TESOL Dali

Yikes, this was a long unit. Or perhaps it just seemed long because so much of the material was new to me. The unit covered common intonation and stress patterns in English and how to teach them, as well as everything there is to know about phonemes: articulation categories, how and where they are pronounced, how to read them, and of course, how to teach them. I didn't do much with intonation when I taught in Japan, but when I did, I actually ended up doing some of the same things that this unit mentioned - drawing mouth diagrams on the board, exaggerating my own mouth motions, and with more adult students, describing exactly how my mouth and tongue were positioned. I never had anything to do with phonetic language though. When I worked at a public school, phonemes weren't a part of the curriculum, and when I taught at a private lesson company, my boss just said to ignore the parts of the textbook that dealt with them. I realize though that not every place will teach the same way. It would be good to memorize phonetic language so I'll be ready for anything.