Lesson 1 Friday 28th September

Once we got the computer and the projector working, we went over some administration details, such as my name, office hours, how to contact me (please no emails!), Moodle, my Section, this page, the Lettorato Sounds of English (includes Practice Exercises) section which has a lot of material for extra practice including an interactive phoneme chart which you can use to listen to the phonemes and one you can use to write phonemes. We then talked about the structure of the course, how sounds are produced, the articulators and began to get to know the forty-four phonemes of RP. We looked at the difference between voiced sounds (vocal chords almost closed, so air causes vibration as it passes through) and unvoiced sounds (vocal chords open so no vibration as air passes through). All pure vowels and diphthongs are voiced sounds, although for consonant phonemes, some are voiced and some are unvoiced. We looked at the types of pure vowel, and the names for them, high, mid, low and front, central and back, depending on the part of the tongue raised to produce them (cf pages 2-3, Dispense). We then looked at the high front long vowel /i:/ (as in tree), the high central short vowel /Ι/ (as in fish) - two vowel phonemes which are often confused by Italian speakers -and the mid front short vowel /e/ (as in egg). We then did a phonetic dictation. This will form part of every lesson as you need all the practice you can get for this activity.

NB The Dispense and attendance at the lessons and homework will be sufficient material for the course. You don't need a copy of the book mentioned in the Programme.

Homework for the next lesson (04.10.18)

(i) Write one sentence for each of the three phonemes we looked a today, using as many words as possible containing that phoneme. Highlight or underline the letters which represent the phoneme in each case. Try not to mix the phonemes in each sentence (though obviously, except in rare exceptions, it will be difficult to produce sentences which have words using only one vowel phoneme) Try your best to remain within the bounds of possibility even if you stretch the bounds of probability for the meaning of your sentences! Please make a neat copy of your Homework as it is to be handed in for me to mark at the next lesson;

(ii) Do Phonemic Transcription Sentences numbers 1-3 on page 31 in the Dispense. Write down the graphic version of the sentences, but these do not have to be handed in; we shall correct them together during next weeks' lesson.

Lesson 2 Friday 4th October

I collected orally (with some difficulty, volunteers were not exactly eager and forthcoming!) some examples of your sentences illustrating words using the three vowel phonemes we learnt last week and then I collected manually all your sentences. Please remember to write your sentences on a separate piece of paper which can be handed in easily. We corrected nos 1-3 of the Reading Transcription Sentences on page 31 which you had also done for homework.We then did a Phonetic dictation, using words with last week's phonemes. Later in the lesson, after learning four new phonemes, we did another dictation incorporating also these new phonemes. This is such an important part of the course and needs as much practice as possible. We then continued with our trip around the Phoneme chart and looked at some more vowel phonemes: the low front short vowel /æ/ (as in cat), the low central short vowel /ʌ/ (as in up), the low central long vowel /ɑ:/ (as in car) and the low back short vowel /ɒ/ (as in clock). We practised making the distinction between /e/ and /æ/ and between /æ  /ʌ/ and /ɑ:/, since are these are vowel phonemes which are not very easy to distinguish for Italian speakers. 

Exercises (a) and (b) in the Dictation Practice Semester 1 file in the Lettorato Sounds of English (Includes Practice Exercises) Section are on words with /i:/ (as in tree) and /Ι/ (as in fish). Although they include some consonant phonemes we haven't done yet, you could try them anyway, making sure you get the right vowel phoneme. You can do them again later in the course once we have done all the consonant phonemes!

Homework for the next lesson (12.10.18)

(i) Write one sentence for three of the  new phonemes (you choose which) we looked at today, using as many words as possible containing that phoneme. Highlight or underline the letters which represent the phoneme in each case. Try not to mix the phonemes in each sentence (though obviously, except in rare exceptions, it will be difficult to produce sentences which have words using only one vowel phoneme) Try your best to remain within the bounds of possibility even if you stretch the bounds of probability for the meaning of your sentences! Please make a neat copy of your Homework as it is to be handed in for me to mark at the next lesson.

(ii) Do numbers 4-10 of the Reading Transcription Sentences on page 31 of the Dispense.

