Teaching speaking at high schools by incorporating basic phonetic knowledge

Background and rationale Teachers and learners of English are well aware of the fact that a good command of the language includes many components, among which aspects of connected speech

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ

TRƯỜNG THCS&THPT THỐNG NHẤT

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

“TEACHING SPEAKING AT HIGH SCHOOLS BY

INCORPORATING BASIC PHONETIC KNOWLEDGE”

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1

I INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background and rationale 1

1.2 Aim of the study 2

1.3 Significance of the study 2

2.1 Literature review 4

2.1.1 Speech rhythm 4

2.1.2 Assimilation 5

2.1.3 Elision 6

2.1.4 Linking 7

2.1.5 The correlation between spoken competence and aspects of connected speech 9

2.2 The reality of the study 9

2.2.1 Results from the diagnostic test (Pre-test) 9

2.3 Methodology 12

2.3.1 Study setting 12

2.3.2 Participants 12

2.3.3 Empirical application of ACS 12

2.3.4 Strategies for teaching ACS 15

2.4 Results from the achievement test (Post-test) 17

III CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 18

3.1 Conclusion 18

3.2 Recommendations for applying ACS 18

3.2.1 The practitioners of ACS and the teachers of English 18

3.2.2 Educational administrators 19

I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background and rationale

Teachers and learners of English are well aware of the fact that a good command of the language includes many components, among which aspects of connected speech must be taken into serious consideration if one wants to

participate in an international environment However, at the high school level, aspects of connected speech have not received attention commensurate with their roles It is suggested that supra-segmental features are far more important and central to communication than accurate production of the individual sounds.Accordingly, the researcher assumes that an adequate knowledge of aspects of connected speech will help improve the students’ communication skill To

examine whether aspects of connected speech could really better students’

ability in oral communication, an empirical study was conducted at my high school Forty five 12th graders were invited to take part in the study to find out whether they could improve their oral skills with the help of aspects of

connected speech The data, both qualitative and quantitative, were collected through the pre- and post-test, as well as the questionnaires The results from thestatistical analysis of the pre- and post-test showed that there was a significant improvement in the students’ oral communication through the use of aspects of connected speech, which made their speech more natural In the light of these findings, some recommendations were made for a better instruction of aspects ofconnected speech, so that they would be used for students of other schools with the same conditions and setting

Besides academic purposes, English has also voiced its part in the dailylife of Vietnamese people Investors become more and more interested in theyoung market of Vietnam, and the number of tourists to Vietnamese cities isincreasing every year These really call for the use of English as a means ofmajor business transaction and even small trades; therefore, waiters andwaitresses in big cities of Vietnam, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, or DaNang, now need English to get a good job as well

The importance of English, as substantiated above, cannot be denied inthe context of present Vietnam, and every language learner wishes tocommunicate successfully; however, Vietnamese learners still have a lot ofdifficulties in oral communication due to the different nature of the Vietnamesesound system and tunes In fact, these difficulties stem both from the segmentaland supra-segmental features of the English language Even though it issuggested that supra-segmental features are far more important and central tocommunication than accurate production of the individual sounds, a dominantlylarge part of the curriculum for high school students in general and the giftedspecifically only focuses on the segmental aspects Accordingly, the studentsmay acquire a good command of how discrete English sounds are produced, but

in connected speech they seem to be out of place with the exception of some

cases that undergo certain unofficial instructions Hence, the teaching of thesupra-segmental features to high school students, which is narrowed down toaspects of connected speech in this study, is crucial if the desired result is thestudent’s improvement of oral communication skill.

Aspects of connected speech (hereafter reduced to ACS) belong to thesupra-segmental sphere of phonetics and phonology which includes various

issues, namely rhythm, assimilation, elision, and linking All of them exert a

certain impact on the learner’s oral communication because their object islanguage in action and the interrelation between words in a sentence and evenbetween sentences Notwithstanding such significance, these items have so farnot been given commensurate recognition both from teachers and students at ahigh school level Here arises a question about whether it is possible to make theforeign language learning situation at high schools better through theintroduction of basic knowledge about distinctive aspects of connected speechand whether the target students can incorporate this knowledge with theirrudimentary command of segmental phonetics to achieve success in real-lifecommunication The course of finding the answer to this question thus givesreason for the being of this study and therefore, I am writing this to provide

students and teachers of English with teaching speaking at high schools by

incorporating basic phonetic knowledge.

