Teaching Pronunciation: Theory and Practice TESL 542, Spring 2007 Professors Robin Barr and Karen Taylor

Transcription

1 Teaching Pronunciation: Theory and Practice TESL 542, Spring 2007 Professors Robin Barr and Karen Taylor Instructors Instructors Robin Barr Karen Taylor Phone (cell) Office Hours McKinley 156, by appointment Course Description Teaching Pronunciation introduces the formal analysis of phonetics and phonology along with techniques for incorporating these into practical classroom instruction. This course places an emphasis on problem solving strategies using data from many languages and contexts, and on effective techniques for instruction. The main project for this course involves working with a non native English speaker to identify and address pronunciation issues relevant to the learner s needs. Prerequisite: TESL 500 (Principles of Linguistics). Assessment Assignment Type of Grading Weight 4 Problem 5% Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory 20% Phonetics quiz 5% Phonology take home quiz Graded 10% 3 Tutoring 5% 15% Demonstration Task Pronunciation Project Individual components will be graded separately. See project guidelines. 10% 40% Problem Sets Four problem sets will prepare you for the quizzes and your pronunciation project. You should collaborate with other members of the class in figuring out the problem sets, then write up and turn in your own assignment separately. Late or incomplete assignments may not receive full credit. Quizzes There are two quizzes: a short, in class quiz on phonetic transcription and features, and a take home quiz on phonology. There is no collaboration on exams.

2 Tutoring Logs More than a simple blow by blow account of what you have been doing with your pronunciation student, this assignment allows you to reflect on the practical applications of this course as experienced in your tutoring sessions. Each reflection paper should consist of three components: Tutoring Update: provide an update on your tutoring sessions followed by observations and/or any questions you may have about the instructional work you are doing with your subject. Targeting Pronunciation: reflect analytically upon a particular chapter or activity in your pronunciation textbook which you have found useful or otherwise remarkable with respect to your tutoring. Suggested topics: personalization, adaptation (for level or learning style), scaffolding. Connections; explore an idea, experience or discovery that illustrates points emphasized in class. Prof. Taylor will highlight and recommend specific topics throughout the course. Each log will be 2 3 pages, strictly enforced. (Think elaborately, write succinctly!) Papers will be graded on a 10 point scale, with late papers losing 1 point for each late day. Please submit papers in person, in class, on the due dates shown; late papers should be sent as a Word attachment to Prof. Taylor at katmail68@yahoo.com Demonstration Task Provided with a choice of task, you will demonstrate your understanding of one or more pronunciation concepts by completing a creative task of your choice. This is your chance to step outside the traditional academic box as you share your understandings and discoveries with your classmates in one of three scheduled gallery sessions, during which you will present or otherwise display your discoveries. See the Demonstration Task Overview for more information. Pronunciation Project Here, you will use the insights and skills that you are developing in this class to perform an in depth assessment of your student s pronunciation. This task will include: (1) finding a cooperative non native English speaker who wants to improve his/her pronunciation; (2) recording interviews and making transcriptions of his or her pronunciation, (3) using this data to analyze and diagnose his/her pronunciation problems; and (4) developing an individualized pronunciation syllabus and lesson plan for a hypothetical 12 week course that will improve your student s intelligibility. See the Pronunciation Project Overview and additional handouts for more information. Required Texts (available in the AU bookstore) Avery, Peter and Susan Ehrlich Teaching American English Pronunciation. Yavas, Mehmet Applied English Phonology. Miller, Sue F Targeting Pronunciation, 2 nd Edition (with audio CDs) Additional required and supplementary readings will be available at the library, on e reserves, or from the professors. Some homework will require use of the software in the TESOL office.

