Successful Pronunciation Learning

8/4/2019 Successful Pronunciation Learning

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University of OxfordSeminar for English Language Teachers 2007

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Course: Successful pronunciation learning

Adrian Underhill

Making pronunciation physicalOne of my aims in teaching pronunciation is to get pronunciation work "out of the head andinto the body", to make pronunciation a physical as well as a cognitive activity. First I helplearners to stop thinking about pronunciation in the abstract by focussing them on themuscles that produce sound, rhythm and articulation. I use a number of simple activities thatdo this, some of which I will demonstrate today (and see activity 3 below). Then I engagetheir minds in sensing physically what their muscles are doing, in order to become aware of

the total interaction between muscle movement, sound production and aural perception.There is a parallel here between this kind of pronunciation work and coaching in sport,athletics or dance.

Pronunciation (and articulation generally) can be said to represent the physical aspect oflanguage because it is the muscular amplification of a minute impulse in the brain into aspoken utterance that vibrates the air. It is a sophisticated and subtle physical activity.Looking at it this way suggests different ways of studying it. It seems to me that thetraditional or mainstream way of approaching pronunciation teaching and learning easilybecomes cerebral and disconnected form the body, resulting in approaches that are eithertoo academic (theoretical rather than experiential) or too much based on habit formation(leading to unaware repetition of ‘correctness’ at the expense of insight, curiosity,

awareness).

There are a number of advantages to a physical approach:1. Activities that encourage conscious contact with articulatory muscles give learners a wayof intervening in their own pronunciation. They find there are quite systematic things theycan do to change the way they say a sound or stress a syllable once they start to becomeaware of how to contact the muscles that make the difference. Exploring muscles in this wayis not new, since everyone did this as a baby when learning their first language.

2. Muscles move, and movement can be visible. Deaf people in every language can lip-readby watching the sequence of muscular movements when their friends speak. In fact themuscular movements of pronunciation cannot be heard at all, it is only their effect on the

vibrating air stream that can be heard. This means that there is a great deal of articulationinformation that is visually available only. Imagine trying to learn T'ai Ch'i or gymnastics orfootball only by listening to the movement of the muscles of the demonstrator! You have tosee it with your eyes to inform your muscles). As soon as we realise this we can introducethe visible aspect to pronunciation work.

3. The movement of muscles yields an internal sensation, or feeling of movement, throughthe nerves in the tissue connected with the movement. Registering this internal sensationprovides another "fix" on what is happening, that can feed the awareness of the learner.

So, in addition to hearing sounds with the ear, we can see movements with the eye and alsofeel movements through the internal sensation of muscles. And by adding this focus on themuscles we provide the learner with a more concrete point of intervention, and a richer web




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of information feeding back into the awareness of the learner, helping to promote consciouschoices. And we begin to make better use of muscular memory.Here are some examples of these ideas in practice:

Activity 1. Example of working with what is visibleI can give models of individual phonemes (and later of words and short phrases) by miming

them rather than by saying them. When I mime I make the muscular movements associatedwith the sound, but without actually voicing the sound. Thus the students have to use theireyes, and their eyes inform their ‘inner ears’ as they try to create an internal impression ofthe sound they have 'seen', and also they have to use their muscles as I invite them to saythe sound they have seen and 'heard'. They say their approximation of the sound aloud, andI invite them to listen to the differences between each person's attempt, in which I take a realinterest myself. Then I indicate those student responses which were nearer to my (albeitsilent) model, and the students listen to those in particular. Miming is a personal preferenceof mine and I encourage others to try it, but it does not necessarily suit the teaching style ofall teachers, so here is another way using an audible model.

Activity 2. Working with an audible modelThis gains in precision from the supporting work with the visual, the tactile and the muscularthat I have just been describing. When I give a spoken model (whether of a sound, a word,or a phrase) I try to go against two of the legacies of behaviourism. First I try to say themodel only once, rather than repeating it several times, and second I leave two or threeseconds of silence for the students to consciously process the sound they have heard, bylistening to it with their inner ear. Here is an example:

I give the model, let's say it's the vowel phoneme /e/. I say it once, clearly, making sure theysee my mouth movement as well as hear the sound. I gesture that they be silent for amoment, and that they try to keep hearing the sound, in my voice, internally in their innerear. Then I ask them to say the sound aloud, as similar to mine as they can. Again I ask

them to listen to each other and to notice the differences. Then if they need to hear thesound again I say it, once only. Giving a model only once carries a more positive messagethan repeating it several times, and it also makes the students more alert, which seems tomake them more engaged. My aim is to see what they can do with one model, then if theyneed another I will give it.

This activity becomes quite natural to them since I often ask them to hold sounds andsentences in their heads and to "replay" these sounds and sentences in their inner ear. Thisnatural but under-used human capacity develops very quickly, and becomes a powerful ally,not only in pronunciation learning, but in many aspects of listening, speaking, grammar andvocabulary practice.

