Wednesday 17 December 2014
Thursday 4 December 2014
Wednesday 29 October 2014
icebreakers for small groups and reading
http://insight.typepad.co.uk/40_icebreakers_for_small_groups.pdf
paperless class
http://www.edudemic.com/ultimate-guide-paperless-classroom/
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/apps/mywordbook-2
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/10/helpful-resources-for-using-ipad-in.html
paperless class
http://www.edudemic.com/ultimate-guide-paperless-classroom/
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/apps/mywordbook-2
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/10/helpful-resources-for-using-ipad-in.html
Wednesday 22 October 2014
Self study and revision
Resources
My delicious and scoop.it accounts with online resources for those of you with an inquisitive mind:
https://delicious.com/crispitipinapa
http://www.scoop.it/t/english-resources-by-cristina-teacher
This is like a "favoritos" but online. Please look around and choose website stored there that might be useful for you and if you like, create your own delicious or scoop.it list of bookmarked websites.
- juegos para móviles: wordsearch, trivia, etc inglés.
My delicious and scoop.it accounts with online resources for those of you with an inquisitive mind:
https://delicious.com/crispitipinapa
http://www.scoop.it/t/english-resources-by-cristina-teacher
This is like a "favoritos" but online. Please look around and choose website stored there that might be useful for you and if you like, create your own delicious or scoop.it list of bookmarked websites.
- escuchar radio Vaughn.
-
ver la tele en dual.
Canales como TV2, la 2, explora, divinity, mtv, etc aceptan el dual. Probad.
Veréis tb que hay teles que os permiten poner subtítulos, ya sea en castellano
o en inglés. Experimentad.
- aplicaciones
en smartphones, para aprender inglés, de temas
que os interesen, etc. Ponedlo todo en versión inglesa.
- juegos para móviles: wordsearch, trivia, etc inglés.
Tuesday 9 September 2014
Aprovechar
Os habéis preguntado nunca porque no hay manera de que os acordéis de como se dice "aprovechar" en inglés. Pues porqué_
1. no hay una sola manera de expresar la idea
2. no hay una sola palabra equivalente
3. a veces no expresamos la idea de "aprovechar"
en castellano se usa mucho más que en inglés
Since
you’re here, I’ll ...
Aprovechando
que estamos aquí podríamos ir...
Aprovecha
que estás en Londre para visitar...
Take
advantage of your stay in London to visit...
Aprovecha
las instalaciones del hotel
Take advantage of the
facilities and equipment of the hotel
Aprovecha que estás para decirle
(since we you’re there), tell him
that....
Aproveché mucho el curso / saqué mucho provecho del curso
I got
a lot out of the course I benefited greatly from
the course
(I made the most of the course)
Aprovecho para agradecerles...
I take this
opportunity to thank you for...
I’d
like to thank you for
Aproveché mucho mis
vacaciones: leí, dormí, fuí a la playa...
I
made the most of my holidays.
Aprovecha el día y
no duermas hasta las 12
Don’t sleep till late and make the most
of the day
Aproveché el día de
fiesta para ordenar
I used my day off to tidy up
Lo aprovecha
todo porque no le gusta tirar nada
He uses it
all up because she doesn’t like to waste anything
Se aprovechó de ella y de su buena fe
He took advantage
of her and of her good nature
La palabra “profit” is mostly associated with “money earned in
busienss”. It is true that “You can benefit /
profit from something” but it’s not extremely common in the sense of
“aprovechar” in Spanish. Se pronuncia /profit/ no /profait/
Apuntad más
frases si queréis, y las traducimos!
Monday 1 September 2014
Self-study pronunciation?
Mastering pronunciation as an adult is a bit of a challenge but with realistic goals it can be achieved.
