The Book of Pronunciation - Proposals for a Practical Pedagogy

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The Book of Pronunciation Proposals for a practical pedagogy

Includes Audio CD

D E LT A T E A C H E R

DEVELOPMENT

SERIES

From the authors The story of foreign language teaching in British schools (which I’m not going to write about here, you’ll be pleased to know) has had its ups and downs - more downs than ups, probably - but what I want to write here concerns one of the ups. I went to primary school in a suburb of Leeds in the 1960s, and the school I attended happened to be one of those that took part in a national experiment to introduce French at primary level. My recollections of this are somewhat vague, as I hope you’ll understand: it was, after all, half a century ago. I don’t even know whether I did two years of French at primary school, or just one. It certainly wasn’t more than two. Nor do I remember very much about what we did in our French lessons, or how many we had per week. I do remember that we used pictures a lot, and that the lessons were primarily (entirely? did we do any writing at all?) oral. Why am I telling you this? Well, the thing is ... Our French lessons were taught by our regular class teacher. I don’t know how much French she knew. Was she perhaps just one jump ahead of us? Some of the teachers involved in the scheme were, apparently, just one step ahead of the pupils. But I seem to recall very clearly that she had a good French accent. Of course, this is impossible to verify, and I suppose that at the age of nine or so I didn’t really have much idea of what a French accent was supposed to sound like, anyway. I can still hear a distant but distinct echo of her voice speaking the unfamiliar language. It still sounds good, even now. And it was simply the sound of it that appealed to me first. Not the prospect of venturing across the Channel and using the language - that came later. It was the sound of that familiar teacher’s voice making those unfamiliar sounds, and the discovery that I could hear myself somehow managing to at least approximate to the same sounds myself. So now, half a century later, I think that primary school classroom was probably the beginning of my enduring interest in pronunciation - the latest manifestation of which takes the shape of these pages.

Part of my university course was a weekly lecture on Russian phonetics. I found the whole business totally unfathomable. Like many academic subjects, it was couched in what was, for me at least, impenetrable jargon. I had no idea what a ‘voiceless fricative’ was, for example, and no amount of reading and re-reading seemed to shed any light on the matter. Perhaps most importantly of all, I simply failed to see the relevance of this strand to the process of learning the language and studying its literature and history. A mystery. Some years later, having drifted into English teaching while a postgraduate student in Czechoslovakia, I decided to get a formal teaching qualification and, to this end, took a PGCE course specialising in TEFL. Again, there was a phonetics element on this course and again, at first at least, I found it complicated and uninspiring. I recall having to describe in minute detail in an assignment what happened to the speech organs during the pronunciation of the word ‘anglepoise’ (a kind of table lamp) and wondering why anyone should imagine that was useful. To my amazement, I managed to pass this assignment. Looking back, I suppose this may have been the first turning point. The words fricative, plosive, affricate and so on were beginning to make sense, and even my younger, sceptical self could see some relevance in the field of general phonetics. The seeds were sown. After a five-year stint in the Balkans, I got a job teaching EFL at a language school on the south coast of England. Each classroom was equipped with a phonemic chart that, to my relatively untrained eye, seemed to have an intriguing design. The more I looked at it, the more it made sense. I could also see immediately that it had a clear practical purpose - the symbols were identical to those used in learners’ dictionaries. Students in the classes I observed (and subsequently taught) were not asked to analyse the activity of the speech organs in the production of the word anglepoise', but they could identify and use the symbols accurately as part and parcel of every lesson, focusing on those sounds that were particularly problematic for speakers of their own mother tongue and self-correcting in a particularly impressive way. Gradually the fog lifted. The mystery was solved - and I was hooked.

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Contents From the authors

Page 3 Page 7

From mouthful of air to stream of sound Sounds, symbols, spelling and stress 1

Page 37

P art B 1

Page 12 Page 31

Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44

CD Tracks 45-48

... tonic prominence ... intonation patterns

Page 46 Page 47

Sounds

Create your own chart Recognising the symbols Sounds bingo Vowel chanting Miming sounds /hi through whispering Split sentences Endings and beginnings Sounds game Sounds hangman A bagful of sounds Phonemic scrabble Sounds-vocabulary game Odd one out Making a difference Sorting sounds Sounds discrimination 4

Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66

CD Track 49

Listening for numbers

Page 67

Introducing...

... pronunciation ... the phonemic chart ... the phonemic symbols ... syllables ... word stress ... consonant clusters

2

Test the teacher A little alliteration Rhyme time Sound symbolism Bilingual minimal pairs Comparing sounds

Page 49 Page 50 Page 50 Page 51 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 60

Sounds and spelling

A, B, C, D, Easy A, B, C A phonemic word race Vowels and diphthongs Phonemic DIY Sounds maze Deciphering a transcription Homophones dictation Homophones matching Odd homophone out Initial ‘a’ How many syllables? Tough enough Read or read? Sounds search Rhyming sounds Rhymes in phrases

Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 80 Page 81

CD Tracks 50-53

Pronouncing abbreviations Starring schwa

Page 82 Page 84

Word stress

A simple sorting activity Stress patterns race Stress pattern prompts Odd stress out Not quite identical twins

Page 85 Page 86 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88

Contents Stress patterns into words Word families Who does what? Everything b u t... A white blackbird? Disappearing text Revising vocabulary in a text

Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95

CD Tracks 54-57

Streets ahead See you this afternoon ... Compound adjectives 5

Page 96 Page 97 Page 98

Connected speech

Weak forms and grammar Breadnbutter Comic effect Fine doubt

Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103

CD Tracks 58-72

Teach a teacher Nothing a tall Schwa in many guises Strong or weak? Auxiliary spotting To contract - or not? What was that word? Disconnecting speech Goob morning Assimilation and elision How many words? Shortcuts 6

Page 104 Page 105 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117

Stress, rhythm and intonation

Body language Dos and don’ts Shadowing Stress and unstress Tonic prominence recognition

Page 119 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122

Tonic prominence production Reciting Poetry to prose and back Correct the teacher Intonational Simon says Contrastive stress

Page 123 Page 123 Page 125 Page 126 Page 128 Page 127

CD Tracks 73-93

Mystery text Pause for thought Liftoff! Chanting lists Long tails I did tell you Who’s got the tickets? Agreeing I bet you did! If only... Not exactly ... Tag along The best answer you can The thing is ... Well... Actually Being right and being wrong Guessing a drawing

Page 130 Page 131 Page 133 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 139 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145 Page 147 Page 148 Page 149 Page 150 Page 152 Page 153 Page 155

More ... about pronunciation More ... about learners More ... about teaching

Page 156 Page 162 Page 164

From the editors From the publisher

Page 175 Page 176

5

... out of a mouthful of a ir...

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A book of pronunciation A pronunciation book, in the opinion of the authors, should include: o ways to begin to incorporate pronunciation into your teaching; o ways to expand the range of activities at your disposal - even though you already do take pronunciation into account in your teaching; o answers to your reservations - if you are doubtful about the value of pronunciation work in your teaching; o a basic description of the pronunciation of English - which will help you and your learners understand it better and improve their learning and your teaching. We hope you will find all these elements, all of them necessary in a book of pronunciation, present in The Book of Pronunciation.

‘I made it out of a mouthful of air’ He Thinks of Those Who Have Spoken Evil of His Beloved W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)

W. B. Yeats said this in, and of, one of his poems. Spoken language starts as ‘a mouthful of air’, and every word we utter, every conversation we have, every speech we make, results from modifying and shaping that mouthful of air, blocking it at various points, channelling it in various directions and expelling it in various ways - an amazing example of doing a lot with minimal resources! Every piece of written language, too - every email, every treaty, every poem, every novel - is a representation of these processes, and can be converted back into air if we breathe life into it by reading it aloud. Pronunciation, although so often neglected by teachers, syllabuses and coursebooks, is fundamental to language - Who could speak without pronouncing?

Reservations and recommendations We would like to start by looking at some of the reservations, questions, doubts and objections that teachers, in our experience, often raise in connection with pronunciation teaching. *Learners find pronunciation work boring’

If they do, it may be because they are being asked to do the wrong kind of work - work that isn’t useful for them. For example: o Endlessly repeating meaningless sounds with no real idea of how to improve performance, o Practising making differences between unlikely pairs of sentences like ‘Keep your hair on’ and ‘Keep your heron’. 7

o Painfully trying to read aloud texts which are too difficult for them, while the teacher interrupts to correct them. We think the following principles are important in pronunciation work: o There should be a manageable level of challenge and a reasonable prospect of success, o Learners should be able to see the point of what they’re doing, o They should be given the help they need in order to improve. o They should generally practise realistic and meaningful language (although sometimes it can be useful to practise individual sounds in isolation.) o There should be at least an element of fun. Of course, these are actually good principles for any kind of teaching! ‘There’s no time for pronunciation ...”

There’s so much else to do: grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading, tests - and the coursebook has to be finished by the end of the semester .... It’s understandable that some teachers might feel this. However: o Giving attention to pronunciation will benefit other skills - speaking, most obviously, but also listening, and even reading and writing, o A lot of pronunciation work can, and should, be integrated into other activities so that it doesn’t actually stretch the required time noticeably, o If there are separate pronunciation activities, they don’t necessarily need much time. Many of the ones in this book need only a few minutes. 0 If you encourage the learners to pay attention to pronunciation, they will begin to notice more reliably for themselves how words are pronounced and how phrases and sentences are spoken, so they won’t need to ask you for so much guidance about pronunciation, and they won’t make so many mistakes - all of which will save time in the long run. ‘So when should I focus on pronunciation, then?’

Teaching pronunciation doesn’t mean that you need to plan ‘pronunciation lessons’ in the same way that you might plan Vocabulary lessons’ or ‘writing lessons’. Pronunciation work can usefully appear on three kinds of occasions during your teaching: 1 Dedicated pronunciation spots - where you put the spotlight on a particular point that has been causing the learners difficulty. For example: o If you have noticed in recent lessons that they are having trouble hearing and producing the distinction between pairs of words such as shoes/choose and share/chair, you might decide to plan and include in one lesson a short activity dedicated to practising the distinction between the ‘sh’ and ‘ch’ sounds. (See page 61 for such an activity.) o If you feel sufficiently confident and can think of enough suitable example words off the top of your head, you might even improvise such an activity during the course of the lesson where the problem arises. 2 Whenever you are planning to introduce new language - whether it’s grammar, vocabulary, functional language or whatever. One of the things to ask yourself is: How is it pronounced? Is there anything about the pronunciation that the learners are likely to find tricky and to need help with? For example: o In a vocabulary lesson introducing compound nouns such as railway station, town hall, high street, shopping centre, etc, it will be important for the learners to get the stress right: railway station, high street, shopping centre - but town hall. o In a lesson on the past continuous, it will be important for the learners to recognise and produce unstressed, weak versions of was and were - eg What were you doing? I was just making dinner. o In an advanced lesson on idioms such as once in a blue moon and not in a month of Sundays, it will be important to focus on the stress, rhythm and intonation which are part of the identity of such idioms, and without which they can sound very odd.

Track 1 The Book o f Pronunciation Jonathan Marks and Tim Bowen Delta Publishing 2012

Track 2 a - n - do it tomorrow See opposite.

Tracks 3-44 See from page 21 to the end of this section.

Tracks 45-93 See Part B, starting on page 37.

Note

The speakers on the CD are native speakers of English whose pronunciation is typical of young people from the south of England.

When you plan any of these types of lesson, include a focus on pronunciation - and when you teach the lesson, be ready to correct pronunciation and give appropriate help. 3 Apart from such planned activities - when a need for attention to pronunciation arises at any time, in any lesson. For example: o In a multilingual class, Learner A says the whole time without an /h/ sound at the beginning of whole. Learner B interprets it as the old time, and is confused because this doesn’t make sense in the context. It might be useful for the two of them, perhaps with help from the others, to try and sort out this misunderstanding for themselves and identify what caused it. If they seem unable to do this, or if it’s likely to take too long, the teacher can intervene to clarify what happened and whyyand give Learner A - and perhaps others in the class who would benefit from it - some quick impromptu practice in pronouncing /h/ at the beginnings of words, o While listening to a recording, the class are confused by something which sounds to them like 2 ‘a - n - do it tomorrow’. You might write this on the board:_____________do it tomorrow, with two gaps to show that two words are missing, and invite suggestions for filling the gaps. Perhaps the learners will be able to provide the first word: I. If not, add it to the sentence yourself and ask what the next word might possibly be. If they really have no idea, you will have to provide it yourself. Get the learners to listen again and notice how, in fast speech, I can be reduced to a and can to n. They might also like to try imitating the way the sentence is spoken in the recording, although they shouldn’t be given the impression that they really need to make these kinds of reductions themselves in their own speech. They need to be aware of them, though, when it comes to listening. ‘What type of pronunciation should my learners aim for?’

If English is a global language, it obviously needs to be internationally intelligible. But it would probably be impossible to describe a type of pronunciation that would always guarantee intelligibility between any two speakers from any two parts of the world. o It seems that consonant sounds - with the exception of the notorious W sounds - may be particularly important in achieving intelligibility, o A consistent set of distinctions between vowel sounds is important, too, but the total number of different vowel sounds probably doesn’t need to be as large as in standard native types of English. o Word stress is probably important for intelligibility, and perhaps at least a basic intonation distinction between ‘fall’ and ‘rise’. Here, then, is the basis of a way of deciding what to prioritise in pronunciation work, something which can be a difficult thing to do if you get the impression that your learners’ pronunciation is riddled with weaknesses. The ‘th’ sounds are often found to be resistant to teaching, but if they aren’t vitally important for intelligibility (and in fact not even all native speakers of English use them) it would probably be advisable not to spend too much time on them, and to use the time on higher priorities - such as word stress, perhaps. There are other factors to consider, however: o In some parts of the world, there are well-established and widely-used regional pronunciations of English, while in other countries there may be prestige attached to British or American pronunciation, and learners may wish to aim for one of these. Indeed, they may even be expected to do so in exams they want to take - and teachers should help them get as close as they can to achieving their aims, o Accent is, for many people, an important part of identity. Some people relish the opportunity to switch into a slightly different identity - a different version of themselves - when they speak another language, while others resist the prospect of the loss or falsification of identity which they feel would ensue from adopting a foreign accent. Native speakers of English form a minority of the total number of speakers of English in the world, and the majority of learners of English will probably never have an occasion to use 9

English to communicate with native speakers. But even those who do communicate with native speakers should feel no obligation to emulate native accents. o When we listen to English being spoken, we recognise that one person’s accent carries the message Vm Australian and another’s Vm Welsh, and so on. o There’s no reason why messages such as Vm Italian or I'm Japanese should not be equally natural and acceptable. However, if the Italian speaker of English or the Japanese speaker of English wants to aim for one of the native accents of English, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t try, or why we shouldn’t help them in their endeavour. Whatever type of pronunciation learners aspire to acquire in their own speech, it’s important for them to have experience of listening to - and ‘tuning in’ to - a wide variety of different pronunciations from around the world. They can’t possibly prepare for encounters with all possible accents, of course, but at least they can train their ears to expect variety, and to tune in quickly and notice distinctive features of unfamiliar accents. ‘Can I teach pronunciation even if I ’m not a native speaker myself?’

There’s absolutely no reason why not. o If you teach learners who speak the same first language as you, you can be the most inspiring role model for them: as someone who has achieved a high level of proficiency in English pronunciation while retaining your own linguistic identity. You will also have an excellent understanding of the problems they face and what they need to do to overcome them, o If your learners speak a different LI, or different Lis, from you, you will still be a good model and you will be able to recognise many of their problems. And should you be really concerned that your own pronunciation is ‘not good enough’, bear in mind the following: o You can make use of recorded material for pronunciation work. o With your guidance and feedback on their attempts - with your coaching, in fact - your learners can actually achieve a level of pronunciation higher than yours. (In the same way, a tennis player can play better than the person coaching them.) o Learners learn English - including pronunciation - not only from you but also from films, TV, songs and so on. 7s it easier to teach pronunciation in monolingual or multilingual classes?’

In monolingual classes, everyone tends to have similar problems and similar successes something which doesn’t only apply to pronunciation, of course. o The disadvantage is that the learners will be able to understand each other very well even if their pronunciation has substantial elements of LI interference. And so will you, either because you have the same LI, or because - even if your LI is different - you will soon tune into their pronunciation and cease to notice its particular characteristics, o The advantage is that, as long as you remain aware of those characteristics, you will be able to do directed pronunciation work which is clearly of benefit to everyone in the class. Multilingual classes have the disadvantage that the multiplicity of languages gives rise to a multiplicity of different pronunciation needs. This means: o It’s hard for you to notice and appreciate the needs of all the members of the class, o If you attempt to give coaching to one or two learners who have a particular LI, you risk wasting the time of the rest of the class. However: o Quite a lot of pronunciation work will be of benefit to learners of a wide range of Lis for example stress and unstress, strong and weak forms, intonation, consonant clusters.

o Through interaction with each other in their lessons - and not only during pronunciation activities - and in out-of-class conversations, the learners will have opportunities to discover which features of their pronunciation raise barriers to intelligibility, and to experiment with what they need to do to lower those barriers, o If you do identify a need to do some pronunciation work with, let’s say, three learners in a class of 18, you can plan to do this while the rest of the class work on a completely different activity which they can do independently, o If the need does arise from time to time to do some individualised pronunciation work during a plenary activity, the rest of the class will gain some insight into the pronunciation problems of one of their peers, and will hopefully appreciate that you will be equally willing to give them individual coaching when they need it. ‘Will learners think I ’m trying to make English unnecessarily difficult?’

In fact, by including helpful pronunciation work more often and more systematically in your teaching, you will be doing your learners a favour. When learners of English are asked about which aspects of language are important for them, it often turns out that they allot a high priority to pronunciation. This is understandable: o Poor pronunciation is an immediate barrier to intelligibility, o Being able to speak with the expectation of being intelligible is a pre-requisite for confidence in using an unfamiliar language - for uttering, and not just muttering! The more awareness learners have of their own pronunciation, the better they will be able to process the pronunciation of other speakers they encounter - to notice significant features of different accents, and to realise what reinterpretations they need to make in order to understand what they hear. At the same time, they will also be able to develop an ability to judge what features of their own pronunciation they need to adjust in order to make themselves more readily intelligible to people they meet and with whom they interact. ‘Is there such a thing as a pronunciation syllabus?

Do the aspects of pronunciation lend themselves to being ordered in a progression from elementary to advanced, in the same way as is conventionally done with grammar items? This is the fundamental question, and the logical answer is no, because all aspects of pronunciation are needed right from the start. To make our final point, let’s imagine that the phrase ‘Where do you live?’ appears in the very first lesson of an English course. Learners obviously can’t say it without pronouncing it, and pronouncing it might face them with difficulties in the following: o any of the consonants o any of the vowels o linking the words together o the rhythm OooO o stresses on ‘where’ and ‘live’ o reducing ‘do you’ o putting the main stress with an appropriate intonation on ‘live’ These are all things that the learners will need to revisit constantly and to develop as they learn more and more English. Even quite advanced learners may still need to work on the distinction between the vowels in ‘live’ and ‘leave’, or aspects of intonation. We have already used the word ‘pronunciation’ quite a lot, so perhaps we should now consider exactly what we mean by it, and what we need to do to convert our mouthful of air into intelligible English pronunciation.

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From mouthful of air to stream of sound Describing exactly what we need to do with our mouthful of air in order to speak English inevitably gets a little complicated. But don’t worry: • Take a comfortable chair - and sit back. • Take the CD - the first recorded pronunciation model is on page 2 1 . • Take a deep breath ... Voicing

In fact, strictly speaking, the airstream that becomes a mouthful of air originates in the lungs, and the first modifications are made to it before it reaches the mouth. We can either allow it to pass the vocal cords (note the spelling: cords, not ‘chords’) in our throat unobstructed, or we can bring the vocal cords closer together so that they vibrate as the airstream is forced through them: • Sounds made without vibration of the vocal cords are called voiceless (or unvoiced) sounds. • Sounds made with vibration of the vocal cords are called voiced sounds. When we whisper, we’re speaking without voicing. Note that the terminology is slightly unfortunate: even when we whisper, we are of course using our voice, in the everyday sense of the word, but without voicing! Try this: Put a finger in each ear, and alternate between whispering and normal speaking. As you switch the voicing on and off, you should hear and feel a buzzing resonance come and go as the vibration of the vocal cords is transferred to the bones of the head. You can also feel this resonance if you put your hand on your throat (not surprisingly, since that’s where the vocal cords are), on the top of your head and, who knows, maybe on other parts of your body - something to experiment with, perhaps! Consonants: stops/plosives

The speech sounds that we call consonants are all made by blocking or restricting the airstream at a certain point. It’s probably easiest to appreciate this in the case of the consonants /p/ and / b/, as the obstruction is caused by closing the lips - this is easy to feel, or to see in a mirror. Note the convention of writing symbols for sounds between slant brackets. Among other things, this distinguishes them from the letters of the alphabet that we use in writing - in the case of‘p’ and ‘b’ we use the same symbols for sounds and letters. Try this: If you say words like ‘super’ or ‘maybe’ slowly, you can feel that you close your lips together to form the /p/ or the / b/ in the middle of the words, and then open them, 12

allowing the air to be expelled suddenly. The lips don’t normally stay closed very long, but you can extend the period of closure. Trying it may help you become aware of how the sounds are produced by the eventual release of air. At the beginning of a word - in word-initial position, eg ‘pea’ or ‘bee’ - we also produce Ip/ and lb / by closing our lips, allowing pressure to build up behind them and then opening them to release the air. At the end of a word - in word-final position, eg ‘sip’ or ‘mob’ - you can release the /p/ and / b/ in the same way as for ‘super’ and ‘maybe’. But you don’t have to: you can also say such words without releasing the air. You can simply block the airstream and then stop, relaxing the lips without opening them and either expelling excess air through the nose, or taking air in through the nose if you need to. This has the result of making the words less easy to recognise, because phonetic information is withheld. Find a willing partner to help you with this experiment. On a piece of paper, write: 1 sip 2 sick 3 sit These words are identical, apart from the final consonant: sip /sip/ sick /sik/ sit /sit/ • Speaker A turns away from Speaker B (this is important, so that B can’t see A’s mouth, which would provide visual evidence of the final consonant sound) and says one of the three words without releasing the final consonant. • Speaker B has to say the number of the word they heard, and may well find that this apparently simple task is unexpectedly tricky. Normally, of course, we don’t say words in isolation, and the context helps us to decide what we’ve heard. For example, if we hear: I didnt know what was in the bottle, so I just took a tiny si_> we will interpret the final word as ‘sip’ even if the phonetic evidence is ambiguous. This is also a strategy learners will need to adopt. • Because Ip/ and /b / are formed by obstructing, or stopping, the airflow, they are called stops (or stop consonants). « Because they are often, but not always, produced with a sudden release or explosion of air, they are also called plosives (or plosive consonants). Aspiration

• So, as regards their place of articulation (where in the mouth they are produced), /p/ and /b/ are both bilabials, or bilabial consonants (bi = two, labial = lip).

