P 10 P 15 P 20

Volume 2 | Number 8 | April 2014 | MCC MAG / 425 / 08T | Rs. 20 Fun English

OF TEACHING PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATION TIPS TECHNOLOGY

WE MAKE FUN

PRONUNCIATION GAMES

P 26

MONITOR YOUR

PRONUNCIATION? YES! IT

IS POSSIBLE

MALONY ALLEN | P 13

HOW CREATIVITY

MAKES STUDENTS

LEARN

PRONUNCIATION?

MADELIN CALVO | P 18

SPECIAL GROWING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY

HOW TO USE TECHNOLOGY AS A LEARNING

TOOL, NOT JUST THE COOL NEW THING

ASK THE EXPERT

P 52

Volume 1 | Number 8 | April 2014 | MCC MAG JKEN/245/8956 | Rs. 20

THE INK OF HISTORY

CONTENTS

ARTICLES

13 MONITOR YOUR PRONUNCIATION

Malony Allen

18 HOW CREATIVITY MAKES STUDENTS

LEARN PRONUNCIATION?

Madelin Calvo

WE MAKE FUN

26 HOPSCOTCH

31 BINGO

37 MINIMAL PAIRS

42 TONGUE TWISTERS

44 ENGLISH INTERVIEW

47 METACOGNITION GAME

FEATURES

10 REPORT OF TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

15 FEATURE: PRONUNCIATION TIPS

20 PHOTO FEATURE: TECHNOLOGY

52 ASK THE EXPERT

50 SPECIAL: GROWING UP WITH

TECHNOLOGY

12 RANDOM FACTS

TIDINGS

TO THE READER

In this edition we wanted to focus on Teaching Pronunciation, why? Because it is important nowadays to be well-prepared in English Language. This magazine will help ESL-EFL students, elementary high school, and English teachers.

This month´s issue contains different articles, games, and tidings that talk about our cover subject, metacognition, technology, and creativity.

I want to invite teachers, students, and parents to take advantage of this magazine, and all its content. Today´s trend is English language, so Fun English thinks that everybody should be up to date.

MADELIN CALVO

Senior Editor

FUN ENGLISH

SENIOR EDITOR Madelin Calvo - mcalvo@fe.com

ART EDITOR

Malony Allen – mallen@fe.com

BUSSINESS EDITOR Deivid Calvo- dcalvo@fe.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Sylvia Méndez, Mónica González, Fernando Brenes

PRINTED BY Power Publish

www.FunEnglish.com

www.facebook.com/FunEnglish

MEDIA REPRESENTATIVE Cloud Media

San José, Costa Rica T: +506 2280 4090 Email: info@cm.com

EDITORS

Malony Allen

is a writer, Journalist, and English expertise, she has over 15 year experience in the field. She lived in USA during her childhood. She also contributes to BBC, CNN, and La Nación.

Madelin Calvo

is a translator, researcher, and writer. She has over 10 year experience in the pedagogic field. Fluent in three languages including French. Her main topics are: creativity and technology.

SUBSCRIBE subscribe@fe.com

NOW www.FunEnglish.com

New and fresh perspectives

REPORT ON

TEACHING

PRONUNCIATION

Why do teachers

avoid this area? HOW TO START

TEACHING IT? Nowadays one can find a lot of textbooks, instruction manuals, books, theories, and vast methodologies of learning pronunciation, so why teachers do not use them in class?

Easy, because teachers do not have enough time. Certainly, the main goal of an ESL-EFL student is communication, but there is a huge gap between a ship and a sheep. How can we achieve communication if we do not understand what we are saying? THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

First, teachers need to develop awareness about the importance of knowing and mastering phonetics. Second, they need to develop a plan and research before giving a pronunciation class. Third, the amount of instruction needs be enough and meaningful, and fourth, use metacognition.

Students are curious, and they always ask about the

pronunciation. They will be grateful if you take a moment to teach them how to create correct sounds in English. This has two objectives, first improve their speaking skills, and second create self-awareness by motivating them.

The fist all teachers need to do is starting with phonemes since it represents a sound.

The first lessons in pronunciation should involve your students listening and identifying, rather than speaking. Introduce the phonemes using minimal pairs (sounds alike), repeat those sounds so students can identify them. Use visual aids to show learners the place of mouth and tongue, try to focus on the differences. As a practice you can use a lot of matching games, students can play, learn, and have fun.

Once they are prepared, you make them produce the sounds accurately.

Use diagrams to do so. Students should be able to see where to place their lips and tongues in relation with their teeth. This is a new process, so realize that it is going to take a while.

Then you should move to pronunciation of words, this is more challenging because students will need to expand physical and neurological limitations. Let them make mistakes, but always provide feedback.