(iii) Practise saying the word 'love' (correctly with /ʌ/!) ten times before you go to sleep each night.

Lesson 3 Friday 12th October

Because some of you had forgotten about underlining or highlighting the letters which represent the phonemes in your Homework sentences, we started off by going over this again. It is not enough simply to underline the whole word which contains the phoneme, but I need to see the letter or letter group which represents it in each word. I gave back your marked homework (although those students who had not underlined the letters will have to re-do it)  and then I collected all the phoneme sentences you had done as Homework for this week. Please remember to write your sentences on a separate piece of paper which can be handed in easily. 

We then corrected numbers 4-10 of the Reading Transcription sentences from p.31 which you had also done for Homework. Remember to read the words in transcription aloud in order to discover which words they are and then write them in graphic form. We did a first Dictation based on the phonemes we know so far.

I told you about the End-of-Semester Test which you will have to do and pass in order to continue with Sounds of English in the 2nd Semester. I warned you that it is more demanding than students often think and that last year approx. one third of my students failed it. I encouraged you therefore to practise as much as you can not only by attending lessons and doing the homework, but also by taking advantage of the material in the Lettorato Sounds of English (Includes Practice Exercises) Section on the Moodle page. The Test consists of a Dictation, Reading a series of sentences in Full Phonemic Transcription, reading isolated words in transcription, writing isolated words in transcription and giving descriptions for phonemes or phonemes for descriptions.

We then continued with our trip around the Phoneme chart and completed looking at the pure vowel phonemes. We looked at the mid back long vowel /ɔ:/ (as in horse), the high central short vowel /ʊ/ (as in push), the high back long vowel /u:/ (as in you),  the mid central long vowel /ɜ:/ (as in bird) and last of all, the mid central lax vowel schwa: /ə/. This last one is the only phoneme which has its own name and appears only in unstressed syllables. We spent some time looking at the various words and parts of words which have schwa, especially words which begin with the letter 'a' as an unstressed syllable (such as away, above, around, etc.), and words which end in 'er' as a syllable (such as computer, better), 'or' (such as doctor), 'our'( such as neighbour), 'ure' (such as nature). We also looked at it in weak forms, where we had already seen it in use in the Reading Transcription Sentences. Next week we shall move on to the diphthongs.  We then did another Phonetic dictation, including some bi-syllabic words. Anyone who has not been present in the previous lessons when we did our first Phonetic dictations should read the notes on page 44 of the Dispense.

Homework for the next lesson (19.10.18)

(i) Write one sentence for three of the  phonemes we looked at today, using as many words as possible containing that phoneme. Highlight or underline the letters which represent the phoneme in each case. Try not to mix the phonemes in each sentence (though obviously, except in rare exceptions, it will be difficult to produce sentences which have words using only one vowel phoneme) Try your best to remain within the bounds of possibility even if you stretch the bounds of probability for the meaning of your sentences! Please make a neat copy of your Homework, on a separate sheet of paper, as it is to be handed in for me to mark at the next lesson.

(ii) Do numbers 11-20 of the Reading Transcription Sentences on pages 31-32  of the Dispense.

(iii) Practise saying fruit juice (correctly with the /ʊ/ in each case) ten times each night before you go to sleep.

(iv) Do Exercises (a) and (b) in the Dictation Practice Semester 1 file in the Lettorato Sounds of English (Includes Practice Exercises) Section which are on words with /i:/ (as in tree) and /Ι/ (as in fish). Although they include some consonant phonemes we haven't done yet, you could try them anyway, making sure you get the right vowel phoneme. You can do them again later in the course once we have done all the consonant phonemes!

Lesson 4 Friday 19th October 

In the lesson on Friday 19th October I gave back the sentences you handed in for homework last week  and then took in everyone's homework on last week 's phonemes to mark. Please remember to underline the letters which represent the phoneme in each case and don't forget to put the diagonal lines around the phonemes. I pointed out to you that words which contain the long vowels /ɔ:/ (as in horse),  /ɜ:/ (as in bird) and /ɑ:/ (as in car) and the diphthongs

/ɪə/, /ʊə/ and /eə/, there is no phonemic weight for the letter 'r' which is included in the vowel phonemes. We corrected the Reading Transcription sentences  nos 11-20 (pp.31-32) together. In doing so we encountered a new phoneme /i/, the close/high front unrounded vowel which does not yet appear on the phoneme chart, but which represents the sound found in weak forms of some pronouns (as well as other sounds which we shall deal with when we have finished looking at all the phonemes on the chart). We then did a Dictation based on words using the vowel phonemes we have learnt in previous weeks.