• As regards their manner of articulation (how they are produced) they are both stops/plosives. The terms ‘stop’ and ‘plosive’ highlight two different aspects of these sounds; ‘plosive’ is used more frequently than ‘stop’, but it’s important to remember that the air which has been stopped is not always released. What, then, is the difference between /p / and /b/? • A common answer is that /p/ is voiceless and /b/ is voiced. This is actually an oversimplification, but one that teachers find to be of practical use. • In fact, lb/ often has little or no voicing, and it is more accurate to say that /p/ is a fortis (strong) consonant, while /b/ is lenis (weak). This strong/weak distinction refers to the amount of energy with which the sounds are articulated. One effect of the energetic articulation of /pi is that, unlike /b/, it is aspirated, ie accompanied by a strong burst of air, especially at the beginning of a stressed syllable. Try this: Hold a sheet of paper (a slightly higher-risk alternative is a lighted candle!) in front of your mouth and say, for example, ‘pin’ and ‘bin’. You should find that ‘pin’ makes the paper flutter (or the flame flicker) but ‘bin’ doesn’t. This aspiration of /p/ and non-aspiration of /b / is actually more important in distinguishing these two sounds in word-initial position than the presence or absence of voicing, and the paper or candle trick is a practical way of helping learners to tell the difference, if they find this difficult. So, three parameters - voicing, place of articulation and manner of articulation - can be used to define the two sounds: • Ip/ is a voiceless bilabial plosive (or voiceless bilabial stop). • / b / is a voiced bilabial plosive (or voiced bilabial stop). If you change any of these parameters, you can produce different words, with different meanings. For example, by varying the voiceless/voiced parameter, you can produce: pet /p e t/ or bet /b e t/ rip /n p / or rib /r ib / simple /'s im p j/ or symbol!cymbal /'s im b j/ (The mark before the 1st is a stress mark - see page 21 and the mark under the / I/ is a syllabic consonant mark - see page 15.) You can also produce non-existent, but possible, words: tip / t ip / vs the possible word / t ib / bless /bles/ vs the possible word /pies/ Phonemes and minimal pairs

Because substituting one of these sounds, /p/ or /b/, for the other has the potential to create two different words, these two sounds are called phonemes. A pair of words

distinguished only by one phoneme, such as ‘pet’ and ‘bet’, or ‘rip’ and ‘rib’, is called a minimal pair. It’s important for learners to distinguish between phonemes in listening and in their own speech, since failure to do so can result in confusion or misunderstanding, especially in combination with other shortcomings or uncertainties about the language. For example, there might be confusion between It’s simple and It's a symbol. There are two other pairs of stop/plosive phonemes in English: It/ -161 and /k/ - Igl: It/ and / k/ are voiceless/fortis. 161 and Igl are voiced/lenis.

For I t / and /d/, the airflow is obstructed by putting the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, just behind the top teeth (see the diagram above) so these phonemes are called alveolar: • / 1 / is a voiceless alveolar plosive (or voiceless alveolar stop). • 161 is a voiced alveolar plosive (or voiced alveolar stop). Many languages, in contrast to English, have dental It/ and 16/phonemes - ie the airflow is obstructed by putting the tip of the tongue against the back of the upper teeth. The difference between the dental and alveolar articulations is small, though audible. For/k/ and /g /, the airflow is obstructed by putting the back of the tongue against the soft palate, or velum, towards the back of the mouth, so these phonemes are called velar: • /k/ is a voiceless velar plosive (or voiceless velar stop). • Igl is a voiced velar plosive (or voiced velar stop). • /t/ and /k/, like /p/, are aspirated at the beginning of words. • 161 and /g/, like /b/, are unaspirated. Try the paper/candle test with ‘time’ and ‘dime’ or with ‘kilt’ and ‘guilt’. By varying only the voicing parameter, you can produce, for example, these minimal pairs: /du:/ toolt\ /tu:/ or do /bi:d/ beat /bi:t/ or bead /kreit/ or great/grate /greit/ /'aeQkl/ or angle 13

By varying only the place of articulation, on the other hand, you can produce minimal pairs such as: tailltale /te il/ or pail/pale /p e il/ /b e lt/ dealt /d e lt/ or belt l\eegl or lag lab /laeb/ lapping /'laepiq/ or lacking /'laekir]/ Phonemes and allophones

Apart from phonemic differences (ie differences between phonemes) there are many other, less significant, differences between sounds. For example: • / t / at the beginning of the word ‘tea’ tends to be pronounced with spread lips. • It/ at the beginning of the word ‘two’ tends to be pronounced with rounded lips. You can see this in a mirror. But these differences don’t have the potential to change meanings, and so the two sounds are not separate phonemes in English, and English speakers don’t generally notice the difference between them. They are allophonic differences, and the / 1 / sounds at the beginning o f‘tea’ and ‘two’ are different allophones - different forms of a phoneme. There will be more about allophones later. Consonants: fricatives

Take a deep breath, put your top teeth against the inside of your bottom lip and breathe out, forcing air through the gap between the teeth and lips. The result should be a long /f / sound: /ffffffff/. You’re producing a sound not by blocking the airstream completely, but by forcing it through a narrow gap and thereby causing audible friction. So in terms of its manner of articulation, If I is a fricative. To give /f / its full three-parameter description, it’s a voiceless labio-dental fricative (labio-dental = lip + teeth). Take another deep breath, and then make a long / ffffffff/ sound, switching your voicing on and off, and on and off, and so on. You’ll find that the sound you produce alternates between /ffffffff/ and /vvvvvvvv/. /v/ is a voiced labio-dental fricative, and /f/ and /v/ distinguish between members of minimal pairs such as few /fju:/ vs view /vju:/ safer /'seifa/ vs saver /'seiva/ leaf /liif/ vs leave / li:v/ There are three other pairs of fricative phonemes in English: /©/ - 161, Is/- Izl and /J7 - 1^1. In each case, the first member of the pair is voiceless and the second is voiced. For IQ I and 161, the airstream is restricted by putting the tip of the tongue loosely against the back of the teeth and not between the teeth, as is commonly taught! For Is I and Izl, the constriction is made by putting the tongue-tip close to the alveolar ridge. For /// and 1^1, the tongue-tip is brought close to the roof of the mouth behind the alveolar ridge. 14

So: / 0 / is a voiceless dental fricative (dental = tooth). Is I is a voiceless alveolar fricative. /// is a voiceless post-alveolar fricative. 161, Izl and iy are the voiced equivalents of IQI, Isi and /J/. You can alternate between /©/ and 161, between Isl and Izl or between /J7 and l~$l simply by switching voicing on and off, in the same way as described above for If I and /v/, and make minimal pairs such as: mouth (noun) /m au 0 / vs mouth (verb) /maud/ rice /rais/ vs rise /raiz/ Consonants: affricates

/tj/ and Idll are affricates - ie combinations of a stop followed immediately by a fricative. Examples: church /tj3itj7 judge /CI3 ACI3 / In each of these words, the same fricative appears both before and after the vowel. Consonants: nasals

The sounds /m /, Ini and lr\l (as in sing Isir)/) are made by expelling air through the nose rather than the mouth. This is most obvious in the case of /m /, because the lips are closed; /m / is a bilabial nasal (nasal = nose). In fact, strictly speaking, it’s a voiced bilabial nasal, but two parameters are sufficient in this case, because English only has voiced nasal phonemes. • /n / is an alveolar nasal (there is contact between the tongue and the alveolar ridge). • / q / is a velar nasal (there is contact between the tongue and the soft palate or velum). As is the case with It I and /d /, many languages have a dental Ini rather than an alveolar one. Other consonant sounds

/ h / can be described as a voiceless glottal fricative. The glottis is the opening between the vocal cords, and the friction results from the narrowing of this opening as the airstream passes through it. But / h / can also be regarded as the voiceless initial stage of a vowel sound. (See the activity//i/ through whispering on page 52.) A glottal stop is made by closing the vocal cords. This sound sometimes appears as an alternative pronunciation of Itl after a stressed vowel. For example: sit [si?] butter ['bA?a] The symbol for the glottal stop is like a question mark without a dot. Note that these transcriptions of‘sit’ and ‘butter’ are in square brackets, not slant brackets. This is because they are phonetic, not phonemic, transcriptions. Recall that the substitution of one phoneme for another has the potential to create a different word. So the glottal

stop is not a phoneme of English, since it is never involved in any contrast of meaning: [si?] and [sit] sound different, but we recognise them as two different ways of saying the same word, ‘sit’. ['bA?a] and ['bAta] sound different, but they are not two different words. ® In contrast, although /sit/ and /sik/ also sound different to each other, we recognise them as two different words: ‘sit’ and ‘sick’. So It/ and /k/ are two different phonemes. In [si?] and ['bA?a], [?] is an allophone of /t/. Conventionally: • Phonemes are transcribed in slant brackets - this is phonemic transcription; • Allophones are transcribed in square brackets - this is phonetic transcription. Note, however, that the term ‘phonetic’ is loosely but commonly used to include both phonetic and phonemic. In cases like ['bA?a], where the stop is released, the sound should logically be called a ‘glottal plosive’ but, unlike ‘glottal stop’, the term ‘glottal plosive’ is not widely used. A glottal stop also often appears in combination with a voiceless plosive or affricate; this phenomenon is called glottal reinforcement: kitchen ['ki?tjan] watching ['wD?tJir)] Say these words and pause in the middle: ki...tchen wa...tching You may be able to feel a tension in your throat as you produce a glottal stop. Even an apparently simple word such as ‘sit’ has a wide range of possible pronunciations: /t/ can be released or unreleased, or replaced by a glottal stop, and if the pronunciation [t] is used, there may or may not be glottal reinforcement. The glottal stop, although not a phoneme of English, is a frequent and easily audible feature of English pronunciation. /I/, /r/, /w/ and /]/ (as in ‘yes’ /jes/) are called approximants. In the production of these sounds, there is some narrowing of the channel through which the airstream flows, but the tongue doesn’t form a complete closure (as it does for plosives) or a constriction narrow enough to cause friction (as it does for fricatives). /I / is also called a lateral, because the air flows along the sides of the tongue. Make an / I/ sound and then, keeping your tongue in the same position, breathe in. You should be able to feel cold air passing along the sides of your tongue. /w/ and /j / are also called semi-vowels, and they have some of the characteristics of both vowels and consonants: • In terms of their articulation, they are like short versions of the vowels /u:/ and /i:/ respectively (see ‘Vowels’ below).

• In terms of the role they fulfil in syllables, they behave like consonants - they appear at the beginning of a syllable, before a vowel sound: /w/ can appear, for example, before /-eit/, just like other consonants: bait /beit/ gate /geit/ rate /reit/ wait /w eit/ /j / can appear, for example, like other consonants, before /-es/:

guess /ges/ less /les/ mess /m es/ yes /jes/ Note how the fourth and fifth lines of the Sound Foundations chart (see page 31) show the plosives, fricatives and affricates in pairs, voiceless and voiced, arranged from the articulations at the front of the mouth (bilabial /p/ and /b/, and labio-dental /f/ and /v/) on the left, to articulations furthest back in the mouth (velar /k/ and /g /, and post-alveolar /// and /^/) on the right. In the bottom line, the symbols for the three nasal consonants are similarly arranged from front at the left to back at the right. Syllabic consonants

The word ‘con-sonant’ means sounding together, and consonants don’t normally occur on their own, but only form syllables in combination with vowels (see ‘Syllables’ on page 20). However, / 11,1 r/, /m / and / n/ can form syllables without vowels: see the examples of syllabic /1/ — ‘ankle’ and ‘angle’ - on page 13. Such syllabic consonants are conventionally written with a small vertical mark under the consonant symbol. Other examples include: random /'raendm/ syllabic/m / button /' bAtn/ syllabic/n/ Hungary /'hAqgri/ syllabic/r/ (The name of the country can be - but is not always pronounced like this, in contrast to the word ‘hungry’.) Such words can also be pronounced with a vowel sound (‘schwa’ - see below) plus a non-syllabic consonant: simple /'simpal/ random /'raendam/ button /' bAtan/ Hungary /'hArjgari/ Consonant sounds can even occur completely on their own. For example: shhh! /// is a way of telling someone to be quiet. Mmm /m / can express hesitation, agreement, thoughtfulness, etc. A description of how the sounds of a language are produced, and how they are related to each other, is inevitably rather technical, and the terminology may seem forbidding if you aren’t familiar with it already. You might wonder, in fact, whether it’s all really necessary. Well,... 15

Interference

A minority of learners seem to have a good natural ability to reproduce the sounds of other languages without any guidance, but most people do need a certain amount of guidance, correction and feedback. The practical use of knowledge about pronunciation is that if we understand how sounds are produced, we can help learners who are having trouble with them, especially if we also study which sounds are used in their LI (first language), and how these sounds are produced and distributed. LI interference tends to be particularly evident in pronunciation because, unlike other aspects of language, learning the pronunciation of an unfamiliar language entails building new physiological habits, or changing deeply-ingrained ones. • For example: a lot of languages don’t have /©/ and 161 sounds, and speakers of such languages tend to find these sounds difficult to acquire. • Another example: some languages have Ivl sounds which are produced very differently from English, and sound very different. Knowing exactly how sounds are made can help us teach learners exactly what they need to do in order to produce them, and to recognise exactly what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. The terminology - plosive, alveolar, affricate and so on - is in no way a substitute for experience and awareness, but it does provide a widely-recognised set of labels and generalisations for the awarenesses that we can acquire by studying how we produce speech sounds. Even when languages use similar sounds, they often differ with regard to what positions in a word they allow those sounds to occur in. For example: • Italian doesn’t generally end words with consonant sounds. So Italian speakers tend to transfer this to English and to insert an extra final vowel sound into English words, so that ‘wait’ can sound like ‘waiter’, ‘believe’ can sound like ‘believer’, and so on. • German has voiced plosives and fricatives, but not in word-final position (at the end of a word), so that German speakers tend to pronounce dog/dog/ like dock /dDk/, eyes /aiz/ like ice /ais/, etc. A pair of sounds which are separate phonemes in English may only be allophones in another language. For example: • Japanese doesn’t treat / I/ and Irl as separate phonemes, but rather as allophones of the same phoneme, so speakers of this language (among others) find it hard to distinguish - both in listening and in speaking - between ‘late’ and ‘rate’, ‘play’ and ‘pray’, etc. Languages also differ with regard to the sequences they allow consonants to occur in - ie which consonant clusters (see page 20) they permit. For example: • Spanish has the sequences /sp/, /sk/ and /st/, but not 16

in word-initial position (at the beginning of a word), so Spanish speakers often add an extra initial vowel to the beginnings of such words, and pronounce ‘Spain’ as /e'spein/, ‘skill’ as /e'skil / and ‘step’ as /e'step/. However, they have no trouble pronouncing words in which /sp/, /sk/ and /st/ appear in other, non-initial positions. Vowels

In the articulation of vowel sounds, there is no blocking or restriction of the airflow. Vowels take their identity from changes in the positioning of the jaws, tongue and lips, all of which alter the shape of the mouth cavity within which the mouthful of air resonates. Note that the top left-hand quarter of the Sound Foundations chart (page 31) is a schematic representation of the position of the tongue for the standard British English vowel phonemes: / i: / /e / /ae / are front vowels: the tongue-tip is near the front of the mouth. / u: / I Dll Id I are back vowels: the tongue-tip retreats towards the back of the mouth (and the lips become rounded). For / i: / /i/ /u/ /u:/ the tongue is raised towards the palate. For /ae/ /a/ /a: / Id I it is lowered, while at the same time the jaws open to create a larger space. Take a deep breath and try making a long continuous vowel sound that glides across the top vowel row from l\:l to 111 to /u/ to luil and then down the right-hand vowel column, along the bottom vowel row from right to left, and finally up the left-hand column back to / ii /. Do it again and feel the movement of the tongue on its journey round the vowels. Do it again facing a mirror, and watch how the position of the lips changes as you glide from one vowel to another. Now make the same journey in the opposite direction. The symbol /:/ indicates a long vowel. This is a useful hint, although the actual length of vowels varies considerably according to their phonetic context: the sounds that precede and follow them, and whether or not they are stressed. Note that, among the vowels so far mentioned, there are none distinguished solely by length. Look carefully at the difference between the / i/ and III symbols, for example. If you emphasise and lengthen the word ‘big’ in the sentence ‘You’re in big trouble!’, you will pronounce it with a vowel which could be written as [i:] and which is clearly different from / i:/. (The symbol [ir] has square brackets, not slant brackets, because it doesn’t represent an English phoneme; ‘biiiiiiig’ is the same word as ‘big’, no matter how long the vowel is.) The remaining two vowel symbols, Ib I and l3'J, occupy

the middle of this section of the chart, and although the symbols are different, these two do represent short and long versions of exactly the same sound, produced with the tongue in a neutral, relaxed position. The short vowel /a/ is called ‘schwa’ and has a particular importance: it is the most frequent vowel sound in English, but only appears in unstressed syllables.

In sum, the standard southern English pronunciation which is the basis for most teaching material produced in the UK has 44 phonemes, also called segments or, more informally by teachers and learners, simply sounds. There are 24 consonants, 12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs. Some varieties of English have a slightly different number of phonemes.

Diphthongs

Pronunciation and spelling

A diphthong (/'difGor]/ - notice the spelling: diphthong) is a glide from one vowel to another. The top right-hand quarter of the Sound Foundations chart contains the eight diphthongs, three ending in /a/, three in III and two in lul. • The starting point for the /au/ diphthong nowadays tends to be in the region of Id:/, although the symbol /au/ continues to be used. • The /ua/ diphthong is on the decline, and tends increasingly to be replaced by Id:/, so that ‘sure’ and ‘shore’ become homophones. In contrast to diphthongs, the twelve vowels previously introduced can be called monophthongs or simple vowels, but in practice it is common to refer to the whole set of twenty as ‘vowels and diphthongs’. A sequence of‘diphthong + schwa’ can be regarded as a triphthong: tyre /'taia/ tower /'taua/ Many languages have a much smaller number of vowel phonemes than English. Speakers of such languages will have developed the habit of using only a few combinations of jaw, lip and tongue positions in order to produce the vowels of their LI, and when they learn English they face the task of coordinating the speech organs in new and subtly different ways, and making fine distinctions between vowel sounds which they can’t initially distinguish. • If your LI has only one vowel phoneme in the area of the English /a/, Ia: I and /3:/, you will probably need a lot of practice before you can reliably distinguish between these sounds when you hear them, and before you can make them sound distinct from each other when you produce them yourself. • Even in languages that do have large numbers of vowel sounds, there may not be many close correspondences with the English vowels. Although we can’t necessarily give learners such precise guidance with vowels as we can with consonants, we can often help to approximate more closely to a certain vowel sound by telling them, for example: to round their lips; or make their mouth more open or less open; or move their tongue further back in their mouth; and so on.

