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Catedra de Limba si Literatura engleza EFL Methodology for English majors year II, 2011

10. TEACHING PRONUNCIATION


The pronunciation (also known as phonology) of English tends to be neglected by EFL teachers and this seems to be due to anxiety and, sometimes, ignorance, although pronunciation is a component of any lesson. It includes the role of individual sounds and sound segments as well as suprasegmental features such as stress, rhythm, and intonation. Many teachers, however, are unsure as to the status of pronunciation and whether or how it should receive systematic attention in a language class. Some even think that the more subtle aspects of pronunciation, such as rhythm and intonation may be simply picked up through exposure. The fact that few second language learners are able to speak a foreign language without showing evidence of the transfer of pronunciation features of their native language is evidence of the difficulty of acquiring native-like pronunciation, but also of the goals learners set for themselves. Many learners do not mind showing evidence of their native language since it is sometimes viewed as a part of their cultural identity. It is impossible to teach English without giving some attention to pronunciation. In the process of teaching (and learning) English you need ears trained to diagnose mistakes and vocal organs under control to produce accurate English sounds. Every word, every syllable, every sound uttered by the teacher may contribute to the pupils learning of pronunciation. However, pupils learn how to pronounce English not only when the teacher is deliberately and overtly concentrating on pronunciation. They may learn pronunciation when you believe you are putting the weight of your teaching on grammar or vocabulary, or when you are just socialising with them. In this unit you are introduced to the type of awareness and knowledge about pronunciation that an EFL teacher needs, and also to some of the terms and concepts used to talk about it. Pronunciation includes two systems: the phonemic system (the sounds) and the intonation system. Stress and rhythm are normally seen as part of the intonation system. However, in this unit, they will be dealt with as a separate component. Therefore, this unit deals with the sounds of the language (or phonology), stress and rhythm, and intonation.

Key Concepts: sounds, stress and rhythm and intonation, native models and accents, international English, the functions of intonation, elision, assimilation, weakening, intrusion, catenation, minimal pairs, phonetic notation/alphabet, exhortation
By the end of this unit you will be able to: operate with a basic working knowledge of English sounds, stress, rhythm and intonation; identify the ways in which these systems operate in speech; identify the problems your pupils are having in assimilating these systems, both from the receptive and productive points of view; apply the practical guidance and the techniques of teaching pronunciation. Quite a lot of things are known about the sounds of English and about how these work as a system. Something is known about the components of intonation (i.e. pitch height, tones and voice range), but only a little is known about how these work together as a system. In fact, intonation was not really seen as a system until quite recently. Discourse analysts put forward a theory that intonation, among various functions that it plays in language use (e.g. in helping to convey attitude), also has the function of structuring discourse. Intonation can be Anca Cehan 1

seen as a system for signalling openings, closings, contrasts, emphases, parentheses, backward linking, forward linking, and so on. In order to teach pronunciation, you need to be able to analyse it both from a theoretical point of view and from the point of view of your pupils difficulties. You need to be aware of its characteristics, so that you can make it manageable for your pupils. In other words, you need to have enough knowledge and awareness of pronunciation to make reasoned and flexible decisions in the classroom.

1. Pronunciation and effective communication


To communicate effectively, English learners need to become proficient in using semantic, syntactic, lexical, morphological and phonological elements of the language. They also need to understand its pragmatic use. Intelligibility entails more than simply using appropriate lexical items and correct word order. Words stressed incorrectly or with inappropriate pitch or intonation will impede the learner in getting the intended message across. The incorporation of a phonological component into the English lessons is based on the following assumptions about oral communication (after Herbert, 188 9): 1. Speaking involves two or more people and it is not the oral expression of written language. 2. Spoken language imparts referential and affective meaning. When we speak we reveal our interest and attitudes toward the topic being discussed and toward the people we are speaking with. These messages are largely conveyed through the prosodic features of language: stress and rhythm, intonation, pitch variation and volume. This is why pronunciation should be learned in context. 3. Native-like speech takes time and is not always a realistic goal. It is probably better to focus on the global aspects of oral production than on accuracy, except in cases where inadvertent mispronunciations will cause embarrassment. Intelligibility will not always be affected if a learner substitutes one phoneme for another; however, saying a statement with a rising intonation contour when the intent is to impart information, will make the listener encounter difficulty in understanding meaning. 4. Not all difficulties will be at the level of production; some will be associated with perception. 5. Learners need to have some understanding of the role phonology plays in language learning, as the role phonology plays is not so obvious and needs to be explained. With low level students the teacher needs to use simplified terminology, graphic and gestural representations.

2. Pronunciation and students age


The majority of Romanian pupils can imitate almost all of the sound features of English with reasonable accuracy. This is explained by the fact that the degree of overlap between Romanian and English is large, and the majority of sounds are familiar and do not present any learning difficulty. Thus the pupils powers of mimicry can be concentrated on less than the whole phonetic and phonological system. Most sound features can be learnt by mimicry alone, as learners have a pronunciation-learning ability independent of any need for instruction. The differences between the majority of learners of a given age in terms of their phonetic abilities are relatively small. Generally speaking, the younger the learners, the less variation there is in language ability. The most important language variables affecting ones pronunciation include: Anca Cehan 2

willingness to learn; possession of a good ear (i.e. good auditory discrimination); instinctive ability to mimic (i.e. good control of speech mechanisms and good monitoring of ones own performance); speed of learning; previous experience of foreign languages; changes brought about by age.