Goals like identifying sounds and distinguishing words by discriminating sounds are, to me, more achievable than say learning to produce the right intonation and pitch. Here I present some ideas if you want to tackle this issue on your own (although it works best with somebody's help and support). Research says that changing your phonological system after a certain age is a pretty impossible task. So, if English intonation can be tricky for speakers of Latin languages, let's forget about learning the Chinese tonal system in our 30s and 40s :-)
Obejctive:
to become aware of sounds and what makes English hard to understand
to learn to identify connected speech
to end up speak more clearly to native speakers and non- as well.
You'll need:
lots of discipline, ear-training, patience and lots of repetition
internet connection and a pc/tablet
and ideally someone to help you.
You can also try apps with sound recognition?
Pronunciation is not only a matter of you being understood when producing words. It is also a question of you understanding when spoken to (cuando te hablan / lors que quelcun vous parle). It’s a two way thing. If you are aware of sounds and how English works phonetically speaking, it makes it easier for you to understand. It’s not only a matter of pronouncing intelligibly though, it’s important to know lots of vocabulary coupled with an understanding of how grammar works that you’ll lead you to a greater comprehension.
What is communicating, in very simple terms?
One explains something so the other understands and acts accordingly. But you have to understand as well. If you catch certain sounds you’ll be more accurate and if you are accurate your message will be clearer to understand or at least you’ll reduce the chances of misunderstandings because of pronunciation, at least. If you catch the sounds you’ll find it easier to produce them too, and consequently, if you produce them, and you are more easily understood, your confidence will grow. For example, the pronunciation of the regular past, in many cases is just a matter of a t sound. Only the t sound (if there’s no time reference) indicates the past tense! So it’s important to train the ear to identify it and produce it.
Another important thing is to speak slowly. Speaking fast does not hide mistakes or proves that your command of the language is good. Speaking fast you may end up getting the person confused, which is not the aim of communication! And vowels are very important... after all, different accents are basically different ways of pronouncing vowels.
Then again, it’s also important to note that if you are going to interact with mainly non-native speakers there are items below which may become a little less important to tackle in-depth. Yet, should you speak to native speakers, it’s worth mentioning that those native speakers who are not used to speaking to non-natives speakers will hardly ever express their lack of understanding and they simply nod. So, you are never sure if they got your message in full or not. Whereas native speakers who are used to working/speaking with people with your accent will certainly find it a touch easier.
If you are able to match sounds with potential spellings you will be likely to be able to work out what word they are saying even if you have never seen it before.
then, check up the meaning and / or see if it makes sense in the message given. Not easy, i know but that's how the brain works.
Sounds: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/
All the videos can be found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bbc+learning+english+pronunciation&sm=1
You don’t have to learn the symbols but it’s useful and not hard. As the lady says, many of the symbols are the same as the letters. Learn to associate a sound to a symbol to become aware of little differences between very similar sounds. In Spanish for example: cajón, cojón. Note that if you change the sound, you change the meaning!
Ex. Teach – teacher, recruit-recruiter, cook-cooker
- Adjective + er =Adjective. More , comparative adjective
Ex. Simple- simpler, big- bigger, easy- easier, common- commoner (+than)
- Other with no suffix: sister, brother, etc.
Learning to identify and produce the final neutral vowel sound is important if you want to be accurate. It’s just a "little" schwa sound. 1 little sounds together with other grammatical information to help you figure out the words category. Become aware of the grammar to help the brain make you understand the word.
8. Ea in spelling can be tricky (see sheet attached ... when it is)
9. Oo. There are 4 different pronunciation for oo
To improve pronunciation and get feedback on how well you're doing, it's always better with a teacher or a sympathetic native/near-native speaker friend to help you but it does not mean you can work a bit on your own.
Read and listen at the same time
Concentrate on a sound and identify all the sounds in a given audio file.
