Transcript Unit 6 Teaching Pronunciation

Teaching Pronunciation
Aims of the Class
1. Should we teach pronunciation at all?
2. What is the goal of teaching pronunciation?
3. What aspects of pronunciation do we need to
teach?
4. How can teachers help the students to
practice pronunciation?
Should we teach pronunciation?
Two points of views on teaching pronunciation:
 Students do not need to learn pronunciation, because
pronunciation will take care of itself as the students
develop overall language ability.
 Failure in pronunciation is a great hindrance in
language learning. Therefore the teacher should spend
some time in teaching pronunciation.
Should we teach pronunciation?
Whether pronunciation needs special
attention of focus depends on many
factors, especially learner factors.
 Learners
whose native language has similar sounds to
English vs. those whose native language has very
different sounds from English;
 Learners who have more exposure to English vs.
those who only learn English in the class;
 Adult learners vs. young ones
The goal of teaching pronunciation
Should we require the students to acquire
native-like pronunciation?
Can the students achieve that goal?
To answer the question, we must
take into consideration three things:
 learner age,
 amount of exposure, and
 differences of individual ability.
1. Learner age
The Critical Period Hypothesis:
The hypothesis claims that if humans do not
learn a foreign language before a certain age
(perhaps around puberty), then it becomes
impossible to learn the foreign language like
a native speaker because of changes such as
maturation of the brain.
1. Learner age
 The hypothesis is still
controversial/debated, because both
positive and negative answers have been
given by researchers.
 Most people agree, however, that those
who learn a foreign language after
puberty will have an accent.
2. Amount of exposure
 The exposure to the target language
may decide the issue.
 At the present time, the most Bengali
learners of English do not have enough
exposure to English to acquire nativelike pronunciation.
3. Differences of individual ability
Students have different phonetic
abilities due to biological and
physiological differences. Some are
more sensitive to sounds and are
better at imitating sounds than
others.
The realistic goals
 Consistency: Be smooth, natural and
fluent.
 Intelligibility: Be understandable.
 Communicative efficiency: Convey
the meaning that is intended.
Aspects of pronunciation
 Native speakers (or competent users of
the language) know how to say a word –
that is how to pronounce it. This
knowledge is made up of three areas:
 sounds,
 stress and
 intonation.
IPA
examples
b
d
f
g
h
j
k
l
m
n
ŋ
p
r
s
ʃ
t
tʃ
bad, lab
did, lady
find, if
give, flag
how, hello
yes, yellow
cat, back
leg, little
man, lemon
no, ten
sing, finger
pet, map
red, try
sun, miss
she, crash
tea, getting
check, church
θ
think, both
IPA
ʌ
ɑ:
æ
e
ə
ɜ:
ɪ
i:
ɒ
ɔ:
ʊ
u:
examples
cup, luck
arm,
father
cat, black
met, bed
away,
cinema
turn,
learn
hit, sitting
see, heat
hot, rock
call, four
put, could
blue, food
IPA
examples
aɪ
aʊ
eɪ
oʊ
ɔɪ
eə
five, eye
ɪə
ʊə
near, here
now, out
say, eight
go, home
boy, join
where, air
pure, tourist
Word Stress
 Word stress is your magic key to understanding
spoken English. Native speakers of English use word
stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for them
that they don't even know they use it.
 Non-native speakers who speak English to native
speakers without using word stress, encounter two
problems:


They find it difficult to understand native speakers,
especially those speaking fast.
The native speakers may find it difficult to
understand them.
What is Word Stress?
 In English, we do not say each syllable with the same
force or strength. In one word, we accentuate ONE
syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong,
important) and all the other syllables very quietly.
 Let's take 3 words: photograph, photographer and
photographic. Do they sound the same when
spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE
syllable in each word. And it is not always the same
syllable. So the shape of each word is different.
Aspects of Word Stress
total
syllables
stressed
syllable
3
#1
PHO TO GRAPH ER 4
#2
PHO TO GRAPH IC
#3
PHO TO GRAPH
4
Aspects of Word Stress
There are two very important rules about
word stress:
 One word, one stress. (One word cannot
have two stresses. So if you hear two
stresses, you have heard two words, not one
word.)
 The stress is always on a vowel.
Aspects of Word Stress
 This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables:
TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion,
INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera,
etCETera
 The syllables that are not stressed are weak or small or
quiet. Native speakers of English listen for the STRESSED
syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word stress in
your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve
your pronunciation and your comprehension.
 Try to hear the stress in individual words each time you
listen to English - on the radio, or in films for example.
Your first step is to HEAR and recognise it. After that, you
can USE it!
Why is Word Stress Important?
 Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages,
Japanese or French for example, pronounce each syllable
with equal emphasis.
 Other languages, English for example, use word stress.
 Word stress is not an optional extra that you can add to the
English language if you want. It is part of the language!
English speakers use word stress to communicate rapidly
and accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for example,
you do not hear a word clearly, you can still understand the
word because of the position of the stress.
Why is Word Stress Important?
 Think again about the two words photograph and photographer. Now
imagine that you are speaking to somebody by telephone over a very
bad line. You cannot hear clearly. In fact, you hear only the first two
syllables of one of these words, photo... Which word is it, photograph or
photographer? Of course, with word stress you will know immediately
which word it is because in reality you will hear either PHOto... or
phoTO... So without hearing the whole word, you probably know what
the word is ( PHOto...graph or phoTO...grapher). It's magic! (Of course,
you also have the 'context' of your conversation to help you.)
