|
An introduction to rhythm
& helping learners to
become more autonomous with phonology
The following are taken from
two Teaching Tips
An introduction to rhythm
Have you got rhythm? Have your
students? Although there is debate surrounding rhythm in natural
English speech, an awareness for our students is still useful
& it is a nice way to get to arrive at 'sounds in combination'.
Here is a way of introducing the idea to your students:
Write on the board:
1 2
3 4
Get the students to say together
the numbers - drill them, several times.
Then put the following on the
board & get the students to say them together.
1 and 2 and
3 and 4
Then put the following on the
board & get the students to say them together.
1 and then
a 2 and then a 3 and then a 4
Then put the following on the
board & get the students to say them together.
1 and then
put a 2 and then put a 3 and then put a 4
Then interchange the words in
between the numbers:
1 and 2 and
put a 3 and then put a 4
Play around with combinations,
getting the students to repeat together. It should be lots
of fun.
The idea is that, in theory,
each line takes the same time to say. We push the little bits
together between the main stress & it is this that causes
rhythm. To further exemplify this put the following on the
board:
Take it home
(3 syllables - 2 stresses)
Watch it in
the air
(5 syllables - 2 stresses)
Elicit the number of syllables
for each & the number of main stresses. This should clarify
how words are squashed between the main stresses.
Then on to some practice activities.
It would be better, initially, to use obvious material for
this. If you have cuisenaire rods handy, check out the page
on 'Some nursery rhymes to illustrate
rhythm using cuisenaire rods'.
There is also a similar idea
using limericks in the Teaching Tip There
once was an English teacher
Rap songs are also good for
focussing on rhythm. Put up the lyrics, get the students to
mark the tone units, the stresses & then chant them aloud
as a group. To
see an explanation of tone units & prominence.
Now that you have established
the idea of rhythm, move on to what happens to the words when
they get squashed between the main stresses with
'sounds in combination'.
Autonomy & phonology
Improving pronunciation
is one of the important areas that students feel the need
to come to class for. This feeling that the teacher is the
only one that can help them is true to an extent but students
can also help themselves. Here are a few ideas to help promote
autonomy & phonology:
1. Awareness of
what is involved in phonology is clearly a good starting point
& point them towards a realistic view of how native-like
they might become.
2. Lots of listening
& analysis of where the difficulties came. Discuss 'sounds
in combination' aspects.
3. Recommend areas
they need to individually work on & sources for practice
materials - books, internet.....
4. Students keep
their learner diaries on a tape - handed in at regular intervals.
Encourage comparisons between present entries & past ones.
5. Give clear language
records - with phonological aspects clearly marked & look
at what they are writing down to make sure their records are
clear & not missing anything.
6. Student self-correction
of phonology errors.
7. Dictionary training
- word stress & sounds.
If you take phonology
seriously & talk about how much they can do on their own
then your students will realise it is another area in which
they can help themselves.
Back
to the Phonology index page |
