Module 4 Teaching Pronunciation

Module 4 Teaching Pronunciation Unit 1: What does teaching pronunciation involve? • The concept of “pronunciation” may be said to include: The sounds of the language or phonology Stress and rhythm Intonation

Module 4 Teaching Pronunciation Unit 1: What does teaching pronunciation

involve?

•The concept of “pronunciation” may be said to

include:

- The sounds of the language or phonology

- Stress and rhythm

- Intonation

1 Sounds

It’s useful to be able to list and define the sounds, or phonemes, of the language by writing them down using phonetic representations Different books vary as to exactly which, and how many, symbols are used; For teachers of English, the simplified, phonemic alphabet may be helpful

- The term “phonetics” is used to refer to transcriptions of the sounds of all human languages which make distinctions between sounds that may not be distinguished in a given language system

• Sounds can be divided into two main types:

- Vowels

- Consonants

• Example: “map”- the central sound in the word “map” is a vowel The first and the third sound are consonants

- “Phonemic” is used to refer to transcriptions of a particular sound system

The phonemic alphabet

Pronunciation Problems:

1 Poor correlation between the sounds of English and the letters of English alphabet:

The alphabet has only 26 letters while there are about 36 commonly used sounds

+ One sound may be represented by 2 letters:

E.g: “the” à / δ / is represented by 2 letters “th”

“ship”à / /∫/ is represented by 2 letters “sh”

+ One letter may represent 2 different sounds

E,g: “c” represents the sound /k/ in the word “cat”

And /s/ in the word ice /ais/

+ The same sound may be represented by 2 different letters

E.g: the sound /k/ is represented by the letter “c” and “k”

2 Difficulty in pronouncing sounds which does not exist in the students’ language.

E.g: The consonant /δ/ in “the”, /θ/ in “thumb”

The Vowel /3:/ in “bird”

3 Confusion of similar sounds

E.g: /i:/ and /i/, /u:/ and /u/, /b/ and /p/

4 Difficulty in pronouncing consonant clusters:

E.g: /desks/, /fifθ/, /skju/

Steps for teaching and practising Sounds:

1 Say the sound alone

2 Say the sound in the context of a word

3 Get the students to repeat the sound in chorus and

individually

4 Explain how to make the sound

5 Contrast the sound with other similar sounds

6 Give students some activities to practise the sound

2 Rhythm and Stress

2.1 Rhythm

• English speech rhythm is characterized by tone-units: a word

or group of words which carries one central stressed syllable

• Example: The sentence: “Peter, come here, please!” would divide into two tone-units: “Peter” and “come here, please” with the two main stresses on the first syllable

of “Peter” and “here”

2.2 Stress

Stress can be indicated in Writing: to write the stressed syllable in

capital letters:

Example: “PEter, come HERE, please!

* To stress a syllable or a word, say it with greater

speedy, volume, and pitch

E.g: spurious / ’spju∂ri∂s /

I ate bread and cheese / ai eit ’bred ænd ’t∫i:z /

3 Intonation

- Intonation is the tone or pitch pattern on a sentence Intonation is an important aspect of the pronunciation of English,

often making a difference to meaning or implication

- Intonation is very important in expressing meaning and

especially in showing our feelings

- Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice rises [↗]

- Falling Intonation means that the pitch falls [↘]

- Fall-rise Intonation falls and then rises [↘↗]

- Rise-fall Intonation rises and then falls [↗↘]

E.g: Did he find it on the street? ↗

How did you ever escape? ↘

Do you prefer ↗milk or ↘sugar?

