Thursday, February 11, 2016

(Haptic) Pronunciation in the classroom: the neglected essential!

TESOL.org
Great new book edited by Tamara Jones, Pronunciation in the classroom: the neglected essential, published by TESOL.org, has just been released. Spoiler alert - before I get to describing it in more detail: We (Michael Burri, Amanda Baker and myself) contributed a chapter: Anchoring Academic Vocabulary With a “Hard-Hitting” Haptic Pronunciation Teaching Technique.

This is a very practical, useful book. I say "practical" because the book is filled with specific techniques for doing pronunciation that even novice teachers can adopt without a great deal of previous training in pronunciation teaching. The assumption is that pronunciation should be integrated into instruction--all over the place, everywhere, most any time. The "neglected" in the title applies not just to the fact that effective pronunciation teaching is often not a priority today but also where and when it is done. Even were we not in the book, it would be a required text in my graduate applied phonology course, along with Applied English Phonology, 3rd edition, by Yavaz.

The other sense of "neglected", of course, from our perspective is the happy inclusion of a haptic pronunciation teaching technique. In this case it is the most popular of the pedagogical movement patterns, the Rhythm Fight Club.

You should get a copy . Also, no worries that we, along with the 20 other authors, get a windfall from book sales. We each do get a PDF copy--and all the glory, of course!

 Keep in touch!

2 comments:

  1. I love your Rhythm Fight Club and can't wait to see a "live" demo at TESOL at our book session on Wednesday, April 6th at 2:00 PM.

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  2. I'll bring boxing gloves as long as you get into the ring with me!!!

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