We then began to look at the diphthongs, that is, sounds made up of two short vowel sounds pronounced without any interruption between them, in a smooth glide from one to the other. We looked at the centring diphthongs /ɪə/, /ʊə/ and /eə/ and the closing diphthongs /eɪ/, /ɔɪ/ and /aɪ/.  We noticed how common homophones are for words containing these phonemes.  We did another phonetic dictation, this time incorporating words using this week's phonemes.

I reminded you about the End-of-Semester Test which you will have to do and pass in order to continue with Sounds of English in the 2nd Semester. I warned you that it is more demanding than students often think and that last year approx. one third of my students failed it. I encouraged you therefore to practise as much as you can not only by attending lessons and doing the homework, but also by taking advantage of the material in the Lettorato Sounds of English (Includes Practice Exercises) Section on the Moodle page. 

Homework for the next lesson (26.10.17): 

(i) Write a sentence for three of the diphthongs dealt with today: use as many words as possible containing each phoneme. Write your sentences neatly on a piece of paper - please type them on your computer and print them up - (with the letters which represent the phoneme highlighted or underlined) to hand in at next week's lesson.
(ii) Do numbers 21-30 of the Reading Transcription sentences on pages 31-32 of the 'Dispense'.
(iii) Do Exercises a) and b) on page /ten/of the 'Dispense'. 
(iv) Do the Dialogues Exercises a), b) and c) on page /ɪˈlevṇ/ of the 'Dispense'. 

(v) Watch the video clip The Rain in Spain on the link.

(vi) Optional fun homework: write a sentence using some of the homophones we found containing the diphthongs we learnt today.

(vii) Practice dictations using the Semester 1 Practice Dictations in the Lettorato Sounds of English (includes Practice Exercises) Section of the main page.

Lesson 5 Friday 26th October
We are now half way through the 1st Semester and as you now know (more or less!) what is going on in the course, we shall be speeding up with what we learn each week. 

There will be no lesson next week (Friday 2nd November) as it is a ponte, so our next lesson, Lesson 6, will be on Friday 9th November. So lot's of Homework to keep you busy and make sure you don't forget what you've learned so far! 

I gave back last week's homework and collected in this week's. We corrected the Reading Transcription Sentences 21-30 and the Exercises on Diphthongs and Diphthong Dialogues on page /ten/ and /ɪ'levṇ/ of the Dispense. 

We then finished the closing Diphthongs, by doing /əʊ/ (as in 'phone) and /aʊ/ (as in owl). Be careful when you write these two phonemes so that it is clear which is which! We then looked at Triphthongs (not on the Phoneme Chart), three sounds produced together which no separation, consisting of a closing diphthong followed by schwa. Most native speakers pronounce words with Triphthongs as though they were bi-syllables.
We then began to look at Consonants and how they are produced and how they are described: Consonants are produced by the air being stopped by one or more of the articulators (areas of the Vocal Tract) and then being released to make the sound. There are three aspects to take into consideration when describing consonant phonemes. We looked at, first of all, the six manners of articulation: 

plosive; 

fricative; 

affricate;

nasal; 

glottal; 

lateral; 

approximant,

We then looked at the eight places of articulation: 

bi-labial; 

alveolar; 

velar; 

labio-dental; 

dental; 

palato-alveolar; 

palatal; 

glottal. 

The third aspect is voicing, which we had already looked at when using some consonant phonemes for our examples of words with vowel phonemes: 

air passing through open vocal chords with no vibration: unvoiced; 

air passing through almost closed vocal chords with vibration: voiced. 

Some consonant phonemes are voiced and some are unvoiced (whereas all vowel phonemes are voiced). All consonants are produced by stopping the flow of air by moving some of the articulators and then releasing the flow of air again to enable it to produce the sound. 