I love all of you ↘

* An appropriate stress and intonation representation for a rather

bossy-expression

• Steps for teaching and practising stress and intonation:

1 Give a good model of the sentence, saying it at normal speed, making a clear difference between stressed and unstressed syllables and using natural intonation

2 The students are asked to practise a sentence using stress and intonation pattern

4 Flow of speech

It’s important also to be aware of the way different sounds, stresses and intonations may affect one another within the flow of speech

Unit Two: Listening to accents

The purpose of this exercise is to find out the specific pronunciation problems of learners by actually listening to examples and having to analyse and define them

Inquiry: Identifying elements of foreign pronunciation

+ Stage 1: Preparing materials:

- Using audio cassettes, prepare recordings, two or three minutes in length, of foreign accents, this can be done individually or in pairs

or groups

+ Stage 2: Analysis:

- Listen to the recordings and try to analyse what it is about the accents which make them “foreign”

+ Stage 3: Pooling and comparing:

- Share findings, in small groups, each recording is listened to and participants try to identify the errors and how why they think these occur

+ Stage 4: Drawing conclusions.

- Discuss the findings and draw conclusions

Unit Three: Improving learners’ pronunciation

1 The objective

The aim of pronunciation improvement is not to achieve a perfect imitation of a native accent, but simply to get the learner to

pronounce accurately enough to be easily and comfortably comprehensible to other speakers

Inquire:

Why do learners make pronunciation errors?

Learners’ errors of pronunciation derive from various sources:

1 A particular sound may not exist in the mother tongue, so that the learner is not used forming it and therefore tends to substitute the

nearest equivalent he or she knows

2 A sound dues exist in the mother tongue, but not as a separate, phoneme: that is to say, the learner does not perceive it as a

distinct sound that makes a difference to meaning

3 The learners have the actual sounds right, but have not learnt the stress patterns of the word or group of words, or they are using an intonation from their mother tongue which is inappropriate to the target language The result is a foreign-sounding accent, and

possible misunderstanding

- Getting learners to perceive

The first thing that needs to be done is to check that the learners can heat and identify the sounds you want to teach The same goes for intonation, rhythm and stress: can the learner hear the difference between how a competent, or native, speaker of the

language says a word, phrase or sentence and how a foreign

learner says it?

Telling learners what to do

The next stage for some learners may be some find of explicit exhortation: This is what it ought to be, this is what you are

wrong

Practicing correct pronunciation

Finally, when we are satisfied that the pronunciation point has been perceived and learners can produce an acceptable version we come on to the stage of practice: consolidating and establishing the habits of acceptable pronunciation through exercises that provide repetition and reinforcement

Unit Four: Further topics for discussion

This unit looks at some controversial issues connected with the teaching of pronunciation and invites you in the tasks to examine and state your own position on them My opinions follow

the tasks

- Look at some suggested questions, discuss them with colleagues

- Before beginning to work on the questions, decide:

+ Are there any you wish to omit?

+ Are there any others you wish to add?

+ Do you wish to change the order?

Decide on and perhaps note down your answers before looking at my own answers

Unit Five: Pronunciation and spelling

* The alphabet.

The basic sound-symbol correspondence is learned at the stage of learning the alphabet Every symbol needs to be taught with its pronunciation The learner is actually using more or less the same alphabet but the letters represent slightly-or-very different sounds you may have a more subtle teaching problem

*Rules of pronunciation-spelling correspondence

Words or sets of words with unusual pronunciation or spelling you need to teach and practice on their own - some ideas follow at the end of unit

* Pronunciation and spelling activities.

Some ideas that practice pronunciation - spelling correspondence may be found in pronunciation books, such as those listed under Further reading; books on spelling usually just give rules, list of words and then suggest practicing through dictation and spelling tests

* Ideas for improving learner’s pronunciation:

- Imitation of teacher or recorded model of sounds,

words and sentences

- Recording of learner speech, contrasted with native

model

- Systematic explanation and instruction

- Imitation drills: ( repetition of sounds, words and

sentence

- Choral repetition drills

- Varied repetition drills (varied speed, volume, mood)

- Learning and performing dialogues

- Learning by heart of sentences, rhymes

- Self – correction through listening to recordings of own speech