Pronunciation and Phonology in the EFL Classroom - Traditional Spellings to Phonemic Spellings Pt. 2
"As mentioned before our four words here all are similar in using the ?b? and ?t? sounds at the end. So we know that those phonemes will be used in spelling each one of those words phonetically. Now what we're left to do is assign a phoneme for our vowel sounds. So if we analyze the word, it's ?e? as in bet. We look at our chart, we see the phoneme which corresponds to that sound and that happens to be the standard ?e? that we all recognize. Here, bet phonetically looks very similar to bet in the Roman script. Now let's take a look at ?i? bit. Now we look at our chart and we see that this symbol represents the ?i? sound and that resembles a capital I not a lowercase I but a capital I and so we've arrived at bit. Now with ?but? we have to find the sound and that corresponds to this symbol here as in cut but we simply put it into but and now we've got ?but?. Finally we have ?bought? and we have to find the phoneme for the ?ough? sound and we look here in our pure vowels and we see that this symbol here is used in pot and that's a very similar sound in fact the same sound as in ?bought? so we know that we use this phoneme here to arrive at ?bought?. Now we can take a look at the word ?photo?. Here we have ?f? and we need to find a phoneme for the O. We can look on our chart and locate this symbol for the O sound and again we have ?toe? ?photo?, the only difference being the T for the F. We've arrived at photo, four phonemes there. Now we have ?taxi?. We have ?t? as in the first sound then we have ?a? and we have to locate the vowel and now we have the ?a? symbol. The X here actually has two phonemes the ?k? and ?s? so we look at the ?k? and the ?s? phonemes and the last phoneme there E as in the long I sound ?taxi?. Wow we have unite. As mentioned previously there's a slight ?y? sound at the beginning so we begin it with our ?y? phoneme and then we continue on ?u? as in ?ooh? ?jun? phoneme and then ?ite?. We have our vowel ?i? as in buy and our final ?t? sound ?unite?. "
Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next.
When people are communicating they do it for a reason such as: some communicative purpose, a wish to say something, or listen to something, and they are interested in what is being sai.
We should mention that there are differences between accuracy and fluency activities: Accuracy activities are usually integrated in the study phas.
These are controlled or teacher-guided activities used to practice correct usage of grammar and languag.
Fluency activities, on the other hand, are usually done in the activate phas.
They provide opportunities for students to experiment and be creative with the language Many students are afraid to speak up in the classroom, and they can have many reasons for this: Lack of confidence, fear of making mistakes, not interested in the topic, cultural reasons et.
If we as teachers want to avoid these obstacles we should aim for a positive atmosphere, pair or group work, purposeful speaking activities, allowing time for thinking, be friendly and smile a lot to put the students at ease, don?t force students to speak up if they don?t want to, give easy questions to slow students so they can be able to answer and feel confiden.
et.
For a writing activity, there are some issues that need to be considered like handwriting, punctuation, spelling, and differences in spoken and written Englis.
There are students who use a system of alphabet that is different from the English language so forming the English letters can be a proble.
Handwriting can also be problematic if it impedes the reader from understanding the conten.
In this case, the teacher should encourage students to continually improve their handwritin.
Another thing to consider is the use of punctuatio.
Written work can be a mess if the proper punctuation marks are not put in plac.
Spelling is another major issu.
Students have to be made aware of the most common rules and complexities of spelling including silent letters and differences in British and American spellin.
Students should be encouraged to read extensively to improve their spelling skills as wel.
Lastly, it?s also important to explain to the students the differences in spoken and written Englis.
