<Website> Recommended!
BBC Learning English
Pronunciation Tips
“BBC Learning English” is designed for learning English as a foreign/additional language and contains a wide variety of material sources which are reliable and up to date. I would like the Japanese high school students to use “pronunciation tips” of this website in order to become familiar with phonetic alphabets and practice the segmental features of the English sound.
As Japanese learners tend to depend on visual aids, the knowledge of phonetic alphabets can be helpful and will eventually help them develop their understanding of the suprasegmental of the spoken English. In “Pronunciation tips,” each sound and its phonetic symbol are introduced on a movie showing clear movements of the mouth. It has some small quizzes to match the pictures and the phonetic alphabets, avoiding the confusion of matching sounds and spelling. Unfortunately, this site may make students rather passive; therefore, I would like to use this site as a self-learning tool and integrate it with classroom activities, such as tests.
Language Guide. Org English
“Language Guide. Org English” is a website which introduces vocabulary with its picture and its sound. If you point to a picture, you can hear how it is pronounced. You can call it a picture dictionary with sounds. The introduced vocabulary is all nouns related to everyday life; therefore, they are seemingly easy and possibly high frequency words, but there are actually many words unfamiliar to Japanese high school students. This website may help Japanese students increase high frequency vocabulary and become more familiar with foreign culture. The various topics, such as history, geography, science technology, may also attract students with different interest.
The layout design is cute and friendly enough that young learners can easily make access to it. Some pictures even have tricks such as calls of animals. At home, students can practice pronunciation by themselves. At school, paired students can work together by one student testing the other’s pronunciation.
Spoken Skills
“Spoken Skills” has a wide range of pronunciation practice. It includes practice of segmental like “BBC Learning English,” but without phonetic alphabets. The intonation practice of this website can be the most helpful for Japanese high school students to learn that intonation make the meanings different. For example, there is a pair of spoken sounds of one sentence: one in a polite way and the other in a rude way. Learners can record their speaking and listen, too. This may encourage students to be familiarized with the authentic use of English.
Even though this website has any interactive activities, it includes sound-discrimination quizzes. They can be rather listening skill quizzes but still fun. Of course, listening practice and speaking practice can give good influence on each other. In classrooms, students can take turns giving sound discrimination quizzes to others, which may prove their improved pronunciation and their understanding of the suprasegmental.
English Pronunciation Practice
for Japanese Learners
“English Pronunciation Practice for Japanese Learners” is a website created by a Japanese university researcher in phonetics. As it focuses on providing essence of the phonological information for communication, the layout is very simple and the contents are limited but explicit. I introduce this website, even though it is in Japanese, because this good introduction of the suprasegmental may help Japanese high school students to understand the characteristics of the spoken English. Due to the prosodic function, such as linking, assimilation or elision, many students feel they cannot hear English well, frustrated. They need not understand it professionally or this knowledge does not directly lead to the pronunciation mastery, but this “explicit” explanation may help remove their frustration. Since this website effectively uses the sound, the sound wave, the sound table, colours and quizzes, students can develop their understanding. In classrooms, they can apply to the pronunciation practice with different sentences showing their feeling.
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