unit 9 inglés & Rise-fall (ising then falling) a The tone movements are made on one syllable usually, and that isthe ast stressed syllable of an utterance, which is called the nueleus, or tonic syllable. Intonation has two basic functions: > Grammatical function. Intonation indicates grammatical meaning in much the same way as punctuation in written language. For example: ® Stating. Afull stop in written language indicates a statement; a falling intonation pattern indicates the sae in speech: J/\live in Ng France // = Questioning. A question mark in written language indicates that it is a question — Arising intonation pattern indicates a yes/no question in spoken language. she coming // — Afalling intonation pattern indicates a wh-question: “Where'she NC going // = Exclamating. A falling pitch expresses the exclamation mark:// How Ng nice // > Emotional function = A falling tone indicates: — Surprise, anger or warning // be \qquiet // = Confirmation // will Ne you // = Information // Im Ss ten // — Commands // sit Ng down // ~ Routines // good Ng morning // ® Arising tone is used in: — Friendly greetings // good morning // — Polite enquiring //_* coffee // = Questions from statements He's a French // = A falling-rising tone may indicate = Uncertainty // \ really // ® Arising falling tone indicates: — Impatient attitude // “& come on // Cenposiiones atunit 9 inglés Description ofthe English phonological system 1 How do we describe the ferent vowel sounds? The ferent consonant sounds? What arethe diferent suprasegmentl features? How do the affect the meaning of what we say? Description ofthe English phonological system '= From a language teaching point of view the most important stage ofa speech sound i articulation The six basic factors that play a role in articulation are: ait stream, vocal folds, soft palate place of articulation, Manner of articulation and lips ' In English there ae a total of 20 vcalc phonemes. On top ofthat there are two semi vowels and 24 consonant '= The suprasegmental features change the meaning of what we say by altering the stress rhythm and intonation of our words and sentences Ce Cenopostionesunit 9 inglés 3 PRONUNCIATION MODELS AND LEARNING TECHNIQUES. PERCEPTION, DISCRIMINATION AND EMISSION OF SOUNDS, INTONATION, RHYTHM AND STRESS 3.1. MODELS This is a matter of great importance, because English is spoken world-wide and therefore has a profusion of different spoken forms and accents. Which English pronunciation shall we teach, then? The most realistic answer is the choice of one ofthe main natural forms of English as a basic model. This choice must be made on the grounds of this model having wide currency and being widely and readily understood. There are two main candidates as basic models: British RP and American. Allegiances to one or the other tend to be traditional or geographical. Thus, European countries continue on the whole to teach RP, whereas in Asia and South America they follow the American model. British English has always had regional pronunciations for historical or geographical reasons. Yet, for the last five centuries, the notion has existed in Great Britain that one kind of pronunciation was preferable to others. One regional accent began to acquite social prestige. This prestige was mainly due to politics (the speech of the court) and commerce (especially in the South-East of England, and particularly in London). This implicitly accepted social standard of pronunciation was called Received Pronunciation (RP). The terin suggests the result of social judgment rather than an official decision, RP became, in fact, a marker of position in society, since It was the accent of educated Southern English people As a result of the advent of radio, this pronunciation was to be more widely known and accepted. The BBC recommended this form of pronunciation for its announcers and RP has often been identified in the public mind as «BBC Englisho. RP has since become the form of pronunciation most commonly described in books on phonetics and traditionally taught to foreigners. In the early stages it is therefore advisable to teach students a good model of English such as RP. As they gain confidence in their productive competence, they can gradually be exposed to other important regional types, such as American English. We can also deduce from this that the teacher's own pronunciation should reach the highest level possible. A Gimson says: «The foreign teacher .)has the obligation to present his students with as faithful a model of English pronunciation as possible In the first place, and particularly if he is dealing with young pupils, his students will imitate a bad pronunciation as exactly as they will a good one». 