Master Spoken English - Feeling Phonics DVD

Master Spoken English - Feeling Phonics DVD
Meeting the needs of advanced communication skills courses, and providing beginning readers with the models to master the language, this program is uniquely structured to be both multi-level and multi-purpose. Phonics, as a science, has risen as the dominant tool for language learning. "Master Spoken English - Feeling Phonics" is an encyclopedia of phonics. The whole series comprises of 5 DVD's (or 9 VHS), with a total play time of 392 minutes.

Overview

Master Spoken English - Feeling Phonics

The video series Master Spoken English - Feeling Phonics, is designed to train first-graders and full-professors, enabling readers to excel, and training speakers like professional actors. The nine-tape video series and book, "Master Spoken English - Feeling Phonics", was published in 1996 and is now in use in 57 different countries. Colleges and universities worldwide have recognized the need this training serves in enabling speakers of English to reach their full potential. Besides serving EFL and ESL needs, the series is used widely in learn-to-read programs. All you need to get started is a television and a vcr!

Included in Master Spoken English Feeling Phonics
The series contains of nine video tapes OR 5 DVD's (392 minutes), and one illustrated Study Guide. The illustrated Study Guide contains the full text of the program, color-coded to match the videos. The videos were made to work without any accompanying book. All the text is open-captioned on-screen in color-coded letters. However, teachers may find the book useful for lesson planning, and they are allowed to photocopy pages for students. Lower-level readers may use these pages to reinforce a language lesson.

The catalog of videos include:
1. Tonal Action
2. Structural Action
3. Neutral Vowels
4. Consonant Action
5. More Consonant Action
6. Connected Speech
7. Intonation & Rhythms
8. Practice Scenes
9. More Practice Scenes

Houston Evaluation. Click to view larger image.

School Evaluation

School evaluations have shown that Master Spoken English - Feeling Phonics meet curriculum guidelines. The image on the left shows a copy of a media resources evaluation by the Instructional Media Services, Houston Independent School District. Please click on the image to see a larger copy, making it possible to read the actual evaluation.

These are the conclusions the Houston Evaluation makes about the Master Spoken English - Feeling Phonics video series.

• Consistent with goals and philosophy of school-based curriculum.
• Relevant to grade levels and presented in a motivational manner.
• Authentic and accurate.
• Well-organized, with proper sequence and emphasis.
• Study Guide designed to assist teachers.
• Technical Quality (photography and sound) is satisfactory.
• Content can be used in Multiple Subject Areas.
• Recommended grade levels:
  Primary / Elementary / Middle / Senior
• Rated "EXCELLENT" in each category.

Contents of Video Series

1. Tonal Action (31 min.)

Contents of tape 1:
Breathing and Relaxation
Vowels: Y (Initial/Final Position)
Long E
Long A

Master Spoken English Tape 1: The vowels E, A, and Y become your Tonal Anchors.

Excerpt from Study Guide:
One of the first things you're going to notice about your voice, is that it will get stronger. The tonality training begins carrying over into your daily speech very rapidly, and the results are a richer, more vibrant, and decidedly more confident voice. As your feeling awareness of all the component parts of speech builds, you'll discover a new control over the dynamics of your speech. The student working intentionally to improve the quality of his voice and speech, and the student working on accent modification, have exactly the same approach to this course. They are both working to gain sensitivity to, and some control over, their own instrument.

Tonality is Anchored in Feeling Vibration on the Gumridge
The vowels E, A, and Y become your Tonal Anchors. The entire phonic system here is based on "feeling", not "ear training". (Deaf people learn speech this way.)

The advantage to feeling sounds is that they become a part of your Sense Memory, and thus permanent and automatic. Much like "riding a bicycle" is something that your muscles and your sense memory retain, and then becomes automatic. This is why actors prefer this approach to speech training. Sensory awareness internalizes vocal energy.
It becomes a part of you.

List of Operative Words
Every drill begins with an Animation showing the precise articulation and contact points for feeling the sound. That is followed by a Word List of the Operative Words in the exercise to follow.

The Word List is performed in a Triple Repetition at Three Levels of Vocal Energy:
1. Sustaining the sounds to develop muscle and sense memory
2. Sustained, but faster moving
3. Normal pronunciation with good Feeling Awareness

2. Structural Action (46 min.)

Contents of tape 2:
Major Vowels: AH / OO / O / AW / OH / OW / A / Y-OI / Y-I / R-Vowel
Practice Sentences

Excerpt from Study Guide:
Besides producing good sound and accurate vowels, Structural Action can be exploited in circumstances where your voice has to travel over a distance, or when speaking to small groups without the aid of a microphone, or where you are competing with background noise. In an increasingly noisy world, these occasions are more and more frequent. Structural Action can enable you to be heard clearly without straining your voice or without appearing to exert too much effort. Structural Action is an important vocal dynamic, which, when combined with good Tonal Action and Consonant Action, can overcome nearly any competition.

