Welcome Video
Counting syllables in the classroom
WEEK ONE: Introductions & first steps
Exercise 1 – Sensitisation
This is an exercise we usually do with our students at the start of a course.
Print out file 1.1 below, a cutaway drawing of a head, side on, with the shape of the roof of the mouth and the tongue removed. Spend a few minutes carefully exploring the inside of your mouth with your tongue so that you can draw the outline of your palate and your tongue on the image.
Don't be too quick! Take the time it needs to really understand the shape of the inside of your mouth and to draw it carefully.
When you've finished, download file 1.2 for a drawing of a typical mouth and compare it to yours. We've highlighted the parts of the mouth that it's essential to be familiar with when learning to pronounce English.
There are two reasons why we do this exercise at the beginning of a course:
First, it sends a message to our students that they are going to have to pay close attentionto what they are doing with their mouth and tongue in order to learn to pronounce English.
Second, it begins the practical process of them becoming sensitive again to their mouths to enable them to do this. This is a step that cannot be ignored. It is not difficult: it is a sensitivity we all have as babies, but which we lose as we make our speech and other oral activities automatic during childhood.
We cannot see what happens inside the mouth when we speak, we have to feel what is happening. For another way for a teacher to ask her students to develop their sensitivity by exploring their mouth with their tongue, watch this video of a teacher doing it here.)
If you have any thoughts about these exercises, please use the Comments section below.
Posted Sun Nov 6, 2016 at 9:09 am
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