Hi everyone! Thanks to all of you who have voted in polls and posted your thoughts. I must apologize as I've been a bit distracted over the last month writing...
Hi everyone, Well, there were 7 votes against this and only 1 for, yet drilling seems to be one of the most popular ways of teaching pronunciation. Course...
Well there's a clear consensus here, but I have to agree to Peter's post that pronunciation has been excluded from much of present teaching. Yule & Brown said...
To reply to Alex's question, I think the answer is the same as it would be to teaching any language sub-skill - by making it fun! I think teachers are indeed...
OK, maybe I put it a bit too strong in this poll! I do believe though that the best results are obtained for pronunciation in 1-1 sessions with an experienced...
The results of this poll were interesting, and indicate a serious issue that we need to deal with in pronunciation. Pronunciation teaching is often equated...
In my experience , both as teacher and foreigner (I live in Germany) , however good your command of a language, you only feel really at one with yourself in...
... Hi Angela, I've experienced this phenomenon of personalities coming across differently when speaking different languages too. I'm not sure though that...
Yes, I think that's exactly it Angela ... Hi Angela, I've experienced this phenomenon of personalities coming across differently when speaking different...
I like the point you raise, Alex, about there being two "registers" of pronunciation (see bold bit below). I teach pronunciation to (amongst others) air...
Learning the pronunciation of a foreign language involves, to varying extents depending on what the L1 and L2 are, automating unfamiliar distributions of...
Fun, yes - or, more generally: engaging, which doesn't mean fun all the time, necessarily. I think people, including teachers, tend to be daunted by the...
Ah, ya big killjoy! No, I agree with you, Jonathan, engaging is more fitting terminology. And I also agree with you that if we can find ways of encouraging...
If any of you find these references to knitted aliens and blue string soup mysterious, just google 'Clangers' and you'll be able to read about them, see them...
Hi Angela, I think that more research is needed into this concept of identity. I've had a different experience with Spanish. I first learnt in Madrid, and...
I would be delighted to...truly....but can I wait for my two children under the age of 3 to grow up a bit first? 2010 maybe...I love forward planning! Yours...
Hi Jonathan, I think you make a really important distinction there - mindless vs. mindful repetitions. Where there's reflection on the articulations, though,...
Hi Anna, I think your last paragraph is a perfect sum up of a major problem that we are faced with in TESOL now. All of the teaching models, from Sweet to...
She wasn't French was she? I can "hound" on the "th" depending on the context. For example, the very important aeronautical word "throttle" if pronounced...
One thing that stands out for me is that Alex's Italian student reached a point where she had the option of sounding or not sounding British. Before that -...
Aha. This seems like an example of the multi-competence or style-shifting I've just written about - I should be more assiduous in reading these contributions...
Hi Everyone, There's lots of interesting stuff in the latest Speak Out! - I look forward to discussing all that. But for the moment, season's greetings to you...
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope that 2008 is treating you all well so far. I have been considering hibernating as it is very cold and grey here in the north...
Thanks, Alex. 2008 is treating me OK so far, but there's still 348 days to go! As you say, lots of stuff to think about. Thanks for summarising these ...
Hi folks, I've been thinking about the questions that came up from the newsletters and I will post about them soon, but I want to ask a perhaps more whimsical...
