When I started teaching the chart seemed practically incomprehensible to me. Even as I grew to understand it (and Adrian Underhill’s layout is the only one that seems to make sense) it felt like a great cognitive load to place on students (‘Think English spelling is hard? Now learn all these symbols!’). The DELTA, if […]
This phrase has come up a few times recently in different contexts and it’s one I’m interested in: a language teacher, you’d be forgiven for presuming, would tend to concentrate on the ‘outer’ voice.
This Is Just To Say By William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
On this course with Adrian Underhill we are preparing a poetry festival for the last class. Each day we start each session with a poem read by Adrian or another student. I confess when I first read this on the course description I was a little wary. I love poetry but was unsure about its […]
Two kinds of knowing: ‘Knowing’ as in a cognitive, intellectual knowledge. And ‘Knowing’ as in ‘knowing in your bones’, ‘lived experience’ perhaps, or realization. Adrian Underhill offers a neurological term: ‘proprioception’ to contrast with cognitive knowing in pronunciation. Proprioception is a perception and awareness of the position and movement of the body. This kind of […]
Pron is a physical activity, it makes sense to start by locating it physically. Adrian Underhill does this by taking the class on a ‘jungle walk’ – visualising the tongue as a leaf tumbling through a jungle in which the lips, teeth and palate represent trees etc.
Start with the chart. Lesson One. From the beginning. That is Adrian Underhill’s answer, for very good reasons.
I’m in the first week of a 2-week course with Adrian Underhill! Although I’ve read his book and various articles, and watched his workshops online, it is a different experience working with the man himself. As if I’d had a sketch and he’s added shading and colour. He is a generous, humanistic teacher who answers […]
I’m setting myself a challenge this academic year to do as many CPD courses as I can. It’s been 20 years since I did my DELTA, 10 since I finished my Masters, and 3 years since I moved to teaching online and I feel like I could use some input.
Just a short note to describe the benefit of addressing stress. One of my students, whose spoken English is actually pretty good, goes to pieces when asked to speak at length in class. He stammers, he loses his place, he apologies.