Communicative pronunciation activities

Nice to see you again, Ruvya. Today's topic is a fun topic. Are you excited about it? >> Yes. I'm excited about sharing like fun activities and how to step away from just drilling and moving into involving the learners using pronunciation and communicative activities. >> Absolutely. I would love to learn a few things beyond listen and repeat. So, I can't wait to learn all. So, today's topic is a much awaited one and it's been chosen by the population of our teachers in the Facebook community. We put up a poll and you guys decided on this topic and we can't wait to hear what you guys think about it. So, first of all, Ruvya, you've been teaching for quite some time. So, um I have a question for you. What is your biggest pronunciation challenge for your learners? For you? And as you tell us, I will ask the teachers to drop their own pronunciation challenge in the comments. Also, please tell us where you're joining us from. >> Yes. So, one of the biggest challenges I think that I see with the learners that I work with and with the teachers that I work with is most of the time they skip the pronunciation part in the textbooks because they do not have proper training into how to teach pronunciation or they do not know how to produce those sounds and then it's not part of the curriculum or the examination. Speaking exams are not held. Pronunciation is not checked. So, a lot of times it is skipped. So, that is one of the biggest problems that I face and when I teach with the learners, I think they feel very shy. They don't want to speak. They fear that they're going to make mistake and somebody is going to laugh at them for pronouncing it incorrectly. So, a lot of times it's the fear of making mistakes in the learners and and then there is this if you've not said that culture, other children do make fun of oh, you're saying it like this, it's not said like that. So, so then moving from um being able to understand what the other child is saying and respecting that if you know, it's you're communicating that should be the prime purpose of speaking and not the pronouncing in one way or the other, accepting uh different accents and the way we speak. I think this is something I struggle with. What about you? >> That's it. It's very interesting. You made me think of something. As people children um students in class uh learners in general are quite shy when you actually teach pronunciation, but it's interesting that once you ask a person what which skill would they like to work on, they immediately say I'd like to be a better speaker. So, everyone's very eager to become really fluent speakers, but I think pronunciation activities and pronunciation practice is very, very important in order to make sure that we deliver clear communication when we're actually using the language. So, you made me think of that. That's very, very interesting. Um So, as you've mentioned earlier, we are sharing tons of activities as much as possible, as much as time permits so that our teachers so that they can use them in the in their classes. Oh, we have a few people saying hi from Philippines, India, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Libya, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. Welcome everyone. Um For the communicate for the communicative pronunciation activities, I would like to ask you what makes a pronunciation activity communicative? >> Okay. A lot of times we asked this question in our community also asking our community members about what is their favorite uh pronunciation activity, and I think majority of them wrote about drilling and then you know repeating after the teacher and a lot of people think we talked about this in an earlier session as well that if they are just saying or repeating or loud reading we all think they are communicating but to for a pronunciation activity to be really communicative I think does it affect the meaning for instance if I'm say saying Nadia would you support me and then you're saying sport sport says like game but if I say Nadia could you support me please so if it is changing the meaning for instance can you draw a line but I'm saying can you draw a lane and you're like how can I draw a lane for you I can you know draw a line for you so if if it is doing that then so does it affect the meaning then it's a communicative activity if it's just drilling then it will not affect the meaning teacher can just simply correct that you know pronounce it that way and then does someone need to understand the speaker so another person is involved then it would be communicative and then is there interaction so are the students maybe sitting with another child or moving around and speaking to multiple children in the class and the last one is does pronunciation influence the outcome for instance can they just say without having any task do they have to maybe order something using those features do they have to use the past simple endings to talk about something that happened to them in the past how they were feeling they were feeling um excited they were feeling relieved what kind of so giving them something to do involving another person in the classes that would be their classmates so and then having a purpose to speak I think that would make it more communicative. >> Okay. >> Uh >> Thank you, Rabia. Um >> Yes. We have a pronunciation uh challenge. What's the biggest Yes, survey results also. Fear of mistakes, 63% have said that the biggest challenge they face is like fear of mistake and then lack of awareness like 25% and boredom with the Oh, it's again, so it's 13%. So, thank you everybody for participating in the poll. Thank you very much. Nadia, sorry, you