TEACHING THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH

TEACHING THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH

HIGH PRIORITIES

The certain basic characteristics of pronunciation which seem sufficiently specific to English to constitute a priority for the great majority of learners.

Flash card generator

A flash card is a card printed with words or numbers and briefly displayed as part of a learning drill. 

Using flash card you can teach your children letter recognition, letter sounds, sight words, number recognition, addition, subtraction, shape recognition, color recognition and more.

Lesson notes 31/10/13

READING A TEXT FOR COMPREHESION

Good Readers: broad semantic chunks	Bad Readers: specific details
Using his/her general knowledge	Limited to the lines
Use the previous context	Abuse using dictionary (Max.1-2 words in each page)
Use morphological relationships (Ex: hairdo)	Traducing word by word
Fillers	Not facing and modifying his/her hypothesis
Use the cognates	Stop at unknown words
Guessing skills	Read all words equal in importance
Observing
Broad view

Goals: reading for comprehension

1. Read though-not stopping-

2. Mark at one minute (Main idea on margin)

3. Mark-time going back-

4. Mark times using the dictionary

Conclusions

·         Did you read or translate?

·         How did you feel at the beginning?

Actividad guiada para mejorar la comprensión lectora trabajada en clase con el capítulo ``Dance of the happy shades´´ de Alice Munro:

Step One: The class is divided in pairs.

Step Two: each pair has two excerpts of the text.

Step Three: the first one starts to read in silence while the other one is following his reading and marking when he comes back, when he finishes at the first minute and the words that he looks for in the dictionary.

Step Four: repeat the process but the second reader.

Step Five: evaluate the reading comprehension with the previous explication in the box given before.

MAIN CLUSTERS IN PRIMARY (Year 1)

Web donde aparecen los principales "clusters" en la primera etapa de Educación Primaria. Además de listar varios "clusters" incluye recursos para trabajarlos en clase. Para más información...

Enlace: http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/clusters/clusters.htm 

Phonetizer: translate English texts to IPA

Phonetizer is software for Windows, Mac OS X and the web that easily and quickly adds phonetic British or American English transcription to any English text.

The Windows version of Phonetizer also allows you to listen to any English text with the help of the built-in text-to-speech component.

Lesson notes: Main mistakes (correction)

MAIN MISTAKES

1.       Word order

Subject: Yesterday played very well the children à The children played very well yesterday.

Adverb: Often she has helped à She has often helped.

Adjective: He has a cat very beautiful à He has a very beautiful cat.

2.       Questions

Subject: Has bought the books John? à Has John bought the books?

Verb: When Mary came? à When came Mary?

Preposition: Who killed to Kennedy? à Who killed Kennedy?

3.       Negatives

Verb: Peter not found the key à Peter didn’t find the key

Lesson notes NNTT: How to create a webquest

Definition:  

WebQuests are activities, using Internet resources, which encourage students to use higher order thinking skills to solve a real messy problem. WebQuests are a sub-set of Problem-Based Learning (PBL).

Pronunciación inglesa / Pronunciation of English

Consonantes y semivocales
símbolo	palabra	ejemplo	aproximación
/b/	bat	/bæt/	Sonido más explosivo que el de una b inicial española.
/d/	dig	/dIg/	Sonido más explosivo que el de una d inicial española.
/dʒ/	jam	/dʒæm/	Similar a una ch pero más cercano al sonido inicial de Giuseppe en italiano.
/f/	fit	/fɪt/	Como la f española.

Teaching Spots: correcting a tale!

The disappearance of the Round Table

We got into the King Arthur`s principal hall and the Round Table was gone!

There were gathered the King Arthur and his best knights. Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawain, Sir Galahad…We had a long dispute and at lunchtime we left the castle of Camelot.

-I`m a knight of the Round Table, my task is to fight against evil, fighting dragons and keeping the peace. I`ll find it! –I proudly told the king.

-I want you to find out who has stolen my table!- Said the King.

I went to the court-yard to begin my research. A tournament was taking place. People came from far away to see it and everyone shouted at the knights. I arrived to the stables where the King`s horses were eating. I took one of them and I rode into the Willow forest, where the house of Merlin was.

The old wizard lived alone, I asked him to let me talk to him and he agreed.

-I would like to know where the Round Table is-I asked Merlin.

Merlin looked into his crystal ball and said: `` You can be quiet boy, seeks Ginebra, she will know the answer to your question´´

I returned to the castle and I went running into the kitchen where the Queen Ginebra was sitting.

Intrigued and nervous I asked Ginebra if she knew where the Round Table was, and laugthing, she just told me that the Table was safe.

I quickly went to inform King Arthur that his wife was hiding something, so he ordered Sir Galahad to arrest Ginebra.

Arthur asked angrily why she had laughed and asked her to tell him where the Table was.

-You ought to be more attentive! The Round Table is in the kitchen, the servants were cleaning it while you were watching the tournament.

