Language, Literacy, and Leadership Department

Pronunciation textbooks most often present and teach vowel sounds through “key words,” often presented as a list or as part of a vowel chart. In this article, I argue that “key” or “chart” words are ineffective, especially when using words that create minimal pairs that English Language Learners (ELLs) already tend to mispronounce. As an alternative, I present Native Speaker Utterances (NSUs). The NSUs are easy and fun to teach, focus ELLs’ attention on the sound, and link the sound utterance to meaningful communication. A complete model is presented that can be integrated into any classroom.

Pronunciation textbooks often cover the stress of compound nouns, but they most often do so through oversimplification. Other more complex models, such as those by Fudge (1984) and Dickerson (1989), provide more detailed approaches to the stress of noun constructions, but I argue that these models sacrifice the pedagogical ease needed in the classroom. In this article, I propose a new analysis of “noun units” in two categories: “compound nouns” and “noun strings.” This “noun unit” approach allows for a pedagogically effective analysis of complex noun constructions that also accounts for stress in extended discourse.

Itamar Even-Zohar's polysystem theory: 1978, revised 1990) postulates that translated literature occupies a central location in a young literature and serves an "innovative" function until the literature matures, at which time translated literature is pushed to the periphery and is "conservative": approximating the native repertoire). Using a "distant reading" approach: Moretti 2005), this project explores the position of both translated and adapted literature in the evolution of Broadway musical entertainment. Using an original database of more than four thousand productions of musical entertainment from professional New York playhouses associated with the history of Broadway from 1850 through 2009, various waves of interlingual and intermedial interference are graphed and discussed. This project calls for a return to analyzing literary transfer between systems to compare and contrast interference between various cultural-linguistic systems and media systems.

Vowel sounds are matched up with a native speaker utterance rather than with a word or phrase • Students learn and make use of some of the same utterances that native speakers use in everyday communication • NSUs focus on the vowel sound while still putting the sound in context

Native English speakers can be viewed as welcome resources or arrogant know-it-alls of English Language Teaching.  This talk provides cautionary advice for any native speaker teaching English or doing teacher training overseas.  Contrasting ESL and EFL settings, respecting cultural differences, and using constructive communication methods will be addressed.

Kachru (1990) has challenged the notion of the “native speaker” in his concept of World Englishes by defining three circles of English: inner, outer, and expanding.  This talk will discuss one inner circle native English speaker traveling to the expanding circle where he was requested to provide a lecture, a seminar, and critiques on English language classroom instruction.  This North American professor had to acknowledge and dismantle the power dynamic often seen as endemic to native English speaker and non-native English speaker relationships (Davies, 1991).  Reflections from this experience in Harbin, China will be given in the form of advice to native English speaking instructors and ELT professionals who go overseas to teach English, to train teachers, and to provide “consulting” and “advice” on teaching “our” language.  While this talk will use specific examples from a visit to China, the suggestions are applicable for any EFL instructor or ELT professional from the inner circle going to the outer and expanding circles.

Davies, A. (1991). The native speaker in applied linguistics. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.
Kachru, B. (1990). World Englishes and applied linguistics. World Englishes, 9(1), 3-20.

This presentation will address three ineffective yet common approaches in English pronunciation: teaching vowels through “key words,” teaching secondary stresses in words and noun constructions, and oversimplifying stress-timed rhythm in English.  Participants will learn to recognize these pitfalls in materials and learn practical strategies to teach these same pronunciation features.

Presentations, textbooks, articles, and resources on teaching English pronunciation abound, but very few address some of the common pitfalls found in these materials.  This presentation will focus on three prevalent pitfalls in many pronunciation resources.  The first is the use of “key words” to teach North American vowel sounds.  Because these words are often presented with minimal pairs that are difficult for learners to distinguish or to pronounce, a new model for teaching North American vowels called Native Speaker Utterances will be presented (Kaiser, 2014a).  The second is teaching secondary stress at both the word (e.g., congratulations, intentionality) and noun construction (e.g., bus stop, ice cream cone) level.  Because secondary stresses are virtually indistinguishable from unstressed syllables in the stream of speech (Fudge (1984) notes that even trained phoneticians can only distinguish three levels of stress), the presentation will advocate for only teaching stressed and unstressed syllables at the word level (Kaiser, 2014b).  Finally, this presentation will address the oversimplification of “stress-timed rhythm” found in the majority of pronunciation texts, which treat English rhythm like nursery rhymes forcing all utterances into a strict iambic pentameter rhythm (Kaiser, in preparation).  Practical methods for teaching English rhythm will also be presented.  By the end of this presentation, participants will be familiar with some of the most common pitfalls in pronunciation materials and have practical strategies to address these pronunciation features with learners in more effective ways.

Fudge, E. (1984). English word-stress. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Kaiser, D. (2014a). Grunt and cheer: Teaching North American vowels through native speaker utterances. The Conference Proceedings of MIDTESOL: Cultivating Best Practices in ESL, 2012, 133-149.
Kaiser, D. (in preparation). Practical approaches to teaching English rhythm: Easy as ABC and 123.
Kaiser, D. (2014b). Stressing over stress: Re-analyzing the stress of noun constructions. The Conference Proceedings of MIDTESOL: Cultivating Best Practices in ESL, 2012, 150-166.

The benefit of differentiated instruction in classrooms that include English Language Learners is well documented. This paper focuses on differentiating instruction from a cultural perspective using Geert Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture. After an overview of differentiated instruction, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions will be presented with an explanation of how these differences may affect ELLs in the classroom. Finally, examples of how lesson plans for a grade-school Math class can be differentiated based on these cultural dimensions will be presented to show how to make instruction more effective and to prepare ELLs and all learners to succeed in diverse learning environments.

This article presents four practical approaches and then numerous specific and ordered strategies to strengthen the instruction of stress-timed English rhythm patterns with English Language Learners. Evidence from a textbook survey demonstrates how current pronunciation materials often overgeneralize English rhythm patterns, making sentences sound like iambic pentameter or nursery rhymes. Based in approaches that can inform multiple aspects of oral production, the reader is guided through practical strategies that can be used at any level to teach the stress-timed variety of English.

This was a report given to Research Center of Communication and Development Knowledge Management (CCDKM) after a visit to Suanphet Riverview Resort and Farm in Phetchaburi, Thailand.  This report provides suggestions on creating a localized English language curriculum to meet the needs of this local community as they seek to promote their resort and farm for ecotourism and to sell their organic produce.

In his text, Teaching by Principles (2007, p. 100), Douglas H. Brown laments that " people who are quite unaware of the language-teaching field " often wander into his office at the university asking " Can you recommend a good textbook for my students? ". Similar to Brown's experience, I found that within a short time of blogging about iPhone apps for English pronunciation I too was lamenting the frequent e-mail requests asking for recommendations for the best mobile app to help their English pronunciation. To reflect on this experience, the following article will summarize my reviews and presentations on Mobile-Assisted Pronunciation Training and explain what has been learned from this " iPhone Pronunciation App Project ".

Uruguay is quickly emerging as one of the most innovative countries in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) by delivering thousands of lessons weekly in public schools via interactive videoconference in a project called Ceibal en Inglés. This article provides a comprehensive look at the history of ELT practices in Uruguay that both necessitated this bold approach and provided the infrastructure to implement it nationally. Special focus is paid to the public school system with historical changes in ELT and teacher preparation. This overview article discusses the many challenges faced in 'democratizing' English language instruction in Uruguay and the new practices, policies, and proposals that support this new national objective.