Importance of Early Childhood education
Early childhood is a
crucial stage of life in terms of a child's physical, intellectual,
emotional and social development. Growth of mental and physical
abilities progress at an astounding rate and a very high proportion of
learning takes place from birth to age six. It is a time when children
particularly need high quality personal care and learning experiences.
Education
begins from the moment the child is brought home from the hospital and
continues on when the child starts to attend playgroups and
kindergartens. The learning capabilities of humans continue for the rest
of their lives but not at the intensity that is demonstrated in the
preschool years. With this in mind, babies and toddlers need positive
early learning experiences to help their intellectual, social and
emotional development and this lays the foundation for later school
success.
First Three Years
During the first three years parents
will be the main influence in the child’s learning experience and
education. What parents do and expose their children to has a vast
impact on the development of the child. Parents sometimes forget that an
interested parent can have a tremendous impact on a child’s education
at any age. If the parents choose to participate in a Mothers and
Toddlers group or child-care arrangements, including family babysitting
or center-based child care, these all have the potential to provide
high-quality, individualized, responsive, and stimulating experiences
that will influence the child’s learning experience. With this in mind, a
child in a negative enjoinment could also result in negative effects as
well. This fact makes it essential that the environment that the child
is placed in during these early years be as positive and intellectually
stimulating as possible. Very strong relationships are imbedded in
everyday routines that familiar caregivers provide. It is the primary
caregiver that a child learns to trust and looks to for security and
care.
Speech development is one of the first tools that a child will
demonstrate in his/her lifelong education. Wordlessly at first, infants
and toddlers begin to recognize familiar objects and to formulate the
laws that systematically govern their properties. With encouragement
through books and interaction, toddlers soon pick up vocabulary.
It
is really useful to understand how language unfolds. The first words
that toddlers learn are normally the names of familiar people and
objects around them. Then they learn words that stand for actions. Only
then do they start to have the words that describe their world, that are
about ideas. This development is usually in the second part of the
second year of life. A parent or caregiver can have a vast impact on a
child’s speech development by the amount of time that is spent talking
with and reading to a child.
Every caregiver can, in culturally
appropriate ways, help infants and toddlers grow in language and
literacy. Caregivers need presence, time, words, print, and intention to
share language and literacy with infants and toddlers. All five
qualities are important but it is intention that can turn a physical act
like putting away toys or lining up at preschool into a delightful
learning experience. Even a trip to the grocery store can be turned into
a vocabulary lesson about colors and the names of fruits.
Importance of play
Child
development experts agree that play is very important in the learning
and emotional development of all children. Play is multi-faceted.
Although it should be a fun experience for the child, often many skills
can be learned through play. Play helps children learn relationship and
social skills, and develop values and ethics, Play should always be
considered an essential part of a child’s early education.
Functional
play helps children to develop motor and practice skills. This kind of
play is normally done with toys or objects that are stackable, can be
filled with water or sand or playing outdoors. Water play or sand play
is a favorite amongst pre-school children and a valuable teaching tool.
This type of play can make up about 50% of the type of play that
toddlers through 3year-old children practice.
Constructive play is
characterized by building or creating something. Toys that encourage
this type of play are simple puzzles, building blocks, easy craft
activities, and puppets. Normally 4 or 5 year old children enjoy this
type of play, but it continues to be enjoyable into the first and second
grades of school.
Hands and fingers are the best first art tools.
Soon they will manage thick paint brushes, wedges of sponge, wax
crayons, and hunky chalks. It is advised to avoid rushing a child into
making something in particular. Letting them do what they want
encourages individuality and decision making. Toddlers also enjoy play
dough because they can get hands and fingers in it for poking, rolling,
and shaping. This type of play develops thinking and reasoning skills,
problem solving, and creativity.
Pretend play allows children to
express themselves and events in their lives. Normally a child will
transform themselves or a play object into someone or something else.
This type of play is popular with children in preschool and kindergarten
and it tends to fade out as they enter primary school. Pretend play
helps children process emotions and events in their lives, practice
social skills, learn values, develop language skills, and develop a rich
imagination. Because of the important skills that are developed through
this type of play, efforts should be made to encourage children to
pretend.