The basic idea of an alphabetic writing system is that one letter should represent one sound. The spelling of English is probably the least satisfactory example of such a system: • partly because there are only 26 letters available for the 44 phonemes; • partly because the spelling of many words represents the way they were pronounced centuries ago, and they have since changed beyond recognition. (In the case of a few words, the spelling even represents people’s mistaken notions about how the word was once pronounced! For example, the letter ‘1’ in ‘could’ was added in the early 15th century by analogy with ‘would’ and ‘should’; the ‘1’ in the these two words was originally pronounced, but ‘could’ has never had an / 1/ in its pronunciation.) This state of affairs does have at least two advantages: 1 English spelling preserves a lot of information about the history of the language. 2 It shows relationships between words which are not evident in their pronunciation. For example: You sign a document by writing your signature on it, but the words ‘sign’ and ‘signature’ only have Isl and In / in common; ‘sign’ has a different vowel sound from ‘signature’, and no Igl. • Your relations are the people most closely related to you, but where ‘relate’ has / 1 /, ‘relation’ has ///. But it results in a number of problems for learners of English and also, to varying extents, for native speakers of the language: 1 The same letter or sequence of letters can represent more than one phoneme: gift /gift/ gist /d 3ist/ this Idisl think / 0ir]k/ good /gud / food /fu:d / blood /b k d / 2 The same phoneme can be represented by different spellings: /// in shell, sure, station, special l3:l in early, first, further, work,prefer, journey 17

3 There are silent letters, such as those in answer, psalm, thumb, ought. 4 There are homophones - ie words with the same pronunciation but different spellings, such as sign/sine, right/write, hear/here. 5 There are homographs - ie words with the same spelling but different pronunciations, such as: bow /b au / /bau/ read / ri:d/ (infinitive) /red / (past tense/past participle) use /ju:s/ (noun) /ju:z/ (verb) The need for transcription

For all these reasons, it is useful for learners and teachers to have an unambiguous way of representing sounds in writing, and this is what phonemic transcription provides. Phonemic transcription is also useful to other users of the language, including native speakers, because it enables them to look up the pronunciation of unfamiliar words in a dictionary. Specialised pronunciation dictionaries also give access to the pronunciations of a large number of place names, personal names, etc. On the other hand, there is actually a large amount of regularity and predictability in English spelling. One way to convince yourself of this is as follows: Imagine how non-existent words might be spelled. If /nist/ was a word, for example, how would it be spelled? Probably ‘nist’, or ‘nissed’ if it was the past form of the verb ‘niss’ (or conceivably ‘knist’, ‘knissed’, ‘gnist’ or ‘gnissed’.) • The fact the we can often predict the spelling of a possible word with some degree of confidence is evidence that English spelling is less chaotic than it might appear to the beginner learner. In fact, the spelling of most English words, beyond the most frequent ones, is predictable to some extent, or can at least be narrowed down to a small number of likely alternatives. (See ‘Possible and impossible words’ in Part C, page 159.) • The fact that extremely irregular spellings in the general vocabulary of English are to found mainly among common words is good news, because learners will get plenty of exposure to these words and this will facilitate the task of learning them, including learning how to spell them. A good example is the word women / 'wimin/. The use of the letter ‘o’ to represent 111 is particularly unusual, but this is such a frequent word that learners will probably soon become used to the spelling. Accents of English

English pronunciation is far from homogenous, and it is commonplace to speak of‘an American accent’, ‘a Scottish accent’ and so on. It is perhaps only to be expected that English will sound different in different parts of the world. What learners may find more surprising is the extent of

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accent variation within countries, for example within the USA or within Britain. English accents vary very little as regards consonants, but vary considerably in the number and quality of vowels they use. For example, many accents of northern England use /u / instead of / a/; this results in a north-south difference affecting some words but not others: north south butter /'buta/ /'bAta/ butcher /'butja/ /'butja/ /pAt/ putt /put/ /put/ put /put/ • Scottish accents do not generally distinguish between lul and lu:l or between lol and /d: /, so that pull and pool are homophones /pul/, as are cot and caught / lot/. These are only a couple of examples of the innumerable ways in which the vowel systems of different English accents vary. Rhotic and non-rhotic accents

However, there is one major division between English accents which involves a consonant sound: the division between rhotic /'rautik/ (from the name of the Greek letter ‘rho’) and non-rhotic accents. In a rhotic accent, the letter ‘r’ is pronounced wherever it appears in the spelling of a word. Rhotic accents are characteristic of most parts of North America, as well as Ireland, Scotland and the south-west of England. • In a non-rhotic accent, a written Y is only pronounced immediately before a vowel sound - whether this vowel sound is in the same word or in the following word. (The word ‘iron’ /'aian/ is an exception, because the Y is not pronounced.) Regions with non-rhotic accents include Australia, South Africa, Wales and most of England. Compare these examples - the ‘r’s that are pronounced are in bold: in a rhotic accent: in a non-rhotic accent: star star start start starring starring Add some water. Add some water. Put some water in. Put some water in. Where? Where? Where is it? Where is it? another day another day another one another one another hour another hour another hour or so another hour or so Should learners aim for a rhotic or a non-rhotic accent? This depends on a number of factors, such as: Do they aspire to acquire a particular accent, such as standard British or standard American? - If they are in an English-speaking country, which is the

dominant accent in the area? Which is the dominant type of pronunciation they hear from teachers and from classroom recordings? Which is the dominant type of pronunciation they hear from other sources such as songs, films, etc? * Is one type of accent - rhotic or non-rhotic - easier for them to acquire? • Are they expected to use one type or the other in oral exams? One thing that tends to make rhotic pronunciation more accessible, or appealing, for learners is that it corresponds more closely to spelling. Rhotic pronunciation can also help them to be more intelligible. For instance, if someone doesn’t make very clear distinctions between the vowels when pronouncing words such as ‘had’, ‘head’, ‘heard’ and ‘hard’, pronouncing the ‘r’s will help a listener to some extent by giving more information about the identity of these words. / I / sounds in different accents

There are also differences between / 1/ sounds in different accents of English. In standard British English, there are two allophones of /I/: a clear /1/, in which the front of the tongue is raised in the position for /i:/. a dark /1/, in which the back of the tongue is raised in the position for /u:/. Clear / 1/ is used before a vowel (eg in ‘leaf’); dark / 1/ before a consonant or a pause (eg in ‘feel’ or ‘field’). However: In Irish English there is no such allophonic distinction, and clear / 1/ is used in all positions. Many speakers of North American and Scottish English, on the other hand, use a dark / I/ in all positions. Especially in Estuary English (a variety of English spoken in the London area and along the Thames estuary, but also influencing other parts of England) the contact between the tongue and the alveolar ridge in the articulation of dark / 1/ is lost, and what remains is /w /: feel /fi:w/ field /fiiwd/ Other kinds of variation

Apart from different accents, there are also differences between individual speakers. For example: Some speakers tend to affricate / t/ to some extent, so that it can sound rather like /ts/. Other speakers pronounce /// with very strong liprounding. And so on. Different styles of speaking in response to different contexts also result in differences in pronunciation. If you are making a speech in front of a large audience, or

delivering an important message down a poor telephone line, you will probably speak more slowly, pause more often, and articulate words more fully and clearly than you do when taking part in a relaxed conversation. Apart from these large-scale differences, there are many differences in the pronunciation of sounds in different phonetic contexts. * An example: The / r/ sound in ‘rain’ is voiced and non-fricative. The / r/ in ‘train’ is voiceless and fricative. We could transcribe these two Y sounds differently, using phonetic transcription, but in phonemic transcription we use the same symbol: /re in / /tre in /. • Another example: The vowel / i: / is considerably longer in the words ‘see’ /si:/ and‘seed’ /si:d / than in ‘seat’ /si:t/. The shortening or ‘clipping’ of the vowel before a /p/, /t/ or / k/ is a regular feature; whether or not vowels have a length mark /:/, their actual length can vary considerably. However, these differences do not have the potential to create different words. Even if the /r/ in ‘train’ is voiced, the word is still ‘train’: it just sounds slightly unusual. And no matter how long or short the / i: / in /si: t/ is, the word remains ‘seat’. The Y sounds in ‘rain’ and ‘train’ are different varieties or, technically, allophones - of the phoneme /r /. The vowel sounds in ‘seed’ and ‘seat’ are allophones of the phoneme /i:/. Knowing about allophonic variation can be important It helps learners to understand why they find it difficult to distinguish between English phonemes. It gives them guidance as to exactly what they need to do in order to produce sounds, especially if sounds which are allophones in their LI are phonemes in English. This is the case, for example, with / I/ and /r / in Japanese, or / b / and /v/ in Spanish. These distinctions can be particularly tricky for learners to make, since people tend not to be very aware of the allophonic distinctions they make in their own language. For example, if your LI is English and you haven’t studied pronunciation before, you might be surprised to discover that the /r/ sounds in ‘rain’ and ‘train’ sound so different, and feel so different when you pronounce them. There are many other, even more dramatic, changes to sounds in a particular environment - see ‘A stream of sound’ (page 22 ). Syllables

We use the phrase ‘in words of one syllable’ to mean ‘in short, simple words’. But what exactly is a syllable? Consider the difference between the words ‘language’ and ‘languages’. If you tap or clap the rhythms of these words, 19

you’ll find that ‘language’ has two beats, or two syllables, and ‘languages’ has three. How many syllables are there in these words? eat eats beat beats eaten beaten Easter eastern eternal eternity (Answers: 1 1 /1 1 /2 2 /2 2 /3 4) It isn’t always easy to say exactly where the boundaries between syllables are. Does ‘languages’ consist of /'Iaer)+gwid 3 + iz / or /'Iaer)+gw i+d 3iz /, for example? If we think of the word as ‘language + s’ we might expect /iz / to form a syllable, but if we listen to the word we perhaps get the impression that the final syllable is /d 3 iz/. For teaching purposes, the question of exactly how to divide words into syllables is probably not crucially important, but it’s often most effective for learners to assume that syllables begin with consonants where they are available: ea-ten, Eas-ter, e-ter-ni-ty, etc. English has a wide range of syllable types, ranging from very simple to very complex: The simplest type of syllable consists solely of a vowel phoneme. Some syllables of this type are meaningful in their own right, such as: /a/ a - the usual, weak, form of the indefinite article I31I er- a common hesitation sound /d:/ or /a:/ ah /id/ ear (in non-rhotic accents) /ea/ air (in non-rhotic accents) /i:/ the letter‘e’ /ei/ the letter‘a’ /ai/ eye; the pronoun ‘I’; the letter ‘i ’ /au/ oh; owe; the letter ‘o’ Some syllables have one consonant phoneme before the vowel: /b :/ law /si:/ see; sea; the letter ‘c’ /ga u / go Some have two consonant phonemes before the vowel: /fb:/ flaw /ski:/ ski /gra ul grow Consonant clusters

A sequence of consonant sounds without any intervening vowel is called a consonant cluster, or simply a cluster. So the words ‘flaw’, ‘ski’ and ‘grow’ have initial (ie at the beginning of the syllable) two-consonant clusters. Some syllables have initial clusters of three consonants: /skru:/ screw /s p re i/ spray 20

Some syllables have one consonant after the vowel: /i:t/ eat /eik/ ache /D:t/ ought Some syllables have final clusters (ie clusters at the end of a syllable) of two consonants: / i:ts / eats /eikt/ ached / 0 ir)k/ think Some syllables have final clusters of three consonants: /filmd/ filmed /©aerjks/ thanks Some syllables have both initial and final clusters: /stri:ts/ streets /©rild / thrilled Some syllables have clusters of up to three consonant phonemes both before and after the vowel: /skweltjt/ squelched And, in theory at least, the number of consonants in a final cluster can be four. /siksGs/ sixths (eg in the fraction five sixths) But in practice it’s quite unusual for all four of these consonants to be pronounced: final consonant clusters are often simplified - see ‘A stream of sound’ on page 22. The examples above are all actual words, but some syllables are not words in themselves, although they form part of words: /fa /

/to/ /gra/ /fa /

None of these syllables is a word in itself but, together, they form the four-syllable word ‘photographer’: /fa'tografa/ There are also syllables which don’t contain a vowel but which consist solely of a syllabic / 1/, / m /, / n / or / r / - see ‘Syllabic consonants’ (page 15). Languages differ considerably with regard to the types of syllable they allow: • Some, such as Slavonic languages, allow complex consonant clusters. • Others, such as Japanese, restrict themselves to one consonant plus vowel per syllable. • Learners whose LI is of the latter type are particularly likely to find English clusters difficult. But even if a cluster does occur in a learner’s LI, it can still be problematic if it doesn’t occur in the same positions within a word as in English - see the comments about Spanish /sp/, /st/ and /sk/ above. Learners tend to adopt one of two strategies to overcome difficulties in pronouncing clusters:

1 Insert a vowel sound - eg ‘stair’ becomes /si 1tea / or /I'stea/. 2 Delete one of the consonants - eg ‘stair’ becomes / tea/. • Strategy 1 has the advantage that it preserves all the phonetic information contained in the word, albeit in a slightly disguised manner. • Strategy 2 simply fails to provide information which the listener may need in order to identify the word. This is particularly true for less confident and/or less competent listeners, who need to expend a lot of mental energy on following what the speaker is saying, and who may be unable or unwilling to make much use of context to arrive at correct interpretations. In native English: • Final clusters are often subject to simplification through elision. • Initial consonants are not. For a list of the most common syllable-initial and syllablefinal English clusters, see page 45.

progress progress PROgress proGRESS □ □ progress progress Notice, though, that these conventions, if used with normal orthography, don’t record the reduced quality of vowels in unstressed syllables. Three-syllable words also have one stressed syllable: banana Iba'naina/ This word is a good illustration of the need for transcription: the spelling banana suggests that the word contains three identical vowel sounds, whereas in fact the stressed one has a strong pronunciation while the other two are both reduced to schwa. Some words of more than two syllables have so-called primary and secondary stress: unemployment /.Anem'pbimant/ disadvantage /.disad'vaintic^/ Notice the symbol for secondary stress: a subscript version of the mark used to show primary stress. The less strong secondary stress tends to occur on the first or second syllable. The stronger primary stress comes later in the word, after at least one intervening unstressed syllable. The pronunciations of words which are given in dictionaries are known as citation forms; these are the pronunciations we use when we are citing or quoting words, as we sometimes do in answer to questions such as: - ‘What's the past tense of abide?’ - ‘Abided.’ - ‘Which is your favourite season?’ - Autumn.’ - ‘What kind of tree is that?’ - ‘Sycamore.’ - ‘Look - what’s this word? I can’t read it.’ - ‘Disadvantages.’ But when we use words in longer utterances, their citation form pronunciations often fail to appear. Look at this phrase: the disadvantage of this method of production Depending on the context, this could be said in many different ways. Here is one possibility, which is to be found on Track 3 on the accompanying CD:

Word stress

When a two-syllable word is spoken in isolation, one of the syllables is stressed. Say these pairs of words, and hear and feel the difference: progress (noun) progress (verb) recall (noun) recall (verb) The difference between stressed syllables and unstressed syllables is the result of a combination of factors. Stressed syllables tend to be longer, to sound louder, to be produced with more energy, and to carry intonation movements. There are various ways of representing stress in written language. The one most commonly used in dictionaries is this m ark' in front of stressed syllable: progress (noun) /'praogres/ progress (verb) /pra'gres/ recall (noun) /'riikDil/ recall (verb) /ri'loil/ A comparison of these two transcriptions also reveals a further feature of unstressed syllables: unlike stressed syllables, they frequently contain the ‘weak’ or ‘reduced’ vowels /a/ or /i/. • /i/ is the same as / i:/ but without the length mark, because this weak vowel has the same quality as / i: / but is more fleeting. • In fact, the exact quality of vowels in unstressed syllables can vary quite a lot between regional varieties and between individual speakers, and sometimes it can be hard to decide whether verbs such as ‘recall’ and ‘rely’ are pronounced with /a/ or /i/. In the classroom, many teachers use more dramatic means of indicating stressed syllables, such as underlining, capitalising or putting a square or circle above the stressed syllable, especially when writing on the board:

3

the Disadvantage of THIS method of production

Here, the stresses fall on the capitalised syllables, and there is no stress on ‘-vant-’. In this phrase, too: 3

adVANTages and Disadvantages

there is likely to be no stress on ‘-vant-’ in the word ‘disadvantages’, and ‘dis-’ is likely to be stressed in order to highlight the opposition between the two words. 21

And here: 3 but the MAJor disadvantage of doing it like THIS

(This phrase could follow after a number of disadvantages have already been mentioned.) The word ‘disadvantages’ is not stressed at all, and becomes part of a long string of unstressed syllables: or-dis-ad-van-tage-of-do-ing-it-like And in the following sentence, similarly (although here again this is only possible way in which it might be said), the citation form ‘reCALL’ doesn’t appear, and the two syllables of this word become part of a sequence of unstressed syllables - re-call-his: 4 i just CAN’T recall his NAME

(Note that the pronoun T is not capitalised in this example, because it is not stressed.) In fact, the stresses in the citation forms of words are only potential stresses, which may or may not be realised when words are put to use. Later, in the section on intonation, we will see how what we call ‘word stress’ can be described as part of the intonation system. English has a lot of word families in which the citation forms of different words have different stress patterns: MUsic MUsical unMUSical muSIcian musiCALity musiCOLogy eCONomy eCONomist ecoNOMic unecoNOMic ecoNOMics ecoNOMical Some languages have reliably predictable word stress: In Czech and Finnish, for example, words are always stressed on the first syllable. In Polish, they are (almost always) stressed on the penultimate syllable. English doesn’t have such overall regularity, although there are helpful regularities in certain types of words see page 35. There are rather few differences in word stress between different accents of English. Differences between British and American English include: British American aDDRESS Address Adult aDULT loCATE LOcate magaZINE MAGazine A stream of sound

When we read a text such as this one, it is easy for us to recognise where one word ends and the next one begins, because there are gaps between them. It’s also easy to recognise what all the words are, because they are all printed as clearly as each other. In speech, though, gaps are relatively few and far 22

between, and words are merged into long streams of continuous sound in which many of them lose their identity, with only the main stressed syllables standing out like islands in the stream. The printed equivalent of this would be a text in which some of the words are printed clearly but others are blurred, or partially erased, or have letters printed on top of one another. So speech is normally connected. But the term ‘features of connected speech’ is widely used by teachers as an umbrella term for features such as weak forms, linking, elision and assimilation. It highlights the contrast between the pronunciation of individual words and the pronunciation of sequences of words. Linking

If you say‘look up’ at normal speed, you’ll hear that there is no gap - ie no pause, no silence - between the two words. The final consonant of‘look’ is linked to the initial vowel of‘up’. This can have two possible consequences for the unwary listener: the impression that there is a single word /lu' kAp/ the impression that the phrase consists of /lu / + / kAp/ Similarly,‘Look out’ can give the impression of containing the unknown word /kaut/. The process of linking the consonant at the end of a word with the vowel at the beginning of the following word is known as catenation (from Latin catena = chain). You can get a feel for the difference between catenated and uncatenated speech by comparing ‘Pick it up’ at normal speed with a slow, angry, emphatic Pick ... it ... up! Catenation can produce phrasal homophones such as: picket / pick it at all / a tall order waiter / wait a minute / the way to go Someone who hears the word ‘picket’ for the first time might assume that they’ve heard ‘pick it’, and struggle to interpret the meaning of this phrase in the context, and to understand how it fits into the surrounding grammar. But it would quite likely be more productive for them to recognise /' pikit/ as a new word, and try to infer its meaning or, if possible, to ask ‘What’s a /'pikit/?’ When a word ending in / i:/, /ei/, / di/ or /ai/ is followed by, and linked to, a word beginning with a vowel, there is an impression of a fleeting intermediate 1)1 sound, although no linking sound is actually inserted. This phenomenon is called /j /-linking: me_and you day_and night joy_and sorrow why_is it? Similarly, when a word ending in /u :/, /dul or /au/ is

followed by, and linked to, a word beginning with a vowel, there is an impression of a fleeting intermediate /w/ sound, although no linking sound is actually inserted, and this is called /w/-linking: blue_in green go_in now_and then In non-rhotic accents (see above) there is another type of linking between other word-final vowel sounds and following word-initial vowels: a written V at the end of a word is often pronounced when it is followed by an initial vowel sound in the next word. This is called /relinking: teacher /' ti:tja / The teacher_isnt here. /da 'tiitjar iznt hi a/ Where? /wea/ Where_areyou? /w earaiju :/ It’s too far. /fa:/ It’s too far_away. /its tu: fair awei/ (This doesn’t apply to rhotic accents, where the V is always pronounced in ‘teacher’, ‘where’, ‘far’, etc.) A linking /r/ can also appear in non-rhotic accents in cases where there’s no ‘r’ in the spelling: law_and order / b:r an .../ Chinajn the future /'tjainar in .../ This even extends to non-rhotic speakers’ pronunciation of other languages: gloria_in excelsis /'gbiriar in .../ The inserted / r/ sound is, in this case, often called an ‘intrusive / r/’, a term with negative connotations, because it isn’t present in the spelling, and some people feel that it therefore shouldn’t be pronounced. Short cuts in connected speech

Often, when we learn a new routine, such as a route that we need to take to get to a certain place, or how to use a machine, we start by carrying out the routine slowly and meticulously but, as we become more familiar with it, we start to discover, consciously or unconsciously, short cuts we can take to reduce the time and effort we spend. This also applies to speaking: there are various ways in which the speech organs take short cuts in order to reduce the expenditure of time and energy in speaking. So far, we have generally exemplified - and transcribed - sounds and sequences of sounds as they appear in the citation forms of words - ie the pronunciations given in dictionaries, and which you would use in citing words in isolation rather than as part of the fabric of continuous speech. But the pronunciation of words often changes, sometimes dramatically, in the stream of speech. If Speaker A is trying to decipher a handwritten text and asks Speaker B ‘What’s this word? I can’t read it\ B might answer ‘going’, pronouncing it as /'gauiq/. On other occasions, though, B might say:

5 I’m going to the shops

pronouncing‘going to’ as /'gaum ta/

5 I’m going bald

pronouncing‘going bald’ as /'gD im

bDild/

5 I’m going to see what I can do about it

pronouncing ‘going to’ as /gna/ /'g a u ir|/ is the citation form of‘going’, but when this word actually occurs in speech, its pronunciation can be very different - to such an extent that it’s impossible to recognise, except by reference to the context it occurs in, as in the third example above. Clearly, proficient listeners manage to follow the short cuts that speakers take. The main types of short cuts are weak forms, elision and assimilation. Strong and weak forms

Certain common grammatical words have widelyrecognised strong forms and weak forms. For example: the word ‘some’ has the strong form /sAm/, as in: Some day my prince will come and the weak form /sam/, as in: You can have some more if you like. You can find a list of such words on page 35. The basic distinction is: The strong form is used in stressed contexts. • The weak form is used in unstressed contexts. And because these words are typically unstressed, the weak forms are much more frequent than the strong forms. Generally, the vowel in the weak form is reduced to /a / (schwa) or / i/. There are two further important points: 1 Weak forms always have to live with the threat of further reduction, even to the point of elision (‘dropping’, or disappearance) of vowels and/or consonants. For instance, the weak form of‘shall’ /Jael / is often transcribed as /Jal /, but is frequently further reduced to /Jl/. For example: 6 What shall I do? [wD?JlA'du:]

or even just /J7

6 Shall we go, then? [Jw i'ga uden] 2 Not only the officially listed ‘weak form’ words are liable to reduction. Any word - any syllable, in fact - which is unstressed is susceptible to phonetic erosion of various kinds: see the example of‘going’ above. As another common example, the word ‘where’ / w ea/ is often not listed as having a weak form, but is frequently reduced in a context such as: 7 in the town stadium, where they were going to hold the competition

Here, the sequence ‘where they were’ might be pronounced as /w a d a w a /.

23

The sound of silence - elision

The spelling of some words includes relics of sounds which have subsequently been elided (noun: elision, verb: elide). The spellings ‘knight’, ‘castle’ and ‘daughter’, for example, contain a ‘k’, a ‘t’ and a ‘gh’ which were once pronounced but have been permanently elided: • There is no longer any option of pronouncing them, no matter how clearly and carefully we want to utter these words. • They have become silent witnesses to earlier stages in the history of the language. There are also many words, however, where elision is in a state of flux: • Some speakers elide but others don’t. • The likelihood of the elision of a sound depends on how slowly and deliberately a word is uttered. Schwa, which is, in any case, a weakly-articulated sound, is a prime candidate for elision: perm(a)nently delib(e)rately The bracketed syllables of these words are sometimes pronounced (as schwa /a/) and sometimes elided. If they are elided, the result is that the words have one less syllable than the spelling suggests. Sometimes, elision of schwa results in ‘illegal’ (yes, that’s the official term!) consonant clusters. For example: • In their citation form, English doesn’t permit words which begin with / bn-/, /tm-/, /pt-/ or /fn-/. • In normal speech - ie speech which is not especially slow or careful - pronunciations such as these appear routinely: /'bnaina/ banana /'tm aitau/ tomato /'pteitau / potato /'fnetik/ phonetic Among consonants particularly susceptible to elision are /t/ and /d / in the middle of word-final clusters: /enz/ for /endz/ ends / la:s 0 irj/ for/la:st 0 ir)/ last thing /stop da/ for /stopt da/ stopped the bus / faeks / for / faekts / facts In this way, 1 Consonant clusters are often simplified, with a consequent reduction in the amount of information about the identity of words affected. 2 Specifically, distinctions between infinitive/present and past forms of regular verbs are often disguised, as the ‘stopped’ example above illustrates. 3 Homophones are created, eg facts/fax.

