TABLE OF CONTENTS Unit Focus Page 1 | Fromzerotohero 1 2 Plane, plan / Car, care 7 3 | Meet, met/Kite, kit 2 @ | Shut, pull, rude / Carrot, cabbage 7 5 | Note, not / Shirts, shorts 2 © | Toy, town ra 7 5, -e5” endings /“-ed” endings 30 @ | Down town / Thick, they 34 9 Rice, rise / Sheep, jeep, cheap 39 10 Consonant cluster / silent letters 43 Tips to learn pronunciation a7From zero to hero Playing with the sounds of English A Itis common for speakers to play with the sounds of the language. Read these sentences from newspapers and magazines. Notice that the blue phrases contain words which sound similar. They contain rhymes: the final vowel or vowel + consonant sounds are the same or similar ~ sounding, e.g: sign and time. ‘Appearance is very important in the fashion business. According to company director Martha Friedl, “You have to dress for success.” Fernando goes from zero to hero after scoring a last-minute goal in the European championship. ‘On this island, nothing happens jnaburry’ says Jamie, ‘You just hhave to relax and go with the flow: In the age of the text message, itis pethaps a sign of the times that many teenagers can no longer write with a pen. ~ermmtrmmementaseet once @__ Listen to this poem. Notice the pronunciation of the words in bold, It’s very strange, but did you know Work is not pronounced like fork. Shoe will never rhyme with toe? Fork’s like walk and also talk. And foot will never sound like boot; Why is beard not like heard ? Boots like suit and flute and fruit Why does bird rhyme with word? Foods like put and feet’s like seat; This is what | sometimes found: Great's like eight but not like eat. Spelling's often not like sound.Spelling is not always a good guide to pronunciation. Listen to these groups of words fram the poem. Notice that ‘Adoes NOT rhyme with B even though the spelling of the end of the word Is different. The phonemic symbols make this clear. A B c shoe /fus/ toe /tau/ know /navf foot /fut/ boot /bu:t/ suit /suzt/ great /greit/ seat /sixt/ feet /f work /waik/ fork /fork/ walk /wark/ beard /biad/ heard /ha:d/ bird fo3:d/ Introduction to phonemic symbols - The phonemic alphabet i I] a U: (ie eI f Q nore | The rhyming words above may not rhyme in all accents. Phonemic st ae aoe 2 , short 7e 0a o: ua Of a ™ Som about coor your tox ee) we A D €9 AI av im wel eye |e vitae as at a “hae unvotead grafts ee ee a 2 f 6 6 Ss z f§f 3 Bin = eo eo eee Bln em ee ee D J m r w oh oan no sha = oot win house tummy lamb funny” knife | unele angry | onion” view feel bemy atong here’ ane unary who D English from around the world Most of the English speakers in the world do not come from English — speaking countries such as the UK, the USA, Australia, etc. Here are three examples,e A multilingual speaker of English Duffy is from Kenya. She has spoken English all her life, along with Swahili and Luhya (a local language in Western Kenya). Her accent is slightly different from the British. For example, she doesn’t reduce the vowel Ja/ in function words. This does not make her English less clear; in fact. Listen! Eh hello, My name is Duffy. I'm from Kenya. I'm from the capital city, which is Nairobi. ve been living in Spain for about ten years now. Even though 'm from the capital city, my family is initially from a small village on the west of Kenya, in the west of Kenya, It's called Busia. I've been living here for about eh, as | said before, eleven years and | really like it. | have a job in a good company so initially | have no intentions of going back. Anon ~ native speaker of English Gianluca is from Italy. He has studied English for many years and he has lived in English ~ speaking countries. He speaks English with Italian accent. For example, if a word finishes with a consonant sound, (e.g: in called and coast), he sometimes adds a slight vowel after it. However, this does not make his English less clear; itis simply part of his accent. Listen! Gianluca: Well, leh come from Italy. Duffy: ‘Oh yeah? What part of Italy? Gianluca: __ It's eh a small city, Bari it’s called. i's eh in the south of. Italy. Duffy: h, | don't know about Bari. 've been to eh Rome, personally Gianluca: To Rome? That's the capital It’s quite far from Bari, but it’s lovely place. Duffy: Is Duffy anywhere near Sicily, or more to the south or .. Gianluca: Oh no no no, not at all. It’s on eh the Adriatic eh coast. Alearner of English Yoko is from Japan. She is studying English at the moment. Her speech contains some pronunciation features which could make it more difficult to understand. For example, her pronunciation of the sound /l/ in kilometre and language sounds more like the sound /r/. The listener will probably need some time to get accustomed to her speech. Listen! Hello. My name is Yoko Sabusaki. I'm from Japan. | come from Shizuoka, which is a small city where is a 200 kilometres from Tokyo, and with eh Mount Fuji. My first language is Japanese. | also speak Spanish and English. I'm a coordinator for travel agency. | live in the centre of Madrid. I live here in Spain for 10 years. | love Spain. | want to retire here.Exercises Exercise 1.1 Underline the phrases containing rhymes in these sentences from newspapers and magazines. EXAMPLE We bring you the latest news and views from the sporting world. 1 Fancy flying to the Mediterranean fora 4 *tmma man with a plan, Mitchell tells jadekentsie hatie en Democratic Party conference 2 "An extremely low tide has left many 5 Back in the 1970s, school classrooms were all chalk boats high and dry on the beach. and talk. Nowadays, kids expect their lessons to be entertaining 3 ‘You don’t get to the top by doing nothing,’ says manager Bob Clarke, © Motorists have been advised to steer clear of Hard work is the name of the game. Junction 15 during the roadworks. Exercise 1.2 @ Read the poem below and write the words from the box in the gaps. Listen, check and repeat. de doll go goal hour magazine rude sounds slower wood It's very strange, but did you know x ‘ doesn't rhyme with flower PO. Will ever SOUN LiKE ..nrsneinens? And four will never sound like & Ocean doesn't rhyme with clean; Good's like ”. aes but not like food, Clean’s like green and * Would’s like could but not like ® : will never rhyme with roll; You know that wounds are not like pounds Roll’ like hole and als0 4..0nsurinnnnen ‘Cause letters aren't the same as ® Exercise 1.3 @ Which word does not rhyme with the others? Underline it. Use the phonemic symbols to show how the words are pronounced. Listen and check your answers. EXAMPLE hair here there where /hea hia dea wea/ 1 car star far war 2 slow cow go know Brose grows does goes 4 clear near bear hear 5 really early nearly clearly 6 close choose lose shoes 7 above glove love moveExercise 1.4 Find phonemic spelling for these thirteen different foods in the wordsearch. The words are horizontal -> or vertical (. Use all the letters. hemb x pdr ae lista dati Exercise 1.5 Put these words in the correct square in the table. Do not write in the shaded squares boy-here-share- shy- she-toy- hair- high-he-bore- pier - bear- buy- be- pour—tea- tie - pair deer- pea- we- die- pie- dare - door- fear- four -wear- why - fair- wore - tear 3 3 2 2 a Ww ¥ é P t b ty h ew JSpeaking practice ‘0’ Task 1 Complete the text below for yourself. Record yourself saying it. Hello, my name's (name) I'm from... Jeueee(ountry) Icome from (place, e.g. a small town in the north of the country) My first language(s) is/are (language) Ualso speak (a litle) ( other languages) ma (job) Task 2 Imagine you are speaking English to Duffy, Gianluca or Yoko. Think about your own pronunciation of English. ‘Which features of your speech: 1. Are part of your English accent? 2. Could make it difficult for the other person to understand? 3. Are you happy with? 4, Would you like to change?