Adrian Underhills

Phonemic Chart
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Poster ISBN: 9780230039582

Macmillan Books for Teachers

www.macmillanenglish.com/methodology

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www.macmillanenglish.com/methodology
In this book Scott Thornbury
examines why it is more
useful to think about how we
can 'uncover' the workings of
grammar systems with our
students, rather than the
traditional assumption that we
need to 'cover' points in a set
grammar syllabus.

Language is an open system,

divergent rather than
convergent in nature.
Discover English focuses
on a key skill for language
teachers which is needed to
deal with this fact: language
analysis.

The general aim for a reading

development programme is to
enable students to enjoy (or
at least feel comfortable with)
reading in the foreign
language, and to read
unfamiliar, authentic texts
without any help.

Teaching Practice is an
essential reference for EFL
teachers and teacher
trainers on pre-service
courses. It takes account of
current methodoloy and
is suitable for use on
Cambridge CELTA courses.

The authors highlight areas

of grammar and vocabulary
and provide exercises and
commentaries designed to
develop your language
analysis skills.

Christine Nuttall suggests

practical strategies you can
use to help your students
develop their reading
competence.

It provides a wide range of

practical activities that you
can immediately put to work
in your classroom.

Introducing diphthongs

Teaching Practice

A first lesson with the chart

Teaching Reading Skills

Now introduce a diphthong, but instead of saying it use the pointer to run together the
component monophthongs which you have already worked on, thus guiding the learners to
discover the diphthong for themselves. After shaping the diphthong so that it sounds English,
and practising it for a moment, point out the diphthong symbol on the chart which from then
on acts as a visual memory hook on which to hang their experience of that sound.

Discover English

This is a sample 45-minute lesson plan for introducing the chart and phonemic system to your
students. The same content could just as easily be spread over several lessons. This is an
example rather than a recipe, and may give you an insight into the spirit of this approach if you
have not seen it before. During this lesson you will work with monophthongs, diphthongs,
consonants, words, and rhythm. But this is just to introduce the chart and get it into circulation.
In subsequent lessons you would not normally cover so much ground - you would use the chart
to work on pronunciation issues arising from normal course work, perhaps five seconds here
for a prompt, or two minutes there for work on a specific problem.

Uncovering Grammar

Adrian helps you learn

through physically experiencing how pronunciation works.
He also suggests activities
you can do with students.

Other titles in the series

www.macmillanenglish.com/methodology
The chart is placed permanently beside the board, for easy use during each lesson, but for this
lesson it is in the middle of the board, as we are going to focus on it for a longer period, and
also so that we can write on the board round the chart during the activities.

Language, in its natural

state, is not isolated
sentences: it is text.
As teachers of second
language users our top
priority is to help our learners engage with texts. In this
witty and incisive book Scott
Thornbury takes discourse
apart to show how it is
organised; how these
insights affect our work as
language teachers and
suggests practical activities
that can help students work
with texts.

For more about the series go to:

Taken from Sound Foundations, one of the
titles in the Macmillan Books for Teachers
series.

Phonemic Chart
Introducing some monophthongs

The clear structure means it

is extremely easy to find
activities to supplement your
course books.

Sound Foundations is a
comprehensive introduction
to the English phonological
system and an invaluable
resource, whether you teach
dedicated pronunciation
lessons or you'd just like to
improve the way you cover
pronunciation in your classes.

Every trainee teacher and language school staffroom should

have a copy of this book.
It is the essential handbook for teachers wanting to prepare
and deliver effective grammar lessons. It combines a
comprehensive grammar reference with practical teaching
advice, helping teachers to both understand grammar points
and present them.
Teaching English Grammar by Jim Scrivener is the newest
title in the Macmillan Books for Teachers series.
The titles in the Macmillan Books for Teachers series have been written to inform teachers
worldwide. They are insightful and practical books, focusing on current methodology and
real-world teaching situations. All of the titles have been written by leaders in their fields.

Adrian Underhills

To introduce the chart you will usually start with a few vowel sounds. Put one sound into
circulation at a time e.g. /i:/ or /u:/ etc. either by miming it or by saying the sound clearly once
only. Then leave a couple of seconds of quiet, or hearing time, after which the learners try it
themselves. Indicate those learner responses which seem closer to the target sound, and with
a variety of techniques help them to tune or shape their articulations. Try not to correct them
by just repeating the model at them, though if a model is needed, give it.

This book provides an

instant repertoire of practical
teaching ideas. It contains
a mix of classroom classics
that all teachers know and
love, and new activities
ranging from elementary to
upper intermediate.

Learning Teaching has

been one of the most
successful guides to the
practice of teaching since it
was first published in 1994.
Part initial training textbook,
part practical handbook for
practising teachers it is the
definitive guide to what
happens in the language
classroom.

Encourage students to listen carefully to each other and to the variations between themselves.
What you should value more at this stage is their discovery that they can (re)gain conscious
control of the muscles that make sounds, and that they can not only hear the difference
between sounds but also feel the difference in their musculature, and even see the difference.

