Chapter 3. Segmentals
Additional Activities
Perception Training
Perception training is essential for effective pronunciation teaching. By developing the ability to distinguish sounds, learners can improve their production of words, too. In other words, “if you can’t hear it, you cannot produce it.”
An interactive online game developed by Dr. Ron Thomson titled “English Accent Coach” can help you improve the sounds perception. The game can be found on the following website: www.englishaccentcoach.com
Concentrated Practice Activity
Do you find it hard to learn the pronunciation of academic vocabulary you encounter in reading, but basically never hear pronounced?
This is because your mind naturally discards (forgets) the pronunciation of words you almost never hear, assuming this information is not important.
How can you avoid this?
The secret is to artificially increase how often you hear these [problem] rarely pronounced words, so your mind realizes “This word is important – I need to remember it!”
Step 1
Read aloud to your instructor/partner the glossary of an introductory undergraduate textbook in your field (or from Michigan State University’s technical term lists).
For each technical term:
- Pronounce it
- Use it in a sentence you think you might actually need someday to say
- Pronounce it again
Your instructor/partner will take notes on any terms you struggle to pronounce or pronounce incorrectly.
OR
Read aloud by yourself through the glossary of an introductory undergraduate textbook in your field (or from Michigan State University’s technical term lists), making a list of all technical terms you do not know how to pronounce or struggle to pronounce fluently.
Alternatively, identify both general/technical vocabulary you struggle to pronounce confidently by reading aloud through conference or seminar presentation slides/posters (your own or someone else’s).
Step 2
Search in YouGlish and/or Forvo for all terms you don’t know how to pronounce.
Step 3 (Optional)
For any term that is three syllables or longer, do a Google search for “most common words ending with _____” and choose the result from “More Words” (e.g., Words ending in “ogical”).
Read aloud through the resulting word list and notice how this word you didn’t know how to pronounce is pronounced following the same word stress pattern as several other words you may know how to pronounce.
Step 4
Repeat the most common pronunciation in YouGlish and/or Forvo for each of your problem terms 5 times, carefully following the speaker’s word stress, individual sound pronunciation, etc.
If you make a mistake, listen to the speaker’s pronunciation again and then start over at 1 to count your 5 repetitions. If the term is available in YouGlish, it is also likely greatly to benefit you to practice with 5 different videos repeating the entire thought group that includes the problem term, i.e., from pause to pause.
Practice Activity 5
Practice fluently giving a talk that logically includes as many of your problem terms as possible.
Backwards Building ActivityIn situations in which a student struggles with multisyllable words, it can often be helpful to break the word into its constituent parts and have the student work backwards. Initially, this can be a bit counter-intuitive for the student, so it works best if the teacher builds each part for the student as a model. For example:
Word: Enthusiastic
Parts: En – thu – si – as – tic
Building backwards:
- Teacher: Say “tic” Student: “tic”
- Teacher: Say, “astic” Student: “astic”
- Teacher: Say, “siastic” Student: “siastic”
- Teacher: Say, “thusiastic” Student: “thusiastic”
- Teacher: Say, “enthusiastic” Student: “enthusiastic”
If a student struggles with pronunciation at any point during the chain, the teacher can pause and focus on that portion. For example, if a student is fine up until “siastic” the teacher can focus on that section. It can even be broken down further if necessary, so if the student is struggling with “siastic” and the “sia” combination seems to be causing an issue, the teacher could have the student say, “iastic” and then move to “siastic”. This can be especially helpful for consonant clusters such as “str” “spl” etc.