24

A blur of sound - assimilation

The opposite of‘tolerant’ is ‘intolerant’, and in fact the prefix ‘in-’ is used to form the opposites of innumerable adjectives, but the opposite of‘possible’ is ‘impossible’. Why? Why not ‘inpossible’? The sounds Ini and / t/ are both alveolar, so in order to produce the sequence /nt/ in ‘intolerant’: The tongue makes contact with the alveolar ridge while the /n/ is produced nasally. The tongue is then released with aspiration to produce /t/. Now try to say ‘inpossible’. In order to get from /n / to /pi you need to move the tongue away from the alveolar ridge and then close and open your lips to produce I pi. This is by no means impossible to do, but what happens instead is that the lips are put together earlier, so that the nasal sound produced is bilabial /m / and not alveolar /n /, and this is recorded in the spelling ‘im-’. Now consider the phrase ‘in town’. Although this consists of two words, it is usually pronounced as a continuous uninterrupted sequence of sounds, including /nt/, as in the word ‘intolerant’. The phrase ‘in Paris’, though - like the hypothetical word ‘inpossible’ - contains /np/, and here too this sequence is typically produced as /mp/ (‘im Paris’). The speech organs anticipate the next sound they are going to make, and produce a sound which is more similar to this following sound, thereby achieving economy of effort. This process is called assimilation, and operates, as we have seen, both within words and across word boundaries: • Within words, assimilation is sometimes recorded in spelling. • Across words, it never is. But the process is the same in both cases. The assimilation /np > /m p/ takes place at the front of the mouth and is easy to feel, and even to see in a mirror. Let’s find an example further back in the mouth: • The word ‘credible’ begins with the velar plosive Ikl. Its opposite is ‘incredible’ and, in order to avoid having to switch between an alveolar closure for /n/ and a velar one for /k/, we often substitute a velar nasal / r)/, so that the tongue is already in the position needed for Ikl, resulting in /iq 'k re d ib j/ - again, an effort-saving shortcut, though not a mandatory one. It’s also quite possible to say /in 'kre d ib l/, and the choice between the two versions is partly a matter of speed and style of speech, and partly a matter of general differences of pronunciation among individual speakers. • The word ‘ink’, on the other hand, is probably universally pronounced / ir]k/, and this is the citation form recorded in dictionaries, although the spelling might suggest /in k /.

Assimilation, then, as its name suggests, has the effect of making adjacent sounds similar to each other. Sometimes they even become identical: /n m / > /m m / on_Monday IsJ/ > /JJ/ this_shelf Here, the result is a single, lengthened /m/ or /// sound respectively. If the first sound is a ‘stop’ (this term is more accurate than the alternative ‘plosive’ in this case) it is not released, and forms an extended period of closure before the second one is released: /tk/ > /kk/ start_counting /dg/ > /gg/ hard_graft Here are some other common cases of assimilation: /tp /> /p p / hot_potato (like‘hop potato’) (The first /p/ is not released.) /tg/ > /kg/ art_gallery (like‘ark gallery’) (/k/ is not released.) /d b / > /b b / saidjbefore (The first /b / is not released.) /dk/ > /gk/ sad_case (like ‘sag case’) (/g/ is not released.) / n b/ > /m b / injbed /n g / > /rjg / ten_groups In a form of assimilation called coalescence, a /t/, /d/, /s/ or Izl plus a following l]l combine to form a single affricate or fricative: /tj/ > /tj/ got_you (The informal spelling ‘gotcha’ records this coalescence.) /d j/ > 16^1 would_you Is]/ > /JJ/ this_year lz\! > /33/ those_years All the examples of assimilation so far involve changes in place of articulation; assimilation particularly affects alveolar consonants, but can affect others too: /m g / > / q g /

rm_going

(bilabial + velar > velar + velar) As well as causing changes in place of articulation, assimilation can eliminate differences of voicing in adjacent sounds. For example: The final Izl of‘these’ is voiced and the initial /f/ of‘four’ is voiceless, but in the phrase ‘these four’ the voicing tends to be switched off prematurely, so that ‘these’ becomes [di:s]. Similarly, in ‘have to’, the /v/ of‘have’ tends to lose its voicing under the influence of the following Itl. Sometimes elision and assimilation combine to dramatically alter the pronunciation of words or phrases. Handbag becomes /'haembaeg/ because /d / is elided from the sequence /n d b /, resulting in /n b /, which undergoes assimilation to /m b/. Sandwich often becomes /'saemwit// (/n d w / > /n w / > /m w /).

And the same processes occur across word boundaries:

I hurt my handjbecause ... /haembi1kdz/ the wind_was blowing/'wimwaz/ Assimilation has at least three implications for learners: 1 Except in the citation form of words such as ‘ink’ or ‘impossible’, assimilation is optional, and learners should not be made to feel that they have to produce as many assimilations as native speakers. 2 However, they may find that assimilation helps them to produce sound sequences which they otherwise find difficult. For example, they may find it easier to say ‘said_ before’ with /bb/ than with /db/. 3 In any case, assimilation is important from the point of view of their listening. It is one of the factors that conspire to disguise the identity of words, especially in combination with elision, and if they understand the principle it will help them to make intelligent guesses about the words they hear when they listen to speakers who make use of assimilation options. Assimilation generally involves a sound becoming in some way more similar to a following sound, but there are two important cases where it operates in the other direction: a sound adopts the voicing or voicelessness of the sound which precedes it: stop + ‘s’ > Isl stops sound + ‘s’ > Izl sounds • In ‘stops’, the ‘p’ is voiceless, and this voicelessness is maintained throughout the sequence Ipsl in ‘stops’. • The word ‘sound’, on the other hand, ends with a voiced sound, 16/, and the voicing is maintained for the ‘-s’ ending, which is therefore pronounced Izl in this case, laugh + ‘d’ > III laughed love + ‘d’ > Idl loved • In ‘laugh’, the final sound IV is voiceless, and this voicelessness is maintained throughout the sequence /ft/ in ‘laughed’. • The word ‘love’, on the other hand, ends with a voiced sound, /v/, and the voicing is maintained for the ‘-ed’ ending, which is therefore pronounced Idl in this case. This type of assimilation is clearly important because it takes place in the context of basic areas of grammar: • plural forms of nouns - eg pubs, sounds, bags • present simple 3rd person singular form of verbs - eg loves, sails, ends • past tense and past participle forms of regular verbs - eg loved, hummed, edged Intonation in the fabric of speech

One view of intonation is that it’s nice to have if you can get it, but most adult learners can’t get it. Or at least, it’s only realistic for them to aim for after they’ve had lengthy experience of learning the language - a kind o f‘optional extra’ that will make them sound more sophisticated, but isn’t really a priority. 25

This view is perhaps an appealing one for teachers, because it means they don’t have to bother grappling with intonation, which is notoriously slippery and resistant to teaching - and they can always console themselves by thinking ‘They'll pick it up as they become more familiar with English’ or ‘It’ll keep till later on. This involves quite a leap of faith, and the evidence is that learners, except a minority, can’t be relied on to simply pick it up as they go. A rather different and ultimately more tenable view is that intonation is basic to the very fabric of speech: Without it, learners will never take the vital step from mouthing words to speaking confidently, intelligibly and meaningfully. Children, if they start young enough, generally manage to take this step without too much help, but adults can’t be relied on to do so. The best time to start work on intonation is right at the start - from the very first lesson, in fact. Many elementary speakers of English have a word-byword, staccato style of speaking: Excuse-me-is-this-seat-free? I-would-like-to-book... Do-you-want-tea-or-coffee? Room-six-is-on-the-left-at-the-end-of-the-corridor. The words are all present and correct, and maybe they’re all pronounced fairly accurately - and that is already a significant achievement —but the impression a listener gets is, nevertheless, of a horizontal list of words rather than an expressive utterance. What’s missing is the bundle of features sometimes called the ‘music’ of English: phrasing, pausing, linking, rhythm, melody and variation in speed. Chunking, pausing and tone units

If... you ... can ... only... speak ... English ... as ... fast ... as ... this, you’ll probably want to be able to speak it faster, and with practice you’ll probably find that you do in fact speed up. But it isn’t simply a matter of speakingasfastasth is. • You obviously need to pause for breath, and to give yourself time to formulate what you want to say. • Your listener also needs your pauses in order to recognise how you are packaging what you say - which words belong together, and where units of information begin and end. So instead of saying: Roomsixisontheleftattheendofthecorridor you can help yourself and your listener by saying: 8

Room six is on the left / at the end of the corridor

or: 8

26

Room six / is on the left / at the end of the corridor

In other words, you split it into two or three chunks. You can practise linking the words within each chunk, and saying each chunk at speed, but pausing as long as you need between the chunks. Developing fluency and ‘speed’ of articulation is actually a question of producing continuous chunks of speech at a reasonable speed, and pausing between them in appropriate places. In fluent speech, the frequency and length of pauses is controlled by the speaker. We might say: Excuse me, and then pause to give the addressee time to notice us and react before continuing Is this seat free? • We might ask - on another occasion, perhaps if we’ve already established eye contact: Excuse me, is this seat free? without pausing between the two parts. But even then - even though there’s no actual silence between ‘me’ and ‘is’ - there’s a lowering of energy level at that point in the utterance, which allows us to recognise two chunks of speech: 9 Excuse me / is this seat free?

Similarly, in fast speech, there may not be an actual silence between on the left and at the end of the corridor, but it’s still likely that two chunks will be recognisable. These chunks have been given various names. One of the most popular, and the one we will use here, is tone units. The reason for the use of the word ‘tone’ will become clear a little later. Islands in the stream - prominence

Within each tone unit at least one word - sometimes two - is given prominence - ie spoken with extra energy and volume, so that these words stand out like islands in the stream of speech. This is the phenomenon often called ‘sentence stress’, but that term is misleading because it’s actually a feature of tone units rather than sentences. Also: 1 A tone unit is often less than a sentence -e g at the end of the corridor. In fact, even a single word can form a tone unit - eg Hello. 2 A great deal of spoken language consists of strings of phrases and clauses which don’t actually form sentences: 10 That restaurant, you know, the one I was telling you about, we went there the other night, when was it, Thursday, no, Wednesday it must have been, after work, nice place, you should go, quite an interesting menu they’ve got, lots of choice ...

Here, the speaker is adding information in a piecemeal fashion as she goes along, rather than trying to produce sentences. • The commas in this transcription are used to mark boundaries between the speaker’s tone units. • One of the most common uses of commas in English is

to indicate where there might be tone unit boundaries in a text if it was spoken rather than written. A speaker can choose to give prominence to any word, but some choices are more likely than others: is on the LEFT at the END of the CORRidor These ‘content words’ convey the most important parts of the message. Prominence is much less likely to given to ‘function words’ such as ‘the’, ‘on’, etc. Speakers normally give prominence to words, but if the word is multisyllabic, the prominence is carried by one syllable. This is why only the first syllable of‘corridor’ is capitalised. Dictionaries tell us that the first syllable o f‘corridor’ is stressed, and if a speaker chooses to give prominence to this word, it will appear on that syllable. But in some contexts, such as: Are you sure this corridor leads to the exit? the word ‘corridor’ may not be prominent, and in this case the potential stress on its first syllable is not realised as prominence: 11 are you SURE this corridor leads to the EXit

In this example, the words ‘sure’ and ‘exit’ are selected for prominence. To summarise: If a word is said in isolation, it forms a tone unit in its own right. In this case, since there is no alternative, it must be made prominent, and the prominence is realised on the syllable which is stressed in its citation form - eg heLLO, fanTAStic. When a word occurs in a longer tone unit, it may or may not be made prominent. Speakers select words for prominence in order to highlight them. (For those who speak the language well, this ‘selection’ is generally automatic and instantaneous.) ‘Stress’ is a feature of a word in its citation form. ‘Prominence’ is a feature of a tone unit. Prominence and tone

People often comment that certain foreign languages sound ‘musical’. English speakers, for example, often think that Italian sounds musical. * But Italians have also been heard to say the same thing about English! What gives rise to this impression of musicality? Probably the rhythm of speech to some extent, but also certainly the rise and fall of the voice - the melody of speech. Our voices are constantly rising and falling as we speak - we tend not to notice this in our own language, but try

speaking on a monotone, and notice the difference! But ‘tone’ refers to the particularly dramatic pitch movement that takes place, or begins, on some prominent syllables. If there’s only one prominent syllable in a tone unit, this is the tonic prominence - ie the syllable that carries the tone: 12 is on the \ LEFT

If there are two prominent syllables in a tone unit, the second is the tonic prominence: 13 at the END of the ^ CORRidor

The tonic prominence is underlined. The tone begins on the syllable immediately after the arrow, and continues through subsequent syllables - if there are any. As with all aspects of intonation, tone is hardly ever entirely predictable, but these phrases are here marked with falling tones, because this is the tone typically used for communicating new information. It contrasts with the rise and fall-rise, which are typically used for information which is already known, shared, or assumed, but nevertheless important - and therefore prominent. This contrast is particularly clear when people correct or contradict each other: 14 it isn’t on the V LEFT / it’s on the \ RIGHT

or: 14 it’s on the \ RIGHT / not the T LEFT

If there are unstressed syllables after the last prominence in a speech unit, they form the tail of the tone unit, and the tone continues through those syllables: 15 A: i THINK the hotel’s in the ^ OLD town B: it isn’t exactly V IN the old town / but it’s ONIy a couple of ^ MINutes away

Notice that the pronoun T is not prominent and therefore not capitalised, and that there are no full stops or other punctuation. Here: A’s tone unit has a one-syllable tail: town B’s first tone unit has a three-syllable tail: the-old-town B’s second tone unit also has a three-syllable tail: utes-a-way In B’s reply, the fall-rise starts on the word ‘in’ and continues through ‘the old town’, and the fall starts on ‘min-’ and continues through ‘-utes away’. If there are two prominent syllables in a tone unit, the first one is a non-tonic prominence, which carries prominence but no tone - ie the pitch of the voice does not rise or fall on this syllable: at the END of the \ CORRidor iTHINK the hotel’s in the \ OLD town but it’s ONIy a couple of VMINutes away 27

16 17

In these examples, the syllables END, THINK and ONform non-tonic prominences. • People sometimes get the impression that such syllables as these have a rising tone, because they are very often at a higher pitch level than the preceding syllables - in this case at-the, f and but-it’s - but there is no change of pitch on END, THINK and ON- themelves. • What happens is simply that at the is spoken on a low pitch and end follows immediately on a higher pitch. The voice has to jump up to reach this higher pitch, but there is no rising tone involved. We can look at some alternative ways in which the I think ... sentence could be said: It could be divided into two tone units, or even three: i V THINK / the hotel’s in the \ OLD town i V THINK I the hoVTEL’S / in the \ OLD town • The first version might be used to emphasise tentativeness or incompleteness - this is another common implication of the fall-rise: / think, but Vm not sure. • The second version might be used if the speaker feels a need to re-highlight hotel because it hasn’t been mentioned for a while. These alternative versions provide just a glimpse of how speakers manipulate the intonation system to express themselves more precisely. Old or new?

We often rephrase old information instead of repeating the exact words:

and ‘new’ information, how these are related to intonation choices, and how speakers can manipulate intonation to imply more than the actual words they use. Nevertheless, it provides some useful guidelines for learners as they begin to listen to English and to produce it themselves: • If they can pick up elements of chunking, prominence and tone by ear and intuition, so much the better. • If they can’t, they can be helped by focused listening to contrastive examples and drilling, as well as predicting the intonation of exchanges such as: 21 A: How was the match? B: The first half was quite good, but the second half was really good. 21 A: How was the match? B: The first half was quite good, but the second half was terrible.

Same or different?

Some learners - and some teachers, as well! - find it hard to identify falls, rises and fall-rises reliably. What is most important, though, is being able to identify the difference between them, even if you can’t tell which is which. This is much less demanding and can, if necessary, be trained by using exercises such as Same or different?: 22 \ oh Voh (same) ^ oh /o h (different) or Odd one out: 23 V oh V oh T oh Voh

24

19 A: it MUST have cost a FORtune B: well it WASn’t exactly V CHEAP

And here, similarly, ‘fortune’ and ‘not cheap’ are treated as equivalent, even though one is a noun and the other an adjective. Sometimes we only talk about part of the old information:

20 A: i thought that film was REAIIy \ GOOD B: i thought the V MUSic was good

Here, B is probably implying two things: 1 I assume you thought the music was good, and I agree with you on this. 2 But I didn't think other aspects of the film were equally good. This is only a very basic introduction to the idea of‘old’

28

The

second

half

was

terrible

2 Saying utterances with accurate rhythm and intonation but substituting sounds for the words:

18 A: it’s V FREEZinq in here B: V YES / it ISn’t exactly V WARM

Here, ‘not warm’ reiterates the idea of‘freezing’.

\ oh

Two other techniques that help to make intonation more easily perceptible are: 1 Saying utterances unnaturally slowly:

18 A: it’s ^ FREEZinq in here B: \ YES / it V IS / a bit T CHILLv

Here, ‘chilly’ functions as an approximate repetition of ‘freezing’ and is therefore given a rising tone.

V oh

24

mm mmm mm mm mmmm

(The second half was terrible.) Intonation and grammar

The relationship between intonation and grammar is not straightforward. It’s often thought, for instance, that statements and w/j-questions have falling intonation while yes/no questions have rising intonation, but this is by no means always the case. Intonation depends on all sorts of things - such as function, context, a speaker’s intention(s), the relationship between speakers, and so on. Nevertheless, there are some tendencies that can help learners. An example: Narrative. We often use the past continuous to give background, scene-setting information, and the past simple to recount actual events:

I was doing the shopping the other day, and I met an old friend o f mine.

Typically, the background information takes a rise or fallrise, and the events take a fall: 25 i was DOing the V SHOPPing the other day / and i MET an old \ FRIEND of mine

Notice that this generalisation remains valid if we reverse the order of the clauses: 25

i MET an old \ FRIEND of mine / when i was DOing the / SHOPPing the other day

The result is a statement with rising intonation. This kind of compound intonation pattern is common in various composite structures with a main clause and a subordinate clause. Another example: Conditionals. 26 if we SET off at V SIX / we’ll be THERE by V. TEN 26 we’ll be THERE by ^ IE N / if we SET off at T SIX When teachers give models of such structures, they probably model these intonation choices automatically, but it’s a good idea to draw learners’ attention to them and practise them as an integral part of the new grammar: • One benefit is that learners will acquire a way of speaking structures which is typical, although not universally valid. • Another benefit is that they are more likely to notice typical intonation patterns when they hear them elsewhere in spoken English. The major distinction is between tones which fall and tones which rise. The distinction between the rise and the fall-rise is less important, although excessive use of the rise rather than the fall-rise can contribute towards an impression of unfriendliness, uncooperativeness, etc. Intonation and word stress

In the section on word stress, we saw that the stress pattern of the citation form of a word is subject to modification when the word is actually used in a longer stretch of speech. We will now return to this and re-examine it in the light of what we have said about intonation. Even a single word spoken in isolation forms a tone unit: 27

^ GOOD

This tone unit consists solely of a tonic prominence. 28 V RUBBish This one consists of a tonic prominence and a one-syllable tail. 29 DISad WANtaqes This one has both a tonic prominence (VAN) and a non­ tonic prominence (DIS), and a two-syllable tail (ta-ges). A description in terms of word stress would say that the primary stress is on ‘van’ and the secondary stress on ‘dis’.

But it has exactly the same pattern as a phrase such as: IN the V DARK ages the Disadvantage of V THIS method of production

This tone unit has tonic prominence on THIS, non-tonic prominence on DIS, and a long tail.

31 adVANtages and * Disadvantages

Here, the tonic prominence is on DIS, and there is a non­ tonic prominence on VAN.

32 but the MAJor disadvantage of doing it like V THIS

Here, none of the syllables of‘disadvantage’ is made prominent, and this word forms part of a long string of unstressed syllables in between the prominences.

33 i just CAN’T recall his NAME

Here too, the word ‘recall’ is not selected for prominence. The question of where to put prominence is a speaker’s choice. In the case of some words, once the choice is made there is only one syllable available to carry the prominence: baNAna PROgress (noun) reCALL (verb) toDAY toMORRow TUESday In the case of other words, there are two syllables available, and either one or both may be made prominent: DISadVANtage EcoNOmical PHOtoGRAPHic UNemPLOYment Intonation and conversation

There are many common fixed or semi-fixed phrases, conversational routines, discourse markers, etc, that have typical, characteristic intonation patterns. For example: ...,you / SEE 34 I was in a hurry, you see.

VANYway,... 35 Anyway, I went across the road ...