Dictations: englishclub.com
Read and predict pronunciation of words and afterwards, listen to them to check if you were right
Learn to transcribe
Ask colleagues to give you honest and thorough feedback on how clear you are when speaking
Learn standard opening phrases and answers by heart and what you expect to hear / say afterwards (ie when on the phone).
http://www.soundsenglish.com/
Topics: check comprehension and pronunciation for videos
http://www.engvid.com/topic/
www.howjsay.com
www.forvo.com
Books you can use: english pronuciation in use, sheep or ship, etc
Goals like identifying sounds and distinguishing words by discriminating sounds are, to me, more achievable than say learning to produce the right intonation and pitch. Here I present some ideas if you want to tackle this issue on your own (although it works best with somebody's help and support). Research says that changing your phonological system after a certain age is a pretty impossible task. So, if English intonation can be tricky for speakers of Latin languages, let's forget about learning the Chinese tonal system in our 30s and 40s :-)
Obejctive:
to become aware of sounds and what makes English hard to understand
to learn to identify connected speech
to end up speak more clearly to native speakers and non- as well.
You'll need:
lots of discipline, ear-training, patience and lots of repetition
internet connection and a pc/tablet
and ideally someone to help you.
You can also try apps with sound recognition?
Pronunciation is not only a matter of you being understood when producing words. It is also a question of you understanding when spoken to (cuando te hablan / lors que quelcun vous parle). It’s a two way thing. If you are aware of sounds and how English works phonetically speaking, it makes it easier for you to understand. It’s not only a matter of pronouncing intelligibly though, it’s important to know lots of vocabulary coupled with an understanding of how grammar works that you’ll lead you to a greater comprehension.
What is communicating, in very simple terms?
One explains something so the other understands and acts accordingly. But you have to understand as well. If you catch certain sounds you’ll be more accurate and if you are accurate your message will be clearer to understand or at least you’ll reduce the chances of misunderstandings because of pronunciation, at least. If you catch the sounds you’ll find it easier to produce them too, and consequently, if you produce them, and you are more easily understood, your confidence will grow. For example, the pronunciation of the regular past, in many cases is just a matter of a t sound. Only the t sound (if there’s no time reference) indicates the past tense! So it’s important to train the ear to identify it and produce it.
Another important thing is to speak slowly. Speaking fast does not hide mistakes or proves that your command of the language is good. Speaking fast you may end up getting the person confused, which is not the aim of communication! And vowels are very important... after all, different accents are basically different ways of pronouncing vowels.
Then again, it’s also important to note that if you are going to interact with mainly non-native speakers there are items below which may become a little less important to tackle in-depth. Yet, should you speak to native speakers, it’s worth mentioning that those native speakers who are not used to speaking to non-natives speakers will hardly ever express their lack of understanding and they simply nod. So, you are never sure if they got your message in full or not. Whereas native speakers who are used to working/speaking with people with your accent will certainly find it a touch easier.
If you are able to match sounds with potential spellings you will be likely to be able to work out what word they are saying even if you have never seen it before.
then, check up the meaning and / or see if it makes sense in the message given. Not easy, i know but that's how the brain works.
- Sound awareness 42 sounds: Look at the pdf doc with a comparison of the letters (of the alphabet) and actual sounds that English, French, Italian, Spanish and Catalan have. Objective: become aware that English pronunciation and therefore understanding and producing it can be hard for languages of Latin origin. Click on the attached pdf doc:
- Watch the Introduction videos from bbc learning English, pronunciation tips. Listen to them at least twice.
Sounds: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/
All the videos can be found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bbc+learning+english+pronunciation&sm=1
You don’t have to learn the symbols but it’s useful and not hard. As the lady says, many of the symbols are the same as the letters. Learn to associate a sound to a symbol to become aware of little differences between very similar sounds. In Spanish for example: cajón, cojón. Note that if you change the sound, you change the meaning!
- Symbols look scary but try the Quizzes tab for fun and you’ll discover that they are intuitive and you can draw patterns of use. Do the quizzes twice or more. It’s fun and easy to use.
- Sounds: learn, cup cap, etc. Carefully read and listen to the sounds and videos from the ppt doc provided.