Playing games that have a definite structure or rules do not
become dominant until children start to enter elementary school. Board
games, simple card games, ball games or skipping games that have
specific rules will teach children cooperation, mutual understanding,
and logical thinking.
A playground can be a turned into a learning
experience for a child. Although a playground traditionally has certain
elements, these elements may pose an unsafe surrounding for your child
if the equipment is not properly supervised or built of unsafe
materials. To provide a safe environment that allows gross motor
activity it is important that some considerations of the equipment be
made. The following elements have been found to be unsafe in group care
settings:
Metal slides can cause burns when they are exposed to
direct sunlight. The intense sunlight in a tropical climate heats metal
to very high temperatures.
Enclosed tunnel slides make observation
difficult and can allow one climbing child above the enclosed tunnel to
fall on top of another at the tunnel exit.
Traditional seesaws can result in injuries when one child unexpectedly jumps off.
Spring
mounted, rocking toys with very heavy animal seats can strike a child.
(There are acceptable, lighter weight rocking toy alternatives.)
Swings,
other than tire swings, can easy hit a waiting child and cause injury.
Light weight plastic seat swings pose a much lower chance hurting a
child.
Things to look for in a Preschool Curriculum
It is
important that when considering an early education facility, caregivers
and teacher in the facility have knowledge of the cultural supports for
the language and literacy learning of the children and families they are
serving. They need to have sufficient skills in guiding small groups of
children in order to give full attention to individual young children’s
language and literacy efforts. They need to be able to draw out shy
children while they help very talkative ones begin to listen to others
as well as to speak. Caregivers or teachers need to arrange environments
that are symbol rich and interesting without being overwhelming to
infants and toddlers. Even the simplest exchange becomes a literacy
lesson when it includes the warmth of a relationship coupled with words,
their concepts, and perhaps a graphic symbol.
To be effective, an
early year’s curriculum needs to be carefully structured. In that
structure, there should be three strands: provision for the different
starting points from which children develop their learning, building on
what they can already do; relevant and appropriate content which matches
the different levels of young children's needs; and planned and
purposeful activity which provides opportunities for teaching and
learning both indoors and outdoors.
If your child is between the ages
of three and six and attends a preschool or kindergarten program, the
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
suggests you look for these 10 signs to make sure your child is in a
good classroom.
Children spend most of their time playing and working
with materials or other children. They do not wander aimlessly and they
are not expected to sit quietly for long periods of time.
Children
have access to various activities throughout the day. Look for assorted
building blocks and other construction materials, props for pretend
play, picture books, paints and other art materials, and table toys such
as matching games, pegboards, and puzzles. All the children should not
necessarily all be doing the same activity at the same time.
Teachers
work with individual children, small groups, and the whole group at
different times during the day. They do not spend all their time with
the whole group.
The classroom is decorated with children's original
artwork, their own writing with invented spelling, and stories dictated
by children to teachers.
Children learn numbers and the alphabet in
the context of their everyday experiences. The natural world of plants
and animals and meaningful activities like cooking, taking attendance or
serving snack provide the basis for learning activities.
Children
work on projects and have long periods of time (at least one hour) to
play and explore. Worksheets are used little, if at all.
Children have an opportunity to play outside every day. Outdoor play is never sacrificed for more instructional time.
Teachers read books to children individually or in small groups throughout the day, not just at group story time.
Curriculum
is adapted for those who are ahead as well as those who need additional
help. Teachers recognize that children's different backgrounds and
experiences mean that they do not learn the same things at the same time
in the same way.
Children and their parents look forward to school.
Parents feel secure about sending their child to the program. Children
are happy to attend; they do not cry regularly or complain of feeling
sick.
Sabtu, 29 Juni 2013
Why College Students Today Can’t Write
Why College Students Today Can’t Write
College professors have been bemoaning the lack of solid writing skills in their students for decades (see this article from 1974 for proof), but statistics gathered over the past few years suggest that student writing skills are in an even more dismal state than they were in 1974. Today, 28% of college graduates produce writing that rates as deficient, even with tuition reaching record rates and many colleges being more selective than ever. These poor writing skills have had serious ramifications not only in higher education but in the business world, as our information-driven society makes it ever more critical for students to develop the ability to communicate through the written word.