Sentences / Structural Action
After learning all the individual Structural Vowels, words are combined into Sentences, and performed in Three Stages:
Stage 1; Maximum Stretch for Sense Memory
Stage 2; Medium Stretch at a Faster Repetition
Stage 3; Normal well-formed pronunciation

3. Neutral Vowels (30 min.)

Contents of tape 3:
oo / ih / eh / uh
Neutral & Parent Vowels
Minimal Pairs
Neutral Sentences
Neutral Diphthongs

Master Spoken English Tape 3: The four little sounds oo, ih, eh, and uh are big trouble.

Excerpt from Study Guide:
Learning to use Neutral Vowels effectively is going to require good consonants. However, producing good consonants requires proper neutral vowels. Where do we start? I've put the Neutral Vowels first, because it's a short subject. As soon as you've gone through the Consonant tapes, 4 and 5, it would be a good idea to review Tape 3 and put into play all that you've learned about consonants. The Neutral Vowels must be kept very short and staccato. Consequently you must learn to play the consonants surrounding them.

Neutral Vowels
These four little sounds are big trouble: oo, ih, eh, uh. Much of your foreign accent comes from pronouncing these Neutral sounds like their larger Parent vowels.

Play Neutral Vowels as short, staccato, grunt-like sounds, and observe how the Consonants on either side of it become more important - that is, you play Consonant to Consonant.

4. Consonant Action (41 min.)

Contents of Tape 4:
Overview of Consonants
N / M / V / F / Z / S
B / B-V / P / D / T
T as D / G / K
PT / KT / GD / BD

Excerpt from Study Guide:
Consonants have tremendous Musical Values that often go undiscovered in untrained speakers. Realizing these musical values makes your speech more sonorous and more persuasive. For the ESL student they are important keys to gaining American rhythm patterns and intonations. For example, learning to sustain the legato qualities in the "N" and the "M" is very pleasing and musical, and brings forth a fullness to your speech. For speakers from countries where the native language is spoken in a more staccato rhythm, the very act of just lengthening their "N's" and "M's" will alter their overall tempo-rhythm. The results will be much closer to the music of American speech.

Animations Introduce the Consonants
Critically acclaimed Animations introduce each of the consonants. Animations show the tongue movement and points of contact for feeling or vibration. In the video, the color yellow indicates where vibration is felt, in the tongue blade, upper gumridge, nose bone, and vocal cords.

5. More Consonant Action (46 min.)

Contents of Tape 5:
TH / TH / SH / ZH
NG / NK / NG
L / W / Y / R / H
DG / CH / DZ / TS
DL / TL

Master Spoken English Tape 5: Playing the consonants for full musical value and using them to support the meaning.

Excerpt from Study Guide:
The Consonants are traditionally recognized as the sounds which shape and articulate our speech. When someone is said to have "sloppy speech" or is hard to understand, generally it is because they have underplayed consonants. At the other end of the scale are speakers who are overly precise, sometimes described as "clipped speech". Some ESL speakers, in their diligent efforts to "speak clearly", will give too hard a treatment to some consonants.

Voiced and Unvoiced Consonants
People learning ESL need to clearly distinguish between the Voiced and Unvoiced pairs of consonants, like "B" and "P". Most ESL learners need to work on getting more vocal cord vibration into their Voiced Consonants. The Animations showing points of contact with the lips, the teeth, the tongue, the gums, and the hard palate will not only help your articulation, but will conduct strong vocal cord vibration. The results will be consonants that are both strong and sweet.

6. Connected Speech (39 min.)

Contents of Tape 6:
Linking and Phrasing
Weak Forms
Contractions
Dialogues Practicing
Word Endings and
Contractions

Excerpt from Study Guide:
Connected Speech is the key to gaining a natural, smooth-flowing style of speech. People do not speak in separate words, they speak in logical connected groups of words. Even native speakers sometimes "stumble over their words" because they are unaware of the "little tricks" for avoiding the pitfalls. Trained actors, of course, are able to deliver lengthy, complex, and even "tongue-twisting" passages flawlessly. This is not a gift. They have simply learned the "rules" for linking one word into another with intention. When you've finished this tape, you'll know the rules, too; and with practice you'll become a fluent, polished speaker.

