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T h e P r o n u n c ia t io n B o o k

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a c t i v i t i e s

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p r o n u n c i a t i o n

w o r k

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Index of activities

ACTIVITY LEVEL FOCUS

1 THE BASICS 1.1 The pronunciationteacher's tool kit

n/a What the teacher needs

1.2 Teaching sounds n/a Teacher awareness

1.3 Pronunciation indictionaries

Any Using dictionaries as a pronunciationresource

1.4 Opportunities for pronunciation workin grammaticallyand functionallyorientated lessons

Any Attention to pronunciation in non pronunciation or ient ated l es sons

1.6 Using dialogues Any Pronunciation foc us through dialogues

1.6 Using written texts Elementary + Relationships between spoken andwritten fo rms of English

2 THE BEGINNINGS

OF AWARENESS 2.1Pronunciationquestionnaire Any Awareness of the scope and importanceof pronunciation

2.2 Radio dial Pre-beginner Awareness of general features ofEnglish pronunciation

23 Comparing sounds Beginner + Sensitising learners to differences in thesound of their mo ther tongue andEnglish

2.4 Bilingual minimal pairs Any Aw areness of wh at is involved inlearning th e ac cen t of a foreign language

2 5 Finding missingvowels

Any Articulating new vowe ls

2 6 Throwing a phoneme Beginner + Producing sound s

2 7 Vowel chanting Any Recognising and producing long vowelsounds; Developing confidence andgroup trust ; Lowering inhibitions

28 Introducing syllables Beginner +Introducing the c oncep t of the syllable

\

3 LEARNING THE

INVENTORY OF

3.1 Exploiting the phonemic chart

Beginner + Familiarising learners with the co nten tand layout of the p honem ic chart

SOUNDS 3.2 Phonem e exchange Beg inner + Warming up; Pronouncing phonemicsymbols

33 User-friendly tonguetwisters

Any Producing difficult sounds

3.4 /h/ throughwhispering

Any k

3.5 Test the teacher Any Sound contrasts; Any aspec t of pronunciation

3.6 Finding missingsounds: Usingvoicing

Any Producing the 'missing' mem ber of avoiced/vo iceless fricative pair

3.7 Odd one out Elementary + Discriminating b etw een similar soun ds33 Sounds hangman Beginner + Recognising and producing individual

soun ds and combinations of sounds inwords

3 .9 Guess the phoneme Beginner + Producing individual sou nds

3 10i Initial 'A* Beginner + Different way s of pronouncing ‘a’ ininitial pos ition

3.11 Soundsdiscriminationexercise

Beginner + Recognising minimal difference s betwee n individual pho ne mes

V I




3.12 Sounds vocabulary ; Elementary* Pronouncing known vocabularygame

3.13 Sounds anagramrace

3.14 Sounds bingo

Elementary*

Beginner +

Recognising sounds; Combiningsounds into words

Recognising sounds

r SPELLING TO

SOUND AND

BACK AGAIN

4.1 Sounds maze Beginner * Recognising phonemic symbols;Relationships between sounds andspelling

4.2 Phonemic snap Beginner ♦ Relationships between sounds andspelling; Practice in the pronunciation of

sounds in words

4.3 Rhyming sounds Elementary * Links between sounds and speUmg.Recognising sound/spefing patterns

4.4 Ongoing vocabularyrecord

Any Relationships between pronunciationand spelling

4.5 Sounds search Beginner* Recognising individual sounds andrelating sounds to spe&ng

4.6 Sounds scrabble Elementary* Relationships between sounds andspelling

4.7 Using sounds forword building

Elementary * Relationships between sounds andspeSng

4.8 Sounds crosswords Elementary* Relationships between sounds andspelling

4.9 Phonemic word race Beginner*. Relationships between sounds andspettng

S SOUNDS IN

| SEQUENCE5.1 Assimilation

awareness exerciseElementary* Awareness of featue s or connected

speech

52 Producing weakforms

Elementary * Producing weak forms

5.3 Using listeningmaterial

Beginner* Stressed syllables and weak forms

5.4 How many words7 Elementary* interpreting sounds in fast coikx^ralspeech

5.5 Connected speechdictation

Elementary * Sensitising learners to assarxtaoon andelision; Changes in the pronunoabon of

some words n connected speech5.6 Completing limericks Beginner* Rhythm, syllable reduction and rhyme

6 WORD STRESS 6.1 Introducing wordstress

Beginner * Introducing the concept of stress

6.2 Stress patterns Beginner* Word stress patterns in Engfish

6.3 Word s tressawareness exercise

Elementary* Recognising and producing correctstress placement

6 4 Guess the stress Any Predicting word stress

6 5 Stress matchinggame

Elementary* Accurate stress placement

6 6 Vocabulary revision Any Pronunciation as a ewe for recalling andcategorising vocabulary items

67 Moving stress in phrases

Elementary ♦ Stress variations according a h e position of a word m a pmase

6 8 Stress in compounds/two-wordexpressions

Beginner + Stress patterns in compounds and two/multi-word expressions




7 TONE GROUPS.

RHYTHM AND

INTONATION

7 1

72

Tonic prominencerecognition exercise

Tonic prominence production exercise

Elementary +

Elementary +

The function of tonic prominence

Placing tonic prominence according tointended meaning

72 Twenly questions to• drawing

Elementary + Contrastive intonation

7.4 Ido Elementary + Assigning tonic prominence according todiscourse conditions

75 Correct the teacher Elementary + Assigning tonic prominence according todiscourse conditions

7.6 Create your ownverse form

Lower intermediate +

Rhythmic structures

7.7 Metronome Any Rhythm and compression of unstressedsyllables

7.8 Shadowing Elementary + All aspects of pronunciation

7.0 Video viewing Elementary + Awareness of body language as a wayinto stress end rhythm

7.10 Pronunciation role play

Elementary + Differences between the pronunciationof English and that of the mother tongueabove the level of individual sounds

• TROUBLE 81 Problems with M Any Ideas for working on M/SHOOTING 82 M for M Any Avoiding /w/

83 A//p/confusion Any Awareness of where the sounds are produced

84 Insenion of/e/beforeconsonant clusters

Any Removing intrusive/e/

85 /p/AV confusion Any The question of voicing '

86 ft/ pronounced as /dt J Any Using f\ -J to arrive at ftl 87 Initial/h/ Any Getting louder 88 Intrusive AV Any Through /j/ to /h/

89 Problems with /6/and AY

Any Tongue and teeth

810 Dental A/and/d/ Any Moving the tip of the tongue back 811 Intrusive la/ in final

positionAny Holding the final fricative

8.12 Incorrect stress patterns

Any Awareness of what makes a stressedsyllable

viii



Introduction

The Pronunciat ion Book I s a imed a t t hose t eacher s who wish to

incorpora te more (o r pe rhaps some) p ronunc ia t ion work in to the i r

general Engl ish teaching. I t wil l be of use to a l l teac hers of Engl ish who

fee l t he n eed bo th to inc rease the i r own r eper to i re o f p ronunc ia t ion

teach ing t echn ique s and s t r a t eg ies , and to deve lop the i r own aw are

nes s of and s ensi t iv i ty tow ards asp ec ts of Engl ish pronun ciat ion. I t will

be s u it a b le fo r th o s e tea c h in g d if fe re n t levels of le a rn e rs f ro m b eg in ner

to advance d a nd w i ll be o f use to tho se t each ing younger l ea rner s as

well a s adu l t s . The book wi ll a l so benef i t t eacher s jus t en te r ing the

p ro fessio n , a s it c o v e rs b a s ic a re a s of s o u n d re cogn it io n a n d p ro d u c

t ion. As such , i t wil l a lso b e a valuable so urc e of teach ing m ater ia l for

tu to r s an d par t i c ipan t s on t ea ch er t r a in ing cou r ses ( e .g . t he RSA/

Cam bridge C er t i ficate in TEFLA) for bo th nat ive and non-nat ive speak

ers alike.

CONTENT

The book inc ludes ac t iv i t ie s tha t a r e ba sed on a n um ber o f asp ec t s o f

p ron un c ia ti on : so u n d s , w o rd s tre s s , p ro m in ence , a s p e c ts o f in to na

t ion and f ea tu res o f connec ted sp eech . These a r e g rouped in to eigh t

cha pters . Th e f ir s t deals w i th the b asic factors involved in producing

soun ds and p rov ides a genera l m ethodo logy fo r the t each ing o f sounds .

T h e s e c o n d c h a p t e r c o v e r s t h e p r o m o t i o n of a w a r e n e s s of a s p e c t s o f

p ro n u n c ia ti o n . T h e th ird c h a p te r lo o ks a t w ays in w hic h le a rn e rs can

b e h e lp e d to a c q u ir e an d build o n th e ir o w n in ven to ry of s o u n d s . T he

four th co n ta ins a num ber o f ac t iv it ie s des igned to p rom ote ac t ive

aw arenes s of the relat ion ships b etw een sou nds and spel l ing in English .

The f if th cha p te r i s conc erned w i th sou nds in sequen ce and the e f fec t

on soun ds o f the i r env i ronment in con t inuous spee ch . The s ix th

chap te r dea l s wi th word s t r ess o r accen t , wh il e the se ven th looks a t

asp ects of rhythm and intonat ion. Th e final ch ap ter i s a ‘t rouble

sho ot ing ' chap ter , in w hich possib le solutions are sugg ested for fre

quent ly occurr ing pronunciat ion problems. This i s fol lowed by a

glossary of term s use d in the book, a pronunciat ion table , and a sh or t

b ib li ogra phy of bo oks o n p h o n e ti cs a n d phonolo gy th a t th e a u th o rs

have found useful.

1



AIMS

The book is intended simultaneously to heighten teachers’ (and

learn ers’) aw areness of features of English pronu ncia tion an d to

pro vide a range of practical classroo m ac tivities th at te achers can

easily incorpo rate into lessons of all types. The basic aim of the book

is to enab le teach ers to affect their learners’ pron un ciation in a po sitive

sen se in thre e general ways. Firstly, by increasing th e le arn ers ’ aware

ness of different aspects of pronunciation. Secondly, by helping them

to identify their own particular pronunciation tar gets in wh at (w ithout

this help) might seem a ho peless and limitless task. Finally, by enablinglearn ers to realise that pronun ciation is ne ither ’dull’ n o r ‘difficult’, but

that it can be a pleasurable and stress free pa rt of the language learning

pro cess.

APPLYING THE ACTIVITIES

The activities and pro cedures described and illustrate d in this book

are not intended to be ‘pronunciation lessons’ in themselves. They

could, however, be extended, combined or adapte d to form com plete

pronunciat ion-based lesson s if this seem ed appropri ate . Rath er than

complete lessons, they are pronunciation co mpo ne nts that you canintegrate into oth er lessons. Suggestions are ma de as to why, w here

and how you can use the activities and how you can link them to other,

non-pro nunciation activities. With most of the activities, th er e are also

guidelines for the amou nt of time a particu lar activity might normally

be e xpec ted to take and th e materials th at you will n eed. As far a s th e

language level of th e learners Is concerned, mo st of th e activ ities can

be used at vi rtua lly any level from beginne r to advanced, although

indications of the suitability for particular levels are given at the

beginning of eac h act ivity .

ORIGINS OFTHE BOOK

We have found that many teachers, consciously or unconsciously

avoid teaching pronun ciation b ecause they regard it as ‘difficult’. Bu

when te ach ers try o ut a few simple pronu nciation activities of the kind

included in this book, they are often surprised at the ir effectivenes

and popularity with learners. We hope that the activities and proce

dures described in this book will help many more tea ch ers to become

more confident when dealing with pronunciation in the classroom , and

that the application of these activities and pro ced ures will contribute

to a growing awareness of the role and importance of p ronunciation in

the language learning process as a whole.



INTRODUCT ION

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Adrian Underhill for his inspirational phonemic

cha rt, to the stud en ts of ILC, Hastings, with whom many of the ideas

outlined in this boo k w ere first tr ied out, and to the teachers of Jerez

de la F ron tera, Munich, Stu ttgart, Bratislava and Brno for their helpful

com m ents on the act iv i t ies .

Tim Bowen

Jo nath an Marks

Apri l 1992



C H A P T E R 1

The basics

THE PRONUNCIATION TEACHER'S TOOL KIT

The exercises and activities contained in this book req uire the us e of

a num ber of classroom aids. In som e cases, the se a re available com

mercially, but in others you m ight find th at th e sim plest so lution is to

make your own.

Wa regard the following as essantial:

A phonemic chart

This is a chart o r table showing the 44 phonem es of the variety of

‘standard’ British English that is otherwise known as RP or Received

Pronunciation. In corresponding to a stan dard m odel (RP), such a chart

doe s not include phonetic variations on th e basic 44 ph one m es found

in various British regional accen ts an d oth er v arieties of English. The

type of phonemic cha rt referred to in this book and used a s th e basis

(or many of the activities is not intended as a prescriptive model, but

rathe r as a general structural guideline. One way of using a ch art b ased

on the 44 phonemes of RP English is to regard the centre of each

phon em e square as th e ‘sta ndard’ mod el , while va riations are includ ed

around the centre of the sq uare and, in some cases, may even touch the

edge of the squ are and resemble th e adjoining p honem e ver y closely.

We are both spe akers of non-standard varieties of English and have

never found this to be a barrier to using a phonemic ch art b ase d on RP

or to teaching the sou nds it contains!

The 44 phonemes of English are given, with examples of words in

which they are found, in most lea rners ' dictionaries. The se 44 breakdown into 12 vowel sounds, 8 diphtho ngs and 24 conso nan ts. One of

the most effective ch arts as a teaching aid is Adrian U nderhill’s Sound

Foundations chart, where the position of the phonem es on the chart is

determined by the p lace and m anner of their articulation. A reduced

form of this chart is shown on the opposite page for reference pur

pose s. Copies of th e chart may be obta in ed from Adrian Underhill,

International Language Centre, Palace Court, White Rock, Hastings,

East Sussex, TN34 1JY.

Many teachers like to display a phonem ic chart in their classrooms

and to use it both to help in the teaching of so un ds and to deal with

pronu nciat ion pro blems as th ey ar ise. If, for e xample, a le arner pro

nou nces th e word ‘village’ as V illage’, th e tea ch er might p oin t to the



THE BASICS

p honem e / v / o n th e c h a r t, th e re b y In d ic ati ng to th e le a rn e r w h e re th e

p ro nun cia ti on e rro r li es. In ad d iti o n , th e c h a r t ca n fu n c tio n a s a

‘p ronunc ia tion sy l labus ' fo r the l ea rne rs . I t p rov ides a v i sua l r ep re sen -

ta t ion o f the so und s o f Eng li sh and can thu s he lp them , wi th the a id o f

t h e t e a c h e r , to r e c o g n is e w h i c h s o u n d s t h e y c a n a l r e a d y p r o d u c e w e ll

a n d , m o r e i m p o r t an t ly , t o d e t e rm i n e w h i c h s o u n d s t h e y n e e d t o w o r k

on . As such , a phonem ic cha r t i s a va luab le too l be cau se I t can he lp to

p rov id e th e le a rn e r w it h a fi n it e goal —th e 7 s o u n d s th e y p a r tic u la r ly

need to w ork on , fo r example .

L: I (J lI: i se i

:K ,e a 3: c OcJ 31 9 U

x a a: id e«3 a i a u

P b t L tr d3 K |9

f V 0 a5 S 2 / 1m n 10 *

\ L

r vo I iFig. 1 Sound Foundations chart

U s in g a p h o n e m i c c h a r t p r e s u p p o s e s a n e e d o n t h e p a r t o f b o t h

t e a c h e rs a n d l e a rn e r s t o l e ar n p h o n e m i c s c r i p t . T h e a d v a n t a g e s o fdo ing so a re tha t phonemic sc r ip t p rov ides a conven ien t ( and qu ick )

re fe rence po in t . I t i s a l so much more conc ise than the coun t le s s

spel ling comb ina t ions tha t can rep re sen t the so un ds o f E ng l ish , i t is

a l so a good dea l more sys tema t ic and accu ra te than ‘homemade*

ph one ti c tr an sc r ip ti o n s th a t ta k e th e le arners * m o th e r to n g u e a s th e

model for the soun ds of English. We have gen era l ly found l i t t le re s is t -

ance among lea rne rs to u s ing phonemic sym bo ls , a lthough w e w ou ld



THE PRONUNCIATION BOOK

suggest that teachers need to be sensitive to problems of overload, particularly at lower levels, with learners whose mother tongue usesnon-Roman script. Talking to learners about the importance of good

pronunciation and explaining the function of phonemic symbols andthe phonemic chart is extremely helpful. When it comes to actuallylearning phonemic symbols, we have found it particularly important to

begin by emphasising the fact that these are symbols representing sounds and not letters, /e/, for example, is /e/ as in ‘bed* and not fvj.

We favour a gradual approach, introducing sounds and their sym bols as they arise over a series of lessons, rather than presenting all the

symbols in a single lesson. We typically introduce up to four sounds ina single lesson, beginning with familiar symbols such as /m/, /s / and /p/. We also often introduce sounds in contrasting pairs, where we feel

the difference in sound quality is particularly important(Jbf and /i/, forexample). We try to consolidate use of the phonemic symbols byquickly contextualising sounds into whole words (/six/ and /sit/, forexample), by giving phonemic transcriptions of new vocabulary items,and by encouraging our learners to use monolingual learners' diction

aries (with consistent phonemic pronunciation guides for each word)and to research the pronunciation of new vocabulary items for themselves. We feel it is essential that the learning and use of the symbols

is non-pressurised and that learners should be allowed to acquire the

symbols at a pace which suits them, but with a little help from theteacher! Further ideas for exploiting a phonemic chart are contained in

section 3.1.

A mouth diagram

Like a phonemic chart, a poster-sized mouth diagram is a convenient

and useful teaching aid. You can use it to help your learners Identify the parts of the mouth where particular sounds are produced, it is quite

difficult to describe the alveolar ridge, for example, and some relativelycomplex language would be required to do so. Likewise, we do notrecommend ‘live’ demonstrations for this purpose - too messy! Across-section diagram, with all the major articulatory organs labelledshould enable you to refer clearly and simply to these organs whenever

necessary. (See Fig. 2 opposite.)

One or more sets of phoneme cards

These are relatively easy to make and form the basis of a number of theactivities suggested in this book. You will need several sheets of fairlyrobust card cu t into sets of 44 cards. Each card should be roughly thesize of a playing card (approximately 10cm x 7cm). Draw one phonemic symbol on each card using a thick felt tip pen. In the case of /v/ and/a/ and /e / and /a/, you will need to indicate, using a small arrow or line,which is the top of the card and which is the bottom.



THE BASICS

C L ongman Cro up UK Ltd 1992

A tape recorder and some blank tapes

You may find it useful to tape pronunciation listening exercises foryour learners. This is particularly important when you w ish to haveyour learners distinguish between vowel sounds, stre ss pa tter ns o r

different intonation pattern s. Thus, when we say 'Read th e s en ten ce saloud ...', you may find it helpful to tape your reading beforehand.

There are two big advantages to taping. Firstly, you can pro vid e a

constant and consisten t model. Secondly, you r learners c an liste n in

their own time (pe rhap s In a self-access centre or language lab ora tory ,or even for homew ork).

Another role of the tap e reco rder is to record the learners* own pronunciation. This Is a very effective way of giving them fe edback ontheir own performance. If they hear the contrast between a modelsentence read by you (or one taken from a coursebook dialogu e, forexample) and their own version of the sentence, this can help the m ina number of ways. It can show them tha t they still need to Im prov e (anImportant factor, particularly at higher levels). It can a lso m ak e th emaware of err ors in their own performance. In term s of evalua ting the irown performance. It can also help to encourage and mo tivate the m bymaking pro gress evident.

V

7




W* regard the following as desirable but not essential:

A set of Cuisenaire rods

These are boxes of small wooden bars of different colours and sizes.Their original use was as aids In the teaching of mathematics a t Junior

schools, but many teachers now also use them in language teaching. Inteaching pronunciation, the different colours can be used as memory

aids to represent different sounds or (see 2 A Introducing syllables and6.1 Introducing word stress) as memory aids to represent differentwords. If you do not have access to Cuisenaire rods, then someequivalent form of memory aid (such as a set of coloured counters,

board magnets or bu ttons) is a perfectly adequate su bstitu te.(Cuisenaire»oils may be obtained from Educational Solutions (UK) Ltd,1i Crown St, Reading. RG1 2TQ.)

An emphasis pointer

An emphasis pointer is a little like a car aerial - but we do not advise breaking them off as a substitute! We have found the emphasis pointer

to be particularly useful when working with a phonemic chart - you

point silently to particular symbols and ask learners to produce thecorresponding sounds. From the point of viewof logistics, a pointer can

help you to give your learners a clearer view of the chart as it does notobscure the chart in the same way that an arm does. You can also use

one to show rhythm and intonation patterns (in much the same waythat a conductor might lead an orchestra), or to point out phonological

features (stress, Intonation patterns) In example sentences written onthe board.