We looked at the three plosive pairs: /p/ and /b/ (bi-labial); /t/ and /d/ (alveolar) and /k/ and /g/ (velar), although we shall look at the final pair again more carefully at the next lesson as we rushed them because of lack of time . The first in each pair is unvoiced. We then went over the pronunciation of the suffix '-ed' for the past simple of regular verbs: it is /t/ if the last phoneme of the base form of the verb (infinitive without 'to') is unvoiced, /d/ if the last phoneme of the base form of the verb is voiced and  /ɪd/ if the last phoneme of the base form of the verb is /t/ or /d/. See page 37 of the Dispense for examples.

We did a Dictation based on the phonemes covered in previous weeks at the beginning of the lesson and a Dictation based on today's phonemes as well as previous weeks' phonemes at the end of the lesson for which a surprising number of students made no mistakes. Well done!. Everyone, but especially anyone who is making 3 or more mistakes in the Dictations we do should start doing the Dictation Practice Exercises in the Sounds of English (includes Practice Exercise) Section of the Moodle page.

Homework for the next lesson (09.11.18):
(i) Do Reading Transcription Sentences 31-60 on pages 33-35 of the Dispense.
(ii) Write at least one  sentence using homophones (words which have the same sound and phonemic transcription but different semantic meaning: we found many of them while going through the diphthongs). To be handed in at the next lesson.

(iii) Do the Exercise on the Pronunciation of the letter 'u' which is on our section of the page .

(iv) Do the Exercise on the Pronunciation of the letters 'ough' which is on our section of the page .

(v) Find ten verbs which have the '-ed' ending for the regular Past Simple tense pronounced as /d/, ten verbs which have it pronounced as /t/ and ten verbs which have it pronounced as /ɪd/. Write them in the appropriate columns at the bottom of page 37.

(vi) I have put up a new Dictation using nonsense words (so that you can really write down the phonemes you hear without being distracted by the letters of the words you think you are hearing) in our section of the page so that you don't have a week without Dictation practice! The file is: 2 Nov. Dictation    The Answers are in the file: 2 Nov. Dictation Invented Words Answers

(vii) Practise writing the diphthongs   so that you learn how to write them correctly and do not get them confused. They are very similar in their form, so it is essential to be able to write them absolutely accurately. All the phonemes you write for Dictations or for Transcription exercises must be just as they appear on the Phoneme Chart. No individual variation of phonemes is possible as it is with letters!

Lesson 6 Friday 9th November
It took us a long time to mark all the Reading Transcription Sentences you had done for Homework, so when I gave back last lesson's Homework I didn't have time to comment on it. So here are the comments I would have made if I had had time. Please note that the letter 'r' is included in the diphthong phonemes /ɪə/, /ʊə/ and /eə/, except in bi-syllables where the 'r' forms the first part of the second syllable: 'tour' is transcribed  /tʊə/, but 'tourist' is transcribed /ˈtʊərɪst/ and thus in 'tour' the /ʊə/ is represented by 'our', while in 'tourist' the /ʊə/ is represented by 'ou'.The same thing occurs in 'during' where the transcription is /djʊərɪŋ /, so that the /ʊə/ is represented by the letters 'du'. I collected in the Homework phoneme sentences and homphone sentences which you had done for this week.  We corrected the Reading Transcription Sentences numbers 31-60 and I collected orally examples of 'ed' endings pronounced as /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/ (you were surprisingly enthusiastic with examples of /ɪd/!) 

We finished off the plosives by going over /k/ (unvoiced velar plosive) and /g/ (voiced velar plosive)and their spelling, especially the possibility of 'gh' for /g/ and 'k', 'c', 'ch' and 'ck' for /k/ as well as the role of /k/ in the transcription of the 'qu' combination of letters in words which are transcribed /kw/: queen - /kwi:n/ and in the transcription of the letter 'x', which is transcribed with /ks/: tax - /tæks/.     