1.2 Aim of the study

Aspects of connected speech are too large a subject to study in full detailtogether with its pedagogical application within the limit of a research.Therefore, the researcher would hereby certify that only basic features of theaspects of connected speech that help to improve learners’ oral communicationwill be examined

With the scope defined above, the thesis aims at finding out the problemsrelated to ACS faced by the students when they take part in authenticcommunication situations The researcher would, through this study, also like toinvestigate if the educational values of ACS can help the students better theiroral communication, and assert the fact that aspects of connected speech should

be introduced at a high school level to improve the students’ oral skill

1.3 Significance of the study

The notion of bringing parts of the supra-segmental features, i.e ACS,into the teaching of English at high schools in Vietnam in general and at myschool in particular has never been officially reported, so this research maycomplement the current practice of teaching and learning English at sucheducational institutions

The study is intended for the advance of the 12-graded students in oralcommunication It can, therefore, be hailed as a contribution to changing the

viewpoints on teaching the oral skill, which hopefully bears fruit in reaching thestandard of natural English.

II CONTENT

2.1 Literature review

This chapter reviews the theory related to various aspects of connected

speech including rhythm, assimilation, elision, and linking All of those will

lay the groundwork for the research design and method of investigation in thenext chapter

Examples:

Several experts are to give evidence on the subject (English version)Nhiều chuyên gia sẽ đưa ra bằng chứng cho vấn đề đó (Vietnamesetranslation)

Vietnamese is a tonal syllable-timed language (as asserted in a study done

by Honey (1987)); therefore, Vietnamese people will have a lot of difficulties inlearning English, a language of stress-timed rhythm It is advisable thatVietnamese learners of English practice speaking with a regular rhythm andrepeating strongly rhythmical utterances By this way the learners will be madeself-aware of concentrating on making unstressed syllables weak

2.1.2 Assimilation

As classified by Celce-Murcia, M et al (1996) there are three types of

assimilation in English, namely progressive (or perseverative), regressive (or anticipatory), and coalescent.

2.1.2.1 Progressive assimilation

A change in sounds is called progressive assimilation when theconditioning sound precedes and affects the following sound (the assimilatedsound changes to become like the conditioning sound that precedes it) Thefigure below depicts what happens in progressive assimilation



The clear manifestation of progressive assimilation can be observed in thechanges of sounds in –s ending and –ed ending

e.g

2.1.2.2 Regressive assimilation

The second type of assimilation is Regressive In regressive assimilation,

the conditioning sound follow the assimilated sound as described in the chartbelow



e.g

have /hæv/ + to /tu:/  /hæftə/

used /ju:zd/ + to /tu:/  /ju:stə/

So far we have studied the most common types of regressive assimilation,

in which there are changes in place of articulation or in voicing However,changes in manner of articulation also occur in regressive assimilation but muchless commonly and most cases are in informal speech

Coalescent assimilation frequently occurs when final alveolar consonants

or final alveolar consonant sequences precede initial palatal /y/, resulting in the

creation of palatalized fricatives and affricates respectively The process isillustrated in the chart below.

Coalescent assimilation frequently occurs when final alveolar consonants or

final alveolar consonant sequences precede initial palatal /y/, resulting in the creation

of palatalized fricatives and affricates respectively The process is illustrated in the chart below.



Examples:

He is coming this year.  rule: /s/ + /y/  /∫/

[∫] as in issue Does your mother know?  rule: /z/ + /y/  / ʒ/

[ ʒ] as in pleasure

Is that your dog?  rule: /t/ + /y/  / t ʃ/

[t ʃ] as in stature

2.1.3 Elision

Elision is the dropping of a sound or sounds which once existed or which

still exists in precise speech (Jones, 1998, p 133) Similar to assimilation, elision

is common in rapid, casual speech, which may cause difficulties to foreignlanguage learners when some phonemes they expect to hear are not actuallypronounced Below are some examples of elision provided by Peter Roach(2000)