V SUDDenlv 36 ... and suddenly, all the lights went out.

and ‘listening signals’ such as: 37 T REAIIy T SOrry

/D ID you

38 that’s fan * TAStic

T WAS it

that’s \ GREAT

that’s V AWful

If we say Excuse me in order to attract someone’s attention, it typically sounds like this: 39 ex V CUSE T ME

If you experiment with different intonation patterns for this phrase, you’ll find that they tend to change the meaning, and could give unintended offence. The typical - perhaps stereotypical - response to How are you? is: 40 \ FINE, / T THANKS. / and T YOU

29

And when we say goodbye, we typically say: 41 V BYE or: 42 V SEE you When we tag the word thanks onto the end of an utterance, it typically sounds like this: 43 I’m just \ LOOKinq. T THANKS Vm sorry, I cant help you and Vm afraid I cant help you might seem to be interchangeable, but their intonation patterns are significantly different: 44 i’m V SORRv. / i CAN’T \ HELP you (two tone units) i’m aFRAID i can’t ^ HELP you (one tone unit) Once again, although we should always remain aware that intonation choices are never 100% predictable, it makes sense to associate such phrases as these with their typical intonations, and to encourage learners to use these patterns rather than just mouthing the words. No matter how elementary our learners are, we can help them to move beyond simply uttering words and to gain confidence in speaking, by paying attention to intonation right from the start. We can give them graded exercises in which they have to identify pauses, tone units, prominences and tones - and then reproduce these features. • We can help them - whenever they struggle to produce an utterance fluently - by pointing out where to pause, where to put prominences and what tones to use. As they progress and gain experience in listening to English, learners will become increasingly able to make these choices for themselves. And as well as teaching an awareness of the significance of tone choice in presenting information as ‘old’ or ‘new’, we can teach the typical intonation patterns associated with many lexical phrases and some grammar structures. • Listen critically to your elementary learners. If they’re saying the right words in the right order, you might think ‘Great - they've got it right!’ But listen again. Does it still sound like a horizontal list of words? If so, they need to pay attention to aspects of intonation. Din and tonic

The nature of the intonation system helps to explain why listening to English can be so fraught with difficulty. • The prominent syllables, and especially the tonic prominences, are uttered most clearly; they tend to be relatively loud, and long, and the vowel sounds in them are not reduced. • They emerge clearly out of the relatively undifferentiated din of the other syllables, which are uttered less loudly, 30

faster, and are subject to reduction, compression and elision - all of which can disguise them beyond recognition. Learners are often recommended to ‘listen for the most important words’, without any guidance as to how to identify what the most important words are. What is probably meant by the recommendation, and what learners probably try to do, is to identify the prominences. Unfortunately, this is often not enough: 1 Prominence is actually a property of syllables, not words, and sometimes learners might only identify the prominent syllable of a word, which might not give them sufficient evidence to identify the word. 2 Even if they do manage to identify the most important words, this might still give them no more than a very rough understanding of the topic, with little clue as to what the speaker is actually saying, because, even if some of the words are ‘the most important’, this doesn’t mean that all the other words are entirely wmmportant. The approach to intonation outlined here is based on the work of David Brazil - whose surname, by the way, is pronounced BRAzil /' braezil /, unlike the name of the country braZIL. (To find out more: Brazil, D Pronunciation for Advanced learners of English CUP 1994.) An earlier version of the intonation section here appeared as Jonathan Marks’ article ‘Intonation right from the start’ in Modern English Teacher 16 (4) October 2007. A lot of this knowledge is of a kind that you will probably never want to pass on directly to your learners but, as we said earlier in these pages, the more you understand about the pronunciation of English the better you will be able to understand their difficulties - and help them to bridge the gap between what they are attempting to say and what they actually produce. As you can imagine, there’s a lot more to learn about pronunciation. This has only been a brief overview, and you can find some suggestions for further reading at the end of Part C of The Book of Pronunciation. On the following pages you will find some more detailed reference information, with further examples, about some of the points introduced above - beginning with a schematic representation of how the phonemes of English are related to their places of articulation.

Sounds, symbols, spelling and stress •

i:

e

ae P f

i 13

u:

a

31

d:

U0

i ei i X> 31 0U

A

a:

d

e0

ai

--- r

ia

------

au

...... ......-...............i

b

t

t j ciZ

d r.... " ... ...-.......

k

►

g

s z J 3 n r] h 1 r w j 0 d

v

r

I

m

•

,1..................... i

i

Sound Foundations chart © Adrian Underhill (1982 and 1994) Reproduced with permission

The vowels are organised in the top left-hand section in three rows of four columns. This section is a very simplified ‘map’ of the mouth, with the front of the mouth on the left and the back on the right. The close vowels - where the jaw is in a relatively closed position - are at the top (eg / i : / and /u :/). The open vowels - where the jaw is more open - are at the bottom (eg /ae/ and /a/). Those vowels produced with the front of the tongue raised (eg /i: /) are on the left of the vowel section, Those produced with the tongue raised further back are on the right of the vowel section (eg /u:/).

The intonation arrows in the top right-hand corner can be used to cue intonation patterns: You can point along the downward arrow for a falling tone, You can point along the upward arrow for a rise, You can point halfway along the downward arrow and then along the upward arrow for a fall-rise. You can point along the horizontal arrow, if necessary, for a level tone such as is used in hesitating: eg ‘er

o

o o o

o

o

o o

The diphthongs - in three rows of three columns - show the diphthongs ending in /a /, / i / and / u / respectively. The consonants occupy the bottom three rows - in the first two rows, the phonemes are arranged in pairs: voiceless on the left voiced on the right For example: / t / and /d /, / f / and / v /

o

o

The two marks to the left of the arrows represent primary stress (upper) and secondary stress (lower). To indicate the pronunciation of the word ‘afternoon’, for example: Point to the secondary stress mark, Point to the symbols forming ‘after’, then the primary stress mark, then the symbols forming ‘noon’.

o o

When pointing to symbols on the chart, it is always advisable for you or the learners to use a pointer rather than a finger, so that the person doing the pointing can stand to one side and not obscure anyone’s view.

31

From spelling to sound Only the commonest spelling-sound relationships are listed here. There are others, and there are individual exceptions, so that it is often advisable to check the pronunciation of words in a dictionary. Bear in mind that vowels in unstressed syllables, however they are represented in spelling, are often reduced to /a/ or /i/. Examples: o Britain /'britan/ o foreign /'foran/ o monkey /'mAqki/ o thorough /'0Ara/ Or they may even be elided. Examples: o The word factory: It looks as if it has three syllables -fac-to-ry - but the vowel in the third syllable is often elided, resulting in /'faektri / (only two syllables), o The word necessary: It looks as if it has four syllables - ne-ce-ssa-ry - but the vowel in the third syllable is often elided, resulting in /'nesasri/ (only three syllables).

32

Spelling Sound a / reliable -age percent > percentage -ance convey > conveyance -ancy consult > consultancy -ant defend > defendant -cy decent > decency -dom martyr > martyrdom -er condition > conditioner -ful fancy > fanciful -hood neighbour > neighbourhood -ish fifty > fiftyish -ism consumer > consumerism -ist defeat > defeatism -ise/-ize character > characterise/ize -ive deceive > deceptive -less value > valueless -ly proper > properly -ment manage > management -ness blissful > blissfulness -or inspect > inspector -ous humour > humorous In words with the following suffixes, the stress is usually on the syllable before the suffix: -cracy democracy -eous erroneous -ety society -graphy photography -la memorabilia consequential -ial -ian Arthurian appropriate -iate accessible -ible academic -ic sociological -ical

-lence -iency -ient -ify -inal -io -ion -ional -ious

convenience deficiency efficient personify criminal portfolio intonation international industrious radioactivity ■ity uranium -ium -logy geomorphologv -omy astronomy eventual -ual -uous continuous -ure composure Longer words in this category may be subject to stress shift: the GEomorphology of the LAKE District In words with the following suffixes, the stress is usually two syllables before the suffix: literacy -acy vocabulary -ary -ate separate -ator invigilator -graph seismograph -mony testimony allegory -ory -tude altitude The following suffixes are stressed: -ade lemonade -aire questionnaire -cratic bureaucratic refugee -ee -eer pioneer Taiwanese -ese vinaigrette -ette -ivity nativity Some words in this last category are subject to stress shift: a TAIwanese Visitor

The Book of Pronunciation has, we hope, supplied you with enough information by now to enable you to approach the activities that follow with confidence. They are divided into six chapters - but the chapters, and the activities in each chapter, are not intended to be worked through in sequence. Feel free to pick and choose, according to the needs and interests of your classes. T h e class

Your learners will sometimes benefit from taking a rather studious, analytical approach to pronunciation, but in the work they do with you they should constantly be reminded that pronunciation is, in the final analysis, a physical process based on training that ‘mouthful of air’ to behave in certain ways. It often helps, therefore, if pronunciation activities, and indeed any speaking activities, are done with everyone standing up, if this is feasible. Standing helps learners to get a sufficient amount of air into their lungs to begin with, to speak at a sufficient volume, to put expression in their voices and to gesture and even walk around as they do so, if the classroom layout permits this. Standing helps in building confidence in speaking an unfamiliar language - in contrast to always doing activities seated at a desk with a pen in one hand, and mumbling half-audibly because your other hand is supporting your chin and you can’t open your mouth properly. And when we say ‘everyone standing up’, we mean everyone. That means you, the teacher, too. So when you are teaching pronunciation: stand and deliver. You will all be more sucessful. T h e CD

The activities which have accompanying recordings are all grouped together, at the end of each chapter. The speakers on the recordings are native speakers of English whose pronunciation is typical of young people from the south of England. The recordings can be used either in addition to, or as an alternative to, the teacher’s voice. The recordings have a dual purpose: learners can use them to practise listening for details of pronunciation and/or or as a model to approximate towards in their own pronunciation. The procedures for each activity indicate the options - if there is a recording, this doesn’t automatically imply it is needed in order to do the activity. The boxes with the track numbers indicate the recordings - what is in the box is what is recorded. There is no separate tapescript. Sometimes the recording is the handout for the learners to work with; sometimes the recording is the key to the activity. 37

Pronouncement 1 Obviously, we hope that you will find the pronunciation activities in this part of the book useful - wherever you are teaching and whoever your learners are. Equally obviously, we don’t know where you are teaching or who your learners are - their strengths and weaknesses, their motivations and aspirations, and so on. We have incorporated two rough guidelines for each of the activities in Part B: Duration: activities that are short _ or longer Q Q . Difficulty: activities that in our experience might be less or more of a challenge to learners in general. But, of course, we cannot know the specific details of your classes or how long they will take to do the activities, nor the adaptations that you might wish to implement. In many of the activities, furthermore, the material in the boxes is intended only as an example, and this is stated in the Procedure. So how can you produce versions of the activities that will be relevant to the needs of particular classes you teach? Let us simply suggest here three examples - three activities for you to consider from the perspective of your own teaching context. Split sentences (page 53) 1 Choose a sound (it could be a vowel or a consonant) which is in some way difficult for your class. 2 Collect a set of words which contain this sound and which are known to the class. You can do this: o by looking through their coursebook and/or other materials they have used in your lesson; o by consulting an online dictionary. Many dictionaries allow you to search for words which contain a particular sound, and you can then sift through these and pick out the ones which your learners know. 3 Using the dictionary examples, the coursebook examples and your own intuition, find or construct phrases or sentences in which two instances of words containing your target sound appear in prominent positions. 4 Split the phrases/sentences and jumble them - to form the basis of your activity. Making a difference (page 59) 1 Choose two sounds that you know your learners find hard to differentiate - in speaking and/or listening. 2 Using a ‘dictionary search’ function (see above), find minimal pairs involving these two sounds. o These minimal pairs should ideally consist of words known to the class, o However, you might need to go beyond these to find a sufficient number of pairs. 3 For the final stage, prepare sentences containing both members of each pair. H ow many syllables? (page 77) Notice which -s and -ed forms your class have trouble with (ie they pronounce them with the wrong number of syllables): o You can include these in your handout. o You can also include one or two -5 and -ed forms your learners don’t yet know - to see whether they can pronounce them correctly. For Pronouncement 2 see page 154.

38

pronunciation Proposal

Chapter One

To raise awareness of the scope and importance of pronunciation, as well as the learners’ own ambitions, via a questionnaire.

Introducing ... .. pronunciation .. the phonemic chart .. the phonemic symbols .. syllables .. word stress .. consonant clusters

Duration

Page 39 40 41 42 43 44

Difficulty ^

s

Preparation

Consider the questions below and, if appropriate, change some of them or add new ones, to suit your class. Make copies of your questionnaire. For a class who share the same LI (except at high levels) it is probably advisable to translate the questions into the LI, so that limitations of English won’t be a barrier to discussion. Procedure

CD Tracks .. tonic prominence 45 46-48 ... intonation patterns

46 47

Hand out the questionnaire and allow a few minutes for the learners to consider their responses and make notes. Q Circulate and clarify as necessary. • The learners discuss the questions in small groups. • They report back for a plenary discussion. O Comment on anything they seem to have overlooked. Prolongation

You could usefully return to some of the questions at a later date, when the learners have had more experience of grappling with English pronunciation - and more opportunity to reflect on the issues arising. PS This activity also helps with needs analysis and establishing priorities. 1 What is ‘pronunciation’? 2 What does it include? 3 How have you learned English pronunciation so far? 4 What have you found difficult about English pronunciation? 5 What have you found easy? 6 What are the main differences between English pronunciation and the pronunciation of your language, and any other languages you have learned? 7 How important do you think pronunciation is? 8 Why do you think so? 9 How well would you like to pronounce English? 10 What can you do to improve your pronunciation?

39

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCING

•

i i

i:

i

u

u:

10

ei

Proposal

e

9

31

d:

U0

DI

0U

To help the learners learn the phonemic symbols, via a phonemic chart.

ae

A

a:

d

ea

ai

au

P

b

t

d

tj d3

f

V

e

d

s z J 3

m

n

n

h

1

... the phonemic chart

Duration Ongoing

Difficulty ^

Preparation

You need a copy of a phonemic chart. If you don’t have one, you can make your own, using a sheet of A3 paper (or larger). There is large example of a chart on page 31 and a smaller version opposite as a reminder. Be prepared to limit the number of new phonemes presented in a single lesson or part of a lesson to around five.

r

k

w

9 •

J

Prolongation

As you introduce more sounds, you can invite the learners to come to the chart and point first to sounds and then to words that you call out. Later, you can ask them to call out words themselves for other learners to point to. 2 As the learners become more familiar with the phonemic symbols, draw their attention to other features of the organisation of the phonemic chart: o In the first two lines of the consonant section, the phonemes are arranged in pairs - first voiceless, then voiced (eg/t/ and /d/, /f/ and /v/). o The vowels are organised with close vowels - where the jaw is in a relatively closed position - at the top (eg /k / and / u:/); and the open vowels - where the jaw is more open - at the bottom (eg /ae/ and /a/). o Those vowels produced with the front of the tongue raised (eg / i:/) are on the left of the vowel section, ie at the front; those produced with the tongue raised further back are on the right of the vowel section (eg lull). o To introduce diphthongs, ask the learners to produce a slow, continuous sound which glides from /e/ to III. When they can do this, they should speed up to a natural speed to produce lei I. They can then follow the same procedure with the other diphthongs, o In all the diphthongs, the first element (eg le i in le i I) should be pronounced more strongly than the second. The starting point /a / for Ia il and /au/ is close to /ae/, but slightly more open, /au / is the conventional way of transcribing the diphthong in words such as ‘no’ and ‘grow’, but the starting point nowadays is closer to Id I. 1

Procedure

First, point to the consonant sounds which are, broadly speaking, equivalent to letters of the English alphabet. Remember that they are pronounced differently from the letters of the alphabet: /m /, for example, is not pronounced /em/. Symbols which are likely to be recognisable are: /m / / n / /p / / b / Irl / I / /w / /h / Is/ Izl It/ 16/ Ikl / g / If/ Iwl O Introduce the remaining consonant sounds: /J / as in ship / rj / as in sing /tj/ as in church / 0 / as in thing / d 3 / as in bridge Idl as in this / 3 / as in television /j/ as in yes Q Elicit further examples of words which contain these consonant sounds, eg: wash shop chips watch jump young judge revision treasure thing working O Indicate the section of the chart that contains the vowel sounds. Point to one example: eg /i:/. O Give a clear model then ask the learners to repeat. O Place the sound in context by making a series of words containing the I rj sound by pointing to the appopriate phonemic symbols. For example: /m i:t/ /si:t/ / pli:z/ /t/i:p/ O Ask the learners to repeat chorally and individually as you point to the sounds. O Repeat for three or four other vowel sounds. O Repeat the process over a series of lessons until you have introduced all the sounds. O

40

Conventionally, phonemic transcriptions are enclosed in slant brackets. However, this is often unnecessary in writing transcriptions on the board - eg tjiip is obviously a transcription. On the other hand, it might sometimes be important to write / j/, for example, in order to distinguish the sound / j / from the letter ‘j ’. PS

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCING

... the phonemic symbols Proposal To introduce phonemic symbols in an accessible, step-by-step fashion. Duration Ongoing

Difficulty ^

Preparation

This activity is complementary, or perhaps an alternative, to Introducing... the phonemic chart. You will need a blank version of the phonemic chart (there is a chart on page 31) - just the empty grid without any of the symbols - on cardboard or stiff paper which will stand a fair bit of wear and tear. If you can, put up the grid in a convenient place on the classroom wall where you can leave it for the duration of the course. If not, bring it with you to each lesson and display it. Procedure

Write the symbols in the grid, one or two at a time, lesson by lesson, as they become needed. For example, assuming the class know the words be leave feel field ski, write them on the board - like this: be leave feel field ski Q Ask the class how the underlined parts are pronounced. You may need to help by saying the words yourself. j The class should conclude that all the underlined sections are pronounced identically. O Explain: o In English, sounds are spelled in various ways in different words, o It is therefore useful to have a set of symbols for showing pronunciation clearly. O If you are teaching a monolingual class whose language has an alphabetic writing system, you might want to point out, with examples, that their language is either similar to English (eg French) or different from English (eg Czech) in this respect. O Write the symbol i: in its correct place on the chart and say that it represents the underlined sound in the words on the board: o You can now write up transcriptions of other known words for the class to pronounce, providing the other symbols are easily interpretable - eg si:t, i:ts, ri:d, gri:n. o You can also say the words yourself, and invite the class to write the transcriptions on the board. O

O In a subsequent lesson, assuming your class know the words shop machine sure station special, write them up: shop machine sure station special O In the same way, introduce the symbol J and put it in its place on the chart. O If the learners are familiar with the Roman alphabet and depending on sound/spelling relationships in their LI - there will be some symbols that you can add to the chart without any introduction - e g p b t d f s m n . 0 Gradually, lesson by lesson, the chart will be filled in completely. Prolongation

1 As soon as your chart contains a few symbols - a mixture of consonants and vowels - you can start using other activities from Part B. Spend a few minutes on such activities in every lesson, to revise pronunciation and vocabulary, gradually adding more symbols as they become needed. 2 You can also begin to use phonemic transcriptions in introducing vocabulary and correcting pronunciation mistakes. For example: o Let’s say you want your class to learn the word feast, which appears in a text they are reading. You could begin by writing the transcription - fi:st - asking them to pronounce it and then to find it in the text, o Let’s say you want to correct a mispronunciation of scene - as /ski:n/ - you could write the correct transcription - /si:n / - on the board. This is often more effective than giving a model for repetition. 3 The learners could make, or be given, their own blank chart of a convenient size, which they fill in as new symbols are introduced. 4 They could, with your guidance, colour-code their chart to highlight symbols for sounds they find problematic. 5 As soon as it is feasible, start asking the learners to begin to use a dictionary (one which uses phonemic symbols) to find and check the pronunciations of words. PS Some learners - and even some teachers! - may find phonemic symbols intimidating. This is a way of introducing them gradually and accessibly to your class, and making it easy for you yourself to learn them, too. See also the Postscript on page 40 concerning the presentation of the symbols.

41

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCING .

... syllables Proposal Syllable awareness is a fundamental pre-condition for work on word structure, stress and intonation. This activity introduces the notion of syllables in an accessible, non-intellectual way. Duration

Difficulty Preparation

You will need an assortment of either coins, Cuisenaire rods, coloured magnetic counters or other objects that can be displayed on a table or board/OHP, depending on the size of the class and the room. In the Procedure below, we use coins. Procedure

j Invite the learners, one by one, to suggest English words, o If they are beginners, they will suggest any words they happen to know, o Otherwise, they could suggest words they particularly like or have learned recently. It is important that there are words of various lengths - if the learners are all suggesting one-syllable and twosyllable words, you should clicit some of three and four syllables as well. As each word is suggested, take a coin to represent it and put the coin in a certain area of the table, depending on the number of syllables it consists of. For example: o One-syllable words in the left-hand corner near to you. o Two-syllable words in the right-hand corner furthest away from you, and so on. Don’t try to relate the sizes of the coins to numbers of syllables: each group of coins should contain a variety of sizes, as this will help the learners to associate the words with the coins. o Lay each coin down slowly. o Pause to give everyone a chance to focus on the scene as it changes before their eyes. After each coin is added, point to some of the other coins to elicit the words they represent. Don’t give any explanation at this stage. If there are sixteen in the class and each member supplies one word, the table might end up looking something like the one opposite. Continue with the same procedure, but now ask the learners themselves to take coins and put their words in the appropriate part of the table. If they make mistakes, see if they can correct each other: if not, you correct them. 42

> You could also suggest words yourself and ask the learners to put coins in the appropriate place. 2 When you get the feeling that most members of the class have grasped the principle behind what they have been doing, ask them to explain the arrangement of coins on the table. They might do this by using the word ‘syllable’ or the equivalent in LI, or by tapping or clapping, etc. Revise all the words by pointing to the coins. Finally, introduce classroom language for talking about syllables: o Saturday has got three syllables, o How many syllables has this word got? o How many syllables has it got? o How many syllables are there in this word? o How many syllables are there in television7 . Prolongation

1 You can ask the learners to look at the current or previous unit of their coursebook and identify words with one, two, three and four syllables. 2 You can now start using an economical correction technique. Imagine, for example, that in a lesson focusing on the past simple tense, someone pronounces ‘enjoyed’ as three syllables (en-joy-ed). Elicit a correction by asking ‘How many syllables?’ If they answer ‘Three’, you say ‘No, two!’

this television everybody

aeroplane Saturday important cinema

Tuesday English today because taxi

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCING

... word stress Proposal To approach word stress in a non-intellectual way, via a ‘guided discovery’ activity. Duration

Difficulty Preparation

Prolongation

Choosing from vocabulary your class is familiar with, make a list of 15 or so words with two syllables - some stressed on the first syllable and some on the second. For example: student English surname repeat complete married answer listen question number people correct April July describe The learners themselves could choose the words to be used: this is useful revision, but carries the risk that they won’t come up with examples of both stress patterns. Instead of the Procedure below, you could use the one described in Introducing... syllables.