3. The native model


Any foreign language taught in school follows a native-speaker model. The pupils (and you) are given for imitation the English spoken by a native speaker. In the case of English, the choice of the native-speaker model is not very easy, as there are more than one models. If for dialect the choice is easier standard English in the case of accent, you need to answer such questions as: How do I want my pupils to speak English: British-ly, American-ly, Australian-ly, Canadian-ly, or internationally? Today, the choice of the model has to be made in full awareness of the status of English as the leading language in international communication. How does one speak English internationally? People coming from different cultures and speaking in different manners can communicate in English if they know how to seek a common ground and adapt their way of speaking English. Finding a common ground requires their adaptation to the situation and fellow participants, and responsibility to adapt. Native English speakers must also adapt in such situations. Adaptation requires the speakers willingness to temporarily modify ones cultural identity, and an awareness of what is involved in cross-cultural communication and communicative skills. Not all situations call for the same degree of adaptation. A speaker of English as a foreign language, who feels secure as an English speaker, will be flexible enough to speak English internationally. How can you ensure that your pupils will acquire a tolerant attitude and that they will be sensitive to various manners of speaking English?

3.1. What accent is desirable?


In spite of the impression of monolithic character, the English language displays many variation phenomena: from various accents, to different lexical items used to name similar entities, to slightly different grammatical structures. What is a desirable target accent for foreign learners? Is it Received Pronunciation (RP), BBC English, Oxford English, the Queens English, a posh accent, a nice voice, or speaking without an accent? In favour of Received Pronunciation would be many of the teaching materials on the market, and the fact that this accent is perceived in many places as regionless. However, it is perceived as a standard accent only in England, and as English (that is, foreign) in Scotland, for instance. The status and prestige of RP have declined lately, and the strongest evidence for this is that BBC has permitted announcers to use British regional accents. Should we adopt General American then? This is a strong rival to Received Pronunciation as a model accent. It the most widespread member of a set of American accents, an educated regional accent used mainly in the eastern American states. Anca Cehan 3

Our learners are frequently exposed to American usage via television, the cinema and other aspects of the mass media, and many children pick up an American accent from watching cartoons. But the choice between a British or an American accent remains an open question, and most often it is the individual choice of each learner.

3.2. The native model and the teachers English


From the perspective of pronunciation, especially, non-native EFL teachers are in a vulnerable position. They may not feel comfortable when speaking English in front of the class, as their pupils may be aware that occasional mistakes occur in their speech. Moreover, the pupils, who are accustomed to the sound of English from taped native speakers, may question their pronunciation. As non-native EFL teachers, we are placed in a position of insecurity. Some of us may seek defence and ways of minimising this threat. The traditional grammar - translation activities can be the expression of such a defence. Using such activities, you do not have to speak English, and thus you minimise the risk of making mistakes in front of the pupils. Given the reliance on strict grammar rules, you are in a position of being correct; a grammar book is at your hand to support your knowledge. Translation, an ability you have acquired after much practice, leaves you unchallenged. Also, by focussing on grammar and translation, questions of content are avoided. Grammar correctness is the target: form is uppermost, content secondary. The risk is that such teachers do not perceive themselves as being speakers of English and their pupils may inherit the same perception. Can the grammar-translation method prepare the pupils for the use of English for communication? Can it provide the pupils with a perception of English as a living language in its full range of functions, including that of international language? Reaching native speaker standards may be a futile endeavour, an unattainable goal, both for you and for many of our pupils.Even if you see the native model as a desirable target, the purpose of teaching and learning pronunciation is seldom to attain the perfection of the native model. Your purpose in teaching English pronunciation is limited to attainment of intelligibility. Your English will be as close to the chosen model as you can manage, but it will still remain different from it in some ways. However, this should not create frustration, inferiority complex or demoralisation.

4. Receptive fluency vs. productive fluency


A fundamental principle of teaching pronunciation is that pupils need to acquire a much greater degree of receptive fluency than productive fluency in their learning of English. Do you agree with this principle? Why do you think pupils need more receptive fluency than productive fluency in a foreign language?

The most obvious effect of this principle on your teaching is that you need to spend more time on developing your pupils appreciation of sounds, sound sequences, stress and intonation through listening skills activities than through speaking skills activities. A further implication of the principle is that your pupils need neither aspire to nor achieve perfection in their production of English pronunciation. If they are realistic, they need only attain an approximation of English sounds, and thereby retain something of their foreign accent. The aim of teaching pronunciation is not to achieve a perfect imitation of a native accent, but to get the learner to pronounce accurately enough to be easily and comfortably Anca Cehan 4

comprehensible to other competent speakers. Perfect accents are difficult if not impossible for most learners to achieve in a foreign language, and not always desirable. Many people even if often subconsciously feel they wish to maintain a slight mother-tongue accent as an assertion of personal or ethnic identity. This feeling should be respected. However, some pupils are concerned to sound like native speakers, and so you need to work on the accurate production of sounds.