2.1.3.1 Loss of weak vowel after p, t, k

The vowels in the first syllables in such words as ‘potato’, ‘tomato’,

‘canary’, ‘perhaps’, ‘today’, etc may disappear, and the aspiration of the initialplosives occupy the whole of the middle portions of the syllables

p h, teitəʊ t h, mɑ:təʊ k h, neəri p h, hæps t h, dei

tattoo  t h, tu: catastrophe  k h, tæstrəfi parade  p h, reid

2.1.3.2 Weak vowel becomes syllabic before n, l, or r

When weak vowels precede consonants n, l, or r, they will becomesyllabic consonants, which means n, l, or r stands as the peak of the syllableinstead of the vowel

Sound 3

tonight  tņait police  pļi:s correct  kŗ ekt cattle  kætļ

muddle  mʌdļ threaten  θretņretņ particular  pŗtikjulŗ

2.1.3.3 Avoidance of complex consonant clusters

Roach (2000) asserts in his book ‘English phonetics and phonology” that a normal English speaker would never pronounce all the consonants in a consonant cluster of three plosives plus a fricative, and that in such a case the middle plosive may disappear like in the examples below.

e.g.

George the Sixth’s throne  dʒɔ: dʒ ðə siks θretņrəʊn

instead of dʒɔ: dʒ ðə sikθretņs θretņrəʊn Act  æks instead of ækts

looked back  lu:k bæk instead of lu:kt bæk

2.1.3.4 Loss of final v in ‘of’ before consonants

When ‘of’ precedes a consonant the ‘v’ sound is normally notpronounced Nevertheless, when it goes before a vowel the ‘v’ is retained

e.g.

lots of them  l ɒ ts ə ðəm

waste of money  weist ə m ʌ ni

District of Columbia  distrikt ə kəl ʌ mbiə

2.1.4 Linking

2.1.4.1 Linking consonants to vowels

A highly common case of linking is known to be the one in which a word ends with a consonant followed by a word that begins with a vowel (especially function words) Thus, the consonant seems to become part of the following words.

e.g.

Labial consonant + Vowel: stop it came in leave early

Dental consonant + Vowel: with it breathe it breathe out

Alveolar consonant + Vowel: washed it played on run around

Palatal consonant + Vowel: cash out camouflage it march it

Velar consonant + Vowel: back out drag out sing it

2.1.4.2 Linking identical consonants

When the final consonant of the preceding word is the same as the initialconsonant of the following word, the two consonants are usually pronounced asone long consonant

e.g.

t + t: hurt Tom p + p: ripe plum k + k: black cat

b + b: grab Bill d + d: played darts g + g: big girls

f + f: if Fred θ + θ: with thanks s + s: ice skating

ʃ + ʃ: push Shirley r + r: far reacher l + l: fall leaves

2.1.4.3 Linking vowels to vowels

When one word or syllable ends in a tense vowel or diphthong and thenext word or syllable begins with a vowel, the vowels are linked by a process

called ‘glide’ (Celce-Murcia, et al, 1996)

e.g.

/i:/ + vowel: be y able, cre y ate /u:/ + vowel: blue w ink, Stu w art /ei/ + vowel: say y it, lay y ette /əu/ + vowel: no w art, no w el

/ai/ + vowel: my y own, na y ive /au/ + vowel: how w is it, flo w ur /ɒi/ + vowel: toy y airplane, boy y ish

Another case of linking vowels to vowels is “linking r” or ‘intrusive r’.

The two low tense vowels /ɑ:/ and /ɒ/ often have the ‘intrusive r’ come in

between if they precede a vowel.

e.g.

spa /r/ owner saw /r/ Ann vanilla /r/ ice cream media /r/ event formula /r/ A Australia /r/ all out here /r/ are four /r/ eggs

2.1.4.4 Linking vowels to semi-vowels

Like linking identical consonants, when a word ending with a tensevowel, such as /i:/, /ei/, /u:/, or /əʊ/ comes before a word beginning with thesame semi-vowel that ends the tense vowel, the tense vowel and semi-vowel arepronounced as one long vowel

e.g

Be yourself free union see Europe free uniform

pay yourself stay united say yes play yeti

do we? Who wouldn’t blue water too wicked

blow wind blow go west show window no weed

Up to this point, all the fundamental theory of connected speech has been discussed It is controversial whether teachers should teach different aspects of connected speech to students However, it is a fact that a basic knowledge of connected speech will help students in listening comprehension and actual communication with native speakers when aspects of connected speech, especially linking and elision are utilized

