Share Your Background Knowledge

1. Pre-Discussion

There are many ways to learn a language through listening activities: eaves-dropping, listening to music and studying the lyrics, watching video segments for discussion, or taking notes when listening to a speaker.  What are some of the listening activities that you enjoy?  Which ones make you feel uncomfortable?  What works best for you? Explain why?

A. Sign-up for Voxopop.com.

B. Record your response to the pre-discussion activity at: http://www.voxopop.com/group/6ea6ec10-cb0e-496e-8a87-4c485e8bdbf5

C. Discuss the experience in class. How do you sound speaking English? It's important to listen to ourselves to monitor our language learning.  Do you hear yourself correcting your own mistakes? That's a good thing!  It's called self-monitoring.

Homework: Listen to all the students' responses and reply to at least one of their comments.  This means that you will reply by recording another session on the Introduction discussion on Voxopop.

Learn the Speech Reduction Symbols

2. Train Your Accent

Visit this link to learn about speech reduction symbols.  You should bookmark these URL sites on your computer.  Save them into a folder on your browser entitled USA ESL.  This Web site focuses on sounds created by word reductions, specifically with the schwa sound (ə) that affects stress and rhythm.

http://www.trainyouraccent.com/symbols.htm

Homework: Study the schwa (ə) symbol used to represent speech reduction. 

Practice!

3. Online Listening Activity

The following link provides a listening activity and illustrates the speech reduction that occurs in natural American English dialogues. It's from the Web site, www.trainyouraccent.com.  The dialogue is on the topic of apartment rentals. 

A. Listen and read the regular script. 

http://www.trainyouraccent.com/a-rent-apartment.htm

B. Then listen again and read the script with the speech reduction.

C. Try to read the reduced speech script to a partner.

4. Discrete Listening Activity with Reduced Speech

A. Listen to the lesson on cell phones twice and focus on the schwa sound (ə): http://www.trainyouraccent.com/a-cellphones.htm

B. Then listen to Mrs. Rogers read the lesson about cell phones on the new discussion titled, "Reduced Speech" on Voxopop.  

C  . Record yourself reading the transcript on cell phones on Voxopop and try to produce the schwa sound (ə). 

Homework: Listen to some of your classmates read the article on Voxopop.   How do they sound? Do they sound like someone else when they speak English?  That means they're using English sounds to produce the words and not those of their native language.   

5. Guest Speaker: Mark Woodward, Supervisor, Bay Minette Post Office

Listen to a native English speaker who has lived in Mobile, Alabama for many years.  Ask him relevant questions to the topics he proposes.

Homework: 1) Listen to the Week 1 vocabulary on the Glossary page.

2) Review for test:  the sound of reduced speech, the schwa symbol (ə) and vocabulary.