NOT EVERYONE SOUNDS ALIKE

NOT EVERYONE SOUNDS ALIKE

It’s easy for one to become narrowly focused with respect to what the world’s languages
have to offer the unsuspecting learner, especially since native speakers “play” with no more
than thirty-five to forty-five sounds in their own language .

English as night is from day; their basic sentence structure, instead of being
subject/verb/object (SVO), can be VSO. A very few are object-initial languages, OSV. A
number inflect their verbs in such a complex way as to make them among the world’s most
difficult to learn for beginners. And on and on go the differences.


phonology
While phonetics is the study of the ways in which speech sounds are produced,
phonology is the study of (1) how the speech sounds of a language
are used in that language to distinguish meaningful units (such as word)
from each other, and (2) how sounds are patterned in a language. Consequently,
the study of phonology requires us to take meaning into consideration,
while phonetics does not. In this section we explore phonology and
the basic unit of phonological analysis, the phoneme.allophones



word in each pair is a little longer than the vowel in the first.
Now determine the similarities and differences between the consonants
after the vowels in each word pair. You should find that the consonant in the
first word is the voiceless version of the consonant in the second word.
Turning our attention again to the vowels in each word pair: how are
they related? We hope you said that they were very similar vowels, specifically,
short and long versions of the same vowel.
You should now be able to determine a very general rule of English.
When are vowels lengthened and when are they not lengthened?
Your answer should be something along the lines of: English vowels are
lengthened when they occur before a voiced consonant; otherwise they are not
lengthened.
So far we’ve seen [{] and [{:], [u] and [u:], [o] and [o:], [i] and [i:], and
[e] and [e:]; in each case the longer vowel occurs before a voiced consonant.
We’ve also noted that the vowels are otherwise virtually identical—they differ
only in length. So it makes good sense to regard these pairs of vowel
sounds as slightly different pronunciations of the same vowel, and that
whether the vowel is lengthened or not depends on whether the consonant
that follows it is voiced or not.
Importantly, the long and short pairs of vowels do not contrast with
each other: English contains no pairs of words that are identical except that
where one contains a short version of a vowel, the other contains the longer
version of the same vowel. Consequently, the long and short versions of

vowels do not represent separate phonemes.
Let’s now turn our attention to some consonants. For example, English
speakers pronounce the [t] in toll differently from that in stole. The [t] of toll
is breathier than the [t] of stole. The former is said to be aspirated, and the
latter unaspirated. We represent the aspirated [t] as [th], with the diacritic
[h] indicating aspiration. We represent the unaspirated [t] as [t] with no diacritic.
The important point here is that English speakers do not signal any
difference in meaning with the difference between [th] and [t]. They treat
the two sounds as variant ways of pronouncing the “the same sound.” Substituting
one of these sounds for the other would not affect the meaning of
a word, but it would create an odd and perhaps non-native pronunciation of
the word. No pair of English words is distinguished solely by the difference
between [t] and [th]. You can satisfy yourself that this is so by trying to find
a minimal pair of English words differentiated solely by the fact that where
one has an aspirated consonant the other has an unaspirated version of that
same consonant. (Don’t spend too long trying!)
Let’s now look at a different pair of English sounds. If we replace the
[t] in [rt] (rot) with [d], then we get the sequence of sounds [rd] (rod),
which, of course, is quite distinct in meaning from rot. Clearly, English
speakers treat the difference between [d] and [t] differently from the way
they treat the difference between [th] and [t] and between longer and shorter
versions of vowels. In the case of [t] and [d], the difference can signal a
difference in meaning; in the other cases it cannot. Differences in sound
that signal differences in meaning are said to be phonemic, distinctive, or
contrastive. Differences in sound that do not signal meaning differences
are non‑distinctive or non‑contrastive. One objective of phonology is to
identify which sound differences are contrastive and which are not. As we
have seen, the contrastive sound units are called phonemes.
Phonemes and allophones
A good way to think about a phoneme is as a group of phonetically similar
sounds that are treated as members of the same sound category. Because the
members of a sound category are treated as “the same sound” in a language,
they cannot be used for communicating differences in meaning. English
speakers treat [th] and [t] as belonging to the same sound category, so they
cannot be used to distinguish one word from another. Different phonemes
are different categories of sounds and the differences among these categories
can signal differences in meaning. English speakers treat [t] and [d] as
belonging to
phonemes
You might reasonably have assumed that whenever speakers distinguish between
a pair of sounds, they will use that difference to distinguish between
words. For example, we know that English speakers distinguish between [s]
and [z], and we use this difference to signal the difference between the words
sip and zip. We will say that [s] and [z] contrast with each other in English.
In fact, all of the sounds we have described so far contrast with each other in
English and so are used by English speakers to distinguish words from each
other. You can test this out by taking any pair of sounds (as we took [s] and
[z]) and creating a pair of words (like sip and zip) which are identical, except
that where one has one sound, the other has the other sound, just as where
sip has [s], zip has [z]. Pairs of words like this are called minimal pairs,
and are used to demonstrate that pairs of sounds are used in a language to
distinguish words from each other. Sound units that distinguish words from
each other are called phonemes. 