While it’s easy to point out the problem, it’s much harder to figure out a solution. A promising first step can be to pinpoint just what is causing students to arrive and leave college without the skills they’ll need to get by in the real world. That’s easier said than done. The decline of writing abilities in students is a multifaceted issue, impacted by teachers, students, and administrators alike and encompassing all elements of writing education from support to motivation. While not comprehensive, this list addresses some of the biggest reasons so many students struggle with writing in colleges today, from freshman year to graduation.
Colleges don’t demand high-quality writing.
One of the biggest reasons college students can’t write may simply be due to the fact that most college courses and degree programs don’t demand it of them. In the book Academically Adrift most freshmen reported “little academic demand in terms of writing” and half of college seniors reported never having written a paper longer than 20 pages during their last year of college. Students who aren’t being required to submit papers that are academically challenging have little opportunity to learn and grow as writers, which can hold them back academically. In fact, the same study showed that students who took classes with high expectations (those with 40 pages of reading a week and 20 pages of writing a semester) gained more from their courses than their peers in less demanding courses.
High schools aren’t preparing students with writing skills.
Many students enter college with sub-par writing skills because of inadequate writing instruction in their high school courses. A report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2007 found that just 24% of high school seniors could score proficient or better on a writing exam. Things haven’t changed much for the better since then, and many fear that high schools are failing students when it comes to teaching writing. Why is this happening? At some schools, teachers simply don’t have enough time to leave adequate feedback on lengthy student papers when they have 120 or more students in their courses. Another problem that many experts have pointed to is that high schools simply don’t focus on writing instruction. Schools are often so caught up in boosting scores in skills that are tested in state exams like math, science, and reading, that writing simply falls by the wayside. There are schools trying to make improvements, with some making writing a central part of their curricula, but there’s still a long way to go before America’s high school students will graduate with improved writing abilities across the board.
College professors don’t want to spend time playing catch-up.
Whether it’s fair to students or not, many college professors don’t want to dedicate class time to teaching students remedial writing skills they should really already know by the time they reach college. Giving increased attention to writing means that not only do professors have less class time to focus on the true subject of the course, they also have to dedicate hours of time outside of class to rigorously correcting student papers in order to make progress in improving student writing. This kind of grading is time-consuming and frustrating, and with many writing-intensive courses no longer being simply English classes, it’s often a distraction from learning other material.
Students don’t get enough feedback.
It isn’t just professors and employers who’ve taken note of the dwindling writing skills of college students. Students themselves are also well aware that they need a little more help in their writing. In a national study of 30,000 undergraduates, fewer than 50% felt that their writing had improved over the four years they were in school. A similar study reported that just 27.6% of students saw improvement in their writing by graduation. The reason students cited for the lack of progress? Inadequate feedback and support. Eighty percent of students in the study said they felt they would have become better writers if they had received more feedback and direct interaction from professors.
Graduation doesn’t depend on demonstrating writing skills.
At the majority of American colleges, writing requirements are fulfilled by passing a couple of courses deemed as “writing intensive.” Yet that doesn’t always ensure that students will graduate knowing how to write or being any good at it. Some schools, like Old Dominion University, used to require that students pass a writing test before graduation, but tests like these are being phased out or dropped. Why? Too many students failed them. While they may have represented an outdated model for assessing student abilities, the fact that a significant portion of students couldn’t pass them is troubling to say the least. At most colleges, a C or better in a handful of writing courses is a ticket to graduation, but with grade inflation rampant it’s unclear what degree of writing ability that truly represents. With little motivation to push themselves to learn to improve writing, many students graduate without ever mastering grammar, syntax, or analytical writing.
Grading isn’t harsh enough.
