Israeli Accent

Syllabus Summary

1. What is an accent?

   Main Lesson:
   Our Learning Process
   The Language Identity Flow Chart
   3 Different Types of Sounds

2. Practice

   Get to know the group and their challenges with Hebrew speaking.
   Provide general feedback for this specific group to determine where to focus / how to adjust for the remainder of the course.
   Lots of speaking, lots of sharing, finding common ground, etc.

3. Intro To Hebrew Vowel Sounds

   Main Lesson:
   How Many Vowel Sounds Are There?
   Diphthongs (Straight vs. Moving Vowels)
   Easy vs. Not-so-easy Vowel Sounds

4. Practice

   This is the chance to really hear the unique subtleties between our native accents and target sounds. We'll use conversation and games with minimal pairs to highlight these key differences.

5. Unstressed Vowel Sounds

   Main Lesson:
   Pure Vowels (Oral Posture + Lip Position)
   How To Pronounce ה ,ו ,ש ,ל ,ב
   Linking Practice with Function Words

6. Practice

   This is the most important sound to receive feedback on since it's the hardest to hear by yourself. We'll continue the practice of linking within common idioms, and bring back up some of the most common mispronunciations of vowels sounds, specifically plural ים and pronunciation of ל when beginning infinitive forms.

7. Intro To Consonant Sounds

   Main Lesson:
   P T K Sounds In Hebrew (+ Dalet)
   Pronouncing Lamed
   Allophones of T and D

8. Practice

   While the vowel practice requires more precision with mouth shape and form, consonants are a little easier to discuss. They involve touching tongues to teeth and gum ridges and are more or less measurable and demonstrable. We'll use this session to practice tricky words with our consonant sounds workshop and particularly bring up common phrases to continue to apply each session to the real life conversation.

9. How To Pronounce Resh + Chet / Chaf

   Main Lesson:
   Allophones of Resh
   Clusters with Resh
   Most Challenging Hebrew Words

10. Practice

    Let's flip accent learning on its head! This week we work to imitate Israeli accents in English. The goal is to not have to think about the words but simply isolate the sounds. Using English as the word base, we then can focus on how an Israeli brain would go about saying this word. For example, is Dadדֶד or דַד? What about Dead? We'll answer these questions and much more during our practice week with Resh and Chet.

11. Intro To Prosody

    Main Lesson:
    How to Parse a Hebrew Sentence
    Review Function vs. Content Words
    Tonality: Asking Questions + Making Statements

12. Practice

    We'll start reading more short phrases and moving up to reading longer paragraphs with a focus on parsing and attention to stress. Students will start asking themselves, "Where's the emphasis in this phrase?" They'll see the relationship between our tonality and rhythmic stress.

13. Strategy + Practical Applications

    Main Lesson:
    Anticipating Common Questions
    How to Best Use Practice Time
    Review Our Process
    Answer Any Final Questions

14. Practice

    An to come together and discuss what we've taken away from the experience. We'll share the things that we're excited to implement as well as the characteristics we're still working through, but with form and technique. We'll share some resources for listening practice and shadowing as well as the next steps for taking Hebrew pronunciation to a more solid, consistent place.

15. Final overview of course