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

 Syntax is about sentence formation, and semantics about sentence interpretation, phonetics and phonology cover the field of sentence utterance. Phonetics is concerned with how sounds are produced, transmitted and perceived (we will only look at the production of sounds). Phonology is concerned with how sounds function in relation to each other in a language. In other words, phonetics is about sounds of language, phonology about sound systems of language. Phonetics is a descriptive tool necessary to the study of the phonological aspects of a language.

Phonetics and phonology are worth studying for several reasons. One is that as all study of language, the study of phonology gives us insight into how the human mind works.

Two more reasons are that the study of the phonetics of a foreign language gives us a much better ability both to hear and to correct mistakes that we make, and also to teach pronunciation of the foreign language (in this case English) to others.

As phonetics and phonology both deal with sounds, and as English spelling and English pronunciation are two very different things, it is important that you keep in mind that we are not interested in letters here, but in sounds. For instance, English has not 5 or 6 but 20 different vowels, even if these vowels are all written by different combinations of 6 different letters, "a, e, i, o, u, y". The orthographic spelling of a word will be given in italics, e.g. please, and the phonetic transcription between square brackets [pli:z]. Thus the word please consists of three consonants, [p,l,z], and one vowel, [i:]. And sounds considered from the phonological point of view are put between slashes. 

PHONOLOGY

PHONOLOGY

While phonetics is the study of the ways in which speech sounds are produced,
phonology is the study of (1) how the speech sounds of a language
are used in that language to distinguish meaningful units (such as words)
Delahunty and Garvey from each other, and (2) how sounds are patterned in a language. Consequently, the study of phonology requires us to take meaning into consideration,
while phonetics does not. In this section we explore phonology and
the basic unit of phonological analysis, the phoneme

PHONEME

You might reasonably have assumed that whenever speakers distinguish between
a pair of sounds, they will use that difference to distinguish between
words. For example, we know that English speakers distinguish between [s]
and [z], and we use this difference to signal the difference between the words
sip and zip. We will say that [s] and [z] contrast with each other in English.
In fact, all of the sounds we have described so far contrast with each other in
English and so are used by English speakers to distinguish words from each
other. You can test this out by taking any pair of sounds (as we took [s] and
[z]) and creating a pair of words (like sip and zip) which are identical, except
that where one has one sound, the other has the other sound, just as where
sip has [s], zip has [z]. Pairs of words like this are called minimal pairs,
and are used to demonstrate that pairs of sounds are used in a language to
distinguish words from each other. Sound units that distinguish words from
each other are called phonemes. 

DIPTHONGS IN PHONETICS

DIPTHONGS IN PHONETICS

 vowels as if they were articulated by a specific configuration
of the tongue, lips, and oral cavity, which is held constant throughout
their pronunciation. Vowels made like this are called monophthongs; others,
called diphthongs, involve a change in the configuration of the mouth.

The vowel sounds in the words boy, by, and how involve a change in
the shape of the mouth as the vowel is being produced. The vowel of boy
begins with approximately the mid back vowel [O] and finishes with approximately
the high front lax vowel [I] (or the palatal glide [j]). 

