!ngers curled up could represent /r/, to mimic the movement
of the tongue. Some teachers create whole sets of gestures for
the teacher and students to use in representing sounds. For
example, Alexander (2003) describes a technique she calls
Pronouncercizing—a set of body movements to represent the
phonemes of English. You can see a short example video of
this technique at http://www.newreaderspress.com/
Items.aspx?hierId=0450.)
Deductive or inductive teaching? Some teachers prefer
to introduce new information deductively. That is, they
give an explanation, rule, or generalization and then have
students practice using what they’ve learned. Others prefer to
introduce new material inductively. They give several
examples of a rule or pattern and guide students as they try
to !gure out the general principle for themselves. Both of
these can be e"ective ways of introducing new pronunciation
information. You might want to use both methods at di"erent
times. However, here are some warnings about using each
way of introducing new material:
If you introduce new sounds or rules deductively, keep your
explanations short, simple, and easy to understand, and move
quickly toward the practice stage. Don’t let your explanations
and analysis be so lengthy and detailed that students are
overwhelmed, bored or confused. Simply listening to an
explanation is not learning. Students have to use what they’re
learning.If you introduce new sounds or rules inductively, be sure
that the examples you present will be more than enough to
lead students to the rule or generalization. This isn’t
supposed to be a guessing game; the conclusion should be
obvious after students think about it for a while. Remember
that students can’t read your mind. Sometimes the rule you’re
trying to get across is clear to you, but still a complete
mystery to your students. If they just don’t seem to be
“getting it,” there’s nothing wrong with going ahead and
giving them more hints or even telling them the rule you’re
trying to teach.
More advice for introducing new sounds:- Don’t try to introduce too many sounds at once. Students
will just be confused by too much information. - Practice slowly at !rst. Pronunciation is a muscular
activity, and the muscles in learners’ tongues, lips, and
jaws have to get used to moving in new ways when they
pronounce new sounds. It’s like learning a new dance—
you have to practice the steps slowly at !rst, and then
you can gradually speed up. In pronunciation, too, you
can’t expect students to speak at a normal speed from the
beginning.
72