The Baufest Reading Corner

Buafest in-company lessons

lesson plan here and here

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THE BEAUFAST BOARD GAME BRINGS BRIGHT BEGINNINGS TO A NEW COURSEBOOK UNIT!

notes from Tuesday the 4th of June:

I hardly know what to say! [almost don't]
 I hardly have any time to go to the gym!
 I hardly see the sense in going!
I hardly know her!
I can hardly believe it!
I can hardly run, I'm so tired!


I hardly woke up on time today! [almost didn't]
I hardly arrived on-time today!

There are hardly any apples left! [almost none]
There's hardly any reason to be upset! [almost no]

I'm hardly 18 years old! [almost not]

I hardly ever read the paper! [almost never]

I had hardly arrived to the hospital when they told me the good news! [almost hadn't, when]
I had hardly got out of the car when it started to rain!

This job is very hard. [difficult]
He worked with difficulty [<--adverb]

This table is very hard. [solid]
He hit the table hard [<--adverb]

For a Tuesday, I'm really exhausted.
Although it's Tuesday, I'm really exhausted.
Even though it's Tuesday, I'm really exhausted.
Despite it being Tuesday, I'm really exhausted.

I'm looking forwatd to travelling, walking, beginning, reading, practising...

~ skills | READING ~

¡Read your way to better English!

read more riddles ('mind benders') here

The Landlady by Roald Dahl:-

► noun

(pl. landladies) a woman who rents 
out land, a building, or accommodation. 

■ a woman who keeps lodgings, a 
boarding house, or a pub.

A good level of commitment by everyone in reading the short story The Landlady in small sessions, and as such, making important steps towards mastering English.

Remember: a little practice – but very often – can go a long way!

your comments have been posted on this popular literature forum:

Click to view your comments as posted

It was a great story. It was full of mystery because even in the end, you didn’t know what happened with the boy.
– Andrés

The Landlady is a good story, but I don’t like how it ended. In the best part of the story, when you are getting really interested in what is going on in that house, it suddenly ended and left you with nothing. I was expecting to read how Billy was feeling – If he was scared or not – and about the woman’s story and intentions.
– Facundo

It was an interesting story but from the beginning I suspected what was going to happen.
– Victor

I think the author wrote a very detailed story with two types of interperetations. At first Weaver feels comfortable, then it seemed he would be attacked after the effect of the hidden substance inside the tea. And the other meaning I thought is that the woman has just some sort of mental disease, which causes her memory loss and living her life without a timline. There are clues but nothing certain, it holds the reader in suspense with a lot of strange things forcing us to use the imagination.
– Rodolfo

The story was great, it had the atmomsphere of every classic horror story, that doesn’t tell up to the end that you’re reading a horror story. But something deep inside of you knows that something there is not ok, giving you the clues that something terrible is going to happen until the end. To conclude, when you’ve realized everything you know that the protagonist probably is not going to have a ‘happy’ ending.
– Maximiliano

I think the story is great mainly for teenagers and young people, The characters are quite naïve, and yet there is a smart plot that like a trail leads the readers to an open end. Does the landlady truly exist? Has the young boy been poisoned?Are the other young guest still alive?. Good story. **** 
- Graciela

Now listen to the audio book below, as a perfect way to consolidate any new language you picked up reading the story.

 

Above music video contributed by Maximiliano 

during our reading skills lesson using excerpt of 

science fiction novel Brave New World...

 the excerpt:

from Pearson & Longman's Total English  p.138

~ skills | LISTENING ~

On The Honeymoon by Javier Marías (read by Baufest):-

  

The Landlady by Roald Dahl:-

audiobook:

part 1 available

part 2 available

part 3 available

part 4 available

~ skills | SPEAKING ~

more art after 'Super Stop The Bus' by describing 3D realistic digital objects (a form of 'kinaesthetic' learning i.e. learning via touching an holding things)

pronunciation:-

Find your 'Buafest pronunciation & spelling' pack as used in class here

  

~ skills | WRITING ~
  

during the week students use AR app to insert protagonist into Buenos Aires surrounds, out  of which we will develop a story.

