This exclusive one-off workshop with Felicio Dias and Lucy Cole dives deep into one of the biggest challenges in language teaching — helping learners make sense of real, unscripted English. Together, we’ll unpack what spontaneous speech actually sounds like, explore why it causes so much confusion for even high-level learners, and share practical classroom tools to bridge the gap between textbook clarity and real-world chaos. Expect reflection, experimentation, and plenty of ready-to-use ideas for your lessons.

Key Issues We’ll Tackle

✅ What happens to sounds in spontaneous speech — reduction, elision, assimilation, intrusion, catenation, and syllable compression.

✅ Applying Cauldwell’s Greenhouse → Garden → Jungle model and the Blur Gap to select, stage, and justify authentic listening work.

✅ Listening for sound vs listening for meaning — and how decoding bridges the two to build real-world comprehension.

✅ Designing decoding-focused tasks (prediction → ear training → reflection) that scale across proficiency levels.

✅ Using authentic clips, transcripts, and digital tools (YouGlish, AudioNotetaker, Audacity) to make real speech teachable and accessible.

✅ Managing frustration and uncertainty through graded exposure, partial-comprehension goals, and scaffolded post-listening support.

✅ From clarity to chaos — and back again: reframing how we approach spontaneous speech so teachers and learners alike feel equipped, not overwhelmed.

✔️ You teach learners who cope well with coursebook listening but struggle with authentic, unscripted input.

✔️ You’re interested in developing bottom-up listening skills and integrating decoding into your lesson aims.

✔️ You’d like to move beyond comprehension-checking tasks and design awareness-raising and noticing activities that reveal how spontaneous speech really works.

✔️ You want to feel more confident selecting, staging, and justifying authentic materials using frameworks like Greenhouse → Garden → Jungle.

✔️ You’re looking to expand your phonological repertoire — understanding connected speech not just for pronunciation, but for listening pedagogy.

✔️ You value practical ideas you can adapt immediately for your learners and context.

R$130