PronSIG’s online conference, ‘Will the AI revolution remove the need for pronunciation teachers?’, on 12 October 2024, was an excellent opportunity to explore and reflect on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on pronunciation instruction.
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From tapes to AI: navigating the evolution of technology in pronunciation teaching
Pronunciation teaching and learning have long benefited from technology. From the very first cassette players and tapes for drilling and repetition in the 1960s to the current and emerging applications of AI…
Why Teaching the Hidden Patterns of Connected Speech Matters
As English continues to dominate as a global language, the interaction landscape has changed dramatically. The number of non-native speakers (NNS) of English is overtaking the number of native speakers (NS)…
How can pronunciation be taught creatively to young learners?
On 13 July 2024, Mara Haslam presented PronSIG’s most recent webinar titled Creative Pronunciation Teaching for Young Learners. Haslam works in the department of Language Education at Stockholm University in Sweden…
How to avoid shortcomings in pronunciation teaching and how to extend pronunciation work in class
At IATEFL 2024 in Brighton, Adrian Underhill, one of the most well-known names in the field of pronunciation instruction, and former PronSIG collaborator…
Four PCE highlights: Pronunciation ‘Unplugged’
As mentioned in our March 2024 post, PronSIG’s Pre-Conference Event (PCE) Pronunciation ‘unplugged’: teachers as resources for low-tech classrooms, on Monday, 15 April 2024, aimed at…
Pronunciation ‘unplugged’: Meet our PCE speakers
Pronunciation ‘unplugged’: teachers as resources for low-tech classrooms will be our Pre-Conference Event (PCE), preceding IATEFL 2024 in Brighton, on 15 April 2024 (Mon). This event…
Four highlights of our Pronunciation Café: Is your kettle on?
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha We are kicking off the 2024 blog posts by looking back at our Pronunciation Café. This online event was open to the public and took …
5 questions and answers you did not know you desperately needed about phonemic symbols and the phonemic chart
By Ana P Biazon Rocha As a core component of this blog, we have constantly addressed the fears and challenges of many teachers towards teaching pronunciation, and tried our best …
3 key takeaways from PronSIG’s 2023 Online Conference
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha Participants from all over the world joined PronSIG’s online conference, ‘Musical pronunciation: teaching the perception and production of English prosody’, on 14 Oct 2023 (Sat). …
How to teach pronunciation communicatively?
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha As constantly reiterated in this blog ever since its beginning, lack of confidence, skills or adequate training and preparation lead a great number of teachers …
Teaching the pronunciation of -ed endings in past regular verbs…and then what?
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha In most course books, especially in lower levels, -ed endings in past regular verbs are a recurrent example of how to integrate pronunciation into lessons. …
Are we, non-native speakers of English, not proud of ourselves when communicating in the language?
On 08 June 2023, we (Ana and Viktor, PronSIG’s joint bloggers) had the chance to attend a Cambridge English webinar, ‘How to become a proud non-native speaker of English’, with Jiri Horak. It aimed to discuss what usually influences learners’ confidence when communicating in English, and provide teachers with examples of ready-made activities and ideas to be implemented in their lessons. It was divided into four main aspects.
Highlights from our 2023 Pre-Conference Event – Part 2: Michael Burri and Isabella Fritz bridge the gap between research and practice
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha Following-up from our May post, where we reflected on the highlights of Catarina Pontes and Mark Hancock’s sessions in PronSIG’s Pre-Conference Event (PCE) (17 Apr …
Highlights from our 2023 Pre-Conference Event – Part 1: Catarina Pontes and Mark Hancock address the field
Read about our key takeaways from two of our PCE workshops, which took place on 17th April 2023.
Teacher development and pronunciation: Meet our PCE Speakers
Find out more about PronSIG’s PCE 2023 speakers!
‘I want to speak like a native speaker’: Do students really know what they mean?
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha New year, new resolutions…old issues? At the end of 2022, I faced a challenging situation involving pronunciation teaching, and I think the best way to …
Diagnostic testing: the first step to assess learners’ pronunciation
By Ana Paula Biazon Rocha In the September and October blog posts, we discussed the relevance and the challenges of pronunciation assessment in reference to PronSIG’s annual conference, Exploring effective …
Key takeaways of PronSIG’s October Conference on Pronunciation Assessment
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha PronSIG’s Conference, Exploring effective pronunciation assessment practices in the English language classroom, on 01 Oct 2022, was an extremely successful and enriching event which shed …
Getting ready for PronSIG’s October Conference ‘Exploring effective pronunciation assessment practices in the English language classroom’
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha Among the “WH-issues of pronunciation instruction” (I’m coining the expression, what do you think?!), namely why, how and when to teach pronunciation and what to …
Teaching syllable structure as an effective learning tool
by Ivana Duckinoska-Mihajlovska Words with more than one syllable, polysyllabic words, can sometimes cause difficulties for learners, especially less proficient ones, when reading. They may focus on orthography, without considering …
Teaching pronunciation a little or a lot: is there a precise measurement?
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha ‘Of all the aspects of language – vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, spelling, the four skills and so on – pronunciation is probably the one that needs …
Takeaways from our PCE event: Part 2 – Speaking and Writing
by Ivana Duckinoska-Mihajlovska PronSIG’s Pre-Conference Event (16 May), Pronunciation and the four skills, offered us a myriad of ideas and tips on how to integrate pronunciation into our lessons. At …
Takeaways from our PCE event: Part 1 – Reading and Listening
by Ivana Duckinoska-Mihajlovska This year’s PronSIG pre-conference event (16 May) catered for all tastes. Titled Pronunciation and the four skills, our first hybrid event ensured that everyone wrapped up the …
Getting to know our PCE speakers
By Ana Paula Biazon Rocha and Victor Medina Soares As the IATEFL 2022 conference in Belfast approaches (17 May-20 May), PronSIG gets ready for two amazing events: our Pre-Conference Event …
Reflecting on your own teaching of pronunciation through PronSIG’s latest webinars
By Ana Paula Biazon Rocha In February and March 2022, PronSIG’s webinars with Victor Medina, Understanding intelligibility in Pronunciation Instruction, and Anastazija Kirkova-Naskova, Research-informed pronunciation instruction: Best practice recommendations, respectively, …
Sound variation and change: key takeaways of PronSIG’s webinar
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha The first PronSIG webinar of 2022 with Thais Cristofaro Silva, ‘How does your mother tongue impact L2 learning?’, focused on answering two essential questions: 1) …
Top 6 tips on teaching intonation from Lucy Pickering’s sessions for IATEFL PronSIG
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha On 20 November 2021, IATEFL PronSIG invited Lucy Pickering to run two sessions: Ask the Expert, where participants had the chance to ask her questions …
Can anyone think of the children?
In our monthly commentary, our bloggers call for more practical research and experimentation in the Early Years pronunciation classroom.
Top 6 tips for teaching pronunciation from PronSIG’s Online Conference
by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha On 02 October 2021, PronSIG’s online conference, Mind, Brain and Pronunciation: How thoughts, emotions, and experiences affect L2 English pronunciation, offered participants a myriad of …