holistic approach to understand better spoken English

Some ideas to improve your overall comprehension of oral English, and little by little, your own production:

Learn in a holistic way, the best way I can think of is to:

-          Learn in chunks and train your ear to identify how these chunks sound as a sequence of sounds as opposed of just a group of words

-          Study collocations

-          Be aware of how your brain will work out the little grammar words almost unnoticeable to the untrained ear by familiarising yourself with the sequence of sounds.

-          Become aware of things, identify them and then little by little you’ll produce them yourself (hopefully :-))

-          Learn the pronunciation of each sound but remain flexible, open-minded as different varieties pronounce vowels differently.

-          Be aware that sounds are influenced by what’s next to them, notice the position of your tongue when you pronounce n in thin and think and thing.

-          Identify the different parts of the language learning help you understand language as a whole. ?

-          Learn to identify sounds that you mispronounce, how a native speaker pronounced certain words / phrases and learn to accept that it may difficult for you to actually speak like a native at an adult age. But we can train the ear to identify sounds. It’s not easy but not as hard as it may appear.

-          Listen, transcribe and repeat with supervision at first, repeat on your own, read and repeat. Identify sounds and minimal pairs.

-          Be aware that, just like in Spanish, if you change a sound, you change the word. You change the stress of a word and you may potentially change the word too. Unlike Spanish, you change the stress of a sentence or on a word within a sentence and you give the sentence a different meaning/emphasis.

-          In some cases, just one sound and we have the past or the present of a tense/sentence. Learn to identify it and pronounce it. (-ed is often pronounced as t or d)

-          Identify patterns of letters and their most common pronunciation but never take this for granted. Spelling is so common in English because pronunciation is so unreliable. Homophones, minimal pairs... if you know if the word is a noun, adj, verb, etc , your brain will make a quicker connection to the right meaning, provided you know the word.

-          Learn as much vocabulary as you can. You won’t necessarily understand something if you don’t know the word or expression. You’ll brain may make a connection to something it has stored.

-          Get rid of the idea of one word=one meaning. Words are concepts and can be translated in different ways into different languages depending on their understanding of the world. In how many translations can you think of “meet” into Spanish, and German and French?  And of the word dejar in Spanish into English? For an example of what i mean, go on www.visuwords.com

(ideas) on importance of pronunciation

Pronunciation

"you don't have to sound like a native speaker but..." 

Pronunciation is not only a matter of you being understood when producing words. It is also a question of you understanding when spoken to. It’s a two way issue. 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 though, it’s important to know vocabulary and to understand how grammar works that you’ll lead you to a greater comprehension.

You explain 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!

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.

0. 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. Spanish has 26 letters and 27 sounds, Catalan ...27 letteres and 32(?) sounds amongst them the schwa, the most common sound in English, French also has more sounds than letters,... Which makes or should it easier to discriminate and produce more accurate English in terms of phonetics only. The fact that Spanish has fewer sounds explains why Spanish-only speakers find English hard to understand and produce intelligible output- among other reasons.

1. Watch the Introduction videos from bbc learning English, pronunciation tips. Listen to them at least twice.

Introduction: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/vowel_long_5.shtml

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!

2. 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.

Vowels v consonants ?

3. Sounds:  learn, cup cap, etc. Carefully read and listen to the sounds and videos from the ppt doc provided.

4. –es, -ure word document. Use www.howjsay.com and www.wordreference.com   
5. Schwa and weak forms
6. Past ed
7. Ea spelling and sounds
8. Minimal pairs
9. Connected speech
10. Learn to identify –er at the end of word as most times –er means :

-          Verb + er =  Noun. The person (or thing) that + meaning of verb

                               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.

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.

-           

11. Ea in spelling can be tricky:
12. Oo
13. ou

Saying numbers in English

Numbers are found in prices (35€), dates, fractions, maths formulae, financial reports, telephone numbers, etc. Numbers are everywhere! That's how important they are. We say the same figure , say 2010, differently depending if it's a time, a year, a price, a code so learn not just the numbers but how to say them (and their associated prepositions if necessary!).

