Who’s afraid of the /bɪg bæd wʊlf/? by Joana Styliano

As some of you may know, I am a huge fan of Adrian Underhill’s phonemic chart. I have come to realise it gets a bit lonely in that department but still I rise and gladly keep on selling its relevance. Let me share my passion and the underlying reasons. In my opinion, the phonemic chart is the ultimate tool for learner autonomy and how teacher friendly is it in error correction?
Oh well, first things first. Whether you have or have not attended my sessions on pronunciation in previous years, it is quite obvious that if you are aware of the sounds, there is very little you cannot say either as a student or simply as an individual. Funnily enough, being a native speaker makes little difference here – I have come across my share of native teachers who felt tackling the chart was too daunting a task and in the end simply avoided fiddling with it.
The great Adrian Underhill has bestowed upon us a phonemic chart which consists of all the sounds used in the English language. The trick is to give it a go yourself, as a teacher, and then explore it in class. I do not mean spend a whole term on it or keep at it until your students master it like proper linguists. Instead, guide them so they feel it can be their ally rather than the funny things on the walls at school.

Once students have learnt the basics – i.e. each sound, including diphthongs, and the differences between long and short sounds for example (yes, that alone is already step in the right direction) – correcting their pronunciation mistakes becomes much more visible than ‘mere’ drilling, thus appealing to a wider range of students within the spectrum of learning styles.

That’s all very nice but how to go about it? Ideally it takes about one lesson to introduce the sounds and let students play with them – give them dictionaries or allow them to use online resources (most of them have the transcriptions but I am a fan of http://www.macmillandictionary.com/ myself), and let them select words in pairs/groups for the rest of the class to guess. Don’t forget to include word stress since teaching them how to identify it will also make them more capable of noticing and correcting their own mistakes hence making them more autonomous learners.

When you are confident enough to take it to the next level, feel free to play games or literally to have fun with it – perhaps as a warmer or at the end of class. I use it with higher levels right at the start by introducing transcriptions of new words that students will then have to decipher and later on integrate into their work, either in writing or speaking – for example at FCE or CAE level. It is also interesting to use it to correct mistakes at lower levels (e.g. any Teens level), such as the usual ‘bear’ (/beər/ not /bɪər/), not to mention the use of phonics with (very) young learners.

The sky is the limit and there are endless resources to help you. I would like to suggest Mark Hancock’s work but do feel free to come and see me in case you are looking into this area.

I hope to have demystified /prəˌnʌnsɪˈeɪʃən/ so that you too find it as interesting and engaging! In the end it is pretty much like anything else: if you enjoy it, so will your students!

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Beginning to flip: intro to flipped language teaching by Shawn Severson

Here’s Shawn’s talk @ ‪#‎IHTOC7‬ “Beginning to flip: intro to flipped language teaching”
All talks were extremely interesting, so don’t forget to go through the blog and watch them!

https://sites.google.com/site/ihtoc7/the-big-picture/beginning-to-flip-intro-to-flipped-language-teaching

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The classroom collection: using music in the classroom by Sandra Luna

Sandra shared some ideas on how to use music with “The classroom collection: using music in the classroom” @ ‪#‎IHTOC7‬. All talks were extremely interesting, so don’t forget to go through the blog and watch them!

https://sites.google.com/site/ihtoc7/the-classroom-collection-using-music-in-the-classroom

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Students too “shy” to speak? Coach them! by Edite Abrantes

And if you need help with getting your students to talk you might like to watch Edite’s talk @ ‪#‎IHTOC7‬ “Students too “shy” to speak? Coach them!”

All talks were extremely interesting, so don’t forget to go through the blog and watch them!

https://sites.google.com/site/ihtoc7/students-too-shy-to-speak-coach-them

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Lesson Plans – by Isabel Fechas

