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WORDS in English are made from symbols and symbol combinations.

Unlike many other languages, some of these symbols and symbol combinations produce different sounds in different words.

This multi-sound attribute can make it difficult to know what sound is being made in a word and how a particular word should be pronounced.

That difficulty is evident when one compares the sounds made by the consonants “c”, “g”, “s” and “x” in captain, citizen, six, sure, treasure, gun, giraffe box, exit, xylophone and X-ray.

Other consonants that make more than one sound are “n”, “q”, “y” and “l”, while some consonants sometimes make no sound at all, ie. they are silent consonants.

Examples: honest, know, receipt, listen, bomb, calm, iron, island, indict.

Sounding the vowels

The problem becomes greater when the different sounds made by the vowels are also put into consideration.

·The eight “a” sounds: cat — ape — want — saw — ask — about — air — orange.

·The five “e” sounds: egg — eat — eight— chateau — pretty.

·The four “i” sounds: sit — side — radio— onion.

·The eight “o” sounds:hot — goat — son —two — woman —

corn — women —colonel.

·The seven “u” sounds:hut — unit — rude— put — busy — bury— buy.

·The four semi-vowel

“y” sounds: young— pony — sky —gymnast.

Symbol combinations

Speakers must also know the different sounds made by symbol combinations, ie., the blends, digraphs and multi-symbol combinations if they are to be able to pronounce words accurately.

Imagine the problems a person would encounter pronouncing some of the common “ch” words like chimney, Christmas, architect and choir if it was not known that “ch” can make different sounds.

by Keith Wright, the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S).

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/6/9/education/12908155&sec=education

By following these simple rules, learners of the English language will understand why certain words are pronounced the way they are.

OVER the past weeks, attention has been given to the factors a speaker must consider and master if he or she is to be a confident and competent communicator in English.

As explained in some detail, the stress factor has to be understood, as does the importance of the syllabic break-up of words.

The other area that one needs to master is the Mnemonic Keys to Understanding Pronunciation.

As mentioned in previous columns, these keys or rules mostly date back over 300 years.

In those days, the rules were taught to ensure that students understood “Why words are pronounced the way they are” which in turn, assisted them to know “How to pronounce words correctly”.

Unfortunately, these rules appeared to fall out of academic fashion over the centuries and most were virtually “lost”.

These rules were then re-developed and taught as part of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language today. Some of these rules can also be used to improve on one’s personal spelling.

This is understandable because, as often is the case, poor pronunciation can impact negatively on a person’s spelling proficiency while superior spelling skills can play a positive role in the personal pronunciation realm.

Rules of the game

The most common pronunciation key is: “When two vowels go out walking, the first one usually does the talking.”

Simply put, when a word has two vowels together, the first one is usually sounded as a long sound while the second one remains silent.

Consider the words: seat, boat, rain, fuel, tie. In each instance, the first vowel makes a long sound, that is, it says its own name and in each case, the second vowel remains silent.

When students know how to pronounce “seat” correctly, they can then use the skills transfer technique to pronounce dozens of “ea”-related words such as beat, heat, meat, feat, wheat, defeat, repeat, etc.

by Keith Wright, the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S).

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/5/26/education/12908142&sec=education

The first of five articles designed to help students come up with compelling storyboards for the Tale Spin 2013 contest, this week’s article from the programme director at Taylor’s University School of Communication focuses on the basics of storytelling.

LET me begin by telling you a very short story. A few weeks ago, I went jungle trekking with several friends. The trail we followed was wonderful and after three hours, we were back at the starting point.

“Hey, wait a minute,” I hear you say, “That’s not a story.”

In this first article we will explain why not, what is missing and what will change this “So what?” anecdote into a compelling narrative.

Most stories are about real events but often, we enjoy the fictional stories more.

Stories like Scott Westerfeld’s novel Uglies or the songs we listen to over and over.