Grade inflation is a very real phenomenon (today, 43% of all grades are A’s, an increase of 28% since 1960) and one that is slowly starting to take a serious toll on what students actually get out of their educational experiences. Students don’t just hope to earn a good grade, many actually expect it, whether their work warrants it or not. Sadly, a growing number of professors are happy to oblige, as student feedback on faculty ratings can be key to helping them keep jobs, get tenure, and get ahead. This has had a serious impact on the level of writing that many college students produce, as those who don’t feel compelled to do more than the minimum to pass courses are getting by with less than ever before. While harsh, strict grading and evaluation of papers used to be common practice. The lack of this same kind of rigor may just be a contributing factor to why students can’t write as well today.
Web and text habits seep into academic writing.
From the Ivy League to community colleges, read a classroom’s worth of essays and you’re bound to come across a student using “text speak” or overly casual vernacular in their academic writing. While these kinds of abbreviations and words might work in everyday conversation, they’re generally unacceptable in college level writing. The problem is that many students don’t understand that what works in speech or in a casual discussion doesn’t quite cut it in a college essay. Even worse, many are allowed to get by with these language blunders in their courses, both in high school and beyond. It doesn’t bode well for academic standards or for students who want to earn respect in the workplace.
Required writing courses often aren’t writing-focused.
Many colleges have done away with the basic freshman comp courses in lieu of courses in the social sciences that are writing-intensive. While writing intensive courses in the social sciences aren’t a bad idea in and of themselves (and many social science professors are great writers), they aren’t really a substitute for writing-focused courses that are designed to give incoming students rigorous foundation in writing. R.V. Young, a professor at North Carolina State, recalls that in 1970, students at the school were required to take a composition course spanning two semesters. During the course, students had to write 25 papers all of which were graded harshly by professors. These kinds of courses have largely disappeared in colleges nationwide and have been replaced with other hybrid courses, with few containing the same rigorous, focused attention on writing.
Students aren’t taught the fundamentals.
Before students can become great writers, they have to learn (at least) two basic things: the rules of good writing and how to think critically and creatively. Yet many education experts have pointed out that schools fail to adequately teach students either of those things in secondary school and beyond. Students are more often taught what to think, not how to think, and as a result often don’t understand how to expand on ideas, apply rules in a broader sense, or even begin to understand what constitutes great writing. Of course, there’s a line to walk between the structure and creativity that sometimes just doesn’t get through to students. One example? Students learn to format writing in forms that are rarely seen in the real world (how often do you see the five-paragraph essay?), causing them to have to unlearn what they’ve learned just to progress to the level of their college peers.
College professors have been bemoaning the lack of solid writing skills in their students for decades (see this article from 1974 for proof), but statistics gathered over the past few years suggest that student writing skills are in an even more dismal state than they were in 1974. Today, 28% of college graduates produce writing that rates as deficient, even with tuition reaching record rates and many colleges being more selective than ever. These poor writing skills have had serious ramifications not only in higher education but in the business world, as our information-driven society makes it ever more critical for students to develop the ability to communicate through the written word.
While it’s easy to point out the problem, it’s much harder to figure out a solution. A promising first step can be to pinpoint just what is causing students to arrive and leave college without the skills they’ll need to get by in the real world. That’s easier said than done. The decline of writing abilities in students is a multifaceted issue, impacted by teachers, students, and administrators alike and encompassing all elements of writing education from support to motivation. While not comprehensive, this list addresses some of the biggest reasons so many students struggle with writing in colleges today, from freshman year to graduation.
Colleges don’t demand high-quality writing.
One of the biggest reasons college students can’t write may simply be due to the fact that most college courses and degree programs don’t demand it of them. In the book Academically Adrift most freshmen reported “little academic demand in terms of writing” and half of college seniors reported never having written a paper longer than 20 pages during their last year of college. Students who aren’t being required to submit papers that are academically challenging have little opportunity to learn and grow as writers, which can hold them back academically. In fact, the same study showed that students who took classes with high expectations (those with 40 pages of reading a week and 20 pages of writing a semester) gained more from their courses than their peers in less demanding courses.
High schools aren’t preparing students with writing skills.