We then began to look at this week's phonemes, the fricatives. These are made by the air not being stopped as with plosives, but passing through a very small space made by the articulators almost stopping it, but not quite, and producing audible friction in the form of hissing. There are four pairs of fricatives, one unvoiced and one voiced, each pair with its own place of articulation: /f/ and /v/ (labio-dental); /θ/ /ð/   (dental); /s/ and /z/ (alveolar) and  /ʃ/  /ʒ/   (palato-alveolar). While the /f/ and /v/ are quite straight-forward for Italian speakers, the /θ/ /ð/ are more challenging since these phoneme are not present in Italian. They represent the two pronunciations of 'th'. We shall go over the last two pairs of fricatives next week as we ran out of time this week. We just showed that /s/ is unvoiced alveolar fricative and /z/ is voiced alveolar fricative, so that you would be able to try the Exercise on page 38 of the Dispense which illustrates the role of these two phonemes in the pronunciation of the final 's' to mean the plural form of nouns or the 3rd person singular present tense of verbs.

We still need to do the correction of the Exercise on 'u' and the Exercise on 'ough', which we shall do next week (so anyone who didn't do as last lesson's Homework is still in time to do it!).

We did a Dictation on the phonemes learnt in the previous weeks and then, at the end of the lesson, a Dictation including the phonemes we learnt this week..

Homework for next lesson (16.11.18)
(i) Do the Reading Transcription Sentences numbers 61-75 in the Dispense.
(ii) Read the notes and then do the Exercise on the Pronunciation of '-s' on page 38 of the Dispense: find 5 words for each of the pronunciations of the final letter 's' to denote plurals of nouns or 3rd person singular forms of present tense verbs and write them in the appropriate columns.

(iii) Do at least one of the Practice Dictations (I Sem.) in the Lettorato Sounds of English (includes Practice Exercises) section of the Moodle page. The Test is coming!

Lesson 7 Friday 16th November
We corrected numbers 61-75 of the Reading Transcription Exercises on pages 35-36 of the Dispense. We looked particularly at the 'continuants' which are placed between a word which ends with a vowel phoneme and a word which begins with a vowel phoneme when they follow one another in continuous discourse. There are three of these, /r/, /w/ and /j/. We shall do more on these later in the course. I collected examples you had found for the different pronunciations of '-s' and '-es' for plurals of nouns and 3rd person singular present tense forms for verb which you had done for homework following the notes on page 38 of the Dispense: this depends on the final phoneme of the singular form (for nouns) or the base form (for verbs). If this is unvoiced, then the 's' is pronounced /s/, if it is voiced, the 's' is pronounced /z/ and if it is /s/, /z/, /ʃ/,  /ʒ/, /ʧ/ or  /ʤ /, it is pronounced /ɪz
I reminded you again that the End-of-semester Test is getting closer and that you should be practising for it by doing the Practice Exercises in the Sounds of English lettorato (includes Practice Exercises) section on the Moodle page. We shall do a Mock Test in Lesson 9 which we shall correct together in order to give you an idea of what the real Test will be like (and what your level is!). We did one dictation at the beginning of the lesson based on the phonemes learned in previous lessons and then another dictation at the end of the  lesson, incorporating the phonemes we learned this week. We made a first attempt to do the Dictations without looking at the Phoneme Chart (which is how it will be for the Test).

We went more thoroughly over the fricatives /s/ and /z/ (alveolar fricatives), which we had only done very hurroiedly last week  We also looked at the pronunciation (and transcription) of the words 'Facebook' and 'baseball', two words which are frequently mispronounced by Italian speakers due to the fact that they have /s/ followed by /b/ which is not possible in Italian, where the combination is /z/ followed by /b/. We then went over the final pair of fricatives,  /ʃ/ (unvoiced palatal-alveolar fricative) and  /ʒ/ (voiced palatal-alveolar fricative). We then looked at the Affricates, which are a kind of consonant form of diphthong, since they are made up of two consonant phonemes pronounced immediately after one another with no break or interruption: a plosive followed by a fricative. These are  /ʧ/ (unvoiced palatal-alveolar affricate) and  /ʤ /  (voiced palatal-alveolar affricate).       
Any student who has already missed more than two lessons must do the Make Up Work which is in our section of the page. It is useful also for students who have not missed lessons, but feel that they need more practice.
We still need to do the correction of the Exercises on 'u' and 'ough' which we forgot to do today as well!

