I need some phonics resources for an ESL student.
June 16, 2010 8:03 PM Subscribe
I have to help a Korean ESL student get his English in shape. I'm looking for resources pertaining to speech, particularly in phonics and pronunciation.
The tale: There's a big district-wide English speaking competition at the end of the month. My school's chosen champion is a heck of a smart kid who works his butt off at every opportunity. I see him 90 minutes a day with the goal of "Making his English better". I've been provided no materials to do this with. The student is 12.
So far we've been reading Shel Silverstein poems- He reads it, I note any mistakes he makes, we review, I read it for him, then he reads again. I think we're both getting kind of tired of this. I've been making daily worksheets of tongue twisters and sounds he should be focusing on and making recordings of my pronunciations for him to listen to.
I think it might be more helpful to work on some phonics stuff, but I've never really sought out that kind of material before. Any ideas of web-based phonics/pronunciation resources I can use? Also, ideas for activities, drills, whatever I could use are much appreciated .
The tale: There's a big district-wide English speaking competition at the end of the month. My school's chosen champion is a heck of a smart kid who works his butt off at every opportunity. I see him 90 minutes a day with the goal of "Making his English better". I've been provided no materials to do this with. The student is 12.
So far we've been reading Shel Silverstein poems- He reads it, I note any mistakes he makes, we review, I read it for him, then he reads again. I think we're both getting kind of tired of this. I've been making daily worksheets of tongue twisters and sounds he should be focusing on and making recordings of my pronunciations for him to listen to.
I think it might be more helpful to work on some phonics stuff, but I've never really sought out that kind of material before. Any ideas of web-based phonics/pronunciation resources I can use? Also, ideas for activities, drills, whatever I could use are much appreciated .
What is the format of the speaking competition? Does he have to speak without reading a text? If so, you'll have to switch from reading things aloud to just speaking, because the processes for remembering proper pronunciation are different, at least with my students.
posted by acidic at 12:39 AM on June 17, 2010
posted by acidic at 12:39 AM on June 17, 2010
Also, give him 5-10 minutes of homework, to be done in the morning and again at night, practicing the sounds or words you covered that day. Repetition is key, and repetition more than once a day is better.
If you discover a way to break the Korean habit of sounding out the "-ed" in past tense, please tell me!
posted by acidic at 12:41 AM on June 17, 2010
If you discover a way to break the Korean habit of sounding out the "-ed" in past tense, please tell me!
posted by acidic at 12:41 AM on June 17, 2010
This demonstrates pronunciation at the phonemic level extremely clearly. You also need to look for resources on stress and intonation patterns though ... I suspect this is hugely unfashionable, but I'd probably start with an explanation of iambic pentameter.
posted by westerly at 1:39 AM on June 17, 2010
posted by westerly at 1:39 AM on June 17, 2010
I'm in the middle of a certification program for teaching ESL, and my course on teaching pronunciation ends tonight! Please feel free to MeMail me specific questions (he says ____ when he means ____).
Our instructor demonstrated this site which has animations of mouth/jaw/tongue position while forming different sounds, which looks extremely helpful for explaining exactly how an unfamiliar sound is formed.
I've also learned that there are lists of problems that typical 'X' first language students face in learning to pronounce English; here's one I found.
A basic understanding of phonetics -- e.g. voiced vs. voiceless consonants -- can also help enormously in explaining the differences between what a student is and should be doing. I picked this up in basic linguistics classes, but look up "IPA chart" and you should find something useful.
Finally, it's one thing to create a perfect voiced 'd' ending in isolation, but another to do it while engaged in actual complex communication. Games are a great way to move from one-word-at-a-time to varying degrees of complexity and involvement. There are a ton of games out there; seek and ye shall find.
Our class' textbook is "Teaching American English Pronunciation" by Avery and Ehrlich, but we also have been shown a couple of really excellent books for prompting activities, including a whole (excellent) book of pronunciation games.
posted by amtho at 6:52 AM on June 17, 2010 [1 favorite]
Our instructor demonstrated this site which has animations of mouth/jaw/tongue position while forming different sounds, which looks extremely helpful for explaining exactly how an unfamiliar sound is formed.