(PDF)

A good way to peer-correct and self-correct is by using the pictured symbols; think about the corrections, correct and then and rewrite your text.

essential report writing phrases:-

From April the 23rd's lesson in which students wrote text type 'report' to prepare for next week's oral fluency lesson where they will discuss whether or not to invest in a new computer-based learning school for toddlers!

Introduction –
This report aims/sets out to …
The aim/purpose of this report is to …
The report is based on …

Findings –
It was found that …
The following points summarise our key findings.
The key findings are outlined below.

Conclusion/s –
It was decided/agreed/felt that …
It is clear that …
No conclusions were reached regarding …

Recommendation/s –
It is suggested/proposed/recommended that …
We (strongly) recommend that …
It is essential to …
It would be advisable to …

Signalling  –
The following areas of concern have been highlighted.
There are a number of reasons for …
There are several factors which affect …
A further factor is …
This raises a number of issues.
As might have been expected, …
Contrary to expectations, …


Homework due Thursday, April 18th:

Write a text about the interview of the sportsperson you made in class, using reporting verbs. Types of texts include: e-mail (students F and A), match review (V), report or letter (R), magazine (M).

use this as a model:
reported speech materials

and some of these reporting verbs:

Neutral Verbs -
Say, tell

Topic verbs -
Discuss, talk about

Non-attitude verbs -
Add, answer, ask, explain, reply, mention

Attitude verbs -
Claim, complain, warn, accuse, allege, blame, confirm, demand, deny, insinuate, insist, recommend, suggest, threaten

Other expressions -
Wanted to know, thought

A very good magazine article, with a neutral register, that is both interesting and engaging!

~ language | VOCABULARY ~

'Word Count', a fun and simple way to practise vocabulary. How many words can you find?

here is my blog post (from 2011) on 'gaol', and more on General American English's spelling standard. 

Another step closer to 'Mordor'; an important advance in leagal vocabulary, at least!

qualm (noun)
cope (verb) – compare to 'deal with' and 'manage'
rhyme (verb, and noun – a short poem)
hothouse (verb)

filthy (ungradable adjective)

creative (gradable adjective)

patient (gradable adjective)

I can't stand (+ object / + ing)

absent (ungradable adjective)

(to) sue

arson

file

convict

premium

insurance

guarantee

(to) sentence

appeal

fraud

butcher shop

witty

brilliant

ward

beg

brand-new

crystal-clear

so-called

witness

jury

judge

pickpocket

294 mouldy twenty-dollar notes

headstrong (energetically wilful and determined)
single-minded (concentrating on only one aim)
catch up with (Julie at the weekend)

catch up to (the blue team)
opinionated
get away with (murder)
come up with (a new idea)
cut down on
look up to
look forward to (+ing)
put up with


(to) convict
(to) sentence
burglar
burglary
pickpocket

from On The Honeymoon:-

tarrace
pick out
high heels
stance
(to) sling
stout
(to) smooth
date
passers-by
(to) peer
moan
dodge
striking
dizzy
tuck in/up
beckon
(to) flare
sole
scarcely
shriek
bewilder
sturdy
tottering gait
rendezvous (ron-day-voo)

from a lesson of unit 8:-

 

from The Landlady:-

~ language | GRAMMAR ~ 

Reported Speech:-

examples of reported speech in different contexts

from Tuesday the 9th of April's in-class blog:

I think it was a very productive lesson. Matt said (that)  __________.

Yes I agree, especially to review reported speech. V commented (that) ___________.

It's sunny today and looks like it will be a warm day. V said (that) ___________.

The sun is shinning in the sky. A commented (that) ____________.

I heard a lot of Portuguese music during my trip to Brazil, the only bad thing was listening to Axe, and nothing else, all night in the disco. M said (that) ____________________________________.

I don't understand Portuguese, so I would also have a bad time listening to that all night long.