The vowel of by begins with approximately the low back vowel [a] (a low back vowel
slightly more forward than [A], but not as forward as [{]) and also finishes
with approximately [I] (or [j]). 
The vowel of how begins with approximately [a] and finishes with approximately the high lax rounded vowel [U] (or the labio-velar glide [w]). We represent these diphthongs as [OI], [aI], and [aU], respectively (though many linguists use [Oj], [aj], and [aw]).

A second set of English diphthongs is not as clearly distinguished as the
first, primarily because we tend to perceive them as simple vowels. However,
in a precise (narrow) phonetic transcription they must be represented as
diphthongs. 
The tense front vowel [e] is diphthongized. If you listen carefully
you will notice that the vowel of bate is actually pronounced [eI]. The
tense back vowel [o] is also diphthongized: if you listen carefully you will
notice that the vowel of boat is actually pronounced [oU].

 So, the front tense vowel is diphthongized by the addition of a front vowel and the back tense vowel is diphthongized by the addition of a back vowel. We can express this
pattern as a rule: Mid and high tense vowels are diphthongized by the addition
of a high lax vowel that matches the original vowel in frontness or backness.

Diphthongization of these vowels is a feature of English rather than a
universal feature of natural language. Other languages, notably Spanish and
German, do not diphthongize their corresponding vowels. The tendency to
diphthongize these vowels is one characteristic of the “foreign accent” that
betrays English speakers when they begin to learn these languages.

Motivation Factors in Language Learning

Motivation Factors in Language Learning

Introduction

Motivation in language-learning plays a vital role. It is motivation that produces effective second-language communicators by planting in them the seeds of self-confidence. It also successfully creates learners who continuously engage themselves in learning even after they complete a targeted goal. In order for English instructors to motivate them, a number of methods are needed both in and outside of class. “positive self-concept, high self-esteem, positive attitude, clear understanding of the goals for language learning, continuous active participation in the language learning process, the relevance of conductive environment that could contribute to the success of language learning” . They state that six factors influence motivation in language learning: attitudes, beliefs about self, goals, involvement, environmental support, and personal attributes. Above all, three specific elements are strongly believed to build motivation towards language-learning: self-confidence, experiencing success and satisfaction, and good teacher-learner relationships as well as relationships between learners. All three factors are believed to be correlated to each other in the process of motivation development. This paper demonstrates analysis of three factors that have a solid connection with motivation

Investigation of Three Factors

Self-confidence

Self-confidence is the most significant in language-learning. It provides learners with the motivation and energy to become positive about their own learning. It also creates the drive in them to acquire the targeted language, enjoy the learning process, and experience real communication. “At the heart of all learning is a person’s belief in his or her ability to accomplish the task”. “In general, successful language learners appear to have higher self-esteem than those who  are unsuccessful”. Lack of belief in one’s ability hinders him from achieving that task—pursuing a targeted language accomplishment. Moreover, it is widely believed that once students gain self-confidence, it progressively expands, in conjunction with experiencing success and satisfaction as well as good relationships.

Experience of Success and Satisfaction

Experience of success provides students with more power to pursue a new goal. It allows language learners to understand the purpose of trying and have pleasure in communicating with others. Some people might feel successful when they can communicate their thoughts to people; others might feel the sense of success when they complete a challenging task in a targeted language. The feeling of success time and again emerges specifically when he realizes the degree of his improvement and achievement. Some people, on the other hand, appreciate compliments from others. There is a similarity between the experience of success and satisfaction; the experience of success at all times satisfies people not only in language-learning but also in anything. To make it short, it is strongly believed that the experience of success comes hand in the hand with the sense of satisfaction.

, “A student will find it difficult to perform in a stressful environment” . He also mentions that “the lessons must be very simple, yet fun and interesting, with a lot of changes from a writing exercise, to a speaking, listening, back to writing, and so on”. “students need to be able to use the skills taught in the classroom to do things other than those that they had been specifically taught” . This implies that in order for language learners to experience success and become satisfied, it is essential for instructors to create a relaxing learning environment so that students can perform successfully. Moreover, a language class needs to contain a variety of materials and activities focusing on all necessary skills. By encouraging students to practice not only one skill but all, the class will become more challenging and effective.