Homework for next lesson (23.11.17):
(i) Do Reading Transcription Exercises numbers 76-80 (page 36)
(ii) Do the Exercise on words written in transcription on page 41 of the Dispense. Write the words in graphic form Be careful with number 20 since there is a typing mistake and it should read /'pleʒə/

(iii) Do the Exercise on words with /ʧ/ and  /ʤ / on page 43 of the Dispense

(iv) Do some of the Practice dictations in the Sounds of English (Includes Practice Exercises) section on the main page

Lesson 8 Monday 23rd November

I gave back the Homework from two weeks ago and complimented many of you on your sentences with Homophones, but reminded some of you that homophones are two words which have exactly the same phonemes but different graphic form and semantic meaning, so in your sentences to illustrate, they must be exactly the same: not 'pair' 'pears', for example, the first of which is /peə/ and the second /peəz/. We corrected numbers 76-80 of the Reading Transcription Exercises on page 36 of the Dispense, We paid particular attention not only to the weak forms but also to the 'continuants' which are placed between a word which ends with a vowel phoneme and a word which begins with a vowel phoneme when they follow one another in continuous discourse. There are three of these, /r/, /w/ and /j/. We shall do more on these later in the course. We also marked the Exercise on individual words written in Transcription on page 41 and the Exercise on words with Affricates on page 43 of the Dispense. We at last did the correction of the Exercises on 'u' and 'ough' which we had been forgetting to do for some weeks!

We did a Dictation based on the phonemes we had already without looking at the Phoneme Chart at all which is how we are doing Dictations now, getting ready for how the Dictation will be in the End-of-Semester Test.
I reminded you again that the End-of-semester Test is getting closer and that you should be practising for it by doing the Practice Exercises in the Sounds of English lettorato (includes Practice Exercises) section on the Moodle page. We shall do a Mock Test in Lesson 9 (next week) which we shall correct together in order to give you an idea of what the real Test will be like (and what your level is!).
We looked at the Nasals (where the manner of articulation is the forcing of air out through the nose because the vellum is lowered and other parts of the mouth stop the air). All three of the nasals are voiced.We looked at /m/ (bi-labial) at /n/ (alveolar) and /η/ (velar). The voiced velar nasal represents the sound at the end of '-ing' forms of verbs, as well as in nouns such as 'sing', 'song', ring', 'thing', 'think', 'thank', etc.   We still need to look at /h/, the unvoiced glottal fricative, the  voiced alveolar lateral /l/ and the three Approximants /r/, /w/ and /j/, all voiced which we shall do next week.

We did another Dictation incorporating the phonemes learned today, without looking at the Chart.

Homework for next lesson (30.11.18):

(i) Do the Phonemic Fairy Tale Exercise in our section of the Moodle page. Write out a version in graphic form. Don't forget to add appropriate punctuation: Phonemic Fairy Story

(ii) Do some (or all!) of the Phoneme Description Exercises in the Practice Exercises section of the main page.

Since Sunday 25th November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, I have put up links to two videos to celebrate this in our section of the Moodle page.

Lesson 9 Friday 30th November

Today was the last formal lesson of the I Semester, although the Sounds of English courses will continue in the II Semester. We corrected the Phonemic Fairy Story. 

We did a Dictation (without using the Phoneme Chart).

We completed looking at the phonemes by looking at /h/, the unvoiced glottal fricative, which can never be in final position and always needs a vowel phoneme to follow it and the voiced alveolar lateral /l/, which has two forms, the clear /l/ and the dark /l/ which is known as syllabic /l/ when it appears as a syllable at the end of words such as 'little', 'middle', 'trouble', etc. We then completed  our voyage around the Phoneme Chart by looking at the three Approximants, all voiced and all never found in final position in a word because they need a vowel phoneme to follow them (like /h/): /r/, the palato-alveolar approximant, /w/, the bi-labial approximant and /j/, the palatal approximant  When the letter 'r' or the letter 'w' appears at the end of a word, it is never represented phonetically by /r/ or /w/, but is always included in another (vowel) phoneme. /r/ is never trilled or rolled in RP pronunciation because RP is a non-rhotic accent. The Approximants are also used as Continuants in continuous discourse in order to make speech more continuous and avoid opening and closing the mouth too often! They are used in this way when a word which ends with a vowel phoneme is followed by a word which begins with a vowel phoneme. You have seen this in action in the Full Phonemic Transcription Sentences and we shall be doing a lot of work on this during the II Semester when you will also have to write in full phonemic transcription.