People all levels seem to have a lot difficulties with numbers, whether it is when saying dates or with fractions or long numbers. Here is a compilation of material that you, if you are one of these people, might find useful.

Numbers

http://www.learnenglish.de/basics/dates.html

See them, hear them + lots of useful info.

Number+ teen     number +ty

Thir teen                    thir ty

http://www.engvid.com/english-pronunciation-numbers/

Saying long numbers:

very easy, same order as in your language

Watch and learn:                                    J

http://www.engvid.com/speaking-english-saying-numbers/

Three hundred and thirty three thousand three hundred and thirteen… quin número és?

In British English we use and after “hundred”. We pronounce it very quickly like in Guns ‘n roses, the musing band from 1990s!

 

Dates
In English, we can say dates either with the day before the month, or the month before the day:
We write: 1st Jan, 2001 or Jan 1st, 2001… and    1 Jan, 2001 or Jan 1, 2001

We say: The first of January / January the first.

Remember to use ordinal numbers for dates in English even if we do not write it.
(The first, the second, the third, the fourth, the twenty-second, the thirty-first etc.)

Years
For years up until 2000, separate the four

numbers into two pairs of two:
1965 = nineteen sixty-five
1871 = eighteen seventy-one
1999 = nineteen ninety-nine

For this decade, you need to say "two thousand and —-" when speaking British English:
2001 = two thousand and one
2009 = two thousand and nine

Large numbers
Divide the number into units of hundreds and thousands:
400,000 = four hundred thousand (no s plural)

If the number includes a smaller number, use "and" in British English:
450,000 = four hundred and fifty thousand
400,360 = four hundred thousand and three hundred and sixty  

Watch this video: http://www.engvid.com/speaking-english-saying-numbers/

Fractions, ratios and percentages
½ = one half
1/3 = one third
¼ = one quarter
1/5 = one fifth
1/ 6 = one sixth etc
3/5 = three fifths

1.5% = one point five percent
0.3% = nought / zero point three percent

2:1 = two to one

Saying 0
Depending on the context, we can pronounce zero in different ways:
2-0 (football) = Two nil
30 – 0 (tennis) = Thirty love
604 7721 (phone number) = six oh four…
0.4 (a number) = nought point four / zero point four
0C (temperature) = zero degrees

Talking about calculations in English
+ (plus)
2 + 1 = 3 (two plus one equals/is three)
- (minus / take away)
5 – 3 = 2 (five minus three equals two / five take away three equals two)
x (multiplied by / times)
2 x 3 = 6 (two multiplied by three equals six / two times three equals six)
/ (divided by)
6 / 3 = 2 (six divided by three equals two)

 

I am reaching the conclusion that teaching vocabulary at advanced levels if they are not going to be exposed to it is just a bit frustrating. For them , they are not going to get many chances of acquiring it and they probably want more feeling of progress than just learning new expressions. Grammar will help them understand more, and with effort, you can actually get them to use it in an undersatable way.


We are at a stage where people have been exposed to a considerable amount of English.
Vocabulary is key.
The latest example is of somebody who says… dots meaning points. Ununderstandable nearly.
We can share this dots  based on our eHIS   
People are not aware that words don’t just have one meaning, one translation.


desensenyar i reensenyar i reaprendre
es el que s'ha de fer amb angles als meus adults

we insist on teaching structures and words which students will very unlikely use. Not because they lack the ability but because culturally it's just too different. they don't relate to them.
their brain uses whatever pattern it has and whatever is simpler to retrieve.
that's considering they are not exposed to real English and by real i mean British or American english, or Australian.