Good Relationships Among Learners and Between Teacher and Students

 “Teachers need to find creative ways to teach the language and increase the student’s motivation to learn the language and to eventually appreciate the language” . There are a number of methods that English instructors can use to motivate students in class, and instructors should flexibly employ the most suitable method for the class.  “Teachers should develop a mutual relationship with their learners” . In order to develop a mutual relationship with their learners, teachers need to understand students who are from different backgrounds, have different interests, future goals, aims for English learning, and most importantly, different personalities. Once they understand them better, teachers are able to apply specific teaching and communicating strategies tailored to each student, thereby creating a trusting relationship between a teacher and student. Once a relationship develops, the classroom will become comfortable and enjoyable enough for students to learn positively from the teacher without any hesitation.
  

 “what occurs in the language classrooms must be extended beyond the walls of the classroom so that a link is created between what is learned in the classrooms with what occurs outside of the classrooms” . Languages cannot be learned merely in classrooms. Learning a language requires communication in real life situations. Thus, students need to acquire an array of communication skills that they can use with various kinds of people. It is essential that they learn not only how to communicate in the target language but also the background, history, and culture that defines it.

“Students who remain silent in groups of ten or more will contribute actively to discussions when the size of the group is reduced to five or three. Type of communicative task can also influence students’ willingness to speak” .  “In classrooms in which mutual respect is lacking, differing values can lead to conflicts between student and teacher, and between student and peer”. The classroom size and the size of group are to be carefully considered. Language learners tend to feel frightened to make a speech in front of a big group. Thus, teachers need to aid students who need support and encourage them to understand that no one can be as perfect as native speakers. In addition, teachers are required to teach all the students the importance of having respect for one another in a classroom so that each of the students can actively participate in lesson.

Motivation is vital in language learning. It makes language learners positive about their own learning. It also creates the drive in them to acquire the targeted language, enjoy the learning process, and experience real communication. Moreover, experience of success and satisfaction has a strong connection with motivation. By realizing their improvement and achievement, students always gain the feeling of success. In order for language students to become satisfied with a lesson, it is required to produce a stress-free classroom and develop integrated-tasks lesson. It is necessary that there is a trust between a teacher and the students so that much communication in a targeted language is developed.

In conclusion, these three factors: self-confidence, experiencing success and satisfaction, and good teacher-learner relationships as well as relationships between learners, play an essential role in developing language learners’ motivation.

Dictation as a Language Learning Device

Dictation as a Language Learning Device

Introduction

Dictation has been used in language learning for several hundred years, and methodologists have often made pedagogical claims for its value. 

Despite claims such as these from respected methodologists, dictation is not widely used in ESL programs. Likewise, it has long been ignored in most teacher-training programs. The purpose of this paper is to re-introduce dictation as a valuable language learning device and to suggest ways for using it in an effective and interesting manner.

Types of Dictation

The first, the phonemic item dictation, consists of the teacher presenting the individual sounds of a language (i.e., their IPA coordinates) to students for transcription. The phonemic item dictation is useful in that it increases the students' ability to recognize the sounds of a language and their contrasts, thereby facilitating their accurate production. This dictation is an excellent way to teach beginners to stop imposing the sound system of their native language upon the sound system of English.

The second, the phonemic text dictation, is an extension of the phonemic item dictation. It consists of the teacher reciting a passage which students phonetically transcribe. The phonemic item dictation is valuable as a way to understand how English sounds change in connected speech. Though it goes beyond the objectives set for students in most ESL programs in the U.S., it is commonly used in English departments in many foreign universities.

The orthographic item dictation is the dictating of individual words in isolation for transcription, similar to the traditional spelling test. It is useful for reinforcing the correlation between the spelling system and sound system of a language. In English this correlation is more complex than it is in other languages (e.g., Spanish and many Slavic languages), and so it is a worthwhile ESL/EFL exercise.

The dictation with the broadest learning possibilities is the orthographic text dictation, in which students transcribe a unified passage. This is the classic dictation exercise all foreign language teachers are familiar with. Besides reinforcing the spelling/sound correlations of English, the orthographic text dictation uncovers comprehension and grammatical weaknesses in learners which the teacher can analyze and address in future lessons.

