Grand Slam Communication
I took a Buzzfeed quiz while I was waiting forever on hold.
The results said that I am a genius.
I laughed and laughed and laughed.
Wait, was that genius?
Or genus?
I guess I’ll have to take that quiz again to verify my results.
Or maybe I’ll just stick with genius.
Yeah, genius, that works.
I heard it on Buzzfeed so it’s gotta be true…
Rant time, about teaching pronunciation.
Some of my ESL students have been taught pronunciation poorly.
It’s a lot of work to correct the resultant problems.
It’s better to teach it correctly from the start.
When teaching pronunciation, you have to isolate the target sound.
In other words, this sound must occur only once in the word.
And it has to occur in the stressed syllable.
The student will naturally stress the target sound.
When the sound is in an unstressed syllable, the word will be pronounced incorrectly.
For example, if you are teaching the /l/ sound, do NOT use the word “apple.”
Why?
The student, emphasizing the /l/ target sound, will pronounce the word a-PULL.
The /l/ sound was said correctly, but the proper stress of the word has been confused.
It started as a pronunciation lesson, but now it’s a stress lesson.
The student is confused.
Also, you don’t want the sound to occur twice.
If you use the word “lovely” to teach the /l/ sound, the student will say, “LOVE-LEE.”
They will emphasize the first syllable because that is where the word is properly stressed, but they will also emphasize the second syllable because it has another /l/ which is the target sound.
In this scenario, you are teaching your students to speak with a robot accent.
This is a very poor technique, and an awful lot of work to correct.
Create your pronunciation lessons with only one variable.
Teach pronunciation on the accented syllable of the word.
OK, I’m done ranting.
It was an awkward English lesson.
My beginning online student told me, in halting language, that he had recently visited the United States.
He took a trip to San Diego.
And he took the opportunity to cross the border and visit Tijuana.
I asked him what he thought of Tijuana.
He paused for a moment, searching for the right word.
“Prostitutes.”
Oh.
But of course.
What else would be said in an awkward English lesson?
I quickly changed the subject.
We had heard that we were going to be hit by an arctic blast.
They weren’t kidding.
Nathan had come home for the weekend.
He got up at the crack of dawn to head back this morning.
At 6:00 am, while we were loading him up in the car, it was 8°.
It was so cold that it hurt!
For the first time ever, I did not linger over our goodbyes.
I did not stand at the curb waving until he turned the corner.
I said, “Bye, I love you.”
And hurried back into the house to get out of the Arctic blast.
Lots and lots of hot coffee.
Happy birthday Dr. Seuss!
Back in the day, before he made it big, Dr. Seuss worked in the newspaper business.
My grandfather also worked in the newspaper business.
When my grandparents would have Ted over for dinner, he would always bring a book for my mom.
I love this edition of Horton Hatches the Egg.
Dr. Seuss inscribed it, and he drew my mom’s picture with Horton.
This inscription is not particularly valuable.
I checked.
But I am a nerdy book lover.
It’s one of my prized possessions.
A heavy fog advisory was announced on the local news this morning.
I opened the front door to check out this North Texas fog.
I burst out laughing.
It was just a bit of mist in the air.
It’s not really fog until you can’t see the house across the street.
It’s not even a fog advisory until you can’t see the house next door.
I won’t be laughing so hard come tornado season…
When I take my allergy medication, I don’t sleep well.
When I don’t take my allergy medication, I can’t breathe.
Uggg.
Allergies.
Breathing…sleeping…
It’s a tough choice.
I haven’t been taking the medication lately.
I really do need to sleep.
But this morning my nose wouldn’t stop running.
I teach English on line.
I need my voice to be clear.
I need to be able to teach pronunciation properly.
Today we studied the /zh/ sound.
As in treasure, casual, vision…
You can’t pronounce /zh/ properly when you are congested.
I don’t want my students to learn English with a cold accent.
I took an allergy pill.
I may regret it later.
But the lesson went well, so there’s that.
I got cold.
I put on a sweater.
I took off the sweater.
I got cold.
I got hot.
On, off, on, off.
All day long.
This time of year is kind of annoying like that.