We often present at ELT conferences and events. Just select the title below if you're looking for the handout or download from a talk or workshop you have attended.
Do you remember the millennium bug? We were all warned that on new year’s day of 2000, our computers would cease to function properly. Didn’t happen. What DID happen around that time however was a quiet but seismic shift in assumptions about the goals of pronunciation teaching.
What exactly are we doing when we’re listening? In this session, we’ll try a little transcription experiment to find out. We’ll see that listening is not quite as passive, automatic or effortless as it may appear. We’ll then consider the difficulties of listening to speech in a non-native language before reflecting on the implications of our observations for classroom teaching.
"If it weren't for the hands, the clock would be useless" (Polish proverb). A detailed description of the phonology of English is of no use in pronunciation teaching if it is not combined with a consideration of learners' needs, especially in a world where English is a global lingua franca. In this talk, we will explore the implications of this idea. Download the slides below - 2 PDF files.
Tonic stress is a speaker’s use of emphasis to focus a listener’s attention. It’s an aspect of the speaking skill which is often neglected, but is crucial signalling the connections between ideas in both monologues and dialogues. Here’s a quick example:
Listening lessons often encourage students to use strategies to guess meaning, without developing their ability to decode spoken English itself. Could focusing on language chunks be a missing link which helps students improve their listening skills? In this talk we’ll take a look at activities which might just do that.
Tonicity is a speaker’s use of stress to focus a listener’s attention. It’s an aspect of pronunciation which is often neglected, but is crucial in getting meaning across. In this session we will look at ways of presenting and practicing this important skill in the language class. The slides can be downloaded below. See more about Mark's books here.
When students listen to a text, many feel they are starting from scratch rather than building on what they have already mastered. Nowadays, technology enables teachers to create content and design effective activities which help learners make real listening progress. Come along and try out a selection of these activities!
Pronunciation teaching can be fun, but in a world where English is a lingua franca, we need to take a flexible approach. We can’t simply preach a single ideal target model, instead, we must teach learners to be adaptable, both receptively and productively. In this session, I will demonstrate this. Download the slides from the talk below.
