domenica 12 luglio 2009

Horrigan's Colour Coded Phonemic Chart for NEW TEACHERS


This is especially for the new teachers starting at the CES's ACELS Teacher Training Course this month.

Anne-Marie one of the teacher trainers knew of this simple way to associate those new IPA phonemic vowel symbols. The idea is actually an IH teacher's proposal (Margaret Horrigan) and here it is in a nutshell.


It's easier for our brains to associate to colours instead of to symbols, so let's associate each symbol with a unique colour.

So the æ which looks like a lower case ˈaˈ and a lower case ˈeˈ smashed together are associated with a colour instead of just a word like 'rat' or 'clap'. Ideally each symbol is memorized just with the sound it represents, but this is difficult in practice for beginners who have to learn these 20 symbols in about 24 hours. Horrigan's idea is to use the colour black to remember /æ/. It's the vowel sound in the word. So you recognise the colour on the field behind the symbol and as you say it you hear your example. This is simple and instinctive and it works across quite a few accents quickly.


Go through her PowerPoint presentation here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km15zMlFnnY


Thanks Anne Marie!