Many students enter college with sub-par writing skills because of inadequate writing instruction in their high school courses. A report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2007 found that just 24% of high school seniors could score proficient or better on a writing exam. Things haven’t changed much for the better since then, and many fear that high schools are failing students when it comes to teaching writing. Why is this happening? At some schools, teachers simply don’t have enough time to leave adequate feedback on lengthy student papers when they have 120 or more students in their courses. Another problem that many experts have pointed to is that high schools simply don’t focus on writing instruction. Schools are often so caught up in boosting scores in skills that are tested in state exams like math, science, and reading, that writing simply falls by the wayside. There are schools trying to make improvements, with some making writing a central part of their curricula, but there’s still a long way to go before America’s high school students will graduate with improved writing abilities across the board.
College professors don’t want to spend time playing catch-up.
Whether it’s fair to students or not, many college professors don’t want to dedicate class time to teaching students remedial writing skills they should really already know by the time they reach college. Giving increased attention to writing means that not only do professors have less class time to focus on the true subject of the course, they also have to dedicate hours of time outside of class to rigorously correcting student papers in order to make progress in improving student writing. This kind of grading is time-consuming and frustrating, and with many writing-intensive courses no longer being simply English classes, it’s often a distraction from learning other material.
Students don’t get enough feedback.
It isn’t just professors and employers who’ve taken note of the dwindling writing skills of college students. Students themselves are also well aware that they need a little more help in their writing. In a national study of 30,000 undergraduates, fewer than 50% felt that their writing had improved over the four years they were in school. A similar study reported that just 27.6% of students saw improvement in their writing by graduation. The reason students cited for the lack of progress? Inadequate feedback and support. Eighty percent of students in the study said they felt they would have become better writers if they had received more feedback and direct interaction from professors.
Graduation doesn’t depend on demonstrating writing skills.
At the majority of American colleges, writing requirements are fulfilled by passing a couple of courses deemed as “writing intensive.” Yet that doesn’t always ensure that students will graduate knowing how to write or being any good at it. Some schools, like Old Dominion University, used to require that students pass a writing test before graduation, but tests like these are being phased out or dropped. Why? Too many students failed them. While they may have represented an outdated model for assessing student abilities, the fact that a significant portion of students couldn’t pass them is troubling to say the least. At most colleges, a C or better in a handful of writing courses is a ticket to graduation, but with grade inflation rampant it’s unclear what degree of writing ability that truly represents. With little motivation to push themselves to learn to improve writing, many students graduate without ever mastering grammar, syntax, or analytical writing.
Grading isn’t harsh enough.
Grade inflation is a very real phenomenon (today, 43% of all grades are A’s, an increase of 28% since 1960) and one that is slowly starting to take a serious toll on what students actually get out of their educational experiences. Students don’t just hope to earn a good grade, many actually expect it, whether their work warrants it or not. Sadly, a growing number of professors are happy to oblige, as student feedback on faculty ratings can be key to helping them keep jobs, get tenure, and get ahead. This has had a serious impact on the level of writing that many college students produce, as those who don’t feel compelled to do more than the minimum to pass courses are getting by with less than ever before. While harsh, strict grading and evaluation of papers used to be common practice. The lack of this same kind of rigor may just be a contributing factor to why students can’t write as well today.
Web and text habits seep into academic writing.
From the Ivy League to community colleges, read a classroom’s worth of essays and you’re bound to come across a student using “text speak” or overly casual vernacular in their academic writing. While these kinds of abbreviations and words might work in everyday conversation, they’re generally unacceptable in college level writing. The problem is that many students don’t understand that what works in speech or in a casual discussion doesn’t quite cut it in a college essay. Even worse, many are allowed to get by with these language blunders in their courses, both in high school and beyond. It doesn’t bode well for academic standards or for students who want to earn respect in the workplace.
Required writing courses often aren’t writing-focused.
Many colleges have done away with the basic freshman comp courses in lieu of courses in the social sciences that are writing-intensive. While writing intensive courses in the social sciences aren’t a bad idea in and of themselves (and many social science professors are great writers), they aren’t really a substitute for writing-focused courses that are designed to give incoming students rigorous foundation in writing. R.V. Young, a professor at North Carolina State, recalls that in 1970, students at the school were required to take a composition course spanning two semesters. During the course, students had to write 25 papers all of which were graded harshly by professors. These kinds of courses have largely disappeared in colleges nationwide and have been replaced with other hybrid courses, with few containing the same rigorous, focused attention on writing.
