Pronunciation in our classrooms - mini-event

About the event

This event took place on Friday March 22, 2024 and featured three webinars with expert ELT teachers from around the world. All webinars help English teachers think about how they teach pronunciation in the classroom. The webinars are for teachers of primary, secondary and adult English language learners. 

About the webinars

Session 1: Variation not deviation: Encouraging tolerance of English diversity in ELT 

Speaker:

Gemma Archer (UK)

Time and date:

11:00 - 12:00 (UK time) March 22, 2024

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Session information:

The prestige native speaker model is at odds with modern English which is a global, diverse, and dynamic language, used more by L2 speakers than L1. So how can we teachers make room for our students, and indeed, our own Englishes in the ELT classroom, move away from near-impossible goals of native speaker model replication, and instead, towards embracing and accepting clear intelligible international speech, regardless of the variety? I’ll suggest practical ways in which we can achieve this, encouraging students to embrace their L2 identity, accept rather than fear unfamiliar Englishes, and feel confident about their own English voice. 

Session 2: It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it

Speaker:

Kris Kirby (Hong Kong)

Time and date:

12:15 - 13:15 (UK time) March 22, 2024

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Session information:

This webinar will give you some practical ideas to help you work with pronunciation in your classes. Pronunciation is probably the most neglected aspect of language taught in our classrooms. We often feel that grammar and vocabulary must take precedence and as such, pronunciation activities are either skipped entirely or rushed through quickly. Nonetheless, this aspect of language is essential for clear communication. In this webinar, we’ll discuss why pronunciation is so crucial to our students and we’ll look at some practical methods to raise their awareness of the way sounds in English are produced. Finally, we’ll tackle the tricky question – ‘Which type of English pronunciation are we aiming for anyway..?’ 

Session 3: Honing your pronunciation teaching skills

Speaker:

Ana Paula Biazon Rocha (UK)

Time and date:

13:30 - 14:30 (UK time) March 22, 2024

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Session information:

This workshop will start by reflecting on some of the reasons why many English teachers struggle to teach pronunciation, namely lack of training in pronunciation teaching, lack of confidence in their own pronunciation, uncertainty about how to incorporate pronunciation into everyday lessons, inflexible curriculum, reduced access to pronunciation teaching resources, believing that pronunciation is learned incidentally, etc. Then, we will look at practical tips such as teaching word stress with your hands, articulating difficult sounds, using follow-up tasks to complement a pronunciation point presented in the course book, exploring online pronunciation resources, among others. 

About the speakers

Gemma Archer is an EAP teacher and coordinator at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. She is also the joint-coordinator of IATEFL Pronunciation Special Interest Group (PronSIG) and co-author of the book Teaching English Pronunciation for a Global World (OUP, 2024). Her research interests lie in the field of pronunciation pedagogy and accent, and the issues which can arise when students and teachers of English are confronted with diverse regional and global varieties of English. 

Kris Kirby started teaching English in Thailand in 2007 and has since taught in Spain, Vietnam, England, China and Ukraine, and has a passion for helping learners with their pronunciation and speaking skills. He has taught a variety of levels and ages from primary to adults, and beginners to advanced levels. He has also been teacher training since 2016, and spoke at TeachingEnglish's World Teacher's Day 2023. He currently works at the British Council in Hong Kong. 

Ana Paula Biazon Rocha is from São Paulo, Brazil, and currently lives in Sheffield, UK. She has been teaching English for almost 19 years. She is a Teacher Development (TD) Coordinator and the Assistant Director of Studies  at the English Language Teaching Centre, University of Sheffield. She has specialised in English pronunciation and pronunciation pedagogy. She is a committee member and blogger for IATEFL PronSIG. 

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How to watch the webinar

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Webinar handouts

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