English Massive
On Talent and Motivation
Many would agree that motivation is the most important element in learning a language. A motivation drives us to achieve what it is we want to achieve. In the context of language learning, learners who started their learning journey with a concrete goal, for instance, to study/work abroad, to understand films or programs spoken in English, to be able to read books or article written in English, to communicate with foreigners, etc will work hard to achieve those goals. It is motivation which creates interests in what we do and keeps our spirit in doing what we do. Motivated learners are willing to make efforts and invest in their learning. Unfortunately, we don’t always teach motivated students and oftentimes we are in a situation where students have no real reasons for learning a foreign language other than to pass an exam.
One of the ways to motivate our students is to create activities which are fun and useful for them. These activities should be relevant to the students’ interest and competence. Teachers could start by evaluating their students’ strengths and weaknesses and their overall progress in learning. It may be true that some students are more talented than the others and teachers may notice that some students also learn faster than the others. You may have a student who is good at pronunciation because s/he likes to listen to English song and sing to the music. Or you may have a student who has a strong vocabulary knowledge since s/he enjoys reading novels written in English. Knowing the students’ skills and talents will help teachers tailor their lessons so that it will be more relevant and effective.
Or perhaps think the opposite and challenge yourself. Think of how rewarding it would be once you can successfully engaged those unmotivated students. Try one way or another to see if your approach work with a particular group of learners. Good luck!
Basic Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way we produce sounds and articulate utterances and is an important element especially when teaching speaking skills. However, many teachers are reluctant to teach pronunciation in adult ESL classrooms because access to pronunciation courses are still limited or because of lack of formal training (Derwing, Diepenbroek & Foote, 2013).
While this article may not be comprehensive, it tries to highlight important points to note when teaching pronunciation.
Which English sounds are difficult for Indonesian learners?
English sounds may pose different challenges to learners from different language background. Learners will find it difficult to produce certain sounds which do not exist in their first language. For instance, Japanese speakers may find it difficult to articulate words which have an ‘l’ sounds. Now, what about Indonesian speakers learning English? Here are some sounds which I find challenging.
1 /s/ vs /ʃ/ vs /ʒ/
see – she – television
2 /v/ vs /f/
very - funny
3 /θ/ vs /ð/
think – this
4 vowel sounds (short vs long)
hit – heat hut – car hot – caught
[hɪt] - [hiːt] [hʌt] - [kɑː] [hɒt] - [kɔːt]
What is the goal of teaching pronunciation?
There is a common misconception that when teaching pronunciation we aim to see our students to speak with native speaker’s accent. In most cases, adult speakers of a second language will not achieve a native-like accent, so the more realistic goals is for learners to speak with intelligibility plus comprehensibility– that is, speech that can be understood with relative ease. In fact, as English has become a global language, non-native speakers of English seem to be confident with their local accents. We will find speakers from Southern America or Asia who are highly accented but also produce very comprehensible utterance. Being understood may be the most crucial aspect when speaking in English, regardless of your accents.
What aspect of pronunciation should we teach?
1. teach the individual sounds
Use minimal pairs to highlight how two words are differentiated by only one sound, whether it’s the vowel or consonant.
curl – girl hit - heat
2. teach the word stress
Unlike Indonesian, English words has a stress marker somewhere in its syllables. So, it is important to learn where the stress marker in each word is.
chocolate fifteen comfortable
3. teach connected speech
In normal conversation, words are not spoken individually. This may be the reason why students often find difficulty listening to native speakers speaking. Their utterances flow like there is no clear-cut borderlines between each word as they tend to link phonemes together to make it easier for them to get the message across. Words like ‘and’ or ‘of’ are often weak and linked to the previous and next sounds. Look at the example:
rise and fall
piece of cake
When a word ends with consonants, the consonants are often linked to the next word starting with vowels.
The coats all need to be cleaned
4. teach intonation patterns
Same sentences can mean different things when the stressed word is different. For example:
Were you in the bank on Friday? No, I was there Saturday.
Were you in the bank on Friday? No, I worked Friday.
Were you in the bank on Friday? No, but my sister was.
What facts about English pronunciation should the students know?
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English has 26 alphabets and 44 sounds. So, one letter may have different sounds (e.g. chaos vs chair) and different letters may produce same sounds (e.g. new – knew – glue)
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Expose students to much of target language and especially how native speaker produce sounds, but remember that the ultimate goal is not to imitate how native speakers sound, rather it is to help learners have intelligible pronunciation.
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Learn to teach not only the individual sounds, but also the linking sounds (e.g. an egg; how is she), stress, and intonation.
What strategy can we use to teach pronunciation?
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Word Counter
To raise the students’ awareness of the weak forms, teachers can play an audio in which students listen to sentences containing weak forms. Pause and ask the students how many words they hear. Go over the words and phrases and check with the students.
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Use tongue twisters to highlight sounds differences.