were saying something. >> we also No, no, no. I I was just listening to I was admiring what you were saying. Um but yes, I those poll results are very, very interesting. Uh they also agree with you with the fear of mistakes and the fear of being judged or bullied over pronunciation. Thank you to the viewers from Facebook and YouTube for sharing those. Um all right, so is there a way for us to actually um think of our pronunciation activities that we perhaps already do in our class, uh a way for us to spice them up, a way for us to upgrade them? Uh because we do already carry out a lot of pronunciation activities. So, what do you think we can do um about them? >> Um in short, I would say that there is like you first train the ear, then you show them how, then you build the muscle memory like drilling and all that, and then you give it a purpose just just like it said. And putting all of these into a framework, I'm sorry I don't know how to pronounce that name correctly, so I'll drop the link in the chat after the live. So, um there is this communicative framework for teaching pronunciation. So, it starts with description and analysis. So, um you help the learner understand how the sound is made. So, you explain the mouth position, for instance, it's an E. So, you show them like where your lips go, where your tongue goes, where your teeth goes like for sh and all of those so so you describe so and then they analyze they look at you you want to say something Nadia? >> No no I'm just trying them out as you're as you're speaking. >> [laughter] >> Okay okay okay and then there is listening discrimination so you give them something to identify okay this is this or this is this the sound is this or not for instance could be through minimal pairs so they discriminate the sounds and it could be through bingo through slap games so you have written some words on the board and you have to for it it's a hat and a cat and then they have to slap on the right I have not written anything here just showing you and then then a little bit of control practice where they read the sentences which have those sounds in it it could be a choral repetition in the class and I really love a choral repetition because when we talk about shy learners they if you say okay Nadia repeat after me you might be put on spot and you would get nervous and you will not speak but with whole of the class and then a smaller group and then you ask one child to speak this way they get [clears throat] the confidence by the time you get to one learner so doing that in control practice is very important then the fourth stage is guided practice and then you give them multiple questions and multiple answers and they select for instance if I ask you this question you'll read and you'll find the right answer and speak so that is again supported by the teacher but child has a little bit of choice in what to say so they're able to understand so a little bit of test of understanding of can they discriminate the sound or not it could be as simple as an information gap it could be a choice to make it could be a need to listen very carefully and find the answer so it could be maybe asking them about I I I didn't like the wait so he said, "Wait, wait, no, I didn't like the white." So, they have the answer already with them also. So, they can peer assess and peer support also. And the last one is the most important one for which we'll we'll show you more activities also is the communicative practice. At the last then you focus mainly on the meaning not the pronunciation feature. So, you use what you have analyzed, you have discriminated through listening, you have done controlled practice so if you've done guided practice of and now you're using that in a freer practice, a communicative practice. It could be a role play, it could be a problem-solving, could be a story building, it could be information gaps, it could be games also where they're using the language freely from their own mind not just repeating after you. So, that would be the essence of a framework that we can use and we'll share the link any for anyone who wants to read in detail more about that. Nadia, what are your thoughts about this? Would would it work in your classes with your students? >> I think this would work in my class especially if I added the last two steps that are not usually included in pronunciation activities. So, if I put it in a simpler way, I would have to think about meaning. That's training the ear that you mentioned and then building the muscle memory. So, that's the how I guess. Show them the how then build the how and then giving the purpose and making sure that it's actually communicative. It is not an easy task I'd say to actually transform our different pronunciation activities into a more communicative activities but it's definitely worth giving a shot. So, that's why I'm very interested in all the activities that we're sharing today. But I am thinking about what you said earlier. If it doesn't have all of these steps that you just mentioned, then what we're doing is probably just a drill. So, I'm keeping that in mind for my next class, Nadia. >> Yes, and you know, a lot of times I have seen that we need to shift the focus from perfect sound to successful communication. So, with drilling, it's just stops at saying those sounds, but a lot of times a child cannot go to the market and just say words individually. They come in a string and children need to not just say, but understand also. So, using a framework like this for planning would really help and that leads me to my next question for you, Nadia. How to plan communicative pronunciation activities? What should we keep in mind when