2.1.5 The correlation between spoken competence and aspects of connected

speech

The fact that speaking is the most important among the four basic skills(listening, reading, writing, and speaking) was proposed by Ur (1996) and wasthen supported by many other educators, among whom was Nunan (1999) whoasserted that “If listening is the Cinderella skill in second language learning,then speaking is the overbearing elder sister.” It is incontrovertible that speaking

is critical; then what is indispensable for one who desires to speak in anotherlanguage? Nunan (1999, p 226) suggested that a person needs to achieve thelinguistic competence to be a fluent speaker, which consists of phoneticknowledge of both segmental and supra-segmental aspects, an adequatevocabulary, and a mastery of syntax Within the scope of this thesis, the authorwould dedicate to the in-depth study of the supra-segmental sphere that involvesconnected speech aspects and their effects on students’ spoken competence

2.2 The reality of the study

This analyzes and discusses the students’ results as obtained from the test’s scores The analysis and discussion of findings serve to discover thestudents’ difficulties in using ACS in communication and to find out the bestapproach to help them effectively learn to use ACS in oral communicationnaturally

pre-2.2.1 Results from the diagnostic test (Pre-test)

The test consisted of 12 questions covering all four aspects of connected speechsurveyed in the study It required the students to read the model sentences in away as natural as possible to the best of their ability Therefore, this section isfurther split up into the four themes closely following these aspects of connectedspeech: rhythm, assimilation, elision, and linking They will be presented in turn

in the following four sub-sections

2.2.1.1 Problems with rhythm

Amongst the 45 testees, a substantial number of 31 students thataccounted for 68.9% scored bad points (Problems with stress-timed rhythm) in thefirst three questions regarding rhythm This is followed by a less crowded group

of 14 students (31.1%) who exposed the sole problem of not lending properweight to different words in a sentence These students had a few problems withsyllable-timed rhythm; they, however, had difficulty dealing with stress-timed

rhythm and seemed to treat every word with equal importance resulting in themonotonous and non-rhythmic speech The data collected are presented in thefollowing table.

Problems Raw count Rhythm Percentage

Problems with stress-timed rhythm 31 68.9%

2.2.1.2 Problems with assimilation

The next three questions of the test were engineered for judging the

students’ performance related to assimilation The researcher noticed a stark

contrast to the favorable result obtained from analyzing the first three questions,which was presented in the chart below

Students’ problems with assimilation

2.2.1.3 Problems with elision

The third part of the test looked into the students’ difficulty with elision.Among the 45 test-takers, over half of them showed serious problems in elision

of weak vowels and /v/ in /əv/, but up to 64.4% underwent a hard timepronouncing consonant clusters They tended to pronounce all the consonantsclearly, which makes their speech awkward and adversely affects fluency Thetable below summarizes the statistics discussed above

Raw count Percentage

Students’ problems with elision

The figures suggest a telling sign of great difficulties faced by students whenthey deal with weak vowels, with elision of /v/ in /əv/ and consonant clusters

2.2.1.4 Problems with linking

The final test items served the researcher’s purpose of finding out thestudents’ trouble associated with linking sounds in English While the studentsreported in their questionnaires that they were familiar with linking, in practicemany a problem were pinpointed Out of the 45 participants, more than a half(53.3%) did not link ending consonants to vowels in their speech The resultswere even more appalling as far as other linking techniques were concerned No

single testee utilized glides in cases of two vowels standing one after another, and the same situation applied to the case of intrusive /r/ The data for these

questions are visualized as follows

Students’ use of linking techniques

To sum up, the results of the pre-test brought to light the fact that thestudents did not have an adequate knowledge of ACS and they could noteffectively apply what they assumingly had known in real life practice ofproducing natural speech

2.3 Methodology

2.3.1 Study setting

The study was conducted at high school The school’s main targets toteach students toward the university entrance exams so that they can stand abetter chance of getting a place in the universities of their choice With thesetargets in mind, both teachers and students have to work hard together and the