We were all embarrassed. It had been only a fright.

The title of the story is; “The disappearance of the Round Table”. Notes taken from the correction of Professor Antonio Garcés.

Empieza la lectura y con ella las correcciones…

1-La lectora cuenta y lee el cuento alternativamente y se mueve mientras lo cuenta.

1-El profesor la detiene  y le pregunta  qué quiere hacer, si leerlo o contarlo; el profesor le sugiere que sería mejor leyendo porque sería más clara y conectaría mejor con el público, además de estar más tranquila y más guiada. El movimiento que ella realiza es inútil al comienzo de la historia porque tiene que conducir a algo; por ejemplo, Merlín acercándose a coger la bola de cristal. El profesor aconseja que el narrador adopte una posición estática y con la voz marquemos la voz del personaje, sobre todo si estamos tratando con un texto para ser leído en voz alta. Si queremos contar, no debemos utilizar papel para lectura, de ese modo todo el lenguaje gestual entra en juego.

2-La lectora usa la palabra “research” en su historia

2-El profesor señala que en esa época se usaría otro tipo de vocabulario como “discover”. Para ampliar el vocabulario correspondiente a esa época, el profesor recomienda un diccionario de sinónimos y antónimos apropiado para ello llamado “Thesarious Dictionary”

3-La lectora usa el estilo directo a la hora de contar el cuento.

3-El profesor le puntúa que lea más pausado, así se conocerán los nombres de los personajes mejor; éstos deben ser capaces de ser “visualizados”, “oídos”, “olidos”, “sentidos” por el oyente. Sólo así atraparemos la atención del oyente y este será capaz de “recrear” una orientación dentro del cuento.

 Le puntualiza que hay que trabajar mejor los diálogos, y en vez de usar el estilo directo que ralentiza mucho, usar normalmente la tercera persona; usar menos el estilo directo a la hora de contar una historia.

- Estilo directo; “I know who has taken away the Round Table” Sir Lancelot said

-Estilo indirecto; Sir Lancelot said that He knew who had taken the Round Table.

4-El profesor está de acuerdo en que el desarrollo de la historia está bien estructurado.

5. El profesor le indica a la lectora que la hipótesis previa que ha creado, es un relato cómico de la edad contemporánea. Los cambios de registros que utiliza en el cuento funcionan bien en edades tempranas (4 a 7 años) después de esta edad no funcionan porque la intertextualidad que el niño “demanda” es más interesante que el mero hecho de que “se limpie una mesa”. Los niños a partir de los 7 años son más aventureros. El profesor quiere algo más complejo porque así los niños entienden la cultura inglesa.

      Pasamos a una serie de técnicas que el profesor Antonio Garcés ha visto apropiadas corregir en el cuento de nuestra lectora.

A. La lectora hace mención en su cuento un dato sobre “Ginebra”; hablando de las tareas de la casa y su marido, mientras, viendo un torneo, o el hecho de que sus sirvientes limpiaran.

A. El profesor “orienta” que si estamos trabajando como tema transversal, la coeducación, no es lo más indicado. Orienta diciendo que lo que uno diga a través de sus cuentos no cae en saco vacío/roto, va al campo social, y conforma una idea equivocada en el niño o niña. Por eso él recomienda hacer, en algunos casos, ficción de la realidad (para un beneficio) y lo inventamos.

      El profesor le da gran importancia a;

·         CONCIENCIA LITERARIA.

·         INTERTEXTUALIDAD.

·         Y AL CONTENIDO POÉTICO.

      ¿Cómo se consiguen algunas de estas  características en el cuento que estamos comentando?

      El profesor Garcés, apunta que la historia que estamos trabajando carece de poesía porque la trama es bastante floja para edades de 9-12 años, donde se busca más complicidad poética.

      ¿Qué conseguimos con la ficción?

·         Cambiando rasgos en el texto que aporten poco por algo más interesante; por ejemplo, en vez de poner ``que desapareció la mesa al  limpiarla´´ y dejar ahí el final, poner que “guardaba un tesoro” para de ahí sacar algo interesante para niños de mayor edad.

      ¿Qué podríamos mejorar?

1.      Mayor trabajo con los personajes. Descriptivo. Darles “vida”

2.      Mayor trabajo con “el torneo”. Investigar sobre los “torneos” normandos de la época; vestimenta, color, dónde se realizaban duración, asistentes, ropas, etc, etc

3.      Fijar más la estructura narrativa:

·         Orientación

·         Sucesos que ocurren

·         Resolución

·         *** Quizás epílogo o evaluación

4.      Se le podría dar un “papel” a Ginebra.

5.      Se podría poner un mensaje al final del cuento.

Lesson Notes (From the 28th of Oct. to the 31th of Oct.)

TELLING A TALE

·         Write title on board

·         Show ``visuals´´ if any

·         Reading aloud: “Listening to “ a tale.