A pocket mirror

A small mirror is useful so that learners can observe their own lip and

jaw position when articulating particular sounds (the contrast between /»:/ with spread lips and /ix/ with rounded lips, and /i:/ with jawalmost closed and / s / with jaw open, for example).

A metronome

You can use a metronome to provide a completely regular beat inactivities practising stressed and unstressed syllables. (See 7.7 Metro-

nome.)



TEACHING SOUNDS 1.2

You will probably need to h elp your learners be com e aware of whathappens when they produce sounds in their own language or inEnglish. It is not no rmally sufficient simply to rep ea t the soun d andexpect learners to get it right through h earin g alone. Sometimes youwill have to show them or explain to them what happens when a part icula r so und Is pro duced. You will als o pro bably need to showthem how to improve their pronunciation of the particular sound s thatthey are finding difficult. In this section, we are going to ad dres s you,

the tea che rs, and suggest tha t you you rselves follow the step s outlined below. You can then pass the pro cess on to yo u r learners .

W hat fac tors do you need to cons ider?

Vowels and diphthongs

AIR

Say /i:/. P ut your han d in front of your m outh. You should feel som e (but pro bably n o t much ) a ir being expelled from t h e lungs . Muscle effort isinvolved in th e pa ssage of this air. All vow els req uire an uninterrupted pass age of ai r, w ith th e to ngue an d oth er s peech organs affecting the

quality of this passag e with out ever com pletely blocking it.

VOICING

Wh isper /i:/. Place your fingertips lightly on e ith er side of yo ur Adam’sapple. Notice the absence of any vibration. Keep your fingertips in

pos ition and now u tt e r /!:/ a lo ud. Notice th e vib ra tion. This is voicing. Voicing (I.e. the vibration of the vocal cord s) is presen t in the p ronun-ciation of all vowels an d diphtho ngs, as well as som e consonants.

JAW

Say /v,/. Notice the po sition of the ]aw. It is p rob ably almost closed . Nowsay /ae/. Can you feel any difference? Try /k / / * / /!:/ /* / sev eral times inquick succession. You sh ould feel a con side rable difference in the Jaw posi tion for the two sounds, /i: / is rela tively ‘d o s e d ’, w h il e /* / is ‘open*.Try the same exercise in pairs and ob serve th e opening and closing ofyou r partn er’s mouth. If you a re working alone, look in a p ocket mirroras you repeat the soun ds. Next, try the exercise with oth er combina-tions of vowel sounds, e.g. /u:/ /a/ and /*/ /o/. Then try with thediphthongs /« / and /ax/. Notice how the y begin w ith the Jaw relatively

open and end with th e Jaw closing.To illustrate the Importance of Jaw position in the production of

vowels and diphthongs, try prono uncing /i:/ with y our Jaw wide openand / * / with you r Jaw almost closed. It will proba bly feel very unnaturaland difficult to achieve. An even more m arked con trast ca n be achieved by t ry ing to pronounce th e diph thong /a i/ , fo r exam ple, beginning in aclosed position and ending in an open one. You will find that it isvirtually Impossible to produ ce anything remotely resembling /ai/.



TH E PRONUNCIATION BOOK

UPS

Whisper the sound /«/. Notice the lips. They are spread, almost as if youare smiling (hence the tendency of photographers to ask subjects tosay ‘cheese' when being photographed). Now say/u^. You will feel thatthe lips become rounded, almost as if you a re whistling. Try pronounc-ing /u/ and then /uV several times in rapid succession in pairs and

observe the position of your partner's lips and how the positionchanges from spread to rounded.

To illustrate the importance of lip position, try pronouncing /«/ withrounded lips, it will probably sound quite different. It may, for example,sound likea French vowel sound. Now try pronouncing /u:/ with spread

lips. Notice tiie difficulty in maintaining the/u:/sound. Now, preferablyworking with a partner or with a mirror, notice the lip position for theother vowels. You will see that some tend to be more spread, whileothers are more rounded. Others still are less pronounced as regardslip position. Next, experiment with the diphthongs and notice how the

lip position changes from the starting point to the end of th e glide. (Formore practice of the above activities see 2.6 Throwing a phoneme.)

TONGUEPronounce the sound /i:/. Notice the position of the tongue. Is it low inthe mouth? Is it flat? You will probably find that it is raised (or‘humped*) towards the front of the mouth and is up and making con tac t

with the sides of the front upper molars. Now say /u:/. Again, notice thetongue position, it is probably 'humped' a little further back and is notmaking such noticeable contact with the roof of the mouth. In fact, it is probably touching the sides of the back upper molars. To feel thecontrast more directly, pronounce the sounds /i ://u :/ /!:/ /u:/ severaltimes in rapid succession. Notice the movement of the tongue. Now try/a/. Where is the tongue now? Contrast /a/ with /a:/. What can you feel?Try the diphthong /oi/ and notice the movement in tongue position.

LENGTH

What do the following sounds have in common? /i:/, /a:/, /o:/, /u:/ and/s:/? The colon indicates length and suggests that part of the quality ofthese sounds is that they are longer than certain near equivalents. For

example, compare lx / and /a:/. They are quite clearly different pho-nemes in English (compare /kaet/ and /kart/) and have a differentmanner of articulation, but you can still observe the length quality of/&/. Try contrasting it with lx / by repeating the contrasting pair severaltimes in rapid succession. Then try the same with /i:/ and /i/, /u:/ and/u/t lo‘J and /o/. and /a:/ and schwa (l.e. fof). You might also try'shortening' the long vowels and ‘lengthening* the short vowels. Ob-serve what effect this has.

10



THE BA SICS

Front Central Back

Close

Half clo

Half op

• A)/

/u:/ •

• M

• lid

• M Open

Fig. 3 A diagrammatic representation of the position of English (RP) vowels

Consonants

Th e produ ction of co n so n an ts is affected by a number of factors, but part ic ula rly by th e m an ner and pla ce of th eir articula tion. Other

factors to consider are the quantity of air flow and the amount of

muscle pow er involve d the rein , as well as the question of voicing.

MANNER OF ARTICULATION

Prepare to say the sou nd /p/ bu t stop just before releasing the sound. Notice th at th e lips a re p ressed tightly to geth er a nd th at th e passageof air is mom entarily ob stru cte d. Now release the sound /p/. You willfeel tha t it is almo st like a n ‘exp losio n' accom panied b y a release of air.

Experiment in a similar way with /k/. These sounds are plos ives

(otherwise known a s ‘sto p s’). They are characterised by two of thearticulatory organs coming together to form a complete closure,

bloc king the passage of a ir mom enta ri ly . The air is then re leased to givethe plosive sou nd . T h er e a re six plosiv es in English: /p/, /b/. A/, /d/./k/ and /g/.

Now tr y the s ound / f/. N otice how th is so und can continue for som etime. Unlike the plo siv es, it is no t a single ‘explosion’ of air. The top

teeth and the bo ttom lip make con tact and obstruct the free passageof air, but n ot co m ple tely . Th ere Is also a certain amo unt of frictioninvolved. Now try /s/ and M and notice again the half-obstructed pas sa ge of air. T h ese sounds are mem bers of the group known as




fricative*. The group includes /f/, /v/, /0 /, /6/, fs /, /z/, ///, fz f, an d /h/.

frj is also sometimes considered to be a fricative, although it is

generally regarded as being frictionless end Is often described as a

Irictioriless continuant'. Experiment briefly with the so un ds / (/ /a n d

/di ' Whisper them slowly. Notice how they begin as sto ps 0.e. th er e is

a complete blockage in the air flow as two of the articu lator y orga ns

come together) and continue as fricatives when the s to p is released .

These two sounds are known as affricates.

The phonemes /m//n / and /q/ form a separate group. Pra ctise sayingthem ail several times in rapid succession. You will soo n n otice th at

they have a common fea ture. As with the plosive sounds, th ere is a

blockage in the pa ss age of ai r somewhere. (In th e case of /m/, for

example, the lips d o se to block the air flow.) The a ir ‘esc ap es ’ throu gh

the nasal cavity, giving all thr ee so unds a nas al quality. T hese sou nds

are known, not surprisingly, a s nasals.

The phoneme /!/ is In a ca tegory of its own. Whisper t he sou nd /!/

several times in rapid succession. You will pro bably not ice th at the tip

or blade of the tongue comes into contact with th e ridge behin d the

teeth (see Place o farticulation below, for more on this ridge), while the

air escapes down b oth sides of the tongue. This lateral m ovem ent of

the air flow gives rise to the name of this single-phoneme categ ory, i.e.lateral.

Work with a partner. Whisper the so unds / j/ an d /w / several times

each in succession bu t very slowly. Observe yo ur p art ne r’s lip posi

tions for each of the soun ds. They will probab ly look very m uch lijce the

lip positions for the vowel combinations of fwf followed by /a / and /u:/

followed by /a/ respectively. As you whisper or mime the sounds,

notice your own jaw position. Both sounds will probably begin in a

relatively closed position and will open up as you pronou nce them.

Now experiment by saying th e vowel sou nds /v j and /a / together

several times, increasing the speed a Uttie each time. After a time, the

sound will probably begin to resemble /j/. You can try the same

experiment with /in/ and /a / for /w/. Both /j/ and /w / have a cons iderable amount of vowel quality and are therefore known as semi-vowels.

PLACEOF ARTICULATION

What have /p/, /b/ and /m / got in common? Mime the words pan, ban

and man to a partner In a random order. Your partn er will probably

have difficulty in telling one from the o ther. The ar ticu lato ry organs

you are using here a re the two lips, hence the term bilabial to describe

the place of articulation of these th ree sounds. Now try /f/ and /v/. Try saying them by press ing down qu ite hard

with the top teeth on the bottom Up. Then try with Just a very lightcontact between the top teeth and the back of the bottom lip. Comparethe sounds. To emphasise the role of the teeth in the production of, f/ and /v/, say the sounds /p / and Iff alternately several times in rapid

succession. You may well find it difficult to do this ‘rapidly’, but It mayalso give you some insight into remedies for learners whose m other



THE BASICS

ton gu e d oe s n ot distinguish between /p/ and /f/ and who therefore have proble m s sa ying pull and full, for example. For some light relief, trysaying /f/ and /v / using th e bottom teeth and the top lip! Just about possib le , but so m ew hat unusual! The place of articulation of /f/ and/v/ is described as labiodental.

W hat hap pen s with /6 / and /6/? Notice that the tip of the tonguecom es into co nta ct w ith the upp er teeth. These are described asdental sounds. Try saying /t/ and /d/ with the tip of your tongue lightlytou chin g th e up p er teeth. They will probably sound rather ‘soft’, asth e se sou nd s a re no t normally dental in English, while in many otherlanguag es th ey a re realised as dental sounds.

Ju st be hin d y ou r u pper teeth you will find a ridge. This is known asth e alveolar ridge a nd a num ber of English sounds are produced by thetong ue com tng in to con tact with the alveolar ridge. Try /t/ and /d/ againan d no tice th e p oint where the tongue makes contact. Now try /s/, /z/,

/!/, /r/ and /n/. N otice where an d how th e tongue makes contact with thealv eo lar ridge. In term s of the ir place of articulation, these sounds are

referred to as alveolar. Now tr y /[ /. W here does th e tongue make contact? Try contrasting it

w ith / s/ by s aying e ac h sound alternately several times. You will feel theton gu e 'mov ing back' for the /J/ sound. Try fcj, /tj/ and /ds/. Again, Itmay be useful to contrast them with /s/ or /z/. All four sounds arear ticu late d a little further ba ck from the alveolar ridge, although someco nta ct may b e ma de along the sides. There is contact with the hard pala te too. T hus th e sounds /J/ , Izl, /tj/ and /ds/ are referred to as palato-

alveolar.For th e sou nd /j/, you will notice tha t the top middle of the tongue is

pressin g fairly firmly on th e sides of the palate. Thus /j/ is known as

pala ta l.T he sou nd s /k/, /g/ and /q/ form a group known as velar. Prepare to

sa y /k /, b ut do no t articu late it. Notice where the stop is formed. It will probably feel as if it is somew here at th e back of th e mouth. It may evenfeel a bit unco mfo rtable. If you have p roblems locating it, then try /p/and IkJ al tern ately several times in quick succession. The /k/ stop isform ed by th e bac k of the tongue coming into contact with the soft

pala te , or velum, h ence velar.

Finally, we hav e th e sound /h/. Try whispering it ‘aloud* with as muchair as possible. Try this several times in rapid succession. It will pro bably create th e effect of panting as If out of breath. The point ofcontact at the onset of the fricative will probably seem to be some-w he re d eep in th e throat. Th ere is normally some contact at the glottisan d th e place of articulation is thus referred to as glottal.

VOICINGAs w ith vow els, voicing (or, in this case, th e absence of voicing too) isan im portan t fa cto r with consonan ts. For a simple experiment, placeth e fingertips lightly on either side of your throa t or put your fingers inyou r ea rs, pro no unce the sound /f / and hold it for some time. Change




to /v/ and hold this sound. Vou will now notice some vibration.

Alternate rapidly between /f/ and /v/. Notice how th e vibr ation st op s

and starts - /%/ is voiced but /f / is voiceless. Most co nso nan ts ar e

voiced (l.e. accompanied b y vibration of the vocal co rds ) b ut eigh t are

not: /p/ . /«/. | S fk j, M , IQ/, /%/ and II I.

FORDS AND LENIS

If there is no voicing when the voiceless consonants above are pro

nounced, how is it that we he ar them at all? A simp le experim ent with

a sheet of paper should demonstrate the essential quality of the

voiceless consonants. Hold the s he et abo ut nine cen tim etres in front

of your face with the bottom of the she et at ap proxim ately th e level of

your chin. Say the sound /b/ se veral times. Now switch to /p/. T his time,the sheet of paper will normally mov e quite noticeably. T hu s a large

amount of air (fortis) is released in the pronunciation of the voiceless

consonant /p/ and hardly any (lenis) in its voiced equiv alent /b/. The

same phenomenon can be observed with all the voiceless con sonan ts.

Please note that we are not suggesting that learne rs need to know the se

‘technical' terms. Nor are we suggesting that you need t o k now the m

either. We do, however, feel that It is imp ortant for teac he rs to know

basically wha t go es on whe n so unds are pro duce d. If you have som e

idea of how and where a particular sound is pro duced , then you have

some chance of being able to affect the learner's production of that

sound by other m eans than simply asking them to re pea t it after you.

In that respect, some of the wo rds used abov e are Im portant, e.g. teeth, tip o f the tongue, air flow, voice , vibration. Many of these can be

demonstrated and will gradually be picked up by you r learn ers thr oug h

use. Others can be shown on a mou th diagram (s ee pag e 7).

U ______________ PRONUNCIATION IN DICTIONARIES

Perhaps the most obvious use of dictionaries in foreign language

learning is as a way of accessing meanings of words, in th e fo rm of

translations or definitions. But dictionaries have many other uses.

Among other things, they are a valuable sou rce of inform ation abo ut

the pronunciation of words.You can encourage learners to check pronunciations in the class

room by using their dictionaries. When the h abit is establish ed and the

learners are familiar with the conv entions used, th ey will be ab le to

make use of this resource whenever they need it, in or out of the

classroom. At the sam e time, however, looking in th e d iction ary n eed

not be the first step. Learners can b e encouraged first to p red ict th e

pronun ciation of pro blemat ic w ord s, a nd then to use th e d ic tionary a s

a checking device. The combination of these two approaches Is a

valuable contribution towards making learners independent in their

dealings with English pronu nciation .



THE BASICS

Most dic tiona ries , especially those specifically Intended lor learn-

ers ' us e, show w ord st res s by small superscript marks, and show the

sequence of sounds in a word by a selection of symbols from the

International Phonetic Alphabet. The exact conventions vary some-

what from one dictionary to another, but the divergences from a

system which is already familiar are easy to learn. Most dictionaries

also offer some information about variations in pronunciation; the

greatest detail is given in specialised dictionaries of pronunciation

such as the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (Wells, 1990).

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRONUNCIATION WORK IN 1.4

GRAMMATICALLY AND FUNCTIONALLY ORIENTATED ~

LESSONS ™

This Is a gen era l p roc edure for integrating a phonological perspective

into other classroom work. Although it is often useful to isolate

part ic ula r ele m ents of pronunciation and devote activities specifically

to them , it is also w orth rem embering that every lesson, unless it is a

completely silent one (and maybe even then!), is to some extent a

pro nuncia tion lesson, even though th e main focus may be on some-

thing else. Furthermore, in a lesson which gives high priority to oralacc ura cy in the us e of certain constructions, the learners' pronuncia-

tion may contribute to or detract from the achievement of optimal

accuracy.

FOCUS

Attention to

pronunciation

in non-

pronunciation

orientated lessons

Preparation

Take key ex amples of the gramm atical or functional items you want the

learn ers to pra ctise in the lesson and, alongside your preparation for

illustrating th e meaning and giving relevant practice opportunities,

think of how the examp les should be said, paying attention to natural-

ness and appropriacy to context. Identify likely points of pronuncia-

tion difficulty and plan ways of helping learners with these. Here is a

suggested checklist of aspects of pronunciation which may prove

relevan t to p articul ar language points:

■ segmentation

■ rhythm

■ linking

■ intonation

■ weak forms

■ word stress

■ sounds

■ sound sequences

Procedure

At the poin t In the lesson when the learners begin to use examples of

the new construction, monitor their performance carefully. Listen both for a cc ura cy in assembling the right words in the right order and

for ac cu rac y of pronunciation. Correct and give help as necessary so

15



BiMfMWI BaaHW

THE fftOMUNQATXM BOOK

that the learners* performance bec omes as good as possible. Re fer

back to these correc tion s an d improvem ents on subsequent occa

sions, in the same lesson or later, when the sam e co nstru ction s are

being practised in a con trolled way. For example:

If I’d known you were coming. I'd have stayed at home.

Learners often And sentences of this type difficult because of the

conceptual task of remembering the assembly instructions for the bitsand pieces of verb. But such s entenc es are also qu ite dau nting in te rm s

of pronunciation, and giving due attention h ere c an help con fidence

greatly, in the example sentenc e above, ass istanc e in the following

areas would be possible:

■ segmentation: two parts, with a more o r less clearly audible

break between them, often Indicated in writing by a comma

■ rhythm: 00OO000 00O0O

■ finking: ‘you., were’, Td^have* with no /ii/

■ intonation: probably on ‘you were coming’, on ‘home*

■ weak forms: Td ‘ rathe r than *1had’, /wa/ for *were’, ‘I’d ’ ra th er than

‘I would’, /ov/ for ‘have’, /at/ for ‘a t’

■ word stress: not much of a problem here■ sounds: depends on the learners - maybe the dip htho ng in ‘know n’,

maybe the -ng in ‘coming’

■ sound sequences: depends on the learners - maybe th e seq uence

/fst/ In ‘have stayed’.

Reading dialogues out loud is an age-old procedu re in foreign language

I

teaching and learning. It can easily suffer from the drawback that the

reading js mumbled, stilted, lacking in confidence, and reveals littleunderstanding of the content o r of its communicative purpose . Confi-

■ giving or eliciting plenty of Information about setting and role, so

that the dialogue activity takes on something of the quality of a role play

■ allowing plenty of practice time, during which you m oni tor and helpout with any pronunciation difficulties

■ encouraging the readers not to keep their eyes glued to th eir text, butto imagine they are rehearsing a scene in a film and to look a t the irInterlocutor, safe in the knowledge that the text is the re to re fer tofi they need it

■ getting them to act out the scene Instead of just sitting in th eir seats.

With a sufficiently motivated class, dialogues can be reco rded on v ideoor audio tape for analysis of strengths and weaknesses and perhapsfurther practice and recording. Work on pronunciation, and indeed onlanguage learning as a whole, is helped if the learners are willing to

1.5 USING DIALOGUES



THE BASICS

speak out loudly and clearly Instead of mumbling uncertainly. For a lotof people, this Is easier to begin to do if there Is a role to play and a predetermined scrip t to follow.

USING WRITTEN TEXTS 1.6

This activity can be a main lesson activity in its own right or can act asa quick consolidation of certain features of pronunciation using a text

LEVELElementary ♦

which has already been used for oth er purposes On the same lesson or FOCUSat some earlier time). It also works well as a prelude to other types of Relationships

piece of written English will be suitable as a text, but particularly or over^eadsomething which is in some way already familiar to the learners. For *ra^sParency_-example, a passage from a reader o r courseboolq a text which they TIMEhave used to work on reading, vocabulary, or grammar, an extract from Variablesomething they have written themselves.

Procedure

This Is actually a group of sub-activities, any number of which can bedone a t any one time. Any of them could b e made into a predictiveexercise before listening to a spoken or recorded version of the text.However, It Is important for everyone to realise tha t there is often notsimply one correc t predicted answer. This is especially true of the subactivities on connected speech and Intonation (8-12 below). All ofthese sub-activities can involve either the entire text, one paragraph,or Just one sentence.

