online courses
I´m a teacher trainer in Mexico. As part of training, I teach how to teach Phonetics. Basically the problems we might encounter as Spanish speaking people learning English. I wonder how this topic can be taught online, especially when it comes to sounds, intonation and so on.
looking forward to hearing from someone,
Rodolfo
Rodolfo:
This is an excellent question. While I can think of strategies to teach those aspects of the language, I have to inquire further about strategies for evaluating these types of learning in an online environment. I will share your question with members of my team when I return to the Office on Monday and provide feedback on the results of my inquiry.
Can anyone elase throw some light on Rodolfo's question?
Satrohan
I believe that sounds could be taught on line in accord to the CMS settings, for instance there is software that includes 'talking dictionaries' where learners visualize concepts and click on them to get the sound of it; there are also some linguistic multimedia programs that could be part of the on line course in which learners need to achieve a level of proper pronunciation in order to advance to the following stage of the course, needless to say, these type of programs will contain some encouraging remarks for students as well as feedback to help learners improve.
Jorge
Thank you Jorge for your contribution to this subject. I am assuming that the multimedia programs to which you refer are capable of evaluating whether the students vocalized th correct pronunciations. For the benefit of the student who is seeking help in this area, please provide the names of these multimedia software. Thank you kindly Jorge.
Satrohan
By all means, Satrohan!
As an EFL teacher and trainer I come across several case studies like the one Rodolfo Sodora brought up earlier, needless to say, my personlized teaching and tutoring would lead me to recognize and support students who really need to overcome this essential basic skill which is pronunciation, the following are some of the programs that I consistently prescribe to my students as well as I recommend my trainees to browse through: The Alphabet International Version and English Pronunciation Guide (beginner level), Learn to speak English and 8 in 1 English Dictionary (intermediate and advanced).
The main tenet to these variety of multimedia linguistic programs is pronunciation, recognizing sounds, articulators (vocal), repetition, and comparing pronunciation to the voice recorded in the computer, even though some of them would not let students/users continue to a different stage in the program itself until they reach a satisfactory level of pronunciation, most of them are merely informative as to how the requested or highlighted word sounds, producing it and then getting feedback from the computer.
For the most part, these programs will help learners build their confidence and speaking skills as well as being skillful enough to translate symbols into sounds (decoding)
All for now,
Marc Del Alto
Thank you for sharing this knowledge with us Marc. I hope Rodolfo explores the resources you have provided.
Satrohan
Thank you for all your replies and input. It is highly appreciated. I will explore the different software and hopefully someday I will be able to implement that on an online basis.
Looking forward to that and thanks again.
Rodolfo
Rodolfo:
We hope you will continue to review postings to this Discussion Forum; and to share your experience and knowledge with us, for as long as you have been permitted for this course.
As you explore software applications, always keep in mind your institution's ability to support such applications, and your student's ability to acquire and use such applications. Good Luck!
Satrohan