5. The components of pronunciation


You do not have to take your pupils systematically through all the components of pronunciation; you do not have to teach each English vowel and consonant and later rhythm and intonation. Rather, you need to concentrate on some chosen features that cause difficulty. Sounds

Traditionally, the teaching of English pronunciation was concerned primarily with sound production. Pupils were encouraged to approximate as far as possible to a native speaker model. In recent years, a concern with fluency rather than accuracy has led to the recognition that perfect pronunciation is not absolutely necessary for a message to be conveyed effectively. Consequently, more attention is paid to intonation, stress and rhythm. EFL teachers concentrate on the production of sounds only when they identify sources of unintelligibility or confusion. For instance, your pupils may often have a false idea of what a particular sound in English is, based on the sounds of Romanian. The classic example is the confusion Romanian pupils make between [] and [s]. They may in fact need training to appreciate the difference. Failure to articulate the difference may make them sound foreign, but is unlikely to create a barrier to communication. Nevertheless, failure to discriminate between think and sink may create problems. An even greater problem can be the comprehension of stretches of language in which sounds have changed in connected speech. Therefore, it is useful for you to be able to list and define the sounds of English by writing them down using phonetic notation, and to organise practice in sound discrimination and articulation. Rhythm and stress

Intelligibility in English depends more on the correct use of stress and rhythm than on the correct pronunciation of individual sounds. English speech rhythm is characterised by tone units. A tone unit is a word or group of words that carries one central stressed syllable. Stress is most commonly indicated by a slight rise in intonation. The rhythm of English is, then, mainly a function of its stress patterns; these may also affect such aspects as speed of delivery, volume and the use of pause. Romanian learners encounter difficulties, as the notion of stress is alien to them. Romanian is a syllable-timed language: each syllable takes up approximately the same amount of time in an utterance. English is a stress-timed language, which has stressed syllables occurring at approximately equal time intervals, irrespective of how many unstressed syllables occur between them. English teachers who are relatively uninformed about phonetics give little importance to mistakes due to rhythmic inaccuracy. However, a clear understanding of the phonetic aspects of the spoken language is important, not only for a correct evaluation of the pupils oral performance, but also for providing them with the most accurate model of the spoken language. Intonation

The rises and falls in tone make the tune of an utterance. Intonation is an important aspect of the pronunciation of English, deciding differences to meaning or implication. Anca Cehan 5

Pupils usually perceive their learning in terms of sounds, words, sentences, and do not concentrate on intonation. This results in an oral production that is very monotonous. Moreover, Romanian has a narrower voice-range than English. Hence our pupils may sound unwittingly aggressive or rude when speaking English. Such errors of intonation may cause irritation in listeners, since the intended function is likely to be misinterpreted. The importance of intonation is crucial especially at beginners level, when language production is minimal, and intonation is the best vehicle for social appropriacy. Its importance as a language system cannot be denied. As such, the least we can do is to make pupils aware of it, as we do with grammar. This suggests that making pupils aware, at a very early stage, of the importance and the system of English intonation is desirable. Exposure to the language should be constant and this should lead to an increased sense or feel for the music of English.

6. The functions of intonation


English intonation carries meaning in subtle and complex ways. It has three functions: grammatical, attitudinal and discoursal. The grammatical function of intonation denotes or reinforces certain grammatical patterns. Grammatical function is realised by various intonation contours/patterns/tones. Such contours accompany wh-questions, yes/no questions, statements, question-tags, either/or questions, etc. Thus it is said that a falling pitch change accompanies wh-questions while a fall-rise pitch change accompanies yes/no questions. Other intonation regularities, connected to attitudes, can also be observed. Such features as the width of voice range and the pitch height at the start of an utterance are considered to be part of the attitudinal function of intonation. For instance, more emotion leads to a wider voice range, and less emotion leads to a narrower voice range. Uncertainty is denoted by fall-rise and indignation by rise-fall changes, respectively. A third function of intonation was proposed by discourse analysts: the discoursal function. Intonation can be seen as a system for structuring discourse: signalling openings, closings, contrasts, emphases, parentheses, backward linking, forward linking, and so on. It is used to show that the speaker is either referring to something that both speaker and listener know about (because it has been mentioned earlier or is physically present in the setting), or to show that the speaker is proclaiming some new information. A fall-rise pitch change refers the listener to an actual or known thing. A falling pitch change introduces a specific unknown thing. Intonation can also signify aspect: a fall-rise pitch change can signify that you want to engage the listener, that you envisage rapport, however short-lived the relationship. The fall-rise pitch change has been called the convergent pattern, where the falling pitch change has been called the divergent pattern. Also, a falling pitch change tends to denote finality, while a fall-rise denotes incompleteness or doubt.