we are planning these activities? >> Uh well, first of all, I guess making sure that we set a very clear task of the outcome that we expect from our learners. So, if we ask them to do find the stress pattern, we make sure that we model it and we make sure that we actually tell them what we need from them. Um also, a lot of spoon-feeding in the class is not always a great idea. So, perhaps not trying not to pre-teach everything, allowing students to discover on their own. Uh it's okay to have breakdowns, it's okay to have miscommunication at first, it's all part of the learning process. So, for example, people can do, you know, minimal pair maze or they can explain they can explain um a specific word to each other. You don't have to pre-teach everything. Another thing is that part of the discovery um stage is allowing students to communicate, but also fail in communication. It's okay if you earlier said I think you said Nadia, can you support me? It's okay if I didn't understand you at first first and ask you to come again. Uh that's fine or I can ask you to repeat, that's also fine. Um I'm guessing also responding to meaning first and then form second. So, as you've mentioned earlier, communication is meaning and meaning is communication. As long as our message got through then that's all that matters. Regarding form uh or how accurate it is should be the second thing that we look at. Um we do have to you know draw attention to it as well but it doesn't have to be the first thing that we go to. Another thing which is one of my issues that I have keeping your TTT down. So teacher talking time try to keep it as minimal as possible because in a 45 minutes class for example in Libya it's a 40 to 45 minutes class. The teacher probably dominates the whole class and probably speaks more than 70% as we're presenting presenting presenting. We don't allow our learners to actually practice the language enough. So perhaps keeping our talk time to to a minimum allows learners to say more. If we're not talking then someone else is and if it's not us it's probably our learners. Um last but not least making use of the if it's a 40 learners class make use of the 40 people you have in your class get them to interact with each other get them to work together allow peer interaction because that's an important part of the framework that you that you've talked about. Uh using these learners they're such an asset so making sure that they work together they practice the language together make mistakes together have breakdown and failure in communication together can be quite memorable. So these are my ideas for my class. What do you think? >> That that's lovely. I think if we keep all of these in mind and just like you said keeping your talk time minimum and giving opportunities to learners to speak with a purpose. So so that is something that you know you need to have as a checklist. We have people from Scotland Sudan South Sudan Myanmar Colombia and Indonesia. Welcome everyone. Please tell us what you think about the topic. Yes we're we're talking about communicative activities. Tell us about your experience. Tell us how you integrate pronunciation into your communicative activities. And if you have activities that you really like and your learners enjoy, please share them. We also have people from Egypt, Angola, Nigeria, and Australia. Hi everyone. Welcome to our session. We have some comments also. We have a comment from YouTube saying specially spelling confusion like present base etc. words learners feel confused. I think you're right and as with all of the other forms of teaching knowing your learners, understanding them, preparing well will help you solve a lot of problems. And then coming to sessions like this where you can you get the opportunity to ask questions and share your get ideas from others, share your ideas with the community. I think it's very important to do that as well. So thank you for coming and being part of this learning journey. Nathi, would you like to read we have other comments also. >> I have yeah, we have a couple of comments one from Facebook where says um No world I just I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly becomes communicative when the focus shifts from repeating isolated sounds to conveying meaning in real life context like role plays and etc. Yes, we're actually going to be incorporating that in one of our activities. Another comment communication pronunciation activities bridge gap between form and meaning ensuring learners practice stress and intonation in realistic interactive scenarios. Yeah, this is what we actually discussed. They use information gaps, problem solving, role plays to make pronunciation a natural part conveying a message. That's brilliant. Again, that's the beauty of having such a great community coming together sharing ideas. Um so thank you guys for sharing those. >> Okay. Uh uh and there's another comment. I think both of your ideas are great and thinking of how to incorporate IP into meaningful communication activities. We're going to touch upon a few of them in the activities that we share so maybe it would be covered. So, if we uh Yeah, hopefully hopefully. So, uh yeah. I have an example for how to uh uh like actually run an activity using the framework. So, if we uh start with like the short and long vowel sounds i and e and uh we can like it's sheep and ship, green and grin, sleep and slip, lease and list. So, there's so many ways teachers can uh make make them first see uh the description and the analysis and then for them to discriminate. So, if we start with the first one, the teacher can, you know, uh tell them like uh maybe i and e i and e, ship and