 This is a simple example of how word stress helps us understand
English. There are many, many other examples, because we use word
stress all the time, without thinking about it.
Where do I Put Word Stress?
 There are some rules about which syllable to stress.
But...the rules are rather complicated! Probably the
best way to learn is from experience. Listen carefully
to spoken English and try to develop a feeling for the
"music" of the language.
 When you learn a new word, you should also learn its
stress pattern. If you keep a vocabulary book, make a
note to show which syllable is stressed. If you do not
know, you can look in a dictionary. All dictionaries
give the phonetic spelling of a word. This is where
they show which syllable is stressed, usually with an
apostrophe (') just before or just after the stressed
syllable.
1 Stress on first syllable
rule
example
Most 2-syllable nouns
PRESent, EXport,
CHIna, TAble
Most 2-syllable
adjectives
PRESent, SLENder,
CLEVer, HAPpy
2 Stress on last syllable
Rule
Most 2-syllable
verbs
example
to preSENT, to
exPORT, to deCIDE,
to beGIN
Important!
There are many two-syllable words in English whose
meaning and class change with a change in stress.
The word present, for example is a two-syllable
word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift)
or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress
the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer).
More examples: the words export, import, contract
and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on
whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.
Stress on penultimate syllable
(penultimate = second from end)
rule
example
Words ending in -ic
GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic,
geoLOGic
Words ending in -sion
and -tion
teleVIsion, reveLAtion
4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable
(ante-penultimate = third from end)
rule
example
Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy
and -gy
deMOcracy, dependaBIlity,
phoTOgraphy, geOLogy
Words ending in -al
CRItical, geoLOGical
Allophonic Processes
allophone is the idea that a phoneme may be
pronounced in many different ways
Aspiration
Elision
Assimilation
Aspiration-increasing your puff
 This is a noise made when a consonantal
constriction is released and air is allowed to escape
relatively freely.
 English p t k at the beginning of a syllable are
aspirated in most accents so that in words like
‘pea’, ‘tea’, ‘key’ the silent period while the
compressed air is prevented from escaping by the
articulatory closure is followed by a sound similar
to h before the voicing of the vowel begins.
aspiration
 It is noticeable that when p t k are preceded by s at
the beginning of a syllable they are not aspirated.
 Pronunciation teachers used to make learners of
English practise aspirated plosives by seeing if they
could blow out a candle flame with the rush of air
after p t k – this can, of course, lead to a rather
exaggerated pronunciation (and superficial burns).
Assimilation-becoming like the neighbours
If speech is thought of as a string of sounds linked
together, assimilation is what happens to a sound
when it is influenced by one of its neighbours. For
example, the word ‘this’ has the sound s at the end if
it is pronounced on its own, but when followed by ʃ
in a word such as ‘shop’ it often changes in rapid
speech (through assimilation) to ʃ, giving the
pronunciation ðiʃʃɒp.
Elision-getting lost
Some of the sounds that are heard if words are pronounced
slowly and clearly appear not to be pronounced when the
same words are produced in a rapid, colloquial style, or
when the words occur in a different context; these “missing
sounds” are said to have been elided. It is easy to find
examples of elision, but very difficult to state rules that
govern which sounds may be elided and which may not.
Elision of vowels
 Elision of vowels in English usually happens when
a short, unstressed vowel occurs between voiceless
consonants, e.g. in the first syllable of ‘perhaps’,
‘potato’, the second syllable of ‘bicycle’, or the third
syllable of ‘philosophy’.
Elision of consonants
Elision of consonants are also significant sometimes.
For example, t and d sounds are dropped when they
are followed by any consonants.
Next class
first boy
Practising sounds
 As far as pronunciation is
concerned, students benefit from
both mechanical practice and
meaningful practice.
Practising sounds
 Pronunciation is difficult to teach without drills
on sounds. However, drilling an individual
sound for more than a few minutes a time may
be boring and demotivating.
 It is important to combine drilling
pronunciation exercise with more meaningful
exercises.
 Sometimes we need to focus on some
individual sounds,
e.g th in theme, th in them
Perception practice
 Aim: to develop the ability to identify
and distinguish between different
sounds.
Ways of perception practice:
 Using minimal pairs.
e.g. “Which word is read?”
will, well
till, tell
fill, fell
Ways of perception practice:
 Which order?.
e.g. You hear: “…”
and you read: bit bet pet
You hear: “…”
and you read: bear tear ear
Ways of perception practice:
 Same or different?
e.g. You hear:
met, meet
well, well
well, will
Ways of perception practice:
 Odd man out.
e.g. You hear:
bit, bit, bit, pit
Ways of perception practice:
Completion.
e.g. You hear: gate, late, fate, date, hate, rate,
Kate
and you write:
ate, ate, ate, ate,
ate, …
Production practice
Aim: to develop the ability to produce
sounds
Ways of production practice
 Listen and repeat.
 Fill in the blanks.
 Make up sentences. (last, fast, calm, dark…
 Use meaningful context.
 Use pictures.
Intonation: An Example
A: Would you please turn down the radio a little bit?
B: Sorry.↘ (with a sharp falling: No, I don’t want to.)
Or:
B: Sorry.↗(with a rising: What did you say?)