Interview with Karen Taylor: Teaching Pronunciation and the Color VoweL Chart
““There’s an irony, isn’t there, in a pronunciation book being written? So let’s see if we can unwrite the book and put it into a visual representation instead, and go from there. It’s been a lot of fun ‘detextualizing’ pronunciation.” ”
Show Notes
In this week’s episode, I’m thrilled to welcome Karen Taylor as my guest.
In 1999, Karen created an amazing teaching tool called the Color Vowel Chart when she realized there had to be a better way to help students with pronunciation.
The Color Vowel Chart took off, and in 2011, Karen co-founded ELTS (English Language Training Solutions) in response to popular demand. She holds an MA in TESOL from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a BA in English Literature from Georgetown University, as well as an International Baccalaureate from the United World College (US campus). A former Fulbright TEFL Specialist, Karen was the Practitioner in Residence at American University for nine years.
Karen received Ed Tech’s 2020 Visionary Leader award for her work as Head of Education and is now CEO at Blue Canoe Learning Inc. If you’re wondering what the name Blue Canoe has to do with teaching pronunciation, you’re about to find out in this episode!
On a personal note, I’m especially excited to have Karen here today because I’ve been meaning to interview her for quite some time. So many teachers have raved to me about the Color Vowel Chart and how it has completely transformed their ideas about teaching pronunciation. There was one instance in particular when a teacher I’ve worked with was telling me all about her experience with the Color Vowel Chart and how she uses it in her classroom, and I asked her if she’d be willing to join me on the podcast to introduce it to our listeners. She said, “Sure, but wouldn’t you rather interview Karen directly? I’ll give you her email address!” I was shocked that someone who has accomplished as much as Karen would be so accessible, but I reached out to her and here we are.
So what you’re about to hear is our first conversation (of what I hope will be many!) and I’m so grateful that Karen gave so much of her time to talk pronunciation with me in this episode. I was very much looking forward to this interview, and I have to say that it was an even more fascinating and fun conversation than I could’ve anticipated. So if you’ve ever wanted advice for how to make pronunciation easier and more fun for your students… get ready, because this is the episode for you.
In this Episode
A short summary of Karen’s profession; what it means to specialize in vowels
Vowels as the “peak of meaning” in English
Karen’s background – how she got started in ELT
The surprising way she got into teaching pronunciation (and why it was the course no one else wanted when she first started out)
Why the students in the pronunciation courses Karen started teaching weren’t actually speaking – and what this made her realize
Some of the books that were starting to influence pronunciation teaching at that time: Well Said, Targeting Pronunciation, and Clear Speech
Why these books were still missing the mark in some sense on teaching vowel sounds
How the Color Vowel Chart was born
Why Karen created the chart to transform students’ thinking about the phonetic symbols from “Let’s write them” to “Let’s use them!”
Her students’ first reactions to the Color Vowel Chart
How the color + noun combination came to be on the chart
How the chart makes it possible to correct students’ pronunciation without saying a single word
Why the chart quickly grew in popularity
The organization of the chart and the logic behind it
Why the chart makes it easier for us to understand that multiple pronunciations of the same vowels are possible
How Karen has used the chart to diffuse misunderstandings and disagreements among teachers about dialect and pronunciation
The Color Vowel Chart’s role in “detextualizing” pronunciation and making it more accessible to all teachers, even those with less favored dialects
How the shape and organization of the Color Vowel Chart represents the shape our mouths make when we pronounce the different vowel sounds
How the chart helps us understand the relationship between stressed vowels and weak vowel sounds
Karen’s advice for how teachers can get started using the Color Vowel Chart in their physical or virtual classrooms
Resources for teachers interested in the Color Vowel Chart: Karen’s YouTube channel and courses
How the Color Vowel Chart can still help visually impaired students – why the idea behind the “color” is about a sensory reward more than the literal color
Karen’s advice for how teachers can improve their pronunciation teaching in general: why being curious is the way in
The Color Vowel App: Blue Canoe Learning
What Karen is working on now
Karen’s free Pure English Practice classes on YouTube
Connect with Karen at colorvowel.com
““We need to undo some of those background assumptions about speech, and open up and be curious. And whether that means listening to yourself with a kinder heart or listening to people in your community who speak differently than you. . . start asking, ‘How is it that we communicate?’ Let’s teach THAT. Let’s teach what it is we have in common. And that will lead to the right questions and the right mindset for teaching pronunciation effectively.””
