Introduction For me, the most key element of learning a language is awareness. I usually spend no more than three or four hours with a client in any given week, normally spread over two sessions or ‘classes’. For me, therefore, four hours is little more than 3.5% of the time during a week when a client is not asleep. If the client or ’student’ thinks that they only need to concentrate on what they are learning during the sessions, then what teacher can hope to succeed in improving their client’s ability to speak a foreign language? In my view, there is no teacher who can succeed this way. No teacher can succeed if the client is not engaged in the learning process. Teaching is not about feeding a client knowledge, it is about them using their skill, knowledge and personality to help the student overcome the barriers and complexities that lie in the way of the absorbing the knowledge. Awareness leads to becoming engaged, which should lead to a state in which the learning process becomes a self-perpetuating cycle where a new piece of knowledge leads the client to actively seek out at least two more other, linked, pieces of knowledge. Awareness transforms the learner into a sponge. How spongeyness works Simply put the idea is that if someone continually puts themselves into situations in which they are listening to, reading and watching English in action, then both their conscious and their subconscious will take in some of that information, sort it out and store it. The brain does an amazing job with all our daily thoughts and experiences of filing them and putting them in the right place. I’m convinced that it’s the same with language, after all, there’s a whole area of the brain given over to language. Use professional online essay checker services when writing some article to avoid mistakes. The road to spongeyness The first classes that I have with a new client are sometimes frustrating for the learner themselves. I have had complaints in the past from frustrated people who have looked at me suspiciously when they realise that I’m not teaching them any language, but am instead getting to know them, finding out who they are and what they want from our time together and lastly giving them some tips on how to improve their awareness. It is this last thing that I want to take a look at.
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Assimilation is influence of one sound upon each other in the neighboring position. It spreads
throughout the entire language and can be found almost in every word in different degrees of the assimilation. When the words are pronounced in connection, assimilation is always employed. Unassimilated sounds cause an over-fine pronunciation, and you start to sound freaky in your speech. Language learners can unconsciously stick to some of assimilation patterns; . for example, the words widthand tenth are usually pronounced with the dental [d] and [n], which are affected by the sound [th], most likely owing to the fact that it is impossible to pronounce tenth with a normal alveolar [n]. Sometimes, the assimilation is complete since the interacting sounds coincide like in is she [iS- Si:] instead of [iz-Si:]. Usually, affected sounds only change their qualities partially (partial assimilation) or become different sounds but not coinciding with the assimilating sound (intermediate assimilation). Some sonorant, especially [r], may be devoiced under the influence of the preceding voiceless consonant: try, pray, twenty, and sweet contain devoiced [r] and [w] (in this case [r] is more affected). The cluster tr- is always assimilated within a word but not at the word junction compare can troll (tr- is assimilated)—can't roll (no assimilation). The sound [n] can be assimilated before [k] or [g], and it becomes [N]. conquer and congress are naturally pronounced with a [N] sound. Also, [n] of unstressed can in I can go ['&ikN 'gou]. The sound [t] in the final position before a consonant is unreleased, accompanied by a glottal stop, so this sound becomes open to be assimilated by almost every consonant. Actually, the unreleased [t] disappears, and only the assimilating consonant with the preceding glottal stop takes the features of the affecting phoneme: let me is pronounced ['le?mi:] with the glottal stop labialized ready for uttering [m]. In quick speech, it may be even without a glottal stop ['lemi:]. Hence, lemme is its informal spelling. In the word football ['fu?ba:l], the glottal stop takes the feature of [b]; therefore, it sounds like an unreleased [p] ['fupba:l]. Similarly, it is observed in such clusters as in get me, met Bob, right now, let go, etc. The sound [d] can also behave in this way. It is more casual but very common. The word combinations of goodbye and could get me are most often pronounced [,gu?'bai] and [k&?'ge?mi:]. Sometimes the sounds of [th] and [TH] are affected by [s] and [z] is that in quick speech sounds like ['izzAt]. In the word clothes, the assimilation has become complete: the sound [TH] has turned into [z], and it now is pronounced as a homophone of close, i.e. ['klouz] (to say ['klouTHz] is unnatural). |
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December 2018
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