F commented (that) ____________.

reporting verbs:

Neutral Verbs -
Say, tell

Topic verbs -
Discuss, talk about

Non-attitude verbs -
Add, answer, ask, explain, reply, mention

Attitude verbs -
Claim, complain, warn, accuse, allege, blame, confirm, demand, deny, insinuate, insist, recommend, suggest, threaten

Other expressions -
Wanted to know, thought

Modals must / might / can't for levels certainty:-

It must have been poison.
He might have been there on business.
He can't have organised to meet her: he only arrived in Seville yesterday.
He could have tried escaping before the posion affected him.
He musn't have had subway credit.
You must be here for the meeting.
There musn't be anyone home.

Relative clauses, defining | non-defining:-

The family at the end of the road, whose dog barks constantly, are thinking of moving.
My neighbour, whom I've always liked, has given me his old computer.
Tasmin's going to Australia for the winter, where her parents are living at the moment.
Tina's car, which she's had for years, is up for sale.
In the summer, when the weather is nice, we should go to the beach.



with prepositions,


The family at the end of the road, with whose daughter you play football, are thinking of moving.
My neighbour, to whom you gave your printer, has given me his old computer.
Tasmin's going to Australia for the winter, to where her parents travelled last year.
Tina's car, about (or of) which your brother was talking, is up for sale.
– all prepositions may be moved to end of the sentence, e.g. play football with, which is more common in spoken English.

Tina's the girl who (or that) is selling her car.
That's the old computer which (or that) my neighbour has given me.
Australia is the place where Tasmin is going.
Summer in Buenos Aires is the time when the porteños go to the beach.

~ language | FUNCTIONS ~ 

(see excerise on speech acts and the intention behind our words, e.g. it's hot in here...)

sequencing devices for storytelling:-

Having + past participle: having finished breakfast, he went to the subway.
After + ing: after entering the subway station, he realised he didn't have credit on his travel card.
Before + ing: before getting off the train, he had to quickly tie his shoelaces.
While + ing: while riding on the subway, he looked at the railway map.
On (upon) + ing: upon getting to work, he discovered a lot rubbish at the front door.

‛hoar frost' and 'rime' definitions

Extract from Jules Verne's The Adventures Of Captain Hatteras; four men, including the captain, have left their brig, frozen in for the winter, to cross the ice fields of the North Pole, with intention to find coal provisions that were left behind on a previous exploration:

All at once, without warning of any kind, a vapour rose from the ground in a complete state of congelation;it reached a height of about 90 feet, and remained stationary; they could not see a foot before them; it clung to their clothing, and bristled it with ice.Our travellers, surprised by the frost-rime, had all the same idea – that of getting near one another. They called out, 'Bell!' 'Simpson!' 'This way, doctor!' 'Where are you, captain?' But no answers were heard; the vapour did not conduct sound. They all fired as a sign of rallying. But if the sound of the voice appeared to week, the detonation of the firearms was too strong, for it was echoed in all directions, and produced a confused rumble without appreciable direction. Each acted then according to his instincts. Hatteras stopped, folded his arms, and waited. Simpson contented himself with stopping his sledge. Bell retraced his steps, feeling the traces with his hands. The doctor ran hither and dither bumping against the icebergs, falling down, getting up, andlosing himself more and more…

Development: Lessons from Stephen Krashen and the Natural Acquisition Theory

Commentary commentary 

An exercise I found today amongst some papers:

EXERCISE

meaningful input |  low anxiety situations |  natural communication |  communicative |

comprehensible input |  forcing and correcting production |  grammatical rules |  tedious drills

Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious _________ ____, and does not require ______ _______.

Acquisition requires ________ _________ in the target language, ______ ____________ in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding. 

The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in ___ ______ ______, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow Students to produce when they are 'ready', recognising that improvement comes from supplying ____________ and _______ _______, and not from _______________________. 

ANSWER KEY

Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammar rules, and does not require tedious drills.

Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language, natural communication in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding. 

