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/prəˌnʌn·siˈeɪ·ʃən/
The Teaching Pronunciation Magazine
III Quarter
-2015-
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To the Reader
The following magazine is a project from two students of Teaching
Pronunciation in which we are going to present some of the knowledge
we have gathered this quarter in regards to general information, theory,
activities for teaching and tips for students of English as a Foreign
Language. We hope that you find the information presented here useful
and it helps you on improving either your teaching practices or your
learning process.
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About the Authors
Sebastián Gómez
Sebastián is 26 years old and is majoring on English
Teaching and Translation at the Universidad
Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología, ULACIT.
He loves to spend the weekends with his family and his free time reading on Stephen
King novels. He plans to continue his career on the field of teaching, especially on high-
school and would like to have training on the field of psychopedagogy.
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About the Authors
Sara Mejia
Sara is 22 years old and is majoring on English
teaching with an emphasis on Pre-school education at
the Universidad Latinoamerica de Ciencia y la
Tecnología, ULACIT. She loves to spend the weekends at the beach with her
boyfriend and doing yoga on her free time. She plans to continue her career
on teaching getting a specialty on children with special needs.
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Contents
In-class Contributions...................................................................... 1
1. IPA Vowel chart and symbols .................................................... 1
2. Transcriptions ............................................................................. 2
3. Minimal Pairs ............................................................................. 3
4. Activity #1 – Minimal Pair ......................................................... 4
5. Activity #2 – Vowels Memory Game .......................................... 5
Out of Class Contributions ............................................................. 6
1. IPA Consonant Symbols ............................................................ 6
2. History of the International Phonetics Association ................. 7
3. Diacritic Marks ........................................................................... 8
4. Teaching with Tongue-twisters .................................................. 9
5. Websites ..................................................................................... 10
Vocabulary ...................................................................................... 14
Reflections ....................................................................................... 15
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In-class Contributions
There are plenty of in-
class contributions, we learned something new
every day. However, there were some specific
parts that we consider the most important; here
they are:
1. IPA Vowel chart and symbols: we
were taught that there was one chart with one
way to represent the symbols. However, we
learned that this is not entirely truth;
dictionaries, as an example, use a pattern of
symbols different from each other and even if
there is a variation, we should be able to
identify the symbols and the meanings.
The differences between them is not
much once you get used to work with them,
but the first time we saw them, it was
confusing and some of us believed the
symbols were wrong. Now we know better!
Most Common Charts
and Symbols
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2. Transcriptions: Even though we had
some practice doing transcription on
Phonetics & Phonology, there was not enough
time for practice since we had to cover a lot of
information. On this class, however, since the
focus was stronger on how to teach the subject
we were able to practice while learning, great
way to learn, and we improved our
transcription rate and accuracy a lot.
This change was noticeable not only in
both of us, but on the rest of our classmates.
The difference between the ones that take this
course and have extra practice is evident and
now our mind set has changed; we are not
experts or even get close to one, but we are
good at it and we love it.
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3. Minimal Pairs: these are pairs of
words that differ only on one phonological
element. We believe that minimal pairs are
amazingly effective to teach the difference of
sounds in words that are really similar.
After studying minimal pairs we were
able to improve our pronunciation and came
up with several ideas for activities in which to
use them. At a basic level, when pronunciation
is confusing and students cannot get a lot of
information from the context, correct
pronunciation is necessary and drills with
minimal pairs should help a lot.
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4. Activity #1 – Minimal Pair: Since we believe that minimal pairs is a good way
to teach, it is necessary to show some examples. In our first session of activities we some
and all looked great. However, for very beginners we believe there is one that works the
best and is really simple. Here is a small example:
Instructions. The students will get a list with two columns showing a
words and images. The students have to choose the one the teacher will
pronounce to them.
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5. Activity #2 – Vowels Memory Game: This is simple, yet effective and students
can work in groups. Few materials are needed and if you laminate them, they will last
for a longer amount of time. Here is a small example:
Instructions. All cards will be facing down, students will have to look
for the word and the symbol that matches the underlined sound. Only
two cards can be facing up at a time.
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Out of Class Contributions
We also learned a lot
outside of it; be it in the hallways of the
University while chatting with other
classmates about the subject or while
researching for homework. Here are some
of the most important contributions we
have:
1. IPA Consonant Symbols: If I said
before that we didn’t get enough practice
with the vowels on Phonetics & Phonology,
the case was not the same with vowels. We
spent so much time on them that most of us
handle consonants better. But, the most
important part is that we get to pronounce a
lot of words even better.