- –es, -ure word document. Use www.howjsay.com and www.wordreference.com
- Schwa and weak forms
- Past ed
- Ea spelling and sounds
- Minimal pairs
- Connected speech
- Learn to identify –erat the end of word as most times –er means :
- Ea in spelling can be tricky (see sheet attached ... when it is)
- ddd
Ex. Teach – teacher, recruit-recruiter, cook-cooker
- Adjective + er =Adjective. More , comparative adjective
Ex. Simple- simpler, big- bigger, easy- easier, common- commoner (+than)
- Other with no suffix: sister, brother, etc.
Learning to identify and produce the final neutral vowel sound is important if you want to be accurate. It’s just a "little" schwa sound. 1 little sounds together with other grammatical information to help you figure out the words category. Become aware of the grammar to help the brain make you understand the word.
8. Ea in spelling can be tricky (see sheet attached ... when it is)
9. Oo. There are 4 different pronunciation for oo
- hope and hop
- ough augh can be frustratingly difficult. Learn it as part of a phrase or a collocation
To improve pronunciation and get feedback on how well you're doing, it's always better with a teacher or a sympathetic native/near-native speaker friend to help you but it does not mean you can work a bit on your own.
Read and listen at the same time
Concentrate on a sound and identify all the sounds in a given audio file.
Dictations: englishclub.com
Read and predict pronunciation of words and afterwards, listen to them to check if you were right
Learn to transcribe
Ask colleagues to give you honest and thorough feedback on how clear you are when speaking
Learn standard opening phrases and answers by heart and what you expect to hear / say afterwards (ie when on the phone).
http://www.soundsenglish.com/
Topics: check comprehension and pronunciation for videos
http://www.engvid.com/topic/
www.howjsay.com
www.forvo.com
Books you can use: english pronuciation in use, sheep or ship, etc
Friday 29 August 2014
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When is the right moment to teach pronunciation?
Is there "a" right moment to teach it?
written in August 2011My piece of advice is open up to the little sounds, the -t/d of the past tense, the neutral, almost unnoticeale sound of I am a little bit.../amalitelbit/
get someone to help you identify these little sounds and not only will you pronounce better but you will also understand a lot more
and read read read to gain vocabulary
and try to understand grammar and discourse markers and how it all sounds and comes together
Proven! They like pronunciation, even if they think they don't.
I was discussing with Ester, a student who has drawn up the "essential grammar" wiki around in my wikis, that I think that teaching pronunciation can not be done until they are ready for and open to it, which when they have gained fluency enough to use English and they themselves realise that yes! pronunciation matters. A lot. My statement of "can not be done until they are ready" is possible a bit of an understatement and is wrong as a matter of fact but that's how i have experienced it with my current students.
This reluctancy to do pronunciation, specifically, may be due to their previous experience at school, where hardly any emphasis was given on how important it was so as to be understood and to understand, in other words, for effective communication. The teachers themselves had sometimes poor master of intonation and pronunciation. On how many occasions have i heard my students say their teachers had always pronounced x in a given way, incorrect and sometimes ununderstandable to uncooperative native speakers!
My adults were not open to learning (about) pronunciation when they started English with me, it was and is not until a couple of years have elapsed that now they truly understand and see for themselves the need for improving this "scary" area of the language learning process. Now that they have gained confidence, have a better command of the language and actively use it in their day to day that they see how important pronunciation is. But then again, it's worth "playing with" it early enough to raise a consciousness of the different sounds, so dominoes and quizzes and words-with-the-same-sound competitions may be the way to go with the unacquainted students!
By pronuciation I mean knowing how a word or a phrase or a sentence is pronounced, the sounds. Gaining an awareness of the different sounds of English, the distinction about the number of vowel sounds in particular and how using a different vowel sound or dropping the final consonant can affect the message when speaking to an uncooperative native speaker as some can be (or at least that's the students' perception!). You may add and argue to this, that pronunciation is pitch, intonation and all this hard-to-change aspects. Of course it is, but I am going to delve into this now, as i give it fairly little focus in class myself, much as it can hinder understanding or lead to misinterpretations of the message passed on! on how many occasions have I been told that Spanish sound as though they were angry and shouting at each there when speaking!