1 In a subsequent lesson, you can use a similar procedure with three-syllable words. For example: telephone computer interested alphabet important eleven Saturday December family sentences engineer grandfather company newspaper afternoon 2 The following activity, which you might not feel is appropriate for your learners, will probably be best done with words that are familiar to them: You dictate words with the stress on an incorrect syllable, eg tremendous. o The learners write the words in columns according to their correct stress patterns, o They dictate the words back to you. o You only write the words with the correct stress on the board, marking the stress clearly. If an incorrect suggestion is made, you invite another learner to suggest a different stress pattern for the word. Examples of words that could be dictated at intermediate level (note that the word stress has been marked incorrectly): wonderful fantastic awful delicious frightening brilliant peculiar ridiculous

Procedure

Write your words on the board one by one, putting those with first-syllable stress in one area and those with second-syllable stress in another. When you have put some in each area, invite the class to speculate - Why are there two separate groups of words? Don’t comment on their speculations - even if someone gets the right answer, just continue until you have written up all your words. Either to confirm their suspicions, or else to help them if they still need help: o Ask the learners to read out all the words in one group, then all those in the other, o Exaggerate the stressed syllables, if necessary, or emphasise them by clapping, tapping on a desk, etc. Write elsewhere on the board (don’t say) some other twosyllable words the learners know, and ask them to point to the area of the board where these belong. You can now introduce useful classroom language such as the following: o Which syllable is stressed? o Where’s the stress? o The stress is on the first/second syllable, o The first/second syllable is stressed. Start using this metalanguage in correcting, or when guiding the learners to pronounce newly-encountered vocabulary.

These activities are suitable for very low levels but may well be needed at higher levels, too. The question of which syllable to stress is fundamental to learning to pronounce English words. Activities such as these are a way of instilling in the learners the habit of asking this question. PS

43

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCING .

... consonant clusters Proposal To enable the learners to discover consonant clusters which are tricky for them. Duration

Q

Difficulty

Q

Preparation

If you want to do this activity with a new class, try to predict, on the basis of their Ll(s) and on your previous experience of teaching similar classes, whether they are likely to have much trouble in general with English consonant clusters: o If you think they are, you might decide to split the activity and present the boxes on separate occasions, o Otherwise, you might decide to present them all together. If you want to do the activity with a class you are already teaching, base this decision on your impression of them so far. Make copies of the boxes - together or separately - as needed. Procedure

Distribute the handouts to the learners: o They try to pronounce the example words individually, o They mark any that they find difficult because of the consonant clusters. They could also work in pairs or small groups, listening to each other. Q It is also important to circulate and listen yourself. O Ask the learners to give feedback. This should tell you: o Are there any clusters which are tricky for the whole class? 0 Are there any particular individual problems? O Ask the learners to invent a key phrase or sentence containing each problem cluster - individually, or together if appropriate. Examples could include some like these: pure and simple for initial /pj/ 1got stung by a wasp for final /sp / They should write these down, if necessary, to memorise them so that they can carry them around in their heads and practise them.

O

Prolongation

Help the learners to think of other example words for the clusters they find difficult, and perhaps to think up practice sentences which include examples of several tricky clusters. Prepare ways of helping with difficult clusters when they arise. (See page 171 in Part C.)

44

PS The lists of English clusters in the boxes are not absolutely exhaustive: they exclude some clusters which occur only in a few words, and/or only in infrequent words. Nor do they include clusters containing syllabic consonants (see page 15), such as: rhythms middles happened Final clusters of four consonants arise through the addition of the inflections /t / and /s/. For example: prompts /m pts/ glimpsed /m pst/ texts/ksts I Clusters not listed in the boxes, and sequences of four or even more consonants, also arise across syllable boundaries. For example: slept badly / ptb / stand behind / n d b / extract! kstr/ next spring / kstspr/ texts spread / kstsspr/ However, consonant clusters - especially clusters of three or more - are often simplified except in very careful speech, and subject to elision and assimilation (see page 24) and, in the case of plosives, to being unreleased (see ‘Consonants: stops/plosives’ on page 12 ). Elision of schwa in connected speech also gives rise to twoconsonant clusters which are officially‘illegal’ in English. For example: today I td-/ to ge t/tg-/ tomato /tm -/ potato I p t- 1 banana / bn-/ connection /kn-/ photographer I f t - 1 for the time being /f(3-/

Some CD and online versions of dictionaries have a ‘sound search’ function which enables you to find words containing a certain sequence of sounds. This will help you to find examples of words containing consonant clusters which your learners find difficult.

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCING

... consonant clusters Two-consonant clusters at the beginnings of syllables: / p i/ plan / p r / press / pj / pure

/n j/n e w

/ t r / try / t j / tone /t w /tw in

/ f l/f/y

/ k l / clean / k r / cry / k j / cure / k w /q u ite

/ v j/ w'eiv

/b \/b lu e / b r /brow n / b j /beauty

/ 0 r / three

/d r/d ra w /d j/d u e

/ s\/slow /s\N/swim /sp /sp in /s t/s to p

/d w /d w a /f

/ f r / free /fj /fe w

/ g l/ g/ass /g r / green

/Jr/ shrink

/m j /m usic

/h j/ huge

/sk/scan /s m /sm all /s n /snow

2 Three-consonant clusters at the beginnings of syllables: /spl/sp//'f /spr/spray

/s tr/stream

/stj / student

/skr/ scream /sk w / square y

3 Two-consonant clusters at the ends of syllables: /ntJVbranch /n d 3 /change /n 0 / tenfA?

/ p t/ stopped / p 0 / depto / ps / steps

/ n t /w e n t /n d /e n d

/ t 0 / e/'ghto /ts / gete

/n s /o n c e /n z / towns

/kt//oc/ced /k s /b o x

/r)k/Jban/< /rjd/be/ong ed /r]z/be/ongs

/ bd / grabbed / b z/ro b s

/lp//?e/p /It/s a /f /lk/m ///c /lb/bu/t> /ld//?e/d /Id3/£>u/ge /Im /ft/m

/d z / crowds

/lf/s/?e/f / lv / twelve / I ©/health /ls/e/se / lz / wheels

/g d /begged /g z/b log s

/ f t / left /f© / fifth / f s / graphs

/ t j t / watched

/ vd / //Ved / vz / //Ves

/ d i d / charged

/Q t/earthed /Qs/maths

/ m p / limp /m d /claim ed / m z / rooms

/ d d / breathed /d z / breathes /s p /w asp / s t / w es t /sk/d/sc /zd /c/o se d /Jt / washed

J

4 Three-consonant clusters at the ends of syllables: /p ts /s c rip ts /p 0 s/d e p th s

/nst/a g a in st /n tjt/la u n ch e d

/k ts / facts

/ r]st / amongst /r jk t/ thanked

/m p s /lu m p s

/Ist/w altzed /Ip t/h e lp e d /Ik t/s u lk e d

/n ts /w a n ts /n 0 s / months

/sp t/g a sp e d

/qks/thanks

/n d z /e n d s

/Ip s /h e lp s /Its /b e lts /Iks/su lks

/Ib z /b u lb s /Id z /fie ld s /Im z /film s /Ivz/shelves

/skt/riske d

/fts / lifts /f0 s /fifth s

/n d 3d / changed /n z d / bronzed

/sps/w asps/ /sts/guests /sks/risks

/Id 3d /bulge d /Im d /film e d

/p s t/ collapsed

/k s 0 / sixth

/k s t/ next

/If© / twelfth

/Ivd /so lve d

/m p t/p ro m p t

45

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCING

... tonic prominence Track 45

Proposal To introduce the learners to identifying tonic prominence and understanding why speakers choose to put it on certain words rather than others. Duration

^ w

Difficulty ^

^

Preparation

You will need to make copies of the box opposite, which is recorded as Track 45, for the learners.

Track 45

1 A Are your lessons on Mondays? B They’re on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Procedure

Q Hand out the copies you have prepared and play the recording. J The learners underline the main stressed word (only one word) in each sentence. If they are unfamiliar with the term ‘stress’, translate it and/or explain that they should listen for the strongest, or ‘biggest’, or most emphasised word. Q Check the answers (Key 1 ), playing the recording again as necessary. > Next, the learners study the exchanges and decide how B chose which words to stress. O Discuss the answers (Key 2 ). j Finally, the learners can practise reading the exchanges in pairs. Prolongation

Look for other opportunities to ask the learners: Why is the stress there? (when they listen to dialogues) Where do you think the stress is? (when they read dialogues) Encourage them to ask themselves these questions. Warn them, though, that the answers are not always obvious! What the learners are listening for in this activity is, strictly speaking, tonic prominence (see Part A, page 26), but ‘main stress’ is probably a more learner-friendly term. How difficult they find this activity will depend largely on whether or not their own language uses stress in a similar way - and on how familiar they are with listening to English. PS

46

2 A I thought I put my keys in my coat pocket. B Perhaps you put them in your other coat? 3 A She grew up in Germany. B Yes, somewhere in East Germany. 4 A Was it an interesting talk? B Yes, extremely interesting. 5 A Did you buy a red dress? B Well, it’s actually a sort of orangey red. 6 A Did they say quarter to eight? B I thought they said quarter past eight. 7 A Shall we sit outside? B I think it’s too cold to sit outside. 8 A Perhaps you should stay in bed if you don’t feel well. B I don’t want to stay in bed. 9 A Is this your bag? B No, mine’s over there. 10 A Thank you for everything you’ve done. B And thank you for everything you’ve done.

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCING

... tonic prominence

... intonation patterns

Key 1

Tracks 46-48

1 A Are vour lessons on Mondavs? B Thev’re on Mondavs and Wednesdays.

Proposal

2 A I thouaht I put mv kevs in mv coat Docket. B Perhaps vou put them in vour other coat?

To develop an awareness of intonation patterns and an ability to identify them.

3 A She arew ud in Germanv. B Yes, somewhere in East Germany.

Duration ^ ^

4 A Was it an interestina talk? B Yes. extremelv interestina. 5 A Did you buy a red dress? B Well, it’s actually a sort of oranaev red. 6 A Did they say quarter to eight? B I thought they said quarter past eight. 7 A Shall we sit outside? B I think it’s too cold to sit outside. 8 A Perhaps you should stay in bed if you don’t feel well. B I don’t want to stay in bed. 9 A Is this vour bag? B No. mine’s over there. 10 A Thank vou for everything you’ve done. B And thank vou for everything you’ve done.

Key 2 B stresses things which are not in A’s sentences: o but which are new | o or additional to what A said o or in contrast or opposition to what A said. B does not stress things which are repetitions of what A said.

J

In B’s replies, these things are background information, already understood between A and B:

In B’s replies, these things are new, or in addition to what A said, or in contrast with what A said:

1 Mondays

Wednesdays

2 coat pocket

other coat

3 Germany

East

4 interesting

extremely

5 red

orangey

6 quarter... eight

past

7 sit outside

too cold

8 stay in bed

I don’t want to

9 B’s bag 10 thank you

where B’s bag is

Difficulty

Preparation

Make copies of the box containing the task on page 48. Procedure

) Distribute the handout with the task and play the recording to the learners: o Task A They hear the same word twice. They decide whether the two versions have the same intonation or not. o TaskB They hear the same word three times. They decide which version has a different intonation from the other two. o TaskC They hear each word once. They decide which intonation pattern it has. _ After each task, check the answers, replaying the recording as necessary. Round off with any discussion points that have arisen. Prolongation

Listen for opportunities to prompt the learners to identify clear intonation patterns in short utterances. Some learners (and teachers!) find intensive listening to intonation extremely demanding and exhausting, o If this seems to be a problem, just spend a few minutes working on a few examples, then a few more in the next lesson, and so on. o If you have covered all the material, it might still be useful to do the tasks again at a later date if the learners need the practice. This is purely a set of ear-training exercises, with no attention paid to the uses of intonation. It needs to be complemented by relevant activities in the rest of Part B. PS

thank A

47

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCING

... intonation patterns r

\ A Circle the correct answer.

Track 46

1

same

different

6

same

different

2

same

different

7

same

different

3

same

different

8

same

different

1

\ now

^ now

4

same

different

9

same

different

2

^ oh

\o h

5

same

different

10

same

different

3

V now

/n o w

B Circle the odd one out.

A Circle the correct answer.

4

/'oh

/o h

5

Vhi

Vhi

11

1

2

3

16

1

2

3

6

Vhi

V hi

12

1

2

3

17

1

2

3

7

V now

V now

13

1

2

3

18

1

2

3

8

hi

14

1

2

3

19

1

2

3

9

V* now

/n o w

15

1

2

3

20

1

2

3

10

V* now

V now

V hi

...... ' .... 1 C Circle the correct arrow. 21

\

/

V

22

\

/

V

23

\

/

V

24

\

/

V

29

25

\

/

V

30

\

/

V

27

\

/

V

28

\

T

V

B Circle the odd one out.

T

V

11

\ hey

V hey

/hey

T

V

12

Vyou

Vyou

V you

13

V no

V no

\ no

14

/see

\ see

\ see

15

V so

V so

/s o

\ \

Key A Circle the correct answer.

1

16

V me

\ me

^ me

1

same

different

6

same

different

17

\ hi

Vhi

hi

2

same

different

7

same

different

18

/o h

\ oh

/o h

3

same

different

8

same

different

19

/now

/n o w

V now

4

same

different

9

same

different

20

\ bye

V bye

V bye

5

same

different

10

same

different

Track 48

B Circle the odd one out. 11

1

2

3

16

1

2

3

12

1

2

3

17

1

2

3

C Circle the correct arrow.

13

1

2

3

18

1

2

3

21

\ hi

14

1

2

3

19

1

2

3

22

\ now

3

23

/m e

24

\*you

25

/o h

15

1

2

3

20

1

2

C Circle the correct arrow.

48

Track 47

26

21

\

/

V

26

\

/

V

26

V no

22

\

T

V

27

\

T

V

27

V bye

23

\

/

V

28

\

©

V

28

/s o

24

\

/

V

29

\

/

V

29

Vsee

25

\

T

V

30

\

T

V

30

\ hey

Create your own chart

u*m*.

Proposal

Chapter Two

To teach or revise the phonemic symbols and to sensitise the learners to features such as front/back/central vowels, diphthongs, and voiced and voiceless consonants.

Sounds

Duration ^

Page

Create your own chart Recognising the symbols Sounds bingo Vowel chanting Miming sounds /hi through whispering Split sentences Endings and beginnings Sounds game Sounds hangman A bagful of sounds Phonemic scrabble Sounds-vocabulary game Odd one out Making a difference Sorting sounds Sounds discrimination Test the teacher A little alliteration Rhyme time Sound symbolism Bilingual minimal pairs Comparing sounds CD Track 49 Listening for numbers

49 50 50 51 51 52 53 54 55 56 56 57 58 58 59 60 60 61 62 63 64 65 66

67

&

Difficulty ^ ^

Preparation

You will need to prepare a blank version of the phonemic chart, with three sections (vowels, diphthongs and consonants) but with each of the 44 phoneme squares blank. Leave the length marks and the intonation arrows in the square in the top right-hand corner. The blank version can either be in the form of an OHP transparency to be projected onto the whiteboard, or it can be drawn on a sheet of A3 paper. Alternatively, you can simply draw the blank chart on the whiteboard. Procedure

Q Ask the learners to make a copy of the blank chart on a sheet of A4 paper. O Elicit a consonant sound from the class (eg /t/). O You can do this by asking the learners, for example: What’s the first sound in the word ‘time’? o You write the symbol for the sound in the correct place on the chart, o They copy it in their version. „ Repeat the procedure for the other consonant sounds. Ideally, for the first two rows of consonant sounds, elicit the voiceless sound first and then the voiced equivalent (eg /t/ then 161). 3 Elicit the vowel sounds, by miming each sound silently to illustrate the lip position (eg /i:/). O Invite the learners to suggest where the sound fits in the vowel section - according to whether it is front or back, or open or closed. Repeat the miming procedure for the diphthong sounds. O Continue until the chart is complete. O Check that learners have completed their charts accurately. Prolongation

They can now use their own personal charts during class activities and for private study.

49

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Recognising the symbols

Sounds bingo

Proposal

Proposal

Helping the learners to recognise phonemic symbols in the context of familiar words.

Helping learners to recognise phonemic symbols and the sounds they represent.

Duration Q

Duration ^ j w

Difficulty ^

Preparation

Preparation

Prepare a set of words that the learners should already know, ideally from a lexical set - eg ‘sports’. See the examples below. Transcribe the words into phonemic script and write them on a photocopiable handout.

You need one Sounds bingo card (see the sample below) per learner (or see the Alternative below). The activity can also be done in pairs or small groups - in which case, you will need one card per pair or small group. Procedure

Procedure

Q Ask the learners to work in pairs or small groups of three or four. j Give each pair or group a copy of your list of words in phonemic script (or write it on the board). Tell the learners that all the words have one thing in common - they are related to each other in terms of theme. For example: o sports o professions o names of countries o foods Ask the learners to work in their pairs or groups and decide what the spelling of each word is. Check the answers in open class. Also check that the learners can pronounce the words accurately! If you have worked with sports, you can continue with different lexical sets, either immediately or in later lessons. You could use this activity as a way of prompting recall of recently-introduced vocabulary, before giving the class further practice in using it.

'baiskitbDil

'ten is 'skiiir]

aeG'letiks golf

Give each learner (or pair/small group) a card. Tell them that you will randomly pronounce sounds from the phonemic chart: Number 1: /el Number 2: /m / O If they hear a sound which is on their card: • They write the number next to the sound. • They cross out that sound. Q Keep a numbered list of the sounds you pronounce, in the order you pronounce them. This will help you check the learners’ game. O The winner is the first person to number correctly all the sounds on their card. ) Check that the winner has crossed out the correct sounds. If not, the game continues.

O

Prolongation

Prolongation

futbDll

Difficulty w

'swimir)

Sounds bingo can also be played in small groups without you: one learner reads out a list of sounds to the rest of the group. This brings a ‘production’ element to the activity and also a degree of peer monitoring, and there is likely to be healthy discussion about the pronunciation of sounds. Alternative Instead of preparing a set of different cards in advance, you can ask the learners to draw an empty grid and copy 10 sounds onto it randomly from the phonemic chart. If you don’t have one on display in your classroom, most learners’ dictionaries either have a copy of the chart or a list of symbols with examples. -: ----- 1 |------ 1 d3 ae

n u:

50

a:

6

ea

J

tj DI

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Vowel chanting

Miming sounds

Proposal

Proposal

Recognising and producing long vowel sounds, developing confidence and trust within the class, and lowering inhibitions.

Giving the learners practice in recognising the lip positions of vowels and diphthongs and producing those sounds with the correct lip shape.

Duration w

Difficulty

Duration w

Difficulty ^

Preparation

Procedure

None as such, although you will need a room with sufficient space for people to move around. _ The class stand in pairs, one A and one B, spread around the room: • Learner A chooses one of the five long vowel sounds (/i:/,/u :/, /a:/, h i/, /3il) and chants it to Learner B as a continuous long sound. • Learner B listens with eyes closed, paying close attention to the quality of the vowel and the sound of A’s voice. The Bs close their eyes again, o The As move to another part of the room o They guide the Bs towards them by chanting the same vowel as before. The Bs’ task is to ‘home in’ on the As’ vowel - amidst the chanting of the other members of the class.

J Start the activity by silently miming a vowel sound to the whole class, For example: /i:/ Ask the learners to tell you what the sound was. Q Do the same with a diphthong. For example: leil Highlight the fact that, in this second case, the lip position changes from one shape to another - as diphthongs consist of a ‘glide’ from one sound into another. Divide the class into groups of four or five: • One learner in each group begins the activity by miming a vowel or diphthong silently. • The other learners have to guess what the sound was. The learner who guesses correctly then takes over and mimes the next sound.

Prolongation

Prolongation

Procedure

1 A and B can change roles. 2 A and B can change partners. 3 Everyone in the class can use the same vowel sound.

The learners can continue for as long as seems useful, using different vowels and different diphthongs.

51

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

/h / through whispering Proposal To give the learners a strategy for pronouncing /h / if they find this sound difficult. Duration Q

Difficulty ^

Preparation

You will need copies of a set of words beginning with / h /, chosen to include a variety of vowel sounds, and a set of sentences including some or all of the words. See the examples opposite. Procedure

Ask the learners to talk to each other in a whisper for a couple of minutes, just to get used to the idea. (If they find this a strange thing to do, it might help to give them a topic to whisper about, or even a text to whisper aloud.) O Distribute your handout and ask the learners to whisper - slowly and clearly - the set of words beginning with /h/. O Next, they should say these words very slowly, starting in a whisper but switching the voicing on (or, in other words, switching the whisper off) during the vowel sound, without pausing. O Note that it’s easier to stretch words with long vowels or diphthongs - such as heat, hard, how - so it might be best to start with these. O The learners repeat this procedure, gradually speeding up until they are saying the words at normal speed. O They can then move on to practising these and other /h / words in phrases and sentences - see opposite.

O

Prolongation

The learners can recall and practise this procedure whenever they find themselves struggling to pronounce / h/. PS The / h/ phoneme is problematic for quite a number of learners of English. o Some tend to omit it: this is characteristic of French and Italian speakers, o Others, such as Spanish and Russian speakers, tend to substitute a velar fricative. We think of /h / as an independent sound, but it can also be regarded as the voiceless beginning of a vowel sound: whispering - speaking without voicing - is one approach to helping learners to produce /h/.

52

heat horse hair

o o o o o o

hill hat hay

hood hut high

who

help

hard

hot

whole

how

Don’t go out in this heat without a hat. I hurt my head when I fell off my horse, It was a hard climb up the hill, I don’t know who I can turn to for help, | didn’t hear the whole message, How hot does it get here in the summer?

hurt hear head

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Split sentences Proposal To provide practice of a problem sound. Duration ^

Difficulty

Preparation

You will need a set of split sentences in which each half includes, in a prominent (stressed) position, a word containing the sound you want to practise. The example set opposite focuses on the sound 13:/, assuming that this is proving tricky for the class. You could make copies of your set of beginnings and endings, but a better alternative is to copy them onto separate slips of paper or card - this has the advantage that the learners can move the slips around on their desks.

c— 1 I’m going on a journey

a bit nervous.

2 I’m certain

is getting worse and worse.

3 The course starts on Thursday

the dessert.

4 The curtains

match the furniture.

5 The young nurse seemed

past the church.

6 You can earn

but she wasn’t seriously hurt.

7 Take the first turning

do you prefer?

8 The service in this restaurant

catches the worm.

9 Which of these shirts

while you learn.

I

Procedure

Ask the learners to match the beginnings and endings of the sentences. O They then check their answers by reading out the complete versions. (There may be more than one possible answer.) O Correct their pronunciation as necessary, focusing especially on the /3'J sound, in our examples. Prolongation

The learners can put away their copies of the material - you call out beginnings and endings, and ask them to say the appropriate complete sentence. They then continue doing this in pairs and small groups, taking turns to look at the material and call out a beginning or an ending. You can repeat this revision activity in a later lesson. PS You can easily produce material of this kind to focus on any sound of your choice, except the ‘schwa’ - /a/ - which is never stressed. It’s advisable to: o limit yourself to a manageable number of items - the set above is probably bigger than necessary for many classes; o limit yourself to vocabulary which your class already know, so that they won’t be distracted by trying to figure out or remember what the words mean. Ensure that your key words occupy prominent (stressed) positions in their phrases, as this is where the pronunciation of the focus sound is fullest and clearest.

