Looking, sounding and feeling confident in front of your (English language teaching) class!

Something of a radical idea . . . You can substantially improve your "Classroom English teaching presence" by talking pretty much to yourself . . . without much talking with anybody else in the process. For some, unfortunately, that is their only option. Have a course for them.

Well . .  more technically: Enhanced (virtual and physical) English-teaching classroom presence (EECP) --for anybody who needs it! Another of the new v6.0 KINETIK Pro-D courses! This one is designed especially for those non-native English-speaking instructors who have not been fortunate enough to do a training program where they had the opportunity to develop their "classroom English" skill set under supervision, as in a good internship or practicum. It is all done on Zoom or a comparable platform:

• Can be either 10 or 20 weeks in length, with one or two meetings per week.
• Cost varies, just based on number of participants. For example, the 10-week course for a class of 10, meeting once per week, would be about $500 USD per student; for 25 students, $200 USD each--and anything in between, even 50, at $100 each.
• Works best if all the instructors are teaching in the same school, or at least with the same type of students. 

As with all KINETIK courses, it makes use of content from the instructor's current (or favorite) course and:

• Develops improved general speech rhythm and clarity (including pronunciation)
• Features innovative "embodied oral reading" and "embodied. spontaneous oral recasting" as a basic homework/practice format. (using the student/instructor's own course content.) 
• Identifies and helps moderate both visual and speaking mannerisms that can be effectively "upgraded"-- particularly in the "Zoom Room!"
• Provides a powerful, embodied set of strategies for enhancing memory for content and expressiveness (primarily haptic in nature, using gesture and touch), most of which are directly applicable to any classroom or student population. 

Courses can be offered through a school or you can sign up independently. New classes commence when there is a group of at least 10 students--in compatible time zones!!! 

Look good? Contact us for more info, go to www.actonhaptic/eecp or wracton@gmail.com.

Haptic Pronunciation Teaching Webinars!

The first new, v5.0 "double webinar" is set to go, October 2nd and November 21st, 1930~2100 hours, Pacific Standard Time. Reserve your place now. (No deposit required.) Fee: 40 CAD

The webinars are highly experiential and participatory. You'll need

•  a hands free set up, 
• preferably projected on a TV screen, laptop or iPad of some kind, but a handheld with a BIG screen is OK, too 
• positioned at eye level  
• Wireless headsets or no headset at all are best, but headsets with a long cord are adequate, 
• since you have to stand up and "dance" on several occasions! 

The 75 minute, recorded sessions are followed by 15 minute Q and A.
Enrolment is limited to 50 participants in each webinar. There may be some time-zone restrictions, depending on early registration. Reserve your place now at: william.acton@twu.ca

Webinar topics 

• Introduction to Haptic Pronunciation Teaching
• Dictionary use for pronunciation
• North American English vowels
• Syllables and phrase grouping
• Intonation 
• Haptic homework
• Select consonants
• Fluency and linking
• Conversation rhythm and pausing
• Advanced intonation and secondary stress
• Classroom correction, feedback integration techniques

Webinars can be offered exclusively for one English teaching organization, as well as "on the ground," f2f one-day workshops.  (Contact: info@actonhaptic.com for information on group packages.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The noncredit haptic pronunciation course meets in a weekly 1-hour webinar and includes about two  hours of practice following the session. Course completion requires passing a certification test which includes a video test. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The graduate course, Ling 611 - Applied phonology, is a 3-credit online seminar. It is composed of three relatively equal streams: (a) the haptic pronunciation teaching, which is essentially the same as the noncredit course, (b) a phonological analysis of learner data stream, and (c) a theory and methods of applied linguistics stream with focus on speaking, listening and pronunciation. There is a combination of synchronous and asynchronous meetings and assignments. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Students' pronunciation bad? It's important but not your fault!

Hot off the presses. Large scale study relating to what teachers think about teaching "pronunciation".

Clker.com

(The blog post was actually inspired by a comment from a neighborhood ESL practitioner recently.) Some conclusions, summarized by Science Daily:

•  . . . it's important that students have strong PRONUNCIATION skills, and they (teachers) have a role to play in fostering them.
• PRONUNCIATION learning supports need to be personalized to meet students' different needs. A formulaic approach may not benefit all students.
• . . . many educators do not have support or know how to allocate time to helping students develop PRONUNCIATION skills
• Professional development and resources for PRONUNCIATION learning should be available to educators who will be responsible for teaching these skills
• Many factors outside the school's control influence students' PRONUNCIATION learning, and it is not clear which interventions have the greatest impact on students. Thus, schools and teachers should not be penalized for factors outside their control.
• (Paraphrasing here) Teachers should not be judged or evaluated based on their students' PRONUNCIATION.

I lied, sort of. Those conclusions come from a large study of emotional intelligence work in public schools in the US. I just substituted in PRONUNCIATION for SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT  OR INTELLIGENCE . . .