Some factors such as cultural identify, exposure, intensity, attitude, amount, motivation, innate skills, and goals could interfere in the learning process, but always take into account that those barriers are necessary to be overcome. Study your students, find out what motivates them, what are their strengths and weaknesses, and what their purpose is when learning English. You will only guide and monitor, they will do the remaining.

READ AND&

PUT INTO PRACTICE Spend the time!

Listen and read every day

Focus on words and phrases

Take responsibility of your own learning

Relax and enjoy yourself!

1 BILLION PEOPLE SPEAK ENGLISH.

THAT IS 1 EVERY 7 ON EARTH.

80% OF ALL INFORMATION

STORED ON ALL COMPUTERS

IN THE WORLD IS IN ENGLISH.

ENGLISH WORDS “I” “WE” “TWO” AND “THREE” ARE

AMONG THE MOS ANCIENT, FROM THOUSAND YEARS.

Before starting, do you know the definition of

Metacognition?

In easy words, metacognition is “thinking

about thinking”, which can be defined as the

awareness and regulation of the thinking process. It

is the knowledge and control that a person has over

his or her own thinking and learning activities.

Teaching metacognitive skills to language

students gives them the key to understand their

own learning. It shows them ways to take

responsibility for the manner in which they learn,

rather than expecting to be a passive recipient

waiting for the next transmission of information.

Metacognitive skills are important for the learners to

encourage them self- reflection, and help students

to be more motivated when learning English.

Teachers can use metacognition to help students

mastering English. For instance, in order to learn

pronunciation, provide enough instruction, then

make them notice the importance of being well-

prepared, knowing the correct pronunciation, and

improving their accent. With this, students will

develop a self-awareness that will let them monitor

and assess their performance when speaking.

As close, you can use metacognition in grammar,

writing, reading, and listening; this issue is a vital

part of any learning process. Remember that it lets

students develop new skills to improve their

language development. Later you will find some

exercises and questions regarding metacognition.

Malony Allen

FEATURE PRONUNCIATION TIPS

The /æ/ sound it’s called “Short vowel”. To make the sound your tongue must be raised a little in the back; the front of the tongue stretches forward and presses behind the bottom of the front teeth. For instance: bat, fat, man.

The /ᶸ/ sound it is called “Back vowel”, and the reason of its name is because to make the sound your lips must be rounded but in a relax way. Example of it can be: book, could, wood.

The /ᴈ:/ sound it is called “Long vowel”, and to make the sound your tongue must be raised towards the roof of the mouth in the middle, even touches lightly the top teeth. The tip of your tongue hands down, but it’s not close to the bottom front teeth. Example of it can be: bird, purse

VOWELS

HOW CREATIVITY MAKES STUDENTS

LEARN

PRONUNCIATION?

TIREDENESS

RELAX

INFORMATION

STRESS

TIME

TASTE

NEW

TASKS MULTI-TASK

MISTAKES

NAPS

SMELL

TOUCH

THINKING

VISION

MEDITATION

HAPPINESS

PERCEPTION

AREAS

EXERICE

HEARING

BRAIN

EXPERIENCE

INTROVERSION

EXTROVERSION

SMELL

PROCESS

ATTENTION

FAMILIAR

SCIENCE

HOW creativity Works? WHAT makes people creative? Creativity is the ability to create works that captivates minds, life, time, perspectives, and a bunch of other stuff. Creativity deals with neuroscience, which addresses the study of the nervous system. Everything in our body is made of nervous, vision, taste, touch, smell, and hear, and they are controlled by our brain.

Everybody is creative in their own way. In class teachers can take advantage of this “natural skill”. There are a couple of facts I am sure you ignore and will leave you speechless. Humans are more creative when tired. Yes, you read it right, TIRED, You’ll actually have more luck when you’re more tired and your brain isn’t functioning as efficiently. If you’re tired, your brain is not as good at filtering out distractions and focusing on a particular task. It’s also a lot less efficient at remembering connections between ideas or concepts. These are both good things when it comes to creative work, since

Second, make students take the active role in the class, instead of you giving instructions and doing activities, confer the teacher´s position for a moment, and let them use their imagination, provide peer feedback, create new activities, and explain the topics.

Third, when there is a difficult subject, use icebreakers at the beginning of the class to have a relax environment. That helps the brain, attitude, and motivation.

Fourth, make your lessons playful and enjoyable, let students express their own perspective in class. This will increase production and students will have a great time with the learning process.

Fifth and final, make mistakes is ok, let students know that there is a learning curve and everything needs to be developed step by step. Do not rush the learning process. Let things flow.

Madelin Calvo

this kind of work requires us to make new connections, be open to new ideas and think in fresh ways.

Another fact is that naps help you improving your memory, and having better learning. It helps to clear information out of our brain´s temporary storage areas. That makes us more creative.

