Possible answers: • The same phrases said with different stress (e.g. answering different questions: Who gave Sandy the matches? Mike gave Sandy the matches. Who did Mike give the matches to? Mike gave Sandy the matches, etc.);
• the same phrases said with different intonation (as in the example);
• role play (e.g. a dialogue between an American and a Brit);
• using easily confused words in the same story / dialogue (e.g. ship – sheep; bag – back)
• retelling a written story, noticing the difference or writing an invitation and inviting someone on the phone.
- ☺ (5 min) Ask a spokesperson from each group to describe their activity to the whole group. Discuss the examples focusing on the relationship between phonological features and contextual meanings. Say that now you would like to work on more general principles of teaching phonology.
Activity 3 Principles of teaching phonology Objective: to enable participants to develop some principles of teaching phonology
Time: 25 min
Materials: handouts 2 and 3 to each participant
►Procedure:
- ☺☺ (5 min) Tell participants that you would like to work on principles of teaching phonology. Distribute handout 2 to each participant; give them some time to read it individually and then discuss it in pairs.
- ☺ (5 min) Elicit a few random responses. Discuss them with the whole group. Say that the statements ion the handout represent two extreme views on teaching phonology.
- Say that forcing students to follow one ‘right’ model of pronunciation makes their spoken English inflexible and may prevent them from accepting phonological features of English that may be closer to their personality. It also weakens their ability to understand speakers of other varieties of English (e.g. different regional accents and social groups).
- Establish that to ignore phonological features for the sake of ‘communication’ means to over-simplify the notion of communication. This approach weakens students’ ability to convey and perceive different meanings through pronunciation and may lead to serious misunderstandings, as was demonstrated by Rod in the video from the previous session on pronunciation.(e.g. the use of ‘of course’).
- Say that acceptance of multiple standards and forms of spoken English implies that students should be able to recognise and use them appropriately according to the context (e.g. formal/informal situation; your audience: nationality, age, gender etc.; emotions and attitudes).
- ☺ (15 min) Say that in the light of these principles you would like participants to explore some guidelines for working on pronunciation and designing phonological tasks. Distribute handout 3 to each participant and discuss the issues with them.
NB: During the discussion remind participants that by applying the guidelines from Handout 3, they will
• expose students to a wide range of regional and social accents;
• let them choose the pronunciation model which is closer to their personality;
• raise their awareness of a link between people’s feelings and intonation;
• attract their attention to the ways different phonological features convey different meanings;
• raise their awareness of the role of context;
• make them practise as well as notice different phonological features (e.g. accent, particular intonation, stress)