Hello all-
We do letter names and letter sounds in my class, and we use the Sounds are Fun book for some exercises. (I just found the book in Feb, so we are not going to get through the whole book this year.) 
I find that the book can help barely literate students to understand that letters have individual sounds, and this helps them with their reading as well as their pronunciation and hearing. 

I tell my students that we need gymnastics for their mouth, tongues, lips and ears when we do exercises from the Sounds Are Fun book. I explain that as adults, our tongues, lips and other muscles are less flexible than when we are younger, but we can still exercise them and practice and make our pronunciation better with practice. 

We laugh together as I teach them to stick out their tongues a bit to make a th sound, or smile and then make a Vvvv sound. However, when they do it, they get it. They might not be able to say it every time, but they learn how it is made. We do this as a whole group, so I don't usually single out students. I might go around the room and listen to students individually if they are having problems. 

They laugh at the faces I make when I try to emphasize a sound so that they can see how I am using my tongue, lips and mouth. Too bad I don't have a computer generated cut away that can show that actual position of the tongue inside the mouth. 

I still cannot do a properly trilled rr in Spanish. I can approximate the sound, but my tongue does it in the front of the mouth, when it should be done further back in the mouth (I think). However, I can accept that my pronunciation of Spanish may not be perfect, but my students can understand me clearly if I use it to explain something. 

There may be some sounds that we cannot mimic, and some that we cannot hear correctly or differentiate easily because we are not accustomed to making or hearing  those sounds. So, we might still speak with an accent, but that does not mean that we cannot learn a language well enough to communicate. 

Many Americans are just too willing to accept that they "cannot" learn a language as an adult  so that they have an excuse not to learn other languages. 

I have picked up a book that explains that the brains is much more flexible or "plastic" than originally thought. This book talks about research with brain injured adults and how different parts of their brain can take over for the damaged parts. 
Therefore, I would think that our brains are much more powerful than how we use them in daily life. 

Linda Selover
Healdsburg Adult Ed


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Martin Senger" <MSenger at GECAC.org>

> Pax all!

> 

> I completely agree than full language acquisition

> (listening/speaking/reading/writing) cannot be accomplished through

> passive listening alone. What I am looking at here is how the brain

> learns the "sounds" of a language only (auditory phonetics), and nothing

> more.

> 

> That being said, do we have any evidence, yea or nea, about how the

> brain hears and remembers specific sounds in any language, L1 or L2?

> Unless someone here is privy to very new and advanced research on the

> brain, we may not have the answer. Until we have that research,

> anecdotal evidence may be our only choice.

> 

> And is there a "critical period" for acquiring language sounds? Steven

> has said the he disagrees, but I am not convinced. Is it 100%? No, but I

> cannot help but feel that an infant is somehow "hardwired" for learning

> new sounds (a vital skill for a new human). When one tries to acquire a

> second language later in life, has something changed in our brain from

> infancy which makes it harder?

> 

> And if, if that is true, is there anything we can do in infancy to lay

> groundwork for later sound acquisition? Again, I must state that this is

> regarding phonemic awareness only.

> 

> Then, what about adults learning new sounds? In your classes, do you

> teach specific problem sounds to your students, and how? In my classes,

> I try to identify my students' specific speech problems, then try to get

> the student to see their problems themselves. The "first step to solving

> a problem is admitting you have one" sort-of-thing.

> 

> Most of us here are teachers. What do you think about this? What

> anecdotal evidence is there?

> 

> Ciao!

> Martin

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