1 Learners find how many times a certain phoneme (or 'sound*)occurs. If the class are familiar with phonemic symbols, use them;if not, give an oral model of the sound, and possibly some exemplifying words from outside the text. For example, eye, night, right, why, like all contain Instances of /iu/. This knowledge gives them aninformal clue about what to search for.

2 They find how many different spellings there are for a certain phoneme. For example, in the above Ust, there are four differentspellings of /ai/.

3 They find how many different phonemes are represented by acertain spelling. For example, the o in ‘box* represents /o/; the o in‘close’ represents /ou/: the o In ‘proceed’ represents /a/.

4 They find how many different phonemes (or only vowels, or onlyconsonants) are represented in the text.

work using the same text. between spoken

and written formsof English ______ Preparation

Make copies of the text if necessary. Do the activity that you are goingto ask the class to do, and note your answers for reference. Any short

MATERIALSCopies of the text




5 They find how many phonemes (o r only vowels, or only consonants) are not represented In the te xt

6 They find how many words there are with three syllables (or one,or two, or four...).

7 They find how many words there are with a certain stress pattern.For example, important, instruction, complaining all have the pattern 0O0 (three syllables with the s tress on th e second).

8 They find examples of weak forms. For example, are and to in'What are they going to do?’

9 They find potential examples of elision. For example, Interesting -*intresting, West Bank Wes Bank.

10 They find potential examples of assimilation. For example, followed by /folaobbai/. Green Park —* /griimpatk/.

11 They find potential examples of linking. For example, high up (linking /if), do one (linking /w/), fair answer (linking /rf).

12 They predict how they would divide a sentence into tone groups,where the main prominences would be, and what the Intonation

patterns would be.



T H E B E G IN N IN G S O F A W A R E N E SS

4 Let each pa i r experiment (simu l taneou sly) for a few minutes wi th the

p o ss ib le Eng lish pro nuncia tion of th e fa m iliar w ord s.

5 Get suggest ions from the class a s to ho w the English versions are

p ro n o u n ced . G ive a c o rre c t m odel w h ere necessary .

6 Co mpa re the mo ther tongue p ronunciat ion wi th the English pronun-

ciat ion. Draw attention to w here the d ifferences l ie. For example, in

th e French a nd English pronun ciat ions of Paris , you could p oint out

th e d ifferent word stress, s ilent final 's’ in the F rench v ersion, different

vowel so un ds in the secon d syllable, different pronu nciation of 'r '.

Th us, a single word can reveal a num ber of interest ing compa risons.

Exam ple mo ther tongue/English word list

Madrid Paris Los AngelesChicago Luxembourg Brazil

America Europe Australia

Shak espeare Avis Heathrow

© L ongm an G roup U K U d 1992

Thatcher Edinburgh

Barcelona

Japan

BILINGUA L MINIMAL PAIRS 2.4

Th is act ivi ty i s most obviously sui ted to monol ingual classes, making

us e of con t rasts between Engl ish and th e m othe r tongue. However, it

can also be used w i th mul t il ingual classes, using one mo ther tongue o r

a m ixture, and th e point wil l st i ll be m ade in a m ore gen eral way.

Procedure

1 Put up on th e bo ard or OHP the l ist of minimal pairs. Th e example

belo w is fo r G erman/E nglish .

Vieh fee hier here

putz puts Ei eye

Schuh shoe Beule boiler

denn den Oder odour

Fohn fern hau how

vo r four Bild build

kann can Neuft noiseAhr are drei dry

Gott got

C Lon gma n Grou p UK Ltd 1992

2 Tell the learne rs you are going to read down the l is t, but choosing

only one w ord from each pai r, e i ther In English or the m other tongue.

Ask them to identi fy which choice you have mad e in each case, by

sho uting out th e language On this cas e, 'English!' or ‘German!').

3 Ask them to reflect on how they identified which language was being

spoken. The discussion may well begin with generali t ies such as

T h ey soun ded different* or ‘Language X is softer, or c learer, or m ore

LEVEL

Any _____________

FOCUS

Aw areness ofw hat is involved

In learning the

accen t of a foreign

language_________

MATERIALS

A list of minimal

pa irs, each pair

comp rising words

from English and

the m other tongue

which have more

o r less the same pro nuncia tion

TIME

10 minu tes *

REQUIREMENT

You mu st b e able

to pronounce

b o th languag es

well

21



THE PRONUN CIATION BO OK

musical’, etc. T his is line as a starting point, but ask the learners to

focus mo re on w hat was happ ening in the speak er’s speech organs

that was different for the tw o languages.

VARIATIONS

1 11you th ink It nece ssar y, go thro ug h th e preliminary stage of reading

down th e list saying both w ords in each pair, giving the learners a

chan ce to he ar the d ifferences before they have to identify them.

2 Use international w ords which are pronounced m ore or less the

sam e in the tw o languages. For example, in ma ny languages, restau-rant, bank, telephone, com pute rate prono unced in roughly the same

way.

RATIONALE

This is a way of encouraging learn ers to investigate exactly what they

need to do In order to speak with a native-like accent. (Of course,

wh ether or not they want to aim for this must be their choice.) Rather

than co ncentrating on particular phonemes, it invites them to con

sider more general features of articulatory setting In different lan

guages, i.e. the typical distribution of muscular tension and move

men ts of the sp eech organs which con stitute the accent of a language.

They can rehearse, perhaps on their own, both m embers of some of

the minimal pairs, and can notice what differences occur in their

movem ents of articulation and the co rresponding sound produced.

Possible differences (of course they will vary according to the lan

guages in ques tion ) include:

■ Completely different articulation of corresponding sounds. (For

exam ple, r in ‘dr y’ and ‘dr ei’.)

■ Possibilities of occu rrenc e which exist in one language but not the

othe r. (Fo r example, in the list above, vo iced plosives and fricatives

in word final position in English but no t in German.)

■ More or le ss tens ion in the neck, ]aws, lips or tongue.

■ More or les s tension generally.

■ M ore or les s active use of the larynx.

■ Frequent con tact betwee n the tongue and the back of the top teeth,

or betwee n th e tongue and the alveolar ridge.

■ Differences of vowel length.

■ Differences of con sonan t length.

■ Differences in degree s of lip-rounding.

■ More or less tenden cy for vowels to b e diphthongised.

All such information contrib utes towa rds a prec ise specification of the

task of pro no un cing a language in a native-like way.

Some of the pairs given in the sample list above share the same

meaning, but mos t of them do not. Either way It does not matter: the

exercise is con cerne d with pronu nciation, not meaning.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTIt was Bryan Jenn er who led us to think in a more principled way about

what a ccen ts are and how they differ.

22



T H E B E G IN N IN G S OF A W A R E N E S S

FINDING MISSING V OW ELS

English has lo ts o( different vowel sound s, an d th e tas k of learning to

p ro n ou nce th em al l can seem d au n ti n g . H ere , w e sugg est a sim ple

stra tegy which uses vowels that the learners can a l ready produce (or

discovering the articulation of on es they can’t. For example, the learn

ers can pronounce fvJ (as in beat) an d /u:/ (as in boot) reas on ably well,

bu t n o t /i/ ( as in bit).

Procedure

1 Ask the learners to pron ou nce M , then /u:/, the n a c ontinuou s sound

tha t slides from /»:/ to /u:/. If th ey hav en’t don e th is b efore, it might

take a bit of practice . Get them to s t re tch the sound over ten sec

onds o r so.

2 W hat they need to do now Is pract ise s tar ting the sam e sl ide , but

stop part-way along, Isolating the sou nd th ey are making and pro

nouncing it without u nna tural lengthening. If i t sou nd s too much

like /u:/ , they nee d to go back; if it sou nd s too mu ch like frJ , they

need to go fur ther . With t ria l and error , they should be able to s top

at the point w here the s l ide passe s throug h / i/ .

3 They will be ab le to use th is strateg y, as long as the y need to. to

red i scover the so und . T hey c an then pu t the newly-d iscovered

sound to work in word s and m ore ambit ious s t ructures .

EXTENSION

They can learn to pronou nce n ot only other p ure vowels, but diphthongs

using the same s t ra tegy. For example , /« / is a g lide f rom /e / to .

RATIONALE

The vowels of any variety of English ar e only a small selection from the

innumerable one s w hich any hu m an v oice can make. Learning new

vowel sound s can be facili tated b y relating them , in the geography of

the m outh, to familiar ones, e ithe r in English o r in the m other tongue.

The geographical relationsh ips b etween the English vowels are indi

cate d in a simplified form in th e Sound Foundations c ha rt (page 5). For

instance, the glide from /i'J to /u:/ pass es thro ug h /»/. an d a glide from/u:/ to / d/ pas ses th roug h /a:/. Th erefore /a:/ can be found by stopping

pa rt-w ay alo ng th e g lide ; equally, /o / can be found by exte ndin g the ,'td

to /a:/ glide.

2J5___________

LEVEL

Any

FOCUS

Articulating new

vowels

MATERIALS

None

TIME

5 minutes *



THE PRONUN CIATION BOOK

2.6 THROWING A PHONEME

LEVEL

Beginner +

FOCUS

Producing sou nds

MATERIALS

None

You can use this ex ercise either as a warmer or as a part of a lesson

devo ted to improving pronunciation. The exercise reveals th e imp or

tanc e of lip position in the prod uction of phonem es, particularly vow

els and diphthongs.

Procedure

TIME10-15 minutes

1 Ask the learne rs to sit in a circle.2 Sit In the circle yourself and sta rt the activity by silently miming a

pho nem e an d ‘thro wing’ it to o ne of th e lear ne rs In th e circle.

3 The learner vocalises the sound which has been throw n. If they do

so correctly, then it is the ir turn to continue by silently miming an

other phoneme and throwing it to another learner. If not, throw the

same ph oneme to another learner in the circle, and s o on until some

one g ets it right.

4 Continue for as long as see m s profitable. Errors are p art of the fun!

2.7 VOWEL CHANTING

LEVEL

Any

FOCUS

Recognising and

producing long

vowel sounds;

Developing

confidence and

group trust;

Lowering

inhibitions

Procedure

1 The class stand in pairs, A and B, spread aroun d the room.

2 Student A cho ose s on e of the five long vowel sound s (/i:/, /u:/, /a:/,

/o:/, / x f ) and cha nts it to B, who listens with eyes closed, paying

close attentio n t o t he q uality of the vowel and of A’s voice.

3 B closes he r eyes again. A moves to another part of the room , and

guides B tow ards him by chanting the sam e vowel as b efore. B has

to hom e in on A’s vo ice amidst all the chan ting of the oth er m em

bers of the class.

4 A and B chan ge roles.MATERIALS

None

5 A and B chang e partners.

VARIATION

TIME

5-10 minutes

Everyone in the class uses th e same vowel sound.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We learnt this from Adrian Underhill, who ada pted it from a Mongolian

chanting technique.



T H E B E G IN N IN G S O F A W A R E N E S S

INTRODUCING SYLLA BLE S

Un derstand ing wh at a syllable is is an important precondition for work

on stre ss. H ere is the w ay of establishing tha t understanding using a

non-intel lectual , guided discovery approach. The usefulness of this

exercise will be part icularly clea r to learners if i t is closely followed by

the In trodu cing word stres s act ivity (6.1) and th e introduction or rem e

dial treatm en t of som e voc abu lary In which a num ber of syllables and/

or s t ress p l acement s a re p rob lemat ic .

Procedure

1 Invi te learners, o ne by one, to sugg est English words - perhaps

w ords they part icularly l ike, o r which they hav e recently leamt .

W ithout giving an y explan ation, repr esen t each word by laying a

rod (or equivalent ) on the table, so tha t words wi th the same number

of syllables a re c luster ed in different are as of the table (see Fig. 4

belo w ).

1 Monday 5 now

2 always 6 got

3 Wednesda y 7 week

4 sitting

8 Saturday

9 Nottingham

10 beginning

11 important

Fig. 4 Groups of Cuisenaire rods showing the number of s> ac ~s

words

n efferent

2 JJ ______________

LEVEL

Most su itable for

near-beginners,

bu t m ay be

needed a t any

level _____________

FOCUS

Introducing th e

conce pt of the

syllable

MATERIALS

A table; Some

Cuisenai re rods o r

similar (see

page 8) __________

TIME

10-15 minutes



THE PRON UNCIATION BOOK

Each area of the table becomes the domain of words with a certain

number of syllables, and each word is associa ted with its position

on the table. Its length and the colour of the rod representing

it. Proceed slowly, pausing after the addition of each new word to

allow the class to take In the scene, and pointing frequently at the

rods t o elicit recall of the words.2 After a while, when there are a good few rod s o n the table, let the

class begin trying to put rods into the app ropr iate group to rep re-

sent new words which are suggested. If It seem s th at no one is go-ing to catch on, promp t them by saying some of the w ords already

on the table and simultaneously tapping the num ber of syllables.

More likely, some of the c lass will get the idea and try to explain to

the others by counting or tapping or perhaps by using the word

syllable or Its mother tongue equivalent. Continue with the same

procedure for a while, ensur ing that som e resp onse s are m ade by

learners who initially seemed unsure. Suggest words yourself and

get the class t o locate them correctly.

3 Finally, using the example words on th e table, you can introduce

language such as:

Saturday has got three syllables.How many syllables has it got?

How many syllables are there in this word?

This can then b ecome part of the working language of the class-

room.

i

2 6



C H A P T ER 3

Learning the inventory of sounds

EXPLOITING THE PHONEMIC CHART

You will find th at a phon em ic chart is a useful teaching aid. U you

display on e in you r classroom, you can refer to it w hen pronunciation

pro ble m s occur. You ca n als o use it to elicit th e pronu nciat io n of a

part ic u la r so und o r word and to co rrec t p ro nunc ia tion er ro rs .

Procedure

1 Begin by pointing to familiar symbols, be. symb ols which are either

identical to, or closely resem ble the equivalent letter of the alpha

bet. Exa mples are : /m /, /n/» /p/, /b /, /r /, /! /, /w/, /h/, /s /, /z /, /t/ , /d/ ,

/k / , /g / , / f / , / v / a n d /e / .

2 Gradually introduce other sounds. As a rough rule of thumb,

introdu cing abou t four new sounds per lesson is probably enough.

3 Poin t to the new s oun d on the chart, for example, /!:/. Give a clear

mo del and th en ask the learners to repeat. Pay particular attention

to bo th length and lip position in the case of vowels.

4 Now place the sou nd in context by making a word or a series of

w ords , pointing to th e appropriate phonemic symbols, for exam

ple, /mid /, /pit /, /si: t/, /pi i://. an d so on. Ask the le arn ers to r epeat the

wo rds a s you point to the sounds.

5 As yo u introd uce more sound s you can invite learners to com e out

to th e ch art and point first to sounds and then to wo rds that you call

out. Later, you can ask learners themselves to call out words.

It should be empha sised at this point that this is a relatively slow

pro cess. It tak es quite a long time for m any lear ner s to as sim ilate

the sym bols and to recognise and produce the sounds they repre

sent. Our own preference is to introduce the sou nds gradually over

a se ries of lessons, in relatively short lesson sections, without any

pressure o n the lear ners to learn the symbols . We also re fe r to th e

chart when appropriate in the course of various types of non

pronunciat io n b as ed ac tivi ties su ch a s a voca bu la ry-b ased lesson ,

so tha t the learners b ecome accustomed to th e chart being used as

an integral part of every lesson. There may be learners who

qu estio n its use. in such cases, we have found it useful to point ou t

the benefits of being able to work out the pronunciation of new

2A _____________

LEVEL

Beginner * ______

FOCUS

Familiarising

learners with the

content and

layout of the

ph on em ic c hart

MATERIALS

Phonemic chart

(see page 5)

TIME

Variable

2 7



■

■■ H U H


vocabulary Items o n the basis of the phonem ic transcriptions given

in dictionaries and th e value of knowing the sym bols to this end.

Learning more about the ch art

6 Ask the learners to suggest why the ch art is divided into three

sections.

7 Having established that these three sections are vowels, diph

thongs and co nsonants, ask the learners why they think the vowels

are ordered as they are. You can help he re by asking why fvJ is at

the top and /* / at th e bottom, and why /i:/ is at th e front and /u:/ at

the back.

8 Give them time to discu ss these q uestions in pairs or small groups.

9 Establish the p rinciples of open and closed vowels (jaw position)

and front and back vowels (tongue position). Ask them to prod uce

contrasting so und s (e.g. /j:/ and /u-J, and / d and /sc/) and fe el the

difference in jaw an d tongu e position.

10 Ask the learners to observe the position of your lips as you

pronounce / i: / an d /u:/ respectively. Invite them to tr y to p ro duce fvJ with rounded Ups and /u:/ with spr ead lips. The re su ltant stra ng e

noises usually illustrate the im portance of lip position ver y effec

tively!

11 Ask the learn ers to sugg est why the first two lines of con son an ts are

in pairs (e.g. /p/ and /b/, /t/ an d /d/).

12 Establish the prin ciple of voiceless and voiced consona nts, /s/ and

/z/ are good examples for this purpose. You can ask th e learn ers to

place thei r finge rtips lightly on th eir th ro at (ro ughly in the lo ca tio n

of the Adam’s a pp le) and pronoun ce /s/ and then /z/. Ask them if

they can feel any difference. The vibration produced by /z/ as

opposed to /s/ is usually very striking. You can also ask th em how

Is/ can be heard If the re is no vibration. Placing the palm of the hand

in front of the mou th and then pronouncing /z/and /s/respectively

should clearly illustrate that more air is exhaled in th e prod uction

of /s/. You can use similar procedures with oth er pairs o f voiced a nd

voiceless consonants, although the fricatives work best because

they can be continued for a certain length of time unlike stop s such

as /p/ and /b/.

EXTENSION

One idea that we have found effective is to give learners their own

personal ‘mini-copy’ of th e phonemic cha rt and to ask them to sh ad e

in the phonemes th at they can p roduce relatively accurately. (They

will normally need your help to do this.) The unshade d p honem es arethe ones they still need to work on. In most cases, ther e will not be very

many of these, typically no more than ten. The effect of this exercise is

to focus learners on exactly which phonemes a re prob lematic and to

give each learner a finite goal in what might otherwise seem to be an

enormous and unidentifiable task



LEARNING THE INVENTORY OF SOUND S

You might find it helpful to refer to Learn er English (Swan and Smith,1987) or Teaching English Pronunciation (Kenworthy, 1987) for exam

ples of typica l pho nemic diffe re nc es betw ee n English an d a n um ber of

major world languages.

PHONEME EXCHANGE

Procedure

1 Give each learner a phoneme card. Tell them not to show it to the

other learners.

2 Go to each learner in turn and check that they can pron ou nce the

sound o n their card adequately.

3 Ask all the learners to s tand up. T his is a m ingling activity!

4 Each learner finds a partner and says their sound o ut loud to them

(more than once if necessary). The o ther learner say s th eir own

sound ou t loud to the first learner. The two learners th en exchange

cards and say the sound on their new card. Note that all the learne rs

should be working simultaneously.

5 The activity continues until all th e learne rs have attem pte d all of the

sounds. They may, of course, receive the same ca rd m ore tha n once.

6 Stop the activity at any time an d ask the learners to p ronou nce the

sound they now have on their card. Compare this w ith the p ronun

ciation a t th e beginning of th e activity.

USER-FRIENDLY TONGUE TW ISTE RS

Preparation

You need a sentence with frequent occu rrence of a sou nd which is

pr ob lemat ic for yo ur le arn ers , o r tw o so unds w hic h th ey te n d toconfuse. For example:

A/and A/:The thought of another Thursday like the last three didn't exactly thrillTheodore's mother.

/K/andfc/:Early morning workers walking to work.

It Is certainly possible to use well-known tongue twis ters to provide

pr ac tice of difficult sounds and so und con tr asts (e.g. ‘She se ll s se a

shells on the sea shore’ for distinguishing between /s/ and ///). If

learners find thes e at all manageable, they can be ve ry useful. Howev er,the whole point of tongue tw isters is that they a re tricky even for native

speakers. The idea that we pre sen t here is to p rovide sho rt, easlly-

3 2 ____________

LEVEL

Beginner * _____

FOCUS

Warm ing up;

Pronouncing phonem ic

symbols _______

MATERIALS

One se t of

ph onem e c ards

TIME

5-10 m inutes

33______________

LEVEL

An y

FOCUS

Pro duc ing difficult

s o u n d s

MATERIALS

Pract ice

sen ten ces —see

Prepa ra tion ______

TIME

Variable

2 9



TH t PRONUNCIATION BOOK

1 4 _____________

l e v e l

Any

FOCUS

/V _____ ____ ___

MATERIALS

A list of learners'

utterancesinvolving missing

or mispronounced/h/-'C an you 'elp

me?', *1don 't know

'ow to spell it.' ___

TIME

5-10 minutes

memorised practice m aterial which does n ot go out of its way to be as

difficult as possible, but co ntain s a high frequen cy of a certain sou nd,

or sounds. This material can b e u sed in the c lassroom and also offered

as takeaway pronunc iation practice.

