Thanks, Mikal, This is very helpful. In my university there are a good
ma"hidden' ESOL students, whose spoken language can be almost accent-free,
but whose difficulties manifest in many  ways in writing. I have an ESOL
college student who's perfectly fluent in spoken English, but her spelling
tends to be random and phonetic;  even with the correctly spelled word in
front of her she'll misspell it, unless she really concentrates. She doesn't
seem to able to auto-correct independently, though when writing while I'm
there she'll consciously try to spell words correctly and chances are, does.
I used to have a book I really liked, Structures in Spelling, which I really
liked, which basically gives word patters and possible ways of pronouncing
them, which I found so helpful I lent it to a student and never got it back.
She claims that she just "didn't pay attention" in high school (she''s been
here for quite some time),but I'm wondering about some The student in
question is Russian, and there could be some kind of alphabetic "first
language interference." Otherwise I'd say learning disability, but as we
know that's terribly difficult to diagnose in ELLs. If anyone has any
suggestions , please send them along.

Bonnie Odiorne, Ph.D. director, Writing Center, Post University

 

  _____  

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Steinbacher, Mikal
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 6:40 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 928] Re: Help with pronunciation issues

 

I have put together a document that I share with my classes that helps some
.. it is s combination of the pronunciation keys from several dictionaries
... and the different spellings of sounds letters and letter  combinations
have.  

 

I'll attach a copy for a look to see if it works for you .. I spend ~ 45 min
- and hour going over it and also connecting combinations like "ea" with the
different sounds they make ... hard a, hard e, soft e, ir, etc .. As you can
tell from the document's title, I initially designed it to help students
look words up in the dictionary but is also a good tool for pronunciation
...  I do tell them that the dictionary is their best "how do I pronounce
it" tool, but sometimes that's hard to do ... if they don't know how to
spell it1  I suggest that they keep a copy of this document in their
dictionary for reference!

 

If you come up with a system .. I'd be most interested.  Good luck!

 

  _____  

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Bonnita Solberg
Sent: Fri 1/5/2007 10:38 AM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 927] Re: Help with pronunciation issues

Tom and Colleagues:

I am very interested in a system of pronunciation that makes spelling easy
for adults learning English as a second language with the wide range of
education backgrounds, or lack of it, in the immigrant population we serve
in public schools.  I have investigated a lot of systems with the hope of
finding one that students can easily use and have not found one that is
effective for both pronouncing a word and spelling it, so I am in the long
process of developing a system that includes both.  Naturally I was
intrigued by "truespel".  I think it would work for a student with a solid
education background, who could decode well and intellectually confront the
system.  It is also a good guide for pronunciation for teachers who have
little or no background in phonics/linguistics, and in that venue is
extremely valuable.  I would recommend it to the teahers I train to teach in
the ESL classroom.  It is not a system I would teach to students because it
does not pair spelling with pronunciation.  Based on past experience with
similar strategies, the conversion process would be confusing and take an
enormous amount of classtime to teach the students we serve.

I did find some problems with the system in my short investigation.  For
instance, and this may be my west coast accent, in number 30 ("sh" sound) of
the phonemes, the word "precious" is given the truespel conversion of
"preshis".  Rather than the "is" sound at the end, I would pronounce it with
an "us" sound as in "nut" or "us".  In the tutorial about the fox, the word
"jumped", the final "d" is given the sound of "d", whereas I would pronounce
it with a "t" sound.  My computer rendition of the introductory paragraph
displayed some grammar and punctuation problems that may be due to the
format on my computer.  Is this system under still construction?  It is an
admirable undertaking and one I would like to see at its completion.  Thanks
for making this available to us. 

Bonnita Solberg, Teacher on Special Assignment
Oakland Unified School District

Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote: 

A simple phonetic guide for USA English is at truespel.com. Click the 
converter button and go to the converter page. The first converter is the 
URL converter. The entire internet can be converted to truespel, the 
world's first pronunciation guide spelling/writing system.

Further down the page is the text converter. Paste passages into it and 
click convert to see it respelled phonetically in USA English accent.

The model for the pronunciation is the spoken words of the American Heritage

Talking dictionary and m-w.com. This is standard USA accent.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+
See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.






>From: Paul Rogers 

>Reply-To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion 

>List

>To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion 

>List

>Subject: [EnglishLanguage 921] Help with pronunciation issues

>Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 12:52:37 -0800 (PST)

>

>Concerning teaching pronunciation, I have written a series of texts that 

>include pronunciation lessons for beginning Spanish speakers, with 

>vocabulary spelled two ways: normally and "phonetically". These lesson have



>proven to be very effective and, I believe, assist the student in an 

>overall way in learning English.

> For more information, go to my web site: PUMAROSA.COM.

> Paul Rogers

>

>Kathryn Quinn wrote:

> Martin:

> I know exactly how you feel. I was facilitating an English program with 

>a number of SE Asian students. One very diligent student from Viet Nam 

>came for advisement at the end of the semester. She'd taken a 

>pronunciation class and kept saying what sounded like "I failed. I 

>failed." I kept trying to encourage her telling her that she hadn't failed 

>but she was working hard and making some progress. If she took the course 

>again, she'd do better. Only to find out that what she was trying to say 

>was "I passed. I passed."

> Use mirrors! Have them look at themselves in the mirror as they say the 

>sounds, in initial position as well as word final. Help them speak slowly. 

> Have them look at you as you mouth words with stops. Have them listen 

>for the sounds and identify when they hear them. Have them record 

>themselves to see if they can hear them when they've said them. And in 

>pronunciation class, don't pretend you can understand them clearly when you



>can't.

> Best wishes.

> Kathryn Quinn

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: Martin Senger

> To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List

> Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 2:31 PM

> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 917] Help with pronunciation issues

>

>

> Pax et bonum all! (peace & goodness)

>

> I am an adult ESL teacher in Erie, PA. I am looking for information on 

>teaching pronunciation skills to SE Asian students, who seem to have a 

>particular problem with stops sounds ([p], [b], etc.). Any suggestions 

>would be greatly appreciated!

>

>---------------------------------

>

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