I will discuss the use and benefits of the orthographic text dictation in this paper.

Selecting a Dictation

The ideal dictation comes from a contemporary source of clear, standard English. The subject matter of the text is up to the teacher; however, a lively, engaging text livens up the exercise considerably. Because one of the goals of dictation is to provide practice in understanding semantically unified speech, paragraph dictations are best for most drills. At the high-beginning level, dictations should be elementary statements that students have already studied, in simple, unified paragraphs. At the intermediate level, dictations should also come from material the students have already read, in longer, more developed paragraphs. At both of these levels, dictations help to reinforce basic sentence structures and vocabulary.

At the advanced level, the goal is to force students to learn what they hear and what they do not hear. Therefore, the teacher should dictate unfamiliar texts, thereby making the students' experience of listening the primary aspect of the dictation.

In all cases, dictations must be selected according to the students' abilities, and the usage and style should be similar to what the students are expected to produce on their own in the course, both verbally and in writing. 

A useful source for dictations at all levels is the class textbook itself. By using the textbook, the teacher will avoid selecting material that is too different from the language norms the students have been learning. By the same token, the selected material will have (or should have) good examples of the language aspects the class is dealing with in terms of grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation.

Delivering a Dictation

A good time to deliver a dictation is at the beginning of class. The reasons are to focus the students on English right away, calm them down, and ensure punctuality.

For their transcriptions, I request that students use pencils and uniform notebooks with lined paper. I also ask that they write their transcriptions on every other line, so corrections can be marked between the lines if necessary.

Before beginning the dictation, the teacher writes on the board any proper nouns, abbreviations (etc., e.g., i.e., and so on), acronyms, or foreign or specialized words within the dictation that he or she has not previously explained. The teacher also writes on the board the chosen spelling for any word that is commonly spelled in more than one way (e.g., rock and roll/rock'n'roll).

To begin the exercise, the teacher reads the dictation through once, at normal speaking speed. As stated earlier, it is recommended that the teacher select a passage from the class textbook with which the students are already familiar (e.g., part of an essay, short story, or article). During this first reading, the students should only listen.

The teacher then reads the dictation through a second time, at a slightly slower speed. The students begin transcribing. The teacher stops after each phrase or meaningful unit and also calls out punctuation, which the students must include in their transcriptions. Occasionally a student will ask for a word or phrase to be repeated; I will generally repeat any word or phrase once, if requested.

For any words the students cannot hope to transcribe, I tell them to leave a blank and to continue with transcribing the dictation.

The teacher then reads the dictation through a third time at normal speaking speed, again including punctuation. During this reading, the students check their work and make any last changes.

After finishing the dictation and allowing the students a minute or two for final corrections, the teacher instructs the students to stop. They then take out the source material for the dictation and self-correct their transcriptions. Alternatively, the teacher can have the students correct each other's dictations. Whatever the case, the corrections should be in ink, in order to distinguish them from the transcriptions.

Benefits of Dictation

·         Dictation makes the students and the teacher aware of the students' comprehension errors--phonological, grammatical, or both. In English, typical errors include the frequent omissions of bound morphemes such as:

·         The -s plural

·         The -'s possessive

·         The -s third person singular

·         The -ed ending for regular past participles.

      Dictation shows students the kinds of spelling errors they are prone to make.

      Dictation gives students practice in comprehending and transcribing clear English prose. Note: I find this important because we have all encountered awkward sentences in textbooks that are not good models of English writing, or raise grammatical, syntactic, or semantic questions that are not the point of the exercise to begin with. One example from a rather famous source: "When you receive a request like that, you cannot fail to obey it." This was in a textbook for a pre-intermediate class and came without a footnote to aid the student.

      Dictation gives students valuable practice in notetaking. ESL college students may already be in courses in which they must take notes of lectures delivered in English at normal speaking speed. While no one should take lecture notes that are exact transcriptions, learning to write spoken language quickly is an essential college skill.

      Dictation gives practice in correct forms of speech. Note: We have all read student compositions with grammatically correct sentences that are not correct forms, for example She is a surgeon of hearts or He is a good cooker.