Procedure# .

Learners practise indivldual.words, then p hrases, th en the comp lete

sentence with natural speed and rhythm.

VARIATION

Get them to write tongue tw isters for themselves an d ea ch othe r to practise. It may well t urn out th at th ese are less likely t o be bey ond

their productive capacity than th os e devised by native speakers.

/h/THROUGH WHISPERING

/h/ is commonly either om itted (for example, by m any n ative speakers

of French and Italian) or replace d by a velar fricative (for example, by

many native speakers of Spanish and Russian). Although this is un

likely to lead to any real misunderstanding, it is important because

many speakers of English seem to attach a high value to the c orrect use

of /h/, and learn ers m ay get a friendlier recep tion in som e qua rters if

they are able to achieve this.

Procedure v

1 Ask the learners to practise whispering, to themselves or to a

pa rtne r, just t o ge t them u se d to the idea , it may be useful to sugge st

a topic for them to wh isper abo ut, or, at low levels, a text to read.

2 They then practise whispering the following words, loudly and

forcefully.

heat hill hurtwho help happyhusband hard hothear hair hayhigh whole howC Longman Group UK Ud 1992

The vocabulary used may vary to suit the class, but choose w ords

like thos e abo ve w ith a variety of vowel sou nd s following the /h/.

3 Ask learners to say th ese w ords very slowly, startin g each word in a

whisper bu t switching the voice on (o r switching th e whisper off)

dur ing the vowel sound, wi thout paus ing. For example ,

heeeeee(in/iispered)eeeeeat(norma//>'). Note that it is easiest to

stretc h wo rds with long vowels.

4 Finally, ask them to repe at this pro cedu re, but to gradually speed up

until they are saying the wo rds at normal speed.



LEARNING THE INVENTORY OF SO UN DS

-5 The words prac t i sed can be put In to phrases and sentences for

fur ther prac t ice , and you can feed o th er /h / w ords in. Be carefu l not

to a sk t he l ea rne r s t o p ronounc e / h / in u ns t r e s sed w ords l ike t he he

o f ‘Is he there?’ w here the /h / i s no t norm al ly pronou nced .

RATIONALE

This proced ure i s based on th e fac t tha t /h / can b e regarde d n ot only

as an independent sound, but as a voice less onse t to the fo l lowing

vowel. W hispering is speaking w ithou t Voicing. (See 8.7 a nd 8.8 for

techniques to overcom e other prob lem s wi th /h / . )

TEST THE TEACHER 3.5

This i s a var iat ion on the use of minimal p a i rs wh ich turn s th e tab les

and a ll ows the l ea rne r s t o t e s t t he t eache r . The sam e p roced ure can be

applied to word s t ress pa t te rn s , in tonat ion , rhythm ic pa t te rn s in

sentences . For th is Imaginary c lass , the cont ras t ing sounds are / so /

and /a:/, and th e list might be:

oh or tso sawlow lawcoal callcoat caught

boat boughtC Longm an Group UK Ltd 1992

Procedure

LEVEL

Any

FOCUS

Could be an y

aspec t o f

p ro n u n c ia tio n .

This exam ple I s

c o n c e r n e d w i th

s o u n d c o n t r a s t s

MATERIALS

A list of minim al

pa ir s c o n ta in in g

s o u n d s t h a t y o u r

c l a s s con fu se

1 Write the lis t on th e bo ard as ab ove .

2 Invi te learners , one by one , to say an y one of the w ords on th e b oard .

Say tha t you will poin t to the w ord yo u he ar , and the y sho uld say

‘Yes’ if tha t w as th e w ord th ey said an d ‘No’ if it w asn ’t.

3 Poin t s ilen tly to the word you hea r , preferably wi th a po in ter ra the r

than your finger. If you aren ' t sure w he ther you have h ea rd , for

example, coat o r caught, po in t in be tw een th e two. If yo u hea r

som ething different, like curt for in s t ance , po in t som ew here e l s e onthe board .

4 If one of the learners says ‘No’ to yo ur res po nse , e i ther g ive them

more t ime s t ra ight away to t ry to re f ine the i r in tend ed pro nu ncia

t ion, or let them wait a while unti l the y a re ready.

VARIATION

Instead of Jus t a two-way soun d c on t ras t , you c ould u se th ree o r four

confusing soun ds for this act ivi ty.

RATIONALE

The learners a re in cont ro l and the teac he r ge ts the ‘No’ for be ing

wrong, which m akes I t, at least for many learn ers, a fair ly risk-free and

enjoyable way of t ry ing out the acc uracy of the i r pro nun cia t ion .

31



THE PRON UNCIATION' BO OK

3.6 _______

LEVEL

Any

FOCUS

Producing the

‘missing' member

of a voiced/

voiceless fricative

pair

MATERIALS

None

TIME

A couple of

minutes whenever

needed, for

example, in

connection with

vocabulary which

contains the

‘missing* sound

37 ______

LEVEL

Elementary ♦

FOCUS

Discriminating

between similar

sounds

MATERIALS

A worksheet

(se e examples

opposite) ___

TIME

10-20 minutes

FINDING MISSING SOUNDS: USING VOICING

For the sake of this example, o ur imaginary learners can pro duc e /( /

and /v/, /«/ and /z/. // / but no t /*/. r

Preparation

Keep a reco rd of words which contain the sounds learners are unable

to pr oduce , in this cas e we will deal with television, measure, pleasure,

garage.

Procedure

1 Ask the class to m ake a long /fffflfff/ sound, then /w w w vv /.

2 Ask them to repeat the sou nds, this time with their fingers In their

ears, so as to highlight the difference which voicing makes. Draw

their attention to the fact that nothing else, apart from voicing,

changes as they move from on e sound to the other.

3 Ask them to make a contin uou s nolse^whlch changes from /f/ to /v /

and back again, and again, and so on until they run out of breath. Tell

them th at in doing so, they should direct their attention to maintain-

ing the sam e articula tion ex cept for switching the voicing on and off.

4 Repeat the proces s so far with /s/ and /z/.5 Repeat the same proce ss with ///and /s'. They should be able to find

the m issing sound /s/ easily.

ODD ONE OUT

You can use this activity as a soun ds discrimination exercise or as p art

of a lesson on the simple past tense, the third person of the simple

pre se nt tense , o r plurals.

Procedure

1 Divide the class into sm all groups of three or four.2 Give each group a worksheet.

3 The learners in each g roup work together to agree which word in

each set Is different from the o thers and why. Note that there may be

several p ossible answ ers an d any valid answer Is acceptab le If the

learn ers can give a reason.

4 When all the groups have finished, the whole class compares

answers. Theclass disc ussion should lead to some generalisations

about the soun ds highlighted in the exercise. For example, voiced

sounds are followed by /d/ in regular past tense endings, whilst un -

voiced sounds arefollowed b y /t/. /d/ and /t/ are themselves followed

by /id / or /»d/. In the present tense, voiced soun ds are followed by

h i whilst unvoiced sounds are followed by /s/. /s/ and / z/ are th em-

selves followed by /iz /, as are palat ised so un ds in regular plurals.

32



LEARN ING THE INVENTORY OF SOUNDS

WM mM

EXTENSION

In th e p a r ti c u la r c a s e g iv e n in W o rk s h e e t A b elow, u s e th e p h o n e m ic

c h a r t (p a g e 5 ) fo r fu r th e r wo rk o n th e d i f fe re n t ty p e s o f e n d in g s a n d

the ir re la t ionsh ip wi th vo iced and vo ice less sounds , as the f i rs t two

l ines of con sona nts on the cha r t a re c lea r ly laid ou t in vo lce less /vo iced

p a ir equ iv alen ts .

W orksheet A

Find the Odd One O ut in the following exam ples. Say why it is different.

Note - th e difference is in th e ending of each word.

1 worked walked wounded w atched2 mended wanted needed gained

3 rained helped cooled robbed

4 roots looks loops moons

5 brushes mists glasses judges

6 bums hums hunts hurls

7 goes knows notes throws

Key

1 wo unde d (ends in/id/, th e others end in A/)

2 gained (ends in /d/. the othe rs end in Ad/)

3 helped (ends in A/, th e others end in/d/)

4 mo ons (ends in /z/. the o ther s end in /s/>

5 mists (ends in/s/. the other s end in Az/)

6 hun ts (ends in /s/, th e other s end in /z/)

7 no tes (ends in /s/, th e others end in /zA

© Longman Group UK Ltd 1992

Worksheet B

Find the Odd O ne O ut in the following exam ples.

Note - the difference is in the vowel or diphthong sound.

1 look foot pool cook 2 make tail pain fall3 five give dive hive 4 work bird turn call5 fern four port corn 6 neat need seat mate7 here fair rare bear

Key1 pool 2 fall 3 give 4 call 5 fern 6 mate 7 here© Longman Group UK L td 1992

3 3



THE PRONUNCIATIONBOOK

3L8 _______

LEVEL

Beginner ♦

fOCUS

Recognising and

producing

individual sounds

and combinations

of sounds in

words

MATERIALS

A set of phoneme

cards; Blu-tack or

setiotape

TIME

5-20 minutes

SOUNDS HANGMAN

You can use this activity as a wann er or a final activity. You can a lso

use it as a vocabulary revision activity, particularly at lower levels.

Preparation

Select a number of cards to form a particular word, for example,

/» Mnba/. Attach the card s face down to the board with blu-tack or

sellotape.

Procedure

1 Ask the learners to try and guess the sounds on th e card s and

pro duce th e hidd en word. They will no rm ally attem pt th e most

comm on (or familiar) sounds first, for example, /s/ o r /e/.

2 II a correc t sound is put forward, turn ove r the card In que stion and

reatta ch it to the board with the phonemic symbol now visible to th e

class. If a sound is pronou nced incorrectly, indicate this by shakin g

your head and saying quietly but audibly 'pronunciation'. If the

sound is almost correct, indicate this by an app ropriate gestu re and

Invite the learner to try again.

3 If an inco rrect suggestion is made, i.e. a corr ectly pro no un ced sou nd bu t not o ne on th e hidden c ards, you ca n u se th e sam e p ro cedure as

with the game 'Hangman'. With more mature learners, however, it

might be advisable to introduce either a time limit (five minu tes p er

word) o r a fixed number of attempted gu esses p er w ord (ten, for

example).

EXTENSION

Once the rules of the activity have been established, th e learners can

assume responsibility for making the hidden w ords themselves, with

each group taking it in turns to be at the board challenging the oth er

groups to guess their word.

VARIATION

The game can also be a team activity with each team taking it In turn s

to guess a sound and with points awarded to the first team to g uess the

hidden word correctly. It should be em phasised tha t phone mic sym

bo ls an d no t let ters are used in th is game.



LEARNING THE INVENTORY OF SOUND S

GUESS THE PHONEME

You can use th is as a s imple game o r w arm er , or a s a re la tively pain less

way of re inforc ing the pron uncia t ion of th e d i f ferent phonemes .

Procedure

1 Ask the learn ers to s tand up .

2 With b lu- tack or a safe ty-pin , a t ta ch a p ho nem e card to each learn

e r’s back.

3 Ask eve ryone to c i rcu l a te and a t t em pt t o gues s t he phoneme on the i r

back by ask in g o th e r le a rn e rs li k e th is : ‘Is it /i :/ ?‘. T hey are not

a l lowed, of cou rse , to say ‘W hat p ho ne m e have I got on my back?’.

4 Th e ac tiv i ty f in ishes when a ll the lea rn ers hav e guessed the ir own

ph onem es.

INITIAL'A'

You can use th is ac t iv i ty a t most lev e ls by v arying the complexi ty of the

vocabu lary involved, but it may be pa r t icu lar ly app ropr ia te a t lower

levels where i t can he lp to prevent cons is tent mispronuncia t ion of

init ial ‘a’. You can use i t as an a ct iv i ty in i ts own right or as a quick

warmer .

Procedure

1 W rite up on the b oard a shor t l i s t of exa m ple w ords (e.g .apple, army,

able, about, air, all, any) wh ich exem plify seve n different pronuncia

tion s of the le tter ‘a ’ in initial po sitio n .

2 Divide the c lass in to smal l gro up s o r p a i rs and ask the learners to

decide how eac h word i s pron ou nce d. You ca n te ll them a t th i s s tage

tha t each ‘a ’ is pron oun ced d ifferently.

3 Listen to their suggest ions. C or rec t pro nu ncia t ion if necessary.

Establish th at the seven sou nd s are: /a*/, /a:/, /ei/, /a/, /ea/, /a:/ and /e/.

4 Give the class a longer lis t of w o rd s b eginn ing w ith ‘a’ and ask them

(again In smal l groups o r pa i rs ) to de c id e wh ich ca tegory each of the

wo rds be longs to . This can e i the r b e d on e b y d iv id ing the board intocolumns headed by the d i f ferent sounds and invi t ing learners to

com e up and ad d w ords to the a pp ro pr ia te columns , or by g iv ing

each g roup a shee t of paper wi th th e sev en colum ns on . One poss ib le

advantage of the la t te r approach i s tha t the resul t s can then be

displayed as a permanent record and added to whenever new

vocab ulary w ith ini tial *a‘ is enc ou nte red .

A certain am oun t of tr ial and e rro r is a n integral part of this activi ty!

You can also encou rage the lea rne rs to look for part icular pat terns in

the pro nu nciatio n of initial ‘a’. For exa m ple , th e te nd enc y of *ar-‘ before

a consonant or consonant c lus ter to be p ronou nced /a: /, and the

tenden cy of un stressed ini tial ‘a ’ to b e p ron ou nc ed /a/ .

3 3 _______________

LEVEL

Beginner +

FOCUS

Prod ucing •

Individual sound s

MATERIALS

A se t of phoneme

car ds; Blu-tack

TIME5 minutes

3.10_____________

LEVEL

Beginner ♦

FOCUS

Different ways of

pro nouncin g ‘a‘ in

initial pos itionMATERIALS

A list of wo rds

exemplifying

different

pro nuncia tions of

initial ‘a ‘

TIME

35



H H i ■ ■


3J1_________

l e v a

Beginner *

FOCUS

Recognising

minimaldifferences

between

individual

phonemes

MATERIALS

A minimal pairs

worksheet (see

Example tasks

below)

TIME

10-20 minutes

EXTENSION

You can work in the sam e way on othe r lette rs in initial position .

SOUNDS DISCRIMINATION EXERCISE

Tills activity can help to sensitise learners to minimal differences

bet ween ind ividual ph onemes and enab le th em t o rec ognis e sounds in

context. It can be regar ded a s an initial stag e in th e pr oc es s of learning

to produce these sounds accurately. You can u se it as a warm er o r as

a remedial slot dealing with a pa rticular prob lem . It Is also useful a s a basic listening ex ercise in te rm s of aural training .

Procedure

1 Give each learner a copy of the w orksheet and en sure that they

understand you are going to read contrasting sound s or wo rds aloud

to the class and that they must decide which sound is being u ttered

each time and ind icate this by ticking the a pp rop riate colum n next

to the number.

2 Read the sounds o r words aloud, pausing for a sh ort time betw een

each one to give the learners time to make a d ecision.

3 Check what the learn ers have ticked. Repeat, If ne ces sary , any item s

that are causing problems.

EXTENSION

An activation stage can follow. Depending on the level of the class,

further examples can be done in small pairs or groups, with the

learners taking It in turn s to play the role of th e teach er. Th at is, on e

learner reads out a list of sounds or words and the others tick the

sounds that they hear. A valuable side-product of this stage may be

that the learners will tick a sound that the spea ker d id no t Intend them

to tick and will do this because of inaccurate pronunciation by the

speaker. This often h as th e effect of focusing attention on the pron un

ciation of a particula r soun d.

Example tasksTick the sound you hear Teacher reads1 M hi M2 te l Id Id

3 Ix l h i hi

4 Id Id Id

5 Id te l /*/ 6 h i h J h i

7 m ni Ml

6 / c i / ltd le d

9 Id tfl ¥ 10hi N ni

C Longma n Group UK Ltd 1992



Tick the word you hear "Te ach er reads

1 work walk woke walk

2 main mine moan main

3 herd hard hurt hurt

4 pole Paul pale pole

5 fair four fear fear

O Longman Cro up UK Ltd 1992

S O U N D S V O C A B U L A R Y G A M E

You can us e t h i s ac t iv i ty a s a w armer o r a s a f inal act iv i ty in wh ichrecen t ly t aug h t v oca bu la ry can be p rac t i sed o r r ecyc led . It a l so he lps

t o f o c u s l e a r n e r s o n t h e a c t iv e p r o d u c t io n o f w o r d s t h e y m a y re c og n is e

b u t n o t y e t b e a b le to p ro n o u n c e accu ra te ly .

Preparation

You wi ll s im p ly n eed to d ec ide o n a num ber o f gene ral vocabu la ry

cate go ries (e .g . t ra n sp o rt , na t ion al i t ies , food) . Note - i t is advisable to

t ry th i s yo u rs e l f f i r s t. Ju s t to e nsu re tha t the re a re words con ta ining

e a c h s o u n d in e a c h c a t e g o ry .

Procedure

1 W ri te a t l ea s t s ix g ene ra l vocab u la ry ca tego r ie s on the boa rd . (See

e x a m p l e b e l o w . )

2 D i vi de t h e l e a r n e r s i n t o te a m s o f th r e e o r f o u r a s a p p r o p ri a te .

3 T e l l t h e m t h a t y o u a r e g o i n g t o g iv e t h e m a s o u n d a n d t h a t t h e y h a v e

to f ind a w ord con ta in ing th i s sou nd fo r each o f the s ix catego rie s.

Th e f i r s t t eam to do s o success fu l ly wil l ga in one po in t .

4 Give the m th e f i r s t soun d (e .g . / i: /) .

5 Check tha t th e an sw ers g iven by the f ir s t t eam to p rov ide a comple te

se t o f ans w ers a re co r rec t . I f they a re , wr i te up the i r words on the

b o a rd a n d a w a rd th e m a p o in t. If a n y o f th e s e t of si x answ ers is

inco r rec t , ind ica te tha t th e re i s an inco r rec t word , bu t do no t spec ify

which one a t th i s s tage . Ano the r t eam may now sugges t the i r

answ ers a nd wi l l s co re on e po in t if the i r se t i s co r rec t . At th i s po in t ,d e a l w i t h a n y e r r o r s i n t h e p r e v io u s s u g g e st io n s .

6 Co n t inue wi th fu r th e r soun ds . The team wi th the mos t po in t s a t the

e n d i s t h e w i n n e r .

The b oa rd m igh t look som eth ing l ike th i s a f te r two rounds 'u s ing the

soun ds / i :/ and /e / , fo r example :

Food __ Language Part o f Body Sport Animal Colour _______

fvj: ch ee se Greek cheek skiing sheep green

/c/: brea d French leg tennis hen red

3.12____________

LEVEL

Elem entary +

FOCUS

Pronouncing

known vocabulary

MATERIALS

None_____________

TIME

10-20 m inutes



THf. PRONUNCIATION BOOK

3.13__________

LEVELEiemtnUO'*

FOCUSRecognising

sounds:

Combining sounds

Into words

MATERIALSA list of word*

transcribed into

phonemic script

and then jumbled

into anagrams

(see examples

below)

TIME

10-20 minutes ■

SOUNDS ANAGRAM RACE

You can use this exercise for a num ber of purp ose s. It can function as

agame or a warmer (a time limit may help in this r espe ct). You can u se

it as a means of recycling previously taught vo cabulary. You can a lso

use it as a relatively painless way of focusing on combinations of

sounds that may be problematic for a particular lea rne r or gro up of

learners (for example, consonant clusters In initial position).

Preparation

Nothing beyon d making lis ts of an ag rams.

Procedure

1 Divide the learners into pairs or small groups.

2 Give each pair or group a c opy of the list of anagram s (alternatively,

to save paper, write It on the boa rd o r show It on a n OHP).

3 Ask the learners to reorder the sounds in the sou nd anagram s to

prod uce words. A c er ta in am ount of dis cu ss io n and experim enta

tion will be necessary, and ther e may also be sev eral po ssibilities.

Ask the learners to note down the p honem es In the co rrect o rder

first and then to write the corres pon ding w ord next to It in normalscript.

4 When all the pairs or groups ha ve com pleted th e exercise, ask the

learners to come out and write their suggested answers on the

bo ard. The c la ss as a w hole c an th en dis cuss w heth er th e an swers

are co rrect.

