Last year I had an upper intermediate student who had some trouble with pronunciation. When I spoke ot her about the areas I thought she could improve by mimicing sounds on her own, I learned that I was wrong. She said that she couldn't improve with just a bit more practice because she was partially deaf. I had (still have) no idea how to help someone who can't hear certain sounds produce those sounds.
I bring it up because today I interviewed a student for placement in our university's summer program. He was in a wheelchair and I guess he had some sort of disability because his pronunciation was really difficult to understand. He understood the interview questions but there were several breakdowns. At one point he had to spell out "L-A-W" so that I could understand he was a law major. One of our teachers will have to understand him and help him make other students understand him. How do we do either of those things?
A good start might be to find out where the pronunciation issues come from. Is he partially deaf like my former student? Does he have less than average control of the muscles needed for speech?
Should he be in a high class where he may have a better chance of being understood? A low level class where the students have difficulty producing language (although for different reasons)?
Posted by James Trotta at June 4, 2004 9:13 AMESL blog is one of many Blogs for learning English & teaching English. Translation services information.