Session 3A
Title: Motivation and Clear Speaking

Abstract:
Motivating individual students to focus on clear speaking in English outside class time is an issue made more acute by majority monolingual classes. In EAP courses, speaking is assessed by presentation and tutorial performance. By limiting the focus to clear speaking for these assessments and allowing students to efficiently self diagnose their own pronunciation issues in the first lesson, the teacher is able to co-create individual pronunciation contracts that allow students to improve their performance over the course. This interactive workshop is designed to present a model of a one page pronunciation diagnostic sheet and a contract that will be written out and signed by the student and revisited by the teacher at regular intervals during the course. It then looks at ways students can use their phones and pads to create “selfies”, using them to create positive feedback loops to encourage students to alter pronunciation patterns. The focus on a systematic pronunciation system, alignment with the assessment, personal contracts, individual consultation and the use of "selfies" for pronunciation practice is designed to motivate students and target the pronunciation taught in time poor classes.

Biodata:
Maria Laudenbach is an EAP teacher at the Centre of English Teaching, Sydney University. She has taught in many countries including Japan, East Timor, Vietnam and Kuwait. She is interested in the concept of “course alignment” so that courses are focused on teaching students how to do well in their assessments. This useful idea can lead to higher student motivation as well as provide positive feedback on the assessments themselves.