dr philida schellekens nationaal congres engels 25 march 2011
TRANSCRIPT
Drink a cup of tea
Take it to the bank
Wrap it in a scarf
Put it in a big envelope and hide it under the bed
Origin unknown
Drin ka cu pe tea
Ta ki te the bank
Ra pi ti ne scaf
Pu ti ti ne bi genvelope en[h]i di tunde the bed
Origin unknown
We teach the rules of grammar. Why?
Should we consider teaching the rules of spoken English?
I suggest we should but what are the rules?
recognise word boundaries
understand how words are linked in English
how stress and rhythm work and influence pronunciation
How can you help learners to understand spoken language?
Natural pause every 12 syllables in spoken English
Often no indication of where words start and end
Learners scan for words they already know
How much are they worth?
How much work?
written as sounds like phonetic notation
one apple
two apples
three apples
four apples
q
Michael Vaughan-Rees (2010) Rhymes and Rhythm Garnet 2nd edition
Linking consonant & vowel
written as sounds like phonetic notation
one apple wa napple wvYY YYnapxl
two apples two wapples tu: waplz
three apples three yapples hri:J japlz
four apples four rapples fO: raplz
q
Linking consonant & vowel
Michael Vaughan-Rees (2010) Rhymes and Rhythm Garnet 2nd edition
ten people ten cars that boythat girlgood playgood causethis shirtthose shoesright you aredid you go?
Field, J. 2003. ‘Promoting perception: lexical segmentation in L2 listening.’ English Language Teaching Journal 57/3.
Linking consonant to consonant
ten people tem people ten cars teng carsthat boy thap boythat girl thak girlgood play goo play
good cause goo causethis shirt thi shirt
those shoes tho shoesright you are rye chew are
did you go? di dja go?
Skill of identifying words in a stream of sound
In English stress is the most important factor
Principles of lexical segmentation vary across languages
Anne Cutler research: 90% of words in English have stress on first syllable!
How can you use the information on lexical segmentation to understand English better?
Anne Cutler 1990 Exploiting prosodic possibilities in speech segmentation in Cognitive models of processing MIT
How it's writtenBilly ate an apple, a nice ripe apple
Lucy ate an ice creama nice creamy ice cream
Chloe ate an egg,A nice brown egg
Flo ate an olivea nice Greek olive
Michael Vaughan-Rees p 16
How it's writtenBilly ate an apple, a nice ripe apple
Lucy ate an ice creama nice creamy ice cream
Chloe ate an egg,A nice brown egg
Flo ate an olivea nice Greek olive
How it soundsBilly yate a napple,a nice ri papple
Lucy yate a ni scream,A nigh screamy yi
scream
Chloe yate a negg,A nice brow negg
Flo wa ta noliveA ni scree colive
Michael Vaughan-Rees p 16
What shall we do now?/wo? Sxl wi du: n3/
What do you want to do now? /wo dZu: wonx du: n3/
Don’t think about it
If you gave the Mercury text as a dictation to intermediate level learners, how well would they manage the task?
What would you anticipate they can/cannot do?
B are duty
A who will
A allocationD elecated
C The council made recomadation
A FansB Funds of B
D made ………… for the spend of the money
B made
D cost
All students write deprived accurately
Mercury Wednesday 8th February 2006
Teach stress, rhythm and linking explicitly◦ The impact on listening is a priority, especially for
beginners ◦ Helping the learners improve speaking makes them
more intelligible
Help the learners notice through dictation◦ Dictation can be done at all levels, including beginner levels
Any questions, feedback?
Any other suggestions on how to promote listening?
If we have time, what makes Dutch speakers of English hard to understand?
And OUP discount on my book!
Some of Philida’s recent publications: Oxford ESOL Handbook. Oxford University press
(2007) ESOL - case studies of provision, learners’ needs
and resources NRDC (2005) Language in Construction (2005) EFL and ES(O)L: Common learning needs,
common teaching goals? IATEFL Conference Proceedings; ed Alan Pulverness (2005)
English as a Barrier to Employment, Education & Training (2001)