3 ER.

Quarter
MAESTRÍA EN
ENSEÑANZA
DEL INGLÉS
OBSERVATION AND RESEARCH IN THE
CLASSROOM CONTEXT

LUIS AGUSTIN GARCIA MUÑOZ

 READING ALOUD AND CORRECTION OF PRONUNCIATION.
Field notes.
Level: B1+.
Topic: Earth watch.
Professor: Agustin Garcia.
Schedule: Monday to Friday 8 am - 9:15 am.

Professor starts asking students about Some students seemed not quite sure
the reading activity; also, students are of doing the assignment; online
asked if they read and used the listening teaching does not allow to have reliable
at the same time so they could practice track of what students do with
pronunciation features. assignments.

Just two students said “yes” without Teacher just utters “hmm” and says “So,
thinking; the others, did not answer we’ll read”. Professor is conscious how
anything. challenging is to foster reading.

Before reading aloud, students are told Students start looking at their book
they would be randomly asked to read since anyone may be asked to read
so they can practice. aloud. It is a great strategy to have
students engaged and interested.

The two students who said they had Professor thanks students but he
read and listener, raise their hands; selects other people to give all of them
teacher randomly picks a person who the chance to perform in the class.
barely speaks in class.
While students read, professor Highlighting words using different
highlights words with read colours is a good visual strategy for
(pronunciation) and blue (intonation). students to identify what they are
missing

After reading the assigned part, teacher Using the mouse to point out a
asks the student to repeat the mispronounced word for students to
highlighted words so correction starts reflect on their mistakes, helps them to
taking place. realize where they missed and
enhances students’ self-correction.

Students continue reading and Students continue reading without

sometimes self-correction, takes place. stopping (they already know the
dynamic and what may come after).

There are some new words which Professor highlights the word and
students are pretty unfamiliar with so rereads the section where the word is
they start totter. included; nevertheless, he raises or
uses inflections for students to realize
where the mistake was so they can pay
attention to the appropriate
pronunciation.

After reading, professor writes down a Contrasting, drilling or using minimal

list of words students struggles with to pairs to correct and work on
review vocabulary, its pronunciation pronunciation is always important to
and possible confusion with sounds.
 raise students’ awareness on the
importance of spoken production.

The class normally continues and

teacher remarks the importance of
reading and listening to trigger a better
pronunciation.
What are the teachers’ problems in the process of teaching pronunciation
through reading aloud technique?

The real outcome of teaching English has always been a big topic. Torky (2006)
states that the key of teaching English is to enable students to communicate in
English so they can enroll in the labor market and cope with the challenges of higher
education. So, as teachers we intend to facilitate tools for students to communicate
in the Target Language (TL); that means, we must provide the chances to
manipulate the language inside the classroom.

Also, speaking skill, according to Burns & Joyce (1997) is defines as an interactive
process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing
information whose form and meaning depended on the context in which it occurs,
the participants, and the purposes of speaking.

Moreover, speaking is more than saying phrases; it has to do with pitch, register and
tone depending the situation. Apart from that, it is said that speaking skill is the last
one to be developed.

We must be aware that despite the exposure to English language, Mexican students
are continuously worried about the accent and pronunciation of TL when, in the back
of our minds, communication exists as long as the message is delivered and
correctly interpreted by the interlocutor regardless the aspects learners constantly
concern.

Culturally, we have never been taught that accent does not make a good speaker or
learner, that is why I personally focus and take enough time to make students read
in front of others so they have the same chance to experiment, loose themselves
and get their own feedback in such appropriate way so they stop being afraid of
speaking in English.
What are the students’ problems in the process of learning pronunciation
through reading aloud technique?

One of the problems that most foreign language students face when learning English
is pronunciation. Pronunciation is a very important part of communication.

Students will not understand a message if there is a word mispronounced. Such

inaccuracies may negatively impact any exchange of information. As Lewis and Hill
(1992:72) argue “it is extremely difficult to listen to a speaker when pronunciation is
inconsistent and it is tiring to listen which varies from standard. Bad pronunciation
can be seriously blocking the communication. Also, Celce-Murcia (2006:1177) states
that pronunciation is a language feature that easily identifies speakers as non-native.
Since it can identify us as non-native, we do not need to say like the way native
speaker does it. However, we must be minimally understood when speaking.

Students find it sometimes hard in speaking English, this is, sometimes,

consequence of the environment which barely supports students to speak using the
Target Language regularly.

What we mean by the environment in question is people out of the class. These
people might think that students just want to prove they can speak English for daily
conversational settings or situations.

The responses that some students obtain, sometimes discourage them leading to
losing their self-confidence to expand their speaking ability. It is necessary for us,
the teachers, to force students to only speak English in class and keep repeating.
References

Burns, A. (1997). Focus on speaking: Introductory text on teaching speaking to adult

second language learners. NCELTR Publications.

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (2006). Teaching pronunciation:

A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages (2nd ed.).
Cambridge University Press.

El Fattah Ibrahim Torky, S. A. (2006). The Effectiveness of a Task-Based Instruction

Program in Developing the English Language Speaking Skills of Secondary Stage
Students. Ain Shams University. https://awej.org/the-effectiveness-of-a-task-based-
instruction-program-in-developing-the-english-language-speaking-skills-of-
secondary-stage-students/

Lewis, M., & Hill, J. (1985). Practical techniques: For language teaching (2nd ed.).
Cengage ELT BRE.
OBSERVATION EVIDENCE.