      Dictation can help develop all four language skills in an integrative way.

      Dictation helps to develop short-term memory. Students practice retaining meaningful phrases or whole sentences before writing them down.

      Dictation can serve as an excellent review exercise.

      Dictation is psychologically powerful and challenging.

      Dictation fosters unconscious thinking in the new language.

      If the students do well, dictation is motivating.

      Dictation involves the whole class, no matter how large it is.

      During and after the dictation, all students are active.

      Correction can be done by the students

      Dictation can be prepared for any level.

      The students, as well as the teacher, can get instant feedback if desired.

      Dictation can be administered quite effectively by an inexperienced teacher.

      While dictating, the teacher can (in fact should) move about, giving individual attention.

      Dictation exercises can pull the class together during the valuable first minutes of class.

      Dictation can provide access to interesting texts.

      Knowing how to take dictation is a skill with "real world" applications. Many jobs demand accurate understanding of spoken orders (phone agents, dispatchers, administrative assistants, etc.). Also, the U.S. citizenship exam requires examinees to take a dictation.

      Dictation can be a good indicator of overall language ability. 

Using PowerPoint for ESL Teaching

Using PowerPoint for ESL Teaching

Although PowerPoint has been in existence for many years, it has just begun to spread to schools and ESL classrooms. The reason for this delay is that technology requires hardware, which is relatively expensive. However, more and more classrooms and teachers have computers and the equipment to use PowerPoint. Not only are more teachers using these presentations, but more are producing their own. Some are even placing them on websites for others to download. PowerPoint is a useful tool that is now being used in many classrooms.

Before continuing, let me give a brief definition. PowerPoint is a type of presentation software that allows one to show colored text and images with simple animation and sound. PowerPoint is just one of many types of presentation software. Hyper-Studio is another.

PowerPoint is the most popular because it comes bundled with Microsoft packages. PowerPoint will run on either Macintosh or Windows PC's. The files are easy to create and can be e-mailed as attachments. They can be posted on or downloaded from websites, and can be converted to html webpages. Not only can PowerPoint presentations be traded and exchanged, they can also be modified to fit any individual classroom setting. Although other presentation software may have the same capabilities, PowerPoint is the most common, and it is user friendly.

PowerPoint presentations can be used in many ways in the ESL classroom as well as in other classrooms. Presentations can be used for initial teaching, for practice and drilling, for games, for reviews, and for tests.

PowerPoint can be used to teach new ideas and concepts to students. In theory this sounds very good; however, in practice this can be tricky. The teacher must anticipate areas of misunderstanding and difficulty. Once the teacher knows the troubles, which the students will face, he or she can create or adapt a presentation for the students. The presentation must be clear and uncluttered. It should address anticipated areas of student difficulty in an orderly manner. This type of presentation is difficult to prepare, but it can be done. Once an initial teaching presentation is prepared, it can be saved and used again and again, and it can be shared with others.

Improving Science Students' Fluency through Project Work

Improving Science Students' Fluency through Project Work

Introduction

In recent years, L1 and L2 classroom-based research has shown the effect of interest and involvement in the task in motivating students for communicating in the language. Project work is one example of tasks that provide contexts where the learner might feel a genuine need for using the language.

In this article, I shall present guidelines for designing project work in an ESP(english for special purposes) context, the overall objective being to develop students' communicative oral proficiency.

Literature and Background

Literature

There is now empirical evidence that Content-Based Instruction (CBI) in general and project work more specifically help in setting up contexts where learners are required to respond actively and engage in "purposeful communication" . There are several reasons for this.

·         Unlike traditional approaches to foreign language teaching which tend to focus on accuracy by teaching discrete grammatical points and vocabulary items, this type of work allows both teacher and student to concentrate on the communicative use of language and content rather than form.

·         Learners learn better when they work on the same topic for some time than when they have reading or writing materials on a different topic every time. It is argued that in recycling their knowledge by reading from different sources on the same subject, they develop a sense of self-confidence in the project work and go deeper in the processing of the materials.

