Course objectives:
The ultimate objective of the course for students is to acquire pronunciation resembling that of educated native speakers of British or American English. The focus of Year 1 is on sounds in connected speech with elements of stress and intonation.
Course description:
The whole course is organized as a series of practical workshops. Students will learn how to pronounce sounds (in context) beginning with vowels and diphthongs and continuing with problematic (for Poles) consonants. To achieve the above, a number of techniques will be employed, including phonemic/phonetic transcription, pronunciation based listening, drills (especially contrastive), prepared and improvised dialogues, role-plays, reading, speeches etc. Students will be, predominantly, encouraged to work individually at home. Besides, the course will also introduce basic elements of word and sentence stress, rhythm, linking, and intonation.
Evaluation of the course:
- 1 interview at the end of each semester (reading short texts or dialogues from the coursebooks (you will be tested on the material covered during the course: in-class and as homework), followed by their summary and a follow-up question. Additionally, at the winter semester interview you can be asked to discuss a picture. At the summer semester interview you will be asked to prepare and deliver a short 3-min speech based on an original authentic video recording – the student is supposed to imitate the source speaker as closely as possible (the video material will be assigned by the teacher).
- 2 written tests (quizzes) on connected speech prosodic features and sounds/ stress/intonation perception per semester (winter term: mid-November, beginning of January; summer term: beginning of April and mid- May),
- attendance counts a lot (you are allowed 2 unexcused absences per semester), if you miss more you will get an extra interview assignment (1 extra for 2 missed classes)
- your final semester grade = oral test (60%) +class participation (10%) + written tests (30%)
- Nauczyciel: Izabela Krystek