Examples (all verbs)

e t a s s <%

mas r pi

d n e t i n

l | a n ei p m

s kr we t I

Key:

suggest allow

promise remember

intend discuss

complain introduce

request predictC Longman G roup UK Lid 1992

au L 0

m m r I a b e

A i s s k d

8 u : s j d i r t n

k t p r i d e



LEARNING THE INVENTORY OF SOU ND S

V S O UN D S BINGO

Preparation

3.14

LEVEL

Beginner*

Pre pa rat ion t ime ca n b e red uce d i f you give all the learners the same

Sou nds Bingo wo rksheet and a sk them to delete at random five sounds

b efo re t h e ac tiv ity s ta rts . Th is ob v ia te s th e n eed to p ro d u ce a diffe rent

card for each l earner .

Procedure

1 Give eac h learner a cop y of the Sounds Bingo worksheet (see

example below).

2 Tell the learne rs that you wil l random ly prono unce sou nds from the

p h o n em ic c h a rt (e .g . N um ber 1 - / e / ; N um ber 2 - / m f ) . If they h ear a

soun d which i s on the i r ca rd , t hey shou ld wr i te t he cor responding

nu m ber nex t t o t he so und . Keep a num bered l is t of t he sounds you

p ro n o u n c e in th e o rd e r y o u p ro n o u n ce th em . T his help s with

checking the l earners ’ work .

3 T he w inner i s the f i rs t one to num ber correct ly all the sounds on their

c a rd .

4 Check th at the winn er has cross ed o ut the correct sounds. If not , the

gam e continues .

FOCUS

Recognising

sounds

MATERIALS

One Soun ds Bingo

worksheet per

learner __________

TIME15-30 m inutes

e i a i 3 : 0

1 8 i : A u

b k u : z I

Fig. 5 Example of a Sounds Bingo cardO Long man Gro up UK Ltd 1992



HHKHpMHMhBHmSKImmE

THEPRONUNCIATION BOOK

VAWATiOMS

I The same procedure can be applied with minimal pairs/minimalgroups replacing the singlesounds on the bingo cards, for example:

work walk week wokeput port pert putthat heart herd hadfill feel full foolpail pole pull poolC Longpuui Group UK Ltd 1892

Again, ask the learners to delete at randomfive of the words beforestarting the game. Thisshould ensure that all the cards are different.

2 SoundsBingo can also be played In small groups with one learnerreading outthe list of sounds or words to the re st of the group. Thisbrings a production element to the exercise and also a degree of peermonitoring of pronunciation. There is likely to be considerablehealthydiscussion about the pronunciation of various sounds!



CHAPTER 4

Spelling to sound and back again

SOUNDS MAZE

Preparation

Ten m inutes to prepare the maze.

Procedure

1 Divide the clas s into pairs.2 Give ea ch pair a maze workshe et. (See Fig. 6 below.)

f r e n d i I n a s ae t

L V n A r u : m j e s i k e m t I i P as u : r L P ae

k e 0 b l i : d z i p i: r

s t D P 01 01 i r P m e t

i s P I l [ t a i m t i : n

b i l d i 0 r e i A l d D

I i : r t 01 k k ae b l ae k

L a i t b A l b e i P n 31 t

I l n t e i A l i: t s k au

t r e i n t r A k X a i i : m

i m P D s I b i l i t I

4 J _____________

LEVELBeginner ♦ _______

FOCUS

Recognising phonem ic

symbols;Relationships

be tw een sound sand spelling _____

MATERIALS

One Sounds Mazeworksheet per

pair of learners

TIME20-30 minutes

Fig. 6 Example of a Sounds Maze worksheetC L ongman Gro up UK Ltd 1992

41



THE PRONUNCIATION BO OK

42___________

LEVEL

Beginner*

FOCUSRelationships

betw een so unds

end spelling;

Practice in the

pron un ciatio n of

sounds in words

MATERIALS

One set of

ph on em e ca rd s

and one se t of

word cards per

grou p of 4

learners

TIME

15-20 minu tes

3 Tell the class that the phonemic maze contains, for example, the

names of ten countries. These are hidden in the m aze and may be

horizontal, vertical o r diagonal. They m ay also be from left to right

or right to left, and from to p to bo ttom or bottom to top.

4 The first pair to discover all ten w ords a re the w inners.

PHONEMIC SNAP

Preparation

Fifteen minutes to p repare t he word cards .

Procedure

1 Divide the learners into g roup s of four, preferably with each group

around a table. All the g roup s work simu ltaneously.

2 Give each group a set of pho nem e card s and a set of wo rd cards. The

word cards could contain recen tly presen ted vo cabulary and could

thus b e a means of relnforcing/practislng It. The card s could, on the

other hand, also contain new items of vocabulary, thus introducing

a more cognitive element to t h e game, In which learners a re required

to make approp riate guesses abo ut th e pronu nciation of new vocabu

lary items.3 Ask each group to place b oth sets of ca rds face down on th e table,

with the phonem e card s on th e left. In turn , the learners turn over

first one phoneme card and then on e word card. They continue to

do this until the phon eme on the upturn ed p honem e card matches

one of the sound s contain ed in the w ord on th e word card . At this

po in t, an y o ne of th e four m ay sh o u t ‘Snap*. If th e group agrees th at

the call Is correct, then the learne r wh o called ‘Snap’ keeps the two

cards In question. In the eve nt of disagreem ent they sho uld consult

you!

4 When the bottom of each pack has been reach ed, the cards are shuf

fled and the game continu es.

5 At the end of the game, the learne r with the m ost cards Is the winner.



S P E L LIN G T O S O U N D A N D B A C K A G A IN

/ RHYMING SOUNDS

Preparation

43________

LEVEL

Elementary +

W rite an ex am ple of a word-ending (including a vowel) In bold phone

mic script a t the top of each she et of A3 paper.

Procedure

1 Take on e she et of A3 pap er as an exam ple and Invite the learners to

think of a word or words ending in the phonem e or phonem es shownat th e top of the sheet.

2 Elicit co rre ct examples from the lea rne rs in ordinary spelling on each

sh ee t. (See examples below.)

3 Divide the learners into groups of three o r four.

4 Give eac h group a sheet.

5 Th ey add as m any words to the rhym ing lists as they can, checking

in th e dictionary or with you as req uired.

6 When each group has exhausted a part icular sound, they pass the

sheet on to the next group and this grou p adds any new words they

have before passing it on to the next grou p and s o on.

7 Display the sheets prom inently in the classroom. L earners can then

add to them whenever an appro priate new item of vocabulary comesup. The visual element of the display Is intended to reinforce the pat

tern s in question and the sou nd/spelling relationships which they

exemplify.

FOCUS

Links betw een

sounds and

spelling;

Recognising

sound/spelling

patt e rns

MATERIALS

Several shee ts of

A3 paper, Blu-tack

or similar

TIME

Ongoing ove r a

whole course

Examples

/-ait/ 1-onJ

night taught

light bought

white fort

site taut

bright sort

polite nought

/-ein/ f-3'J

reign borerain boarlane lawentertain roarexplain core

plane four



THE PRONUNCIATION K

4A ____________

LEVEL

Any

FOCUS

Relationships

between

pronuncia tion and

spelling __

MATERIALS

Marker pens of asmany different

colours as

possible; Large

sheets of paper

(flipchart pap er is

Ideal); Some wall

space to stick

them on

TIME

Ongoing

throughout a

course

ONGOING VOCABULARY RECORD

Procedure

1 Use the she ets of p ap er to make an ongoing record of words

introduced or p ractised during a course. You can do this during

class time or as part of you r own preparation. Just write the words

one after ano ther, b ig enoug h to be seen clearly from all parts of the

classroom . Use norm al spelling, but colour code the vowels, so tha t

identical vowel sou nd s ap pe ar in the same colour regardless of how

they a re spe lt. For exam ple, th e ‘a’ ofwant, the ‘ou ’ of cough and the‘o ' of lot will all be the sam e co lour. Similarly, the ‘a’ ofalong, th e ‘ur’

of Saturday and th e ‘er* of butter will sh are the sa me colour.

2 You can indicate str es se d syllables by underlining, italicising, etc.

EXTENSION

Once the system is initiated, it can b e taken over by the learne rs, who

can use dictionaries to check pronunciations. The charts can be used

both overtly , fo r part ic ula r exercise s, and/o r as wallpaper who se

pattern s and co lours subco nsciously imprint themselves.

VARIATION

Limit the use of colour coding to certain vowels only, or apply it to

some conson ant so und s too . All the letters of a word which are notcolour coded can be w ritten in black.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT V

This idea was suggested by the Silent Way word charts and by the u se

of periphera l visuals in Suggestopedia.



SPELL IN G T O S O U N D A N D B A C K A G A IN

V SOUNDS SEARCH

You can use Sounds Search as a warmer or as a final activity. Like

Sounds Hangman (3.8), it can also b e us ed for vocabulary revision.

Procedure

1 Divide the c lass into groups of thre e o r four.

2 Give each group a set of phonem e cards and ask them to spre ad the

cards ou t on the table or on th e floor.

3 Read ou t a list of words.4 As each wo rd is read out, each gro up atte m pts to ‘spell’ it as quickly

as possible with the phonem e cards.

5 The first group to make the w ord correc tly gets a point.

6 The complexity of the vocabulary can dearly be varied and you

should make sure that the re are sufficient phoneme c ards In each set

to cover the w ords you read o u t For example, if a word contains two

/i/ sound s, then the re should be at least two A/ card s in the set.

VARIATION .

In small classes th e same activity can b e don e on an individual basis.

4jj_____________

LEVEL

Beginner* _____

FOCUSRecognising

individual sou nd s

and relating

sound s to spelling

MATERIALS

Set of phonemecards pe r group

of learners;

List of word s

TIME

5-15 minutes



THE PRONUNCIATION BOO K

4 6 ___________

LEVEL

Etcmeo l i ry *

FOCUS

Relationshipsbetween sounds •nd spelling

MATERIALSA set of phoneme

cardsendatable per group of 4

learners

TIME

15—45 minutes

SOUNDS SCRABBLE

This activity gives learners practice in combining sounds to formrecognisable utteran ces. It can also Increase their awareness of fre

quen t ph eno mena, su ch a s th e representatio n of final ‘-er’ in spelling by

the phoneme /a/. You can use Sounds Scrabble as a wanner (given prior fam iliarity with th e phonemic symbols), as a quick revisionactivity (fo r new lexis), as a stage in a lesson dealing with soun ds and

spelling, or as a language game at any app ropriate stage in a longer

lesson.

Procedure

1 Divide the learners into groups of four, preferably round small

tables.2 Appoint a s core r for each group.

3 Give each group a se t of phoneme cards.4 They p lace the set of cards face down on the table. Each learner in

tur n selects six card s from the pack, leaving twenty cards in the pack.

Tell everyon e to ensure th at othe r members of the group cannot see

their cards.

5 Player 1in each g roup then attem pts to make a word of two syllables

or mo re on the table. If this player is unable to make a word of any sort

with the car ds they have, then they discard one card by placing it atthe bottom of the pack and taking one new card from the top of the

pack. The game then pas se s to Player 2 in each group. If, however,

Player 1 can make a word, then one point is scored for each card

used . Player 1 then takes th e same num ber of cards from the top of

the pack that they have used to make their word and the game passes

to Player 2 in each group.

6 The o ther players then take it in turn to extend the word or build on

it crossw ise, by including at least one so und used in the first word,

and s o on in sub sequen t turns . (See Fig. 7 oppo site for an example of

what a g rid might look like.)

7 When all the card s in the pack have been used, the winner is the playerwith th e highest points total.

8 Your role is to monitor the groups, ensure that the words are cor

rect and help any learners who may need assistance.

EXTENSION

Learners transcribe some of the longer or more Interesting words intoco rre ct English spelling. -This can be m ade m ore interesting if groups

transcribe the words from anothe r group 's grid. This follow-up activity

gives further practice in sensitising learners to the relationships between so unds an d spelling in English.



S P E LL IN G T O S O U N D AND B A C K AGAIN

Fig. 7 Example of a Sounds Scrabble grid

USING SOUNDS FOR WORD BUILDING

You can use this activity both to practise the sou nds of known words

and to encourage learners to exp eriment an d ge nerate new words. It is

part ic ula rly fruitfu l in th e a rea of hom ophones (e .g. blue/blew). The

exercise is a cognitive, student-cen tred activity and you may find tha t

it takes quite a lot of time. Your own role is as instigator and monitor,

giving help whe re needed.

Procedure

1 Divide th e learners into pairs or sm all group s.

2 Give each group the same collection of two or three 'sound frames'.For example:

An—t/ /pH/ /p—n/ /s—tf A>—d/ /T—1 / /k—t/ The dash rep resents a missing vowel or diphthon g sound.

3 Tell the learners to experiment by trying out different vowel or

consonant sounds in the 'sound frames' you ha ve given them. At

first, they will probably com e up with a few familiar wo rds. In the

cas e of /m—t/, for example, the se migh t b e /mitt/ and /met/.

4 Ask them to note down both the phonem ic spelling of the w ords they

think are possible and th en the normal spelling of each word. After

they have exhausted known words, they should produce some

further tentative examples. In the ca se of /m—t/, they m ay possibly pro duce /m en /, /mutt/ a nd /m et/ . Here th e norm al sp el ling may be

more problematic and they may need recou rse to a dictionary to

check the v arious possibilities. You may find they will also ask you

questions, such as 'Is there such a w ord as moot?'

_____________

LEVEL

Elemen tary ♦

FOCUS

Relationships

be tw ee n sou ndsan d spelling

MATERIALS

A list of ‘soun d

frames* (see

exam ples below);

A num ber of

monolingual

dictionaries

TIME

20-45 minutes

47



T H £ PR O N U N O A T >ON BOO K

5 Ask the groups to note dow n the meaning of any new words.

6 The groups pool their answers on the board. At this point, any

spelling mistakes can be corrected (by oth er learners preferably but

by you If nec es sa ry ) an d an y pro blems with meaning can also be

dealt with.

VARIATIONS

1 The activity can also be turned Into a wo rd game, particularly at

higher levels, by awarding poin ts for each co rrect suggestion. The

group with the most c orrec t w ords wins the game.

2 Give different 'soun d fram es' to different groups, thu s extending theeventual word pool on the board.

4 . 8 ___________

LEVELElementary ♦

FOCUS

Relationships

between sou nd s

and spelling

MATERIALS

An empty

crossword grid;

A set of du es (See

Fig. 8a )

TIME30-45 minutes

SOUNDS CROSSWORDS

This activity can form lhe m ajor part of a lesson de voted to practising

sounds . It can also be used as a means of practising or revising items

of vocabulary, particularly as regards their pronunciation.

Procedure

1 Divide the class into pairs or small groups.

2 Give each g roup a co py of the cros sword grid and a set of clues.

3 The learners then work on the task using dictionaries (preferably

monolingual) as required. Ensure that they know they are suppo sed

to fill the grid in using phon em ic sym bols and not letters. They will

normally arrive at the word in question first and then discuss,

perh aps ex pe rimen ting with th e pron unc iation , exactly ho w it is

prono un ce d an d wha t symbo l is required .

4 Monitor prog ress as necessary.

5 Th e groups compare their answers.

VARIATION

An additional 'information gap ’ elem ent can be introduced by providing each group or pair with some of the clues only. They then need to

interact with other grou ps In orde r to com plete the puzzle.



S P ELL ING T O S O U ND A ND B A C K A GA I N

Clues:

ACROSS

I Capital of France4 Name and —7 it is the editor's job to — a newspaper8 Yellow fruit9 Ordinary10 A rough pathII The person who sends a letter or

parcel14 To make tighter17 Past tense of see19 Past tense of eat20 Past tense of film23 Electrical wire26 Dreadful27 Way out28 Britain is an —29 Avoid30 Illness313rd person singular of swim

OOWN

1 You should report a robberyto the —2 An inhabitant of Rome

3 Middle

4 Opposite o f defended

5 Write again6 A short stay12 Each13 A nightmare is a bad —15 Part of the eye16 Infinitive of 4 down17 Speak18 Similar to should as in 'I — to go’20 Opposite of enemy21 Opposite of wins22 Sons and —23 All — from Heathrow are subject

to delay24 Electricity is a formof —25 Inhabitants of Saudi Arabia

Fig. 8a Example of a Sounds Crossword© Longman C roup UK Lid 1992



■ H

I ■ S Q b H C B I ■

THE raONUNCtATIQN BOOK

p | r I 1s4

0 at

r 3•

s

a au 7

e Idj I t i: D

•t m nit

lae r &i; 8 % r ae £ a i 3:

n

s e n “d a14

tita i t

i t

0 n

I

V r17

S«to: t

■

r i:ite i t d: ae

•f I "t m ”d i L24

e k 2 t

s

r u;26

o: H 0 L n aun e H z I t

28ai L e l n

n I 26

a j V 31 t__ i

”d B Z i: z31

s 1|w I1m z

Fig. 8b Example of a Sounds Crossword (Key)

€>Longman C rou p UK Ltd 1992

4.9 PHONEMIC WORD RACE

LEVEL

Beginner t

FOCUS

Relationships

between s ounds

and spelling

You can use this activity to sensitise learners to the relationships

be tween so unds and spe lling , par tic ularly the diffe rent w ays In which

a specific soun d may be rep rese nted in written form. It is also a useful

me ans of recycling and revising previously learnt vocabulary.

ProcedureMATERIALS

None

TIME

15-30 minutes

1 Divide the learners Into pairs or grou ps of three.

2 Set a time limit, ideally fairly sho rt, such as 5 min utes, as the ac tivity

Is Intended to be a race.

3 Ask each pair or group to e lect a ‘scribe'.

4 Ask the learners to think of as many words a s they can containing a

pa rticula r so und (e.g. /®/) in th e time available. T he sc ribes sho uld

write down the words for their groups.

5 When the time is up, the pair or group with the largest number of

correct w ords Is awarded a point.

6 Continue with other sounds.



■ ■ ■ ■

CHAPTER 5

Sounds in sequence

ASSIMILATION AWARENESS EXERCISE

This exercise is intended to sensitise learners to changes to and

disappearances of sounds as a result of their environment. It can be

part of a les son focusing on oral fluency and natural rhythm through

linking words together. Learners are often unaware, for example, that

th e final /t/o f ’firs t’ in first light disappears in rapid speech. You may find

it helpful to contrast the different sounds of Hrst light with the

/t / of ‘first’ pronou nced c learly and then with the same sound disap

pearing.

Procedure

1 Give each le arne r a copy of this worksheet containing the following

(example) questions:

In rapid speech:

1 When is a AV a An/?

2 When is a l\l a /p/?

3 When is a Id/ a /b/?

4 When is a /§/ a ///?

5 When is a I j J a /j/?

6 When is a/n/a/ij/?

7 When is a/d/a/a/?

8 When is a A/ a /k/?

C Longman Group UK Ltd 1992

2 Give each learner a jumbled list of examples where such assimila

tions take place.

5.1

Examplesten green bottlesten pin bowlingshe has. has she?this shirtgood boygood girt

good morning

she was born inBirmingham

the right keywhite paperten playersbit part

speed boatG Longm an Grou p UK Ltd 1992

LEVELElementary •

FOCUSAwareness of

features of

connected speech

MATERIALSA worksheet with

tasks and

examples (see

below) _________

TIME10-20 minutes



THf PRONUNCIATION BOOK

5 7 ___________

LEVEL

Elementary ♦FOCUS

Producing weak

forms

MATERIALS

None

TIME10*20 minutes

S Read aloud the list of examples. You can either read the examples inthe order given in the worksheet above (for recognition purpo sesonly), or in a Jumbled order for a more demanding listening activity.

4 Ask the learners to work in pairs. Give each p air a Jumbled list offurther examples where the above assimilations occur. One learner

reads the examples aloud and together they match the exampleswith the numbers above.

Further exampleshot pie this shop

bed manners goodgoal

in Bolton hot grogdoes she? ten girlsOLongnwn Group UK Ud 1992

5 Class discussion. You may need to give further examples. You may

also need to explain why this happens! One explanation is tha t th e

speech organs get Into position for the following sound and thu s the

first sound may take on some of the characte ris tics of the following

sound. For example, In good morning, the lips may be closed during

'good' in anticipation of th e following /m/, causing th e /d/ sound to

resemble /b/.

6 Ask the learners to listen to what happens to the final /i/ soun d of the

first word In the following examples.

first time last chance first lightnext week best team ghost traindust sheet worst type just onefCtongmnn Group UK lid 1992

7 Production. Ask learners to practise saying the examples. Empha

sise the element of speed - the final /(/ disappears in rapid speech.

PRODUCING WEAK FORMS

One problem for foreign learners of English Is tha t they often tend to

give full value to unstresse d syllables, particu larly tho se which containthe unstressed /a/ sound. You can use this exercise to heighten their

awareness of the frequency of unstressed syllables and also to im

prove th e rhythm of their spee ch in short ut terances containing

unstressed and elided sounds.