3.2, LEARNING TECHNIQUES Learning pronunciation is not an optional luxury that can be left for advanced levels. As Hubbard et al. say: «Pronunciation should be an integral part of an English Cencpesiones esataunit 9 20 inglés teaching programme from the early stages, just like the teaching of structures and vocabulary» Ideally, the teacher should present and practise pronunciation as he/ she introduces new aspects of language. Learning pronunciation has two phases: 1. Learning to discriminate English sounds, stress and intonation (ear-training). 2. Learning to produce those sounds, stress and intonation with general intelligibility. Therefore, listening is the first step in the teaching-leaming process of pronunciation. The recorded material should be graded so that the students can attain an increasing level of precision. basic approach to teaching pronunciation follows an order that progresses from the smallest Unit of speech (the phonemes) to the word (stress) and finally to connected speech, incorporating features such as rhythm and intonation. i Toexpand on the material covered in this section goto Unit 18 section 2.4. 3.2.1. Sounds (vowels and consonants) = Listening stage: The teacher must devise ear-training activities, since the students must be taught to listen. ~ Discrimination dri. The leanners have to recognize the difference between two sounds. Students listen to minimal pairs, that is, pairs of words which differ only in one sound (one phoneme). Eg: see / she; tree / three; eat / it. They have to identify which word they have heard ~ Discrimination games: «Odd man outs: The students spot the sound that is different ina series. For example: fun ~ cup - mad — hut. Phonetic Bingo: The students have cards of words (or pictures of the words), The teacher reads out the words and the students cover the appropriate cards. SS = Dictations: The teacher dictates similar words for the students to discriminate. = Production stage: Following on from recognition or discrimination, the teacher will have to devise exercises for the production ro of sounds: — Repetition drills: The teacher first needs to \ demonstrate thewayinwhichthese sounds ‘are made, He/she must show what should Ccenoposiionesunit 9 be happening to the lips, tongue and teeth. For example, for the pronunciation of vowels, the teacher can show whether the mouth is quite open or closed, and whether the lips are rounded or spread out. In the pronunciation of /i/ the lips are spread and the front of the tongue is raised The students will then listen and repeat the model in chorus and individually. The teacher may use pictures of the words he/she is presenting to help motivate students. = Meaningful drils. The words must now be put into context, so that the pronunciation practise is more meaningful. They can practise this type of sentences: Id like cheese, please. = Songs, chants and tongue twisters: These are very useful for practicing pronunciation in context and in a highly motivating way: 1 ike coffee, 1 like cheese. | ike Peter and Peter ikes me. — Free production: Once the sounds have been presented in context, the next step is the practise of those sounds in dialogues. This can be done in pairs. For example, students can practise / it / in the situation of a restaurant: Client 1: fl like a cheese sandwvich and tea, please. Client 2: meat sandwich anda tea for me, please. Waiter: 1 cheese sandwich, 1 meat sandwich and 2teas. 3.2.2, Stress istening stage. The students have to point out the stressed syllable in a word or phrase. = Recognition activities. The teacher can ask the students to snap their fingers or clap their hands when hearing the stressed syllable in words or phrases. — Marking the stress on words, The students can mark the words they listen to by using symbols, For example, the teacher can use large circles for stressed syilables and small circles for unstressed sylables: oOo Good morning, This can be done in dictation form. The teacher pronounces the words and the students draw symbols on the words. = Classifying words. The students can classify a given list of words into the appropriate stress patterns: Ooo oOo oo Yesterday tomorrow aftemoon, Ccenoposiciones inglés 2unit 9 inglés = Production stage. As with sounds, the first stage is pure imitation of the teacher's model, in chorus and individually. If there difficulty, the teacher can isolate the stressed syllable and get that repeated a few times The students would then repeat the phrase together again. The whole process can be surnmarized as follows: 1. The teacher reads out the whole sentence 2. He/she isolates and reads out only the stressed syllable. The students repeat the syllable, 3. The students repeat the whole sentence. 4, The students practise the words in context. Symbols help to practise sentence stfess. The teacher can draw or stick little squares on stress syllables: oO im Spanish. The teacher can move the square when changing the stress. O tim Spanish 5. The students practise sentence linking. Practising how sounds blend together in informal speech is important to gain fluency: He w singing. 