In Hall of Fame by The Script, both the lyrics and the music video deliver a powerful message of the value of dedication and perseverance.

The jungle trek anecdote has no such message: it is just an account of what the author did that day.

Moreover, it is told in a rather uninteresting way, failing to draw in the audience or readers.

To make people care, stories need at least the following four basic elements: characters, conflicts, plot and climax.

The ABC of good story-telling is CCPC. Remember those four letters, and you will find it much easier to come up with original story ideas or to improve the story lines you are working on right now.

Definitions

A character is usually a person but can also be an imaginary creature or an object.

Examples include Katniss Everdeen, the heroine from The Hunger Games; the vampires in the Twilight romance series or the robot Atom in the movie Real Steel.

by Hardip Singh Rekhraj.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/5/5/education/13032085&sec=education

Speaking isn’t just about stringing words in a sentence. It’s also about pronouncing it right.

HOW can I quickly improve my English?”

This is a commonly asked question and the general response is usually “Focus on enhancing your personal macro English skills”.

The productive macro skills are Speaking, Writing and Interpreting, while the receptive ones are Reading, Listening and Viewing.

To raise one’s personal speaking prowess, it is important to improve one’s pronunciation knowledge and understand how English words are traditionally pronounced.

Another recommendation would be to focus on the spelling of the word.

Enhancing pronunciation is almost always the first and foremost imperative for a non-primary English language speaker because as soon as a person opens his or her mouth and begins to converse in English, listeners, intentionally and unintentionally, begin to make mental judgments about that person’s English language proficiency.

Sometimes, it doesn’t matter at all if a person makes grammatical mistakes or pronounces words wrongly but other times, particularly in situations where English is a communicative prerequisite, it does.

There are occasions when speaking errors made in grammar, pronunciation and stress can be quite embarrassing, not only for the speakers themselves but also for the people with them at the time or, occupationally, for the entity they represent or for whom they work.

For example, to ask, “Who are you attending the conference with?” will rarely “raise an eyebrow” even though in traditional English, one should ask, “With whom are you attending the conference?”

by Keith Wright, the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S).

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/4/28/education/12908115&sec=education

EDUCATIONAL Testing Service (ETS) and Eshia & Associates Sdn Bhd have entered into an agreement for the distribution of the TOEFL Junior Standard test in the Malaysian market.

The test offers an objective and reliable way to measure the English skills of students aged between 11 and 15.

“With the announcement of the TOEFL Junior Standard test in Malaysia, we look forward to working together with Eshia to assist younger students in the advancement of English language learning,” said Jennifer Brown who is executive director of the TOEFL programme at ETS.

The TOEFL Junior Standard test is offered in paper-based format and measures reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and language form and meaning.

Scores are mapped to Common European Framework of Reference for Languages levels, allowing students, parents and teachers to gauge achievement against an international standard.

The test can also be used to make placement decisions and monitor progress in English language programmes.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/4/28/education/13009610&sec=education

A MAJOR reason why many English words are incorrectly pronounced is because certain syllables are wrongly stressed.

The problem usually begins when words are wrongly broken into syllables, eg. con/tri/bute instead of con/trib/ute; es/ti/ma/tion instead of es/tim/a/tion.

The underlying reason is because the speaker is usually not aware of the traditional rules in the English language that relate to “Stress In Words”. Stressing single-syllabic words

To correctly pronounce a single-syllabic word, one first needs to be able to “target” the Core or Extended Symbol Combinations from which the word has been made, eg. ship = sh and ip; grudge = gr and udge.

Secondly, one must know what sound is being made by the Symbols and the Core or Extended Combinations, knowing that some symbols and symbol combinations can make different sounds or can be silent, eg. “om” — “romp”, “comb”, “tomb”, “some”, “home” – “swam”, “swamp”.

Stressing multi-syllabic words

When dealing with a multi-syllabic word, once the Core and Extended Combinations are targeted, the next task is to work out where the syllables begin and finish.

