A world of Emo-pron Stories for the EFL young learner

The moment I came across Phonics, I fell in love with this approach to teaching reading and writing. It is a popular method, especially designed for native speakers of English. It is a creative approach that quickly helps learners decode the English alphabet, by relating letters to sounds (Celce-Murcia et al., 2008). Interestingly, it has also been welcome and widely used in EFL classrooms, yet some adjustments have proved vital.

Created for young native speakers, this approach implies a prior mastery of English sounds. Conversely, EFL students should learn new words and sounds before getting into actual phonics. Therefore, there are extra steps that EFL teachers should take: the teaching of new words containing new sounds. A further problem: The existing phonics material does not cover non-native speakers’ needs (Jenkins, 2000). EFL teachers need to think about the particular sounds that EFL learners need to acquire.

Even if non-native English-speaking children are taught to read and write in their mother tongue through phonics, their strategies are untransferable to English. For example, when an EFL learner is taught the word ‘three’, they may end up producing >free< or >tree< if the needed consonant sound is not part of their mother tongue. >TH< may be simple to Peninsular (Spain) Spanish learners, where teachers may relate the articulation of >TH< sound to ‘Cecilia’ or ‘zanahoria.’ In Spanish-speaking Latin America, this articulation has to be acquired, as the voiceless dental fricative >TH< is non-existent. It is very difficult to avoid a habitual articulation of the mother tongue (Swam & Bernard, 2001).

How can EFL teachers fight the interference of the mother tongue, and still use an approach like phonics, which makes learning enjoyable? To put it in Vygostkian terms, the mother tongue may be the starting point where new articulatory habits begin, and the new sounds will emerge through the activation of the “zone of proximal development” (Read, 2011). In River-Plate (Argentine) Spanish, >TH< is not found. It may be articulated when people put their tongue out. Still, speakers need to push some air out: This combination of movement and sound is the articulation that triggers the “zone of proximal development.” If teachers were to describe all the procedure to young learners, this procedure would simply be forgotten, as meta-language cannot be used with children. A memorable story —whose conflict includes the new sound— may be the scaffold needed

Stories are really important because they create an emotional bond with children. A sound like >TH< should be “noticed” in the conflict of a story and will be noticed before it is acquired. This is in keeping with the Noticing Hypothesis (Schmidt, 1993). Teachers need to create a magical learning environment, with perfect scaffolds to introduce the sounds to change articulatory habits (Palavecino, 2021).

An approach to acquire new sounds is of foremost importance before plunging in phonics.?EFL learners need to learn new words that native speakers already know, and those words are linked to new sounds that EFL learners must acquire if they are inexistent in the mother tongue. Anyway, how can we teach new words, new sounds, new articulatory habits and make the learning process effective? Can you say: “put the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge and push forward to say >j< or >g<”? That will be overwhelming, especially with beginners. I suggest an approach to new articulation that is more brain-friendly.

Have you ever heard about the effect of stories and the brain? It is interesting that our brain is framed for storytelling. Stories are powerful because they create an emotional bond with the audience. Our brain is prepared to remember things that are connected to emotions. When we enjoy an activity, the brain releases a chemical called oxytocin, which is the chemical of pleasure, and if we sympathize with the characters, dopamine, the chemical of sympathy and love, is released. No matter how good or bad your learners are at remembering things, they will remember what is stored in the areas of emotion, laughter, and what surprises them.?

There are additional elements that are activated through stories like Neural Coupling. A story activates parts in the brain that allows the listener to turn the story into their own ideas and experience. You remember more what you experience yourself.

Why not change articulatory behaviour by changing our brain chemistry through stories??This is the approach I am suggesting. What if we created a memorable story whose conflict has to do with the sound that needs to be noticed, especially if it contains a place of articulation that is particularly difficult to show. Maybe this could well be the scaffold that was needed. The missing link between EFL phonics and Phonics per se.?At the same time, teachers would approach the teaching of sounds differently. It will be like killing two birds with one stone.

Unlike literature, these narrative pieces, which I dare call “emo-pron”[1] stories, introduce a conflict that is NOT solved through a moral, but by acquiring a new articulatory habit, which will be memorable because stories are powerful, and create the required emotional bond with the audience .?

In literature, conflicts are settled differently. Emo-pron stories are solved through a fantasy world containing the new articulation. Some key features in this approach to Emo-pron stories include:

·??????An approximation to the new sound in the mother tongue,

·??????A playful movement as a scaffold to acquire the sound,

·??????The creation of a phonics story with a conflict solvable through the new articulation, and

·??????Figurative language to create a memorable phonics character.

The story will also help relate sound to spelling. Once memory is activated, training to hear the sounds in words follows (Reilly & Reilly, 2005).

In short, children enter the imaginative world that the story creates (Palavecino, 2022). When new sounds are presented in familiar narrative forms, the memory structure facilitates the brain’s retention of that information. These stories have the potential to hook children to the solution of the problem which naturally leads them to acquire new articulatory habits. The author of this paper has created a collection of Emo-pron stories to suit non-native young learners’ needs, songs and games. Every teacher can create their own Emo-pro story world as well.

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References

Celce-Murcia, M. et al. (2008). Teaching Pronunciation. A Reference for Teachers of?English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge University Press.

Jenkins J. (2000). The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford University Press.

Palavecino S. (2021). ‘Pronunciation Teaching Environments that can nourish your mind, heart and soul.’ IATEFL Pronsig Conference. October 2021.

Palavecino, S. (2022). ‘EFL Story Books & Resources.’ https://eflphonics.com.ar/efl-phonics-story-books.

Schmidt, R (1993). ‘Awareness and Second Language Acquisition.’ Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 13.206-26

Read, C. (2011). ‘Carol Read's ABC of Teaching Children.’ https://carolread. wordpress.com/2011/08/08/z-is-for-zone-of-proximal-development.

Reilly, J. & Reilly, V. (2005). Writing with Children. Oxford University Press.

Swam M. & Bernard S. (2001). Learner English Second Edition. A Teacher guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge University Press.

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[1] A word made from the blending of emotions and pronunciation.