But the connection between social and emotional development or intelligence and success in developing adequate pronunciation in an L2 is well established in research in this field. I find the last two bullets intriguing. Evading responsibility for bad student pronunciation seems to be a standard (or at least implicit) objective in many L2 teacher education programs--and for pretty much the reasons indicated above.

Absolved of guilt and responsibility with lowered expectations, anything passing for individual intelligibility is fine. To paraphrase Gandhi's comment on Christianity: Pronunciation teaching has not been tried and found guilty (of messing with learners' identity,  social and emotional development, etc). It has just been found difficult and not tried.

Or an even better analogy is the great scene between John Belushi and Carrie Fischer in "The Blues Brothers"  . . .

I feel better already.

What teachers must know about pronunciation teaching!

Clip art:
Clker

Found an interesting 2012 study by Wahid and Sulong entitled, "The Gap Between Research and Practice in the Teaching of English Pronunciation: Insights from Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices." Their conclusion is that teachers need to know more and researchers need to be better at talking to them. Amen. One interesting finding was that the teachers in that study identified their "pronunciation" work as follows. (Frequency of teaching activity chart from page 136):

Repeating a sound after the teacher (as in error correction) - 23; Reading aloud - 22; Dictionary work - 10; Oral drills e.g. tongue twisters - 9; Choral reading - 3; Games - 2; Role-play - 2.

Now, granted, that may be a bit "extreme," in that today, at least among those teachers more exposed to contemporary methodology we would expect a wider range of activities and explicit pronunciation instruction (e.g., Baker, 2012.) 

Recently, on a professional discussion board of pronunciation researchers, the question came up as to exactly WHAT teachers should know. (Kudos to Levis of Iowa State University who got the original discussion going.) I later gave my grad students that list and asked them to order and edit it some. Here is basically what they came up with.  (Note the obvious bias on that first item on the list!) 

• Pronunciation work should be embodied in movement as much as possible.
• Spoken language is different from written language. 
• Pronunciation actually does matter.
• There is always time to include pronunciation. 
• All well-trained teachers can teach pronunciation effectively. 
• Any thoughtful pronunciation work is better than none. 
• Suprasegmentals are pronunciation. 
• There must be a working familiarity with segmental and suprasegmental features of speech. 
• Teachers must learn how to put more emphasis on suprasegmentals. 
• Teachers must understand how to systematically integrate pronunciation into language teaching. 
• Pronunciation can be included in or integrated in classes for all language skills.
• Pronunciation is closely connected to receptive skills and should be taught that way. 
• Some pronunciation issues should be made explicit while others can be left implicit. 
• Student needs should drive pronunciation rather than pre-selected targets. 
• Teachers must listen to and identify L2 speech problems, separating pronunciation from other elements of spoken language.
• Pronunciation work does not disrespect a learner’s L1, home culture or identity.
• Thought groups/tone units are the basis of all prosody work.
• Vocabulary should always be taught with elements of pronunciation, such as the stress pattern. 
• The word is the basic conceptual unit for pronunciation.
• Awareness of vowel duration and the alternation of long and short syllables is essential. 
• Stress-timed rhythm and syllable-timed rhythm may both be appropriate depending on the context. 
• Some errors are more important than others. 
• There must be practice in marking errors and classifying them according to importance. 
• Teachers must know how to provide useful feedback. 
• Teachers must understand how to help learners develop automaticity.
• Teachers must know how to teach compensatory strategies such as oral spelling.

Interesting list. What do you know . . .

Effective pronunciation teacher?

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

Ever get the feeling that you need a little more professional development? Extracted from a 2009 University of Nottingham study by Day, Sammons and Kington, summarized by Science Daily, here are the main findings or criteria for being the "most effective teacher."(Stare at the pineapple from the previous post for a couple of minutes, take a couple of deep breaths, then rate yourself on a scale from "Whatever" to "Absolutely!") The most effective teachers are: 

• knowledgeable
• innovative
• skilful
• fun-loving
• caring
• supportive
• task-centered
• pupil-centred
• in a class of their own
• stimulate a pupil’s imagination
• challenge their views
• encourage them to do great things
• motivate them through tailored teaching practices
• ensure that every pupil feels a sense of achievement 
• ensure that every pupil feels valued as part of the class community
• create a positive climate for learning
• inspire pupils
• differentiate amongst pupils according to their abilities "where appropriate”
• differentiate amongst pupils according to their interests "where appropriate”
• give students more control over their learning
• give students more engagement in their learning
• give students more opportunities for success
• have great enthusiasm for their work
• have high aspirations for the success of every pupil
• have positive relations
• have high motivation
• have strong commitment 
• are resilient
• focus on building self esteem
• focus on engendering trust
• focus on maintaining respect.
• and . . . are not necessarily those with the most experience

It's lists like that that make you realize just how little you have accomplished in 40 years in the field . . . or simply wonder at what an incredible overachiever you are!