.Activity 3. Example of working with what is tactileWhen working with monophthong vowels, I take such front and back vowels as the learnerscan already manage, and help them to do a series of simple but powerful awareness raisingactivities. First I ask them to glide between /i:/ and /u:/ like this /i: i: i: i: ...... u: u: u: u: ...... i: i:i: i: ...... u: u: u: u:/. When this is more or less established I ask them to put the tip of thethumb on one corner of the mouth and the tip of the forefinger on the other corner. Andagain they make this glide back and forth. This gives them tactile feedback on the movementof the lips between the spread and the rounded position. Then I ask them to touch theforefinger to the front of the lips, and again make the glide. This time they get the sensationof the lips moving back (spread) and forward (rounded). Then, still with the same pair ofsounds I ask them to touch the tip of the tongue (with finger or pen) while in the / i: / position

and then to slide to the /u:/ position but without losing contact with the tongue. In addition to




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the laughter this causes, this gives them the sensation of the tongue moving forward andbackwards in the mouth.

Later I establish a pair of high-low sounds such as /i:/ and /a/ and in the same way help themto slide between the two. This time I ask them to place the forefinger on the bridge of thenose and the thumb on the point of the chin. As they slide between these sounds they get

tactile confirmation that the jaw opens and closes, and that this movement is sufficient toproduce a range of perceptibly different sounds.

From these four exercises they begin to discover for themselves that movement of tongue,lips and jaw enables them to make a whole range of perceptibly different sounds. In factthese simple awarenesses, or internal connections, form the basis of the toolkit that willenable them to make and gradually learn all the sounds of the new language, as well as thecharacteristic simplifications, reductions and energy distributions of connected speech.

Using a phonemic chartThe phonemic chart I use shows all the phonemes of the target language, and the layoutpresents the symbols in a significant visual/spatial relationship to each other. Built into thisdesign are references and indications as to how and where each sound is produced andmany other clues that help learners to recognise, correct and recall sounds. Each symbolhas its own box which can be seen as containing all the allophones of that sound. Soundsare selected for attention by simply touching them with a pointer. Many people havedesigned such charts, and you can use any of them. I will just say that the SoundFoundations chart has information about manner and place of articulation built into it, as wellas a clarity of visual presentation, that may help the learning process.

The aim of using the chart is:1. To provide learners with a map of the sound system of the target language. Such a soundmap can be used to identify sounds that the student has already explored, or knows well,

and it can be used to identify sounds that the student has not yet explored or is uncertainabout.

2. To see all the sounds of the target language in one visual sweep. To reinforce themessage that for practical purposes the number of different sounds is limited. ("The whole ofthe spoken language is here on this chart!")

3. To provide a permanent reference. The chart is always visible at the front of theclassroom, and can be referred to at any time in any lesson. Not only can the chart be usedfor pronunciation work such as changing and correcting sounds, syllable stress, linking inconnected speech, comparing sound and spelling, (spelling problems are affected when thepronunciation is not right in the first place), but it also has more general classroom

applications such as correcting word endings and syntactical features, introducing newvocabulary, providing prompts silently by pointing instead of by speaking, and so on).

4. To learn sounds not symbols. The aim of this approach is to enable learners toexperience sounds and sound sequences in a physical and vivid way, and to use thesymbols as memory hooks that can trigger that auditory and physical experience. Once youhave the sound it is very easy to link it to the symbol, and then to 'acquire' the symbol itself,and then be free to use dictionaries to discover and check pronunciations and stresspatterns.

5. I suggest that phonemic symbols do not represent absolute sound qualities of any sound,but the temporary sound that teacher or course materials attribute to it, including the accents

of different native and non-native speakers. The chart shows each phoneme in a box, and




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you can imagine that the box contains all the variations (or allophones) of that sound that arefor the moment acceptable.

Three levels of pronunciationThe first level involves work with individual sounds. At the second level we string the soundstogether into words, adding the distinctive energy profile called word stress. At the third level

we string words into connected speech, adding the energy distribution of the simplificationsand reductions of connected speech, the prominent stresses chosen by the speaker toconvey their meaning, and the intonation that is carried on top of this. All three levels areavailable at any time in the classroom according to the nature of the work that needs to bedone. In this way the chart can be used as a kind of screen onto which we can project anypiece of class work, focussing on its pronunciation content, in the very moment that aquestion or problem arises. The chart thus replaces the usual kinds of pronunciationmaterials in favour of the live and spontaneous context in which the problem has arisen,made accessible by the use of the chart.

Behind the teacher's set of technical facilities lies the teacher's set of psychological attitudesthat can help or hinder the work in hand. Here are some of the questions that I like to keepasking myself while I am working with pronunciation: Can I respond to classroom events in aspontaneous rather than a routine way? Can I work with the student from where she is, sothat her mistake becomes our starting point? Can I be intrigued and curious about what mayhappen, and then delighted by what does happen - whatever it is? Can I be "a student oflearning" even while I am teaching? Can I be on the same side of the learning fence as thelearners themselves, so that while they are learning the topic I am learning about theirlearning?

When the class is working with such vivid and engaging activities as those I have described,and when the teacher is conducting those activities in an inquiring manner and with theattitudes implied in the last paragraph, my experience is that learning becomes a joyful

expression of each person’s natural capacity to learn, and their natural capacity to bedelighted by the experience of learning! Three reminders I like to give myself are: MakePhonology Tangible; Find Phonology Everywhere; Phonology Supports Everything.

Adrian Underhill

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Successful Pronunciation Learning