Preparation

You will need a list of phrases, expressions and short sentences

containing unstressed syllables (see examples opposite). Write up

your examples in phonemic script on the board (10-12 examples should

be sufficient).



H H H H H ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ I

Examples:

epi : sa ke ik

f | |S §t j i ps

tentawAn

apaekitaknsps

a b D t l a b i a

brednbAta

iDralnha.dxred n w a i t

f a i v tan a in

hizframlAndnalaufabred

twentitatu:

Procedure

1 Ask the learners to try saying the above expressions to each o ther in

pair s or sm all groups . Th is is to give th em th e opport unity to wo rk

ou t how to say them and to experiment with producing th e sounds

in the relative security of a small group ra the r than before th e whole

class.2 Go round the groups and monitor progress.

3 Invite suggestions from the class as a whole. If any suggestions

contain a so und which is not in the tran scription (e.g. pronouncing

the /d/ Inand), you can qu estion this. 'Why are y ou saying and? There

isn 't a /d/ sound, Is there?’

EXTENSIONFor furthe r practice of the production of weak, un stres sed forms, you

can play a simple game. Start by saying 'I went to the sup erm arket and

bought a bott le of wine'. The sentence now goes ro und the who le class

with each learner repeating your first sentenc e and then adding a new

phrase o f thei r own. Thus the se co nd learn er m ight s ay , ‘I wen t to th e

supe rm arket and bought a bo ttle of wine and a p acket of crisps*. The

third learner might go on, ‘I went to the sup erm arket an d bought a

bott le of wine, a pa ck et of crisp s a nd a loaf o f b read’, an d so on un til

every learner has contributed, /my is not allowed! /av / is tolerated , but

/©/ is preferred! (Of course , /bv/ is cor rect befo re a vow el sound .)



S3 ___________

LEVEL

B t f i n n c f «

FOCUS

Stressed syllable*

and weak forms

MATERIALS

Tape recorder;

Blank tape (more than one recorder

and several tapes

(or the Extension

option):

Transcript of

recording;

Language

laboratory for

Extension option

TIME

30-60 minutes

USING LISTENING MATERIAL

Preparation

You will need to record a sh ort piece of off-air listening m aterial (2-3

minutes maximum) and to prep are a tran scrip t of th e text. You can use

short recordings of authen tic listening m aterial (for example, th e news

headlines from the radio) to heighten learners’ awareness of stress

placem ent and th e w id esp re ad occu rren ce of u n stre ssed syllable s

(especially /»/) in English.

Procedure

1 Give the learners a copy of the tap esc ript. Divide them into pairs and

ask them to mark where the y think the main stre sse s will fall.

2 Go through the learne rs' suggestions w ith th e who le grou p. Some

discussion of why the y think the stre ss es will fall in the places th ey

suggest will normally be profitable (imp ortan t wo rds, the last w ord

in the sentence, the main verb as op pose d to an auxiliary, a con tras

tive stress, and so on).

3 Tell them that they are now going to l is ten to the tape. Ask them to

compare the stress placement on the tape w ith the stres s placemen t

they have predicted.

4 Play the tape. You will proba bly ne ed to play it more th an once, and

poss ib ly se vera l t im es . \

5 Ask the learners to com pare the ir ans w ers in pairs or small groups.

6 Check that all the learners have the corre ct answ ers. Play the tape

again if there are an y proble ms.

7 Now ask the learners to listen to th e tap e again and to un derline all

the weak /o/ sounds that oc cur between the stress ed syllables.

8 Play the tape (more than once if necessary). Get the learners to

compare their answers and check tha t their suggest ions are co rrect .

There will normally be a large num ber of unstre ssed /a/ s ound s.

9 Ask the learners to group the u nstresse d words according to the ir

function. This should p rodu ce categ ories suc h as prep ositions (e.g.

to, from, of, at, and for ), conjunctions (and, but, that), auxiliary verbs

(be, do, have) and some modal auxiliaries (should, could, would,

must). At this stage it is also w orth discussing when such wo rds are

stresse d (e.g. for em phas is or co ntrast).

EXTENSION

The learners can each be asked to reco rd the text onto a blank tape and

then to com pare their version with the original. You can also ask them

to ‘shado w read ’ the text, i.e. read it alou d as the text is being p layed

on the tape recorder (see 7.8 Shadowing). If you have access to a

language laboratory, this is an ideal venue for these activities, as

learners can work at their own pace and repeat the ir own recording asoften as they feel necessary. You can also record the text onto the



SOUN DS IN SEQUENCE

l abo ra to ry mas te r t ape In sho r t sec t ion s , wh ich th e l ea rne rs can then

repea t imm ed iate ly a f te rwards . Th rou gho u t th i s ac t iv i ty , the pa r t i cu

la r focus i s on s t re s s p lacemen t and w eak fo rms , bu t o th e r a sp ec t s o f

p ro nuncia ti on a re a lso bein g w ork ed on .

HOW MANY WO RDS?

When confron ted wi th conve rsa t iona l Eng l ish spoken a t n o rma l sp eed ,

many learners f ind It ex trem ely d ifficu lt to In terp re t u t tera nc es w hicha r e w ell w i th in t h e i r c o m p e t e n c e a s r e g a r d s t h e g r a m m a r a n d v o c a b u

lary they hav e learn t .

Examples

What d'you want?

I wouldn't have done that.

How much tonger’re you gonna be?

Have you see n her yet?

The p rob lem Is exace rba ted by teach ing wh ich on ly p re s en ts s lowed-

down , ove r -a rt l cu la ted mode ls where ev e ry w ord an d soun d i s c lea r ly

ident if iab le . Here we suggest a w ay of devo ting a few m inutes f rom t ime

to t ime to som e In tensive work on th i s p rob lem .

Procedure

1 Dictate the senten ce quickly , casual ly , co l loquia l ly , even unclear ly ,

as i t might occ ur in the middle of a con vers a t ion .

2 Lea rne rs wr i te it down , o r a s m uch a s th ey ca n , and if nece ssa ry , t ry

to recons t ruc t the re s t th roug h d i scuss ion w i th the i r ne ighbou rs . If

they canno t ident ify a pa r t i cu la r wo rd , a s su re them tha t they d o in

fac t know the w ord , and encou rage them no t on ly to work on w ha t

the i r ea r s hea rd , bu t a l so on the i r know ledge o f w ha t the w ord cou ld

be .

3 If necessa ry , d ic ta te the se n ten ce aga in , be ing ca re fu l no t to

overar t icu la te or s low down in ord er to ‘he lp’.4 Ask the c la ss how many w ords the re w ere in th e sen tenc e . If the re i s

d isagreement , th is Is like ly to prov oke fur the r d iscu ss ion . If there is

a fa ir measu re o f ag reemen t , inv i te vo lun tee r s to w r i te the i r ve r s ions

of the senten ce on the board .

5 Ask the c la s s to ad jud ica te on wh ich o f the o f fe red ve rs ions a re

grammatically possible.

6 Read ou t each o f the poss ib le ve r s ions , and then your o r ig ina l

sen tence fo r compar i son . Ask the c la s s wh ich ve rs ion was yo urs .

RATIONALE

Learne rs somet imes pan ic and becom e unab le to un de rs tan d any th ing

at a ll . This ac t iv ity encou rages them to work on the ir und ers tan ding of

a sh ort b urs t of English , with t ime for ref lec t ion and rehear ing , p iec ing

5 A _______________

LEVEL

Elem en ta ry +

FOCUS

I n t e r p r e t i n g

s o u n d s i n f a s t

co l loqu ia l sp ee ch

MATERIALS

A li s t o f sen te nc es

w h i c h a r e n o t

d ifficu lt for yo ur

c la s s in t e rm s o f

g r am m a r o r

v o c a b u l a r y , b u t

w h i c h c o n t a i nfea tu res o f

p ro n u n c ia ti o n ,

w h e n t h e y a r e

p ro n o u n c e d

na tu ra lly , w h ich

are l ike ly to

confuse l is ten ing .

Fo r exam ple , weak

form s, e lis ion ,

ass imila t ion ,

linking. ___________

TIME10-15 minu tes



THE PRON UNCIATION BOOK

SL5 _____________

LEVEL

Elementary ♦

FOCUSSensitising

learners to

assimilation and

elision; Changes In

the p ronunciation

of some w ords in

connected speech

MATERIALS

See Preparation

TIME

10-20 minutes

together an interpre tation ba sed o n th eir knowledge of what is gram

matically or semantically possib le (o r likely), plus the imperfect soun d

du es they actually hear.

CONNECTED SPEECH DICTATION

Learners of English, eve n adv anc ed ones, a re often no t aw are of all the

processes of sim plification in connecte d speech, includ ing elision,

assimilation, vowel reduction and the creation of weak forms. This

activity should be carr ied o ut in a light-he arted manner!

Preparation

You need a list of ph ras es which illus trate sim plifications in connected

speech. Choose your own, if possib le including exam ples which you

have noticed learners p ronouncing in an e xaggerated, h ypercorrect

way. Here is a sam ple list:

goodbyegood griefDo you have to go?rock and rollDo you want some?Can you help me?a pint of bitterIs he there?Shan we go?

/d/ becomes M

Id/ becomes /g/

'have' becomes /hacf/

'and' becomes Ini

'do you' becomes /dpi or /djo/

'can' becomes faanl or fan/

'of' becomes M or h i

'he' becomes/i/

'Shall we’ becomes//wi/

Procedure

1 Tell the class you are going to dic tate som e word s to th em . Ask them

to prepare by putting num bers from one to nine (or however many

Items you are going to dic tate) down the left-hand sid e of the page.2 For each item, dictate only the word illustrating the connected

speech feature, twice, to give them a good cha nce t o hear. Tell them

these are normal English words, an d they should use normal spell

ing. From our sam ple list ab ove, y ou d ictate only:



S O U N D S IN S EQ U E N C E

3 Ask the c lass to com pare with each o th er w hat they hav e wri t ten .

4 Now tel l them you are going to d ic ta te sho rt p hras es and sentences ,

each of which contains one of the i tems d ic ta ted ear l ier . They should

wri te these down the r ight-hand s ide of the paper so tha t each

ph rase o r sente nce Is on th e sam e li ne a s th e it em it con ta in s.

5 Now dic ta te the complete ph rases /se ntenc es , making sure the pro

nunciation of the originally-dictated w ord st ay s the s am e as before.

6 Again, get learners to com pare answ ers with each o ther .

7 Ask them to comment on wha t they have hea rd and wha t they have

written.

EXTENSIONIf the learners seem keen, they can t ry to im ita te the pronunc ia t ion of

the phrases /sentences .

RATIONALEOf course i t is unusual to g ive these words the ir connected speech

forms when they are spoken in isolation. But the point is th at this is a

way of forcing learners’ aw aren ess of this a sp ec t of English pronu ncia

t ion . It is important for both tea ch ers a nd learners to b ear in mind,

however , tha t the k inds of pronun cia t ions exemplif ied in the exerc ise

are n ot obl igatory , e ither for na t ive spe ake rs o r for fore ign learners .

For the learners , the most im portant th ing Is tha t an aw areness of these

features will help them to be ab le to in terp ret inform al spok en English.

W hether or not they wa nt to em ulate thes e fea tures in the ir own

speech is a matter of personal preference .

COMPLETING LIMERICKS 5.6

The regular rhythm of a l imerick is obv iously no t the sam e as the

normal rhythms of spon taneou s speec h. But us ing l imericks can help

to g ive learners an aw areness of the k inds of rhythm ic p at tern s which

they need to put in to pract ice in a mo re dynam ic way when the y speak

English. In particular, the exe rcises th at follow can h elp to sho w how

uns t re s sed sy l lab le s a re compressed in to the spaces be tween the

s tresses .

Procedure

1 Show a limerick, with one line missing, on th e b oard o r OHP or on ahand out given to grou ps of learners. Fo r example:

There was a young fellow called BrightWho could travel faster than lightHe set off one dayIn a relative way

LEVEL

Beg inne r ♦

FOCUS

Rh ythm, sy l lable

r e d u c t i o n a n d

r h y m e __________

MATERIALS

A l im e r i c k -

t rad i t iona l o r

ho m em ad e______

TIME

Variable

C Longman C roup UK Lid 1992



TH* PRONUN CIATION BOOK

m m m

2 Ask them to p ropo se su itable lines to complete the limerick, and to

Judge the suitability of eac h othe rs' suggestions (paying attention to

meaning as well as pronunciation). It will be clear which versions

have the correct rhyme schem e and can be said with the c orrect

rhythm.3 The class can then prac tise reciting accep ted versions, tapping or

beating the rh ythm as they do so.

VARIATIONS

1 The missing line nee d n ot b e th e last; it could be any of the lines.2 Instead of one line, leave ou t two, or three, or four.

3 Instead of a line, leave out w ords or phrases.

4 Give a com plete limerick, but w ith a line or p hra se which does no t fit,

and which the lea rner s m ust Identify and replace.

5 Specify the n um ber of w ords to be supplied. For exam ple:----------

6 Specify the n um ber of syllables to be supplied. For example:• ft* * ftftft *

7 Specify the number of syllables and their relationship with the

rhythm. For example: o oO o oo o 0

8 Ask eac h group of learners to write limericks and swap Incomplete

versions with other groups. They then complete the Incomplete

limericks.9 Challenge them to supply a line containing as many syllables as

possible, w hile still con form ing to th e rhythm . A metrono me can be

used to check this.



TMt PRONUNCIATION BOOK

6 2 ___________

i f V I I

Beginner •

FOCUS

Word stress pa tte rns isEnglish

MATERIALSSeveral sheet# of

A3 paper; BliMackor similar;Coloured pens

TIME

Ongoing overawhole course

STRESS PATTERNS

The aim of this activity is to increase learners ' awareness of the wordstress patterns of English and help them to recognise and reproduce

particular p atterns. The examples can be referred to (and added to)whenever it seems appropriate to do so.

Procedure

1 Present five or six typical word stress patterns. A useful device Is touse words which can then act as memory aids; for example, thenames of countries (Scotland, Japan, Indonesia).

2 Represent each pattern visually (e.g. El Salvador o O o o). Write this

pattern boldly, along with the name of the country, at the to p of a

sheet of A3 paper. Repeat the p rocess for each of the s tre ss patterns.3 Invite the learners to think of a further example for each pattern.

Initially these could be other geographical names that conform to

the corresponding patterns, but any vocabulary Items can be used

equally well.

4 Divide the learners Into groups of three o r four and give each group

one of the sheets. Each group will have a different pattern repre-sented by a different country name (see examples below).

5 Ask the groups to add to th e list in front of them. Monitor to check

that their additions are correct. When they can find no more exam-

ples, they pass the sheet on to the next group who, In turn , add their

examples of this particular pattern. Continue until all the groups

have added something to each of the patterns. Note that all the

groups should be working simultaneously!6 Display the sheets prominently in the classroom and encourage

learners to add to them whenever a new item of vocabulary comes

up in class.

ExamplesEl'Saivador Scotland Iran 'Switzerland

intelligent fortune p r e f e r fortunateuncomfortable classroom d i v i d e comfortableimpossible hopeless correct vegetableunbreakable pattern C S C £ dictionaryappropriate lesson c o n f i r m wonderful



W O R D S T R E S S

WORD STRESS AWARENESS EX ER CISE 6.3

T he aim of this activity Is to give lear ne rs p rac tice in placing word LEVEEstre ss correctly. I t Is particularly suita ble for recycling vocabulary Elementary* _____

with difficult or unu sual s tress p lacem ent, a nd also for working on FOCUS

s tre ss errors comm on to a particular gr ou p or nationality . Recognising and

pro ducin g co rr ect

Procedure stre ss placement

1 Divide the class into pairs or small grou ps. MATERIALS

2 Give each pair or small group a l is t of w ord s (on a photocopied sheet A m u ”*

or w rit ten on the board) wi th the s t re ss Incorrec t ly marked .3 Tell them tha t in every case the s tre ss is m arked on the wrong TIME

syl lab le and tha t they should w ork toge the r to es tab lish where the 15 minutes

corr ect s tress shou ld fall in each case .4 W hen they have comple ted the task , the d i ffe ren t pa irs o r groups

com pare the i r answers.

VARIATIONS

1 This acti vity can be m ade mo re dem and ing by including some words

with the s tre ss correc tly m arked. Don’t forget to te ll your learners

tha t some a re r igh t and some a re wrong!

2 New vocabulary i tem s can also be in trod uc ed into the activity.

GUESS THE STRESS 6.4

This proce dure is an adjunct to work on v ocab ulary which the learners

f ind , o r th e teach er p resen ts , in i t s w ri t ten form.

Procedure

1 W hen the question of how to pro no un ce a new muiti-syliabic word

arises , ask the class how m any syllab les th ey think there are in it .

Th ere may be disagreem ent abo ut this . If necessary, you can resolve

the issue.2 Ask wh ich syllable they think is str es se d . If they a re right, they can

p rac ti se pro nouncin g it (p ayin g a tte n tio n to th e correc t so unds aswell, of course) a nd the activity is finished.

3 If not, say the wo rd with the s tre ss in all possible positions In turn

(e.g. say part ic ipant as partic ipant, participant, part ic ip ant an d

partic ipan t) . The cla ss th en v o te o n w h ich s tre ss t hey thin k is m os t

likely. (They might w ant to h ea r th e possibilities again.)4 Count the votes and anno unce th e c or rec t vers ion, or let the class

find it in dictionarie s.

LEVEL

Any ____________

FOCUS

Predicting word

stress __________

MATERIALS

Non e ________

TIME

Variable _______

REQUIREMENT

Previous work on

the nature andmetalanguage of

syllables and

stress




6* ___________

LEVEL

Elementary *

FOCUS

Accurate stress

placement

MATERIALS

Word cards and

stre ss symbol

cards(see

Preparation)

TIME

10 minutes

EXTENSION

When learners are used to this idea, they can take on the ]ob of

producing all th e possible ver sions.

VARIATION

You can add a visual dimension to th e parade of po ssible pronu ncia

tions by illustrating each on e on th e b oar d o r OHP (participant - Oooo,

oOoo, 00O0. oooO) or by using ro ds on a table .

RATIONALE

1 A group of learners, even o ne w ith very little expe rienc e of English,has an uncanny ability to b e collectively right.

2 English pronunciation is not as chaotic and unpredictable as it is

sometimes made out to be. There a re rules an d tenden cies in the

realm of word stress (see Kreidler, 1989 and Poldauf, 1984). It is

probably helpful to draw le arners ' attention to som e of th ese at

some stage. But the procedure advocated here allows them to

internalise these rules and tend enc ies by d eveloping their own Inner

criteria.

STRESS MATCHING GAMEYou can use this activity either as a w arme r or a s a me ans of reinforcing

the pronunciation of recently tau gh t vocabu lary.

Preparation '

Prepare two sets of cards. On on e set write a single m ulti-syllabic word

on each card. On the other set, write the stre ss pattern s of each of these

words represented with symbols. For example, information would

appear as ooOo and ph on ology as oOoo. Two or three words per

learner should b e sufficient

Procedure

1 Mix the cards in each set.

2 Give each learner two or three word cards and a corresponding

number of non-matching str es s sym bol card s.

3 Tell the learners to find the s tres s symbol c ard s tha t m atch the ir

word cards. They are likely to nee d language su ch as 'Could you s ay

your word?' and 'It doe sn’t matc h.’

4 Ask the learners to stand up and find their ma tching card s. Th is is a

mingling exercise and they may need to speak to several other

learners before they find their cards. When they find a matching

card, they retain the word c ard and take the str es s symbol card fromthe other learner. The activity continues until each learner has

obtained a stress symbol card for each of their w ord cards.

62



W ORD STR ESS

5 When a ll th e l e a rn e rs have found the i r ma tch ing ca rds , check tha t

they hav e th e c or re c t answ ers . An effec t ive way of doing th is Is to get

them to s t i ck the i r pa i r s o f ca rds on the boa rd wi th b lu - tack o r

som eth ing s im i la r . You can th en Inv i te the w ho le g roup to g ive the ir

op in ions o n w he the r the pa i r s a re co r rec tly ma tched o r not .

VOCA BULARY REVIS ION 6.6

A lot of w ork w ith voc abu lary fo cuses on meaning. Of course th is is

v i ta l, but w e sh ou ld no t neglec t o th er asp ects of learn ing vocabulary .

Th is is a vo ca bu lary revis ion ac t iv i ty which works on accuracy of p ro n u n c ia ti o n .

Preparation

Draw up a l i s t o f vo cabu la ry i t ems w h ich you wan t the c la s s to rev i se

or to recal l as th e b as is for fur the r work . The ' i tems could , for example ,

form par t of a lex ica l se t wh ich has recent ly been in troduced, or be

a s s o c i a te d w i t h a s to r y .