·         Project work, as this article will show, can be tied up to real-life preoccupations as well as to the range of academic tasks students will encounter in their future academic and professional life. And therefore might enhance students' interests and motivation and provides them with hands-on experience.

There are a number of taxonomies for project work. Henry (1994) classifies projects into structured, unstructured and semi-structured projects depending on the teacher's involvement in the organisation of projects. Projects are also classified according to the methods and ways of gathering Information. There are research projects, correspondence projects, survey projects and encounter projects (Haines, 1989). The last classification has to do with the way the projects are delivered. There are production projects, performance projects and organisational projects.

Background

As far as English is concerned, previous experiences for this type of session included the presentation of exposes. This presented some advantages (it was something new, students enjoyed it, learned from it) but also some disadvantages.

First, expose were prepared outside class time. Students at this level had a heavy timetable, so definitely they did not invest that much time in it, and the result is that they started looking for shortcuts: translating information given in their main courses, copying information from reference books and encyclopaedia.

Also no genuine discussions were engendered. As this exercise was marked, students thought that asking questions might put their colleagues at a disadvantage so the rule seemed to be "I keep quiet in your expose, so keep quiet in mine!"

The last but not least important point is that students' presentation of exposes became a form of read-aloud information rather than a ground for discussing topics of interest.

New Context

The objective of project work as previously stated is to create a setting where learners feel the need - and actually do- take part in discussion. This came in the form of an advertisement in the faculty's scientific magazine:

·         "A competition for the best project for research on a biology subject of the year is being organised. On D-day a special committee will meet to consider all proposals for research and will select the best one in terms of its scientific value (what is its contribution to science in general?) , Feasibility  and applicability (how applicable is it at local, national and international levels?) "

Tasks

Before the Final Presentation

·         Thinking

·         Exchanging ideas

·         Negotiating

·         Writing

·         Correcting

·         Debriefing: in mid-term, we organised a first recording to familiarise students' with the camera. Students viewed this videotaped playback of the formal oral presentations. They commented on their own and each others' both verbal and non-verbal performance giving the possibility of self and peer correction

·         Consulting specialists

·         Rewriting

·         Rehearsing for final presentation

On the Final Presentation Day

·         Groups

·         Presenting orally

·         Intervening: asking for clarification, asking questions

·         Defending (their own subject) and attacking (the others)

      Committee Members

·         Open presentation session

·         Present groups, members and subjects

·         Organise schedule for presentations

·         Check the time for each presentation (ask presenters to wrap up, remind them of time left...)

·         Manage general discussion at the end of the presentations

·         Close presentations and discussion

Evaluation

Positive points

This kind of work raised students' awareness to mistakes, especially after viewing the first recording, They noted the frequent coining of ungrammatical words: such as sensibilate* inhibitate* and transformate* while trying to express themselves.

Breakdowns in communication and attempts to repair that by switching  to other languages were also noted and English equivalents were proposed. This type of work was also a good opportunity for students to become aware of differences in style between the oral and the written mode.

Besides raising students' awareness of these different aspects of language use, we also recorded the positive reaction of main course specialists. They gave their full backing and support for the groups whose projects fell within the scope of their discipline 

The best outcome was at the level of motivation. This kind of task provided the students with the required framework to work and learn with a sense of purpose. Students read articles, summarised texts, jotted down ideas (in groups) and re-wrote them in a better style, corrected each others' spelling and pronunciation mistakes. Besides the four traditional basic skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening), students practised a variety of study skills (e.g. searching in the library for information.)

Project work develops students' autonomy in learning. They work at their own pace and at the same time feel comfortable and secure in the team as they choose their partners themselves. They also develop a sense of ownership towards the project as they see it gradually take shape.

Negative Points

Some students used languages other than English for in-group discussions. Also, there were students who did not contribute to the group's effort, yet wanted to benefit from the mark given to the group.

Conclusion

It is now widely agreed that Communicative Language Teaching can be highly constrained by the absence of real settings, real roles and real needs for communication   This is especially true of cultures, which still stick to the view of teachers as "knowledge holders."

