Edna F. Lima, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA

When communicating, “speakers and hearers start from a place where they assume their expectations will be met in a way that they recognize” (Gorsuch et al., p. 3). Meeting these expectations involves a variety of verbal and non-verbal cues that learners of English have to master to understand others and to be clearly understood.

As an ITA instructor for over a decade, on countless occasions I have had difficulty processing my students’ speech during teaching demonstrations in class. While they have remarkable teaching and classroom management skills, some have a hard time delivering their content effectively for different reasons. One of these reasons is monotone speech with a lack of emphasis on keywords (prominence). I have noticed throughout the years that training ITAs to perceive and use prominence effectively enhances their comprehensibility.

As such, I have created a variety of lessons and activities that focus on prominence and have adjusted them depending on my students’ needs. The full lesson presented here is designed for a flipped class. ITAs watch lectures and learn the content before coming to class to put the gained knowledge to practice. However, the lesson also works well if instructors would prefer to complete all activities in the classroom. Note that while this lesson focuses on prominence, it can easily be adapted to target other pronunciation features.

The goals of the lesson are:

• To raise awareness of the importance of prominence
• To practice both perception and production of prominence
• To develop self-monitoring skills
• To give peer feedback on the production of prominence

Task 1: Watch a video lecture

In preparation for class, ITAs watch a brief video lecture on prominence. The video explains what prominence is and why it is critical to successful communication in English. This is one of the instructional videos that I created for an online pronunciation/speaking course. Instructors can either create their own video or find one that is suitable for their own purposes. By now ITAs will have learned about thought groups, or tone units, and how prominence is used to emphasize key information in each thought group (Pickering, 2018).

Task 2: Take a brief comprehension check quiz

This online multiple-choice quiz is based on the lecture to make sure ITAs understand the concept. The quiz also serves as a motivation for ITAs to watch the lecture more carefully. The quiz is ungraded, but ITAs can analyze their performance and learn from the feedback provided. The instructor can use the results of the quiz to focus on areas in which ITAs did not perform well and clarify these areas in class before perception and production practice. The quiz can be created using a tool such as Google Forms or Survey Monkey if the instructor does not have access to a learning management system (e.g., Moodle or Blackboard).

Task 3: Perception practice

For this activity, ITAs are presented with a variety of questions focusing on prominence. Examples include picking the best answer according to the question asked, picking the prominent word in each line of a mini dialogue (listening), matching utterance with intended meaning, and matching questions with answers based on the placement of prominence. After ITAs do the activity, the class discusses the answers as a whole group. The instructor clarifies doubts and highlights any important points. Once everyone agrees, it is time for production.

Task 4: Production activity

The purpose of this activity is for ITAs to practice the use of prominence and to provide feedback to each other. First, they are asked to prepare a two-minute explanation of a key concept/term in their fields. They are allowed to write to organize their ideas, but they are asked not to read their definitions when explaining their concepts or terms. Next, in pairs, ITAs take turns presenting their definitions to each other. While one ITA is presenting, the other is using a simplified rubric and taking notes. After both ITAs present, they discuss each other’s performance based on the rubric and their notes. The instructor walks around and provides any necessary help. If time allows, the ITAs present again taking each other’s feedback into account. An additional option would be to call on two volunteers to present in front of the class.

Task 5: Autonomous practice

For this last task in the lesson, ITAs are encouraged to practice on their own, record their performance (either in audio or video), and monitor their progress. For this, the instructor gives them a little prompt for homework. ITAs are encouraged to record several times, listen to or watch their performance, and use the rubric to evaluate their use of prominence. Finally, they record a response and submit it to the instructor. The instructor can then provide feedback to each ITA or discuss their performance during individual meetings with them.

Suggestions for Extended Practice

With Task 5 above in mind, instructors can provide a variety of tasks to help ITAs improve their production of prominence. For example, instructors can give ITAs:

• A ‘finish the story’ activity. The instructor provides an audio recording with the beginning of the story and makes sure to use proper prominence (and tone!) for ITAs to follow. For example: “Last night, something crazy happened to me. It was horrible! It was 11pm, and I was walking home when…”.
• A mock interview task, where ITAs answer questions as if they were at a job interview. The instructor provides two to three interview questions and ‘tips to complete the task’. Examples of tips: Start with your strengths, how have your strengths helped you to succeed, and briefly talk about your weaknesses in a positive way.
• A mini teaching demo. Here, ITAs prepare a 5-minute lesson on a topic they often teach, focusing on the use of prominence to highlight important information. This task can be performed in class, or it can be assigned as homework for extended, autonomous practice. If in class, ITAs can present in front of the class and receive feedback from both instructor and peers. If assigned for outside of class practice, ITAs can record their performance, self-monitor, and self-evaluate. When satisfied with their performance, they can submit their recordings to the instructor for individualized feedback.

Prominence is a very important skill for ITAs to master in order for them to deliver lessons more successfully to their students and to keep them engaged. A full lesson like the one presented here helps ITAs to become aware of important suprasegmental features such as prominence and how they impact communication in English; it also allows them to practice their perception and production of the targeted feature, to learn how to monitor their own progress and to provide feedback to others, and to transfer what they learn to a variety of new contexts.

References

Gorsuch, G., Meyers, C. M, Pickering, L., & Griffee, D. T. (2013). English communication for international teaching assistants (2^nd ed.). Waveland Press.

Pickering, L. (2018). Discourse intonation: A discourse-pragmatic approach to teaching the pronunciation of English. University of Michigan Press.