sheep. So, right now I can only ask you to see see how am I doing that and then um uh >> describing and analyzing it, okay. >> Yes, yes. So, this is the first stage where you're doing that and then um you can also uh ask the students to maybe uh copy you like that. Then you you give them a little bit of uh maybe ship and sheep and they say, "Okay, this is ship and this is sheep." Stretching. Yes. You also have a money band. Okay, and I have a pony. So, you you can use anything. Yes, anything that stretches and it could be this and this also. They can use They don't even need to have and this could be Yes, one clap or two claps also. Anyway that works for you in the class if you have a large class, if you have a very excited class. So, you can, you know, do whatever activity matches your learners. And then you give them It could be slap the board also. You can write short and long vowel sounds and now this is listening discrimination stage. Now they're listening and they say, "Okay, this is ship or sheep. This is green or green." This is like which sound is it? So, they can slap. Okay, this is this sound, this is this sound. They can run to different corners of the class also for a short vowel sound and a long vowel sound. So, they're discriminating. All of this is still not practice practicing speaking. This is them how it is produced, they're listening how it is said. So, you're giving them the language like a child learns the language. And then you give them a controlled practice. So, they read maybe contextual sentences focusing on the sound. So, whatever they're reading, there's so many sounds from there. And then students, you can have a drill with them. Now they've started to speak. They first saw, they listen. Now they're saying those words, maybe reading loudly or drilling with you. And then you give them guided practice. And then uh there is there could be a dialogue. For instance, I didn't like the wait. I didn't like the white. Really, I thought the service was quite fast. So, he was trying to say I didn't like to wait, but then there's so this way the other child because they have the answers, they can correct them from a list. And then in the end it could be some community activity. For instance, it could be something has happened in my house and I'm you you have to talk to me, and I've given you a list of words. So, lion and lane, cup and cap. Somebody broke my cup, but I'm saying somebody broke my cap. So, I'm using those in a dialogue. It would be not the teacher is not telling them you have to say this drill after me. Everybody say this. Now, children have a purpose to speak. So, maybe you are the officer, and I'm the child at home, and my house was like robbed, and I'm trying to, you know, tell you using minimal pairs. And because you also have practiced them, you also know which is the right. So, now we are practicing, we are communicating through a role play. So, this is one way to maybe make communication part of their spoken language as well, so that when something happens like this, they know how to say that, and they got a chance to think and say something with purpose. So, this is one idea that I have. Yes. Any idea you have about Nadia, how to use this framework to make activities more communicative? >> I do. It's It's actually It's another game that I like to use, and it's quite communicative, but it's also It could be funny. So, if you if you'd like your learners not to laugh, don't use it. But, it's a good fun game. We've talked about different versions of it, and this one is about intonation, which is the musical minute. Intonation is very, very important because it covers sentence stress, pitch, it contours a lot of the parts of the language. It shows hidden meanings, and, you know, you You can actually under- and what people feel, or feel what people feel, even without looking at their faces sometimes, because their voices convey so much. This, you know, how they say things is very, very important. So, for my activity, mine is about guessing meaning from just listening. So, I am going to challenge our teachers in the chat box here and in YouTube, Facebook and YouTube. Rabia and I will try out a few sentences for you and you guys will have to guess what uh how we feel. So, uh A, how we we feel and B, B, also our relationship to each other. Uh we have a couple of Facebook comments before I do that. Someone's saying to motivate classroom engagement in the 21st century literature, teachers can use interactive, tech integrated, and collaborative communicative activities such as multimedia projects, role-based discussions, social media reading clubs, real-world connections. These strategies make literature relevant, uh participatory, and dynamic for today's learners. Yes, that's why we're trying our best to make them as communicative as possible. Um someone else is on Facebook is saying, "In my experience, teaching pronunciation through game and songs and repetition helps students learn sounds more easily." Definitely, because it's more memorable to do the do it through these mediums. Regular practice and encouragement makes them more confident speakers. Absolutely. That's what Rabia was talking about earlier, allowing them the chance to actually build the confidence to produce. Um and then we have students find silent letters difficult, a line and assimilation in connected speech. They are because it's a different language, it's a new language and I think with teachers, we sometimes because we speak the language and we already can, you know, either have mastery over it or we're very good at it. So, we forget that everything is new to these learners, the letters sometimes, direction of writing, and also