10 It’s time to serve

round the world.

11 The early bird

the twenty-third.

12 The car hit the girl

it was her. A

Key 1 I’m going on a journey round the world. 2 I’m certain it was her. 3 The course starts on Thursday the twenty-third. 4 The curtains match the furniture. 5 The young nurse seemed a bit nervous. 6 You can earn while you learn. 7 Take the first turning past the church. 8 The service in this restaurant is getting worse and worse. 9 Which of these shirts do you prefer? 10 It’s time to serve the dessert. 11 The early bird catches the worm. 12 The car hit the girl but she wasn’t seriously hurt.

53

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Endings and beginnings Proposal To help to foster close attention to spelling, pronunciation and the relationship between them, in the context of a deceptively simple game. Duration

Difficulty

Procedure

j If feasible, the class should stand in a circle. If this isn’t possible, establish what route the game is going to ‘travel’ in: o along the first row of seats from left to right o along the second row from right to left o and so on to the back of the room o then start again from the front The game commences: • Learner A says a word - any English word. • Learner B says a word whose first letter is the same as the last letter of A’s word. • Learner C says a word whose first letter is the same as the last letter of B’s word. And so on, round the circle or round the room. j So this, for instance, would be a correct sequence: television news -> shape -> east... etc j The basic idea is to keep the sequence going as long as possible. You might want to add some kind of scoring/ penalty system, or impose a limit on how long the learners are allowed to spend thinking of a suitable word. Another variation would be to get them work in pairs. D So far, the focus has been on spelling - not on pronunciation. Now, keeping the same procedure, change from last and first letter to last and first sound. An example of a correct sequence: newspaper -> attack quite -> tough -> feel -> letter -> address -> size -> zoo ... etc This is much trickier, and the learners will tend to be misled by spelling, so you could allow them more thinking time - or perhaps two attempts if you feel generous!

54

j You might want to ask them to make sure that they can think of a possible follow-on word to the word they choose, so as to avoid setting impossible challenges for each other. For example, if someone says walking, the sequence will break down because there are no words beginning with / r] /. Prolongation

On another occasion, you could play a silent version of the pronunciation game: instead of saying the words, the learners write them on the board. If any word is challenged, it can be read aloud and discussed. For example: o Learner A writes ‘newspaper’, o Learner B writes ‘attack’, o Learner C writes ‘quite’. o Learner D writes ‘end’. (This should be challenged and discussed!) This activity demands a lot of concentration and is probably best limited to a few minutes. But once the learners are familiar with the procedure, it can easily be repeated on other occasions. PS

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Sounds game Proposal To raise awareness of different phonemes and how they are used in combination, and to practise recognition of phonemic symbols. Duration

Difficulty

Preparation

You will need three or four words consisting of three phonemes each to start the game. See the examples in Box 1 opposite. Procedure

Write the following words on the board in normal script: vowel, consonant, diphthong. Check the learners understand what these signify. Give an example of each, if necessary, by pointing to them on a phonemic chart or writing the examples on the board (vowel: /i:/, consonant, /t/, diphthong: /ei/). , In the game, a consonant gets one point, a vowel two points and a diphthong three points. Put the class into four teams of four and give each team a letter - A, B, C, D. Write the first three-phoneme word on the board in phonemic script. Ask the whole class to say the word aloud several times: • Team A may now choose one of the three categories: consonant, vowel or diphthong. For example: vowel. o They then change the word on the board using a different vowel. o They say the new word. • If the new word is correct (ie if it is a real word), Team A gets two points. You write the new word in phonemic script on the board. • Team B repeats the procedure but using the new word on the board ... . Continue with different teams until all possibilities have been exhausted or a team gets stuck. The team with the most points is the winner.

1

/ f i: d / Team A: consonant Team A changes the word to / f i : t / (one point)

+ /fi:t/ Team B: diphthong Team B changes the word to / f e i t / (three points)

i 4T

/ f e it / Team C: consonant Team C changes the word to / r e it / (one point)

+ /reit/ Team D: vowel Team D changes the word to /r u :t/ (two points)

i and so on ...

P -2 ' /m ein/ /w aid/ /fu:d /

/raet/ /set/ /w3:k/

/bDil/ /hAt/ /taid /

” 1

Prolongation

If this activity seems popular and useful, you can re-use it whenever you have a few spare minutes of class time, starting with different words - as in the examples in Box 2.

55

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Sounds hangman

A bagful of sounds

Proposal

Proposal

Recognising and producing individual sounds and combinations of sounds in words.

A game to practise links between pronunciation and vocabulary.

Duration Q

Difficulty Q

Duration Jy Q

Preparation

Prepare a brief list of words that you wish to revise. Choose words that have between five and 10 sounds (phonemes). Write the phonemic transcription next to the word. Procedure

O Choose one of the words from the list you prepared earlier and count the number of sounds. O Write a short dash (-) on the board to represent each of the sounds in the word: For ‘telephone’ it would be: because there are seven sounds in the word. Q Ask the class to guess your word: • They can only do this by suggesting sounds. • You don’t accept suggestions which are pronounced as letters of the alphabet: eg/bi:/ for / b/. o If an incorrect suggestion is made - ie a correctly pronounced sound but one that is not in your word: o You use the same procedure as with the well-known ‘Hangman’ spelling game, o Bit by bit, you draw the hangman figure on the board, adding to it each time a mistake is made. O Continue until the learners have guessed the word or until you have completed the hangman figure.

Difficulty ^

Preparation

You will need a supply of small cards (about 3 cm square). Use these to produce sets of cards: o a set of 20 cards each showing a vowel or diphthong symbol o a set of 24 cards each showing one of the consonant symbols You will need enough sets so that each group of four to five learners has a set of vowel cards and a set of consonant cards each. Put each set of cards in separate bags. Procedure

Put the learners into groups and give out one vowel and one consonant bag to each group. • They should, in turn, without looking in the bags, take out one vowel card and one consonant card. • They try to say and write a word which contains both the sounds they have taken. For example, if they take /i:/ and / I/ their word could be leave, easily, lead, feel, etc. Any disagreements can be sorted out by reference to a dictionary or you the teacher. O The cards are then replaced in the correct bags and the turn passes to the next learner. O This could, of course, be made into a competition with a scoring system, but bear in mind that, at lower levels especially, the learners might not know any words with some of the sound combinations they take from the bags. O Alternatively, the group members could compete with each other to see who can produce the most words containing the two sounds. O

Prolongation

This activity can be used as a warmer or as a final activity. You can also use it as a vocabulary revision activity, particularly at lower levels.

Prolongation

More challenging versions of this game are possible by specifiying that more than two cards should be taken - eg one vowel and two consonants. As the number of cards increases, the number of possible words decreases. Any learners who find this game particularly appealing could produce their own cards and use this as a self-study activity. PS The activity is deceptively simple but works on a number of awarenesses, including possible combinations of phonemes, pronunciation-spelling relationships, familiarity with phonemic symbols and recall of vocabulary.

56

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Phonemic scrabble Proposal

1

To give learners an opportunity to consider carefully the exact pronunciation of words in their vocabulary. Duration Q Q

Difficulty ,'y w

Preparation

You will need to make copies of a grid such as the first one in the column opposite. Procedure

O The learners work in groups of two to five. They need one copy of the grid per group. o They take turns to put words into the grid in phonemic script. o They put one symbol per square, o Words may read either from left to right, or from top to bottom. o Diphthongs (eg /ai/) and affricates (eg /tj/) count as only one symbol each. O The first player must include the central square of the grid in their first word. Thereafter, every word added to the grid must include at least one already-filled square. The players should take care that they don’t inadvertently form non-words by putting sounds next to each other. After a few turns, the board might look like the second one opposite. 3 Disputed pronunciations can be checked in a dictionary. You should also circulate and look out for any mistakes. Prolongation

If this activity appeals to the learners, they can do it regularly - perhaps gradually making it more structured, eg setting time limits for turns, giving scores depending on word length, and so on. This is a simple adaptation of the well-known game Scrabble™. The original game has much more structure and a scoring system, which you could emulate if you wish, but for most classes it will probably contain sufficient challenge in the form described above. Phonemic scrabble can be played at any level but, clearly, the more vocabulary the learners have, the easier it will be for them to continue finding suitable words as the grid fills up.

t i

I

d

g

r

ae

t

i

n

ae

n

s

v

j

i

g ae

n

n

t

3

v

j

I

m

i

3

3

Z

r

r

d:

j

u:

d

u:

P

d

t

3

b I

PS

Player 1 started with interview. Player 2 added traveller. Player 3 added ingratitude. Player 4 added insipid. Player 1 added draws, which also formed travellers. Player 2 added the remaining sounds to form innumerable. Player 3 added gallop.

57

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Sounds-vocabulary game

Odd one out

Proposal

Proposal

Pronouncing known vocabulary.

Giving the learners practice in discriminating between similar sounds and highlighting the relationships between sounds and spelling.

Duration

Difficulty

Duration

Procedure

.. Write six or seven general vocabulary categories on the board (eg food, countries, sports, items of clothing, professions, animals, parts of the body). O Divide the class into teams of four or five: • You will write a vowel or diphthong phoneme (sound) on the board. • They will have to find a word for each of the categories that contains this sound. Make sure the learners understand that the sound can be at the beginning of the word, in the middle or at the end. The first team to correctly name a word in all the categories wins a point. Write the first sound on the board, eg /i:/. (See the box below.) Check the answers given by the first team to provide a complete set of answers: • If the answers are correct, write up their words on the board in the appropriate columns and award them a point. • If any of the answers are incorrect, indicate that there is a mistake, but don’t specify which word at this stage. Another team may now suggest their six answers and will score a point if their set is correct. O Continue with further sounds. O The team with the most points at the end is the winner.

Difficulty

Preparation

Prepare a handout with several groups of four words, one of which should have a vowel or diphthong sound that is different from the other three. See Box 1 below for some examples. These examples are all monosyllabic. If you include multisyllabic words, you will need to show which vowel the learners should focus on: eg by underlining between. Procedure

O Divide the class into small groups of three or four learners and give each group a handout. Ask the learners to work with their group to decide which word in each set is different from the others. j When all the groups have finished, the whole class compare their answers. _ Highlight any sound-spelling patterns that may emerge from the activity (eg the letters ‘ai’ are usually pronounced /ei/). Prolongation

You can, of course, also use this procedure with consonant sounds; you will need to show which consonant learners should focus on. See Box 2 for some examples.

Prolongation

You can use this activity either as a warmer or as a final activity in which recently taught vocabulary can be practised or recycled with a focus on pronunciation. The board might look something like this after two rounds - using the sounds / i: / and /e / as examples:

cook

pull

{fool is the odd one out)

2 make tail

1 foot

back

same

{back)

3 here

hear

bear

beer

{bear)

4 work

wall

walk

warm

{work)

5 five

drive

dive

give

{give)

fool

2

food cheese bread

country Greece Denmark

sport skiing tennis

1 lets o

lends

leads

leaves

{lets)

walked

warmed

washed

{warmed)

clothing jeans dress

profession teacher engineer

animal sheep hen

3

cheque

chemist

children

{chemist)

4

through

cough

tough

{through)

5

whale

wheat

whisper

{whole)

58

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Making a difference Prolongation

Proposal To give the learners practice in recognising and producing words with minimal pairs that they find hard to differentiate. Duration ^

Difficulty

Preparation

Make a list of minimal pairs containing a pair of sounds your learners confuse. You can find two example lists in Boxes 1 and 2. Make sets of sentences containing the word pairs - see Boxes 3 and 4 for examples. Procedure

Write your list on the board in two parallel columns, as in the boxes. Read out the words. For example: had head sad said sat set As you do this, you may find that you naturally tend to alternate your intonation. For example: up on ‘had’, down on ‘head’ up on ‘sad’, down on ‘said’ Try to avoid doing this, since it introduces an irrelevant and potentially distracting difference between the two members of each pair: it’s preferable to say all the words with the same falling intonation. Next, tell the class you will say two words and they should shout out Same! or Different! according to what they hear. For example: head head Same! sad said Different! j Next, tell the learners you will read down the list, saying one word from each pair. They should all raise their left or right hand - according to whether the word they hear is in the left-hand or right-hand column. . Now ask individuals to say word pairs such as had - head, being careful to make them sound different (but with the same intonation!). Now point to words in random order, and indicate that individuals should say them. Finally, distribute or display the sentences and get the class to practise saying them.

The learners can collect further examples of pairs that they find tricky, and invent their own practice sentences. PS A minimal pair is a pair of words which are distinguished by one phoneme only. For example: o red and led /red / - / l e d / o /are and / ig h f / le it / - / la it / 0 precious and pressures /'pre jas/ - /'p re ja z/ Focusing on individual words is a way of training learners’ ears to perceive differences they may not otherwise notice. When you point to words on the board, it’s a good idea to stand at the side of the board and use a pointer - rather than your finger - so as not to obscure the view. 1

/l/vs/r/

/ae/

vs /e /

load

road

had

head

light

right

sad

said

late

rate

sat

set

led

red

pan

pen

play

pray

mat

met

cloud

crowd

mass

mess

3

1 /I / vs / r / There are heavy loads on the roads. Turn right at the traffic lights. If you’re late you have to pay a higher rate. They led us through the red door. Some people were playing and others were praying. The crowds looked up at the clouds. 4 | /ae/

vs /e /

I had a rest with my head on the table. I was sad when we said goodbye. I set the alarm clock and sat down to wait. I dropped my pen in the frying pan. Two spiders met on the doormat. There was a mass of books and paper on the desk - it was a real mess.

59

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Sorting sounds

Sounds discrimination

Proposal

Proposal

To help the learners recognise similarities of pronunciation which are disguised by spelling.

To give the learners practice in recognising minimal differences between individual phonemes in the context of words.

Duration ^

Difficulty ^

Duration w

Difficulty

Preparation

Prepare a list of three groups of four words, with the four words in each group all ending with the same sound (see below for some examples). Procedure

Write the 12 words on the board in random order. Q Divide the class into groups of three or four: • They sort the words into three groups according to their endings. • They make sure all the words in each group end with the same sound. O Check the answers in open class. O

Prolongation

The learners can add to each group, trying if possible to find examples of all the same sound-spelling relationships, eg: /u:/ few (like ‘knew’) /au/ blow (like ‘know’) know

shoe

though knew

go through

blue

enough rough

stuff

tough

sew

though

sew

/au/

shoe

go through

knew

blue

/u:/

enough

rough

stuff

tough

/Af/

f Key

know

60

Preparation

Prepare a list of ten pairs of words that differ only in the vowel or diphthong sound. (See the examples below.) You can either focus on a single minimal pair and give a lot of different examples (/i:/ vs III - beat/bit, read/rid-, feet/fit, etc) or you can provide a range of different minimal pairs. Procedure

Write the examples on the board or give them to the learners in the form of a handout: • They will hear one word from each pair. • They should tick the word they hear in each pair. O Read one word from each pair to the class. o Check the answers by asking the learners to read aloud the words thay have ticked. O Highlight any differences between the words they think they heard and the words you actually read aloud. O

Prolongation

You can ask the learners to work in pairs or small groups, with one learner in each pair or group taking the role of the teacher. One possible side-product of this stage is that the learners will tick a sound the speaker did not intend them to tick, and will do so as a result of inaccurate pronunciation by the speaker. This often has the effect of focusing attention on the pronunciation of a particular word or pair of words. f1 work

walk

6 look

luck

2 hard

heard

7 sleep

slip

3 bear

beer

8 pull

pool

4 port

pot

9 hop

hope

5 word

ward

10 pain

pine

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Test the teacher Proposal To give the learners practice in producing words with minimal pairs that they find hard to differentiate. Duration

Difficulty ^

Preparation

Make a list of minimal pairs containing a pair of sounds your learners confuse. You can find two example lists in the boxes opposite.

/a u / vs h \ ! \

/ / / vs / t j /

oh

or

shoe

chew

so

saw

share

chair

low

law

sheep

cheap

sheet

cheat

coal

call

Procedure

cold

called

cash

catch

} Write your list on the board in two parallel columns, as in the boxes. Q Invite the learners one by one to say any one of the words on the board: • You will point to the word you hear. • They should say ‘Yes’ if that was the word they said and ‘No’ if it wasn’t. Q In each case, you point to the word you hear (preferably with a pointer rather than with your finger, so that you don’t obscure the view of the board). If you aren’t sure which word you heard - for example, if you aren’t sure whether it was so or saw - point somewhere in between the two words. If you hear neither of the two words, but a different one, eg Sue, point somewhere else on the board. j If one of the learners says ‘No’ to your response, let them try again. If, after a few attempts, there’s still a mismatch between the word they intended to say and the word you actually heard, note this as a point to work on later.

coat

caught

wash

watch

boat

bought

she’s

cheese

woke

walk

sherry

cherry

ship

chip

wish

witch

Prolongation

You could invite the learners to invent sentences including both members of the minimal pairs. For example: o I don't know which shoes to choose! o Can I share your chair? PS A minimal pair is a pair of words which are distinguished by one sound only. For example: o go and know /g a u /-/n a u / o receipt and receive /ri'siit/- /ri'siiv/ o save and serve /seiv/- /S3:v/ This is a variation on the use of minimal pairs which allows the learners to test the teacher. The learners are in control and the teacher gets the ‘No’ for being wrong, which makes it - at least for a lot of learners - a fairly risk-free and enjoyable way of testing the accuracy of their pronunciation. 61

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

A little alliteration Proposal To develop awareness and provide practice of alliterative lexical phrases. Duration Q

Difficulty v Q

Preparation

You will need to make copies of a set of sentences which include phrases with alliteration, such as those opposite. Procedure

© Write this exchange on the board: A I've lived here all my life, and I didnt know we had any Roman remains here until today. B Well, you live and________ . O Invite learners to suggest a word to fill the gap. Answer: learn. O Point out that live and learn both begin with the same sound. English has a lot of phrases like this, with a repeated consonant sound (or a repeated consonant cluster) at the beginnings of two of the words - ie phrases with alliteration. (Maybe their LI has, too?) O Invite the learners to give any examples they can think of. 0 Distribute the handout - the learners fill each gap with a word which alliterates with another word close to it. j Elicit and confirm their answers in a plenary discussion. Prolongation

1 The learners turn their handouts over. Prompt them to complete the phrases by saying: o This is your last chance to enter for the exam - it’s now or... o Someone tried to mmmmm my pocket as I was getting on the train. The learners should respond with complete phrases: o now or never o pick my pocket 2 Ask them to listen out - and look out - for other alliterative phrases and report them to the class. PS We tend to think of alliteration as a poetic device, but its actually widespread in the ordinary English we use all the time. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for certain phrases except that they alliterate - eg spick and span.

62

1 This is your last chance to enter for the exam - it’s now o r _______ . 2 The American flag is popularly known as the Stars and_______ . 3 Someone tried t o ________ my pocket as I was getting on the train. 4 His name’s on th e _________of my tongue - I’ll remember it in a minute. 5 You’re welcome to come and join us - the more, the

6 We don’t want to take risks with new designs - we need reliable,_______ and tested machines. 7 It won’t be an easy task, but where there’s a will, there’s a _______ . 8 I want you to produce a detailed report with all the relevant facts and ______ _ . 9 She was out working in the garden from dawn till

10 The traffic’s horrendous - if you want to get there on time, your best_______ would be to walk. 11 After a long discussion, w e _______ to the conclusion that it would be best to do nothing. 12 Make sure you clean the place properly - I want it to look spick a n d _______ when I get back.

Key 1 never

4 tip

7 way

10 bet

2 Stripes

5 merrier

8 figures

11 came

3 pick

6 tried

9 dusk

12 span

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Rhyme time Proposal To build awareness of the significance of rhyme in idioms. Duration Q*

Difficulty ^ ( j

-----------------------------------------------------------Preparation

You will need copies of a set of sentences containing rhyming idioms. See opposite for an example. Procedure

Write this example sentence on the board: You shouldn't work on a computer for hours on end; you should take_____________ every now and then. Ask the class for suggestions as to how to complete the sentence. They might have various ideas - like ‘take a rest’ - but focus on take a break, because this is particularly common, and point out that take and break rhyme. Distribute the handouts and ask the learners to complete the idioms - tell them that in each one there are two words that rhyme with each other: o They could work individually at first, then in pairs, o They could use a dictionary to help them —if there are any items they can’t complete. . Carry out a final check in plenary. Prolongation

In a later lesson, you could use single-word prompts such as ‘dine’ or ‘sky’ to elicit the complete phrases, and ask the learners to produce sentences using the idioms. Ask the learners to be on the constant lookout for similar rhyming idioms, and to report them to the class. ‘Rhyme’ means that words have the same vowel sound and the same - if any - final consonant sound: late /\e it/ eight /e it/ create/k rii'e it/ do /du:/ blue I b lu :/ grew Igru:/ Rhyme is often associated with poetry, but in prosaic everyday language a substantial number of common idiomatic phrases make use of rhyme: down town make or break jet set claim to fame no pain, no gain This can be a helpful factor in recalling and producing them. PS

1 If you entertain someone by giving them food and drink you can say that you wine a nd____ them. 2 If it’s hard to say what the difference between two things such as helping and interfering is, you can say that there’s a ____ line between them. 3 People often refer to letters sent by traditional post and not by email a s ____ mail. 4 If someone hopes that something will happen, but you think they’re being completely unrealistic, you can say that their plans or hopes are just pie in the

5 Often if you get delayed and don’t manage to reach a hotel you’ve booked, they’ll classify you as a no-____ and they’ll charge you for one night’s stay. 6 An event where people enjoy themselves and raise money for charity by running a certain distance is a -run. 7 When you decide to do what everyone else is doing, because it seems the easiest thing to do, you go with th e ____ . 8 The slow, gradual damage that happens to something in everyday use is called wear a n d ____ . 9 The most popular time for watching TV, in the middle of the evening, is called____ time. 10 You can call your family your nearest a n d ____ . 11 If you try to avoid something or someone, you steer of it or them. 12 An ideal sports team, or the best possible group of people for a certain task, is a ____ team.

