Pronunciation

Integrating pronunciation into lessons and tutorials

R. Pearson 2011

Aspects of pronunciation

• Sounds and syllables

• Stress and rhythm

• Intonation

• Linking

• Phrasing

• And some crazy things we do: flapping, stopping, eliding and assimilating

Beginner

Intermediate & up

Getting started

• Find a resource

– On-line

– How-to book

– Student’s book

• Learn some terminology

• Become aware of what you do and what you hear

Tools of the Trade:

• You

• Something to write on and with

• Toothpicks

• Mirrors

• Pieces of paper

• Elastics

• Candies

SOUNDS

Use your face and hands to help learners build awareness of where and how we make sounds.

Model a sound

– Describe what you are doing. Ask questions: Is my mouth big or small (open or closed)? Can you see my teeth? Are my lips round or straight?

– Ask the learners to repeat the sound. Use your hand to model the tongue. Ask questions: Is your tongue straight? Does it move? etc.

Use a simple picture to illustrate what is going on.

Draw a simple profile on the board.

– Illustrate basic tongue position and how open or closed the mouth is.

(add teeth to your drawing)

i:

Board guy

Use toothpicks to show where we make a sound (place of articulation).

Model a sound. Then model it again using a toothpick to show where the sound is made. Give learners their own toothpicks.

• For [th] sounds hold the toothpick in front of the lips. Touch the tongue to the toothpick.

• For [f] and [v] hold up the top lip.

• Poke the tongue straight back a bit for [ә+ or *Λ.+

• Push the tongue in a lot and hold it there for [r] (to hold back the tip of the tongue).

• Keep your tongue below the toothpick for [æ] but lift it just above the toothpick for [e].

Use candies to make learners aware of tongue position.Model the sound without the candy first. Use Board Guy to show learners where the candy is. Give learners their own candies.

– To help with [i:] and [sh] hold the candy against the roof of your mouth.

– Open up for [e] or [æ]. The learners will see the candy on [æ].

– Hold the candy against the front lower teeth for [a:]

Use strips of paper to make learners aware of the quick release of air

• Hold a strip of paper in front of your mouth and say [p], [t],[k]. The quick release of air will make the paper move.

• The learners see the release of air for voiceless stops. Show them how the corresponding voiced sounds *b+, *d+, *g+ don’t come with that same puff of air.

– After learners have practiced with their own pieces of paper, have them hold their hands on their throats to feel the vibration (or not) of the voice box.

Use elastics work on the length of sounds

• When you and your learners stretch elastics during articulation, you can see as well as hear the duration of the sound and feel the tension in the elastic.

• This works for both vowels and consonants: for example, stretch and hold the elastic for [i:] or [th] but not for [i] or [t].

When do you teach sounds? In tandem with phonics

When you hear a problem

As a stand alone activity with pronunciation as your target

When a sound or sounds come up a lot• [th] sounds with ordinal numbers – calendar work, with

family

• [ r] or [әr] with jobs, adjectives – comparatives

• [i:] and [i] this, these

• [s], [z] plurals, 3rd person singular

• [t], [d] past tense

• short e, long a, e with alphabet (gee vs. jay)

• long vowels with addresses - street, drive, avenue

Some activities/resources

• Sound/word/minimal pairs (hat/hot, bin/Ben)

• Tongue twisters

• Paired reading, reading aloud

• Story squares

• Rhyming – grouping rhyming words, brainstorming rhymes

• Making posters (pictures, sounds, minimal pairs, rhyming groups)

• Phonics books, kids books – Dr. Seuss

SYL-LA-BLES/sĭ-lә-bәlz

Start with counting

Build awareness of syllables as beats or parts of words. Knock, clap or tap out syllables of familiar vocabulary.

–Ask the learners “How many claps (or taps or knocks)?”

Syllable counting (recognizing syllables) can be a part of grammar and thematic activities.

What is the grammar and/or thematic content of the following:

– Is the bill big or bigger? – Is it rent an apartment or rented it? – Is the weather rain or rainy? – Is it dress or dresses?

a change in grammar = a change in syllables

Hearing with their eyes?

Many learners will predict the number of syllables according to spelling: Try asking learners how many syllables these words have: house, family, rhythm.

– They may give house and family three syllables each, and rhythm - one.

• You can help learners focus more on sound by having them close their eyes when they listen for syllables.

• You can also turn out the lights in the room.

• Don’t write new vocabulary on the board until learners have heard it and identified the number of syllables.

Beyond counting: Syllable stress

• Start by identifying the number of syllables. Ask what syllable is easy to hear or strong or loud.