7. The flow of speech


English is unusual among languages for the changes that occur when it is spoken at normal speed: the individual sounds contained in and between words can often change their character. The main reason for this tendency in connected speech is that English is stresstimed. The rhythm units force sounds to be said together or shortened in order for the regular rhythm of speech to be maintained. For pupils the problem can be difficult, not so much when they learn to produce the language orally, but when they listen to native speakers. Different sounds, stresses and intonations may affect one another within the flow of speech. For example:

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The way a sound is articulated is influenced by what other sounds are next to it: e.g. the -ed suffix of the past tense may be pronounced [d], [t] or [id] depending on what comes immediately before. Intonation affects how we hear stress. In fact, stress is not usually expressed by saying the stressed syllable louder: it is more often a matter of a raised or lowered tone level, with a slight slowing-down. A change in the stress pattern of a word will change its sounds as well: e.g. the word record has the stress on the first syllable when it is a noun, on the second syllable when it is a verb; and this makes a noticeable difference to the sound of the vowels.

7.1. Sound changes in the flow of speech


Can you write the following phrases in phonetic script: roast beef [ I asked him [ cold weather [ ] ] ]

Elision

Elision (the suppression/omission of a sound) occurs frequently at the boundary between two words, usually when the end of one word and the beginning of the next create a consonant cluster, e.g.: pounds is reduced to [panz] and and to [n]. You must analyse model sentences and vocabulary very carefully before teaching them, to give your pupils an accurate model. Assimilation

Assimilation happens when a sound changes, because it is affected by the sound that follows it: What words or phrases can be transcribed like this? [imput] .. [ikm] .. [hf t] . [i gri:s] .

Weakening Prepositions, articles (before consonants), and auxiliary verbs (including modals) tend to be shorter and softer, and to have the neutral vowel [ ] when they occur in normal speech. It is only when these parts of speech are given particular emphasis or when they are the final word in a sentence that they are found in their strong form: Should I go? ] Yes, you should. Vowels often get weakened to the schwa [] sound or disappear altogether, as in I wonder if you could [ wndr if j kd]. Weakening is the most difficult proble m for foreign learners of English, a problem that you need to help them to become aware of and to overcome. You need to teach your pupils first of all, to recognise natural pronunciation, and if possible, to produce it accurately.

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Intrusion

Go away. [gwwei] Intrusion happens when an extra sound is introduced to lubricate the flow from one vowel to another. The sound is not indicated in the written form. Catenation

This happens when a consonant at the end of one word is carried over to connect with a vowel at the beginning of the next word: Hes out. [hizat] cup and saucer [kpns:s] Catenation presents problems of aural understanding for pupils because it interferes with their ability to hear word boundaries. Thus [greiteip] can be either grey tape or great ape. Intrusion does not seem to pose problems of understanding, but elision, assimilation, weakening and catenation do. Having learned the words and their pronunciation in isolation, your pupils may fail to recognise them when changes take place in connected speech. That is why, it is important that you raise their awarereness of the way sounds, stress and intonation interact within entire utterances to produce easily comprehensible pronunciation. However, most words have a stable sound, stress and intonation pattern that can be confidently taught in isolation.

8.

Improving pupils pronunciation

8.1. Diagnosing pupils spoken English


The phonological problems you focus on need to be related to the problems the learners are encountering. By collecting data of the learners general speaking habits, you can identify individual learner problems and those common to the group. You can collect samples of learners speech on cassette or video, although this may be traumatic for the learners. However, you can make written or mental notes of the pupils mistakes and devise a diagnostic learner profile with the following headings: clarity, speed, loudness, breathing, fluency, voice, gestural expression, eye gaze, intonation, stree rhythm, consonants and vowels. Firths (1987) diagnostic profile can be useful for determining those elements which reflect the needs of the majority of the learners in the class. A Suprasegmental level General speaking habits 1. Clarity. Is the learners speech clear? Are there instances where there is a breakdown in communication? What are the major factors? 2. Speed. Does the learner speak too quickly? Is her speech unintelligible because she speaks too quickly? 3. Loudness. Does the learner speak too softly? Does the lack of volume affect intelligibility? 4. Breathing. Does the learner speak with appropriate pauses, breaking each utterance into thought groups? 5. Fluency. Does the learner speak with either long silences between words or too many filled pauses (e.g. ah ummm)? Anca Cehan 8

