Teach English in Kecheng Zhen - Linfen Shi

Note : some written things may not show up correctly because it has tables and symbols. please consider that. I wish it was possible to attach it as word or pdf file. How to teach reading? What was the first word you learned to read and how did you learn it? Most of us don't know what it was. In this essay, we are going to learn how did we learn to read then how do we teach reading to any English learner. I assume that the reader is not an Arabic speaker. So I'm giving an Arabic word consisted of 2 letters as an example. I want you to try to read it or at least to guess it. The word is (أَكَلَ). Could you read it? Of course, you couldn't, because you don't have any basic info about Arabic letters or phonology. This example evokes the question that we need to answer in this essay. And the question is: what do you need to learn about any language to be able to read it? The following steps are very basic. If you apply them with any language, you will at least be able to start to read that language: 1- Learn the language's letters. (Their names and shapes). 2- Learn the letter's sounds and pronunciations. (Basic phonology) 3- Learn what the reading direction is. (In Arabic it’s from right to left) 4- After you learn these contents about the language, you will need to remember them. And the best way to remember is practice. Now let’s try to apply these steps on the Arabic word I asked you about earlier. And see if they work or not. letter Its name sound أَ Aleph Aa like in Ant كَـ Kaf Ca like in Car لَ Lam La like in Lamb Now let’s try to read the word then you can check the next table to see if you read it correctly. I applied these step with two of my workmates whom don’t know anything about Arabic. They were able to read it almost correctly. أَ كَـ لَ Aa Ca La أَكَلَ AaCaLa I tried the same steps with a Chinese friend. I asked him to show me a Chinese word then teach me how the characters in it sound. I found myself able to start to read it. That was a very basic way to learn how to read any language in a very basic level. This means if you want to be a good reader, there will be much more to learn about the language. Now let’s focus on English and answer the following question: How to teach English reading? Most learners of English want to increase their language and literacy proficiency so they can achieve their goals related to family, work, and community. Helping them increase their reading skills is an important task. As we know there are four English skills listening, speaking, reading and writing. In English classes we teach these skills together because they are connected to each other. But sometimes we focus on one of them to improve learner’s level in it. You are an English teacher I will assume that you just started your new class with 8 absolute beginner learners. This class will mainly focus on reading skill. After they finish this class they must be able to read English correctly. Here is what to do to achieve that: 1. Teach the entire letter’s names and shapes. A Letter is the written or printed sign that represent a sound in a language. Letters are the key to learn English. Teaching the letters is a very important step because it will help the student to recognize what is written in English. Even if the students already know what English letters are, it’s still important to make sure that they know them completely before you continue forward. • Ways to teach letters: o Pre-testing ABC Knowledge also a good idea to see which letters your learners already know. Instead of using flashcards use something more adult like to show the class particular letters. Using a projector with a PowerPoint presentation will make adult learners feel more comfortable. After all, this type of technology is commonplace in the workplace and it will make the learning and testing process more realistic. o Writing Sheets to Recognize Letters Passing out different sheets with single letters to your adult learners will help them with autonomous learning. With sheets directly in front of them, as opposed to the group chanting you would do with younger learners, you will help the adult participants have more control over their own learning. As you pass out each paper be sure to repeat the letter as you hand them out. 2. Teach letter’s sounds. The English language has 26 letters in its alphabet and most experts believe there are 44 letter sounds. The experts debate on anywhere between 39 to 45, but most accept 44. If there were 44 letters in English alphabet, then reading would really be simple! Each letter would have its own sound. However, since there are 44 sounds and only 26 letters, some letters have to make more than one sound. Note: Before teaching letter sounds, the student should know the alphabet in the correct order. Sixteen letters almost always make the same sound! That means that there are only 10 letters which make more than one sound. The sixteen letters are what we call constant consonants. They can be learned quickly. Then the remaining 10 letters and their various sounds can be learned. The sixteen constant consonants are: B D F H J K L M N P Q R T V X Z There are six special letters in this list: F H K P T X. Do you know what is different about them? F H K P T X are whispered letters. You do not use your voice if you are saying these letter sounds correctly, so we call them whispered letters. There are five more consonants, C G S W Y, and they make more than one sound on a regular basis. Phonics provides the insight to know which sounds these letters