Many things are said about lesson plans, however each level has its own particularities. Students have their own views of what is important in a classroom and lesson. There are many aspects that I consider important when planning a lesson. First of all, I believe that the teacher must decide on what the aim will be and then think about the students’ previous knowledge of the topic (if it applies). Only then should one start thinking about the strategies/activities to be used in that particular lesson. After that, the teacher should have into account the student’s level and age. Depending on their ages, children have different interests and see the world around them in different ways. So, one must consider the relevance of the activities and if they suit the taste of that particular group
of students. Additionally, age is connected with the skills and their level of development. This means that a lesson for a group of five-year-olds would be different than a lesson for a group of three-year-olds. Even if the group we’re planning the lesson for is of the same age, their skills may be at different stages of development, so when thinking about strategies, the teachers must have a few that allow him/her to support students needs during an activity (especially in terms of arts and crafts). I also consider that it is important to introduce words as soon as possible in a classroom. When planning, it is important to think about the literacy level of the students and how to introduce/improve their literacy skills. Preparation time here is very important because materials might need to be adapted whether to upgrade the degree of difficulty of the task or to make it
simpler.

Many things are said about lesson plans, however each level has its own particularities. Students have their own views of what is important in a classroom and lesson. There are many aspects that I consider important when planning a lesson. First of all, I believe that the teacher must decide on what the aim will be and then think about the students’ previous knowledge of the topic (if it applies). Only then should one start thinking about the strategies/activities to be used in that particular lesson. After that, the teacher should have into account the student’s level and age. Depending on their ages, children have different interests and see the world around them in different ways. So, one must consider the relevance of the activities and if they suit the taste of that particular group of students. Additionally, age is connected with the skills and their level of development. This means that a lesson for a group of five-year-olds would be different than a lesson for a group of three-year-olds. Even if the group we’re planning the lesson for is of the same age, their skills may be at different stages of development, so when thinking about strategies, the teachers must have a few that allow him/her to support students needs during an activity (especially in terms of arts and crafts). I also consider that it is important to introduce words as soon as possible in a classroom. When planning, it is important to think about the literacy level of the students and how to introduce/improve their literacy skills. Preparation time here is very important because materials might need to be adapted whether to upgrade the degree of difficulty of the task or to make it simpler.

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How Cambridge Advanced and First exams have changed (or not!) by Shawn Severson

If you’re an IH Porto teacher you might be wondering, why does Shawn always change names of classes on Moodle and other materials? It’s a simple explanation, stemming from a series of changes at Cambridge English—not only have they changed the format of the exams, but they have also changed their
marketing strategy. Notice the name: Cambridge English. Firstly, the name has less to do with the university and with acronyms like ESOL. The same goes for the exams. FCE, what could that mean to someone who is not into language training? Thus, the names to be used are the key words which are more indicative of the level: Key, Preliminary, First, Advanced and Proficiency.

In the First and Advanced, some structural changes have occurred. The Reading & Use of English papers have been merged to shorten the exam. On one hand, this makes for a shorter exam day. On the other hand, it means that students have to be more efficient with their timing and balance their attention to grammar and reading. Also, the number of questions in some sections have been reduced, however the task may be quite similar.

In writing, some types have been removed, whereas there now is a guaranteed set task, which is the essay. It would seem this could guarantee greater consistency in marks, and the task is a useful one, given that an essay hinges on being able to explain a topic thoroughly. One drawback is that students will not be rewarded in that section for using formulaic language. Thus, added emphasis on discourse markers will be extremely relevant.

Another area which is becoming clearer and clearer relates to us directly as a school: the question is what is the “JUMP” between First (for Schools) and Advanced? The answer is that it is a big one. Thus, fast-tracking students through First to do the for Schools version, when they have an intention of doing Advanced needs to be analyzed with caution. Edite will be monitoring progression very carefully to avoid having candidates spend years in between exams, minimizing false hopes of super fast advancement, as some skills and the intellectual knowledge needed are not so fast to be acquired.

The last points refer to the new scales of certification provided by Cambridge, namely being conferred a higher or lower level than the test taken. Don’t forget all the new Cambridge Handbooks are in the Cambridge Exams folder of the IH Porto Handbook.

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How to subtitle a YouTube film – by Shawn Severson

Want to have your students subtitle a film to practice dialogue and narration skills? Would you like them to work on a grammar point like the present continuous, explaining what someone is doing? Well, one way is to subtitle. If you create a YouTube channel, you can use your administrator account to subtitle and the process is simple.

1. Download a video from YouTube.

2. Upload the video to your channel.

3. Click on CC (closed captioning)

4. “Add new subtitles or CC”. The rest of the process will be to define at what points you want your captions to appear and disappear.

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