I've also learned that there are lists of problems that typical 'X' first language students face in learning to pronounce English; here's one I found.
A basic understanding of phonetics -- e.g. voiced vs. voiceless consonants -- can also help enormously in explaining the differences between what a student is and should be doing. I picked this up in basic linguistics classes, but look up "IPA chart" and you should find something useful.
Finally, it's one thing to create a perfect voiced 'd' ending in isolation, but another to do it while engaged in actual complex communication. Games are a great way to move from one-word-at-a-time to varying degrees of complexity and involvement. There are a ton of games out there; seek and ye shall find.
Our class' textbook is "Teaching American English Pronunciation" by Avery and Ehrlich, but we also have been shown a couple of really excellent books for prompting activities, including a whole (excellent) book of pronunciation games.
posted by amtho at 6:52 AM on June 17, 2010 [1 favorite]
ship vs sheep is a book with tape that goes by sound. im not sure if some can be found online. but one thing you can do with these is go over a minimal pair (i.e. ship / sheep) and do various exercises to practice differentiating... you say them, student says them, student points while you say, run to the board and hit the word you say, cover your mouth with a paper so they cant watch your mouth, etc... the book is not necessary for these exercises but it is organized by sound and has great examples of words containing each, and the alternate options are ones that make ESL learners think
posted by nzydarkxj at 12:00 PM on June 17, 2010
posted by nzydarkxj at 12:00 PM on June 17, 2010
If you're trying to improve one's pronunciation, the student needs to be able to distinguish the different sounds, then make the sounds him/herself. You can teach him how to place the tongue, and mouth shape to help the sound, but he needs to be able to distinguish the sounds. This is especially difficult for Japanese and Korean speakers on a number of sounds, mainly because they don't exist, and the existing sounds in their languages have trained them to use nearby sounds. By the end of the month, this will be difficult to correct, but you can concentrate on the main ones.
Wo sound in world, wharton and worry comes out wall because the tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth, even though it shouldn't to make the world sound.
the same with lice/rice, the tip of the tongue needs to touch the back of upper teeth like lime, lungue, but instead the tongue touches the middle part of the roof of the mouth which makes a different shorter sound. When sounding R, as mentioned above, the tongue doesn't touch the roof of the mouth.
This cannot be accomplished by doing homework, such as writing or solving problems. You need to talk to him during those 90 minutes and correct EVERYTHING. Don't do it while he's completing a sentence, but after he says what he says, and you can mention it to practice by asking part of his statement like, 'did you say your friend went to Wharton or Booth?' Then you can concentrate on those sounds, then tell him to tell you the complete sentence again with the pronunciation you taught him.
Be patient, and target each sound at a time. If he makes 5 mistakes in one sentence, then pick two to work on, or one. Then carry on the conversation for a minute or two, then pick another sound. Give him examples too of the words that sound similar, so he can hear you say it 'correctly' so he knows what it's supposed to sound like.
Hope that helps.
posted by icollectpurses at 10:54 AM on June 21, 2010
Wo sound in world, wharton and worry comes out wall because the tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth, even though it shouldn't to make the world sound.
the same with lice/rice, the tip of the tongue needs to touch the back of upper teeth like lime, lungue, but instead the tongue touches the middle part of the roof of the mouth which makes a different shorter sound. When sounding R, as mentioned above, the tongue doesn't touch the roof of the mouth.
This cannot be accomplished by doing homework, such as writing or solving problems. You need to talk to him during those 90 minutes and correct EVERYTHING. Don't do it while he's completing a sentence, but after he says what he says, and you can mention it to practice by asking part of his statement like, 'did you say your friend went to Wharton or Booth?' Then you can concentrate on those sounds, then tell him to tell you the complete sentence again with the pronunciation you taught him.
Be patient, and target each sound at a time. If he makes 5 mistakes in one sentence, then pick two to work on, or one. Then carry on the conversation for a minute or two, then pick another sound. Give him examples too of the words that sound similar, so he can hear you say it 'correctly' so he knows what it's supposed to sound like.
Hope that helps.
posted by icollectpurses at 10:54 AM on June 21, 2010
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posted by fieldtrip at 10:19 PM on June 16, 2010