Showing posts with label teaching English phonetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching English phonetics. Show all posts

Tuesday, 20 December 2016

Excellent TEFL Opportunity in the Land of Diversity - India

Demand for learning English has increased big time in most of the countries and India is one of them. The increasing demand for quality English teachers in India has created huge opportunity for the EFL teachers to find quality teaching job. Pursuing a Post Graduate Diploma course in TEFL can help you big time to find TEFL job in India. You will be awarded a globally recognized certificate that will help you to find job as it will appear as the proof sheet for your teaching capability and knowledge. The course will help you to understand the teaching English as a foreign language methodology. It is different from traditional teaching. Hence you need to learn the approaches to grow as an EFL teacher.


Apart from the knowledge on teaching methodologies, the course will also guide you to know other important aspects of teaching as well. It will comprise the important skills of developing strategies to teach in more effective way. Classroom management will be another important part of the course that you need to learn in order to create favorable leaning atmosphere. The learning atmosphere has a huge part to play in education as it appears as something useful for both teachers and learners. The quality of education also depends on the atmosphere.
The certificate will play a crucial role to find quality teaching job though it is not mandatory but it will surely help you to find job by creating better chances over other applicants. As the certificate is globally recognized hence you can apply for teaching job in every part of the world. India is undoubtedly one of the most important and popular destinations for EFL jobs and you will require the certificate to find job easily. The knowledge of teaching will also become important in your future career. Teaching in India is absolute fun and gigantic experience.
There are a number of reasons for the aspiring and working teachers to elect India as the destination for TEFL jobs. The most important reason is there are numbers of TEFL jobs available in India as the country is an important part of the global market and a vital player in the tourism business. Hence it is easy to find TEFL job in India. The salary structure for EFL teachers is relatively higher than other countries featuring TEFL jobs. The working teachers can earn handsome amount at the end of the month that they can save and use to explore the country and fund their future studies to flourish career opportunities. 

The country India is rich with scenic beauty and natural diversity. While you are working as an EFL teacher in India you can explore the beauty of the country. The rich history in India and evident left of it can dazzle your heart in no time. You can spend some quality time on the beautiful beaches and enjoy the serenity over there during your days off. You can take part in the cultural practices and experience something unique on its own way. The natural diversity along with different lifestyle and languages in India is the most special attraction. If you are willing to explore India at its best then you simply cannot miss out trips to breathtaking hill stations in India. It will bring ultimate peace to your mind and restore energy within you to work tirelessly and gather more beautiful experiences. Indian food possesses a huge popularity all across the globe among food lovers. You can have a great time teaching in India with the typical taste of Indian food. Every corner of the country has something unique taste to offer. The roadside fast foods are extremely mouthwatering and delicious.

Wednesday, 13 July 2016

How to Teach Young Learners Phonics

Phonics, the sounds and letters that make up language, is the main method of developing young learners learning skills. Phonics is useful for new language learners to break down words into individual syllables, pronunciation accuracy improvement. As teaching phonics means developing a relationship better with letters and sounds, thus enhancing learner’s pronunciation skills.