3.2.3. Rhythm ® Listening stage. A useful way of demonstrating English rhythm is asking the children to clap to the strong beats, while adding more and more syllables between claps. For example: ONE Two THREE FOUR ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR ONE anda = TWO anda THREE anda FOUR ONE andthena TWO andthena THREE andthena FOUR The strong beats are in capital letters. = Production stage. = Songs, rhymes and jazz chants are excellent illustrations of the way in which stress and rhythm are cartied out. Again, the learners can be asked to clap to the rhythm, 3.2.4. Intonation ® Listening stage. = Recognition of the rising or falling pattern 2 Ccenoposiionesunit 9 inglés The students can move their arms from high to low to indicate the falling tone or vice-versa for the rise (the teacher will have first demonstrated how todoit). The students can draw arrows to indicate the direction of the intonation pattern in a sentence or question: REESE eee morning, = Production stage. — Imitation of the intonation pattem using gestures. The children imitate the pattern while moving their arms or their body upwards or downwards. — Imitation of the intonation pattern using arrows. They can imitate the pattern while looking at the arrows drawn on the blackboard (without words). They hear sentences and imitate them, Its also possible to indicate both stress and intonation at the same time 3 0° ‘They can also change mood attitude by changing the pattern. An enthusiastic ‘good moming' would be indicated thus: Ee Good morning The teacher can help students’ intonation with drawings. He/she can draw faces on cards, showing uninterested or enthusiastic moods (this idea is taken from Hubbard et al) ©) © — Role-play. The children can adopt a role and act out a short sketch. For instance, they can practise mood by exchanging greetings between Mr Happy and Mr Sad. Ccenoposiciones eeunit 9 inglés ~ Integrated exercises. Integration of pronunciation of sounds and intonation ate desirable, Dialogues can be devised to utter sounds, already practised with a specific intonation. Pronunciation models and leaming techniques ‘= Why do we teach British RP in Spanish schools? Can other types of pronunciation be aught? ‘= How do we teach sound? Stes? Rhythm? Intonation? Pronunciation models and learning techniques ‘= English has many diferent spoken forms and accents, but these are two basic models that are taught: British Received Pronunciation (In Europe) and American (in South America ane Asia). "= tis important thatthe teacher pronounces well. Pronunciation shouldbe taught ‘progressively, rom the phonemes to the word (ates) and finally to connected speech incorporating rhythm and intonation 1 In al stages pronunciation should be taught fist by listening and then by production. a Ccenoposiionesunit 9 inglés 4 PHONETIC CORRECTION 4.1. PROBLEMS FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS. When teaching pronunciation, the teacher must be aware of difficult segmental and suprasegmental features of the target language. From all the possible difficulties that Spanish speakers may encounter, the teacher must concentrate on those which may cause low intelligibility. These are called high priority problems, They are: > Vowels, ® Difficulty in distinguishing long and short vowels: For example: fiz /and/1/ ® Confusion between /D/,/@U/,/2t/- = The weak form / 2 / isreplaced by its spelling > Consonants = Confusion between the voiced and voiceless realization of sounds: / b / and / vis fs fand/2/5/9/. = / p,t, k / are not aspirated in the initial position. = / t /Is dental in Spanish. in English its alveolar. > Stress ® Difficulties in pronouncing three and four syllable words with the stress on their first syllables (eg. vegetables). & English derivates do not follow the patterns of their roots: ‘nation ——> nationalization. > Rhythm = Spanish rhythm is silable-timed, whereas English rhythm is stressed-timed. Spanish speakers find it dificult to use weak forms. > Intonation = Spanish has a narrower pitch range than English, Ccenoposiciones esunit inglés 4.2. CORRECTION TECHNIQUES The teacher's positive attitude towards errors of crucial importance for the learner. The teacher must be prepared for errors and do something about them. The strategy for dealing with pronunciation can be: = Instant remedial. First of all, the teacher will draw attention to the problematic sound or pattern and pronounce it in isolation, Then, if possible, he/she will associate the sound with a familiar one (for example / h / with Andalusian «J«,asin‘harv and jamén). Finally the teacher will explain (in the mother tongue) how the sound/pattern is formed = Planned remedial. If pronunciation problems are still proving difficult, there is the need for planned remedial work. The teacher should make a note of the problem and make a short plan including discrimination drills and practise activities Phonetic corection ‘= What ate some common pronunciation problems for Spanish students? ‘= How should the teacher face these problems? Phonetic correction 1» There are some common problems that students encounter that may affect their understanding of the language. Among the most common ar the confusing lang and short vowels andthe fat that the «ts dental in Spanish and in English tis alveolar. 