Pronunciation

Focus on Pronunciation and Fluency

Richard McDorman / September 22, 2012

When I studied phonetics and phonology for the first time in the early 1990s, the academic focus was almost entirely

Curriculum, English Language Learners, Instruction, Language Teaching Methodologies, Pronunciation

Tutoring Reflection 6

Richard McDorman / August 6, 2012

During our recent tutoring sessions, Eliana and I have been working mainly on improving her syntactic and lexical accuracy. We

Assessment, English Language Learners, Instruction, Pronunciation

Tutoring Reflection 5

Richard McDorman / August 5, 2012

Assessment of Learner’s Pronunciation Overall, Eliana’s pronunciation is almost always comprehensible. Although she has a noticeable (at times strong) foreign

English Language Learners, Instruction, Pronunciation

Tutoring Reflection 2

Richard McDorman / August 2, 2012

Eliana and I are making slow but hopefully steady progress. Most of our work thus far has been devoted to

A Few Thoughts on Task-Based Instruction
I appreciate Belgar and Hunt’s (2002) attempts to integrate a task-based syllabus into the English as a Foreign Language curriculum of the Japanese university where they worked. No doubt, as the researchers pointed out, the students involved benefited from this… Read more: A Few Thoughts on Task-Based Instruction
Focus on Grammar
Although the field of language education has seen many advances during the last two decades, especially when it comes to acknowledging the roles social interaction and cultural identity play in the language teaching and learning process, I fear the same… Read more: Focus on Grammar
Learning to Teach
Left: Richard preparing a “lesson” for great aunt Evelyn (October, 1980: Beckley, West Virginia) Right: Richard and sister Crissy working on a “test” using Aunt Evelyn’s manual typewriter (December, 1983: Beckley, West Virginia) Below: Betty McDorman (image from 1978 Coal… Read more: Learning to Teach
Focus on Pronunciation and Fluency
When I studied phonetics and phonology for the first time in the early 1990s, the academic focus was almost entirely on the segmental aspects of the language’s sound system. We reviewed the articulatory and acoustic traits of each consonant and… Read more: Focus on Pronunciation and Fluency
The Dilemmas of Language Assessment
I would like to share my experiences with language assessment in my current instructional context–an intensive English program for international students at a large language school in Miami, Florida. We conduct formal assessments using a full-length simulated TOEIC (a norm-referenced… Read more: The Dilemmas of Language Assessment