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4 Syllabus: Teaching Pronunciation TESL 542, Spring 2007 UNIT I: INTRODUCTION and SUPRASEGMENTALS Week 1 Jan 16 Course Introduction: a suprasegmental approach Introduction to the Project: catch your rabbit. Practice diagnosis and phonetics review. Readings: Avery intro, ch. 1; Yavas; phonetics charts. Week 2 Jan 23 Visipitch and other discovery stations Introduction to suprasegmentals. (Class held TESOL seminar room, McKinley) Problem Set 1 DUE. Readings: Avery 2, 4,16; Ladefoged 5, Yavas 7 Week 3 Jan 30 Feb 3 Week 4 Feb 6 I got rhythm: suprasegmentals, continued. Syllable structure and entries for the TESOL Songbook. Introduction to sociocultural issues. AU TESOL Workshop: Call em as you hear em : Ear training and transcription to improve teaching pronunciation. Led by Robin Barr. 9:30 a.m. 1:30 p.m., Mary Graydon Center 5 6 Songfest: the music of suprasegmentals. How to use songs effectively in teaching pronunciation. Tutorial Log 1 DUE Readings: Avery 5, 6; Yavas 6 Free to all Pronunciation students, who are encouraged to attend for additional practice and review. Lunch is provided. Problem Set 2 DUE Readings: Avery 9 UNIT II: SEGMENTAL PHONETICS Week 5 Feb 13 Feb 17 Week 6 Feb 20 Week 7 Feb 27 You re from a cow?! Linking, glottal stops and other rules your students don t believe in. Introduction to Project, Part 2. AU TESOL Workshop: Principles and Practices of Teaching Pronunciation Led by Karen Taylor and Brock Brady. 9:30 a.m. 1:30 p.m., Mary Graydon Center 4 5 Rubber bands and Koosh Balls : Vowel length and reduction. It s not sloppy, it s efficient! Why linking, vowel length, and the reduction of consonants and vowels are necessary rules of English. Project Part 1 DUE Readings: Avery 3, 11; Yavas 3,4,5; Arthur the Rat dialect variation. Free to all Pronunciation students, who are encouraged to attend for additional practice and review. Lunch is provided. Problem Set 3 DUE Group A Tasks DUE Readings: Avery 7, 8; Yavas 2, 8. Tutoring Log 2 DUE Readings: Avery 2 4 (review); DARE excerpt Week 8 Mar 6 PHONETICS QUIZ Then: Metalinguistic attitudes. Which English do we teach? Video: American Tongues. Reading: TBA Mar Spring Break

5 UNIT III: PHONOLOGY: sound patterns, rules, and mental representations. Week 9 Mar 20 Pigeonholes and phonemes. Finding and using more general patterns in language. Introduction to Project Part 3. Project Part 2 DUE Readings:Ohio Files, Halle & Clements excerpts. Week 10 Mar 27 Finding the rules: how to describe linguistic patterns and systems. PHONOLOGY QUIZ distributed (due Week 12). Problem Set 4 DUE Group B Tasks DUE Week 11 Apr 3 Your students phonologies: sound patterns in the classroom. Introduction to Project Part 4 Project Part 3 DUE Readings: Avery 13, 14 Week 12 Apr 10 What goes on in your mind: psychological reality of the phoneme. Phonology Take Home DUE Reading: Eimas Week 13 Apr 17 April 17 Syllabus Design: planning effective pronunciation lessons. Intro. to Project Part 4 Categorical Pizza: how phonemic categorical perception develops. Led by Robin Barr 8:10 9:15 pm, SIS Lounge. Tutoring Log 3 DUE Readings: Avery 10; Celce Murcia 9. Free to all Pronunciation students, who are encouraged to attend for additional practice and review. Pizza is provided. UNIT IV: INTERACTION OF PHONOLOGY WITH OTHER AREAS Week 14 Apr 24 Pronunciation in the ESL/EFL Classroom: integrating pronunciation into daily instruction (Note: although this is technically a study day, we will have a normal class meeting.) Reading: Avery 12 Week 15 May 1 The unfairness of English: What your students are indignant about. Word stress and allomorphy; words that change pronunciation. Project Part 4 DUE Readings: Katamba, Yavas 9 Week 16 May 8 What s that in the road, a head?! General conclusions. Course evaluations. Group C Tasks DUE Reading: Avery 16

