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Language Links, Winter 2003/04

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In this issue Adrian Tennant takes a look at some websites which deal with areas of pronunciation. We hope you enjoy this Web Guide and find the sites useful.

Why?

http://www.stuff.co.uk/animation/gbshawrm.htm
A short extract from a poem by George Bernard Shaw which gives a clear indication why learning and teaching English pronunciation is so important. Listen to the poem and then fill in the missing words. To get the answers, simply click on the link at the bottom of the page.

Articles

http://pers-www.wlv.ac.uk/~le1969/psig/fart.htm
A collection of seven articles from Speak Out, the IATEFL Pronunciation SIG Newsletter.

http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Archive/pronounciation.htm
A short article by Tim Bowen which briefly examines the importance of thinking of a particular group of students when you are selecting pronunciation activities for the classroom.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/pron/phonemic1.shtml
Teaching English is a site brought to you by the British Council. Here is a short article that looks at using phonemic symbols in the classroom. It gives some good reasons why phonemic symbols should be used and looks at some practical applications.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/pron/global_english.shtml
This article, also from Teaching English, is written by Dr Jennifer Jenkins and looks at Global English and EIL (English as an International Language).

http://www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/supra1_scott.htm
Often when teachers and students think of pronunciation, what they focus on is individual sounds and sound discrimination. Here is an article that emphasises the importance of teaching connected sounds, or suprasegmental features (i.e. stress, rhythm, intonation, pitch and voice quality).

Activities

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/prontry/pron_activites.shtml
Some practical activities for the classroom.

http://www.developingteachers.com/phonology/phonology.htm
A whole set of activities ranging from awareness activities for teachers to tasks that can be taken straight into the classroom with little or no preparation. There are also a few interesting articles at the end of the section.

http://www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/Tips/scrivener_elt_phonetic.htm
This links in nicely to the first of the Teaching English articles mentioned above. Here you’ll find a few practical ideas that can be taken straight into the classroom.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/learnit/learnitv205.shtml
Silence is golden! A site that takes a look at 'silent letters'.

Pure fun!

http://www.elfs.com/MMz.html
Who says that pronunciation can’t be fun? Try these tongue twisters and then make up your own. (To listen to the tongue twister, click on the word or phrase.)

http://www.longman.com/go/teachers/li_categories.html
http://www.longman.com/go/teachers/li_bingo.html
A couple of simple pronunciation games that are both fun and easily adapted to suit your needs.

Other sites

http://www.soundsofenglish.org/
This is an interesting site which tries to cover a wide range of issues to do with pronunciation (although it is worth noting that the focus is on American pronunciation). One area of particular interest is the ‘Tips for Teachers’.

http://pronunciation.englishclub.com/
A series of articles and activities that look at a range of areas connected to pronunciation. This site also contains audio links enabling your students to listen to some of the pronunciation activities.

http://www.marlodge.supanet.com/museum/weakform.html
A page that takes a brief look at the importance of weak forms in connected speech.

A final word!

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jlevis/SPRIS/
A link to the website of the TESOL Speech and Pronunciation Interest Group. Contains links to lots of articles and interesting sites.

Adrian Tennant has written Web Guides for Macmillan coursebooks and works as a freelance teacher trainer and writer. He also lectures part-time at New College Nottingham.

This article first appeared under the title 'Web Issues' in IATEFL ISSUES No. 175 (October-November 2003) and is reprinted by kind permission of the author.

If you have, or can create, a number of website addresses grouped round a TEFL theme, please let our Page Editor, Anne Stokes, know: a.stokes@strath.ac.uk

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