Tingo the Puppet used by Sesame English to teach ESL

Barbrieu06a2 Application questions

Barbrieu06a2 

Application questions

a.    #3 (minimum 10 words)

WORD                                            ORGIN                                 HISTORY/MEANING 

Kamikaze	Japanese	The word Kamikaze means  Divine Wind - A long time ago an invading country attacked Japan by ship, but a strong wind blew across the coastline, and tipped all of the ships over, thus protecting Japan and its people.
Booze	Dutch	The word booze has been around since the fourteenth century. It comes from the Middle Dutch verb busen, meaning to drink heavily (wordorigins.org)
Karaoke	Japanese	The word Karaoke means empty orchestra, which translates to music with no with words.
Karate	Japanese	The word Karate means empty hand, which translates to defend with no weapon.
Cracker	American(southern region)	This contemptuous name for a poor, white resident of the southern United States comes from a 16th century term for a braggart or liar, one who makes cracks. (wordorigins.org)
Crapper	British	Thomas Crapper - Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. He did, however, do much to increase the popularity of the toilet, and developed some important related inventions. He was noted for the quality of his products. (wikipedia.com)
Halloween	Scottish	The word Halloween is a Scottish contraction of All Hallow’s Even or All Hallow’s Eve, a reference to All Saint’s Day which falls on the first of November. October 31st is the day before, or eve of, this church holiday. The contraction dates to the 18th century when it is first recorded in the Scottish folk ballad Young Tamlane: (wordorigins.org)
Iowa	French/Sioux Tribe	The name means “sleepy ones.” The tribe bequeathed its name to the Iowa River and the river in turn gave its name to the territory. (wordorigins.org)
Rope-a-dope	American	Rope-a-dope is a term for a boxing strategy whereby the fighter spends the early rounds in a defensive posture against the ropes, allowing the opponent to tire by hitting him. The term was coined by Muhammad Ali. (wordorigins.org)
Mate	German	The word mate comes to us from the Middle Low German māt, meaning comrade or fellow.

b.

#4 (minimum 5 words)

Phonetic Demand                       Semantic Demand               Etymological Demand

sit	partial partially	angel
hit	practical practically	Easter
pin	minimum minimal	Lent
tap	max maximum	quiz
pat	politics political	United Nations

b.    #8

                             /c/                                                                        /j/

catch	badge
pitch	budge
watch	luggage
punch	judge
lunch	fudge
munch	cottage

I did notice a pattern with both sounds. Words with the /ch/ sound usually had a vowel precede the /tch/, but words that ended in /ch/ were preceded by a consonant.  A Similar pattern existed in words with the /j/ sound.  Words that ended in /ge/ were preceded by a consonant and words that ended /dge/ are preceded with a vowel.

This is something I saw on tv the other night and thought that the class would appreciate.

This is a skit from SNL/nbc.com website. I felt that it is classroom related and very funny...click on the link below and enjoy...comic genius.  If you have time...let me know if you liked it and how it relates to what we are learning in our ESL classes, by posting a comment to my blog site.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/j-pop-talk-show/1362560

Minimal Pairs Lesson

Minimal Pairs Lesson

To start my lesson on Minimal Pairs, I would identify two or three pronunciation problem areas my Ells are having and use that as my target language for the lesson. In order to keep this lesson under 5 minutes, but produce results, I believe the students need to be active and correspond with each other to check for errors with-out the teacher looming over them as they work.

In this particular lesson I focus on the vowel sound minimal pairs, since they seem to give most L2 learners the most problems. I have the students break-up into groups of three or four per group. A list of 16 vowel sound minimal pairs will already be listed and numbered on the board (1-32) in order to save time. The vowel sound minimal pairs are written on the board into a T-chart format that shows the vowel sounds written in IPA with example words written underneath the corresponding vowel sound field…like in the example below.

The /i/ Sound

The /ɪ/ Sound

1.SLEEP                                                                                                                 9.SLIP

2.PEACH                                                                                                              10.PITCH

3.BEAT                                                                                                                 11.BIT

4.HEEL                                                                                                                 12.HILL

5.SKIED                                                                                                               13.SKID   

6.SCENE                                                                                                              14.SIN

7.REACH                                                                                                             15.RIDGE

8.LEAVING                                                                                                         16.LIVING

Step 1

The students will start with repeating the following words as the teacher says them aloud. For example…the teacher will start off by saying SLEEP/SLIP, PEACH/ PITCH…thus stressing the vowel sound for students to hear the distinction between the two words.

Step 2

After repeating the words, I will then tell the students that I am going to say five words from the group. It is their job to write the # of the word I say aloud on a piece of paper. I will only say the word only once. The word is said at natural speaking speed.

Step 3

The students will then write the word on their piece of paper. They will be asked to compare answers. Any answers that are different are to be discussed with-in the group.

Step 4

This process is repeated for the other 16 words for the following vowel sound minimal pairs.

The /e/ Sound

The / ɛ/ Sound

1.      CHASE                                                                                                            9.CHESS

2.      WAIT                                                                                                              10.WET

3.      BLADE                                                                                                           11.BLED

4.      FAIL                                                                                                               12.FELL

5.      GATE                                                                                                              13.GET

6.      RACED                                                                                                           14.REST

7.      WASTE                                                                                                           15.WEST

8.      RAID                                                                                                               16.RED

Step 5

Repeat steps #2 and #3.

The teacher will then give the correct answers to both groups of words.

u04a2 Questions #5 and #6

Question #5 (Freeman, Freeman pg 96)


There are 2 allophones of the phoneme /p/. They are /p/ and /p^h/…for example the aspirated /p^h/ sound in the word pin and the unaspirated /p/ sound in the word spin. For English language learners, if they have this phoneme in their first language, they will at times have problems producing the same allophones in another language.

Question #6  

I have lived in many different parts of the U.S. and Asia, but I still think the most fascinating parts of the English dialect comes from the Northeastern part of the United States. My dad is from Blackstone Massachusetts…and ever since I was a kid, I’ve always found his pronunciation of certain words both funny and interesting.  When he would speak to my Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents, or about the Boston Red Sox, it sounded to me, as if he was speaking a different language…the absence of the sound /r/ and local colloquial expressions left me both mystified and mesmerized with wonder. When my father was in the mood for grinders or wieners, I never knew he meant hoagies and hot dogs until I was in my teens.  The dialect may sound a bit rough, but I'm proud of my American blue collar roots. Having been exposed to that type of dialect from a young age, gave me a greater appreciation for movies like Good Will Hunting and The Fighter as well as understand the accents of actors like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Mark Walberg in those movies.

TEST #2

2nd Test...check:)