ELT Blog Carnival - Pronunciation

I am so happy with the turnout of the 34th ELT Blog Carnival! As a teacher I feel horribly ill trained to answer questions about teaching pronunciation in the classroom. Sure, I have a few ideas about using jokes for minimal pairs, but that's about it. I've done my fair share of Googling, but I have always felt that teaching pronunciation was my weakest area. After talking to other teachers, I discovered that many shared my feelings. Hence, when I volunteered to host this month's ELT blog carnival I was eager to get teachers everywhere to pitch in and help out with this tricky subject. Below you'll find an array of blogs on the topic of pronunciation. I hope that they help you feel more confident, as they have helped me grow as a teacher. 

That's enough chatting from me, let's get to what you came here to see! 18 blogs talking about pronunciation. That's like the whole 9 yards...twice!

To get to the relevant blog posts you can either click on the picture, or the relevant hyperlink in the summary. Enjoy!

Lessons/Activities

These posts cover lesson ideas, or activities that you can use with your students! Be sure to add your own adjustments to the activities or just your general thoughts in their comments.

ESL hip-hop is a blog by Stephen Mayeux. He teaches English as a Second Language at UC Davis Extension and, like many of us, he enjoys music in the classroom, specifically hip hop. A lot of his blogs cover how to use hip hop when teaching pronunciation via a specific hip hop song. Sound discrimination with krs one is a specific lesson which covers a sample activity that shows how to teach sound discrimination (in this case /f/ vs /v/).

Beth Crumpler is a teacher with well over 10 years of experience adapting materials to best fit her students. Her blog post is about a presentation she gave which talked about taking the metaphor of a teacher as a conductor literally. Using a mix of music and teaching techniques she advises teachers on different ways they too can teach pronunciation using music.  If you want to develop your skills to become a master conductor, check it out!  

Nik Peachey's submission is an older blog post that was actually suggested by a teacher on LinkedIn. I tracked down Nik, who was glad that it was still useful, and happily contributed to the carnival. Nik has been in the ELT world for 20 years and is known for integrating technology into his lessons.  This post discusses using poetry and technology to help students practice pronunciation. Read more here.

  English central also submitted an older blog filled with  Pronunciation Tips. The blog includes a video with Janet Goodwin from UCLA who talks about different techniques she uses in her pronunciation classes. She covers things like reductions, modeling, etc. In specific, the post discusses how students were given their own minute to "own" and transcribe. Students were given additional activities using that minute of authentic English including recording it themselves. For more details you can view the blog here.

Danielle is a language teacher who has just started up her own blog! Before that she was so eager to participate in the carnival that she wrote a guest blog! Through the last 19 years she has taught a variety of levels including children, adolescents and adults from different countries: Mauritius, Maldives, India, France, Latvia, Russia, Italy and South Africa. She is currently an online tutor who has experience with children as well as adults. This means if you want the fun of an child's lesson with the practicality of an adult's lesson, then you should check out her post with a fun activity to help adult students practice the two different sounds th makes found here.

Vicki Hollet knows that many learners will comment on British vs American pronunciation. Here's a blog with an easy video to show your students just some of the differences. If you wait until the end (or read the description in YouTube) there's also an invitation to a free webinar on the topic. The blog also includes a free transcript for you so you can make your own worksheets to use with your learners looking to master one of the accents. If this seems like something you are interested in you can read more here.

Marsha Chan is currently at Mission College in California (as a California native, I approve). Her blog discusses getting students to practice vowel length with the use of a rubber band. I admit that I've heard about  using a rubber band to help with pronunciation , but I've never seen it before. Marsha's blog is easy to follow and includes three videos (and a link to others!) as well as an explanation of why and how to use these simple tools. You can see for yourself at her blog. 

Carissa Peck (yes that's me) is currently teaching at ITESM in Mexico and loves to laugh! This post is simply a collection of jokes which use elision. Teachers can use these jokes as examples when breaching the topic of connected speech with their students. This makes the rather intimidating topic seem more lighthearted and less droll. If you love to laugh, then your students probably do too! Click this link to go directly to the blog and get your daily dose of chuckles.

Thoughts

I hope that reading these blogs will give you insights that can help you feel more prepared to teach the topic of pronunciation. I invite you to share your own views by commenting on them and letting the author know what you think! 