make and when. The five regular vowels, A E I O U, make up the rest of our letter sounds. Vowels have their own long and short sounds as well as being copycats. The short sound is the normal sound of the vowel. Before we go on, we should note that both “W” and “Y” can sometimes act as vowels, as well as consonants. They can be very versatile letters! Some programs present a complicated and unnecessary idea when they refer to the hard and soft sounds of some letters. What is a hard or soft sound? Letter sounds are not hard or soft and it makes learning to read unnecessarily difficult. For example, some people talk about the hard or soft sound of “C.” It is much easier to say that “C” sometimes copies “S” and sometimes copies “K.” Then the very simple rule needs to be given explaining when to know which letter “C” is going to copy. This is a very important rule. “C,” by the way, is the only letter which has no sound of its own. It is a true copycat. It is important, after the student has mastered the main letter sounds, to make sure they know all the sounds a letter can make. For example, did you know the letter “A” actually makes 9 sounds, or to be exact - 8 sounds and it can be silent. Sometimes an emphasis is placed on blended sounds. Actually, most blended sounds will come naturally as a person sounds out the individual letter sounds and puts them together. Also, breaking longer words into syllables is helpful. 3. Teach Pronunciation and phonology. Phonology is the study of the sounds and relationships between sounds that exists in a language. Different languages have different phonologies, and linguists have generally come to consensus on what they are. Pronunciation is the way in which these sounds are spoken. I can pronounce a word carefully, slowly, quickly, etc. I can use the wrong sounds and pronounce something badly. Pronunciation is phonology in action. Phonology is what the sounds are in a language. Pronunciation is how we say them. • Ways to teach pronunciation: o Listen and repeat. This will be the first and most common method of teaching sound specific pronunciation in English. You say the target sound and have your students repeat it after you. o Minimal pairs. This is a great way to focus pronunciation on just one sound. If you are not familiar with linguistics, a minimal pair is two words that vary in only one sound. For example, rat and rate are minimal pairs because only the vowel sound differs between the two words. Additional minimal pairs are pin and pen, dim and dime, and bat and pat. You can use minimal pairs to help your students with their pronunciation by focusing on one particular sound. In addition to the pronunciation benefits, your students will also expand their vocabularies when you teach minimal pairs. o Sing Surprisingly enough, singing can be a good way for your ESL students to practice their vowel pronunciation. Because singing requires a person to maintain vowel sounds over more than just a moment, it can give your students a chance to focus in on the target sound and adjust what sound she is making. o Tongue twister Though tongue twisters are probably more popular for practicing consonant pronunciation, they are still a valuable resource for vowel practice. Not only are they a challenge to your students’ pronunciation abilities, they add an element of fun to the classroom that can help your students relax and therefore free them to be more daring in their attempts at English. 4. Teach intonation and stress. Intonation is the sound changes produced by the rise and fall of the voice when speaking, especially when this has an effect on the meaning of what is said. Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech. The three main patterns of intonation in English are: a. Falling intonation. b. Rising intonation. c. Fall-rise intonation. a) Falling intonation Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of a phrase or a group of words. A falling intonation is very common in wh-questions. Where’s the nearest p↘ ost-office? What time does the film f↘ inish? We also use falling intonation when we say something definite, or when we want to be very clear about something: I think we are completely l↘ ost. OK, here’s the magaz↘ ine you wanted. b) Rising intonation Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence. Rising intonation is common in yes-no questions: I hear the Health Centre is expanding. So, is that the new d↗ octor? Are you th↗ irsty? c) Fall-rise intonation Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises. We use fall-rise intonation at the end of statements when we want to say that we are not sure, or when we may have more to add: I do↘ n’t support any football team at the m↘ om↗ ent. (but I may change my mind in future). It rained every day in the firs↘ t w↗ eek. (but things improved after that). We use fall-rise intonation with questions, especially when we request information or invite somebody to do or to have something. The intonation pattern makes the questions sound more polite: Is this your cam↘ er↗ a? Would you like another co↘ ff↗ ee? Stress is the pronouncing of a word or syllable with greater force than other words in the same sentence or other syllables in the same word. There are 8 Word Stress Rules: 1- Nouns and adjectives with two syllables. The rule: When a noun (a word referring to a person, thing, place or abstract quality) or an adjective (a word that gives information about a noun) has two syllables, the stress is usually on the first syllable. Examples: table /TA-ble/ scissors /SCI-ssors/ pretty /PRE-tty/, clever /CLE-ver/ Exceptions: Unfortunately, there are exceptions to this rule. It could be that a word was borrowed from another language or it could be totally random. You just have to learn these “outsiders” by heart. Here are three words you can start with: hotel /ho-TEL/ extreme /ex-TREME/ concise /con-CISE/ 2- Verbs and prepositions with two syllables. The rule: When a verb (a word referring to an action, event or state of being) or a preposition (a word that comes before a noun, pronoun or the “-ing” form of a verb, and shows its relation to another word or part of the sentence) has two syllables, the stress is usually on the second syllable. Examples: present /pre-SENT/ export /ex-PORT/ aside /a-SIDE/ between /be-TWEEN/ 3- Words that are both a noun and a verb. The rule: Some words in English can be both a noun and a verb. In those cases, the noun has its word stress on the first syllable, and with the verb, the stress falls on the second syllable. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll see that this rule is a derivation from the prior two sections and notice some of the same words. However, this is a separate section since those pairs of words are relatively common in English and they’re likely to cause misunderstanding due to the same spelling. Examples: present /PRE-sent/ (a gift) vs. present /pre-SENT/ (give something formally) export /EX-port/ (the practice or business of selling goods to another country or an article that is exported) vs. export /ex-PORT/ (to sell goods to another country) suspect /SU-spect/ (someone who the police believe may have committed a crime) vs suspect /su-SPECT/ (to believe that something is true, especially something bad) There are, however, exceptions to this rule. For example, the word “respect” has a stress on the second syllable both when it’s a verb and a noun. 4- Three syllable words ending in “er” and “ly”. The rule: Words that have three syllables and end in “-er” or “-ly” often have a stress on the first syllable. Examples: orderly /OR-der-ly/ quietly /QUI-et-ly/ manager /MA-na-ger/ 5- Words ending in “ic,” “sion” and “tion”. The rule: When a word ends in “ic,” “sion” or “tion,” the stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable. You count syllables backwards and put a stress on the second one from the end. Examples: creation /cre-A-tion/ commission /com-MI-ssion/ photographic /pho-to-GRA-phic/ 6- Words ending in “cy,” “ty,” “phy,” “gy” and “al”. The rule: When a word ends in “cy,” “ty,” “phy,” “gy” and “al,” the stress is often on the third to last syllable. Similarly, you count syllables backwards and put a stress on the third one from the end. Examples: democracy /de-MO-cra-cy/ photography /pho-TO-gra-phy/ logical /LO-gi-cal/ commodity /com-MO-di-ty/ psychology /psy-CHO-lo-gy/ 7- Compound nouns. The rule: In most compound nouns (a noun made up of two or more existing words), the word stress is on the first noun. Examples: football /FOOT-ball/ keyboard /KEY-board/ 8- Compound adjectives and verbs. The rule: In most compound adjectives (a single adjective made of more than one word and often linked with a hyphen) and compound verbs (a multi-word verb that functions as a single verb), the stress is on the second word. Examples: old-fashioned /old-FA-shioned/ understand /un-der–STAND/ Mastering the subject of word stress isn’t easy, as there are many rules and exceptions. While native speakers do it naturally, English learners have to get there through a lot of practice and repetition. 5. Teach phonemic symbols Phonetic symbol is a written character used in phonetic transcription of represents a particular speech sound. The next page shows a picture of the phonetic symbols and their types. In the appendix, you can find a link to download phonemic chart. This interactive phonemic chart brought to you from the British Council, the world's English teaching experts website. Conclusion: Most of English classes, if not all, they have curriculum. Those curriculums are based on mix of the four English skills together. Whether there is curriculum or not, you can teach reading depending on the sequence of steps in this essay. With each step, you need to make sure that the students got it all right according to the followings: 1- Letter’s names and shapes. • During and after this step, make sure that all students can recognize all the letters whether individually or in words. Capital or small. 2- Letter’s sounds. • During and after this step, make sure that all students can pronounce all the letters whether individually or in words. Single letter or compound. 3- Pronunciation and phonology. • During and after this step, make sure that all students can produce all the letter’s sounds correctly whether individually or in words or sentences. 4- Intonation and stress. • During and after this step, make sure that all students understood what are stress and intonation, how and when to use them and how can they effect the meaning of the what has been said. Otherwise their reading will be like robots without any rise or fall in their reading or speaking. 5- Phonemic symbols. • During and after this step, make sure that all students can recognize the symbols and be able to read it when they see it in the dictionary. My final word is Practice. Practice makes perfect. This phrase is true but only if you practice it right. So do it right, teach it right and practice it right then you will achieve your goals with your students. Appendix 1: To download interactive phonemic chart: www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/TEphonemic.zip