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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