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TASK 1: ESSAY WRITING

Discuss problems a speaker will have if he does not have phonological

knowledge. Illustrate your stand with support of relevant examples.

Phonological knowledge can be divided into two parts that are phonetics and
phonology. Phonology term basically come from combination of two Greek words phone and
logos. Phone means sound while logos mean level. According to HamannClaire and
Schmitz Genoveva (2005), phonetics is concerned with how sounds are produced, transmitted
and perceived (we will only look at the production of sounds) while phonology is concerned
with how sounds function in relation to each other in a language. Phonetics have three aspects
that is acoustics, auditory and articulatory. Phonological knowledge is really important for
everyone includinge children, pupils and especially to speakers. SThe speaker will encounter
many problems regarding speaking if he did not have strong phonological problems such as
the speaker will be unable to express the correct meaning to the audience, he will have a hard
time to attract audience and the credibility of the speaker will be affected.

One of the problem the speaker will encounter if he does not have phonological
knowledge is the speaker will be unable to express the correct meaning to the audience.
Audience cannot get the meaning from the speaker as the words he says doesdoes not sound
rightfamiliar in the society. Audience also will find difficulties to grab information from the
speaker. For example, if the speaker says I want to eat desert now, the audience will not
understand and be startled as desert is a waterless, desolate area of land with little or no
vegetation (Oxford Dictionary, 2010). The speaker should say I want to eat dessert now
because dessert is the sweet course eaten at the end of a meal such as cake and pudding
(Oxford Dictionary, 2010). Word practice and practise also need phonological knowledge as
practice is a noun and practise is a verb. Word loose also should be pronounced as lus while
lose should be pronounced as luz. Imagine if the speaker says I looose my shirt last
night. The audience maybe think your shirt is loose not loste. Audience also cannot grab
the correct meaning if the speaker does not stress syllables in the word correctly. Stressing
words means the speaker make some syllables inand words higher, longer and louder. It is
fundamental to emphasise the words so that the audience can know what is important in the
speech. For example, if the speaker wants to say It is not the best idea, the speaker should
stress on word not, best and idea. This is because the content word must bring the
meaning and must be stressed while the other words do not need the stress as they do not
bring the content meaning. The audience tend to remember the meaning of the speech if the
content in the speech is stressed by the speaker. This also makes the audience easy to

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understand what the speaker is trying to say about. Speaker needs the phonological
knowledge for them to convey the meaning of their talk to the audience correctly.

The second problem when the speaker does not have phonological knowledge is the
speaker will have a hard time to attract the audience. According to Theo Theobald (2013), a
great speech will benefit through rise and fall. It adds interest, draws the audience in and builds
credibility in what you are saying. The Mehrabian study (Theobald, 2013) saidys vocal which
includinge tone, pace and delivery is 38 percent which make vocal is an important aspect s in
attracting the audience. Humans love to listen something g that have variations. If the speaker
just pronouncesspeak the word without intonation and pace, of course the talk will become
dull and the audience mayaybe does not pay attention at all toat him. Audience also will lose
interest as the speaker could not differentiate between spelling and sounds. For example, if
the speaker say the word knife and kneel with a pronouncedout silent /k/ or the word
gnaw and gnarl without silent a pronounced /gng/. Maybe certain people know what is the
meaning but it still can give confusion to the audience. Phonological knowledge is fundamental
to the speaker as it able to attract interest of the audience.

Another problem that speaker will encounter if he does not have phonological
knowledge is the credibility of the speaker will be affected. According to Merriam-Webster
dictionary (2007), credibility is quality of being believed or accepted as true, real, or honest.
A good speaker will gain good impression from the audience because his talk give meaning,
change the thoughts and moved hearts of the audience which improve the credibility of the
speaker. Meanwhile, if the speaker does not know and appliesy the phonological knowledge,
the audience will questions the credibility of the speaker and they will not believe the speakers
talk. For example, if the speaker pronounces words badly and ignore the intonation, the
audience will think that he i does not serious in his talk and eventually the talk cannot be
believedconvinced although the talk is about serious issues which needs clarification. They
also think the speaker idoes not prepared and not interested in giving the talk. If the speaker
especially come from foreign country, they need to prepared more in pronunciation as they
are not native speaker. There are many foreign speakers who fail to pronounce correctly which
make the audience wondering about the credibility of the speaker.

Phonological knowledge is also really important to the teacher especially teacher in

early childhood education. This is because phonological knowledge should be taught from
early ages as children can absorb knowledge effectively in this age. Teacher should teach the
children how to pronounce words correctly so they can speak correctly and confidently.
Teacher also have to teach the pace and intonation when speaking because it is fundamental

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to emphasise the content meaning. Teacher can teach phonological knowledge by read them
stories, give instructions and converse with them while they play.

Phonological knowledge is really important to all speaker not only in English but in
every language. Speaking needs phonological knowledge as it can make the talk more
convincing and interesting. The meaningful and interesting talk not only increase the
knowledge but can change the society and country to better future.