Reflection paper

REFLECTION PAPER
Read module 2 lesson 12 materials and write short summary how to teach pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary as language aspects to different age groups

English may be one of the most difficult languages in the world to pronounce.

Therefore, in my opinion, teaching adult ESL students English Pronunciation from the beginning should be treated equally with Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.
Learning the basics of pronunciation through Phonics, students will not only learn to speak comfortably, but also will improve their Listening Comprehension. That is, when students can pronounce “Tree” and “Three”, it will be easier to “hear” the difference when someone says these words to them.
At the same time, Pronunciation is important to improve Reading ability. When we read, we say the words “out loud” in our minds. Unfortunately English consists of many words that look the same but are pronounced differently and have different meanings. So learning these differences will help the ESL student learn to read better.
What is the best way to teach pronunciation through phonics? Below is a summary of the method I use with Spanish speakers.
1. In my classes, all students either use my textbooks and/or Pumarosa.com if computers or Smart phones are available. Pumarosa is a free, bilingual and interactive – with voice – ESL website. Usually a phonetic spelling based upon how a Spanish speaker would write the pronunciation follows the vocabulary words.
2. Basic pronunciation: I prioritize sounds and rules in an order of usefulness or difficulty – the ‘problem sounds’ - such as:
G/J
Short i
Th…
Short u
V
The silent E rule and words beginning with S followed by a consonant because Spanish speakers have a tendency to add an E at the beginning.
3. I then introduce the sound or rule using humor and exaggeration. If my students can laugh at me sticking my tongue out while I show them how to pronounce Th, then they will copy me without fear! Tongue twisters are often popular.
4. It just so happens that all of the above can be practiced by studying the alphabet, the numbers and greetings. So the first lesson for the students to practice out loud is the alphabet, and spelling their names, the names of their mothers and fathers, etc., with a copy of the alphabet in front of them.
The second lesson is the numbers up to one million, followed by Greetings, also with a copy of the text in front of them.
5. Each lesson is followed by an exercise or dialogue, which the students read out loud, as well as they can. At first, I explain that it is not necessary to pronounce perfectly, manly because it takes many repetitions over a period of time to improve pronunciation. Here I tell my story of how I struggled to learn how troll my RRs when I studied Spanish!
6. During subsequent classes I give brief “reminders” when students make mistakes.
7. The first lessons in my class cover a Basic Vocabulary arranged in topics:
The alphabet, the numbers, greetings, food, directions, etc.
At a certain point I introduce my Graded Reader called “Ricardo and His Family”. Ricardo is a story written using the basic vocabulary and is divided into 20 Lessons. Each lesson consists of about two or three short paragraphs, followed by bilingual vocabulary. Students take turns reading one or two paragraphs out loud, followed by a review of the new vocabulary words. During the reading I usually will review the pronunciation of certain words.
All students can access Ricardo on my website, inglesconprofepablo.com. And often I make hard copies for people to take home.
8. After a month or so, I introduce my fluency exercises, which consist of – first, reading the words out loud slowly and clearly, and then, later, a little faster. Once during a class, we were reading Ricardo and all 15 students read a lesson out loud focusing on fluency, taking great pains to pronounce the words ‘correctly’.
9. To further develop fluency students can go to Level 3, 4 or 5 in Pumarosa to read out loud with my voice, practicing difficult words. The results are very dramatic sometimes.
10.I encourage everyone to “study” the lyrics to songs while they listen to or sing along. YouTube is a great source, and many songs can be found with the lyrics superimposed.
I also have produced a few poetry videos on YouTube, which show the text with my voice.
Conclusion: Using the above method, I can say that all students will improve their pronunciation/speaking a great deal so that their confidence increases. Their interest in learning English also increases and actually often they even will approach learning Grammar with a more positive attitude.
In my classes I encourage people to ask questions, in Spanish if necessary. At first, only a few people will do so, but after two thee months, at times the whole class will be devoted to answering questions. I usually asked the more advanced students to explain the answers. At this point the most popular questions are on pronunciation.
I think my method or approach approximates what each of us would want or expect if we were to take a foreign language class. I look forward to a discussion on this topic.