Accents are muscular habits. As such, learning a new accent is like learning a gymnastic move, and any teacher should aim to balance the teaching need for muscular repetition with the learner’s need to feel they are making progress. Moving between the ‘simpler’ and more tangible chapters such as plosives (for example, ‘p’ and ‘t’), and more complex but still fundamental concepts and sounds such as the schwa and elision (omitting a written sound) will keep students interested. Here are our main tips for using Collins Work on Your Accent coursebook as a classroom teaching aid:
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- Approach pronunciation systematically and with repetition. Whatever rule you choose to look at you need to give students a solid sensory experience of pronouncing that sound correctly. It can be tempting to move on too quickly when it appears a group have mastered a sound. Complete the unit – words and practice sentences – fully, no matter what you are hearing.
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- One rule per class alongside language coaching is plenty. This will allow for you to see results in each class and for learners to feel progress without being overwhelmed.
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- You don’t need to approach chapters in order. All the units are self-contained and can be taught individually. For a whole term or year of work, the book is broadly laid out in an approachable order (at least this would be the order we would choose to teach).
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- Using a variety of fresh texts and applying what is being learnt to relevant subject matter will give students a sense of achievement and help them to appreciate the usefulness of the work they are doing. When using new material, ensure you keep the focus narrow. For example, if you’ve been working on nasal sounds, pick out only the words in the text that contain that sound.
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- If you yourself speak with a non-Southern English accent, feel free to use your accent as a model. Geography is as good a reason as any to teach a different sound system. Be clear to your students that they are not learning RP and point out how your accent differs.
Happy teaching!
This blog was written by Helen Ashton and Sarah Shepherd, authors of Collins Work on Your Accent coursebook.
About the authors: Helen and Sarah are highly regarded freelance accent and dialect coaches with substantial experience working with students from all around the world. Having trained professionally at London’s influential Central School of Speech and Drama, they now teach both actors and non-native speakers of English how to speak with different accents.