)• Colloquialisms• Rate of speech• Suprasegmentals/prosody (stress, intonation,

rhythm)• Interaction

Types of Listening Assessments

• Minimal Pairs– Vowels, consonants, endings

• Stress– Content vs. function words

• Paraphrasing• Responsive listening

– Given question must be answered• Selective listening

– Cloze • Information transfer

– Pictures, charts, etc.• Repetition

– Listen to stretch of language and repeat

• Note-taking

Types of Speaking

• Imitative– Phonemic and/or prosodic

• Intensive– Production of short stretch of language

• Responsive– Short conversations

• Interactive– Transactional—exchange specific information– Interpersonal—social exchange

• Extensive – Speeches, presentation, etc.

Types of Speaking Assessments

• Repetition– Audiolingual (can be used to reinforce pronunciation)

• Computerized testing• Directed response

– Tell me…• Reading aloud• Dialogue completion• Picture-cued tasks

– Naming, creating story, giving directions• Answering/asking questions• Paraphrasing• Process/instruction speech• Interviews• Roleplays• Games

– Find someone who…, evaluate & create e.g. Legos

Teaching the Sound System General Considerations

Initial Listening Practice

Focus on correct pronunciation at an early stageIntroduce the English vowels and consonantsFocus on listening discrimination, pronunciation, intonation---Vowels—in un/stressed syllables, diphthongs---Consonants—at the beginning or end of a word,

unreleased, unexploded, aspirated* Always relate sounds to meaning

Intensive listening activitiesFocus on words and phrases with different soundsBuild up a sense of the languageUse TPR or other reacting activities* Always use authentic materials Initial speaking practiceMimicryModels: teacher, recording, etc.Focus on key sounds—a seeded dialogueTreating specific sounds: describe how sounds are made, use a mirror, give alike sounds, break sounds, eliminate aspiration, tap out the rhythm, use hand signals, draw symbols—sketch mouth position, arrows , musical notes, lines, boxes* Always encourage but do not push for oral production

Listening Discrimination• Contrasting the native and the target language Group/individual response to a list of words Minimal pairs: words or phrases that differ from each other by one sound or intonation, stress, etc.

/s/ /z/ /t/ /d/ /f/ /v/ Sue zoo kit kid five van Detecting an accent with cognates: read a list of words or phrases in both native and target languages and ask students to tell the differences (use flash cards)

• Contrasting words in the target language

Aware of phonemic distinction: Identify same vowels in a group of words: fit, seat, meet Circle the rhymed words: look, book, duke Intonation patterns: statement, exclamation, question,

commands

• Contrasting sentences in the target language Identify linkages between words and phrases Identify different forms of verbs—tenses, shortened forms Identify nouns—singular/plural

*

Special Techniques

• Partial correction• Self correction• Working with cognate: TElephone—teLEfono• Stressed syllables and change of meaning• PREsent--- preSENT• Recognition of Stresses for Multiple syllables

SIlent, TElephone, discrimiNAtion, pronunciAtion

• Stress shift and change in vowel qualityComBINE – combiNAtioncomPETE--- comPEtitive ---

compeTItionAble---aBIlityPArent---paRENtal

Teaching the Sound System Pronunciation Practice

Sounds-Symbol Correspondences

• Songs•Tongue twister: She seeks sea shells by the seashore•Poems: “Hints on Pronunciation for Foreigners”

I take it you already know of tough and bough and cough and dough?

* Always make activities interesting and meaningful.

• Teaching the alphabet Memorization—by song, sequence, individual Grouping—by shape, sound Initials—person, place, company

• Phonetic transcription Use the phonetic alphabet

* Always pay attention to context.

The International Phonetic Alphabet

Tones and Words Accents

Vowels

International Phonetic

Alphabet

(R

ev

ise

d in

19

96)

Techniques for Teaching Speaking

.Don’t force students to speak if they are not ready. General Considerations

Initial dialogueClue cards, slides, Chalk board drawingPictures of a sequence of eventsIdeograms, icons

Directed dialogueSample drills

Q-A dialogueYes/No questionsEither/or questionsWh-questionsDependent/independent clausesTag questions

Contextual SentencesDetermine the basic materialsDetermine the order Sample presentation

Techniques for Teaching Speaking

Students are truly speaking if they can generate their own sentences.

Practice Sentences patterns magazine cutouts Flash cards Transparencies Props (My shirt is white. What’s yours?) Executing commands World map Match cards, pictures

Guided Conversation Mini-exchanges Mini-conversations Prompt questions

Prepared questions

Role playing Preparation Create the situation Oral descriptions

magazine cutoutswall charts and illustrationsgames: 20 questions/memory game

Techniques for Teaching Speaking

Communicative Practice Guessing game Rank order: seasons, Saturday night Opinion polls Interview Making a survey Categories of preferences Story telling

Free Conversation Discussion groups : Small group/whole class Debates Topics Form teams Panel discussion

Seeking every opportunity to use thetarget language in a real life situation.