Facebook groups for Polish EFL teachers 1

In this post I'd like to recommend a few Facebook groups for English language teachers that I belong to. They're all in Polish, but then again, most of my readers are native Polish speakers.

Nauczyciele angielskiego is the largest, most popular group for English language teachers in Poland. Started in 2012, managed by four Wonder Women (you know who you are) and boasting over 23,000 members, the group is a veritable cornucopia of information regarding teaching English in Polish schools: curricula, materials, textbooks, classroom management, dealing with difficult students and helicopter parents, working at state and private schools and an immense number of teaching ideas. The group organises annual conferences (sing. Zlot) which attract over 120 English teachers from all over Poland as well as TEFL publishers, authors of materials and teacher trainers. Yours truly has had the honour of giving three opening speeches: in 2017, 2018 and 2019, two of which concerned English pronunciation. Since the first Zlot of 2015 the interest in the group and its events has exploded.
Most of the members are English teachers working for state schools, but many work in kindergartens, independent (private) schools, universities, colleges or private language schools. Native English speakers are in a minority, particularly those who are not fluent in Polish, but even with a little Polish it's possible to find a lot of information and participate in conversations. The group has quite a few trainee teachers who are still learning the tricks of the trade. Some of the group members are academics like myself and mention the group to their students in English departments, thus adding to the snowball effect of its popularity.
The group is neatly organised, the posts having keywords or tags, so you can easily find your way when searching for a particular topic.

Codzienna kawa nauczycieli angielskiego is the off-topic "daughter" group of Nauczyciele angielskiego, managed by the same admins. A picture of a cup of coffee greets the members every morning, hence its name. In the group you'll have a chance to talk about anything except for TEFL or school matters; discussions range from gardening, cooking or buying shoes to fixing computer bugs, with lots of humour, puns, memes and links to British comedy shows thrown in.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Pronunciation of "be-"

Polish speakers of English often mispronounce the initial letters "be-" as simply /bɛ/ or sometimes /bi/. In fact, the pronunciation differs depending on whether the first syllable is stressed and the vowel qualities are quite different from Polish vowels.

Ex. 1 Put the following words in two categories according to how "be-" is pronounced.

a. /bɪ/ b. /be/
because, Bentley, below, become, Belgium, between, Benjamin, bespoke, berry, bemoan, bench, bereave, beneath, best, beseech, before, beckon, begin, beget, bewitch, beyond

Ex. 2 Fill in the gaps with some of the words used in Ex. 1. Put the words in the correct form if necessary.

a. Brussels is the capital of ...................... .

b. Hugh knew he had to either lie to his wife or risk a terrible row. He was ...................... the devil and the deep blue sea.

c. Cruel fate ...................... the family of their youngest child.

d. In yesterday's lecture the professor ...................... the state of education in the digital age.

e. It would be ...................... me/my dignity to beg my boss for a pay rise.

f. The audience were fascinated, as if ......................, as the opera singer sang a difficult aria without a single false note.

g. The king doesn't buy ordinary clothes like common people. He has a ...................... tailor who makes all his garments.

h. Having lost all his money, the aristocrat ...................... his creditors to cancel his debt.

KEY

Ex. 1 a. /bɪ/ because, below, become, between, bespoke, bemoan, bereave, beneath, beseech, before, begin, beget, bewitch, beyond
b. /be/ Bentley, Belgium, Benjamin, berry, bench, best, beckon

Ex. 2 a. Belgium, b. between, c. bereaved/bereft, d. bemoaned, e. beneath, f. bewitched, g. bespoke, h. beseeched/besought

Pronunciation of "ough"

The sequence of letters "ough" is arguably one of the most infamous cases of English spelling. It can be pronounced in at least five different ways in ordinary words and some more in proper names. Here, as usual, we are concerned with RP.
I used toPhonetics at https://tophonetics.com/.

Ex. Transcribe the following words paying special attention to the letters "ough". They can be pronounced in the following ways:
/ə/, /əʊ/, /aʊ/, /ɒf/, /u:/, /ʌf/, /ʌp/

though, dough, through, borough, thorough, hiccough, Slough, enough, cough, Loughborough


KEY
/ðəʊ/, /dəʊ/, /θruː/, /ˈbʌrə/, /ˈθʌrə/, /ˈhɪkʌp/, /slaʊ/, /ɪˈnʌf/, /kɒf/, /lʌfb(ə)rə/

Pronunciation of digraphs beginning with "e"

I wrote the transcriptions in Ex. 1 using ToPhonetics at tophonetics.com.