The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow Students to produce when they are 'ready', recognising that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensive input, and not from forcing and correcting production. 

Stephen Krashen (influential linguist, b 1941) 

 

What about the studial learner with respect to the experiential and quick progression through the course — do schools' approaches to language acquisition appeal to our 'learn through experience' tendency as learners and bias away from our tendency to study a language?

Four proposed learner types in ELT

Both 'these methods do not force early production' and ‘when they are ready' resonate with me after having worked with this approach for several years at language centres around Buenos Aires (for Wall Street Institute, now Wall Street English).

Some history: the 'natural approach' is summarised by the above exercise by Stephen Krashen, linguistics professor emeritus at the University of Southern California. Krashen is the creator of important language acquisition hypotheses on which schools have based teaching methods, to which I can give testimony here. 

Audio-lingual methods fell from
popularity in the 1950s

The natural method aims to teach a second language in large part through an immersion in it – it brings the immersion approach to the classroom setting. It builds its arguments from natural acquisition we experienced post birth, it is based on the same principles. Conditions are set up that will imitate a mother-tongue acquisition setting with all materials in, and all staff speaking, the target language (TL). Learners are made aware that they can only speak the TL when inside the school. 

The natural method came to fruition early 20th century as an answer to a growing dissatisfaction with older grammar-translation methods. 

Such a method had been proposed in the 18th and 19th centuries, proposing languages should be taught in the language being learned. It then found reinforcement in the 1970s in a language teaching revolution of sorts, since which time a variety of new communicative-based methods have emerged, one of which was what I worked with at Wall Street Institute.

In my EFL lessons (lessons in non-English speaking countries) it is only in exceptional cases I use the learners' first language (L1). I develop other clarifying techniques, e.g., gesture, mime, use of sound, drawings, synonyms, opposites, collocation, clines, examples, explanation, dictionaries, picture-matching cards, partial modelling, realia (real objects). The learner can benefit from learning these skills, likewise. There are psycholinguistic and biopsychological findings that support increased retention in relation to taking the longer more difficult path to signalling meaning, i.e., by adopting these skills over translation methods (giving away the answer in Spanish). The language faculties are given their full workout ergo greater likelihood of retention.

All of which corresponds with the communicative-based approach of immersive schools, which are based on Krashen’s hypotheses for language acquisition. 

At Wall Street Institute centres, staff are encouraged to use target language (TL) with learners. This means the structures, vocabulary, functional language, pragmatics, phrases and expressions of English surround learners and sets up those 'natural' conditions already mentioned. Exposure is also had on-line at home through interactive multimedia, in ‘Speaking Centres’, through native speaker teachers and of course other learners (particularly in ‘Social Classes’).

Despite this, for most learners, exposure is mainly had via computers. Additionally, many learners’ attendance rate to the centres is not ideal, which means eliciting language from the learner, or sometimes groups of learners, is the lion’s share of the teacher's work in the ‘Encounter’ (the Encounter is the monthly level-checking meeting of 55 minutes, pass or fail). At any rate, I enjoy developing CELTA techniques with respect to eliciting whilst maximising STT (student talk time) and minimising TTT (teacher talk time).

A Multimedia Lab or Speaking Centre

In an ideal Encounter the learner can produce most of the required language naturally, little aware they have done so. In such an Encounter, there is time left over for clarifying doubts and heightening language awareness, for chatting and improving general fluency (also an Encounter criterion).

It is great to witness a click for some learners; where for others it was gradual. There are moments in which oral fluency opens up for learners and the language to which they have been being exposed for long durations is there and available for them to use. At times they have had to fail and repeat their course unit; this repetition and that which is inherent to the course itself help this click occur. Sometimes in magic moments of this type, passive understandings of things become active and able to be discussed.

It is at these times I enjoy seeing the methodology in action, its promise delivered.

My Encounters always include praise and tailored feedback; the fewer the learners in an Encounter there are, the more tailored the feedback can be in the allotted 5 minutes.