• Use elastics to bring seeing and feeling into pronunciation.

• Write and draw on the board.

• Use gestures and movement.

Length

• Pulling an elastic helps learners see and feel the length of a stressed syllable.– Mirror the stretch of the elastic on the board by

drawing a straight line over a stressed syllable.

ta ble ba na na

• Stand up on the stressed syllable.– Mirror this on the board too – use a line.

ta' ble ba na' na

Pitch

• Introduce the idea of higher pitch on stressed vowels. Say “time” –your voice goes up a bit on the long i

• Show the pitch change by gesturing: Have learners gesture as well.

Mirror your hand gesture on the board. Draw a curved line over a stressed syllable.

ta ble ba na na

learners also need pitch for intonation work

A few rules of thumb…

• Most two syllable words have stress on the first syllable.

— open fountain

• Compound words are usually stressed on the first syllable.

– workshop airport

• For many words with suffixes (for example, -ic, -ible, -logy, -ual) the stress falls just before the suffix

– terrific impossible

Reduction

Many unstressed vowels are reduced to schwa. Schwa is the short sound –uh /ә/

— Some learners use this reduction in their own speech, and it is reflected in their spelling. For example, they say buh-tweenand spell batween.

— Other learners tend to pronounce words as they see and spell them. They say bee-tween and write between.

Introducing schwa

Start with the short u sound /Λ/ – it is a familiar sound and almost the same as schwa /ә/.— Work on distinguishing the/Λ/ sound from other

short vowels.

Next, work with two-syllable words with one syllable always pronounced as schwa.– Get the learners to stand up. Have them sit

down when they hear /ә/ in a syllable.

– Circle the /ә/ syllable.

Noun or Verb?Once they have reduction in place, learners are

ready to work with nouns and verbs.

– Compare and identify the noun and verb. Then move on to production: as words, in phrases, in sentences.

Stretch elastics on the stressed syllable.

pre-sent pre-sent

re – fund re-fund

Reduced words and phrases

• learners can work with commonly reduced phrases.

gonna wanna hafta dunnocoulda woulda shoulda

“I coulda bin a contenda...I coulda had class...”

When do you work on syllables?

When you introduce vocabulary

With contractions

When it fits with grammar – comparatives, past tense, third person singular, plurals, etc.

As a spelling strategy

When you hear a problem

As stand-alone activities in the class or lab

STRESS AND RHYTHM

Basic sentence stress

What we call content words have stress in a sentence or phrase. Content words include (main) verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc.

What we call function words don’t. Function words include articles, prepositions, helping verbs, many pronouns, etc.

The final content word usually carries the most stress.

Build awareness. Ask learners to identify the strong or easy to hear word in a phrase or short sentence. —Start with common courtesy expressions and

thematic vocabulary and content

—Use the same sentences and phrases with differing stress to help learners become more aware.

nice to meet you vs. nice to meet you too

…on the desk vs. on the desk

Activate the senses!

• Pull an elastic on the stressed word

• Get them (all) to stand up on the stressed word

• Have a group of learners stand in front of the class one with each word. Their classmates can tell them who should sit or stand or hold up their word according to stress.

It’s

on

the desk

Ask learners to listen and then identify important words in short dialogs or jazz chants.

Then have them practice with a focus on stress.

Substition dialogs are a great resource. Words may change, but the stress pattern remains the same.

A: What’s your first name?

B: John.

A: And what’s your lastname?

B: Smyth.

A: How do you spell that?

B: S-M-Y-T-H

Function words are often reduced.

The vowel is pronounced as schwa.

to tә for fәr do dә

Some final consonants are not completed (released).

and әnd

“What dә yә want fәr breakfast, bacon әn eggs?”

• This pattern of stressed, unstressed and reduced words and phrases is the basis of the rhythm of English.

“What dә yә wannә do today?”

“I dunno. What dә you wannә do?”

Stress and timing

English is a stress timed language. How long it takes us to say something depends on how many stressed syllables there are – not on total number of syllables.

Tea and toast.

Some tea and some toast.

These two sentences take the same time to say because they both have two stressed syllables. We reduce the unstressed syllables to give the stressed syllables the time they need.

INTONATION

Intonation is the change of pitch of our voice: how high or low we go. There are four common pitch levels for intonation

1 low (where the pitch falls at the end of statements and Wh- questions)

2 normal (where the voice usually is)

3 high (where the pitch rises at the end of yes/no questions)

4 very high (strong emotions like fear or excitement)

Build awareness of the intonation patterns in statements and in (simple) questions.