Phonics can be absolutely fun in learning with inclusion of various games, songs, videos and other activities. There are several ways to develop their skills-
Visual representation of letters: Initially the learners must learn to identify the sounds in correspondence to that letter. In this regard alphabet charts are very useful, as children get easily attracted to colourful things. Children learn by listening to their teachers as they say each letter sound and then repeat those immediately after the teacher. Teachers must make explicit connections between sounds and letters by way of saying and pointing at letters simultaneously. 
Read More: Phonetics is an Important Part of Language Learning
Clapping and tapping: This could be a useful strategy in separating words with individual syllables. You can perform with help of your fingers, hands or any object like stick. While you introduce this concept, you should model clapping or tapping. Like when you take example of balloon and break the syllables by reciting two words- ba-clap-loon-claps. At once children learners the activities and they promptly perform those by their own. Thus in this process they get engaged with words.
Keywords as meaning of words: Keywords substitution activities use familiar songs as a basis for playing with words. After singing the song, with the new lyrics the teacher should discuss with learners how sound shift changed the meaning of the song. As children loves to sing, then song can be absolutely helpful in familiarizing the pattern. This also enhances the memorizing skills.
Flash cards: As a fourth strategy you can make use of flash cards. Picture flash cards are excellent tools for children who lack the skills to develop their phonemic awareness. So a teacher’s prime task lies in creating various picture flash cards that are familiar to the child. And put a little test by asking the children the names of the pictures flashed on the cards. After saying the word, the children are asked to identify the first and second sounds in the word. This activity can be immensely useful for children to realize that words are made up of series of independent sounds. 
Read More: Usage of Flashcards in a Young Learner's Classroom
Thus phonics strategies are beginners of English speaking people or new speakers of other languages. These are common but effective techniques for teaching phonics to young learners.  Elementary teacher training could equip you with this techniques to teach students read and understand properly which could be a head start towards better communication. There is a whole new approach to learning phonics and more precisely, language. A preschool teacher must not just be aware of these but know how to implement those.  In this process the teacher plays a prime role in developing the literary skills of a student in an ESL classroom.

Tuesday, 7 June 2016

Phonetics is an Important Part of Language Learning

Phonetics plays an important role in speaking English as a second language. It is an indispensable component of English language. Teaching phonetics to Indian students is too difficult because various dialect problems are bound to arise. And many of these students think that there is no constructive usage of learning pronunciation. They know that all languages are spoken first and written second. If they could speak English with local people, whatever the pronunciation may be, it is not observable but while communicating with foreigners, the speakers must articulate standard pronunciation. But this is a wrong notion. As pronunciation is not an optional for the language learner, rather it is an integral part of language like any other aspect like grammar, vocabulary etc. It is necessary because the spelling of an English word does clearly state how we should pronounce it.


Few techniques and activities can be practised for useful results for learners and teachers:
1.    Reading aloud: - The learners should read aloud the paragraphs or text to improve good pronunciation. The teacher’s responsibility is to identify the errors and mistakes in pronunciation made by the learner and give them quality feedback to improve their skills of communication. The classroom techniques and activities for teaching EFL pronunciation make the learner add on their talent for bettering their pronunciation.

Read More : Motivating Students and Staff is Part of Education Management

2.    Conversational Activities: -
The teachers are responsible for designing communicative tasks so that he/she can indirectly improve the learner’s pronunciation and speaking skills. Mini-conversations or dialogues for both young and adult learners in an EFL classroom will practice particular sounds, especially those which are not there in their mother tongue. Such activities could be participating in plays, debates, discussions, rehearsals will help them to improve on their pronunciation and they gain confidence in due process.

3.    Dictionary Practice: -
An authentic dictionary provides the meaning and the phonetic transcription. It helps the learners to develop on the syllable division and stress mark. They could easily find the right pronunciation and correct themselves. It is thus helpful to take note from the dictionary which provides both grammar and vocabulary.

4.    Repeating sounds: -
Pronunciation by using and repeating the sounds, one can easily learn the correct articulation. Thus the learners must practice word frequently; they can easily remember its pronunciation and phonetic transcription.

5.    Computer-assisted language learning: - CALL plays a significant role in learning phonetics. They can find out their mistakes through using computer. The learners get various benefits out of it. They will be monitored, guided and given full freedom. Teachers can make use of the visual displays of speech pattern to teach intonation, stress and phonemes to learners. This tool is useful for all categories of learners.

Read More: Computers in Classrooms Benefit Students' Learning

6.    Self-help: - When the learners practice the phonetics and pay attention to it, the improvement will be in their articulation. Self –monitoring is also the important action in terms of self correction and fixing one’s inaccuracy after they have repeated the word or phrase correctly. The teachers must teach the learners to self monitor, and give their feedback regarding the same.

Thus we can conclude that phonetics being the indispensable component in English language is a compulsory constituent in speaking a second language. The activities and techniques suggested above will bring high-quality articulations. Phonetics courses as integral part of teacher training courses must be pursued to deliver adequately or learn the techniques to involve students of different age groups the proficiency and accuracy to speak English in a correct way and manner.