Pronunciation with Wlodek Barbosa

[Włodzimierz Sobkowiak]

Tonight we looked again at the last Wed's notecard with 60 words and 10 sentences containing phonetically contrasting Br/Am vocabulary. We identified the main areas of difference: pronunciation (or not) of /r/ and vowel differences, for example in words like "body", with /o/ in British and /a/ in American English. Pawlus Twine helped us with American English, which happens to be his accent in EFL... Thank you, Pawlus!

Then we started the surprise activity of "Get them all" (see one of four player notecards below). This took more time than planned, probably because it required private voice chatting, which tends to be time-consuming and glitchy in SL... Most students did collect quite a few sound files by bartering, so time was not wasted in this pair activity, I believe. Next time we'll start with a little debriefing of this activity.


Get them all! (Am-Br word game) - player 1
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(C) Wlodek Barbosa

16 words/phrases were recorded, half of them in British English, half in American. Each player gets a notecard where 4 of them have their sound files attached (in the SL notecard -- WB): two are pronounced in British English and two -- in American English. The first task of the player is to "get them all!", i.e. talk to the other players on private voice chat and obtain the other 12 recordings. The second task is to complete his/her notecard with the 12 spellings and attach the recordings to them. The third task is to divide the words/phrases on the list into two halves: British and American. The winner is the player who completes all these tasks first and passes the notecard to the teacher.

Words/phrases for player 1:
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4 bottles of beer
autumn
cheese block
corn

[Abraxas]

You are welcome! :)

[Włodzimierz Sobkowiak]

glitch - a small and sudden problem, especially with technology such as a computer (Macmillan Dictionary)
So: "glitchy" (adj) private voice chat simply means: "such that creates technical problems". This is my personal impression of private chat, orf course :-). I guess things work better now than they used to some time ago... :-)

Thank you for your question, Abraxas. I appreciate you taking such active part in our sessions. This helps.

[Abraxas]

Hi Wlodek,
Thanks for your lessons. I mostly enjoy to be there - except I am feeling a bit under the weather. :)
Could do me a favour and explain the meaning of "glitchy", please? Here an extract of your post:...which tends to be time-consuming and glitchy in SL..."

Thanks in advance for your appreciated help!
Kind regards,
Martina