Knowing the relevant 4S Pronunciation Keys is helpful, ie. Blends are used to begin words and syllables.

Double consonants usually split, eg. “con/tract/or” and “ap/pro/pri/ate”.

The challenge then is to know which syllable is stressed.

Most multi-syllabic words usually stress the first syllable.

Example: pan/try, men/tion, hon/est, des/ert, ac/tion, work/er, pris/on, cof/fee, dol/phin, doc/u/ment, fluor/es/cent, bal/lis/tic, aud/i/ence.

This key applies especially when the first syllable ends in a “long” vowel, ie. it says its own name: cy/clone, no/ble, to/tal, ti/dal, o/pen, fi/nal.

In contrast, words used as a Verb Form, are usually stressed on a “later” syllable.

The rule is demonstrated using the word contribution.

As this word is a Noun Form, the pronunciation stress will be on the “first” syllable, ie. con/trib/u/tion but the Verb Form will be con/trib/ute, ie. the stress is placed on a “later” syllable.

A simple way to recall where Noun Forms and Verb Forms are usually stressed is to remember that in the alphabet, “n” comes before “v”, therefore Nouns are stressed first. Stressing the base or root

If the stress is not on the first syllable in a multi-syllabic word, it is nearly always on the “base” or “root” from which the word has been derived.

by Keith Wright, the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S).

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/3/31/education/12322369&sec=education

More tips for English teachers……

by  Mohammed Zeidan ELT. Head of English Department, U-turn Institute, Kuwait.

Read more @ http://www.facebook.com/ZeidanELT

Communicating in the English language may get confusing at times as different people articulate their words in different ways.

IN classrooms, it is important that teachers stress the importance of pronouncing words correctly.

Words that are pronounced incorrectly often are spelt incorrectly while wrongly pronounced words can easily be misunderstood.

Attention is also given to the differences in the way words are pronounced in primary English-speaking countries such as the United States and in countries that had a British colonial history such as Australia and Malaysia.

One of the educational objectives of the 4S-accelerated learning methodology is to address personal speaking and pronunciation difficulties.

Syllables and vowels

The difference between the way some English words are pronounced in various English-speaking countries occurs for three main but related reasons.

Firstly, it is because of the way some speakers break certain words into their syllables.

Secondly, it is because of how the vowels in those syllables are pronounced.

Thirdly, it is because speakers sometimes stress different syllables in a word.

American speakers “open” frontal syllables by ending with the vowel “e” where it makes its “long e” sound and says its own name as in sēat.

Example: cē/ment, zē/bra, prē/ma/ture, prē/cē/dent.

Other speakers, such as the British, “close off” the syllables with a consonant making the previous “e” vowel “short”, ie. it makes its regular sound as in gĕt.

Example: cĕm/ent, zĕb/ra, prĕm/a/ture, prĕc/ĕ/dent.

The vowel “i” can also be pronounced differently in words such as divest, direct, diverse, divulge, divergent, directory, dimension, etc., depending on how the speaker breaks the words into syllables.

If the word “breaks” after the vowel “i”, as is usually the case in American English, the sound is “long” as in tīger (tiger).

Example: dī/vest, dī/rect, dī/mension.

However, if the first syllable is “closed” by a consonant, eg. dĭv/est, dĭr/ect, dĭm/ension, then the vowel is “short” as in bĭt.

In British English, the vowel “i” is pronounced as a “long e” sound in “semi” words such as semicircle, semitrailer, semiconscious, etc.

The words would therefore be pronounced as “sĕmē” (semi) as in “bee” which is the European “i” sound one hears in “piano” and “Fiji”.

In contrast, American English says “semī” as in tīger thus abiding by the pronunciation rule that the final vowel in an “open” syllable is usually “long” and says its own name.

Saying “a” and “o”

Another common sound variation occurs with the vowel “a”.

