Part of the English curriculum of UNCUYO is phonetics, including IPA. No, not the beer. The International Phonetic Alphabet, an alphabet with a one-to-one sound to symbol system. This served as a foundational language during the process. The first step was to transcribe each text into British English IPA. Each student had several individual one-hour sessions with me to review the IPA, which I had learned at Webster. The first session was to correct the IPA and the following were to practice the pronunciation.

Once the text and pronunciation were the correct, we moved on to scansion. Another tool I learned at Webster, scansion helped teach the versatility and flexibility of English. Asking each student to first scan the text in iambic pentameter, we then discussed how the stresses affected the meaning of the piece.

Once the pronunciation and rhythm were in place, we got on our feet. Each student or group had several rehearsals in which we would connect the words with action. Rehearsal helped reiterate the flexibility of the language, as students began to organically investigate how different actions would change the meaning of the text.