6 TESL 542 Supplementary Readings Acton, William (1984) Changing Fossilized Pronunciation, TESOL Quarterly, V18, N1, pp Anderson Hsieh, Janet Approaches toward teaching pronunciation: a brief history, Cross Currents Vol. XVI No. 2, pp Anderson Hsieh, J Using electronic visual feedback to teach suprasegmentals, System 20(1): Bloch, Bernard Phonemic Overlapping, American Speech Vol. 16, pp Brazil, David Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Cassidy, Frederick, ed Guide to Pronunciation & Language changes especially common in American folk speech, in Dictionary of American Regional English. Celce Murcia, Marianne, Donna M. Brinton, and Janet M. Goodwin Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. New York, NY: Cambridge. Collins, B. & I.M. Meese (2003) Practical Phonetics and Phonology (with CD). Dalton, C. & Seidlhofer, B. (1994) Pronunciaton, Oxford, UK: Oxford, chapter 1, pp Derwing, Bruce & William Baker. Is the child really a little linguist? Chapter 6 in J. Macnamara, ed., Language Learning and Thought. Eimas, Peter D Linguistic processing of speech by young infants, Chapter 2 in R. Schiefelbusch & L. Lloyd, eds., Language Perspectives: Acquisition, Retardation, and Intervention, pp Eimas, Peter D., E.R. Siqueland, P. Jusczyk, & J. Vigorito Speech perception in infants, Science, Vol. 171, pp Fangshi, Cheng The Teaching of Pronunciation to Chinese Students of English, Forum 36, no. 1, Jan Mar Gilbert, Judy Clear Speech (student and teacher editions). Cambridge University Press. Gilbert, Judy. Clear Speech From the Start (student and teacher editions). Cambridge University Press. Gilbert, Judy Intonation: a navigation guide for the listener, in J. Morley, ed. Pronunciation Pedagogy and Theory. Alexandria, VA: TESOL, pp Grant, Linda Well Said. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Grant, Linda Creating pronunciation based ESL materials for publication, in Byrd, ed. Material Writer s Guide, Boston: Heinle & Heinle, pp Halle, Morris and G.N. Clements Problem Book in Phonology. Kaltenboek, Gunther Chunks and pronunciation teaching, Speak Out! 13, pp Katamba, Francis An Introduction to Phonology. Kiparsky, Paul & Lise Menn. On the acquisition of phonology, Chapter 4 in J. Macnamara, ed., Language Learning and Thought. Ladefoged, Peter (or later editions). A Course in Phonetics. Ladefoged, Peter Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages. (& CD) Levis, John Teaching Focus for Conversational Use, ELT Journal v.55 n1, Jan. Pp Lewis, Michael. Implementing a Lexical Approach, Hove, UK: LTP, esp. Chapter 8. Liberman, Alvin. The Speech Code, Ch. 12 in G. Miller, ed. Communication, Language, and Meaning. Matthews, John & Cynthia Brown Qualitative and quantitative differences in the discrimination of second language speech sounds, Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development, Vol. 22, pp Miller, Sue F Targeting Pronunciation (including CDs). Houghton Mifflin. Ohio State University. Language Files: Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Pennington, Martha C Computer aided pronunciation pedagogy: promise, limitations, directions, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Vol. 12, No. 5, pp Roach, Peter English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. 3 rd edition. Sapir, Edward The Psychological Reality of Phonemes. Swan, M. & B. Smith, eds Learner English: A Teacher s Guide to Interference and Other Problems. Velleman, Shelley L Making Phonology Functional: What Do I Do First? Wong, Rita Teaching Pronunciation: Focus on English Rhythm and Intonation, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wong, Rita Pronunciation Myths and Facts, English Teaching Forum, Oct. 1993, pp Note: Some of these will be required, others recommended or optional. These and other additional readings will be available at the library or from the professors.