Well, it is interesting to talk about how our brain works, but let´s focus in our topic. How teachers can take advantage of creativity and makes students learn more and better pronunciation?

First, you must provide breaks when giving input to your students. They need to be in touch with the subject, and then relax their brains in order to have a better understanding and avoid boredom.

PHOTO

FEATURE

In Fun English we like to show different technological tools that can be used in the

learning process. This month´s instrument is called learning catalytics,

believe it or not this program provides feedback to students during class to

support instruction. It also gives teachers and students the option to review

material outside of class. You can sign up and follow the instructions in this link

www.learningcatalytics.com

According to the company’s website, the program enables educators to “assess students in real time, using open-ended tasks to probe student understanding. Students use any modern Web-enabled device they already have — laptop, smartphone, or tablet. Engage students by creating open-ended questions that ask for numerical, algebraic, textual, or graphical responses — or just plain multiple-choice.

ANYBODY CAN PLAY.

even- and especially- kids.

Age: + 5 year-old

Type: speaking

Pronunciation Features: diphthongs

Instructions:

There is no maximum or minimum of

players’ number.

Each player will have a stone (a normal

size). The first player rolls the stone in

one of the squares. When the stone

falls, the participant must jump on the

squares (one foot on a single square,

and two feet on two squares, and so

on).

The participant must get to the end,

but without picking up the stone, this

is because the player must pronounce

the sound correctly and provide an

example. After completing the task, the

player can pick up the stone and pass it

to the next player.

In Fun English we strongly believe in

taking care of nature and sustainability,

that is why we encourage recycling

programs. In the following pages you

will find the diphthongs that you can

cut and paste on a recycle paper sheet

and create your own game. Be creative!

/ei/

/ai/ /au/

/ei/

/oi/

/ou/ /ei/

/ai/

/au/ /oi/

/ei/

/ei/ /au/ /ai/

/ei/ /oi/ /ou/

/ei/ /au/ /ai/

/oi/

IT IS TIME TO PLAY

BINGO Age: + 12 year-old

Type: listening and speaking

Pronunciation Features: minimal pairs, vowels /æ/ and /e/

Instructions: cut the bingo sheets (there are four versions), make the photocopies you need, also cut the words you that later will put in a bag. Once you have the material, hand it out. Somebody will need to say the words inside the bag, the rest of the people will mark the word they hear. At the end the winner will have to pronounce all the words correctly.

Have fun!

B I N G O AND THEN SAND PAT SET

GUESS LEFT X THAN ED

MESS NEXT ADD GAS LAUGH

SAT SEND END MASS COUGH

B I N G O AND MESS SAND PAT SET

GUESS LAUGH X THAN ED

THEN NEXT SEND COUGH LEFT

SAT ADD END MASS GAS

B I N G O SAT THEN SAND PAT GUESS

SET MASS X MESS LEFT

THAN COUGH ADD SEND LAUGH

AND GAS END ED NEXT

B I N G O LAUGH THEN ADD AND SEND

SET ED X THAN LEFT

MESS COUGH SAND GUESS SAT

PAT GAS END MASS NEXT

WORDS SAT THEN SAND PAT GUESS

SET MASS SAD MESS LEFT

THAN COUGH ADD SEND LAUGH

AND GAS END ED NEXT

ASK WHAT TEND TEXT MASH

CATCH TAN EYES CASTLE ICE

MINIMAL PAIRS /p/ & /b/

Age: + 6 year-old

Type: reading and speaking

Pronunciation Features: minimal pairs, consonants /æp/ and /b/

Instructions: cut the worksheet and make the photocopies you need, hand them out, and make people read the words and pronounce them correctly. They should be able to compare both sounds.

Have fun!

TONGUE TWISTER

Age: + 12 year-old

Type: reading and speaking

Pronunciation Features: consonant sounds /m/ /w/

Instructions: cut the worksheet and make the photocopies you need, hand them out, and make people read the tongue twisters as faster as they can. They are required to pronounce everything correctly and fluently. This is for advanced English students.

Have fun!

Mary Mac

Mary Mac's mother's making Mary Mac marry me. My mother's making me marry Mary Mac. Will I always be so Merry when Mary's taking care of me? Will I always be so merry when I marry Mary Mac?

Whether the weather

Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not.

Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot. We'll weather the weather whether we like it or not

Age: + twelve year-old

Type: reading, speaking, and listening

Pronunciation Features: -ing endings

Instructions: cut the interview worksheet and make the

photocopies you need, hand them out, and make people

interview different partners, later they will need to gather

information and explain the results. This is for intermediate

English students.

Have fun!

English Interview

1. Choose 3 classmates, interview them, and find out what they do on weekends.

2. Use this pattern to make questions:

Do you ever go…?