6. Voice. Is there enough variation in pitch? 7. Eye gaze. Does the learner use eye-gaze behaviour appropriate to the context (e.g., facing a conversational partner or looking at the audience if delivering an oral presentation)? 8. Expressive behaviour. Does the learner overuse gestures? Does the facial expression match the utterance? Intonation 1. Is the learner using appropriate intonation patterns in utterances? Can the learner use intonation contours to signal whether utterances are statements, ;lists, whquestions or yes/no questions? 2. Is the learner changing pitch at the major stressed words? Stress and rhythm 1. Word-level stress. Does the learner produce the schwa in unstressed syllables? Does the learner use loudness and length to differentiate between stressed and unstressed syllables? 2. Sentence-level stress. Does the learner stress each syllable equally? Is she able to produce appropriate strong and weak stresses? Are lexical words stressed and functional words unstressed? Does the learner place the tonic stress on the appropriate words? 3. Linking. Is the learner linking words appropriately? Are identical consonants linked (e.g. top position)? Are vowels linked (e.g. pay up)? Are consonants linked to vowels (e.g. top of)? Segmental level Consonants 1. Substitution. Is the learner substituting one phoneme for another? 2. Omission. Is the learner omitting consonants? 3. Articulation. Is the consonant being articulated properly (e.g. is /p/ aspirated wordinitially)? 4. Clusters. Are consonant clusters articulated properly? 5. Linking. Are consonants linked to each other? Vowels 1. Substitution. Is one vowel being substituted for another? 2. Articulation. Is the learner articulating vowels correctly (e.g. lip rounding)? 3. Length. Do vowels have their appropriate length? 4. Reduction. Are vowels reduced in unstressed syllables? 5. Linking. Are vowels properly linked to other vowels across word boundaries? After you analyse the data, you can identify the problems common to the majority of learners and you can provide feedback to individual learners. You have to make some decicions concerning what you can achieve in the time you have available, the areas that should be given priority, the source of the problems (perception or production?) and the types of activities that will help the learners improve their oral producation. Probably, with lower level students, the focus should be on improving the learners intelligibility, that is the focus should be on the suprasegmental level. Where the articulation of particular phonemes is Anca Cehan 9

causing problems, these should be dealt within the context of the word. Activities that help the learner to perceive and produce utterances should be given equal weight.

8.2. Pupils pronunciation errors


Pupils errors of pronunciation may derive from various sources: Several English sounds do not exist in Romanian. The pupils are not used to forming them and therefore, they tend to substitute the nearest equivalent they know, e.g. [] tends to be substituted by by [e]. Certain sounds do exist in Romanian, but not as separate phonemes. Consequently, the pupils do not perceive them as distinct sounds that make a difference to meaning (e.g. [i] and [i:]). The pupils have not learnt the stress patterns of the word or group of words, or they are using a Romanian intonation, which is inappropriate to English. The result is a foreignsounding accent, and possibly misunderstanding.

8.3. Assisting the learning of pronunciation


Here are a few teaching techniques that can be used to assist pupils in learning pronunciation: 1) Checking that the pupils can hear and identify the sounds, intonation, rhythm or stress, respectively. This can be done by: requesting imitation of teachers model or recorded model of sounds, words and sentences, seeing if pupils can distinguish between minimal pairs (e.g. ship/sheep, man/men, thick/tick, etc.) recording of their speech, contrasted with native model (this can turn out to be demoralising!) encouraging pupil self-correction through listening to recordings of own speech.

While perception of sounds can be done using single words or even syllables, work on stress and intonation nearly always needs to be based on longer units. 2) Using some explicit exhortation: you give the pupils instructions to initiate and mimic, to make such and such a sound, without further explanation. Exhortation requires no special training on your part and no special understanding on the part of the pupils. This may involve the use of: imitation drills: repetition of sounds, words and sentences choral repetition of drills varied repetition of drills (varied speed, volume, mood) dialogues (using choral work, and varied speed, volume, mood) learning by heart of sentences, short poems, etc.

3) Systematic explanation and instruction (including details of the structure and movement of parts of the mouth). For sound formation, for instance, you can use a sketch with a description of the organs of speech, and descriptions of the articulation of sounds in terms of lips, tongue, teeth, a description of stress and rhythm etc. These can be supplemented by the use of phonetic notation, ear training (i.e. practice in auditory discrimination, see (1) above) and speech training exercises (i.e. practice in making particular sounds, words and sentences, in isolation or in nonsense sequences (see (4) below). Anca Cehan 10

4) Using special games and exercises for speech training that entail the use of words or sentences to practice particular sounds, sequences of sounds, stress patterns, rhythm, intonation, such as: rhymes, jingles jazz chants tongue twisters, etc.

However, for most aspects of pronunciation a brief explanation is sufficient, followed by demonstration and an invitation to imitate and practise.

8.4. Teaching English sounds


Very often the problem the pupils have in perceiving sounds is not that they cannot identify them, but that they cannot distinguish them from other sounds. This may be because the sound is perceived by the pupils to be the same as a Romanian sound, with which they are already familiar. So, for example they may perceive [] and [s] or [] and [e] as being the same. Vowels We learn to produce vowel sounds accurately by developing an ability to hear and discriminate and then by experimenting until we can match the sound we hear. This is a gradual process of approximation: very often after getting it right for the first time, the pupils get it wrong again and have to keep on trying until they produce the sound accurately. Your job is to provide the accurate model and to encourage and train your pupils, first to hear a sound correctly, and then to produce it correctly. This includes drawing attention to vowel length and lip position. English has more vowels compared with Romanian. Consequently, Romanian pupils encounter some difficulties in learning the English vowel system. On the other hand, a pupils inability to produce vowels correctly is rarely a source of communication breakdowns. Diphthongs Diphthongs (two vowels run together) are not difficult to teach. You can break the sound into its component parts and practice them separately, exaggerating the difference between them. Then you can get the pupils to run them together, emphasising that the first part of the sound receives heavier stress. Consonants Teaching consonants is a mixture of providing pupils with the right technical information (bite your bottom lip when saying [f] or [v]), and of organizing practice activities and careful monitoring of free speech and correction. Technical information is of little use in learning to produce vowels and diphthongs. The only way in which pupils manage to produce the right sounds is a trial and error process of approximation to what they perceive to be the right ones. Even if in the case of consonants, technical information is more helpful, this will not enable them to actually hear any difference between sounds, either in their own performance or in other peoples.

