5 Resources you need for Teaching ESL Pronunciation

These resources helped me teach pronunciation in the classroom! Also see my post on the Color Vowel Chart. It is so useful that I wrote a whole post on it.

1. Sounds of Speech from the University of Iowa

This website has led to breakthroughs in my classroom! Students can’t see what is happening inside the mouth during morpheme production, but this website illustrates it with a level of unparalleled genius!

2. Tongue Twisters

Every teacher needs a few of these in their back pocket.

Here are a few song Tongue Twisters from Fluency MC that can be downright hilarious in the classroom.

3. Teaching Pronunciation by Marianne Celce-Murcia, Donna M. Brinton, Janet M. Goodwin, and Barry Griner

This is one of the most thorough texts on teaching pronunciation. It leads you through all the important aspects of pronunciation for English learners. It covers materials for various levels and skills. It's a long read, but definitely worth your time.

4. Minimal Pairs

Minimal pairs are a great exercise for the classroom especially with beginners. This website has an extensive list of minimal pairs that are ready to use. Time saver!

5. The Speech Accent Archive and North American English Dialects

When my students find out I'm originally from Texas, they always ask me to do a Texas accent. Yes, I can turn on a Texas accent, but I'd rather showcase accents from all over the USA. Both of these websites have archived people speaking from all across the USA. It is fascinating for teachers and students alike!

This could prove to be quite helpful for advanced learners of English. If anything, it is an interesting resource to awe your students into the variations of International English and regional American English. The Speech Accent Archive also catalogues other major languages, so students can explore their own language.

Check out my YouTube Channel for more resources on pronunciation.

More Materials on Teachers Pay Teachers

Interested in buying some ESL materials for your classroom? Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers account!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Sellers-Im-Following/Add/Teacher-Ryane-Speaks

You can find other great speaking and listening materials for your ESL classroom! Fill out the contact page if there is something you'd like me to create for you!

Small Acts of Motivation

It’s test day in the classroom.

AKA: Tiny teacher vacation.

You’ve worked hard at creating a test, and now as the teacher you can sit and start to hack away at the massive pile of papers you need to grade. While there are documented ways that teachers can encourage the motivation of students, receiving completed tests didn’t make the list. However, this research will make you rethink the way you receive a paper on your desk. It’s not revolutionary stuff, but peaked my curiosity for sure.

Situation

In this experiment, each participant is asked to find identical letters next to each other on a page full of random letters. This is not motivating work, to say the least. When the participants turn in their completed papers they receive $0.55, and then they are asked if they would like to participate again for $0.50. Each time they complete a paper, they get paid $0.05 less to do the next one.

Treatment

There were three conditions under which participants turned in papers.

1. First in the “acknowledged” condition, one proctor received the paper in hand and looked at it with a simple “uh-huh.”

2. In the “ignored” second condition, participants did not write their names on the paper and when they turned in the paper the proctor did not look at the sheet, but just placed it on the table.

3. In the “shredded” third scenario, the proctor took the paper and inserted it directly into a paper shredder.

Results

On average, the acknowledged participants worked at this task until the pay fell to around $0.15. That means they did this mundane task around 9 times. In the “ignored” condition, participants stopped at 27.5 cents, meaning they completed the task around 6-7 times. Lastly, in the “shredded” condition, participants stopped at $0.29, meaning they only did the task 6 times.

Implications for the classroom

The author Dan Ariely points out that the “ignored” and “shredded” conditions yield almost the same results. However, most of us would think that feeding your work into a giant shredder would be much more demotivating than someone who is too busy to look at the page and give a simple “uh-huh”. The results highlight the power of acknowledgement and that ignoring someone’s work is more negative than I thought.

So, I’m coming to test day now with my "uh-huhs" ready to go. I will "uh-huh" every test, so help me God.

For more on this experiment:

Ariely, D. (2016). Payoff: The hidden logic that shapes our motivations. New York: Simon & Schuster.