"TH" Pronunciation English Meeting ESL Lesson

I have found that many of my students have a difficult time pronouncing the "TH" sound when speaking English.  I think this video will be helpful for many students who are having problems with this.  Many other free pronunciation videos can be watched at www.englishmeeting.com.

There are many good websites for students to practice their English at home. Attending classes for a few hours a week is great, but as with anything, if you practice more frequently your English will improve much faster.  In addition to www.englishmeeting.com, just a basic YouTube search will yield a vast selection of videos.

In particular, I encourage students to use the internet to practice listening and for additional pronunciation instruction as in the video below.  Most Thai students are more comfortable reading and writing in English.  Listening to and understanding English spoken by a native speaker is much more difficult for most Thai students. 

Why is it Important to Study English?

Knowledge of the English language is a big help in securing a good job and a high income.  There are many ways that strong English language skills can help you reach your financial and career related goals.

First, English is a subject that must be studied in Thai Primary and Secondary Schools.  If a young student is able to perform better in English at lower grade levels, that student will be better prepared as he or she moves forward with their education.  Even at the lower grade levels, there are international schools and EP programs that provide excellent educational opportunities for students in Phitsanulok.  By giving your child a head start in his or her study of English, they will be better prepared to qualify for some of these advanced educational programs.

Additionally, English will open doors for study abroad.  If you have dreams of attending college in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, or Canada you must have strong English skills.  Even in some countries where English is not the primary language, it is an important requirement in order to be admitted into certain universities.  In Finland, they currently offer some university programs with free tuition for both Finnish and foreign students.  In order to take advantage of this opportunity, they require a valid TOEFL or IELTS test score.  This is just one example of how strong English language skills can open up wonderful educational opportunities.  This type of educational opportunity offered to international students can often lead to excellent career opportunities down the road.


One of the primary benefits of learning English is that it is considered the language of global business. The international business community often uses English for communication among people who do not speak the same native language. 


For many people, the benefits of learning English include broadening their employment opportunities, since it is used so commonly in business. People who speak two or more languages are often ideal candidates for jobs in travel, international business, or translation.  Many government agencies and employers that offer work with the general public, such as positions in law enforcement or health care, often look for multilingual candidates.

There are also many professional publications printed in English, which means it is often an essential language for anyone working in science or research.  Most of the published scientific research carried out worldwide is written in English.  English is also particularly important in technology fields.  English is the most used language on the Internet, and almost all computer operating systems, programs, and software are dominated by the English language. 

Needless to say, there are many professions where English language skills are extremely important in order to advance to high levels.  I believe that you can learn a new language at any age, but it takes time to become proficient in English.  It is best to begin studying early and to continue to practice in order to ensure that your English skills remain sharp.  This way, when an educational or business opportunity is presented, you will be prepared to take full advantage.

The importance of accurately identifying the skill level of each student

At PLC, we work with students at every skill level possible. PLC has enrolled students who are professionals who frequently use English at work, as well as, young children who are just starting to learn the basics.

An important first step in teaching new students is to accurately assess the individual skill level of each student. This is a huge advantage of teaching at a small school.  The class sizes are small enough that I can spend time with each student individually to asses each student's abilities in terms of reading, writing, grammar, listening, and speaking. In Thailand, I have found that many students read and write at a higher level than they are able to speak and understand spoken English. This is why it is important to accurately understand a student's ability in each different skill set.  

For students that are looking for comprehensive English language learning, I have found that starting with Rosetta Stone language lab software is a great ice breaker. It starts them off at a basic level which helps them to feel comfortable and a little more confident. As the teacher, it gives me a chance to observe and get a sense of what tasks are easily done and which are more of a struggle. Additionally, the Rosetta Stone software gets the student to begin thinking in English. For a student who speaks Thai all the time outside of the classroom, it is a big help to have a smooth transition from speaking and listening to Thai to listening and speaking English.
 

Once I have been able to observe the student working with the Rosetta Stone software, I can determine how to begin the conversation portion of the lesson. At the most basic level, I begin by having the student read aloud from a book of simple stories. This takes pressure off of the student in terms of listening and needing to
construct sentences. The student can read out loud. I can correct pronunciation.  After a while, I can ask simple conversation questions related to the text. This is effective because after reading out loud for a bit, the student becomes more comfortable pronouncing the words and is also more comfortable and willing to make mistakes.

The process of getting new students to be comfortable speaking and to be comfortable making mistakes is an important bridge to cross in order to move forward with more fun but also challenging conversation lessons.

For more advanced students, accurately determining their skill level is equally important. Again, focusing on the conversation portion of a lesson, the topics the teacher decides to discuss must coincide with the skill level of the students. If the topic is too basic, the conversation will be boring for the student and it will not allow for skill development. Similarly, if the topic is too difficult, the students will be forced to resort to one word answers and it will become a listening session for the students rather than a conversation.

If I am uncertain about whether or not a topic will work, I introduce the relevant vocabulary first. By teaching the relevant (themed) vocabulary and then incorporating it into the conversation two benefits are realized. First, you increase the chances of an active and effective conversation session because the students will
have access to necessary vocabulary. Second, the students will acquire some new vocabulary words and the words will be reinforced during the conversation.

If you find that even with the vocabulary help that the conversation isn't working, I recommend that you quickly switch topics to something easier. The most important part of the conversation portion is that students are able to participate and practice using English. A topic that is too difficult should be abandoned so that the time allotted for conversation is used effectively.

At PLC school, all the teachers pay special attention to accurately identifying each students skill level so that they can be challenged with new material that is also conducive to use in the conversation portion of the class.

English Practice at Home and Helpful Links

Many of my students come to class once or twice a week, but they rarely practice English between sessions.

To speed up the learning process, I recommend that students study English at home on a daily basis.  This can be as simple as listening to English songs on YouTube, or better yet, watching movies or television shows in English.  Watching a movie in English can help build new vocabulary and it is very helpful in improving listening comprehension skills.

Additionally, there are a number of very good websites to help ESL students of all levels.  I recommend taking advantage of these resources in between classes as a way to keep English skills fresh in a student's mind.  Even if it is for only 30 minutes a day, this daily practice can really help a student learn English more rapidly.  

Here are some of my preferred websites for ESL learners.

http://www.languageguide.org/english/  This site is very good for learning basic vocabulary and it has a nice feature where if you place the cursor over an image or text you can hear the word pronounced aloud.

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab  Listening is often one of the most difficult skills for ESL students to learn.  Most classroom activities in Thailand focus on grammar, writing, and reading.  Often, students have much better comprehension when reading a text than they do when listening to the same This website gives students the chance to listen to native English spoken by adult and children's voices on a wide range of topics.

http://www.manythings.org/ This web site has quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions, anagrams, a random-sentence generator and other computer assisted language learning activities.  There are a number of listening activities here also and they recommend a number of links that should be helpful to English learners.

http://www.examenglish.com/index.html This web site is for people studying for an English language exam.
It contains free online practice tests for the most important international ESL exams: IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, and the Cambridge exams such as CAE, FCE, KET and PET.
You can also do practice tests for PTE Academic, PTE General and Michigan.

There are many other websites and resources out there.  If any readers have other recommended websites that I have not listed above, please share the links in the comments section below so that other students can benefit from them.