Doel vak

Regarding pronunciation, you will be able to describe the 10 most
common difficulties in English pronunciation. You will also be able to
describe the effects of particular accent features on intelligibility
and credibility in professional
situations.
Regarding presentation, you will be able to strategically
apply prosodic features and conversational patterns in such a way that
they will help you structure and enliven your talk.
By the end of the course, you will be able to adapt features in your own
English pronunciation and you are
able to confidently give an oral presentation.

Inhoud vak

In the pronunciation module, we will set goals for the English accent
that you wish to develop, both professionally and at a personal level.
We will analyse the 10 most common difficulties in English pronunciation
(including
commonly mispronounced words), and the effects that these difficulties
may (inadvertently) have on the intelligibility and credibility of your
accent. You will
be given tools that help you analyse English pronunciation features and
you will
work on features in your own pronunciation accordingly.
As far as the presentation component is concerned, we will focus on
those aspects of speech (based a.o. on corpus linguistic research) that
help you catch your listener’s attention. Many of these aspects come
naturally in everyday speech, but seem to be forgotten during more
strenuous activities, such as speaking and presenting. This course will
make you more aware of those prosodic
features (intonation, voice quality) and conversational patterns
(questions, pauses, repetition) of speech that you can use to get your
message across.

Onderwijsvorm

Pronunciation: lectures (2 hours) and seminars (1 hour)
Presentation: seminars (3 hours)
Lectures and seminars are supported by audio- and videomaterial.
Students are expected to do weekly readings and assignments.

Toetsvorm

Two recordings of your own pronunciation (50%) and a presentation on an
academic subject (50%). In order to pass the course students must score
a minimum of 5.5 on each component.

Literatuur

Literature and other materials will be made available on Canvas.

Doelgroep

Students across the university who wish to work on their English
pronunciation and presentation skills.

Overige informatie

80% attendance and submission of the course work is conditional for
being awarded a grade for the recordings and the presentation.