I told you that next week there will be the End-of-Semester Test during the lesson time and in the usual lesson room (Aula 14, VC). I reminded you about the conditions for taking exams, which include maintaining silence during the exam., not using any notes, Dispense, dictionaries or other material, handing in your mobile phones for the duration of the exam., not collaborating or copying. Any students found doing any of these forbidden things will have their test invalidated. I shall divide you into groups (of 10-12) to start the Test at (very slightly) different times in order for everyone to be able to hear the Dictation comfortably. The groups will be posted here on the Moodle page (on the page  Dictation Starting Groups End-of-Semester Test 07.12.18(.  if anyone has any problems with the starting time they have been given, let me know immediately! If anyone who was not present at today's lesson needs to be in one of the first groups (because they have an urgent appointment at 14.45) or in one of the later groups (because their train is often late or they have another Test  finishing at 1 pm), please let me know immediately (via email - yes, for this you can!).

 I then went over some important points to remember when doing the Test, especially with respect to writing phonemes:

- phonemes must be written as they appear on the Chart, with no individual variation.

- you must always put the diagonals to show you are writing in phonemes

- no capital letters or doubles in phonemes

- /i:/ /ɪ/ and /i/ are all different, make sure you use the correct one

- be careful with  /aʊ/ /aɪ/ and  /ɑ:/    

- be careful with /əʊ/ and /aʊ/   it must be clear to me which phoneme you are writing, otherwise it will be considered wrong!

- be careful to write /ɒ/ correctly (it's not a letter 'o'!)

- when writing the Definitions of consonant phonemes, the order must be voiced/unvoiced, place of articulation, manner of articulation: like this:

/d/ = voiced alveolar plosive

- when writing definitions of vowel phonemes, the order must always :

be high/mid/low, followed by front. central or back, followed by long or short: like this:

/e/ = mid front short vowel

/u:/ = high back long vowel

- do not put any graphic forms for your Dictation anywhere  on your paper. If they are there it will count as an automatic fail. The test is of Phonemic Dictation, not Phonemic Transcription!

-remember to read the Dialogues silently to yourself to discover what they say.

We then did the Mock Test to give you an idea of what you will have to do for the real Test and to motivate you to work hard between now and then to reach a Pass level. The test is not given a numerical mark but is judged on the number and variety of mistakes made by each candidate (obviously, the fewer the better!). We marked the Test together. Remember that I am a much stricter marker than you are!

Those who did the Mock Test today have now seen where they need to do work to reach the required standard. Make use of all the Practice Exercises in the Sounds of English lettorato (Includes Practice Exercises) section on the main part of the Moodle page.

When I have marked the End-of-Semester Test papers, you will choose a time (on a Choice file in our section of the Moodle page) to come to see me and look at your paper together to find out how you have done and whether you will need to take the Test again. This appointment is a compulsory part of the Test.

Any student who has missed 3 or more lessons must do the Make Up Work in order to complete the Semester. This is in addition to catching up with the work done during the lessons missed which can be found on this page.

There will be compulsory Homework for everyone to do during the Inter-semester Break. This will be posted in our section of the Moodle page in the new year. 

Homework for next week:

Revise, revise, revise (especially Dictation)!

I have put the Reading Full Transcription Sentences graphic forms in our section of the page: Reading Transcription Sentences (I Sem.) Graphic versions

Friday 7th December

The End of 1st Semester Test was held from 13-15  on Friday 7th December. In order to know how your test went, students should book an appointment via the Choice file Interviews for End-of-Semester Test Friday Group to come to look at their test with me and find out if they need to repeat it in January and, if so, what they need to work on especially in order to reach the required level to pass it. These appointments will begin on Friday 14th December and continue the following week. Each student should book a time when it is convenient for them to come. The appointments should last approx. 5-10 minutes each.

I would like to thank you all for your collaboration in making the Test run smoothly.

There will be compulsory work to do for everyone during the Inter-semester break which will be put up in our section of the Moodle page  at the end of December.