Hugh Dellar has been teaching for 20 years! In addition to teaching he has co-written two textbooks. He wrote an interesting blog post on how pronunciation classes aren't really about teaching students proper pronunciation, rather those classes are about helping students learn to be better listeners.He discusses the physical aspects of pronunciation (how it is in essence a motor exercise) and says that it is OK if students don't show marked improvement immediately because really during pronunciation lessons we are practicing how to listen. For the whole article click here.  

Saundz (an accent reduction app) hosted this blog about The Long and Short Vowels of English by Jennifer Collins. This starts off by giving some examples that students struggle with in class. It continues to make the word geek in me happy by giving the history of the vowels and why some are long and some are short (it even touches on why we call them "long" and "short" vowels). Finally it gives a list of things to keep in mind when teaching these tricky vowels with students. Check it out here.

If you are new to teaching pronunciation Peggy has a blog post that really breaks down the steps you can choose to use when teaching while comparing the process to cooking! Peggy has taught ESL and EFL in the U.S., Turkey, Italy, Switzerland, and Mexico and now is primarily an accent coach. She starts by setting up a clear foundation for learners (with links and activities they can practice on their own), using the element of surprise, and practicing practicing practicing. To read more about her set up check out how to Teach Pronunciation Effectively, Efficiently, Confidently.

Connected speech is one of my favorite aspects of teaching pronunciation. Rachael (who has been teaching English for over 20 years) wrote this amazing blog which is a great resource! It goes over the different types of connected speech as well as the different ways to teach them (including helpful tips). This is really a must read for anyone wondering how to implement pronunciation practice into the classroom or teachers unaware of connected speech. If that sounds like you, check out helping students with connected speech

Resources

The Internet can be a big and scary place. Luckily we don't have to explore it alone. These blogs all focus on helping teachers find the best sites to use as resources when teaching pronunciation. If you love their list, be sure to leave them a comment telling them! 

 

No ELT Blog Carnival would be complete without an entry from Larry Ferlazzo! This is an "oldie but goodie" from 2008 and lists his TOP TEN resources for teaching pronunciation to Beginning and Early Intermediate English Language Learners.  Even though it is a top ten list, it also includes suggestions from other people making the list closer to twenty than ten. Check out some of the suggestions here.

Bárbara P. García Roberti has been teaching since the early 1990s! She's a big fan of sharing resources and has this great post filled with 10 different sites she has used with great success for teaching pronunciation. The list includes interactive IPA charts, Pronunciation Podcasts, Minimal Pair Practice and more! You too can check out these ten great sites, just click here.

David Deubelbeiss is a name that you are probably familiar with if you have spent any time looking into Web 2.0 and English. He comes to us with another blog post that is a golden oldie on pronunciation resources. Unlike the other lists of multiple sites he focuses on just one. His post goes over a great pronunciation resource in great deal including how to get to it, how to use it, and why it rocks. If you are looking to be amazing at the wonders of the Internet check out this post here. 

Eva Buyuksimkesyan hosted the last blog carnival about music. This time around she didn't have time to write anything current, but she managed to pull a great older post from her past. This post briefly talks about different activities you could do in class and then gives some amazing links. Make sure to read the comments when you read it here too! 

Claudie's blog tracks her time through a pronunciation course she took. She includes links to sites she found interesting and helpful.  She wrote a special blog for this carnival on the five quirkiest pronunciation resources she's every come across. Interested in what she chose? You can read all five here.

Annie Ruden is a licensed and certified Speech Language Pathologist who currently specializes in accent reduction. Her blog post discusses her opinion that EFL teachers (and learners) could really benefit from the wisdom speech pathologists have to offer. One of her suggestions is that teachers use online curriculum developed by speech pathologists to supplement their own teaching. If this interests you read her blog!

So there we go, an easy list of 18 different blogs to help you become a pro at pronunciation classes!

If you participated, thank you SO much for being a part of this carnival. Now's the fun part. You can share the link. You can comment on the blogs. Best of all, you can be inspired by different teachers and adapt ideas to best fit your students. Be sure to keep your eyes on the ELT Blog Carnival's home page so you can participate in the next one.