Procedure

LEVEL

Any _____________

FOCUS

Pronunciation a s a

cue for recalling

and categorising

vocabulary items

M A T E R I A L S

None ____________

TIME

Variable

1 Ask the le ar ne rs to recal l and w ri te down one vocabulary item from

a cer ta in se t or source for each of the fo l lowing syl lable /s t ress

p a tte rn s :

O Oo oO

Ooo oOo ooO

Oooo oOoo ooOo

If the ch os en so u rc e o f vocabu la ry was . say . a r ecen t ly - read s to ry

abou t a m iss ing le t t e r , examples o f these pa t te rns might be :

stamp contents reply

envelope collection redirect

fortunately delivery compensation

2 G a the r the sugg es t ions o f d if feren t mem bers o f the c la ss on the

b o a rd .

3 If ne ces sary , ge t the c la ss to prac t ise pronouncing the words .

4 Say, or w ri te on th e bo ard , any o ther re levant vocabulary which you

think is im po rtan t b ut wh ich the learners have not suggested . Ask

them to a l loc a te i t to the co r rec t catego r ie s .

5 Move on to an y fur the r ac t iv i ty you have in mind using the col lec ted

vocabu la ry .

VAR IATI ON

Ask the lear ne rs to provide no t jus t one vocabulary example , but as

many a s p oss ib le fo r each ca tegory .



THE PRONUNCIATIONBOOK

67 ______

i m iElementt r y «

FOCUSStress variations

according to the

position oi a word

in a phrase

MATERIALS

Ust of phrases -see Preparation

TIMEIS minutes♦

RATIONALE

Part of knowing a word is knowing how to pronoun ce it. The p roces s

of learning vocabulary involves the establishing of many differentassociations. Tire evidence of slips of the tongue suggests that , a t lea st

for native speakers of English, stress patterns are one principle by

which words are associated with each oth er. Th ere is a lso evidenc ethat knowing a word's stress p attern makes it eas ier to recall that word

in certain circumstances.

MOVING STRESS IN PHRASES

Part of knowing a word is knowing which syllable t o st ress . But th is is

not always consistent. Compare the se two phra ses (underlining Indi

cates stressed syllables): August the fourteenth: the fourteenth of

August.

Preparation

1 You need a list of phrases which illustrate the kind of dual behaviour

of words exemplified above. You will find examples in th e learners'

speech, in your teaching materials, and simply by listening atte ntively to English. Here are a few examples:

an international conferencethe conference was very internationalCQQtinental breakfast 'English or continental?Goodbye to Berlinthe fiffllin Wallan economic recoverythe reasons are economicdeath in the afternoon

afternoon tea2 Write a list of all the key words you a re going to use , tog eth er with

the two contrasting contexts for each (as ab ove, b ut w ithout any

underlining or other markings) and photocopy it. Alternatively, you

can dictate the phrases at th e beginning of the activity.

Procedure

1 Distribute the photocopies or dic tate the ph rases .

2 Tell the class you are going to say them one b y one, and they sh ouldlisten and mark where the stre ss is in each oc curre nce o f each key

word by underlining the stressed syllable. Show them am exam ple onthe board first. It might be handy for them t o u se pencils, in case theyneed to change their minds.

64



W O R D S T R E S S

3 Let them compare with each o ther and you, then read the phrases

again so that they can check their results. Make sure you don’tchan ge the w ay you stress the phrases!

STRESS IN COMPOUNDS/TWO-WORD EXPRESSIONS

Yo u can us e this type of exercise to sensitise learners to the notion of

st re ss in com poun ds and two-/multi-word expressions, and to enable

the m to pe rceive pa t terns that m ay eventually help their own p roducti o n .

Procedure

1 Give each learner a list of comp oun ds or two-word expressions that

a r e noun * noun and adjective ♦ noun (e.g. ca r ferry, ho t water; fresh

bread; pock et watchj.

2 Rea d th e list out loud and ask the learners to mark the syllable where

th e overall prom inence is placed.

3 Ask th e learn ers if they ca n perceive any pattern, i .e. in noun + noun

com pou nd s, the s tres s ha s a tenden cy to fall on the first element,

wh ile In adjective + noun c om poun ds, the stre ss has a tendency to

fall on the second element. Point out, with examples, that these

gen eralisations can vary with c on trast, e.g. i asked for hot water, not

cold water’.

4 Give the learners tw o columns of jumbled halves of compounds. Ask

the m to work in pairs or small groups and form compounds using

on e w ord from the first column and one w ord from the second until

al l the w ords have been used.

Example worksheetwind waterhot wellred paperoil tray

blue flakenew mill

white potato

tissue tapesnow wineesh moonC Longm an Group UK Ltd 1992

5 Check that the compounds are correct. There may be several poss ib il it ie s and th is can give s cope fo r furth er discu ssion.

6 Ask th e learn ers (again working In grou ps) to divide the compounds

into two groups according to their stress pattern.

6 JI _____________

LEVEL

Beginner ♦ _______

FOCUS

Stress pa tterns In

compounds andtwo-/multi-word

expressions _____

MATERIALS

One worksheet

per learn er or pai r

of learners (see

example below)

TIME

10-20 minutes



Tone groups, rhythm and intonation

7.1 TONIC PROMINENCE RECOGNITION EXERCISE

UVfl

Firmer it ary *

FOCUS

The (unction of

tonic prominence

MATERIALSA worksheet (see

example below)

TIME

10-20 minutes

This activity can be used to sensitise learners to the relationship

between emphatic stress and meaning. It can form part of a long er

lesson devoted to listening (task: marking th e s tres se d sy llables in a

stream of authentic speech, e.g. from th e rad io new s hea dlines) and

production (see 7.2 Tonic prominence production exercise). You can

also link it to the practice of a p articula r gramm atical struc ture , by

including the structure (e.g. th e pre sen t perfect ten se) in each of the

example sentences.

Preparation\

Make a list of example sentenc es and a list of th e pos sible m eanings

conveyed by each sentence. Produce a worksheet (see example

below).

Procedure

1 Give learners a list of up to ten s ets of multiple-choice answ ers. For

example:

1 a) he didn't

b) not this Tuesdayc) not Manchester J

2 a) not tea b) not’white coffee

c) four not three

2 Check that the learners understand the meaning of the possibleanswers. The answers should be as simple in form as possible s o as

not to distract from th e m ain aim of the activity.

3 Read out a list of up to ten se nten ces. Read at a natur al spe ed b ut withsufficient time between each sente nce for the learn ers to cho ose the

correct answer. Make sure th at you place the stress on only one partof each sentence so tha t only one of the an sw ers is p ossible.



TON E GR OU PS. RHYTHM AND INTONATION

Example sentences (corresponding to the answers given above!1 She w en t to London last Tuesday.

2 He had four cups of strong black coffee.

4 At th e end of the listening stage, check the answ ers and. If necessary,

repeat a ny sentences that have caused problems.

TONIC PROMINENCE PRODUCTION EXERCISE 12You can use this exercise as a means of giving learners practice in

relating emp hatic stres s to m eaning and in producing stress patterns

ap pro pria te to the Intended meaning. You can also us e it as a follow

up to the Tonic prom inence recognition exercise (7.1).

Preparation

You will nee d a list of up to ten sen tences and a list of responses. These

could be eithe r on a ha ndo ut o r on the board o r OHP. See examples

below .

Procedure

1 Give o r sho w yo ur learne rs the list of ten se ntence s. For example:

She arrived onthe earlymorning train fromManchester.

2 Give the learners a list of several possible responses to each sen

tence . For example:

LEVELElementary*

FOCUS

Placing tonic

prom inenceaccording to

Intended meaning

MATERIALS

Handout with

sentences and

different possible

meanings (see

below for

example) _______

TIME

10-25 minutes

... not the plane.

... not Newcastle.

3 Then, In open class, say one of the resp onses as a cue for each

example sentence. Ask the learners (you may nominate a particular

learne r or w ait for one to v olunteer) to produ ce the correct sentence

from th e list with the tonic prominence in a place appropriate to the

cue . For example:

Teacher: ...not the plane.Learner: She arrived on the early morning train fromManchester.

Several different examples of tonic prominence can be obtained

from th e s am e senten ce by giving different respon se cues (or it.

4 After a num ber of examples in open class, the learners can then do

the exe rcise in pairs or small groups, taking It in turns to play the roleof cue-giver. Your role then Is to m onitor the progre ss of each pair

or group and give help when required.



TMf PRONUNCIATION BOOK

EXTENSION

Give the learners a further l is t of sente nce s a nd enco urage them to

experiment with tonic prom inence by placing it on d ifferent elements

of the sentences and then suggesting potential meanings and re

sponses themselves. This can be particularly successful as a group

problem-solving ac tivi ty .

Example sentences and response cues1 Shearrivedon the early morning train from Manchester.

She didn’t leave...;... not late;... not evening;... not plane;... not Newcastle.2 tasked you to buy me a bunch of red roses....not steal them,... not jus! one;... not yellow ones;... not tulips.

3 She wanted me to paint the kitchen green.not him;.. not to paper it;... not the bathroom;... not pink.

4 He told John to ask a policeman the quickest way to the bank.... not Peter;... not to tell him;... not a postman;... not the cinema.

6 We went to Majorca on holiday last year.We did. not them;... not Corfu;... not on business;... not this year.

u __________

LEVEL

Elementary +

FOCUS

Contrastive

intonation

(especially the

fall-rise)

MATERIALS

None

TIME

20-30 minutes

TWENTY QUESTIONS TO A D RAWING

This is a sort of combination of ‘Tw enty Q uestion s ' and picture

dictation. It presupp oses at least som e familiarity w ith prepositions.

Traditionally, the limit for this type of guess ing gam e Is twenty qu es

tions, but you can vary this.

Preparation

On the basis of othe r learning priorities, d ec ide o n a nu m ber of Items

to form the contents of a picture. For instan ce, if yo u w ant the class to

pra ctise vo cab ula ry concern in g room fu rn is h in gs, you m ig ht choose a

sofa, an armchair, a stool, a vase, a clock, a rug, a table, a mirror, a

potted plant, a lamp, a fruitbowl and possib ly m ore .

Procedure

1 Ask each learner to prod uce - individually an d secretly - a drawing

which must contain th e given Items b u t in a freely chosen arrange

ment. Everyone should introd uce so m e elem ent of the unusual (e.g.

the clock could be u nde r the tab le). M ake a draw ing yourself, too.

2 The class put their drawings safely asid e for the time being, and ask

you yes/no questions about the positions of the Items in your

drawing In ord er to b e able to draw a c op y of it. if the answ er Is yes,

ju st s ay so:

'Is the plant on the table?' - 'Yes'.



TON E G ROU PS. RHYTHM AND INTONATION

But if not, give an answer with this type of structure:

‘No, the plant'sonthefloor.'"No, the cRJbk's orTtfie table.’’No, thepiant's next to the table.’

Draw learners’ attention to the form and intonation of your re

spon ses . It may well help to p ut example exchanges like the ones

above on th e board for reference. Get them to practise the Intonation

of the se examples if necessary.

3 They are now ready to work in pairs and do the same exercise.Depending on how familiar they are with the use of the fall-rise

(-----^ ) , you might need to circu late and give quite a lo t of

help with this.

NOTE

Intonation can be indicated on the b oard by drawing arrows that follow

th e movem ent of pitch, as above. You can also Indicate intonation with

arching sw eeps of a hand or an emphasis pointer.

RATIONALE

This activity isolates a tendency in the native speaker’s intonation

sys tem for a falling tone to be used for con tent which is presented as

new, and a fall-rise to be used for content which is, although stillimportant, presented as already in circulation or shared between

speaker and listener. In the latter instance, many learners of English

tend to use a simple rising tone instead of a fall-rise, and this can give

an impress ion of over-dominance.

IDO 7.4

In real communication, distribution of tonic prominence is not fixed

according to preexisting abstrac t principles, but varies according to

the speaker's perception of how what they are saying relates to the

ongoing discourse. This exercise works on developing awareness of

and skill in using this principle, by taking as its domain a limited set of

possible d iscourse conditions.

Preparation

LEVEL

Elementary ♦

FOCUSAssigning tonic

prominence

according to

discourse

conditions

1 Choose a simple proposition which you know is true for some of the

members of the class but no t for others. Here, the proposition T live

in Paris’ is taken as an example.

2 If necessary , teach the forms / do, I don %so do /, neilher/nor do I.

MATERIALS

None ______

TIME

5-10 minutes



THE PRONUN CIATION BOOK

Procedure

1 Tell the class that this ac tivity is going to involve each perso n in the

room speaking in turn. You will start by making a true statement

about yourself. Each learner in turn must confirm or deny that

statement for themselves, b ut se lecting only from the responses i

do ', ‘I do n’t', ‘so d o I', ‘n eit h er /n o r d o I’.

2 In the early stages of the activity yo u m ay need to indicate who is to

speak next, but ideally the turn sho uld pass smoothly around theroom until everybody ha s spo ken. A po ssible sequence might be as

follows (underlining indica tes str es se d syllables):

Teacher: | live in Paris.Learner!: So do]. JL2: So do].L3; I don't.L4: Ida.L5: Sodoi.L6: I don't.L7: Neither do].

And so on.3 If you feel that the stressed syllables are not being sufficiently

emphasised, point this ou t and sta r t a second round, either in the

same order as before or, for variety, going round the room in a

different directio n. '

4 Repeat the exercise using different starting sentences which will

gen erate p ractic e of different aux iliary verb s. For example, ‘I’ve been

to E ngland ’, ‘I can type ’, ‘If I w as a tee nag er now, I’d ch oo se to stud y

English'.

5 Learners propose the ir own sta r ting sentences.

n ____________

LEVEL

Elem entary ♦

FOCUS

Assigning tonic

prominence

according to

discourse

conditions

MATERIALS

None

TIME

5 minutes ♦

CORRECT THETEACH ER

Some learners may have waited a long time to turn the tables and

correct the teach er . This is an o pp ortun ity for them to do so and also

to practise an important asp ect of pronunc iation a t the sam e time.

Procedure

Invite the learners to dicta te nu m bers, which you will write on the board.

Make deliberate mistakes, and co rrec t them only when the learner who

said the num ber (or anoth er one ) h as sho uted out a verbal correction

with approp riate placemen t of tonic prominence. For example:

a) Learner: Thirty five.Teacher writes ‘39' l: No. thirty five.



T O N E G R O U P S , R H Y TH M A N D I N TO N A T IO N

b) L: Five hundred and eighteen.

Teacher writes '519'

L: No, five hundred and eighteen.

Teacher writes '580'

L: No, five hundred and eighteen .

EXTENSION

Learners do the sam e exercise in pai rs , or as a whole class w i th a

volunteer making the del iberate m istakes.

VARIATIONS

1 Instead of numbe rs, use da tes (e.g. Twenty f irst o f January/T hir ty firs t

o f Ja nu ary, Ten th o fS ep te m ber/T en th o f Novem ber ), or p laying cards(e.g. L asks for the king of hearts, T gives th e qu een of he arts, L says

‘No, the king of hearts.*) or any other set of i tems with similar

contrasts .

2 Tel l a known story wi th del iberate mistakes, which the class have to

corre ct. For example:

T: Little Red Riding Hood lived in a cottag e in the middle of a dese rt.

L: No, sh e lived in the middle of a wood.

T: Oh, yes . She lived near a wood.

L: No. in a wood.

And so on.

CREATE YOUR OWN V ER SE FORM 7J5____________

Th rough the ir experience of song s and rhyme s, m ost peop le are aw are LEVEL

of the pr inciple of regular s t ructu res of rhym e and rhythm. (The Lower

limerick is one such stru ctu re well-known in the English-speaking intermed iate -

wo rld.) Here Is an oppo rtunity for the learn ers to create th eir own such FOCUS

structure s (possibly drawing on mo dels f rom thei r own cul tures) . Rhythmic

st ructures

Procedure

1 Tell the learners they are going to inven t their own ve rse structu re. ^*°ne

You can specify a number of l ines; i t probably shou ldn ' t be m ore t i m e

than abou t s ix . 30 minutes2 Ask them to produce a plan of the s t ructure - l ine length, rhythm,

stres sed beats, rhyme, etc. - and an example of the ge nre (e.g.

limerick).

3 Th ey then swap their p lans and com pose sam ples of each oth ers’

genres.

4 Forms which catch on may beco me a vehicle for any w rit ten activity,

such as an ongoing exchange of messages within the class, or a

resp ons e to world events, or pra ctice of language i tems Introd uced

during the course.

7 1



THfPHONUNClAT ION BOOK

77 __________

u rn A n y

focusXitylhnindc o m p r e s s i o n o f

unstressed

syllables

M A T t f t lA l l A metronome;

Optionally, lists of

words on ahandout

TIME10 minutes

METRONOME

Preparation

You need a list of words and phrase s with variab le numbers of syllablesand variable stress. Suitable examples include:

» list s of cardinal numbers■ train announcements, e.g:

Calling at Stevenage, Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster,

Wakefieldand Leeds.

■ shopping lists, e.g:

bread, carrots, milk,potatoes, apples, muesli, tea, tomatoes.

Procedure

1 Set the metronome going at a moderate speed and get the class to

practise fitting individual items to th e rhy thm, with the stre ss falling

on t he metronome beat.2 Get them to practise reading the whole list to the beat.

3 Reset the metronome to a (aster, more natural speed and repeat the

practice.

RATIONALEOnce the metronome is set at a certain speed , it will carry on relent*

lessly for ever. Itgives a consisten t rhythm to practise against, whichcannot be guaranteed by tapping or clapping, for instance. At th e same

time, becau se the speed is adjustable, you, or th e learners themselves,

can control the difficulty of the task by choosing a suitable speed

setting.



TONE GROU PS, RHYTHM ANO INTONATION

SHADOWING 7.8

Reading out loud is an activity req ue sted b y man y learn ers bu t dlsco ur- i-EVELaged by teach ers who feel tha t it ha s no real purpo se and only gives Elementary •>

pra c ti ce in hesi ta nt, inac cura te pro nunci at io n. H ere is a way of us ing focus

the principle of reading out loud for mo re directed work on pronuncla- as p e ct Qf

r Tape recorder and

You need a piece of spoken English (one spe ake r) on tape. It could be recording (seesom ething the class have already used for som e othe r purpo se. In any below); Transcript

case, It should be something they hav e no trou ble understanding. It Is the recording;

very im portant tha t It should be natural, unscrip ted, conversational Optionally, aEnglish, which makes most pub lished EFL pronu nciation or listening language

material unsuitable. You also need a copy of the ta pes cript for every- laboratory

on e In th e cla ss. TIME

Procedure

1 Play a shor t section of the tap e - one sentenc e, or even less.

2 Leave a few moments silence to allow the sou nd of the w ords to

register in the learners' ears.

3 Invite them to replay Internally, witho ut speaking, wh at they heard.

4 Replay the same section of the tape.

5 Repeat step s 2 and 3.

6 Now Invite the learners to speak the sam e words in exactly thesam e way, and at the same speed . They can do this either one by

one to the class, or all at the same time to themselves or to a

partner. Let th em try t h is a few times .

7 Replay the tap e and let the learners evaluate their own perform

ance. They may be able to identify discrepancies, or the y may need

the help of other people, including you, to pin th em down. Discrep

ancies may involve sound s, conn ected sound sequences, word

stress, speed, rhythm, segmentation, pausing, tonic prominence

pos ition or pit ch movem en t (m elody). Focu sing on w hat se em to be

the most important and m ost improvable of these, help them to

come as close to the taped m odel as they can.

8 Now set them th e challenge of speaking along with the voice on the

tape, so th at everyone’s voice is in perfect unison w ith the tape.(This is 'shadowing'.) It will probably help to demonstrate this

yourself. Depending on th e size of the class, either get everyb ody

to speak together, or split the p ractice.

9 Give them further opportunities to sha dow the voice on the tape,

until it seem s their performance is as good a s it can be for the time

being .

10 Move on to the next sho rt section of the tape an d repeat the above pro ced ure .

tion. pron unciation

MATERIALSPreparation

5-20 minutes

7 3

mtSSEmki



THf PBONUNCIATION BOOK

u ____________

LEVEL

Elementary +

FOCUS

Awareness of

body language as

a way into stress

and rhythm

MATERIALS

A video ex tract

(See Preparation)

TIME

5 minutes +

w m m m m

11 Go back to the beginning of the tape and get the class to shadow thefirst and second sections.

12 Add further sections and repeat the procedure for as long as it

seems productive.

VARIATIONS1 If you have the u se of a language lab, record th e spoken passage onto

the learners' tapes and let them work at this exercise individually, at

their own speed, recording their performance on top of the model

when they feel ready, so that both tracks can be heard simultaneously. (It will still help, though , to introduce the activity and run

through it briefly In non-lab mode.) Listen In and give individual help

as necessary.

2 Record the passage onto individual tapes for each learner (most

easily done in a language lab) and hand these o ver for the learners

to practise shadowing with In their own time and space.