Susie works in a shoeshine shop. Where she shines she sits, and where she sits she shines. (/s/ vs /ʃ/)
Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better. (/t/ vs /ð/)
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Use songs to teach rhyming pairs
Run away with me
We're on the way to New York City
Take my hand and see
Manhattan never looked so pretty
Travel light and see the world right
You'll never know if you never go so
Run away with me and say hello to New York City
(Owl City – New York City)
References
Derwing, T.M., Diepenbroek, L.G. and Foote, J.A., 2013. How well do general-skills ESL textbooks address pronunciation?. TESL Canada Journal, 30(1), p.22.
Things to consider when restructuring a language program
There are some principles that a language program should follow such as:
1. Take account of L2 learner goals and reflect the needs of L2 learners. (RELEVANT)
When designing a course, it is important to take account of learners’ needs. A need analysis can be done to see what areas of language to include in the course and what competence that the learners would like to achieve. Hence, a good language program is designed to accommodate its learners need.
2. Provide and follow a language curriculum framework. (SYSTEMATIC)
The CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for language) is an international standard used to help course designer or teacher to identify competencies the learner needs as a language user. This framework helps to develop the language skills and components into description of activities the learners need to undertake. It also provides a framework for putting curriculum objectives, entry testing, syllabus definition, materials organisation, progress testing and certification of proficiency into one coherent local system that is appropriate to the context.
3. Know how to measure learners’ progression in English. (ASSESSABLE)
In line with the goal of the course, assessment should follow the principle of how language should be learnt and what competence should be achieved. Assessment refers to the procedures taken by teachers to measure their students’ learning as well as to evaluate whether their teaching method and the materials they use are effective. A test is only one form of assessment. Other type of assessment include questionnaire, self-assessment, and observation.
4. Support teachers with training and resources. (ENRICHING)
A good language program should provide its teachers with teaching guidance and resources and an opportunity for the teachers to engage in a continuous professional development. This could be realised in form of regular training, access to books, teaching references, and other teaching materials, as well as a discussion forum which allow them to connect with other teachers to discuss and exchange ideas for teaching.
Ideas for teaching vocabulary
A strong knowledge of vocabulary is highly significant for language learners to communicate effectively. At times, communication breakdowns are caused by lacks of lexical competence. For more advanced learners, the difficulty in articulating their message using exact and specific words can lead to frustration. It is teachers’ job to help the learners acquire new words to enhance their communication ability. Below are several activities which can be used to teach vocabulary.
1. Matching synonyms/opposite
2. Cross out the word that doesn’t belong with the others in the group.
Example:
apple pear jam apricot
coat jumper sweater heater
3. Categories - You give the example; students give the category. Or vice versa.
4. Complete the sentences
I was exhausted after ___________________
Happiness is when _________________
5. Complete the definitions - How are these actions performed?
thrust = to push ____________________ (forcefully, hard)
shatter = to break ____________________ (into many pieces)
tap = to hit _____________________ (lightly, softly)
6. Vocabulary Ladder Puzzle Directions:
Example: The five missing words in the vocabulary ladder all have three letters. Each word differs from the word immediately above or immediately below by only one letter. Use this information and the clues to solve the puzzle.
1. __ __ __ My first pet was a ___.
2. __ __ __ When I was shaving this morning, I ___ myself.
3. __ __ __ Would you like a ___ of coffee?
4. __ __ __ A baby dog is called a puppy or a ___.
5. __ __ __ Let’s ___ some popcorn! I’m hungry.
Activities to do with the Alphabet song
Most teachers will do two things when teaching English with a song: to ask the students to sing along or to do some gap-fill (missing lyrics). There are actually several more activities to try out in class using songs in order to give students more opportunities to practice their English.
1. Using the alphabet tree poster which is available to download below the article, you can do a simple game where teachers say a letter and students find the letter. This can be done as a warmer for the whole class or for group competition. If you prefer to do it for group competition, put the students into a group of 3-5 ( depending on the class size). Put the poster on the whiteboard then have each group lined up. Say a letter for the players to swat or touch. The first player who finds the letter quicker than other groups get a score.
2. In the next activity, teachers need to prepare two sets of alphabets (or a set of capital letters and another set of lowercase letters). Tell the students that they will be given some letters and will have to find a friend who has the same letter –this should be done without letting the students see each others’ letters, instead they should ask and answer questions about the letters. The questions could be: “What sound does your letter make?” “What is a word that begins with your letter?” This can be done individually so students will mingle or to be done in smaller groups.
3. Students will also need to learn how to write the letters, in addition to pronouncing the letters correctly. This activity may serve to help your students engage in writing activity to practise their knowledge of English letters. First, prepare words or picture of common objects. Make sure the students know these words –you may need to pre-teach some of the words. Prepare a worksheet that contains the words or the pictures and a series of blank spaces for each student. Or you may also dictate the words or point to the pictures you put on the whiteboard instead.
____________ begins with the letter ___
____________ begins with the letter ___
____________ begins with the letter ___