Returning to the aforementioned studial versus experiential tendency we have to varying degrees,    it is the learners of both low exposure and low tendency to study who generally progress through  slowly. 

While understanding the real-world constraints that exist here in Buenos Aires, I wish learners would attend more of the immersive activities, those on which the method hinges, because the reality inside the classroom, as I sense it, is that the method leaves behind learners who are not able to attend the classes that simulate the immersive condition and then do not have enough studial materials either available to compensate.

Under controlled, less controlled, and then freer conditions, learners are exposed to each language point to acquire. This is a very careful joinery to acquisition, relative to the retention available through studial methods. Learners can organise speaking practice with the centres' personal tutors (Argentinian nationals), or by taking 'Complementary Classes' or 'Social Classes' (with L1 speakers) or simply by speaking to staff and peers around the centre; Complementary are focussed on practice of language, i.e. useful functional language, vocabulary, and grammar, in varied contexts, and for Social Classes learners can put their their skills to use, i.e. speaking, listening, reading and writing.

The Encounter, therefore, involved clarifying and reteaching of the language points. 

Checking in with leaners regarding their course objectives, a mere improvement in general fluency (listening or oral) by interacting with English-speaking expats is not everyone's aim.  

I know that without the exposure to L2 here in Argentina I wouldn't have developed some invaluable aspects of fluency; equally, pen-and-paper self-study of Spanish grammar, was also, I know now, invaluable. 

Ultimately, I think studying language as an adult is important and not just strictly absorbing it experientially. I think natural production of the language is facilitated with immersion. However, this strict picking-up of the language, implicit in the approach, seemed to also leave deficits and delays in production. It seems that applying the critical period of acquisition we have had in younger years to adulthood has its flaws despite Krashen's hypotheses. 

Find here a teacher-learner guide I put together whilst working at the school 'Understanding the Learner, which I've referred back to many a time.

From 2022 ‘Adults are better language learners than children’ (in studial settings)

In Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd. Ed.). Richards J. & Rodgers T. (2003). Cambridge University Press.

"The Direct Method was quite successful in private language schools, such as those of the Berlitz chain, where paying clients had high motivation and the use of native-speaking teachers was the norm. But despite pressure from proponents of the method, it was difficult to implement in public secondary school education. It overemphasised and distorted the similarities between naturalistic first language learning and classroom foreign language learning and failed to consider the practical realities of the classroom. In addition, it lacked a rigorous basis in applied linguistic theory, and for this reason it was often criticised by the more academically based proponents of the Reform Movement. The Direct Method represented the product of enlightened amateurism. It was perceived to have several drawbacks. It required teachers who were native speakers or who had nativelike fluency in the foreign language. It was largely dependent on the teacher's skill, rather than on a textbook, and not all teachers were proficient enough in the foreign language to adhere to the principles of the method. Critics pointed out that strict adherence to Direct Method principles was often counterproductive, since teachers were required to go to great lengths to avoid using the native language, when sometimes a simple, brief explanation in the student's native language would have been a more efficient route to comprehension.

The Harvard psychologist Roger Brown has documented similar problems with strict Direct Method techniques. He described his frustration in observing a teacher performing verbal gymnastics in an attempt to convey the meaning of Japanese words, when translation would have been a much more efficient technique (Brown 1973: 5)." (p.12-13)

Lack of Grading, Student Talk Time and CCQs common in the field

Commentary

It was surprising to see the teacher-centred, faced-paced, complex and idiomatic language used occasionally around the EFL classrooms here in Argentina, by  travelling native speaker teachers. 

grading (language): the way in which teachers simplify their classroom language in the interests of intelligibility, especially with beginners and elementary learners. 

It is possible to over-grade, admittedly.

Second to that is TTT, teacher talk time, as contrasted with STT, student talk time: learners should be speaking at least 80% of the class. 

Observation: Ts in the field are not engaged in trying to create various space s for learners to talk.

Learning Spanish myself, people sometimes assume I understand it proficiently, causing me confusion at times and even dispiritedness.