Weak Forms
A lot of the very small connecting words in speech are so de-emphasized, or unstressed, that they often take on a Weak Form. For example, the word strong.

Dialogues Practicing Word Endings and Contractions
These dialogues have a double emphasis. Practicing both Word Endings and Contractions within a context.

7. Intonation & Rhythms (44 min.)

Contents of Tape 7:
Intonation Practice Scenes
Rhythm Patterns and
Consonant Clusters
bl , pl , br , pr / tr , dr , tw / gl , gr , kl , kr , kw / fl , fr
shr , str / spl , spr / skr , skw / bd , pt , bz , ps / dz , ts
dgd , cht / nd , nt / nz , ns / nge , nch / ngdg , ncht
vd , vz / zd , st

Master Spoken English Tape 7: Jump up in pitch on the important word, then step down on the words following.

Excerpt from Study Guide:
Intonation and Rhythm Patterns go a long way in carrying the meaning across in English. You can be speaking with perfect pronunciation, but put the stress on the wrong syllable and your whole statement may go without being understood. Likewise with how and where your pitch and inflections rise and fall, and the tempo-rhythms of your speech. When you've learned to use the American pitch pattern to call attention to the important words in your speech, you become immediately more understandable. You can use these techniques to give your statements a clarity of through-line while you are developing well-focused arguments.

Intonation in Sentences
Jump Up in Pitch on the important word, step down on the words following.

Intonation Within Words
This pattern exists in many English words: Jump Up on the first syllable, then Step Down on the syllables following.

8. Practice Scenes (40 min.)

Contents of Tape 8:
Symbol Review
Hotel Lobby
Hotel Bar
Jackie's Studio
Jackie's Studio
Restaurant
Paolo's Room

Excerpt from Study Guide:
In Scenes 1 and 2, we've taken the liberty of making contractions where they should be, to create a smoother American style. In Scenes 3 and 4, the emphasis is on intonation and pitch jumps. Note how the speaker always varies slightly the pitch change. In this way, many subtleties of meaning are communicated and the speech never sounds repetitive or "sing-songy". Instead, the intonation communicates a great number of little messages suggesting tempos, energy levels, and emotions that you would never glean from the words alone. In Scenes 5 and 6, there is more emphasis placed on linking words together, as well as continuing work on Structural and Consonant Action.

Putting it All Together
With the movie scenes on Tapes 8 and 9 we begin putting it all together: Vowels, Consonants, Linking, Weak Forms, and Intonation.

Run-Through of Scene
Following the step by step Work-Through of the movie scene, we are prepared to Run-Through the entire scene, working toward complete fluency.

9. More Practice Scenes (70 min.)

Contents of Tape 9:
The City
City Outskirts
The Market
Hotel Bar
The "Anna"
Latalah's Office
The Market
Hotel Bar

Master Spoken English Tape 9: Practice scenes comprised from the best dialog from a movie starring Burt Reynolds, Barry Sullivan, and Arthur Kennedy.

Excerpt from Study Guide:
The dialogue in these scenes is sometimes very fast moving. Try to get familiar with the scene in linked phrases. When you've gotten to where you can go through an entire scene with all the vowels, consonants, linking, and intonation in proper play, you will have accomplished a very demanding exercise. As you get familiar with a scene, try to stay "in synch" with the speaker and "mirror" exactly the form and feeling of the speaker. The more familiar you get with a scene, the less you will need to focus on the "text" superimposed on the screen, and the more you can concentrate on emulating the speaker's vocal energy.

Lots of practice scenes
Lots of practices scenes are comprised of the best dialogue from an action adventure movie shot in West Africa, starring Burt Reynolds, Barry Sullivan, and Arthur Kennedy.

Challenging scenes, broken down into the familiar structure of Operative Words and Linked Phrases, all performed in a Triple-Repetition at three levels of vocal energy. Realistic dialogues employing plenty of weak forms, linking, and American intonation patterns. This practice builds fluency in both speaking and listening.

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Pricing Information

You can purchase all the nine tapes of the video series Master Spoken English - Feeling Phonics in one package, or, if you wish, you can purchase the tapes individually. You can also purchase a package of 4 DVD's containing the whole series.

If you purchase all nine tapes in one package, you also receive the Study Guide.

Once you have the tape/s, all you need to get started is a television and a vcr/dvd player!

DVD Version

VHS Version