Module 3 (3 of 3)

TASK 1

Action Research

Find ONE intonation exercise/activity in a course book. Complete the exercise yourself.Use the exercise with your students. Reflect upon its usefulness and how the exercise might be improved. Include a photocopy of the exercise/activity in your submission. Which function of intonation does it focus on?

This activity teaches the difference in Wh-questions and Yes-No questions. This lesson proves to be very effective letting students get acquainted with the intonation pattern of interrogative sentences. I modified the lesson by letting my students give 2 examples of WH questions and Yes-No questions. I let them take it in turns asking each other the questions they were able to come up with and I also taught them how to intonation works in statements.

For instance:

TASK 2

Design your own original activity for teaching intonation, or adapt one from a course book, Teach it. Write a brief post teaching reflection to indicate to what extent it was useful, and where it would benefit from further refinement.Submit an account of your activity, samples of materials and learning outcomes, and a short reflection which should be linked to your course reading.

Lesson Flow:

Allow the students to give an example sentence showing the four instances that intonation would play an important part in. Let the students guess the meaning behind each sentence (whether it shows new information, opinion, contrast or emphasis to negative statements) as they takeit in turns giving their sentences in class.

Post Teaching Reflection:

The students had an interesting time guessing the meaning behind their classmates constructed sample sentences. This actually made the students understand that thereare various ways of saying something. In addition, they were able to be aware of the significance of stressing words most especially in negative statements.

TASK 3

Reflect upon problems you have encountered in teaching (or modelling!) intonation. Give specific examples. In the light of these, outline both short-term and long-term strategies to implement as part of your continuing professional development (CPD).

In teaching English to ESL students, the teaching of pronunciation and intonation is demanding most especially because of grammar and vocabulary. It is not easy for students to be spontaneous during classes for they are not so accustomed with these two facets. However, for advanced students, owing to the fact that they already have enough knowledge in pronunciation, it becomes more factible and achievable. As for me, very practical ways of teaching pronunciation for short-term students would be drills that focus on enhancing intonation such as determining the difference of declarative sentences and interrogative sentence intonation. On the other hand, for long-term students, I reckon that there is a need for the teacher to integrate grammar and vocabulary drills with intonation.

TASK 4

In what ways are foreign-language teachers who lack appropriate and practical training in phonetics and phonology disadvantaged?

Teachers of foreign languages are disadvantaged when it comes to practical training in phonetics and phonology. First and foremost, they need to be equipped with basic terminology that deals precisely with pronunciation. Additionally, they need to learn the phonemic alphabet, which is not really simple for the untrained teacher. One has to read and train intensely to learn to facilitate the improvement of ones students. To a well-trained teacher however, it doesnt matter how much time he has in order to assist and assess his students improvement in pronunciation. He can exactly locate the students weaknesses. On the other hand, time will actually be an a hindrance to a teacher who still is experiencing difficulty in teaching phonetics and phonology due to lack of proper training as he tries to solve students problems. The question that basically needs to be addressed is where to begin with and the amount of concentration that should be focused on to a certain task.

Certainly, the students mother language influences most in speaking or enunciating sounds. A legitimate foreign-language teacher must know how to deal with this quandary such as which particular speech organs are necessary to accurately create the appropriate sounds. If the teacher has insufficient knowlegde in these, it will undoubtedly be difficult to teach his students. If the foreign-language teacher has been perfectly trained in phonology and phonetics, then the teacher will be able to teach his students how to produce these sounds perfectly as well.

Furthermore, the foreign-language teacher who has had proper training in phonology and phonetics will be able to utilize lessons aimed at students improvement on accurate stressing and intonation. In contrast, the foreign-language teacher who has not undergone appropriate training will definitely be struggling and may likely settle on less complicated lessons that only show minute details in differences in stress and pronunciation.