Internet Resources for Pronunciation Teaching

Holly Gray and Sharon Alayne Widmayer

TESOL 2000

All right reserved.

 

Don't panic! Strategies for overcome tech-related problems:

Problem Strategy

web site is down Bring a back up lesson plan.Plan lessons that could be carried out on more than one site (watch movie clips on the Screening Room or Video Link)

computers don't have the right plug-in to listen to the clips you've selected

Try out your activities in the lab before class to make sure the plug-ins work. Choose sites offering more than one format (Shadow theater, Billboard)

there are not enough computers in the lab for all students in a class

See if it is possible to plug 2 sets of headphones into each computer (sometimes it is) & have students work together on one machine. This is especially effective if they can work on the listening activity together (for example, work together to write a summary or write questions for another pair).

Students are having problems accessing the video/ audio. Only some are able to.

You probably have too many students trying to listen/ watch the same thing at once. Plan lessons that involve more than one clip (students choose a clip to summarize, students watch a series of short clips to prepare for a discussion) so that different groups can be listening to different clips.

There is only one computer in the classroom.

If there is a lab students can use outside of class, you may want to save Internet listening for homework activities.

If your computer has good (& load speakers), you may want to choose an audio clip & play it for the entire class. If you have access to a computer projector, video can also be shown to the whole class (but video quality is normally not good on a

large screen)

Plan a variety of listening activities in small groups, including one using the computer. During the lesson, have students rotate to different stations to do different activities.

Video stops or slows down in the middle when using RealVideo.

The website is probably pretty busy. There's not too much you can do about this. Be Patient.

Students are not staying on task & are just "surfing the net"

Don't just stand at the front of the classroom. Walk around the classroom frequently to make sure students are on task.

The sound isn't working. Make sure that the speakers are turned on & the volume on the speakers & headphones is turned up.Check the volume control on your computer (in Windows 95/98, click on the little speaker icon in the bottom right & the volume control will pop up.

Everything is going wrong & I give up.

Don't give up! Technology takes patience. In case of a real emergency (your lab loses power, your Internet connection is down, etc), ALWAYS bring a non-computer-related activity with you that you can use in a pinch, such as a peer dictation exercise.

 

A list of useful websites

(These sites were active as of March 13, 2000)

Sites for pronunciation

Sounds of English--http://mason.gmu.edu/~swidmaye/sounds.htm: Sharon's page with diagrams and .wav files

The ESL Pronunciation Page-- http://user.gru.net/richardx/pronounce1.html English Pronunciation--

http://www.engl.polyu.edu.hk/MATERIALS/Pronunciation/1a-index.htm Phonetics and Phonology--

http://www.csulb.edu/~phoneme/pronunciation.html

ESL Independent Study Lab-- http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/pronunciation.html

Internet TESL Journal's list of Pronunciation links--http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/links/ESL/Pronunciation/

Holly's Beginning Word Stress-- http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hgray/stresschapter.html

Rhymes on English Pronunciation--http://www.wmich.edu/english/tchg/lit/adv/pronun.html: not a sound page, but a charming poem on the hazards of pronunciation and spelling correlations

Foreign Accent Archive--http://classweb.gmu.edu/classweb/weinberg/foreignaccent.html: not for ESL per se, but a great resource for examining accented English and predicting pronunciation problems

Sites with general ESL listening activities

ILCP Index-Interactive Listening Comprehension Practice (http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/lcra/)

BBC World Service - Learning Zone Home Page (http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/lzone/): This site has changed recently, but it's still great for ESL

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab (http://www.esl-lab.com/): Lots of great Real Audio quizzes good for a variety of levels

The English Listening Lounge (http://www.EnglishListening.com/) Holly's Listening Comprehension Page

(http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hgray/listen.html)

Sites with Authentic Materials

Interviews and news

RealAudio: National Public Radio (http://www.realaudio.com/contentp/npr.index.html)

BBC World Service - Home Page (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/) The Authors Speak (http://www.authorsspeak.com/)--long interviews with

many different authors. Somewhat accurate transcripts provided. Car Talk (http://cartalk.cars.com/Radio/) Hollywood Online -MovieTalk

(http://www.hollywood.com/movietalk/index.html) --Short interview clips with movie personalities

The World (http://www.theworld.org/): public radio international news show

Nightline (ABC news) (http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/NightlineIndex.html): Video clips of current events in RealAudio. Has some transcripts.

CNN video select (http://cnn.com/videoselect/): Video clips of current events in Real Audio

Weather

http://www.tvweather.com/tv_aud.htm: Listen to the weather throughout the U.S.

Radio Drama

The Shadow RealAudio Radio Theater (http://www.shadowradio.org) -features a different episode from the old radio show each day

Speeches

Great Speeches---Presented by Elycia's Real Audio and the Chicago Law Network(http://www.chicago-law.net/speeches/speech.html)--the name says it all; decades of historic speeches and sound clips

Webcorp's Audio Archive (http://www.webcorp.com/test/audioarchivefr.htm)--sound clips from speeches, very short (mostly .wav and .au)

Film and TV

Screening Room (http://www.film.com/screen/other.jhtml)--movie trailers, video clips

Seinfeld sights and sounds in RealAudio (http://ncohafmuta.com/seinfeld/)--has the complete (yes, complete) audio for lots and lots of Seinfeld episodes

Jonny's Star Trek Site (http://www.boingweb.com/startrek/index2.html)--Quicktime short clips

Xena QuickTime Library (http://www.xenafan.com/quicktime/)-- Quicktime short clips.

Songs

Billboard Top 100 (http://www.billboardradio.com)

Poetry

The Academy of American Poets (http://www.poets.org/lit/boothfst.htm)-- Archive of Poetry with both text & audio usually read by the author).