ensenyar angles avui en dia es desensenyar el que saben o creuen saber.
desensenyar mal habits de parla i escriptura

i tall that to vicky

ana botella

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/annanicholas/10151737/a-culture-shock-awaits-spaniards-swapping-their-homeland-for-the-uk/

http://simpleenglishuk.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/pronunciation-and-a-relaxing-cup-of-cafe-con-leche/
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/annanicholas/10151873/why-spain-should-wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee/
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/informacion/2013/09/10/profesores-ingles-ana-botella/00031378824533063483935.htm
http://www.lasexta.com/videos-online/especiales/noticias/juegos-olimpicos/2020/entrevista-coach-ana-botella_2013091300020.html

vaughan
http://es.noticias.yahoo.com/la-sorprendente-f-rmula-vaughan-para-evitar-el-203000481.html


unfinished:

Echando una hojeada a la prensa internacional. Nadie se ha mofado de su inglés solo los españoles. Al contrario. Simpatizan con ella y los profesores

Se nota que ha puesto esfuerzo y algo de tiempo en practicar y que alguien le ha escrito el texto. Su mérito tiene teniendo en cuenta que como política nadie le exige que sepa inglés para acceder a su sitio de trabajo y que probablemente no lo haya estudiado hasta mayor. La gramática por lo general está bien, básica pero bien. ¿A cuantos les saldría bien el want this to be, o un –chor para –ture  (no correcto pero un intento del tur)? También hay el uso del muy básico posesivo its, que a menudo la gente lo tiene bastante olvidado.

A su favor, ha intentado pronunciar los diptongos, ponen énfasis donde lo pondría un británico, ha pronunciado bien el final de –ces,  buen intento con el comfortable , intento medio aceptable de –ture, ha superado el miedo que tiene de hablar en pública la mayoría de gente que no habla bien el inglés.

Omite lo típico de muchos castellano-hablantes el sonido final de algunas letras pero taste, last, peterburgh is mispronounced,

Cabe decir no necesariamente en su defensa que para gente de habla castellana pronunciar la g de gentlement, la schwa (vocal neutra como el francés je o el catalán en sílabas, o suavizar la h de hope o home no es fácil. El castellano tiene una cantidad similar de sonidos que de letras del alfabeto a diferencia del inglés, francés o catalán. El inglés hay casi el doble de sonidos, que varían un poco según la variedad y/o acento, mientras que en catalán tienen un 25% más, en grandes términos. Por lo tanto no sorprende la dificultad a la hora de pronunciar. A la vez, aquí se separan las palabras y las sílabas son todas claras. Una vez más, esto es distinto en inglés. No me voy a alargar explicando las formas fuertes y débiles, la vocal neutra y el sentence stress ya que da mucho de sí.

El perhaps y el welcoming son ejemplos de este poco conocimiento de como funciona el inglés a nivel oral. Pronuncia estas dos palabras como si cada sílaba fuera tónica y esto desubica.

Las pausas en la famosa frase “there’s nothing quite like a relaxing cafe con leche in Madrid’s plaza mayor”. It’s a statement and she kind of pronounces it as three/four different questions from the very first word. She pauses in the wrong place “there is nothing /  like eh / relaxing cafe con leche / in ...” she raises the intonation in each of this bits. It sounds as if she is going to ask a question but without the inversion of the verb to be. This is an attempt to put this emphasis and use the English pitch. Failed attempt.

Cierto es que es normal tener un poco de acento y todos sabemos qeu no es fácil aprender idiomas bien

 

De-teach and re-teach

Teaching English to adults in Spain is mostly a matter of "de-teaching" what they use and re-teaching them, feeding and helping them process the real English.
desensenyar per tornar a ensenyar.

do your homework

As a teacher you must really be familiar with the material you use in class/give as homework.
Do/read it all yourself beforehand.

the queen's english

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9280753/The-Queens-English-changes-through-the-years.html

teach with short films

In the TESOL regional event I went to on Friday, Kieran Donaghy from UAB idiomas told us about using videos in the class, something that many of us do already. Yet the sample of videos he produced to do so was just inspirational and breathtaking.

www.film-english.com uses short films that one can find in youtube or vimeo, made by people with ideas and causes and messages to get across, or maybe wanting to show off their skills. The videos as a stand alone thing are worth watching and if you can exploit them in the english class, asKieran has done, all the best! In an age where  illustration and film-making has become all the rage, it'd be crazy to overlook these pieces of material. All down to thanks to easy access to technology and "digitality" and affordability.

