How to teach IPA English Pronunciation via New Horizons

If you're a language teacher in Japan, Asia, or in fact anywhere in the world and are having problems getting your students to understand differences in pronunciation and/or accents for languages such as English, this tool may come in handy.

The New Horizons English textbook, used in many Japanese Junior High Schools, fails to explain how to pronounce words using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). I made this tool to fill in that minor hole in the curriculum.

It's not just a poster of a face with a movable tongue. For each tongue position within the mouth, the IPA letter of the sound appears in a little window. Thereby, if the student is trying to read a word in the dictionary, and the word has a pronunciation key written with the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), this tool can be used to visualise the tongue positions for different vowels.

Additionally, I added in a few important consonants, such as the voiced and unvoiced 'th' sounds.

I made this in the last month of my stay in Japan about two years ago, and only got to briefly use it, to help the 3rd year Junior high school students with their questions about the New Horizons books. Due to it's size, This poster is best for a small group of less than 4 students, and not a full classroom (unless you've made many copies).

Feel free to adapt this idea to your class.

Thanks to Umemoto Sensei and all the English teachers at Sobue Junior High School, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

Some important links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_Englis...
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E9%9A%9B%E9%9F%B3%E5%A3%B0%E8%A8%98%E5...

(c) August Boehm 2008 HB.Media http:/www.augustography.com.au/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• english teaching tool
• teach in japan
• english pronunciation

[matu0077]

Great idea. I am an ESOL teacher, and believe me, it is a bit difficult trying to explain where to place your tongue when it comes to producing English sounds. I know most of English text books do not have an IPA chart and guide, but I still believe pronunciation concerns should come at Pre-Intermediate levels when students have a fair foundation to understand tongue placement explanations without making use of their mother language. I took your "picture" idea and my students loved it! THANKS!

[adboehm]

@matu0077 Glad to hear it worked well! How is their 'th' pronunciation coming along?

The poster can also be used to demonstrate the difference between how the L and R sounds are formed.

[MisterGibs]

Very nice.

How did it work out in the classroom?

[adboehm]

@MisterGibs It works best with a single huge poster for the whole class (probably A2, mine was only A3), but preferably if multiple ones can be created for groups of 2-5 would work best I think.

[jhoenedu]

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[croncong]

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[fitnesus]

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[cenedywong]

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[Onepissite]

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[pemburuiklan]

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[theandreamiranda]

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[lola002ify]

muchas gracias, a ver si aprendo pronunciacion.