I have attended several Tesol Conferences
along the years and, since one of my great interests is Phonetics and
Phonology, I tend to participate in several presentations on the topic. To tell you the truth, I have not been happy
with what I have previously seen. Presenters have repeatedly used the same
activities and strategies to help students overcome their difficulties –
minimal pairs, rubber bands, tongue twisters, traditional songs, nursery
rhymes, among others.
When I came across the title: Obama as pronunciation Teacher: Using
Political Speeches for Suprasegmentals, I was really curious about how the
presenter would use Obama’s speeches to teach pronunciation.
The presenter’s objective was to make clear
how essential pauses, stress and intonation in sentences are to accurate
pronunciation. Her point was to provide students with effective models to help
them successfully use suprasegmentals when they use the English language. The
presenter, Mary Rommey from the University of Connecticut, used Obama’s
political speeches as examples.
She offered a six-month course at the
University of Connecticut for candidates as Teaching Assistants for whom
English was not their native language.
She conducted a pre test and a post test with these candidates. She videotaped
them when they were talking about familiar topics related to their daily life
before and after the course. The results were fascinating ! Students improved a
lot regarding pause, rhythm, stress and intonation.
She started by asking students to mark the
pauses on transcripts of Obama’s speeches. Then, they watched videos and checked
their markings. She explained that he was a convincing speaker because of the
pauses he makes. Then she worked with stress and later with intonation. When
students received the transcript, they read the speech first, solved vocabulary
doubts, and asked about content. She made sure the text was grammatically transparent
and that the meaning was clear to all students.
The presenter’s objective was to show that
suprasegmental aspects influence communication and that the speaker has to be
intelligible to communicate effectively.
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| Lúcia Santos |