These are important takeaways from the CELTA course that helped me find work here in Argentina. 

'do you understand?' is another phrase my ears are exposed to. 

Enter Concept Checking Questions (CCQs)! 

Do not use target language (TL/language point being taught) within CCQs nor language that is of greater complexity than the TL.

Keeping it simple:–

Tom ran up the stairs.

What did Tom do? He ran.

In what direction? Up.

Where? The stairs.

√ 

From University of Cambridge's CELTA Trainee book, on grading:

Read sentences a–g. Tick five sentences that offer good advice. Cross out the other two sentences.

a  Pronounce each word slowly and deliberately.
b  Use gestures, pictures and other things that will support what you are saying to make it easier to understand.
c  Speak with natural rhythm and intonation.
d  Miss out small words (articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs and so on) so that the learners can focus on the 'content' words and understand the message.
e  Speak at a natural speed, but pause slightly longer after each 'chunk', if necessary.
f  Try to avoid 'difficult' vocabulary (for example, very idiomatic language).
g  Try to avoid complex grammar patterns.

a  Pronounce each word slowly and deliberately.

b  Use gestures, pictures and other things that will support what you are saying to make it easier to understand. √

c  Speak with natural rhythm and intonation. √

d  Miss out small words (articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs and so on) so that the learners can focus on the 'content' words and understand the message.

e  Speak at a natural speed, but pause slightly longer after each 'chunk', if necessary. √

f  Try to avoid 'difficult' vocabulary (for example, very idiomatic language). √

g  Try to avoid complex grammar patterns. √

On the History of English Pronunciation

commentary

OE = Old English (c. 550 to c. 1250)

ME = Middle English (c. 1150 to c. 1470)

What did Middle-English sound like? Well, seeing that Middle-English is a dead language, and as there are no aural but only visual records of it (i.e. in the form of writing), we really don't know for sure. Yet English is a phonographic language and one way we can know is by looking at its spelling – a phonographic language is one whose letters match onto speech sounds, for example C gives us a /k/ sound, A gives us an /æ/ sound, and T a /t/ sound, such that when pronounced together we have the sound that represents

Of course, the relationship between thing to sound is completely arbitrary, as, indeed, each language terms this furry creature differently. Irrespective of this, with a word's spelling in English we usually have an idea of its sound. 

One of Chaucer's most
accurate portraits.

By looking at the works of one of the language's most celebrated poets, Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400), we can get a great idea of how the language was used and how it sounded in his period. Firstly, through the spelling of the works – perhaps the most obvious and direct way. Secondly, by looking at how words would rhyme then. Another method, 'comparative reconstruction', is also possible, which looks at how other related languages were functioning at that time. 

As mentioned English is phonographic. However, this phonographic writing system wasn't devised by Chaucer, nor in the ME period in which he wrote. These letters were developed centuries earlier from the Greek alphabet for the writing of Latin (observe the Greek words alhpa: A, and beta: B, and the Latin: alphabetum). During a time of Christianisation in England, Anglo-Saxon scribes were tasked with creating a Roman alphabet for the English language (i.e. to 'romanize' it; to use letters from the Latin spoken by the Romans). The scribes had been trained to write in Latin, thus, in adopting the alphabet for English, they sensibly maintained the same correspondences between sounds and letters. These letters have been handed down more or less unchanged (from OE through ME) to present-day English, and as a result, many of the consonants used by Chaucer have the same sounds today.

'Futhorc runes' are a slight adap-

tion for OE of an Anglo-Saxon-

Frisian writing system, this one

dying out c. 1000, in England.

Not all sounds were found in Latin, however. For example, the voiced 'th' sound we still use today /ð/ (this, other, smooth, mother), and the unvoiced /θ/ (thing, author, path). So they turned to the Germanic alphabet and its runes, which they were familiar with from their earlier use in Northern Europe and Scandinavia; an alphabet characterised by its angular letter shapes suited for carving on stone or wood. The letter they borrowed from such alphabet was 'thorn', appearing as  (formed today by letters TH).