• Read out a mix of statements (falling intonation) and yes/no questions (rising intonation) first.

—Ask learners if your voice goes up or down at the end. Use hand gestures to add a visual aspect.

• Next, mix in WH questions.

• Mirror the intonation pattern with your hand.

• Write out the sentence and draw the intonation pattern.

Is he your brother? He’s my brother.

Where is your brother?

learners need to understand that sentence stress and intonation have important roles: they affect meaning and indicate the feeling behind the words.

How many ways can we say “Excuse me”

Help learners understand this. Have them listen to, repeat and then read the phrases, short sentences or tongue twisters with varying stress and intonation.

a toy boat. a toy boat? a toy boat!

When do you teach sentence stress rhythm and intonation?

• With common phrases and courtesy expressions

• When you hear problems

• With dialogs, conversations, jazz chants

• As stand alone activities in class or in the listening lab

Native speakers identify having the wrong stress, rhythm and intonation as the greatest barriers to communication!

LINKING

Linking is when a sound connects to or jumps to the next syllable (or word).

consonant to vowel linking

“Do you like it?” is pronounced as Do you li-kit?The /k/ jumps to the next syllable.

vowel to vowel linking

In “carrying” the final /i:/ of carry is connected to the /ĭ/ of -ing with a /y/ glide. It sounds like ca-ree-ying.

Focus on consonant to vowel linking at first.

A good starting place is with an + vowel:

an orange an apple

– Point out how the n in an jumps to the vowel. Once you point this out, learners will catch on.

– Practice with other commonly linked words in everyday expressions and phrasal verbs:

get up turn off What time is it?

On the board, you can use a curved line that joins the linked sounds.

I like it. Turn on.

You can also write the words with altered spacing to mimic connected speech.

Tur non the light.

• When you are practicing dialogs with your learners bring in linking.

A: What ca nI ge tyou?

B: A cu pof coffee an da bagel please.

When do you teach linking?

• With common phrases, phrasal verbs and courtesy expressions

• When you hear problems

• With dialogs, conversations, jazz chants

• With grammar – past tense[t] and [d] may link to the following word

A: Did you wash the floor?

B: Yes, I di dit. (or Yes, I washe dit.)

PHRASING/THOUGHT GROUPS

Phrasing is how we pause between phrases that express complete ideas. Pronunciation books call this phrasing thought groups.

These pauses make it easier for people to follow your thoughts.

A leap year • is never • a good sheep year.

A good place to start is with numbers.

Phone numbers are grouped:

403•555•1212

SINs are grouped

678•901•234

Math equations are grouped

2+2•=4

— Read out number sequences with various pauses. Have learners write them with spaces where you pause.

Get learners to read aloud and pause where they see commas. It’s fun to use sentences that can have different meanings with or without the comma.

She wore pretty, new shoes.

She wore pretty new shoes.

The boys, who finished their work, played baseball.

The boys who finished their work played baseball.

Not all thought groups are separated by punctuation. Sometimes words just go naturally together – at least it’s natural to native speakers.

— Practice by asking questions. Ask learners to respond with short phrases and not sentences.

Where is your book? On the table.

What time did you get home? At 4:30.

— Put the responses into sentences and show that the “answer” is a thought group.

More activities with thought groups

• Practice substitution dialogs with a focus on thought groups.

• Read to a partner.

• Leave and listen to telephone messages.

• Give instructions.

• Give presentations.

Be sure to give learners lots of time to mark the thought groups and practice speaking/reading on their own before you ask them to work with a partner or present.

CRAZY THINGS WE DO

.

We flap.

We turn /t/ into something like a /d/. This often happens when the /t/ is between vowels.

Butter sounds a lot like budder.

What if sounds like whadif.

A flap is not /d/. It’s a fast /t/ that takes on some of the voicing from the vowels.

We stop.

Sometimes we don’t finish or release a sound. That is, we put our tongue in place but then we stop.

Compare can and can’t in fast speech. Do you really hear the /t/?

Think about how you say Martin or eaten.There’s a good chance there’s no /t/. Instead you are using a glottal stop. (Think of how you say uh-uh)

We elide.

Sometimes we reduce a sound to nothing. This happens to /h/ in words like he or him.

Give it to im

We assimilate

If you wash your reds and your whites, you get pinks. Sounds are the same. One sound may pick up another sound’s colour.

Did you? Sounds like Di- ja

Procedure sounds like pro- ce-jur

Pronounce, Play!

Mares eat oats

And does eat oats

And little lambs eat ivy

Have fun!