·         Creating a different setting and different atmosphere

·         Creating an hypothesis in student´s minds.

·         Creating a thesis sentence/paragraph (This story is about…):

-Orientation: characters, time, place…

-Events

-Conclusion

Free speaking questioning (Use visual, title, anecdotes, history)à Para activar estas destrezas (En-abling skills):

-Observation

-Deducing/inducing (Images, title…)

-Extra information

-Discourse structure

¿CÓMO CREAR UN BLOG?

Do you know how to create a blog? Students in 4th Grade, of the subject: "Didáctica de las Lengua Extranjera a partir de las NNTT audiovisuales de la comunicación" of Escuela Universitaria La Inmaculada, we have made the following video which explains in clear and simple step by step the procedures to open your own Blog. Hope you find it useful and interesting:

LESSON NOTES (18th - 29th October 2013)

ORAL COMMUNICATION

 18^th October 2013

1.  Segmental units in phonology.

Tripthongs/ dipthongs à u, i, ə (Vowel glides).

2.  Suprasegmental units (varios segmentos de voz)

-        Rythym.

-        Intomtion.

-        Stress- “accent”.

-        Elisiom.

-        Assimilations.

-        Bridges.

Lesson notes (21st October - 3rd November)

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

-          How to correct?

-          Main mistakes

Textuality and types of text:

-          Narrative: factual and poetic

-          Description: factual and poetic

-          Argumentative

-          Dialogic

-          Poetic

è Text. End products: report, e-mail, chat, stories…

We come from textuality and want to get the “end products” but not the analysis, just the products what is beyond.

The first step is to encourage our students vision. We also have to verify if a text possess textuality or not.

Wikispaces versus blogs

What is a Wiki?

A wiki is a website that allows multiple users to create, modify and organize web page content in a collaborative manner.

 

What is a Blog?

Blog is an abbreviated version of Weblog, which is a term used to describe Web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog is a frequently updated, personal Web site featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles or other Web sites.

NEW WAYS TO LEARN ENGLISH ONLINE

There are plenty of ways to learn English, in which we will focus is an online form in which you aren't the only person who learns in solitary. The system is as follows: you have to register in a website, where people can learn other languages ​​with others. In addition to learning a language online, you teach your own language to the person who is teaching you English (and you can even learn other languages, don't only english). It is a type of online and totally free video call with someone else in the world, both undertake to chat and to teach every man his native language in exchange for company, time and entertainment. Totally disinterested. In short, Are "social networks" in which learning exchange, specifically, language.

Teaching spot: Dictionary game

DICTIONARY

This game’s objective is learning new words. We just need a dictionary. The first player looks up in the dictionary an unknown word and pronounces it aloud. The player with the dictionary will take the roll of the "reader."

The other players , in pairs, write down in a piece of paper the hypothetical definition of this vocable (it doesn’t matter if there is no relationship with the real meaning, but the definition has to look real).
All the definitions are given to the "reader", who reads them aloud to be voted.
After a minute thinking about the definitions, each team vote the option which they think is the real one (they can’t vote their own definition).
Then we look for the most voted one.

The points will be given as follow:

- 5 points for the most voted definition if it is not the true one and 10 points for the "reader" because his chosen word wasn't rightly guessed.
- If the word has been successfully guessed, 10 points will be remove from the “reader’s” account.

The team that gets the highest score is the winner.

Some examples of words can be rack, crank, switch...

CALL (computer assisted language learning)

Author: Graham Davies

© Professor Graham Davies

Abstract

An introduction to Computer Assisted Language Learning, including a brief history and mention of more recent trends (CD-ROMS, DVDs, the Web) and professional associations dedicated to CALL.

HOW TO READ ALOUD

Trabajo Previo

Lectura comprensiva
Preparación del texto
Corrección de fonemas aislados
Trascripción fonológica

ARTICULO COMPLEMENTARIO: Tipos de textos

TEXTOS

DEFINICIÓN:

      Los textos se pueden clasificar desde diferentes puntos de vista, aunque su finalidad principal es la de transmitir información. La presentación de la información depende del tipo de texto. 

TIPOS DE TEXTOS 

Lesson notes "Main Mistakes and Errors"

Written communication

How do correct?

·         Find out “main mistakes”

·         Models for correction

·         Creating your “table”

Lesson notes 9th October - 16th October

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

v  HOW TO CORRECT?; MOST COMMON ERRORS AND MISTAKES

-          Main mistakes/ errors in writing are:

1.      Mistakes: lack of concentration. Ex: “-s” 3rd person. Mistakes need concentration and revision by students. Teachers should give them the chance to self-correct. We consider it negative.

2.      Errors: lack of knowledge (they don´t know but they should know) It needs remedial work by teachers. We consider it negative.

3.      Attempts: taking risks trying, experimenting.. Attempts should be value as something positive.