Ex. 1 Look at the following words and write how to pronounce the digraphs beginning with the letter "e". Note that in some words the letters in question belong to different syllables (so the letter combinations are not technically digraphs).

EA   read (infinitive), read (past), lead (verb), lead (metal, Pb), Reading, dream team, create, reapply
EE seem, keep, need, week, peek, deer, leer
EI beige, foreign, heist, neighbour, receive, reign, reindeer, weird
EO neon, Leo, deontic, deodorant
EU Europe, eulogy, reuse (verb, noun)

Ex. 2 Are the following pairs of words pronounced the same?

a. sweet - sweat   b. peel - peal   c. wheel - we'll   d. peek - peak   e. way - whey   f. wether - weather g. wheat - wait   h. meet - meat   i. pear - peer   j. tear (crying) - tear (rip)


KEY

Ex. 1
EA /riːd/, /red/, /liːd/, /led/, /ˈredɪŋ/, /driːm tiːm/, /kri(ː)ˈeɪt/, /ˌriːəˈplaɪ/
EE /siːm/, /kiːp/, /niːd/, /wiːk/, /piːk/, /dɪə/, /lɪə/

EI /beɪʒ/, /ˈfɒrɪn/, /haɪst/, /ˈneɪbə/, /rɪˈsiːv/, /reɪn/, /ˈreɪndɪə/, /wɪəd/

EO /ˈniːən/, /ˈli(ː)əʊ/, /di(ː)'ɒntɪk/ or /deɪ'ɒntɪk/, /diːˈəʊdərənt/
EU /ˈjʊərəp/, /ˈjuːləʤi/, /riːˈjuːz/ (verb), /-s/ (noun)

Ex. 2 Ex. 2 a. no, b. yes, c. yes, d. yes, e. yes, f. yes, g. no, h. yes, i. no, j. no

Pronunciation of "e" and "e" with diacritic marks

Dear Readers, I'm back after a long break, ready to begin another year of teaching English pronunciation.

I looked up a few words in Cambridge Dictionary at dictionary.cambridge.org while writing today's exercises.

Ex. 1 Put the following words in categories depending on the pronunciation of "e". Some words have more than one letter "e".

left, Pete, abdomen, crumpet, deck, women, den, trumpet, barren, neck, jet, psyche, kite, Crete, mete, shake, Swedish

1. /e/   2. /iː/  3. /ə/   4. /ɪ/   5. silent

Ex. 2 Choose the correct transcription of the following borrowings which contain the letter "e" with diacritics. Remember that we are interested in Anglicisation according to the rules of RP, not in the original French pronunciation.

1. pâté, 2. fiancé, 3. café, 4. cafetière, 5. cause célèbre

1. A. /peɪt/, B. /ˈpæt.eɪ/, C. /'pæt.i/
2. A. /fjɒns/, B. /fiˈɒn.seɪ/, C. /'fjæn.si/
3. A. /kɑːf/, B. /ˈkæf.eɪ/, C. /kɑː'f.eɪ/
4. A. /kəf.ə'tj.eə/, B. /ˌkæf.əˈtjeə/, C. /'kɑːf.ətj.ə/
5. A. /kəʊ. 'seləbə/, B. /ˌkɔːz selˈeb.rə/, C /kɒs sə.ləb'.rɑː/


KEY

Ex. 1 1. /e/ left, deck, den, neck, jet 2. /iː/ Pete, Crete, mete, Swedish 3. /ə/ abdomen, barren,    4. /ɪ/ crumpet, women, trumpet, psyche (the allophone /i/)   5. silent Pete, kite, Crete, mete, shake
Ex. 2 All the options B are correct. 1. /ˈpæt.eɪ/, 2. /fiˈɒn.seɪ/, 3. /ˈkæf.eɪ/, 4. /ˌkæf.əˈtjeə/, 5.  /ˌkɔːz selˈeb.rə/