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Teacher Education for Languages with Technology / Formation des enseignants de langue avec les TICE
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John Wells's phonetic blog: what's important in intonation for EFL?

John Wells's phonetic blog: what's important in intonation for EFL? | TELT | Scoop.it
Wells quotes Francis Nolan on priorities for learners:

…I will suggest that what learners need is a strategy which will optimise the pedagogical cost-benefit ratio in terms of (in order of priority) intelligibility, the avoidance of inadvertent offence, and (lowest in priority) the mastery of intonational nuances. Broadly corresponding to these three goals would be three prioritised learning targets: the mastery of accentuation (involving stress placement, rhythm, and pitch prominence achieved by a reduced inventory of pitch accents); the eradication of any L1-influenced phonetic realisations of pitch accents which might convey unintended meaning in English; and (lowest in priority) the acquisition of a more complete set of intonational pitch contrasts.
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How to make yourself understood by international students: The role of metaphor in academic tutorials

A paper on the British Council's Teaching English site by applied linguists Jeannette Littlemore, Fiona MacArthur, Alan Cienki and Joseph Holloway.

 

Abstract:

"In recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of international students studying at British universities.  This paper reports on a study of oral interactions between lecturers and international students studying at a British university and a Spanish one. Metaphors and gestures were identified as being used successfully and less successfully in different exchanges. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for making the most of the potential metaphor has to offer in academic tutorials."

 

Shona Whyte:

 

The paper includes video clips and close analysis of speech and gestures in interviews involving native-speaking UK lecturers and non-native international students.  It shows how comprehension problems occur due to use of metaphorical languages, but does not suggest native-speakers avoid such language, but rather suggests "ways for lecturers to accommodate to L2 speakers’ difficulties in understanding metaphorical language uses in ways that do not involve complete avoidance of metaphor or result in impoverishment of the interaction."

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