 Connecting stories and symbols, that's the idea that I'm going for, connecting stories and symbols. I suppose the symbols will be the phonetic chart and the stories, I'll explain that as I go on. So, I suppose that's the connecting ideas and connections, so that's the main thing we're going through. So, I found this quote online, it says stories are webs, internet is strands to strands, and you follow each story to the center because the center is the end, each person is a strand of the story. Now I picked this quote because I think it's actually really really interesting, the fact that we, the idea of stories is connecting things together and that's the value of a story as a learning tool. You can tell people theory, A is B to C, but that's a very weak connection. People don't think that A is to B is to C, so you can see what space it's for. Okay, so I have here the teacher, the book and the world, and then I have my little squiggles on top, that's the story. Okay, the teacher brings in a book, the world comes after the class, but it's only the stories that will enrich the book. A good story can enrich information and also allow students to attach meaning to new concepts. Okay, so when you give someone a concept, you know, it's the A, it's the B, it's the C, that's a new concept, but it has no meaning or context for the learner. Okay, and this can be very very useful when teaching pronunciation because if we have a book, a language book, you'll find pronunciation is always the last two pages. 90% of English books, last two pages and then sounds pop up, throw out. But there's no connections, there is no, it seems like it's relegated right to the back. Okay, so we have the teacher, we have the world, we have the book, but we have to include stories to enrich our pronunciation teaching. Okay, the Irish Pope, very good. An Irish Pope, an excellent place to talk about with our students because they know what it is. It's not going to be a new concept, the Irish Pope. So I would tell my students when I'm trying to teach vocabulary, if I was to walk into an Irish Pope in Temple Bar because it's Dublin, okay, if I was to walk into a bar in Temple Bar, how would I identify the vowels? How would I identify the consonants? What would they look like? You guys, any ideas? How would I have gone into Temple Bar? Okay, it's full of vowels and consonants. How would I identify them? Signs. Signs? Maybe vowels like Guinness, you know, consonants are more whiskey drinkers. That wouldn't be it, that wouldn't be it. The music with the sounds, vowels you can sing. Oh, that's good, yeah. Oh, great, yeah, yeah, okay, very good. Oh, it would be, I would explain that a vowel did all have open mouths. You know, the consonants, man at the bar, in the Irish bar, the tight lips ones. You know, that's what it would look like. Now I would do that with my class as I'm explaining what a vowel in the consonant is. I've introduced a new concept, right? I could show them this. These are the symbols. That would have no meaning to that. That would just confuse them. They panic. Oh, all these new weird symbols that's not the alphabet I've been taught all my life. What is this? No, if I tell them the story about the Irish bar they've been in, the Irish bar has been a lovely experience, you know? Then I can say, okay, here's our vowel sounds, here's our consonant sounds. What do they do? What do we do when we form these sounds? Instead of having a chart, what you're doing, what you're mouth, we can also scare students, they now have an idea. Okay, next one. What's happening in this one? No, no, no, no. Forget about the consonant. We've moved on. What is happening here? It's very good. Speed dating. We love speed dating in our English classes. You know, it's a great way to get to know students, mix up the groups, you know, speed dating. Everyone does speed dating in their classes. All right. Have you used to speed dating? Most of my students, they'd be in their 20s, they've done speed dating. Well, you know, they wouldn't be official with a little bell, but they've done speed dating. Anyway, Frankenstein and speed dating. You know, what would be the connection? Well, I say to them, you know the Schwarz sound? That can be confusing for them. So I say, imagine you're on a first date with Frankenstein. Okay, imagine you're on a first date with Frankenstein. And you'd be like, hey, Frankie, how are you? You know, just watch you have a breakfast, Frankie. You know, and I will tell you, they will remember that sound much better. That's why I identify the sound on the phonetic chart. I identify that sound on the phonetic chart. Two days later, I go into the class. Memory recall of that sound? Zero. If I tell them, remember Frankenstein. What does Frankenstein say? Oh, yeah, it's that sound. Okay, so that's creating a story enriching the pronunciation process. Let me see. My last one. Okay, the monkey. Okay, I love this one. This one I learned teaching kids in Spain pronunciation, you know? Because with kids, try and teach the kids a phonetic chart. That's