How often do you…?

3. Symbolism:

Every weekend: E

Often: O

Sometimes: S

Never: N

Activity Name: Name: Name:

Go running

Go dancing

Go running

Go to the bank

Go swimming

Go walking

Go dancing

Visit de monkeys

Buy something interesting

Stake in the rink

4. Explain in front of the class the results gathered, for instance:

She/he goes running every day

She/he sometimes goes swimming

English Interview

1. Choose 3 classmates, interview them, and find out what they do on weekends.

2. Use this pattern to make questions:

Do you ever go…?

How often do you…?

3. Symbolism:

Every weekend: E

Often: O

Sometimes: S

Never: N

Activity Name: Name: Name:

Go running

Go dancing

Go running

Go to the bank

Go swimming

Go walking

Go dancing

Visit de monkeys

Buy something interesting

Stake in the rink

4. Explain in front of the class the results gathered, for instance:

She/he goes running every day

She/he sometimes goes swimming

METACOGNITION Age: + 5 year-old

Type: reading, and speaking

Metacognitive process

Instructions: cut the worksheet and make the

photocopies you need, hand them out, and make

people answer these questions.

Ask students to be honest and reflect about the

proposed question. Then they should be able to

provide a personal opinion, at the end make sure you

ask them their personal insight. The aim of this game

is to create awareness of the importance of having a

good pronunciation.

Have fun!

Metacognition game 1- Answer these questions

Are you interested in English? Why?

Are you motivated to learn English?

Is English pronunciation important for you? Why?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your classmates in English pronunciation?

Do you often practice your pronunciation? How?

Do you feel confident when speaking English?

2- Reflect and provide your personal opinion

Metacognition game 1- Answer these questions

Are you interested in English? Why?

Are you motivated to learn English?

Is English pronunciation important for you? Why?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your classmates in English pronunciation?

Do you often practice your pronunciation? How?

Do you feel confident when speaking English?

2- Reflect and provide your personal opinion

Metacognition game

Answer these questions

Are you interested in English? Why?

Are you motivated to learn English?

Is English pronunciation important for you? Why?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your classmates in English pronunciation?

Do you often practice your pronunciation? How?

Do you feel confident when speaking English?

Reflect and provide your personal opinion

HOW TO USE

TECHNOLOGY

AS A LEARNING

TOOL, NOT

JUST THE COOL

NEW THING.

This month´s issue is focused more in technology and applications that can make the learning process easier. Right now one can find a lot of things in the virtual market, from helpful apps to games and useless stuff. Kids are taking advantage of this new technological tools that internet offers us, meanwhile adults are starting to notice them. The important question we can make ourselves is how to use technology as a learning tool, and not just the cool new thing? If you notice, everything in the world now is connected by internet, you have social networks, e-mail, assessment tools, virtual textbooks, and they are quite interesting, but the truth is that these tools are not pushing people to their full potential. People nowadays are lazy, they want everything by just using the click button. By using IT properly in the classroom, teaching and learning are enhanced and given a new dimension. I invite students and teachers to take more advantage of it.

Advice that will help to develop a technological awareness:

HUMAN INTERACTION.

LEARN BY DOING.

CREATE.

INTERACT AND FIND NEW CHALLENGES IN YOUR WAY.

LET YOUR CREATIVITY TAKE PLACE.

There are some steps that could help you improving your technology usage, first, do not forget about human interaction, and remember that you need to be in touch with your specie, working in groups is a good practice to develop this step. Second, learn by doing, do not wait for a program that will fix and do everything you want. Sometimes you will need to think deeper in order to solve problems, do not wait until that moment to put into practice this piece of advice, and do it meanwhile. Third, create instead of cut-and-paste, it is easy to commit plagiarism, so be honest and exercise your brain by creating something new. Fourth, interact and find new challenges in your way, use your social skills to fulfill your learning expectations. Fifth, let your creativity take place, uniqueness and innovation are always welcomed. All the learners should be exposed to technology, they just need to measure that exposure and expand your knowledge limits.

Uniqueness and innovation are always welcomed in any place. Education is the key that open doors of success. Technology was made to help us, and not to harm us. If you use it correctly and aware you will obtain good results. Technology is the future of all generations.

Susana from Chile asked us:

Which one is correct to say?

A teacher should try to make the lesson more interestingly.

A teacher should try to make the lesson more interesting.

Amy thank you for your question.

Of your two sentences the second one is correct:

A teacher should try to make the lesson more interesting. (You need an adjective here: "interesting" as it describes the noun "lesson". "Interestingly" is an adverb). I hope this helps

The expert,

P.S.: remember to write to our e-mail asktheexpert@fe.com and we will ask your questions in this section

ASK THE

EXPERT

FUN ENGLISH