Towards

Better English Pronunciation

Objectives:

Participants will be able to: define the main features of good pronunciation, Improve their implementation of the English sounds

system, Identify problems of English sounds, Select and implement teaching techniques to teach

good pronunciation, Demonstrate recognition/production drills with

problem sounds, Implement appropriate pronunciation correction

techniques.

Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics Phonology

Language independent

Study of all soundsPhonetic is different to Phonology in matter that it is

the production of sounds.

Language dependent

Phonology is a subset of phonetics.Phonology, in the other hand refers to the sound systems of a language

Phonemics: narrow study of sounds

Phonetics: broad study of sounds

What is Phonetics?

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds. Articulatory phonetics – how speech sounds

are produced Acoustic phonetics – the transmission and

physical properties of speech sounds Auditory phonetics – perception of speech

sounds Phonetic transcriptions – one sound = one

symbol.

Why do I need to learn Why do I need to learn Phonetics?Phonetics? Phonetics increases your knowledge

in matters of pronunciation. By knowing how languages are

produced you can better your pronunciation.

It facilitates the acquisition of new words.

It helps you to read the dictionary using the correct sounds inscripted in the words.

Task Sheet 1

What are the main features of good Pronunciation?

Features of good Pronunciation

Correct articulation of speech sounds.

Correct stress.

Correct intonation.

Proper pauses.

Task Sheet 2

Why should teachers know how sounds are made?

Can pronunciation written down? What is the term used for written

pronunciation? Do teachers need to know how to read

“written pronunciation”? Why?

Task Sheet 3

Do your teachers/students have pronunciation problems?

What difficulties do they have? What are their problematic English

sounds?

Vowels Diphthongs Consonants

The Points of Articulation

11

22

44

33

66

99

1111

77

1010

55

88

1212

1313

1.1. Nasal CavityNasal Cavity

2.2. Oral CavityOral Cavity

3.3. LipsLips

4.4. TeethTeeth

5.5. Alveolar ridgeAlveolar ridge

6.6. Hard palateHard palate

7.7. Soft palateSoft palate

8.8. Tip of the Tip of the tonguetongue

9.9. Blade of the Blade of the tonguetongue

10.10. Back of the Back of the tonguetongue

11.11. EpiglottisEpiglottis

12.12. Vocal foldsVocal folds

13.13. PharinxPharinx

The Articulators

You should know:

Segmental (vowels – diphthongs – consonants )

Suprasegmental

( Intonation – Stress – Length)

word sentence

Segmental

Individual sounds

Includes tongue height and advancement, manner and place of articulation, lip rounding, etc.

Can be identified by viewing a single segment

Suprasegmental

Supra- means ‘over’ or ‘above’ These are things that “ride on top of”

individual sounds Include length, intonation, tone, and stress Almost impossible to identify in single

segment

Suprasegmentals ! What are those? Length

High vowels shorter than low vowels Voiceless consonants longer than voiced consonants Voiceless fricatives longest Length is influenced by the surrounding sounds

Tone Can change meaning in some languages (like Chinese)

Stress Stressed syllables more prominent than unstressed

ones Stressed syllables usually contain tense vowels Stressed syllables are often longer Unstressed syllables reduce vowel

Intonation Rising and falling intonation can change meaning

Segmentals ! What are those?

Vowels

Vowels are all made in the mouth (place), with little or no air flow constriction (manner) and are always voiced in English

So the system that describes vowels does so in terms 3 characteristics: tongue placement tongue height lip rounding

Diphthongs

Smooth glide from one vowel position to another as /au/ in now also made up of 2 vowels as /ou/, /oi/

Major /aɪ/ /ɔɪ/ /aʊ/

Minor (if at all) /eɪ/ /oʊ/

Consonants

The descriptions of the sounds we call consonants are based on the human articulatory system (lungs to pump air in and out, vocal folds, oral cavity including tongue and lips, and nasal cavity).

Consonants are described using 3 characteristics: vocal quality (voiced/voiceless) point of articulation manner of articulation النطق

How to distinguish phonemes?

Place of articulationEx. /p/ VS /t/

pop VS top Manner of articulation

Ex. /b/ VS /m/Bob VS mob

VoicingEx. /s/ VS /z/

Sue VS zoo

Minimal Pairs and Minimal SetsMinimal Pairs and Minimal Sets

Sometimes listening activities are complicated because of the minimal pairs. MPs are two word that just differ in one phoneme. Some of them are very similar in pronunciation and context helps a lot to identify what word they are referring to:

Sheep-ship Sheet-shit Bet-bat Soup-soap

Minimal Pairs and Minimal SetsMinimal Pairs and Minimal Sets

A minimal set is a group of words that can be differentiated by changing one phoneme.

Feat, fit, fat, fate, fought, foot. Big, pig, rig, gig, dig, wig

Minimal Pairs

A pair of words that differ by just one phoneme in the same position and have different

meanings.

Ex. sip VS zip

Important Rules

Nouns and adjectives of 2 syllables usually have the stress on the first syllable.

As: father, happy, window ,children, yellow, lovely

Verbs of 2 syllables usually have the stress on the second syllable.

As:suggest , invite , reply , prepare , decide , agree

Words borrowed from other languages usually have the stress on the last syllable.

As:cassette , shampoo , degree , refugee Words with many syllables usually have the

stress on the syllable before the last.

As: information , accommodation , photographic ,terrific

Nouns usually have the stress on the first syllable

Verbs usually have the stress on the second syllable

There are many exceptions to all these guidelines.

A very common exception is report

,it is the same in both the noun and verb form and the stress is on the second part , result is another exception.

Nouns: record , object , produce , import

Verbs: record , object , produce , import