Using minimal pairs


A minimal pair is a pair of words that are exactly the same, except for one sound, e.g. bit and beat, cap and cat, etc. The use of such pairs is the basis for teaching pupils to distinguish and perceive the differences. A procedure for the use of minimal pairs involves three stages of pupil training.

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Can you arrange these three stages in the correct order according to the objective of each stage? Number them from 1 to 3. to perceive the sounds as different to identify which is which to produce each of the two sounds Here is how you can organise work at each of the stages: Stage I. You ask the pupils to indicate when the sound changes in a string such as: bit, bit, bit, beat, beat, bit, etc. The pupils will have to shout out or show hands when they hear a change. It is important that the pupils identify the sound not only in isolation, but also in sentences, in both stressed and unstressed positions. You can give them examples such as The ship is old, the sheep is old, the sheep is old, etc. Stage II. The simplest way to train the pupils to identify which sound is which is to write each word of the minimal pair on the board, with a number by the side: 1) bit 2) beat

You give the word at random and the pupils shout out which number goes with it. This exercise should also be done with the sounds in different environments, and with the word in different parts of the sentence. Stage III. You can say the number or hold up a picture, and the pupils say the word. This can also be done in groups with one pupil saying one of the words (in context as well as in isolation) and the others have to identify it by number or by picture. In this variant, you will be monitoring and providing the pupils with feedback on their accuracy and progress.

8.5. Using the phonetic notation


Here are some advantages of using the phonetic alphabet/notation/script. Can you think of any disadvantages? List these after the advantages, in the space provided below. a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) It sensitises the pupils to sounds It is useful for correction It is a valuable study skill It is used in textbooks and dictionaries and thus it can support independent learning It may be exploited in the pupils notes It distracts attention from ordinary letter associations It encourages a less teacher-centred attitude It helps pronunciation.

Disadvantages: Anca Cehan 12

Why use phonetic alphabet / notation / script? You may wonder whether a knowledge of the phonetic notation is of any practical help to you in your teaching. Certainly, a knowledge of what happens to sounds in the context of the utterance will help you to appreciate the difficulties your pupils face, especially in listening. An ability with the phonetic (tran)script helps you in the preparation of lessons and the anticipation of the pupils difficulties. Teaching and practising the phonetic script with pupils will also be facilitated. Also, a knowledge of the most characteristic phonetic differences between Romanian and English is helpful, too. The phonemic notation can be used for three purposes: to introduce the sounds of English to practise the sounds of English (in isolation and in combination) to teach the phonetic alphabet itself to pupils at various levels of study.

How to use the phonetic notation? First insist that the pupils have a copy of the phonetic alphabet attached to the inside cover of their exercise book or make sure that there is one in the textbook. This can be consulted individually, in class and outside. Then use it for activities such as: 1. Copying: you select the words which the pupils will look up in a dictionary, giving them the phonetic spellings. 2. Matching: you give the pupils a list of sound symbols along with a list of example words containing these sounds. You ask the pupils to match both sets, e.g.: [i:] [ai] [e] [i] [a:] [ ] [o:] [u] [u:] [ ] hat five too sit path cup saw see ten got

3. Sorting: you ask the pupils to categorise a list of example words into two or more groups, according to the vowel sound they contain, e.g.: [i] or [i:]

sit, see, ill, eel, kneel, will, etc. 4. Filling in: you present an example of a phonetic transcription entry, such as [si:] for sea to illustrate [i:] and then other sets with one of the columns blank, e.g.: [i:] [i] [] sea sit ? [si:] [ ? ], [s n]

Categorising, matching and sorting exercises can be devised for plural noun forms [z], [s], [iz] and irregular forms, for the -ed termination of the Past Tense Simple form. A number of familiarisation activities can be carried out with the whole class. Here are a few examples; Anca Cehan 13

1) Bingo. You write 10 15 phonetic symbols on the board, each of which is numbered. You read out some of the items to the class, and the pupils only jot down the corresponding numbers. You check at the end that the class has the correct combination of numbers. This game can be continued in pairs, with the pupils taking it in turns to read out a selection of items to each other. 2) Kims game. A number of items are written on the board. The pupils close their eyes while you rub off one of the spellings. When asked to open their eyes, the pupils try to remember what was in the space. 3) The letters of the alphabet. Phonetic information can play a useful role in teaching and learning the letters of the alphabet, if you arrange the letters according to the sounds their names contain: [ei] A H J K [i:] B C E G [e] [ai] [u] [u:] [a:] F I O Q R L Y U N W S P X T Z V (after Abbs and Freebairn, Opening Strategies, Longman, 1982, p. 24)

4) Delayed correction of pronunciation. Phonetic notation may also be exploited when monitoring pair or group work. Rather than interrupting immediately, you can hand the pupils slips of paper afterwards. These indicate the correct pronunciation in the form of a phonetic spelling. A knowledge of the phonetic alphabet is of great value to the teacher of English. It provides information and guidance about, as well as access to a potential learning aid. It may suit some pupils learning styles providing them with the means of solving some of the difficulties experienced with pronunciation independently.