This kind of work might give the impression that the teacher is sitting back and the students are doing all the work. Actually a lot of work must be done by the teacher both inside and outside of the classroom. Apart from correcting first drafts (each group had at least three) and advising on problems pertaining to language, the teacher has to organise meetings between groups and their respective main course teachers and prepare handouts.

On the whole, spreading this type of activity over a term was, in my view, very successful. Set within an ESP context, this idea of research projects in science, fulfilled the required objective of giving the learners a situation for genuine oral interaction

Case Studies in the Language Classroom & Advantages of the Case Study to the Language Teacher

Case Studies in the Language Classroom & Advantages of the Case Study to the Language Teacher

What do teachers do if they have advanced language learners, who may have certain grammatical, lexical or pronunciation problems but for the most part are at ease in their L2. This is a problem we face constantly in our language classroom and we found that case studies provide the answer to the above dilemma. The case study method has been used in many fields in third level education and also lends itself nicely to language learning. The next question may be where to find suitable case studies which are not too content-led and do not presuppose an in-depth knowledge of a specific subject matter. As the main aim of the language teacher is not to teach content but rather improve the student’s communicative competence and oral proficiency in the L2, case studies written by language teachers and adapted to the language classroom are more appropriate than case studies written by business lecturers. There are various publications on the market which respond to the language teachers’ needs. 

Advantages of the Case Study to the Language Teacher

Many teachers shy away from using case studies in the classroom situation for many reasons. First of all, they may feel that they will be engulfed in the content aspect of the case study and lose face before their students. Secondly, they may not be comfortable with the role shift in their teaching - from teacher to facilitator. Finally, teachers who are used to a transmission style of teaching may feel that teaching is not really happening if they use simulations or case studies.

However, the advantages of case studies are numerous. Some of them are set out below:

1.    to develop critical thinking and reflective learning in the learner.

2.    to improve the student’s organisational skills -  as case studies are sometimes very dense in information, the key is to condense this information into logical sections and organise them so that a clear picture of the problem/issue can be understood

3.    to enhance communication skills - case studies can be used to improve the student’s written and oral communication. Non-verbal communication skills are also practised by using case studies

4.    to train managerial communication skills such as holding a meeting, negotiating a contract, giving a presentation etc. Case studies force students into real-life situations to require them to get involved in managerial communication.

5.    to encourage collaborative learning and team-working skills in the language learner.

PITCH VARIATION IN PHONETICS

PITCH VARIATION IN PHONETICS

Saying correctly the individual sounds of your new language is only the beginning. One
prosodic feature of any language that is an extremely important aspect of good pronunciation is the proper use of the PITCH of your voice. Perhaps you need to speak in a high voice, or a low voice, or something in between. Or maybe you need to vary from one to the other.

Whatever the case, reproduction of the pitch levels used by the native speakers of your target language is the only thing that will enable you to sound really “right” in that language.
Pitch is used in languages in two different ways: intonation and tone.

INTONATION

INTONATION is the pitch pattern over an entire utterance and can be used to signal

emotions, convey certain thoughts or attitudes, or to distinguish between things like questions and statements. But intonation is never used to distinguish one word from another.

Tone

We have now seen that intonation patterns in a language can change the implication of
utterances. But the words in those utterances maintain their basic meaning. However, there
are languages in which the pitch of a word or syllable in a word contributes as much to the
meaning of the word as do the individual segments. The pitches are just as much a part of the meaning of the word as the segments are. These languages are called TONAL
LANGUAGES or TONE LANGUAGES, and the pitches in these languages are called
TONES.

Types of Tone Languages

Some tone languages use only LEVEL tones (the pitch is heard to stay the same throughout
an entire syllable). Others also use TONE GLIDES (the pitch is heard to rise, or fall, or do
both within a single syllable).
“When a language utilizes tone glides that have been analyzed as not being sequences of
level tones, then that language is called a CONTOUR TONE LANGUAGE.

Things to Keep in Mind When Considering Tone and Intonation

 Where does the sound start? Is it pitched high, low, or mid-range?
 In what direction does the sound go after that? Does it remain level, drop, or rise?
 If it drops or rises, does it glide up or down a long or a short time?
 If it drops or rises, does it only go in one direction, or does it rise and fall, or fall and
rise?