Teaching Phonetics...

[eng87]

Hello everyone,
I'm a native English (AmE) speaker and possess a basic TELF certificate. I've been an ESL teacher for around 5 years now, but recently I was asked to teach phonetics to some students. Problem is that I've never dealt with it, never studied it, and am expected to know it by next week... This is because now I'm going to be substituting a colleague who had obviously used it with these students.
My boss (non-native) has always told me it wouldn't be a problem if I didn't know this, but now I need it and would love to learn it in any case. I just don't want to mess up!

Is there any way I can learn to teach phonetics (at least the very basics) for next week? Is there anything (reliable) available online to study in the mean time? I have found so much information and so many resources, but in all honesty, it's a bit overwhelming and have no idea where to begin!

I really appreciate any help.... I'm feeling pretty embarrassed right about now!

Thank you!

 

[Tdol]

How much had they been taught? If you make sure you know you can write things out with a degree of confidence before you start, you will have at least covered the basics and can get your way through.

 

[eng87]

That's just it; I have no clue, and by the looks of it, it seems like they're at a beginner level, as in, they can't really pronounce anything at all without sounding extremely Italian, so I reckon they'll want me to cover everything from scratch again. I cannot get ahold of my colleague as she quit her job and my boss or other colleagues are too busy to help out, plus I'm sure most of them are in the same boat... gah...

 

[Tdol]

If they're beginners, make sure you can transcribe things and then teach pronunciation in your normal way. They're unlikely to be able to floor you with obscure questions.

 

[eng87]

All right then... I'll just have a stab at it and study very hard during the weekend. Is it enough to learn the phonetic symbols and their corrisponding sounds for now? They were taught some British English phonetics... but I'm American, so I guess I can't do that.

 

[eng87]

When I first started teaching phonetics/phonology, I found Gerald Kelly's How to Teach Pronunciation (Pearson) very useful indeed.

I'll see if I can find it here in Italy, I'm sure someone might have it at our school as well. I'll check it out for sure!!

@ Tdol: Thanks, I will try my best... I guess I can pull off at the very least, the basics and then steadily study and use the other stuff as I go...

 

[eng87]

Psicean, just I question... is it still okay to use even if I want to teach American phonetics? If it's Pearson, I'm assuming it's British English. Just curious!!
Thank you all so much... also, my boss gave me a few books on a Shenker method, what do you all think?