Students aren’t taught the fundamentals.
Before students can become great writers, they have to learn (at least) two basic things: the rules of good writing and how to think critically and creatively. Yet many education experts have pointed out that schools fail to adequately teach students either of those things in secondary school and beyond. Students are more often taught what to think, not how to think, and as a result often don’t understand how to expand on ideas, apply rules in a broader sense, or even begin to understand what constitutes great writing. Of course, there’s a line to walk between the structure and creativity that sometimes just doesn’t get through to students. One example? Students learn to format writing in forms that are rarely seen in the real world (how often do you see the five-paragraph essay?), causing them to have to unlearn what they’ve learned just to progress to the level of their college peers.
Indonesia’s education system; 1 of the worst in the world
Indonesia’s education system; 1 of the worst in the world
Indonesia’s education system is one of the worst in the world according to a recent report. So why did it rank so poorly? The answer, as is often the case with developing countries still finding their feet as a democracy, appears to be corruption. Even more tragic. The funding is there but it ends up in the pockets of corrupt civil servants and not in classrooms. East 101′s recent investigation highlighted some shocking facts about the Indonesian education system including: Only a third of Indonesian students – in a country where 57 million attend school – complete basic schooling. Education experts say less than half of the country’s teachers possess even the minimum qualifications to teach properly and teacher absenteeism hovers at around 20 percent. Many teachers in the public school system work outside of the classroom to improve their incomes. Indonesian Corruption Watch claims there are very few schools in the country that are clean of graft, bribery or embezzlement – with 40 percent of their budget siphoned off before it reaches the classroom. One of the Indonesian government’s responses to these findings has been to restructure the Indonesian curriculum, including postponing teaching science, geography and ENGLISH until students attend secondary school. For a nation economically prospering, geographically located in a region that looks set to be at the forefront of world economics and politics it seems a bemusing choice to make. Moreover the Indonesian education system does not encourage independent, creative thought but focusses more on learning by rote. Discipline is strict, commendation little and many students are expelled for what in the western world we would consider slight misbehaviour.
Indonesia’s education system is one of the worst in the world according to a recent report. So why did it rank so poorly? The answer, as is often the case with developing countries still finding their feet as a democracy, appears to be corruption. Even more tragic. The funding is there but it ends up in the pockets of corrupt civil servants and not in classrooms. East 101′s recent investigation highlighted some shocking facts about the Indonesian education system including: Only a third of Indonesian students – in a country where 57 million attend school – complete basic schooling. Education experts say less than half of the country’s teachers possess even the minimum qualifications to teach properly and teacher absenteeism hovers at around 20 percent. Many teachers in the public school system work outside of the classroom to improve their incomes. Indonesian Corruption Watch claims there are very few schools in the country that are clean of graft, bribery or embezzlement – with 40 percent of their budget siphoned off before it reaches the classroom. One of the Indonesian government’s responses to these findings has been to restructure the Indonesian curriculum, including postponing teaching science, geography and ENGLISH until students attend secondary school. For a nation economically prospering, geographically located in a region that looks set to be at the forefront of world economics and politics it seems a bemusing choice to make. Moreover the Indonesian education system does not encourage independent, creative thought but focusses more on learning by rote. Discipline is strict, commendation little and many students are expelled for what in the western world we would consider slight misbehaviour.
Pronunciation
Pronunciation is an essential component not only of learning a language but also of using that language. For this reason, the learning of proper pronunciation is a delicate area; students need to feel free to make mistakes and practice their pronunciation in order to increase their accuracy, but there are also times when pronunciation must be quickly corrected so that it does not impede the students' ability to understand and be understood. Below we will look more closely at pronunciation and activities that can help students improve their pronunciation.