8.6. Teaching strategies for stress, rhythm and intonation


Your pupils need both recognition practice and production practice with stress, rhythm and intonation, so that these become a part of their overall competence in English. This practice can be integrated either with the teaching of grammar, or with the teaching of communication skills, or you may have separate lessons /stages of the lesson on particular areas. The easiest way for students to practise stress, rhythm and intonation is by repetition. Traditional repetition is often boring to do if the focus is not pronunciation. The same drills can be made interesting and challenging if you ask the pupils to repeat a sentence using a particular stress and intonation pattern. For this practice to be effective, it is important to: give a good model of the sentence; saying it at normal speed, making a clear difference between stressed and unstressed syllables, using natural intonation; indicate the stress, rhythm and intonation clearly, using gestures; make sure that the pupils pay attention to stress, rhythm and intonation when they repeat the sentence. You can use yourself or taped material as the model. Since emulating the voice range of English may be difficult for your pupils, you may need to exaggerate your own voice range in hope that your pupils repeating it will sound about right. After listening comprehension dialogues, pupils love repeating a selected short extract from the tape.

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Remember to integrate constantly intonation when teaching a new structure, or when doing imitation, substitution drills or communicative drills. For further practice, take advantage of semi-controlled dialogues. Rhythm Quite often, teachers tend to unconsciously distort the rhythm of English in order to make themselves understood by their pupils. They tend to speak so slowly that the sentence stress and rhythm are distorted. When the difference in the duration of stressed and unstressed syllables is lost, they will sound foreign. As rhythm is superimposed on the utterance, it may be difficult to concentrate on it without also paying attention to other aspects (pronunciation of sounds, word stress, pitch variation, meaning of individual words, the utterance as a whole). In the early stages, you could concentrate on rhythmic patterns with words that do not produce vowel and consonant difficulties. Different pitch variations can be presented on the same utterance for better aural discrimination: Hes coming tomorrow. This can be said with a low fall, a high fall, or a rising pitch in the last stressed syllable. What kinds of sentence are said with a 1) low fall, 2) a high fall, or 3) a rising pitch in the last stressed syllable, respectively? 1) 2) 3) As for the syllables, these can be replaced with ti (for the unstressed) and TA (for the stressed). A sentence can sound: a) . _ . _ . (ti TA ti TA ti) b) _ . . . _ (TA ti ti ti TA) Stressed syllables are louder than the unstressed ones. The slanted line marks pitch variation. The syllables can also be represented using smaller and bigger dots: a)

b) Length, a reliable marker of stress, is a variable that the pupils find easy to control. The dots and lines give an idea of the difference in length between stressed and unstressed syllables. This is the feature that differentiates most significantly syllable-timed and stresstimed languages. Stressed syllables in English are about three times longer than unstressed syllables. Pupils can be first asked to discriminate aurally the two rhythmic patterns, which you verbalise with the nonsense syllables ti and TA. A same different drill or a drill identifying the pattern with (a) or (b) can be used. The pupils then can proceed to imitate the patterns using ti or TA. A number of words, phrases and sentences are presented which contain the rhythmic patterns. Pupils identify the pattern writing (a) or (b), and then repeat a number of words, phrases and sentences that contain the patterns in question, e.g.: a) We started early. Well have a picnic. A piece of chocolate. Hes just a baby. Anca Cehan b) Tennis is a game. Do it after lunch. Why did you return? Susan must be there. 15

Can you arrange these phrases and sentences according to the given patterns (a) and (b)? Peter was with us. Another sandwich. Tell her not to come. Thirty of them left. Hes absent minded. A pound of apples. This mornings paper. What about a drink? I dont believe you. Its time for supper. Dont be such a fool. She couldnt help it. Write your answers in the columns (a) and (b) below. a) b) . . . . . . ..

For Romanian pupils, a good command of English rhythm is imperative. If they succeed in following closely the rhythmic patterns, an accent in certain features of intonation will not hinder intelligibility of their speech. Correct production of rhythmic patterns requires a prior teaching of the recognition of the patterns through adequate ear training. Remember that a pupil who is unable to perceive a phonetic aspect will also be unable to reproduce it in the spoken form, and do not neglect to teach aural discrimination of rhythmic patterns. Intonation It is sometimes said that the best techniques for teaching intonation are exaggeration and exhortation. This means that it is always useful to simplify ones teaching of intonation and to put a lot of encouragement into the models you give the pupils to repeat. It is also useful to ask them to repeat what you have said or what they heard on the tape, with as much enthusiasm as they can gather. Here are a few more techniques: Recognition and discrimination

