Teaching Speaking and Listening

Teaching Speaking

Pronunciation

Basic Concepts
Pronunciation is an area of great difficulty for the untrained EFL teacher. But,
with a little training and practice you can facilitate the improvement of your
students’ pronunciation almost as well as the seasoned professional. For our
purposes here, “pronunciation” will include the concepts of stress, rhythm and
intonation.

Everyone is familiar with the old jokes about Asian students ordering “flied lice”
and, in fact, such pronunciation problems persist today. To a large extent, EFL
students have problems with pronunciation and stress primarily due to that fact
that their native tongue may not have that particular sound (their native
grammar may even prohibit making that sound) and the absence in many
languages of “consonant clusters” (strings of consonants such as s-t-r in the
word string).

When studying and teaching pronunciation, you will need to learn to use a
respelling system to help students get the feel of the language. Some people
advocate the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), but a problem with
that system is that very few students know it and you can spend an inordinate
amount of time teaching it to them only to have them move on to another teacher
who doesn’t use it. Additionally, there are at least ten other major phonetic
systems that appear in even the best dictionaries and pronunciation and
listening books.

A simple system is used in the listening book Sound Advice and in the
pronunciation book Sound Advantage, both authored by Stacy A. Hagen (a link
to some excellent YouTube videos by Stacy Hagen is at the bottom of this page).
You will see this system used in some of the downloads further down this page. A
simple respelling system that is intuitive and easy to use is critical to your
success in helping your students succeed in speaking in a comprehensible
way. Simple and intuitive because you want your students to spend their time
on the pronunciation, not on the system.
EFL teachers are all too familiar with students that approach them and speak
clear complete sentences of something that is not even remotely understandable.
A student may well have a good understanding of English and an excellent
vocabulary, but if their pronunciation is so poor that they can not communicate,
all is lost. At least until you come on the scene!

Expanded Concepts

Students NEED to hear natural fast relaxed pronunciation as we speak it every

day, not a carefully over-articulated overly-pronounced one-word-by-one-word
phrasing of sentences. Speaking too slowly and too emphatically is a common
characteristic of the untrained teacher.

Speaking unnaturally hurts your students for two reasons. First, they will imitate
your speaking style and speak unnaturally too, and second, they will not
recognize and understand natural rapid speech when they hear it. This doesn’t
mean you shouldn’t slow your speech down a bit to help your students get some
basic ideas, but it does mean that you should speak naturally most of the time. It
also means that you need to TEACH them what natural speech sounds like.
There is some evidence that says that if students don’t speak naturally, they
won’t recognize normal speech when they hear it.

Consider the following:

My name is Fred really sounds like Mi naeh miz Fred.

How much is it? really sounds like How muh chi zit?

The idea of the end of one word connecting to the beginning of the next word is
called “linking” and there is some information about it at the bottom of this page.
If you habitually speak slowly and over-enunciate, your students will listen
for How much is it? and won’t understand when they hear the normal speech
sounds of How muh chi zit? The skilled EFL teacher instructs her students in
these differences, how to pronounce them and how to listen for them.

Consider

Sue wants to get a better water heater – say it quickly in normal speech several
times and listen to what itreally sounds like.

It will sound more like: Sue wuhnstuh gettuh bedder wahdder heeder.
The idea of words sticking together and some sounds becoming smaller is called
“reduction” and there is more information about reductions at the end of this
page.

There is, of course, some variation by country and region in how we speak.
Learn to use respelling to help your students get it right.

It is important that you get this concept.

Untrained teachers will say, “I don’t speak like that!” But they do – you do –
everyone does.

What about Respelling?

Should you memorize and use the International Phonetic Alphabet?

No, your students won’t usually know it. Look in a variety of books and adopt a
simple method similar to the one used above.

Will your students confuse “respelling” with the correct spelling of words?
No, not if you just tell them, “It sounds like this” while pointing at the respelling.
Students intuitively “get it.”

Must you respell absolutely correctly?

No, but be as accurate as you can.

The way you respell will be different from someone else as we all have some
minor variations in our pronunciation.

Word and Sentence Stress

Add to respelling, the notion of word and sentence stress.

Many EFL students around the world will have different stress patterns in their
language.

When you pronounce words with two or more syllables, one syllable will be
stressed more than the others. Until you practice a bit, you may have trouble
hearing stress because it is such a natural part of a native-speaker’s speech.
Here is what to listen for: tone, length of time, loudness.
For example:

Banana – sounds like buh NAEH nuh.

If you listen carefully, the middle syllable has a slightly higher tone, lasts longer
and is slightly louder.

As an example of differences, Thai students are likely to say buh naeh NUH. You
and I will not likely recognize the word when we hear it from them the first time.
Sentences will have similar stress patterns that students need to learn, and
respelling can help them with that too. Some words are not so important to hear
and are reduced in time, loudness and tone. Some are more important, louder
and longer and have a higher tone. The important words are called “content
words”. They are nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Less important
words are called “function words” and are pronouns, helping verbs, conjunctions
and prepositions. These rules are not ALWAYS true but are good general
guidelines.

Example: My name is Bob when written showing sentence stress sounds/looks

like: my NAME is BOB.

Don’t overdo word and sentence stress.

It is important to speak naturally when teaching your students stress.