They are classified by levels and there's quite a few to choose from.
 www.film-english.com

Thanks for sharing Kieran.

PRONUNCIATION: S vs SH sound

Algunos de vosotros tenéis problemas para distinguir o hacer el sonido de she, shhhhh!  y os sale una s

fijaros que no es lo mismo decir :

short que sort
Sue que shoe


Here is a few podcasts and videos to practise the shhhh sound

http://www.engvid.com/english-pronunciation-s-sh/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/con_voiceless_8.shtml


The one below...este os da vocabulario y expresiones con el shhh sound:
It's vaughan giving words with this sound. He doesn't compare it with s sound, though.
Your problem seems to be that the you produce s in situations where you should say sh

http://www.ivoox.com/pronunciation-of-the-sh-in-english-audios-mp3_rf_1652032_1.html
Enjoy

conseguir en inglés

El verbo conseguir pone muchos problemas a muchos de vosotros.

Conseguir + verbo = conseguir hacer, conseguir acabar...

al final he conseguido/podido hablar con mi jefe.
I have finally managed to speak to my boss.
I have been able to speak to my boss.
I have succeeded in speaking with my boss (a bit more formal)

La mayoría de vosotros conoceréis el manage como "gestionar" :
I have to learn to manage difficult situations more effectively
Peter will manage a team of 5.
team management, people management, risk management
my  manager

Fijaros que manage en el sentido equialente de conseguir va seguido de un TO INFINITIVE
mientras que manage gestionar de un NOMBRE

Conseguir + nombre

conseguir mis objetivos
conseguir algo
 significado de alcanzar

muchos usáis el get, pero mejor el reach, achieve, attain, entre otros
 i will reach my objectives next year, i haven't reached my target this month
they will achieve their goals

Reach y achieve nunca van seguidos de un TO infinitive

Fijaros en esto:
I have managed to reach my objectives
He conseguido alcanzar (=conseguir) mis objetivos

managed to + verb





 

reading comprehension
http://englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Reading%20Comprehension.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/8474569/Stay-at-home-kids-a-worldwide-phenomenon.html
stay-at-home kids

from my university book, nexus, downloadable es scribd.com  + telegraph
search for video

fer subcricipcio onestopenglish??

PODCASTS
NO TRANSCRIPT
http://www.ivoox.com/listening-exercise-audios-mp3_rf_632151_1.html#
podcast englishfor21st
esl podcast
listen to english
better at english
a cup of english
the english we speak´
upper intermediat (javier aguera)...!!!!! FCE listening
curso de inglés en 34 lecciones
ingles total elemental

VIDEOS
NO TRANSCRIPT

engvid.com
ESLJENNY.COM? (YOUTUBE)
elmenuinglés tb te videos

I was telling a student something i ve put into words just recently.
The sense of achievement students get when they build a sentence in English in a normal communication situation, just chatting with me for example. Word by word, little by little, slow, conscious production.
That's what we don't really want in a way, we want fluency over accuracy, we want them to connect things but i find it hard for them to learn in chunks.
Also the fact that they sometimes stop and seek reassurance or feedback after saying two words, as if waiting for you to approve this before they continue. What they say may be correct or not, depending how they continue the sentence... they don't get that
third is the fact that they sometimes think that we need xyz depending on the tense we use.
that applies to time references/adverbs/time adverb phrases but not to prepositions, ...

the secret to learn a language video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTEaDyTxgIQ&feature=related