a) Rise or fall?. Provide the pupils with cards of two different colours, or ask them to raise their left or right hands, and say or play a series of short utterances. The pupils must signal recognition by holding up the appropriate hand or card, e.g. right hand for rise and left hand for fall. Dont forget to give your pupils a model of what you intend them to do, before starting. At higher levels, pupils can hear a continuous dialogue and then describe the intonation on each line. They can even discuss why it is so. b) Isolated sentences said in different ways. For such sentences, ask the pupils to determine context and meaning. c) Tone of voice. At low levels, pupils can recognise obvious attitudes (e.g. happy, angry, bored, etc.); at higher levels, pupils can recognise more subtle attitudes (e.g. annoyed, rude, sarcastic, bossy, etc.) Anca Cehan 16

Back chaining One way to help pupils use natural intonation is to practise saying the sentence in sections, starting with the end of the sentence and gradually working backwards to the beginning, e.g., living here / been living here / have you been living here/ How long have you been living here? This technique is known as back-chaining. When you think that the pronunciation point has been satisfactorily perceived, and your pupils can produce an acceptable version, the practice stage follows: consolidating and establishing the habits of good pronunciation through exercises that provide repetition and reinforcement. Intonation and meaning in context After you set up a situational context, you can sing, hum or whistle some lines of a dialogue (i.e. intonation only). Ask the pupils to assess the meaning of each line. Then ask them to repeat the singing, humming or whistling, building a kind of dialogue without words, and then elicit the possible language of the dialogue. Follow this by practice and acting out. Semi-controlled production Pupils respond to cues, such as Try saying Thank you, Pardon, Excuse me or Really? politely/rudely/impatiently, etc. Free production The real test of learning will take place during free oral production. Most errors will go uncorrected, but gross errors will have to be fixed. Encourage peer correction. The teaching of intonation should be integrated into the teaching of structures and functional language, and given equal importance. Teach intonation through situation, and spotlight attitude besides grammar and discourse. Use taped materials, especially dialogues, as often as you can, for both receptive and productive practice. Dont forget that attitude is best suggested by either attitude cards or by your own facial expressions. Use hand gestures to show stress and intonation. Use intonation as a way of disguising revision of structure.

9. Correcting pronunciation
On the whole, you give feedback on oral work through speech, and on written work through writing. Although there are occasional situations where the other way round is possible, these are exceptions. It is recommended to refrain from correcting mistakes during fluency-oriented speech, and to correct only during accuracy-oriented exercises. Correcting a pupil when this is in midspeech would disturb and discourage more than help. But there are situations when correction is likely to be helpful. When the pupil is obviously uneasy or floundering, no correction or help can be demoralising. In such situations, supportive intervention can help. Conversely, even where the emphasis is on getting the language right, you may not always correct: in a grammar exercise, if the pupil has contributed an interesting or personal piece of information that does not use the target form, or when s/he has got most of an item right, you may prefer not to draw attention to a relatively trivial mistake.

9.1. Techniques of oral correction


Oral corrections are usually provided directly by you. They may also be elicited from the pupil who made the mistake in the first place, or by another member of the class. Corrections may or may not include a clarification of why the mistake was made, and may or may not require a re-production of the acceptable form by the pupil. Here are several techniques used in correcting oral mistakes, in general. They can be used in correcting pronunciation, too: Anca Cehan 17

You do not react at all. You indicate there is a mistake, but do not provide any further information about what is wrong. You say what is wrong and provide a model of the acceptable version. Can you add any other techniques to this list?

Tips for correcting pronunciation


You can correct pronunciation by writing the phonetic form on the blackboard; this is a more learner-centred approach than if you correct pronunciation orally, by giving a model. The pupils may also be able to write the phonetic notation on the board for correction purposes (some pupils respond with enthusiasm to this type of activity). A special area of the blackboard can be set aside for pronunciation work. Exercises on the blackboard are not rubbed off until the end of the lesson. A different colour chalk can be reserved for this end.

Summary
Although pronunciation is not always taught in an overt, explicit way, many pupils seem to acquire an acceptable pronunciation in school. However, this should not make us forget the benefits of teaching pronunciation in our lessons. The teaching of pronunciation makes the pupils aware of different sounds and sound features and this will improve both their speaking and their listening skills. Concentrating on pronunciation makes pupils aware of sounds, stress, rhythm and intonation, and of various accents. All these give pupils information about spoken English and help them achieve better comprehension of the spoken language and intelligibility in speaking.

Further Reading
Bradford, Barbara, 1988, Intonation in Context CUP Harmer, Jeremy. 2001, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, Chapter 2, pp. 28 33 Haycraft, Brita, 1975, The Teaching of Pronunciation, Longman Herbert, Julie PracTESOL: ts Not What You Say, but How You Say It! in Richards, Jack C. and Renandya Willy A., 2002. Richards, Jack C. and Renandya Willy A., 2002. Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP. Jones Rodney H. Beyond Listen and Repeat: Pronunciation Teaching Materials and Theories of Second Language Acquisition in Richards, Jack C. and Renandya Willy A., 2002.

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