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2. History of the International
Phonetics Association: Since this is a
teaching class we do not have much time to
cover information like this. We didn’t even
know it existed until one day looking for the
IPA alphabet we forgot to type –alphabet-
so we were sent to the information of the
Association.
We know now that it was founded in
1889 by a group of French teachers worried
about the current state in regards to
pronunciation of foreign languages.
Nowadays it covers a lot of languages and
has been revised several times, making
minor changes, the current version is the
one from 2005.
Fun Fact: as you can
see from the picture,
IPA refers to the initials
of the Association.
However, most people
and online resources
use them to refer to the
alphabet (which would
share the same initials).
This is not officially
accepted by the IPA.
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3. Diacritic Marks: They are small markings which are placed around the IPA
letter in order to show a certain alteration or more specific description in the letter's
pronunciation.
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4. Teaching with Tongue-twisters: This
part was really fun and interesting. At the
beginning the tongue-twisters can be hard but
practice will make it easier and will help you
achieve a good pronunciation. Here are some
examples:
#1
She sells
seashells
by the seashore.
#2
How much wood
would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck
could chuck wood?
#3
Betty Botter bought some butter,
"But," she said, "this butter's bitter.
If I bake this bitter butter,
It will make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter -
That would make my batter better."
So she bought a bit of butter,
Better than her bitter butter,
And she baked it in her batter,
And the batter was not bitter.
So 'twas better Betty Botter
Bought a bit of better butter.
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5. Websites: It is not new information that you can find everything online.
Materials to help you teach and practice pronunciation are found everywhere and most
of them provide lots of help, here are four of the ones we like the most.
http://ipa.typeit.org/ - use it to avoid having to look everywhere on Word for the
symbols, find them here on an easy and convenient location.
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http://dictionary.cambridge.org – Use this websites to check for quick
transcriptions, be sure to check you have the American English option selected and to
verify if the word has several accepted pronunciations.
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https://www.englishclub.com – Under the pronunciation tab you will find lots of
information; among it a huge list of minimal pairs divided specifically for students’
levels.
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http://rachelsenglish.com/ - We saw some of her videos in our class but the
information doesn’t stop there. On her website you will find guided lessons, her book
and sound charts.
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Vocabulary
There was plenty of vocabulary to be learned during the quarter, in and out of
class, here are some of the words we learned:
phoneme alveolar diphthong
allophone palatal aspiration
phonemic velar glottal stop
voiced glottal consonant cluster
articulator plosive tense vowel
velum fricative lax vowel
alveolar ridge affricate Lingua Franca Core
dental nasal Metacognitive
deletion stress devoiced
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Reflections
Sebastián:
Before starting this subject I felt a hole in my stomach just to think about
pronunciation. I believe my pronunciation meets the expectations but knowing that all
the procedures and back processes would be studied felt like a pain. I once took part of
a phonology class and hated, that helped the feeling of disgust towards the subject even
more. However, now that I went through the information and learned the, right,
methods to teach and learn most of it, I feel completely different than at the beginning.
I feel more equipped as a teacher to pass this knowledge along to my students and
I feel better as a student myself. I overcame one of my fear and feel I learned so much
in the process. I can do transcriptions at moderate speed and the mistakes grow fewer
in time. My pronunciation is improving and when I’m not sure I know where to look
for the information needed. In conclusion, this subject helped me more than I ever
thought possible, and I know this will help my future students in return.
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Sara:
Learning a second language is always a challenge. Is forgetting what you already know
about letters and sounds and switching your mindset to a completely different one. I just to
think that one of the most important things about learning a new language was to be able to
learn a lot of words to be able to communicate your thoughts but it you can learn as many
words as you want however if you don’t learn how to say them (pronounce them) is the same
as not knowing any words at all.
Pronunciation is one of the main aspects of communication and for someone who is
learning a second language is very important to practice it constantly to improve. Some of
the advantages of learning English, as a second language is that you can find practice pretty
much anywhere. Good native speaker pronunciation you can get it from a lot of media like;
Internet, TV shows, music, movies and tourists.
One of the things that teaching pronunciation taught me was the importance of never
stop improving and being very aware of the different sounds, short vowels, long vowels, how
to pronounce specific consonants that will make a difference when you talk. It also gave me
the tools to improve it. My ear got better at noticing the difference of my pronunciation and
also got the tools to improve it.
I think that to be a good English teacher one need to get to that point where you have
mastered an almost like native speaker pronunciation if not a native speaker pronunciation.
Also very important is to be aware of the difficulties that one as a Spanish speaker has when
you are learning English, that way it is a million times easier to teach students how to
pronounce difficult phonemes because you already went through it.
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/prəˌnʌn·siˈeɪ·ʃən/
The Teaching Pronunciation Magazine