the pronunciation. It's a completely new language, so silent letters can catch you off guard sometimes. >> Yes, but but they already know a language. They already know a language, their first language. So, you can always ask them to, you know, how do you say that in your language? How do you pronounce this? So, the language that they already know, from using that, they can build on learning the new language also. Cuz a lot of times they have similar sounds. So, they can say, "Okay, this is how you say it in that language also." This will give them confidence also that, "Okay, this is not something new. Languages have these sounds. They might differ a little bit, but then this is how you pronounce different words. So, using their first language can help them pronounce finding similar links from their first language also. Um there's Somebody has asked question about how to use using tongue twisters to make it more fun. Again, I would say that yes, using it to make it fun, make them fluent is is a really good idea, but also then how could you use it for communication? So, maybe you can give them an opportunity to maybe write a dialogue using all of the tongue twisters. So, I have to speak to Nadia using only these new sounds in one sentence. So, it would be "sure" sound only. So, then I have to think, and then I have to say something Nadia, and she has to understand what I'm saying also. So, maybe adding a communicative twist to tongue twisters will also help. Yes, they help in making you distinguish sounds because somebody wrote some like uh trouble bubble bubble bubble double. I was also unable to say that. So, but after a few tries, I was able to do that. So, then giving that and then making it into a communicative activity would make it more exciting. So, before we finish, Nadia, can we do that um role play? >> Uh yes, so a teacher delivers a specific sentence, that's the base of the activity, and then you have uh cards of emotions. You tell your students that they need to say this sentence based on this emotion. So, they need to act out this emotion or this feeling or you know, with this sentence. So, the sentence for you, I mean Rabia, is I'm going to say very blankly, "Well, good for you." This is the sentence. No intonation, nothing. Um I don't mean anything. So, Rabia, I'm going to say it in a way our teachers in the chat of on YouTube and on Facebook will have to guess what's my feeling towards you in this case. So, here we go. Are you guys ready? And here we go. Ah. Rabia, "Well, good for you." >> [laughter] >> Okay, it looks like you're not really happy with what I'm doing. >> [laughter] >> Okay, and I think If I say, "Oh, Natia, good for you." So, I'm This This What What does this show? >> Ooh, this feels nice. I feel you know, I I want to wait for the teachers to tell us, but it does feel quite positive on my end. Mine did not sound very positive, I guess. >> Yes, [laughter and gasps] and there was one Chris told us about Hello Mr. Jones. So, if I don't like Mr. Jones, I might say like, "Hello Mr. Jones." And if I, you know, know something about Mr. Jones, I would like "Hello Mr. Jones." >> "Hello Mr. Jones." And if Mr. Jones owes you owes you money, how would you say it? >> Um Um I would feel very bad, but I don't know how to say that. Would you like to try? >> Yeah, yeah, I would say, "Hello Mr. Jones." Do you you know, >> I'll copy that tip. I have to get money from a lot of people. >> So, your bike or something. [laughter] >> Okay. >> "Hello." >> So, >> [laughter] >> So So again, this allows learners to actually practice the language they are producing, they are communicating. It is fun because you ask guys asked about fun activities. Oh, we have some comments. Nadia is not impressed. Someone's saying that Rabia is very enthusiastic. I love that they still have enthusiastic your under like Nadia's mm. Uh but these allow learners to actually practice the language, to actually communicate, to try things out and also to have fun. So it's very very important to think about the five uh step framework that Rabia mentioned earlier. Try to incorporate it even if you already use a pronunciation activity that only covers the first three. Do remember that you can add the last two steps. So you can add the guided practice and the communicative practice as well. Very important to keep in mind. Yes, Rabia. >> Yes, and this is how like when people say that written text, yes. The written text, how does it change the meaning because the person is reading it the way they want to read it. So it is sounding in their mind >> [snorts] >> the way So it could be Hello, Mr. Jones. It could be Hello, Mr. Jones. Whatever is in their mind. So making children know how to say and say it in a way that the other person understands what they're trying to say is very very important. So using that, teaching that, and getting them to practice that is very very important. So sadly with this, the time for our session is like over, but you can still ask questions in the comments. You can still uh add your favorite activities, what do you think about the framework. I'll add the link later on to the uh chat as well. Next week we're going to uh talk about uh teaching uh how to teach English to refugees and displaced learners. Please do join us. We'll be uh coming live on a regular time now. That is 12:00 p.m. UK time, next Tuesday. >> UK time. >> Yes. So, see you there. >> It's just our fourth live, our last live, Rabia. So, make sure you guys come. Uh because we look forward to having one last session with you. >> Yes. So, take care. Keep on commenting and sharing ideas till that time. See you in the chat. Take care, everyone. Thank you, everyone.