“The international migration of students and faculty is a major trend in higher education.” (Morse, 2010) In our experience, international academics (graduate teaching assistants, faculty, research assistants, postdocs, and visiting scholars) have expressed a strong interest in improving their language skills. However, because of time constraints and status issues, regular sessions are often unavailable to this diverse group of academics. To address this challenge, Michigan State University and the University of Minnesota have developed and delivered pronunciation workshops over the past several years to respond to this need.

You might ask yourself, “Why would I take time out of my busy schedule to plan and deliver such a workshop?” When we started doing our workshops, our workload was already quite high because there was a high demand for consultations. Many of our consultees had similar pronunciation challenges, so it made sense to group them. Also, in our many years of teaching pronunciation in our regular classes, we had lots of materials and ideas to choose from. So, with some minor tweaking, we had material that could be adapted for our workshops. Once we got the workshops going and saw how enthusiastic participants were about them, we knew that we were addressing an important need. It also gave our programs better visibility on campus, with relatively little time and effort on our part.

We would like to share our materials and what we have learned from our experience in delivering such workshops so that you can consider designing and implementing your own pronunciation workshops.

DESCRIPTION

We designed a series of four one-hour pronunciation workshops for international faculty, covering the areas of word stress (Gilbert, 1993; Meyers, 2001; Teschner, 2004) and vowel clarity, fluency (thought groups), emphasis, and tone (pitch variation). Each workshop includes slides, handouts with rules, resources, and practice activities. Michigan State uses undergraduate majors in speech science to assist with group work. See the sample slides at the end of the article to give you an idea of how our workshops are structured and what kinds of activities we offer. We’ve also included a sample handout with activities that we use in our Word Stress workshop.

In terms of format, all of our workshops follow these steps:

Step 1: Rationale

We start by showing either a video illustrating the feature or an example illustrating the importance of the feature for clear communication. For instance, the tone unit includes short video clips of an ITA before he worked on his intonation and after he worked on his intonation. This technique is valuable because it catches the participants’ attention and provides concrete evidence for employing the feature for successful communication.

Step 2: Introduce Components

Next, we introduce the components of the feature; for example, for word stress, we talk about vowel length, pitch movement, and vowel clarity. We often show Praat (free pronunciation software) so that participants can get a clear sense of what they need to do with their voice. We introduce one component at a time and have them immediately practice it. So, for instance, when doing the word stress unit, we introduce vowel length and then have participants practice with a partner using rubber bands. Each time they practice, we circulate to provide feedback and answer questions.

Step 3: Explain Rules

At this point, we move on to explaining the rules for the feature, limiting the rules to those that will give them the most mileage; for example, for word stress, we teach rules related to the five most common English suffixes and parts of speech. Again, participants are divided into pairs or small groups and practice applying the rules to controlled exercises.

TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL WORKSHOPS

Recruiting/Participant Limit

At the start of each semester, a mass e-mail goes out to graduate students and postdocs, faculty and instructional staff, and department chairs and heads. We also post information on our Center Web site. We limit participation, although more people apply than actually show up. We ask participants to register in advance online through our Center’s Web site, but we allow drop-ins because not everyone who has registered is able to make it. Our administrative assistant sends out reminders a few days in advance, which boosts enrollment.

Day/Time of Day

From our five years of experience, at Minnesota we’ve learned that it works best to schedule workshops on Mondays around lunchtime approximately once a month. This routine helps participants to plan our sessions into their schedules. We also order cookies and beverages to make the atmosphere more welcoming. At Michigan State, we’ve found that 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays is best. Fridays may not be good for American students but are very convenient for international students.

Location

We’ve experimented with holding the workshops at different locations, but we’ve found that it works best to choose a central location that is easily accessible to everyone.

Amount of Material

As with teaching in general, we’ve found that less is more. We try to prioritize what is essential in terms of making a difference for our participants and we limit our objectives to what can be easily absorbed in a 60-minute period. Even though workshops are independent in terms of content, we find that we have a group of regulars so we can build upon skills/information previously learned.

Mix Up Groups/Pairs

For group and pair work, we ensure that participants work with someone from a different native-language background/department so that the interaction is more authentic.

CONCLUSION

We’ve provided these workshops for five years and the number of participants is still large. We have offered the same topics throughout the years, but also we integrate new topics from year to year. These workshops not only have been highly successful for the participants, but have resulted in increased visibility for our ITA programs on campus and a skyrocketing number of consultations with international faculty.

Participants refer to the workshops as “classes” and really enjoy them. We have a group of regulars who attend each and every workshop. Participant feedback has been extremely positive: Some participants have said that “everything” has been the “most useful” and when asked “What could be improved?” the most common answer is “more time!”

Presentation Power Point

Presentation Handout

Presentation Activity Sheet 

REFERENCES

Gilbert, Judy. Clear Speech: Second Edition. (1993). Cambridge University Press: NY. 67-68.

Meyers, Colleen and Sheryl Holt. Pronunciation for Success: Second Edition. (2001). Aspen Productions: Burnsville, MN, 85-86

Morse, R. (2010, Feb. 25). World’s best universities: International students and international faculty factors methodology. US News & World Report. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/mobile/articles_mobile/worlds-best-universities-international-students-and-international-faculty-factors-methodology

Teschner, R. V., & Whitley, M. S. (2004). Pronouncing English: A stress-based approach with CD-ROM. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Zeynep Altinsel is an instructor in the TA program at Michigan State University, specializing in working with nonnative English speakers. She coordinates the ITA-Undergraduate ITA-Undergraduate Buddy Program and the TEAM Pronunciation Tutorials. In the Office for Faculty and Organizational Development, she works as a pronunciation consultant.

Elena Stetsenko is an instructor at the Center for Teaching & Learning at the University of Minnesota where she teaches, consults, and facilitates workshops on language, teaching, and culture. She’s interested in how language and culture interact.

Colleen Meyers is an instructor at the Center for Teaching & Learning at the University of Minnesota where she teaches, consults, and facilitates workshops on language, teaching, and culture. Her interests include the intersection of nonverbal communication, pragmatics, and pronunciation.