Monday, November 26, 2012

Teaching Pronunciation reflection


I practiced this lesson with Sally last week. Teaching pronunciation was quite challenge for me, even I have my own problems to be corrected. I'm still thinking about pronunciation issue. Who's pronunciation is correct? Who's pronunciation is the most standard?
Pronunciation is the most interesting subject related a critical period of learning L2.

Jason Lee also talked about a critical period issue in SLA class, but I disagree with him some of part.
By his research from age 17-age27 period of learning English is not much difference, I don't think so.

I think 0-5years, under10 years, under 15years, under 20years, under 25years, under 30 years all age groups are different. I experienced who's arrived 1year earlier and 1year later showed a big language learning progress difference.

I'm teaching age8 and age11 elementary kids, I think these kids pronunciation will be better than adult learner someday. I had a presentation about a critical period of age 3-age7. I had a great lesson about critical period of language learning. I'm strongly agree with Norm Chomsky's hypothesis which is LAD (Language Acquisition Device).  The case of Genie gives me more a clear answer of why childhood is a critical period for language learning.  His Hypothesis claims that the first years of childhood are the best time to acquire a language.

I'm thinking about Korea in  here what we are doing. Korea is not an English nation, of course Korean is the first language. How can we teach kids pronunciation in here. The reality of English environment is so limited, lack of teachers, books, classes related to economical matter.
Kids have only few hours classes with L1 for a week. To hire more certify English teachers are impossible in public schools at this time. I think if kids practice pronunciation at least 1hour everyday, they will be mimicking more naturally.

I'm playing with Sally how to practice pronunciation using the flash cards, it was very interesting time with her. I didn't know how to correct pronunciation. She and I practiced together, I hope Sally can speak more naturally. I really want to know how to teach  and  how to correct pronunciation. It sounds like a big secret for L2 learners.  I found it how !!!!

Sally never tried this method, I gave her a straw to practice L & R sound. I think this way is the best to correct problematic sound of r and l.
I also tried with her small paper which is how much times paper blew out when we pronounce pet and bet.

Now Sally only needs to practice, I will see how can she correct her pronunciation with me.

L2 learner's pronunciation can be corrected or not. I don't yet.
I spent many hours to be correct it, but it didn't work well.

In my past experience pronunciation is really important matter. Speaking is really output, we are generally considering output as the first impression. The first impression gave the interviewer a big decision.

I'm drafting  about my module2 paper related pronunciation issue.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting, Sophie. I think in a place such as Korea, a teacher can also be a guide. That is, you can show students resources on the Internet that can help them with pronunciation. Your job is to find those websites and tolls and choose the best ones for your students. There are some amazing pronunciation resources out there -- that let students compare their facial movements with a live model's, or their recorded 'waveform' with a 'standard' model...

    ReplyDelete