a disaster. And I actually find the cartoon phonetic chart confuses people because I don't say computer. I say computer. So I don't start from that point of view. I start with my monkey. And I say to my students, what is the monkey's alphabet? You know? Ooh, ooh, uh, uh. Ooh, ooh, uh, uh, ooh, uh. You know? And then you can get them to drill it. You know, you drill those sounds. The u sounds are getting drilled. They have the story, the monkey. All right? Okay, all right? So then I have to say your u sounds. Remember that monkey? Okay, the monkey's alphabet. Where are those symbols? Bingo. Even reached the pronunciation process. And that's it. I have kept my presentation really, really short. I didn't want to make it complex or anything like that. I just wanted to show that when you teach a pronunciation, that stories can sometimes be a much better way of enriching the process. The chart is great. I know I used the chart. In my school I'm known as the guy who loves the phonetic chart. All right? But I'm also known as the guy who doesn't teach pronunciation in a boring way. I don't scare them. I enrich the learning experience. Okay, thanks very much. Any questions? In stories they use only teaching pronunciation, or can they be also using teaching grammar, for example? Yeah, of course. I would find that if I'm teaching any sort of concept, even like, for example, the definite and indefinite article, you can start with the simple story, a man and a dog were walking in the park. Okay? The dog said to the man. And then you twist in the story, but then you're identifying indefinite articles, indefinite articles. Yeah, I always find that stories either come from you as a teacher or come from the students. Students will be on the bus and they'll hear someone from Dublin go, hell yeah, what do you want? And they'll be like, come into my class and say, what is this? How are you? What is this? How are you? And that becomes a story. I say, oh, how did you come to school? What happened on your journey to school? How did you come to the story? Gives electrical context, a social linguistic context to the English grammar. So of course, yeah, stories can be used to teach everything. I suppose what you need to do is extract from the story the grammar point or extract from the story the pronunciation point. The story can't be just I go into class and tell them all about my wonderful weekend. That'd be great. Because the story is a story with a purpose. It's a web. It's connecting ideas together. The two examples you had were both with vowel sounds. Do you have any example of stories you could use with consonants? Consonants, yeah. Sorry to put you on the spot. No, no, no, it's true. You know, I actually find I do have more stories with vowels than consonants. I don't know why. Because vowels are just answers, aren't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I suppose like... The tie-lift. The tie-lift. I suppose like... Yeah. You know, no, no. I suppose you could... Like, I suppose I would do with like, yeah, with Pepsi. Pepsi. To each of these sounds. That's a very good one. Teaching them with Pepsi. You know that old ad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you can, you can. I use ugly bob all the time. Ugly bob is when you draw a smiley face and the air sound is his hair and the ear, ear sound is his ear. Ugly bob. I always call him ugly bob because he's ugly. And that helps to remember. But yeah, I suppose I... I suppose I have always focused my stories on vowels but it can apply to any sort of sound. My question was going to be at what point do the symbols enter the class? You're saying stories first, something to remember at first, but then at what point and how much... No, I would use it for drilling. I would make sure that I would have the story and I would show them where the symbols are. You know what I mean? I would give them example words and things like that. And then I would come back to those symbols. So I would create the connection. I think what you need to do is you need to, first of all, take the fear factor of the phonetic chart away. Then you have to create a connection, kind of an enriched memory for them to remember the symbol. But also then there's a bit of drilling, a bit of like returning to the board, returning to that sound. You know what I mean? So you do have to use the phonetic chart along with the story, if that makes sense. And some kind of two or three symbols... Yes, exactly. There's no point going through the whole phonetic chart all at once. You know what I mean? It will be useful too. But sometimes when I do teach them how to read the phonetic chart I use those stories, but then at specific times in the class I return back to the stories and return back to those specific sounds. That makes sense. Your students then over time get comfortable with the entire set. Exactly, that's it. I try and use the phonetic chart, go back to the phonetic chart as much as possible. To use it as a tool, not to forget about it, not to leave it relegated to the back of the book.