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In this unit, I learned how to teach pronunciation and phonology. These are two skills that are not often taught by teachers due to either a lack in knowledge or lack of confidence in teaching them. There are so many Roman Alphabetic word patterns that make reading, spelling, and pronouncing English words phonetically a challenge. Let us look at these words for example: bough and bow, fair and fare, and their and there. They sound the same, but they have a different meaning; they are homophones. This lesson taught me that if students could identify how many sounds (phonemes) are in a word, and can recognize that the sounds do not necessarily match how many letters are in the word, then they will be able to recognize that different word patterns make the same phonetic sound. Now, if you were to introduce the international phonemic alphabet, students may recognize that they see those symbols in the dictionary. They can then practice with the teacher, which phonemic symbol goes with a word, so as to recognize the sounds that go with particular word patterns. This lesson also taught me where and how sounds are articulated in the mouth. Combining all of this knowledge with the intonation, rhythm, and stress of how words and sentences are pronounced to portray expression, students can learn pronunciation and phonology with mouth diagrams, tongue twisters, and gestures. The teacher can also use the board to mark up and down arrows for where intonation occurs in a sentence or mark which words are stressed, as well as guide students in humming, singing, or saying nonsense words as a way to practice intonation in expression (i.e. inquiry, confusion, surprise, happiness, anger, etc.). As a final note, students can work in pairs or in a whole group so as to interact and take the stress of off learning something or making an on their own. As a teacher, just remember to smile and encourage your students so as to create a comfortable and positive learning experience. And a final note, I have got to say that those last five questions absolutely cracked me up! Thank you to whoever came up with those questions :)