Thorn fell out of use the in 16th century when it began to be written using curved strokes, thereby confusing it with the letter Y. Note mistakes in existing archaistic shop signs bearing 'ye olde…' (where 'the old…' is meant), and yet ye, with a Y, is actually an archaic plural form 'thou': e olde inn would be more correct, or authentic.

While consonants mightn't have changed a great deal, the same cannot be said for vowel sounds, and herein lies most of the doubt. By looking at the way Chuacer's words rhymed we get a glimpse at the differences in some of the ways the vowels sounded. Chaucer rhymed 'good' with 'blood', 'town' with 'region', and 'mice' with 'malice'. 'Good' and 'blood' had a round O sound, quite logically. Today we spell this sound generally with O-A as in 'boat', or, with E at the end as in 'vote'  (sometimes called the magic E). 'Town' and 'region' rhymed correctly according to the pronunciation of Chaucer's time: 'town' was actually spelt with a U, tun (as was house, mouse, down, how) and represented a long U sound as in 'goose'; 'region' was borrowed into English during a large-scale adoption of French and Latin vocabulary, and was sounded, in its French mediæevil period, with a long U sound, alike (stress on the second syllable). And so, in this way we can reconstruct Chaucer's vowel sounds with some confidence.  

Listen to a reading of Chaucer's Canterbery Tales here.

At some point during the 'great vowel shift' of the 16th century all of these sounds have changed into various diphthongs. Interestingly, this shift affected Scottish accents differently, so much that the Chuacerian pronunciation can still be found in Scotland today (listen here). The aspirated W in 'when', 'what', 'who', 'where', 'which' survived, principally, in Scottish pronunciation.

Note that while pronunciation, indeed, has changed quite a lot, spelling has remained relatively stable. Spelling has been codified in dictionaries and grammar books. Students are taught a standard, or a fixed spelling system. A standard as such did not exist in Chaucer's day, and as a result spellings differed from place to place, and between those of his contemporaries (John Gower, William Langland, and authors of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight). In the 15th century this changed with the birth of a standard, one which has mostly remained unchanged. 

Silent letters are relics of earlier pronunciations that have since changed. Such as the droppings of the letters in 'knight', 'gnaw', and 'comb'. This dropping of letters was not recorded in the standard. One good way we can know they were indeed pronounced is by looking at alliteration used in the poetry of these times. In addition to that, most other Germanic languages have retained pronunciation of the letters, such that, a little sound may be heard before the T in 'knight', for example (Germanic languages are a group of modern languages English is related to. Those are German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Danish, which were all once part of one language know as proto-germanic, of which no text survived). At length, by comparing the roots of these other languages, i.e. Old-English, Old-Norse, and Gothic, we can deduce what their common original must have been like and gain insights into how these related languages were functioning.

In fact, the spelling system of today, frustrating as it is for its non-native learners, is more valuable as a guide for the pronunciation of Chaucer's English, and useful for understanding mediævil English pronunciation, than it is to our own.

Prologue to The Summoner's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

original text:                                           modern translation:

