Daily bread 01/23/2016

• Podcasts | Independent English

• Speak proper

  • The main features of the Lingua Franca Core are…
      
     • All the consonants are important except for ‘th’ sounds as in ‘thin’ and ‘this’.
     • Consonant clusters are important at the beginning and in the middle of words. For example, the cluster in the word ‘string’ cannot be simplified to ‘sting’ or ‘tring’ and remain intelligible.
     • The contrast between long and short vowels is important. For example, the difference between the vowel sounds in ‘sit’ and seat’.
     • Nuclear (or tonic) stress is also essential. This is the stress on the most important word (or syllable) in a group of words. For example, there is a difference in meaning between ‘My son uses a computer’ which is a neutral statement of fact and ‘My SON uses a computer’, where there is an added meaning (such as that another person known to the speaker and listener does not use a computer).
  • On the other hand, many other items which are regularly taught on English pronunciation courses appear not to be essential for intelligibility in EIL interactions. These are…
      
     • The ‘th’ sounds (see above).
     • Vowel quality, that is, the difference between vowel sounds where length is not involved, e.g. a German speaker may pronounce the ‘e’ in the word ‘chess’ more like an ‘a’ as in the word ‘cat’.
     • Weak forms such as the words ‘to’, ‘of’ and ‘from’ whose vowels are often pronounced as schwa instead of with their full quality.
     • Other features of connected speech such as assimilation (where the final sound of a word alters to make it more like the first sound of the next word, so that, e.g. ‘red paint’ becomes ‘reb paint’.
     • Word stress.
     • Pitch movement.
     • Stress timing.

• Short and Practical Pronunciation Teaching Ideas | Hancock McDonald ELT

• Pronunciation as a Listening Skill (TESOL France) | Hancock McDonald ELT

• Top down and bottom up listening

• INSTITUTO GEOGRAFICO AGUSTIN CODAZZI

• Take a hike on the wild side of Cundinamarca | The City Paper Bogotá

• Colombia: How do I tell my daughter I was raped? | International Committee of the Red Cross

• Traveling to Punta Gallinas: A Practical Travel Guide | Colombia Travel Blog by Marcela & See Colombia Travel

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.