From the author: I have

written this book because of
my interest in teaching
languages to children. I
would like to share with
you something of my own
fascination and enjoyment
in working with children. I
realised what an amazing
capacity they had for learning
and how many abilities they
already had which I could
draw on in the classroom.

Learning the terminology

of language teaching also
means understanding the
concepts represented by
these terms and how they
are interrelated. This book is
much more than just a
glossary or dictionary. It is
also an encyclopedia, where
each entry provides a short
summary of the major issues
and practical implications
associated with each concept,
as well connecting related
concepts.

Macmillan Books for Teachers

Once the new sound is reasonably well established (even though it may not be exact), usually
after a minute or two of the class saying and trying it, point to the relevant symbol on the chart,
making the connection between the musculature and acoustic experience of what they have
just done, and the symbol on the chart which will become a visual memory hook.

Beyond the Sentence

Learning Teaching

Repeat this for several other sounds e.g. /a:/ or /e/ etc. frequently revising the sounds just
studied by pointing at them in turn, helping them to make modifications, to rediscover ones they
have lost, and to distinguish clearly between neighbouring sounds on the chart.

Sound Foundations

This new edition has been

fully revised and extended to
cover new trends and
theories in ELT.

An A-Z of ELT

T
R
A
H
C DE
EE NSI
I

700 Classroom Activities

The main approach of the
book is to provide immediate,
workable ideas and solutions
to the perennial question of
What on earth am I going to
do with my class tomorrow?
Parallel to this, the approach
emphasizes developing an
awareness of the complex
factors involved in working
effectively with classes of
children and laying a solid
foundation in primary
language teaching skills.
500 Activities for the
Primary Classroom

FR

Children Learning English

The ideal companion for any
teacher interested in the use
of technology in the language
classroom, Blended Learning
provides a practical overview
of what is currently available.
It demystifies the technology
and empowers teachers to
make choices about how and
when they use it in their
classrooms.
Blended Learning

The layout of the chart (1)

The primary and secondary stress symbols as used in most dictionaries are
shown in the top right-hand corner of the chart, and beside them the five basic
discourse intonation patterns (i.e. fall, rise, fall-rise, rise-fall and level) are
shown in the composite symbol.

Why these symbols?

The symbols used on the chart are taken from
the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The lesson will probably have been going on for about twenty minutes, and six to eight
monophthongs and three or four diphthongs have been introduced by this point.
Introducing some consonants
Introduce a few consonants now, again by saying them once and then giving hearing time,
or by miming them. The ones to the left of the chart are generally easier to mime, though you
can develop ways to mime all of them. We normally introduce both the voiced and unvoiced
members of a pair at the same time so we can focus on triggering the muscle that starts or
stops the voicing. This mean that we get two consonants for the price of one.
Making words from sounds
Now after about half an hour they have worked with ten to fifteen sounds and have begun to
put them together in different sequences, forming English words which they say and point out
on the chart. Once again the learners are up at the chart, using the pointer and prompting and
responding to each other as well as the teacher.
Words are put into circulation in different ways. You can say a word once, leave a couple of
seconds, and then invite someone to come to point it out on the chart. Or you might point a
word out on the chart and invite them to say it. Or a learner could say the word and others try
to point it out on the chart.
Phrases and connected speech
In the last few minutes of the lesson use the chart to point out short English phrases consisting
of several words. The object here is to arrive at short bits of English that the learners know they
are saying in an English way. The lesson ends with the students learning a couple of lines of
strongly metrical verse, for example a nursery rhyme.
The aims of such an introduction are:

Practising sounds
Having done three or four vowels this way invite learners to take your place at the board and
point to sounds you have studied while the class responds. Then invite the learner to point at
sounds they are not sure of, and say them yourself. Learners can also test each other.
You can then invite a learner, who you think is not hearing the difference between a couple of
the sounds, to point at one or the other of them on the chart after you have said them. Once
they have got the hang of this deliberately turn away from the chart to face the class so that
the feedback has to come from the rest of the class rather than from you. From the earliest
stages look for every opportunity to have learners take your place as judge. All of this
proceeds at a fairly fast pace, and every activity has the dual function of providing both
practice and feedback.

To help learners discover that they can relate to pronunciation not just intellectually, but
also through the eyes, the voice, the ears, and physically through muscular sensation.

4.

To work with all three levels of phonology (sounds, words, connected speech) at the
same time, and to move elegantly between the three levels.

3.

To foster a positive attitude towards phonology and a way of working which is engaging
and enjoyable.

2.

To establish some of the conventions for working with the chart.

1.

(Lesson plan adapted from Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill)

The layout of the chart (2)

The 44 sounds are presented on the chart in a significant visual relationship
to each other. Built into this design are references to how and where in the
mouth each sound is produced. Each symbol has its own box and pointing to
this box selects that particular sound for attention.

To learn more about the chart and how to use it

with your students, see Sound Foundations by
Adrian Underhill.
Poster ISBN: 9780230039582