Pronunciation is an interesting area because when learning in a classroom context, pronunciation isn’t usually a major factor that influences comprehension however, it may be when the learner uses the SL in the community. The value of teaching pronunciation cannot be underestimated. Besides the difficulty of changing a `bad habit´, early pronunciation instruction helps students understand how to form sounds that are not found in their mother tongue, contributes to decoding ability and lowers the affective filter. Some researchers suggest that pronunciation does not need to be taught and will `take care of itself´ over time. Others suggest that teaching pronunciation is necessary.
t is very difficult to achieve native like pronunciation in any language. Some language societies have greater tolerance of `accents´ than others; some even find certain accents more appealing. For example, many Canadian documentaries are narrated by people with British accents. In some societies people may appear to not understand someone whose accent does not approximate the native speaker's (e.g. Parisians or Muscovites). In some countries foreign accents are perfectly acceptable in informal conversations based on helping give directions or sharing simple small talk; however, in the same places the same accent may not be highly tolerated if the person is a paid employee who needs to offer service or advice.
In order to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with poor pronunciation it is important to hear as much of the target language (TL) as possible. This exposure to the TL can be from the teacher, from films or media clips, songs or audio clips, guest speakers and one’s peers. In general, realistic goals surrounding pronunciation are:
Consistency: the pronunciation should become smooth and natural
Intelligibility: the pronunciation should be understandable to the listeners
Communicative efficiency: the pronunciation should help convey the meaning intended by the speaker
Good pronunciation comes from a lot of technical knowledge on the part of the teacher about placement of the mouth, etc. Most teachers in North America, unfortunately, don’t have this knowledge and therefore tend to pass it off as being unimportant but in fact, as you progress in your fluency, pronunciation becomes more and more important. Language learning needs a lot of practice and both mechanical and meaningful practice lead to improved pronunciation. Only through practice will a skill become automatic and drill-like activities are not always considered interesting. Nevertheless perception practice is a good way to help learners distinguish between certain sounds.
Pronunciation is an essential component not only of learning a language but also of using that language. For this reason, the learning of proper pronunciation is a delicate area; students need to feel free to make mistakes and practice their pronunciation in order to increase their accuracy, but there are also times when pronunciation must be quickly corrected so that it does not impede the students' ability to understand and be understood. Below we will look more closely at pronunciation and activities that can help students improve their pronunciation.
Pronunciation is an interesting area because when learning in a classroom context, pronunciation isn’t usually a major factor that influences comprehension however, it may be when the learner uses the SL in the community. The value of teaching pronunciation cannot be underestimated. Besides the difficulty of changing a `bad habit´, early pronunciation instruction helps students understand how to form sounds that are not found in their mother tongue, contributes to decoding ability and lowers the affective filter. Some researchers suggest that pronunciation does not need to be taught and will `take care of itself´ over time. Others suggest that teaching pronunciation is necessary.
t is very difficult to achieve native like pronunciation in any language. Some language societies have greater tolerance of `accents´ than others; some even find certain accents more appealing. For example, many Canadian documentaries are narrated by people with British accents. In some societies people may appear to not understand someone whose accent does not approximate the native speaker's (e.g. Parisians or Muscovites). In some countries foreign accents are perfectly acceptable in informal conversations based on helping give directions or sharing simple small talk; however, in the same places the same accent may not be highly tolerated if the person is a paid employee who needs to offer service or advice.
In order to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with poor pronunciation it is important to hear as much of the target language (TL) as possible. This exposure to the TL can be from the teacher, from films or media clips, songs or audio clips, guest speakers and one’s peers. In general, realistic goals surrounding pronunciation are:
Consistency: the pronunciation should become smooth and natural
Intelligibility: the pronunciation should be understandable to the listeners
Communicative efficiency: the pronunciation should help convey the meaning intended by the speaker
Good pronunciation comes from a lot of technical knowledge on the part of the teacher about placement of the mouth, etc. Most teachers in North America, unfortunately, don’t have this knowledge and therefore tend to pass it off as being unimportant but in fact, as you progress in your fluency, pronunciation becomes more and more important. Language learning needs a lot of practice and both mechanical and meaningful practice lead to improved pronunciation. Only through practice will a skill become automatic and drill-like activities are not always considered interesting. Nevertheless perception practice is a good way to help learners distinguish between certain sounds.
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