In “an” words such as dance, France, prance, chance, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, demand, command, etc., the vowel “a” changes from its traditional “a..” sound in “man” to the “arn..” sound in “barn”.

The vowel “a” also can make either its regular “a..” sound or it can say “ar..” in “castle” and “Iraq”.

In words like vase, the vowel “a” varies from its “ar..” sound, to the “long-a” sound in gāte or to one of its shorter “a” variations heard in “past”.

In words such as orange, origin, orient, oratory, original, oregano and Oregon, the vowel “o” in “or” can vary in the sound it makes.

In American English, it is pronounced as “or..” as in “for”.

In British English, the “o” makes it a regular, “short” sound; “o..” as in fŏx.

by Keith Wright, the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S).

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/3/17/education/12322366&sec=education

Using a student’s mother tongue in language lessons can come in handy as it enhances the student’s grasp of the language.

SOME educationalists feel that the ideal learning environment for teaching the English language is to have students and teachers speaking in English all the time.

However, the International Language Academy believes that one’s mother tongue can be a useful tool when used in the early stages of learning English.

When a student is uncertain about an English word or phrase, it is acceptable to “check” or seek clarification by asking the teacher or someone in their mother tongue.

Moreover, for the very young, speaking in one’s mother tongue is obviously easier and appropriate when there is a need to explain a distressful experience such as a minor accident.

In Malaysia, where there are many English-Bahasa Malaysia related words, the mother language can have an even greater role to play in the teaching of English.

While the pronunciation can vary because of the different use of syllabic stress, eg. industry-industri, the similarities in symbolic composition can make the language learning task much easier.

When learning English as another language, one needs to proceed from the “simple” to the “complex” and gradually from the “known” to the “unknown”, always ensuring that the words, phrases and sentence constructions are meaningful, relevant, realistic and useable.

The initial objective is two-fold:

(a) to take simple, everyday language concepts used in the mother language and translate them into English, ie. numbers, days of the week, family words (such as father, mother, brother, etc.), animals, actions, feelings, people, etc.

(b) to develop common conversational skills based on everyday speech from the mother language and “translate” them into English. Common examples include greetings, expressions, questions and responses.

Example: My name is Amin. How old are you? How much does that dress cost? Do you like chocolates? Where do you live? I am not feeling well today. Is it going to be cold today? What time is it?

Building confidence

Usually, it is necessary for young learners to converse in their mother tongue until they feel confident enough to speak to the teacher in English most of the time.

This confidence can be developed by encouraging students to greet each other in English with different salutations and farewell comments.

Example: Good morning. Hello. It is good to see you. How are you this morning? What time did you get to school? See you tomorrow!

Children should also learn to introduce themselves in English.

by Keith Wright, the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S).

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/3/3/education/12322357&sec=education

Proud moment: Marina receiving her certificate from Richardson (left) at the ceremony in London.

THE first Malaysian to win the coveted English-Speaking Union (ESU) International Public Speaking Competition last year, Marina Tan Hsien Wei received her prize at a ceremony held earlier last month.

“Leadership and independence are important values in my life and my parents have always taught me to balance academic achievements with extra-curricular involvement.

“I learnt to read at a young age and continued reading voraciously. This was one of the major factors that led to the development of my public speaking skills,” she said after receiving a trophy and a certificate from The ESU chairman Dame Mary Richardson at a ceremony held at the House of Lords in London.

She beat 53 other international participants in a nail-biting grand final.

With the theme “The Head or the Heart?”, Marina wowed the judges with her speech on youth activism titled “The Game Changers”.

Marina won the all-expenses-paid trip to London to represent Malaysia at the international competition held in May last year, after emerging as champion in The Star-ESU Malaysia-SEGi Public Speaking Competition 2012.

She scored 9A+ in her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia and is currently pursuing her A-Levels at Kolej Yayasan UEM.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/3/3/education/12758577&sec=education