VIDEO VIEWING

Preparation

Find a video extract in which someone is seen underlining the rhythm

of their speech with hand gestures , nods of the head , etc. Sometimes

you can find sections of quite a few seconds w here the speaker main

tains a perfectly regular rhythm with such gestures.

Procedure

1 Play the extract with the sound off.2 Repeat this and ask the class to join in and imitate the body language

of the speaker.

3 Play the extract as many times as ne cessary for them to do this pre tty accurately.

4 if it seems possible from the context, invite the learners to guess

wha t the speaker is saying.

5 Play the extract with sound , establish what is being said, and get thelearners to imitate the speaker’s body language again, this time

adding the speech. Practise as necessary.

RATIONALEWe do no t only speak with our m ouths. One view is that body language

acts as a kind of support to words. This exercise is based on the

opp osite premise; body language can form a basis on which to super

impose words.



TONE GROUPS. RHYTHM AND INTONATION

PRONUNCIATION ROLE PLAY

This is particularly suitable as a w ann er before a larger-scale activity, bu t h as it s ow n indep en dent Ju stification too .

Preparation

2.3 Comparing sounds and 2.4 Bil ingual min im al pairs could provide

useful preliminary work for this exploration of pronunciation differ

ences.

Procedure

1 Tell the learn ers to w ork in pairs or small group s and to imitate or

take the role of English speakers speaking English. Ask them what

they need to do w ith their speech organs in order to do this which

is different from what they usually do. S.witching backwards and

forw ards between the tw o types of articulation m ay be helpful here

in providing th e key to th e adjus tme nts which need to be made in

or de r to prono unce English well.

2 Next, tell them to im itate particula r native speak ers such as interna

tionally well-known figures, landlad ies On the c as e of those learn ers

study ing in Britain), oth er te ach ers, etc. spea king English. Of might

help som e learners to imagine they are representing these people on

stage o r In a film.) Again, ask them w hat ad justm ents they make in

ord er to achieve this (or to appro xim ate to it; the aim is not perfect

mimicry).

7.10 __________

LEVEL

Elementary +

FOCUS

Differences

between th e

pronunciation of

English and tha t of

the mother tongue

above th e level ofindividual sound s

MATERIALS

None

TIME

5 minutes ♦

7 5



TROUBLE SHOOTIN G

INSERTION OF/e/ BEFORE CONSONANT CLUSTERS &4

A comm on e rro r for Spanish learners, for example, to to insert an extrasound before consonant clusters such as st and sp in initial pos ition.Thus Spain is realised a s 'espain* and student as ‘estud ent’. One rem edyis to work on linking th e last sound of the preceding word to th e initial/s / of the clus ter. Thu s, In the sen tence *1live in Spain’, you can asklearners to say ‘ins’ followed by ’pain’. Although this will soundsom ewhat odd at first, the speed can gradually be increased and theresult shou ld approxim ate the desired pronunciation and remove theintrusive vowel sound. Another possible remedy to to ask the learnersto pro duc e /s/ in isolation (hissing like a snake!) and then to add, for

example, ’pain’, ‘tudent’, etc.

/p//b/ CONFUSION &5

Arabic speakers, am ong others, often confuse these two phonem es asthey a re no t s epa rate p honem es in their own language, but are varia

tions of the sam e phone me, which tends to be voiced with very littleaspiration presen t. Thus, a typical error to something that may sound

like ‘fleter’s Maying Mng-bong’ for ‘Peter’s playing ping-pong’. The

prob lem seems to lie in the absence of an explosion of air when tryingto prono unce /p/. One solution to to ask learners to puff hard when

pronouncing, for example, ‘play*. A sh ee t of pape r can a lso be u se d todem onstra te the importance of the amount of air expelled (see page 14).

/j/ PRONOUNCED ASAfe/ IL6

This is a problem frequent among Spanish speakers, particularly whenconfron ted by the le tter y in initial position. So yes is realised as ‘/e ss ’,for example. One p oss ible solution is to ask learners to think of the

initial sound as fv j and to work actively on this with particular attentionto lip position (i.e. spread ). Ask your learners to begin by pronouncing/i:/ with sp read lips and to hold this sound for a few seconds beforeaddlng/es /. Get them to d o this several times, each time shortening the

length of the initial /i:/ sou nd until they have a satisfactory /)es/. Youmay also nee d to work on this in context, as they may easily revert to

/d j/ wh en trying to say ‘Oh, yes’, for example. The procedure outlinedabove should work here too, so something like /auwiijes/ will be produc ed Initially and th is can gradually be speeded up to produce anacc ura te ‘Oh, yes’.

77



IN IT IAL/h /

There m ay be seve ra l p rob lems a s so c i a t ed wi th t h e pro nunc i a ti on of

/ ti /. In som e cases, it may be o m it ted from w or ds su ch as ‘house*, ‘help*

and ‘hope*. In others . It may b e Inc luded un nec essar i ly a t th e beginning

of words such a s egg, old a n d ate (see 8.8 Intrusive / h / ) . S o m e l e a r n e r s

may a l so use too mu ch fric tion, a r t icula t ing from the uvu la ra th er than

t he g l o tt is when pronounc i ng / h / and t hu s produ c i ng a ha rsh e r /x/soun d, s imi lar to the ch in ‘loch*.

A poss i b l e remedy you coul d t ry in t h e f i r st c a se i s t o a sk t he l e a rne rs

t o w hi spe r some words beg i nn ing wi th /!«/ ( see 3 .4 / V through whisper-

ing for fur ther de ta i l s ) , as the very ac t of whisper ing wi l l requi re a

cer ta in amo unt of aspi ra t ion. Ask the learne rs If the y no t ice the ext ra

re lease of a ir as they w hisper the Init ia l /h/ . This , a t the ve ry leas t ,

shoul d make t hem aw are t ha t t hey can p r o d u c e t h i s s o u n d ! N ow a s k

t hem t o p ronounce /h / In cont ex t by g iv ing them a nu m ber of wo rds

conta ining init ia l / ii /. Te ll them to begin by w hisper ing th e w ord s and

then gradual ly to ge t louder and louder . Som e pra c t ice in con text , l. e.

us ing t he w ords In a sen t ence , may a l so be necessa ry .

Sof ten ing / x / t o / h / c an be more prob l em a t ic . On e p oss i b l e so l u t i on

you can t ry i s t o a sk your l e a rne rs t o puf f a / h / soun d us i ng a s mu ch a i r

as poss ible .

INTRUSIVE /h/

In ord er to he lp wi th the int rus ive /h/ pro blem , for exam ple /hs :6/ for

/a:6/, you can work on the l ia i son be tw een w ord s . In the ca se of earth,

for example , thi s wil l genera l ly occ ur w i th the def ini te a r t ic le preced ing

it and p ron oun ced /fii :/ . Th us the earth will be rea lise d as /Oi:j3:0/. If you

you rse l f exaggera te the /]/ sound , t h e l e a rne rs wi ll p robab l y focus on

t he produc t ion of th i s sound and t he i n t rus i ve / h / will be d ropped .

When / h / in t rudes on t o a w ord beg i nn ing w i th a vowe l and t ha t word

i s no t p receded by an ot he r word , t ry t o ge t l e a rne rs t o re p l ace t he / h /

with a glot tal stop (i .e ./?/). For exam ple, if lear ne rs p ro no un ce if as ‘hit*,a sk t hem t o say /? it /. You can ge t t hem t o n o t i ce how t o form / ? / by

having them im i ta te a machine gun as in /? i?i?i/ .

PROBLEMS WITH /0/ AND /6/

Thi s i s a f requent p rob l em for speake rs o f many l anguages . The w ord

thing, fo r example , may be prono unced a s som e t h i ng ti ke ‘sing*,‘fing’ or

'z ing*. Th ere a re a n um ber of poss ible so lut ions . Working wi th th e w ord

thing, you can ask your learners to begin by press ing the t ip of the

t ongue f irmly agai nst t he back of t he up pe r f ron t t e e t h . Th i s may help.



TROUBLE SHOOTING

If )t still does no t work, then you can ask them to b ite (gently!) the t ipof their tongue as they begin to pronounce the word.

Another possibility is a traditional favourite; the ‘wet finger'. Askyo ur learners to place their forefinger in front of their m outh (a s ifmiming ‘Be quiet’). They then Uck their finger as they pronounce thefirst sound of the word thing, for example. Again there should be somelight contact between the tip of the tong ue and the teeth.

If all of this falls, then you can try asking you r learners to say wo rdsfrom the ir own language that begin with /s/ and pronounce them witha lisp. If they can do th is successfully, they can th en go on to try wordslike sing , sick, etc. In the same way. This shou ld produce something

fairly close to /6iq/ and /0ik/. You can apply the same procedu res to

words containing the voiced equivalent /0/.

DENTAL/t/AND/d/

In many languages, the phonemes /t/ and /d/ are dental rather than

alveolar, as the y are In RP English. Thus /t / and /d/ are pronounced withthe tip of the tongue lightly touching the back of the upper teeth rath ertha n making con tact with the alveolar ridge behind the uppe r teeth.

Th is has th e effect of making IxJ and /d/ so und very soft, for example,as in the case of Spanish learners, producing a sound that is very like

/6/, with a tendency to sound like a fricative rath er than a stop. One

solution is simply to point out the p lace of articulation in English on amou th diagram and say that the tongue touch es th e alveolar ridge

ra the r than th e teeth. Get your learners to tr y this with words like tent,

try, red, etc.

8.10

INTRUSIVE /o/ IN FINAL POSITION

An error typical of Italian speakers is to insert an extra vowel at the end

of words ending in a consonant sound. This seems to be particularly prevalent a fter plurals ending in /s/, /z / and /iz/. As these particularfricatives are relatively easy to hold for a certain amount of time, one

way you can affect the pronunciation of learne rs with this particulartendency is to ask them to make the final fricative last for a few seconds.Of course, this will sound exaggerated and will perh aps overcom pen-sa te for the problem, but the usual effect is to make the intrusive soun ddisappear. Ask your learners to say trees, please, watches, wants, etc.and to hold th e final fricative, making the sound gradually die away.

8.11

79

£ g a |



THf MIONUMQATlON BOOK

8.12___________ INCORRECT STRESS PATTERNS

Many learners will tend to transfer the word stress patterns of theirmother tongue to English or will be confused by the Inconsistency ofstress placement in English (e.g. photograph, photographer, photo-graphic). Thus a oO pattern may be realised as Ooand vice versa, with'intend' being pronounced as 'Intend' and ‘'breakfast' as 'breakfast'.There are a number of possible solutions to such problems. One wayis to make learners aware of the factors that make a syllable more

accented or stressed than those around It. One such factor Is muscle power, usually manifested as loudness. Thus the stressed syllable may be slightlylouder than Its unstressed neighbours. So, ask your learnersto say “breakfast* with the first syllable very loud (perhaps to anexaggerated extent) and the second one very quiet. It Is very difficultto do this and still maintain the overall stress on the second syllable.

Another factor affecting accented or s tressed syllables is pitch; theyare normally at a slightly higher pitch than unstressed syllables. Auseful aid here is to use a board diagram that clearly shows that thefirst syllable On this case) Is at a higher pitch than the second. Forexample:

Another technique is. to hum, tap or whistle the stress pattern,accentuating the higher pitch of the stressed syllable. Now ask yourlearners to repeat the word, beginning with the pitch fairly high on'break' and with a lower pitch on the second syllable 'fast'. You canhelp by whistling, humming or tapping the pattern. Now get them toadd the loudness factor, so that 'break' is both louder and higher than

'fast'.Another characteristic of a stressed syllable is that it often contains

a full vowel as opposed to a weaker vowel found in the unstressedsyllables, such as /a/, /u/ or /i/. This difference in vowel quality Is oftenaccompanied by a slight difference in length. Thus the s tressed syllable is slightly longer than the unstressed one. Once again, you can getyour learners to practise this by exaggerating the length of the stressed

syllable and making the unstressed one as short as possible. Now addthe other two factors, volume and pitch, and get them to practise onceagain. Although the model may be somewhat exaggerated, thereshould be an effective contrast with what was said before and at leastan approximation of a ‘correct* model. In order to reinforce the effectof the application of these three features of a stressed syllable, you canalso ask your learners to stress a familiar word (one to which they canapply a correct stress pattern) incorrectly (i.e. to make normallyunstressed syllables louder, higher and longer) and to notice both howunusual this sounds and how difficult it is to do.



■ S S a H B B B f l H H n i

Glossary

affricate

A sound beginning as a plosive or s top and continuing as a fricative.AJ/ and /dj/ are the two examples in English.

alveolar

A sound articulated by contact between the tongue and th e alveolarridge (the small ridge immediately behind th e upper front teeth ), /t/and /s/ are examples in English.

aspiration

The small puff of air that sometimes follows a sound. For example. InEnglish p Is aspira ted in pin, but when preceded by /s/ (e.g. spin), itIs unasplrated; there Is no puff of air.

assimilation

The feature whereby a sound is affected by its environment, usually by the sound following it, bu t sometimes also by th e sound preced-

ing it. This may change th e quality of the sound In question (e.g.voiced to voiceless) or it may cause It to d isappear completely. For

example, the ‘d’ in Good morning In rapid speech may be articulated

as 'Goob morning' as the /d/ stop becomes a bilabial /b/ stop in

anticipation of the bilabial /m/ which follows.

bilabial

A sound Involving the use of both the upper and lower lip In its

production, /m/ and /p/ are examples.

dental

A sound produced by contact between th e tongue and the teeth. /0/and /0/ are examples.

diphthong

A glide from one vowel to another. English has eight diphthongs with phonemic value; three closing to A/. namely /ei/, /ai/ and /oi/; twoclosing to AV, namely /au/ and /au/; and three centring to /a /, namely

/ea/. /ia/ and /ua/.

elision

The dropping of a sound altogether when it Is affected by thefollowing sound (see assimilation).

emphatic stress

The speaker may choose to emphasise a particular syllable or wordfor effect o r to contrast it with another syllable or word. For example:*She went to London last week' (l.e. not Paris); ‘She went to Londonlast week' (i.e. not th is week).

fricative

A sound articulated with accompanying friction caused by two of

the articulatory organs (e.g. tongue and alveolar ridge) coming into




dose contact but allowing a restricted passage of air to pass

through. Examples are /f/ a nd /s/.

front and back vowtls

This refers to whether the tongue is raised tow ards th e front of the

mouth In the production of a particula r vowel (e.g. /i:/) or to w ards

the back (e.g. lx/).

glottal stop

A closing of the glottis, as In th e c ase o f the first *t* In right train lor example. The glottal stop is rep res en ted by the symbol /?/. It Is a

common feature of English and Is particularly noticeable in the

Cockney pronu ndation of ‘f soun ds In w ords su ch as letter and

bottle.

homophoneA word pronounced in the same way as another but having a

differen t spelling. Bear and bare are examples of homophones.

labio'dantal

A sound involving the use of the lower lip and upper teeth in its

production, /f/ and /v / a re th e tw o exa mples in English.

lateral

A sound that involves air passing down th e sid es of the tongue as the

latter comes intocontact with the palate. /I/ Is an examp le in English.

nasal

A sound whose production involves use of the nasal cavity (e.g.

MO-

open and closed vowels

/»/, / a/, /d;/ and /o/ are op en vowels, for example. Th e jaw pos ition is,

broadly speaking, open for th e pro duction of th ese vowels. The

closed vowels, on the other hand, like /i:/, /i/t /u/ and /u:/ are

produced with the jaw in a relative ly close d po sition .

palatal

A sound that is produced by contac t between the tongue a nd the

hard palate (e.g. /j/).

palato-alveolar

A sound which is produced by contact between th e tongue an d the

alveolar ridge with accompanying con tact be tween th e main bo dy of

the tongue and the palate. // / an d / i / a re examples.

phoneme

The smallest element of meaning-changing sound in a given lan

guage. For example, we have th e thr ee pho nem es /p/, /<c/. /t / in theword pat. When one phoneme is replaced by a different one, e.g.

/ p / by lb/, we have a new word - bat.



phonemic*

The s tudy o( phonemes,

phonetics

Th e s tudy of a ll human speec h sound s,

phonology

Th e s tudy of the sound system of a g iven language, inc luding i ts

sound s, s t ress pat terns and in tonat ion fea tures .

plosive

A sound that involves contact be tween two of the ar t icu la tory

organs completely blocking the air flow for an Instant (otherwiseknown as a ‘stop’) and then releasing it in an 'ex plosion ’. Exam ples

are /p / and / t /.

schwa

Th e /o / sound,

syllabic consonant

Certa in co nsonants ( / r/ , /n / , /m/ an d / I / ) hav e vowel qual i ty in cer ta in

posit io ns, part ic u la rl y in fin al posit io n . T hu s 'o p e n ' Is ren d e red a s

/oupn/, rath er tha n /oupon/.

tone group

A group of syllables con taining a glide in pitch,

tonic prominenceTh e p lacement of s t ress in d iscourse by the spea ker (of ten referred

to as 'sentence s t ress ' ) .

tonic syllable

The sy l lable in any tone group w here the g l ide in p i tch begins ,

velar

A sound p roduced by con tac t be tween the back o f the tongue and

the soft p alate (e.g. /k/).

voiced consonants

Th ese are consonants w hose art icu la tion is accom panied by v ibra

t ion of the vocal cords (examples are / / / and /g / - com pare w ith the ir

voiceless equivalents /s/ and /k/). In the case of the stops (or

p lo s iv es) /b /, /d / and /g /, th e o n se t of voic in g o c cu rs a s th e s to p isreleased.

vowel reduction

The tendency of weak, unstressed vowels to redu ce to /u /, / i / and ,

part ic u la rl y , /o /.



PRONU NCIATION TABLE

Pronunciation table

consonants vowels

j§ key other common spellings

I word

is key1 word«1

oth er common spellings

t: sh ee p field team key sc en e am oeba

i ship savage guilt system women

e bed a n y sa id bread bury friend

* b a d pl aid laugh (AmE) call (AmE)

P pen happy

b h a c k ru b b er

t

lea b u tt e r w alk ed d o u b t

d d a y ladder ca l led cou ld

k ke y £ o o l so cce r l ock sch o o l ch eq u e

e g et bi gg er gho st

U cheer match natu re quest ion cel lo

dj Ju mp age edge so ld ier g radual

f fat co d ec co u g h p h y s i cs h a ]i

V view of navvy

6 thing0 then* so o n fifty p sy ch o lo g y m esa sce n e

listen

t z e r o wag dazzle exam ple ( /g if )

l halting Sure s ta t ion tension v icious

Chevron

i p le asu re v is io n ro u g e

b hot whole

m s u m h a m m e r c a lm b o m b

n su n funny Jq j ow g n a w

Q sung sink

1 le d ball oon b a tt le

r re d marry t t tfgg le rhuba rb

j yet o n io n u s e n e t t E u r o pe

w wet one tthen Queen (/kw f )

X loch

a' father ca lm heart laugh (BrE) b o th er (Am£)

0 po t wa tch cough (BrE)

laurel ( BrE)

X cau gh t ball b oard draw lo ur floor

cough (AmE)

u pu t w ood wolf could

u: boot mov e shoe group Hew blue

rude

A cu t so m e blood does

3! b ir d burn fe rn worm earn journa l

9 cupboard thg colour actor nat ion

dang er asleep

ei make p ray prey steak vein gauge

9U note soa p soul grow sejy toe

ai bite p ie bg y t ry gu id e s igh

au now spout plough

91 boy pois on law yer

19 h e re b e e r w ei r appear fie rce

eo t h e re hair bea r bare their praver

03 poor tour sure

ei3 player

903 lower

ai9 tire

aoa tower9i9 employer



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography

Baker, A 1982 Introducing English Pronunciation CUPBradford, B 1988 Intonation in Context CUPBrazil, D et al., 1980 Discourse Intonation and Language Teaching

LongmanBrown, A 1991 Pronunciation Models Singapore University PressBrown, A (ed.) 1991 Teaching English Pronunciation: A Book o f

Readings RoutledgeBrown, A (ed.) forthcoming Phon and Pron: Approaches to

Pronunciation Teaching British Council & MacmillanGimson, A 1980 An Introduction to the Pronunciation o f English Arnold

Graham, C 1978 Ja zz Chants OUPHaycraft, B 1971 The Teaching o f Pronunciation LongmanIATEFL Speak Out! The IATEFL Phonology Special Interest Group

Newsletter Ken worthy , J 1987 Teaching English Pronunciation LongmanKnowles, G 1987 Patterns o f Spoken English LongmanKreidler, C 1989 The Pronunciation o f Eng lish BlackwellMortimer, C 1984 Elements o f Pronunciation CUPPoldauf, 11984 English Word Stress PergamonRoach, P 1983 English Phonetics and Phonology CUPSmith, B and Swan, M, 1987 Learn er English CUPTench, P 1981 Pronunciation S kills MacmillanUnderhill, A fo rthcoming Sound Foundations HeinemannWells, J 1990 Longman Pronunciation D ictionary Longman

pronunciation book

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