After all, you want your students to speak naturally too.

Think about sentence stress a bit like this. When you talk on a mobile or cell
phone, you often don’t hear every word and you don’t need to. You get the “gist”
of the sentence from hearing the important words. Those are the words that are
stressed in a sentence. Those are are called content words.

Word and sentence stress takes a lot of practice. But the practice is worthwhile
as your students will benefit greatly from your efforts. Don’t worry about getting
it slightly wrong. It is more important that you just try it and work with it and
develop your skills with it. Teaching EFL pronunciation takes somr practice, but
it WILL make you a much better teacher in the long run.
There is a lot to study here as there is a lot to learn. The suggested readings are
ranked in the order of difficulty and the order in which they are best read.

Word stress

English is a very rhythmical language, so that a learner who can maintain the
rhythm of the language is more likely to sound both natural and fluent. The two
components of the system which have the greatest influence on rhythm are
sentence stress and the various features of connected speech, i.e. what happens
to words when we put them in an utterance.

Sentence stress

In any sentence, some words carry a stress. These are the ‘strong’
or ‘lexical’ words (usually nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs). The remaining
words are ‘grammatical’ words and are unstressed or ‘weak’ (conjunctions,
pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries, articles).

‘It’s the worst thing that you could do’

The rhythm produced by this combination of stressed and unstressed syllables is

a major characteristic of spoken English and makes English a stress-timed
language. In stress-timed languages, there is a roughly equal amount of time
between each stress in a sentence, compared with a syllable-timed language
(such as French, Turkish and West Indian English) in which syllables are
produced at a steady rate which is unaffected by stress differences.
Sentence stress is an important factor in fluency, as English spoken with only
strong forms has the wrong rhythm, sounds unnatural and does not help the
listener to distinguish emphasis or meaning.

Connected speech

Speed is also a factor in fluency. When we speak quickly, we speak in groups of

words which are continuous and may not have pauses between them. This
causes changes to the ‘shape’ of words. Unstressed words always sound different
when used in a sentence as opposed to being said in isolation.
The most common features of connected speech are the weak forms of
grammatical and some lexical words (and, to, of, have, was, were) and
contractions, some of which are acceptable in written English (can't, won't, didn't,
I'll, he'd, they've, should’ve).
Teaching rhythm

Rhythm, then, is a product of sentence stress and what happens to the words
and sounds between the stresses. Unfortunately, learners are often introduced
first to written forms and the complexities of spelling. Learners whose mother
tongue is phonemic or syllable-timed have particular problems. Teachers should
remember to:

 Provide natural models of new target language before introducing the written
form.
 Use natural language themselves in the classroom.
 Encourage learners to listen carefully to authentic speech.
 Teach recognition before production.
 Integrate rhythm and other aspects of phonology into grammar, vocabulary
and functional language lessons as well as listening and speaking activities.

Word Play – English is stupid!

Who ever said it was easy to teach our language, let alone learn it.

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..

7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present
the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13. They were too close to the door to close it.

14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language!

Teaching Listening

Listening

Listening skills are vital for your learners. Of the 'four skills,' listening is by far
the most frequently used. Listening and speaking are often taught together, but
beginners, especially non-literate ones, should be given more listening than
speaking practice. It's important to speak as close to natural speed as possible,
although with beginners some slowing is usually necessary. Without reducing
your speaking speed, you can make your language easier to comprehend by
simplifying your vocabulary, using shorter sentences, and increasing the number
and length of pauses in your speech. There are many types of listening activities.
Those that don't require learners to produce language in response are easier than
those that do. Learners can be asked to physically respond to a command (for
example, "please open the door"), select an appropriate picture or object, circle
the correct letter or word on a worksheet, draw a route on a map, or fill in a chart
as they listen. It's more difficult to repeat back what was heard, translate into the
native language, take notes, make an outline, or answer comprehension
questions. To add more challenge, learners can continue a story text, solve a
problem, perform a similar task with a classmate after listening to a model (for
example, order a cake from a bakery), or participate in real-time conversation.
Good listening lessons go beyond the listening task itself with related activities
before and after the listening. Here is the basic structure:

 Before Listening

Prepare your learners by introducing the topic and finding out what they
already know about it. A good way to do this is to have a brainstorming
session and some discussion questions related to the topic. Then provide
any necessary background information and new vocabulary they will need
for the listening activity.
 During Listening

Be specific about what students need to listen for. They can listen for
selective details or general content, or for an emotional tone such as happy,
surprised, or angry. If they are not marking answers or otherwise
responding while listening, tell them ahead of time what will be required
afterward.

 After Listening

Finish with an activity to extend the topic and help students remember new
vocabulary. This could be a discussion group, craft project, writing task,
game, etc.

Helpful listening links

www.esl-lab.com Around 140 listening clips and quizzes for students to access
online; categorized into four difficulty levels.

www.englishlistening.com Thirty free listening clips categorized into three

difficulty levels for students to access online; more available with membership;
requires audio software such as RealPlayer (free).

Assignment for module - Teaching Speaking and Listening

TEACHING SPEAKING AND LISTENING – narrative explaining
1. your approach to teaching speaking and listening, giving
examples supporting your approach
2. your understanding of the concept of “re-spelling”