Often I find that they know every single word of is said to them but still can not understand. They don't understand because in their heads there's "their" pronunciation of the words, which often doesn't match with the correct pronunciation. That's why they don't understand. It's obviously not as simple as that but I can vouch this is a very important part of their lack of understanding skills. In addition, there's some kind of mental blockage that prevents them from understanding, plus the sound simplification, the so-weak forms, of auxiliaries, prepositions, etc. To help them gain an understanding of these issues and to "train their ears to catch these little sounds" the teacher comes into play. It's hard for many to reach this goal overnight. Awareness of how slow this can be can be discouraging for some but it works. I can vouch for that.
And, to go one step further, it's not only their understanding oral input skills but also their ability to produce understandable output.
Before, they lacked to knowledge, they didn't use English. Now they use it, with native and non-native speakers. So it's now it's the right moment to go more in depth.
I use a lot material from the bbc.co.uk learning english, as i said in How Adults Learn, plus books and plus brainstorming and providing examples for them to discover some kind of rule.
Another issue that often surprises them is that spelling things out in English is so common between native speakers because pronunciation doesn't always correspond to what it may appear from spelling and the other way round. We teach them the alphabet and to spell when they start learning but again, we never put enough emphasis on how an essential and active part of the use of English in English-speaking countries this is. Eureka, now they understand!
NO need to say that the -ed is a very tricky area indeed. I find that with the quizzes from the bbc and other material and by raising an awareness of transitive verbs with -ed in the past and a clear emphasis on the need for an Od, I decided it, I decided (what?) I decide it you'll surprise them and a bit of a surprise makes things more memorable! Not only will you be dealing with -ed pronunciation but the often forgotten Od when it's a pronoun. I think they don't say the -ed past mark because they don't hear it. They don't hear it because we teachers have not trained them enough to catch this little -d/-t/-id sound in speech. There you go, that's some work for us to put a lot of emphasis on.
All those homophones which can be so confusing if they are different word categories!
so and sew
rite and right
pear and pair
The above takes to what i said in an earlier piece of writing of how helpful it can be to learn what other words the word goes with .. the rite of , it is right , our rights, you are right,
a pair of.. the pear, I sew sth, etc. or the baffling pronunciation of -ough, our the different spellings for the sound of earn, and the different pronunciatins of the letters ea/ear, etc. No wonder our students get mixed up and mispronounce words! who wouldn't?! (will expand)
Their own mis pronunciation of words they own -----------------> they don't understand the word when pronounced correctly (and fast and within connected speech)
correct pronunciation= easier to be understood
easier to understand
Spelling is important in English because pronunciation is sometimes arbitrary and unreliable to pronunciation patterns.
I find that using dominoes, the quizzes, and right away exposing them to phonetic symbols and matching transcribed words to pictures, for example, works really well! start with monosyllable words, with a mixture of different-from-letters symbols and the-same-as-letters symbols. It fun and they like it. Where i work the word of mouth makes more and more students do pronunciation. It's so rewarding! Some of them are even transcribing and their pronunciation is certainly improving.Spanish speakers tend to have problems pronouncing:
CONSONANTS
the -sion , decision, sounds
the -sia , Asia, sound
the -ked sounds, looked
the voiced s sound
pronouncing certain final consonants
they find it hard to believe how words with radically different spellings can be homophones.
like so and sew, when sew looks like new (and then you have threw) and new in certain situations sounds almost like the vowels sound of through. Here is my argument when saying the spelling is of high importance in English, anglophones spell words out because pronunciation or spelling are arbitrary in many occasions. They find this bit of information good to know, it makes them feel relieved! As when i tell them that English sometimes struggle to understand Welsh or Scots English! and trust me, no wonder.
Update weeks after the main body of the text: Now I want to introduce pronunciation at earlier stages and see how it goes down.
VOWELS
Yes, something that looks or sounds as easy as a vowel can be one of the hardest things for Spaniards to learn to discriminate. All of the vowels are tricky.