	This frere bosteth that he knoweth helle,	This friar boasts that he knows hell,
	And God it woot, that it is litel wonder;	And God knows that it is little wonder;
	Freres and feendes been but lyte asonder.	Friars and fiends are seldom far apart.
	For, pardee, ye han ofte tyme herd telle	For, by God, you have ofttimes heard tell
	How that a frere ravyshed was to helle	How a friar was taken to hell
	In spirit ones by a visioun;	In spirit, once by a vision;
	And as an angel ladde hym up and doun,	And as an angel led him up and down,
	To shewen hym the peynes that the were,	To show him the pains that were there,
	In al the place saugh he nat a frere;	In all the place he saw not a friar;
	Of oother folk he saugh ynowe in wo.	Of other folk he saw enough in woe.
	Unto this angel spak the frere tho:	Unto this angel spoke the friar thus:
	Now, sire, quod he, han freres swich a grace	"Now sir", said he, "Have friars such a grace
	That noon of hem shal come to this place?	That none of them come to this place?"
	Yis, quod this aungel, many a millioun!	"Yes", said the angel, "many a million!"
	And unto sathanas he ladde hym doun.	And unto Satan the angel led him down.
	--And now hath sathanas,--seith he,--a tayl	"And now Satan has", he said, "a tail,
	Brodder than of a carryk is the sayl.	Broader than a galleon's sail.
	Hold up thy tayl, thou sathanas!--quod he;	Hold up your tail, Satan!" said he.
	--shewe forth thyn ers, and lat the frere se	"Show forth your arse, and let the friar see
	Where is the nest of freres in this place!--	Where the nest of friars is in this place!"
	And er that half a furlong wey of space,	And before half a furlong of space,
	Right so as bees out swarmen from an hyve,	Just as bees swarm out from a hive,
	Out of the develes ers ther gonne dryve	Out of the devil's arse there were driven
	Twenty thousand freres on a route,	Twenty thousand friars on a rout,
	And thurghout helle swarmed al aboute,	And throughout hell swarmed all about,
	And comen agayn as faste as they may gon,	And came again as fast as they could go,
	And in his ers they crepten everychon.	And every one crept into his arse.
	He clapte his tayl agayn and lay ful stille.	He shut his tail again and lay very still.

On masses of ice

From The Adventures of Captain Hatteras by Jules Verne:

'They scarcely leave a passage for the [brig] Forward. Just examine that immense plain over there.'

'The whalers call that in our language an icefield, that is to say a continued surface of ice the limits of which cannot be perceived.'

'And on that side, that broken field, those long pieces of ice more or less joined at their edges?'

'That is a pack; if it was of a circular form we should call it a patch; and, if the form was longer, a stream.'

'And there, those floating icebergs?'

'Those are drift ice; if they were a little higher they would be icebergs or hills; their contact with vessels is dangerous, and must be carefully avoided. Here look over there: on that iceberg there is a protuberance produced by the pressure of the icebergs; we call that hummock; if that protuberance was submerged to its base we should call it a calf. It was very necessary to give names to all those forms in order to recognise them.'

'It is truly a marvellous spectacle!' exclaimed the doctor, contemplating the wonders of the Boreal Seas; 'There is a field for the imagination in such pictures!'

‛iceblink' definition

► noun

a bright appearance of the sky caused by reflection from a distant ice sheet.

From The Adventures of Captain Hatteras by Jules Verne:

'The master signalled the first sight of the iceblink; it was about 20 miles to the N.N.W. This glaring white strip was brilliantly lighted up, in spite of the presence of the thick clouds in the neighbouring parts of the sky. Experienced people on board could make no mistake about this phenomenon, and declared, from its whiteness, that the blink was owing to a large ice-field, situated at about 30 miles out of sight, and that it proceeded from the reflection of luminous rays.'

'The weather cleared up, and the eye could sweep over the white plains in the distance, which the reflection of the sun's rays rendered dazzling.'

Animal vocabulary time with beginners! – WSI

Learner feedback unimportant?

commentary

from Jim Scrivener's 'Learning Teaching' about teachers' initial worries in class:

• I hope I don't say anything silly.
• What on Earth can I do next?
• Do they like me?
• That activity only lasted three minutes, and I thought it'd last 45.
• This is lasting forever, and I thought it would take three minutes.
• I feel so confused.
• I don't really understand this thing I'm teaching.
• Is the observer going to catch me out? What's she writing?
• This is so boring.

a solution for which, Jim suggests, lies in continually gaining feedback from the learners in order to fine-tune our intuitive responses.

aught

'before aught else, we must be free'
— Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Silvia's English Corner

Private tuition – general oral fluency only: Silvia Mucci (Minister for the Environment, Buenos Aires Province)

Social Outings – WSI

A day out in the Japanese Gardens

An evening at the Irish pub