1 In terms ofsuprasegmental features, there ate dificult in pronouncing three oF foursylable words with stress onthe fist sylable, that Spanish rhythm ssllable timed while English hythm is stres timed and that Spanish has a narrower pitch ‘ange than English. = The teacher can deal wth problems of pronunciation by facing them immediately in clas of, fthe problem continues to ocut, by preparing a plan with dls et. es CenopostionesRes Pronunciation is probably the most neglected aspect of English teaching. Foreign language teachers often lack confidence to include it systematically in their methodology. But neglecting pronunciation strategies will affect the leatner’s oral communicative competence, since he/she will either have difficulties in understanding speech or will be unable to produce it, causing low intelligibility Teaching to pronounce and recognize sounds should form part of the didactic procedures. We should always bear in mind that the objective of the current educational law for this subject is the development of communicative competence in everyday situations. ‘cenoposiciones inglés unit 9 27unit 9 inglés eee BAKER, A. Tree or Three? An elementary pronunciation course. Cambridge University Press. 2006. BREWSTER, Jet al: The Primary English Teacher's Guide. Penguin. 2002. CRYSTAL, D:: The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language. Cambridge University Press. 1997. FINCH, D. and ORTIZ LIRA, H: A Course in English Phonetics for Spanish Speakers. Heinemann, 1982, FINCH, G: Linguistic Terms and Concepts. Macmillan Press Ltd. 1999. GIMSON, A. C.:An introduction to the pronunciation of English. Edward Amold, 1989. HAYCRAFT, J: An introduction to English Language Teaching. Longman. 1998. HUBBARD, J. etal: A Training Course for TEFL. Oxford University Press. 1994. Ccenoposiionesunit 9 inglés tal ais PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY. DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM. PRONUNCIATION MODELS AND LEARNING TECHNIQUES. PERCEPTION, DISCRIMINATION AND EMISSION OF SOUNDS, INTONATION, RHYTHM AND STRESS. PHONETIC CORRECTION. 11. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY ® Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are made, transmitted and received. It studies the physical dimension of speech. = Phonology analyzes the patterning of sounds and the functional behaviour of these sounds. It also studies the nature of prosodic features, such as stress, rhythm and intonation, 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM Segmental features: vowels and consonants. In English there are 12 pure vowels (7 short and 5 long}:8 diphthongs (or glides) and 24 consonants # Vowels do not involve any interruption of the ar flow. The ar low is voiced as it comes through the glottis and is then influenced by the configuration of the vocal organs. = Consonants are produced by obstructing the airstream from the lungs. ™ Suprasegmental features: stess, rhythm, intonation. Stress is the degree of prominence associated to a word or sylable = Rhythm involves some noticeable event happening at regular intervals of time. ® Intonation: the significant changes in the musical pitch of the voice. 3. PRONUNCIATION MODELS AND LEARNING TECHNIQUES At early stages, itis advisable to teach the learners a good model of English such as RP. ‘As they gain confidence in their productive competence, they can gradually be exposed 10 other important regional types for example, American English = Learning pronunciation has two phases: learning to discriminate English sounds, stress and intonation (ear-training), and learning to produce those sounds, stress and Intonation with general intelligibility ™ A basic approach to teach pronunciation follows a certain order that progresses from the smallest unit of speech (chonemes) to the word (stress) and finally to connected speech, incorporating features such as rhythm and intonation, Ccenoposiciones eeunit 9 inglés 30 THE English PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM SEGMENTAL FEATURES (> vowels + sem-vowets > CONSONANTS Model y SUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURES STRESS RHYTHM INTONATION P.English Y Learning to LEARNING Learning to discriminate ‘TECHNIQUES produce > RECOGNITION ACTIVITIES IMITATION PRACTICE PRACTISE IN CONTEXT. 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