Key 1 wine and dine

7 go with the flow

2 fine line

8 wear and tear

3 snail mail

9 Drime time

4 pie in the sky

10 nearest and dearest

5 no-show

11 steer clear

6 fun-run

12 dream team

63

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Sound symbolism Proposal To explore the apparent meaningfulness of certain sound sequences at the beginnings of words. Duration Q Q

Difficulty Q Q

Preparation

You will need to produce and make copies of lists such as those in the box opposite. Tailor the lists to suit the knowledge of your class. (You might decide not to use as many as four lists on one occasion.) Procedure

Choose a small sub-set of words from one of the lists which have an obvious similarity of meaning and which are well known to the class - eg for a hypothetical, fairly advanced class: flame, flare, flash, flicker - and write these on the board. O Ask the learners to say what the similarity of meaning is. O Distribute the handout and ask the learners, working perhaps individually at first and then in pairs, to find words in each list which seem to have some element of meaning in common: o They may be able to find sub-groups within each list, and they will certainly find exceptions, o They may need to refer to dictionaries, or ask for your help, if they don’t fully understand all the words. O In plenary, ask the learners to share their findings. O

Prolongation

The lists in the handout are not exhaustive, and the learners can search their dictionaries for further examples, and judge whether or not these share the elements of meaning which they have identified. They could use their dictionaries to conduct the same investigation with words beginning with /sn/ and /sw/. The word beginnings in these lists are different from morphemes such as un- or sub-. They are only consonant clusters, but they seem to contain hints of shared areas of broad meaning. The full versions of the lists given here would only be suitable for an advanced class, but you can easily adapt this activity for much lower levels by reducing the lists so as to include only the more frequent words. Even a list containing a few words can be useful in raising awareness. PS

64

flab flag flake flame flank flap flare flash flat flatter flaw flea flee fleet flex flick flicker flinch fling flip flirt flit fly float flock flood flop flounder flow flower fluff fluid flurry flutter glad glamour glance gland glare glass glaze gleam glib glide glimmer glimpse glint glisten glitter glitzy gloat globe gloom glory gloss glove glow glue glum glut glutton slack slam slander slang slant slap slaughter sleaze sleep sleet slender slice slide slight slim slime slip slit slope sloppy slosh slouch slow slug slum slump slur slush sly straggle straight strain strait(s) strand strange strangle strap straw stray streak stream street stress stretch strew strict stride strike string strip stripe stroke stroll strong

Key / f l/ at the beginning of a word often suggests fire or movement, especially through air or liquid: eg flap, flee, flit But sometimes it doesn’t have these associations: eg flank, flaw /g l/ at the beginning of a word often suggests brightness: eg glare, gleam, glitter, glow But sometimes it doesn’t have these associations: eg glib, glide /s i/ at the beginning of a word often suggests downwardness: eg slack, slide, slip, slouch - or unpleasantness: eg slander, sleaze, slime, sly But sometimes it doesn’t have either of these associations: eg slender, slow /str/ at the beginning of a word often suggests a long, thin shape or movement: eg straight, strap, stream, street But sometimes it doesn’t have these associations: eg stress, strong The learners may suggest different associations, and you should acknowledge these if they seem valid.

v___________________________________________________________ _/

When the learners come across new words containing these clusters, they may be predisposed to at least consider the possibility that the initial cluster includes a clue to meaning. This is not always a reliable strategy, however, and hence it is important to include obvious counter-examples in your lists.

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Bilingual minimal pairs Proposal To develop awareness of differences in the pronunciation of words which initially sound very similar in English and the learners’ first language. Duration Q

Difficulty w

Preparation

Prepare a list of words which sound very similar in English and in your learners’ LL (It doesn’t matter whether or not the words have similar meanings, since the focus is purely on pronunciation.) Opposite are three example lists. You could use ‘international’ words which are pronounced more or less the same in both languages. For example, many languages have words very similar to restaurant, bank, computer, hotel, bar and telephone.

German/English

Polish/English

. 1 Spanish/English

Schuh

shoe

pan

pan

no

no

Fohn

fern

tu

two

si

sea

vor

four

nasz

gnash

bar

bar

kann

can

no

no

hotel

hotel

hier

here

tos

wash

futbol

football

oder

odour

teb

web

mota

motor

Bild

build

spiker speaker

que

K

drei

dry

sad

mes

mess

sad

Procedure

Display your list on the board/projector. Tell the class you are going to read down the list, but saying only one word from each pair - either the English one or the LI one. O You might want to include a preliminary stage where you read down the list saying both words in each pair - giving the learners a chance to hear the differences before they have to identify them. Q Ask the learners to identify each choice you make by shouting out ‘EnglishV - or the name of the other language: • You can now ask the learners to reflect on how they identified which word you read out - the discussion will quite likely start with general impressions. • You can then encourage them to think about exactly what the differences are. 0 Finally, the learners can try making these differences themselves. O

Prolongation

1 The learners can try the activity in pairs. 2 They can look out for other bilingual minimal pairs, and bring them to class. 3 They can try to say other LI words, phrases and longer utterances with an ‘English’ accent.

This activity is a way for the learners to investigate exactly what they would need to do in order to speak with a native-like accent; whether they actually want to aim for this is, of course, their choice! In order for the activity to be maximally effective: o You need a class who share the same Ll. o You need to be able to pronounce both languages English and the learners’ Ll - well. We can’t predict exactly what differences the learners might discover, because this obviously depends on what the Ll is. But possible types of difference include the following: o Different articulation of corresponding sounds - eg different ‘r’ sounds in different languages o Sounds that can occur in certain positions in one language but not in the other - eg voiced consonants at the ends of words in English but not in some languages o Different degrees of tension in the neck, jaws, cheeks, lips or tongue o Different degrees of lip-rounding o A tendency for the tongue to make contact with the back of the top teeth or with the alveolar ridge o Differences in the lengths of vowels or consonants o Different degrees of pureness and diphthongisation of vowels o Different stress patterns PS

65

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Comparing sounds Proposal To focus learners’ attention on the English pronunciations of internationally-known names. Duration ( j

Difficulty

30

Preparation

Prepare a list of familiar names (places, company or product names, famous people) that are written similarly in English and in the learners’ mother tongue. Depending on the time available, a list of five to 10 words should be sufficient. Procedure

Ask the learners to work in pairs, and give each pair a copy of the word list (or write it on the board). The list should contain only the words, not the transcriptions. O Tell the learners that all the words have one thing in common: they are all pronounced differently in English from the way they are pronounced in their mother tongue. Let each pair experiment (simultaneously) for a few minutes with the possible English pronunciation of the familiar words. O Get suggestions as to how the English versions are pronounced, and give a correct model where necessary. O Compare the mother tongue pronunciation with the English pronunciation, drawing attention to some of the main differences. For example, in the French and English pronunciation of Paris, you could point out: o the different word stress; o the silent final ‘s’ in French; o the different vowel sounds in the second syllable (long in French, short in English); o the different pronunciation of the Y sound. Q Many of the words in the example list will also reveal the importance of the unstressed ‘schwa’ sound in English.

O

Prolongation

Encourage the learners to find further examples of names or other words that are written similarly in their mother tongue and English - but are pronounced differently. To find the pronunciations of names, it may sometimes be necessary to refer to a specialised dictionary of pronunciation.

66

Paris /'paeris/

Los Angeles / I ds 'aenc^aliiz/

Chicago /J i'k a ig a u /

Montreal

Barcelona

Venice

/mDntri'Dil/

/baisa'launa/

/'v e n is /

Australia

Heathrow

Edinburgh

/o 's tre ilja /

/hi:0'rau/*

/'e d in b ra /

Japan

Brazil

Hilton

/c^a'paen/

/b r a 'z il/

/'hiltan /

Avis

Coca Cola

Virgin

/'e iv is /

/kauka'kaula/

/'V 3 :d 3 in /

Microsoft

Paul McCartney

Obama

/'m aikrasoft/

/ pDil m a'kaitni/

/au'b a:m a/

Shakespeare

Beethoven

Mandela

/'Je iksp ia /

/ ‘b e ith a u v a n /

/m aen'dela/

* Heathrow is subject to stress-shift: Heathrow Airport: /'h i:0 ra u 'eapDit/

---- J

CHAPTER TWO • SOUNDS

Listening for numbers

1 How old is he? 14./40. 2 When’s your birthday? July the 13th. / July the 30th.

Track 49

Proposal Practice in identifying potentially confusing numbers. Duration Q Q>

Difficulty ^

Preparation

Make copies of the handout opposite. Procedure

_ Distribute the handout at the top of Column 2 and explain to the learners that they will hear the first line of each exchange plus one of the alternative responses; they should mark which response they hear. > If you think the learners might find this activity difficult, before you play the recording you could write on the board: 14 40 July the 13th July the 30th 180 miles 190 miles the 13th of October the 30th of October number 20, too number 22 1718 1719 1517 1570 89 8 or 9 4 to 5 years 45 years 400 years for a hundred years Say one item of each pair. (You should pronounce 1718, 1719,1517,1570 as years: ‘seventeen eighteen’, etc.) o The learners raise their left hand if they hear the lefthand item. o The learners raise their right hand if they hear the right-hand item. Give as much practice as needed, avoiding the temptation to exaggerate your pronunciation to make it easy. , Play the recording (Track 49). Circulate and check. > If they find it difficult or choose a lot of wrong answers, let them work through to the end and then play the recording again for a second chance. J Check the answers, playing the items one by one. Prolongation

The learners work in pairs, taking turns using the handout: o Learner A starts with the first part of one of the exchanges, o Learner B chooses one of the responses, o Learner A points to the response they hear.

3 How far is it? 180 miles. / 190 miles. 4 When does the course start? The 13th of October. / The 30th of October. 5 I ’ve done number 21. Have you done number 20, too? / Have you done number 22? 6 When was the house built? 1718. /1719. 7 When was the university founded? 1517./1570. 8 How many people have enrolled? 8 or 9. / 89. 9 When did they buy the house? 4 to 5 years ago. / 45 years ago. 10 How long did the empire last? For a hundred years. / 400 years.

Track 49

1 How old is he? 40.

2

When’s your birthday? July the 13th

3 How far is it? 180 miles. 4 When does the course start? The 30th of October. 5 I’ve done number 21. Have you done number 20, too? 6 When was the house built? 1719. 7 When was the university founded? 1570. 8 How many people have enrolled? 8 or 9. 9 When did they buy the house? 45 years ago. 10 How long did the empire last? For a hundred years.

____ _____________________________________________I

PS The difference between teens and tens (eg 13 and 30) is notoriously difficult to hear. Other numbers can also be hard to recognise. For example: .. an(d)_eighty’ / ‘... an(d) ninety’ ‘too’ can be confused with ‘two’ ‘eight_or’ (weak form of‘or’) / ‘eighty’ ‘six to’ (weak form of‘to’) / ‘sixty’ 67

A, B, C, D, Easy Proposal

Chapter Three Sounds and spelling

To establish the pronunciation of the names of the letters of the alphabet - for a class who more or less know the order of the alphabet and have some familiarity with the English pronunciation of the letters. Duration Q

Difficulty J )

Page

A, B, C, D, Easy A, B, C A phonemic word race Vowels and diphthongs Phonemic DIY Sounds maze Deciphering a transcription Homophones dictation Homophones matching Odd homophone out Initial ‘a’ How many syllables? Tough enough Read or read? Sounds search Rhyming sounds Rhymes in phrases

68 69 70 70 71 72 73 74 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 80 81

CD Tracks 50-52 Pronouncing abbreviations 53 Starring schwa

82 84

Procedure

Write the letter A on the board and elicit its pronunciation. It’s quite possible that the learners will suggest something like /a / or /a:/, in which case you will need to supply the correct version: leil. O Continue with: B - writing it next to A in a new column. C - writing it vertically below B. D - writing it vertically below C. E - writing it vertically below D. F - writing it next to B in a new column. O Continue through the alphabet, eliciting each letter, correcting pronunciation as necessary and asking the learners where it should be written: o If they are slow to recognise the system behind the emerging layout, help them by asking them to pronounce the vertical column: B C D E ... o If necessary, point out that all these letters contain the sound l\:l, and that all the letters in each column should contain the same sound. O The completed alphabet chart should be as in the illustration below: o The letter Z appears twice because it is pronounced /zed / in British English and /zi: / in American English, o The printed form of W looks like a double V; the name ‘double U’ relates to the way it is commonly handwritten. O

/ e i/

A H J

K

/ i:/ B

C

D E G P

T

V z

68

lei

lail

/au /

F L M N S

1 Y

O

X

z

/ ju : / Q U W

CHAPTER THREE • SOUNDS AND SPELLING

A, B, C, D, Easy

A, B, C

Prolongation

Proposal

1 You can provide various kinds of practice: o Say names of letters at random and invite the learners to come to the board and point to them, o Point to letters at random and ask the learners to say them. o Spell familiar words, eg H O U S E, and ask the learners to say them. o Say familiar words and ask the learners to spell them out loud. o Say a letter and ask the learners to say the next letter (if you say G, they should say H) or the previous letter (if you say V, they should say U). 2 You can ask the learners to think of words which sound like letters of the alphabet. For example: B C I O P Q R T U Y (be/bee see/sea I/eye oh pea queue are tea you why) 3 You can ask them to pronounce abbreviations they are familiar with. For example: DJ TV See also Pronouncing abbreviations (page 82). 4 You can make a version of the alphabet chart for permanent display in the classroom. The learners might also like to make their own personal charts. 5 If you introduce a new word orally, you can dictate the spelling to the class, and ask one learner to come and write it on the board as a check. If your learners’ LI is written in the Roman alphabet, make sure you know how their letters are pronounced - this will help you to know where confusions are likely to arise. For example, in many languages, I is pronounced something like English E, and A is pronounced roughly like English R, etc. PS

To establish the pronunciation of the alphabet - for a class who are relatively unfamiliar with the Roman alphabet. Duration Q

Difficulty Q

Procedure

Q Present the alphabet chart in its completed form (see page 68) but without the column headings. Give the learners practice in pronouncing the letters in each column in turn, eliciting what the letters in each column have in common. Q Add the column headings before moving on to random practice - see the Prolongation of A, B, C, D, Easy. Learners who are not familiar with the alphabet will also need to learn the conventional order of the letters from A to Z - to use dictionaries and other reference works. o You can familiarise them with both the order and the pronunciation of the letters by practising in a circle, if feasible, or along the rows of the classroom: Learner 1 says A, Learner 2 says B, Learner 3 says C ... O You can display the alphabet on a long strip of card or paper stuck along the top of the board, or on one of the classroom walls: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ o You can display each letter on a separate card, in the correct order. As the class become increasingly familiar with the letters, you can remove some of the cards before they come into the classroom: o One day, they might see: ABCD FGHI J L M N O P Q R TUVWXYZ o Another day: ABC E F G H J KL M O P Q R S T V WX Z They have to say what - and where - the missing letters are. O You can change the order of some of the letters before a lesson, so that the learners see, for example: ABSDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRCTUVWXYZ If they don’t notice anything wrong, prompt them to look more carefully. O You can gradually remove letters one by one, day by day: o After a few weeks, the learners might see: A CD FG JK M N P STU W Y o Or even: ACDFGJKMNPSTUWY They have to recite the whole alphabet in the correct order.

o

Prolongation

See the options in A, B, C, D, Easy. 69

CHAPTER THREE • SOUNDS AND SPELLING

A phonemic word race

Vowels and diphthongs

Proposal

Proposal

Focusing the learners’ attention on the relationships between sounds and spelling. _ , Duration Q Difficulty }

To focus learners’ attention on the relationships between sounds and spelling and help them to recognise sound-spelling patterns. Duration

Q

Difficulty

Q

Procedure

j ,

.. Q

Ask the learners to work in pairs or groups of three, and ask each pair or group to choose a ‘scribe’. Set a time limit, ideally fairly short (eg five minutes), as the activity is intended to be a race. Write a phoneme on the board, eg /ae/. • The learners think of as many words containing this sound as they can in the time available. • The scribes write down the words for their group. When the time is up, the pair or group with the largest number of correct words is awarded a point. Continue with other sounds. Prolongation

The learners can work in pairs and think of sentences containing two or more of the words in their list. They read their sentences aloud to the class. Make sure they pronounce the target sound accurately.

Preparation

Prepare a set of the twelve vowel sounds and the eight diphthongs on small pieces of card for each group of four learners. Procedure

j Ask the learners to work in groups of four. O Give each group a set of cards and ask them to place the cards face down on the desk or table in front of them. Ask them to decide who will begin the activity: • The first learner should turn over the first card and make a word containing the vowel or diphthong sound on their card. • Tell them that the sound can occur at the beginning of the word, in the middle or at the end. • The learner gets a point if the other members of the group agree that the word is correct O Continue until all the cards have been used. j Monitor while they are playing the game, and intervene if there is a disagreement about whether a particular word is correct or not. Prolongation

If the learners make a note of all the words they create during the game, they could then practise making sentences with them.

70

CHAPTER THREE • SOUNDS AND SPELLING

Phonemic DIY Proposal To develop awareness of English syllable structure and of links between pronunciation and spelling. Duration

Difficulty w v

Prolongation

Preparation

You will need to prepare a three-column box such as in the examples below, which can be drawn or projected onto the board, or photocopied as a handout. Procedure

Q Ask the learners to construct words by taking sounds from Boxes 1+2,2+3, or 1+2+3. (You could also set this as three separate tasks.) j The learners can use any number of sounds from boxes 1 to 3, in any order. If necessary, give them examples to get them started. For example: Is/ from Box 1 + I\: I from Box 2 makes sea or see. IrJ from Box 2 + It/ from Box 3 makes eat. /pi and /I/ from Box 1 + l\:l from Box 2 + /z/ from Box 3 makes please. The learners should write the words they construct in phonemic script and normal orthography. O They can check their words by coming up and writing them on the board. > Example 1 Box 1 f

t

s

p

I d3

Box 3

Box 2 r

i:

I

z

n t

Example 2 Box 1

--— ...... ................ --- H n

s

I

r b

t

Box 2 3U

Box 3 I

z

n

d

0

t

You could obviously turn this activity into a competitive team game, with a points system for correct/incorrect words and spellings. The activity may highlight consonant clusters that learners find difficult to pronounce. If they have trouble, for example, with /st-/ in stone, stole, etc, you might want to provide some extra practice of other words with this cluster. This activity puts a number of demands on learners: recognising phonemic symbols o deciding which initial and final consonant clusters occur in English o recalling known vocabulary o matching their auditory images of words they know with sequences of phonemic symbols It’s quite possible that they will come up with words they don’t actually know. Such words can be evaluated in terms of: o whether they do actually exist; o whether they are likely potential English words and, if so, whether the spelling which the learners have invented is plausible or not. For example: o / li: t / is an actual word, although a rare one. The spelling is leat,; though leet would also be a reasonable suggestion, o /d 3 i:t/, on the other hand, is not an actual word, although it sounds as if it could be, whereas /fs iil/ doesn’t sound like a potential English word at all. The number of sounds in each column can be varied; you could have just two or three consonants in Column 1, for example, or two vowels in Column 2. By trying out various possibilities yourself, you will be able to judge which prompts will be fruitful for the class you have in mind. PS

o

Example 1 yields the following words, plus others: fee sea see seal seals seen scene scenes seat steal steel steals pea peel peels please tea feet feel feels lean leans eel eels ease eat tree trees jeans

71

CHAPTER THREE • SOUNDS AND SPELLING

Sounds maze Proposal Recognising phonemic symbols and the relationships between sounds and spelling. Duration Q

Sounds maze fo r countries b

tj

ai

b

a

d

i:

e *

d

n

d

Dl

d3

f

1

1

b

tj

n

n

i

A

z

1

A

e

d

f

A

z

e

r

e:

A

a:

1

d3

1

n

ei

i

z

a

n

A

P

b

d

z

1

d

t

n

i:

g

e

a

b

e

e

w

d

i

n

n

d:

w

ei

s

n

tj

o:

z

d

g

di

z

1

A

s

P

au

1

a

n

d

A

di

e

d:

n

d3

g

r

i:

s

b

a

Difficulty Q

Preparation

Prepare one Sounds maze handout per pair of learners (see the example opposite). Conceal six to eight words in the maze that are lexically linked (eg professions, names of countries, sports, etc). Procedure

O Ask the learners to work in pairs and give each pair a

copy of the ‘Sounds maze’. O Tell them that, for example, the names of eight countries are hidden in the maze: o They may be horizontal or vertical, o They may be from left to right, o They may be from top to bottom o They may be from bottom to top. O To make the activity a little easier for the learners, give them a list of the words they are searching for in ordinary script. You can either dictate these or write them on the board. O The first pair to discover all the words are the winners.

KEY Example of a Sounds maze sheet (countries)

b

t/

ai

n

a

b

d

i:

e

d:

d

n

d

Dl

d3

f

I

d3

1

n

1

b

tJ

n

n

i

ei

i

z

a

A

z

1

A

e

n

A

P

b

d

d

f

A

z

1

d

t

n

i:

r

e:

9

e

a

b

e

a:

d

1

n

n

Dl

w

ei

s

d

g

DI

z

1

Prolongation

Once learners are sufficiently familiar with phonemic symbols, they can make their own sound mazes to exchange with each other. They should use a dictionary to check the accuracy of their transcriptions.

A

Dl

n

72

n

w

A

s

P

au

1

0

n

d

A

Dl

0

DI

n

d3

g

r

i:

s

b

A

/tja in a / China

/ r o iw e i/ Norway

/fra in s / France

/i:d 3ip t / Egypt;

/fin la n d / Finland

/s w iid a n / Sweden

/p a u la n d / Poland

/g r iis / Greece

1

CHAPTER THREE • SOUNDS AND SPELLING

Deciphering a transcription Proposal To practise reading phonemic symbols. Duration 3

Difficulty Q Q

Preparation

You will need a text transcribed into phonemic symbols see the example in the box opposite. (See also the comment in the Postscript.) Make copies of the text and of the original version in normal orthography. Procedure

Q Hand out the phonemic text and ask the learners to convert it into normal spelling, adding the necessary punctuation. o Point out that phonemic transcription doesn’t show hyphens, commas, full stops, capital letters, etc. o Be prepared to help out if they are having trouble. O When the learners have done this more or less successfully, hand out the Key: o They check. o They focus particularly on any mistakes they might have made. O You all discuss why they made them.

in 'sw iidan a 'hAndrad and b : jia r auld maen set a 're lo id wen hi: bi'ke im