Descripción del sistema fonológico de la lengua inglesa. Modelos y técnicas de aprendizaje. - PowerPoint Presentation

Descripción del sistema fonológico de la lengua inglesa. Modelos y técnicas de aprendizaje. Percepción, discriminación emisión de sonidos, entonaciones, ritmos y acentos. La corrección fonética. Topic 9

TABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCCTION 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM. 1.1. Consonant system . 1.2. Vowel system . 1.3. Suprasegmental features of pronunciation . 2. THE CHOICE OF A MODEL OF PRONUNCIATION. 3. TEACHING AN LEARNING PRONUNCIATION. 4. CORRECTION: PROBLEMS FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS.

INTRODUCTION Phonetics is the science concerned with the study of speech processes, including production, transmission and reception of speech sounds from both acoustic and physiological point of view. Phonology We assume a system that ignores the exact phonetic details, but deals with the meaningful sound oppositions of the spoken language of as many varieties as possible.

INTRODUCTION PHONETICS  is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status. PHONOLOGY , on the other hand, is concerned with the abstract, grammatical characterization of systems of sounds or signs.

1. Description of the phonological system of the English Language. Phonetics vs. Phonology. From a phonetic point of view , vowels and consonants are distinguished by their articulation and the associated patterns of acousstic enerhy . Vowel sounds : the air stream comes out unimpeded Consonant sounds : may meet a stricture of Complete closure ( plosives , nasals , affricates ) Partial oral closure (lateral) Close approximation ( fricative )

From a phonological point of view , we distinguish vowels and consonants in terms of their use in the structure of spoken language . Vowels are syllabic Consonants are non- sylabic .

Our descriprion of the phonetic inventory of English will correspond to the Received Pronunciation (RP) model . Wide intelligibility in all English-speaking communities Represents no regional characteristics Enjoys social prestige It have been describes thouroughly

PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM = SEGMENTAL FEATURES + SUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURES SEGMENTAL FEATURES are discrete units, which may be identified in the stream of speech. Their articulatory phonetic description can make reference to six main factors: Air stream – the source and direction of the air stream. Vocal folds – the absence or presence of vibration (voiced and voiceless sounds) Soft palate – indicates if the sound is nasal or oral. Place of articulation – refers to the point in the vocal tract at which the main closure is made (teeth, lips, etc.)Manner of articulation – refers to the type of constriction. The position of lips – rounded or spread. Soft palate

1.1.The Consonant System The three basic criteria used in the articulatory description of a sound are vocal cord vibration (voicing), the place of articulation and the manner of articulation.

Chart of English consonants

1.2. The Vowel System. The inventory of vowels in English can be determined by three features: Height of the tongue : open or close vowels. Tongue frontness / backness . It can be front, central or back. Complexity of the vowel : its quality and quantity.

In the following diagram you can see the organization of vowel sounds in English depending on their articulation.

The Vowel system. Short and long vowels. English has a large number of vowels sounds. The first to be examined are short vowels. The symbols for these vowels are: Short vowels are only relatively short. Vowels can have different lengths in different contexts. Each vowel is described in relation to the cardinal vowels.

The Vowel system. Short and long vowels. The first to be introduced are the 5 long vowels. These are the vowels which tend to be longer in similar contexts. The symbols consist of one vowel sound plus a length mark made of two dots.   Thus we have:

The Vowel system. Diphthongs. BBC pronunciation has a large number of diphthongs, sounds which consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another. A vowel which remains constant and does not glide is called a pure vowel . The first part is much longer and stronger than the second part The total number of diphthong is eight. The easiest way to remember them is in terms of three groups divided as in this diagram:

1.3. Suprasegmental features of pronunciation. The suprasegmental features of pronunication are stress, rhythm and intonation. Stress – the prominence with which one part of the word or of a longer utterance is a starter of pitch movement or has the potential to be one. Rhythm – the pattern formed by peaks of prominence as they are distributed in an utterance. Intonation – association of relative prominence to a series of factors such as pitch movement, loudness, rhytmicality and tempo.

` STRESS Though the stresses are normally in a fixed position in a word, their position is unpredictable. However there some generalizations about endings in words stress and compound accentual patterns: Abstract nouns ending in –ion> syllable preceding the ending. Stress before adjectival –ic> phoneme – phonemic. Stress before nominal – ity > un/ animous – una/nimity

RHYTHM Rhythm is timing patterns among syllables.       There are basically two types of sentence rhythm in languages: "stress-timed rhythm" and "syllables-timed rhythm.“ In a stress-timed language - the  stressed  syllables are said at approximately regular intervals, and unstressed syllables shorten to fit this rhythm. In syllable-timed languages - each syllable takes roughly the same amount of time.

INTONATIONDifferent levels of pitch (tone) are used in particular sequences to express a wide range of meaning. Intonation performs a wide range of functions: Emotional : works with attitudinal meanings, form excitement to boredom. Grammatical: helps to identify major units, such as clauses and sentences, some contrasts/questions and statements/ may rely on intonation. Information structure : conveys a great deal about what is already known in an utterance. Psychological: helps to organize a language into chunks. Indexical : helps to identify people as belonging to different social groups and occupations.

The most important tunes students should know are the following: TUNE 1. FALLING TONE This tone is usually regarded as neutral. The fall tone gives the impression of “finality”. It is used in: statements, tag questions, commands, wh -questions, dual questions. TUNE 2. RISING TONE This tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow: A (whishing to attract attention): Excuse me. B: ́yes It is used in: yes/No questions, Polite requests, echo questions. TUNE 3. FALLING-RISING TONE This intonation is used a lot in English. We will consider only one fairly simple one: “limited agreement” or “response with reservations”. A: I've heard that it's good school. B: ˘yes. B´s reply would be taken to mean that he would not completely agree with what A said.

2. THE CHOICE OF A MODEL OF PRONUNCIATION. There are two standard, widely accepted pronunciations: Received Pronunciation and General American . British RP or General British – is a form of pronunciation of the English language which has been the prestige British accent. In the UK it is used as the standard for English in most books on phonology and represented in the pronunciation schemes of most dictionaries. It is also known as BBC English because it was traditionally used by the BBC.

General American Pronunciation (or American Broadcast English) is the accent of American English perceived by Americans to be most neutral and free of regional characteristics. The General American accent is not thought as a linguistic standard, but its speakers are perceived as accentless by most Americans.

In the last decades, our educational system has asserted the value of British RP. The use of RP has been considered a mark of education. The lowest requirement when teaching pronunciation: MINIMUM GENERAL INTELLIGIBILITY (to possess a set of distinctive elements which correspond to the inventory of the RP phonemic system and which is capable of conveying a message efficiently). At the other extreme we have HIGH INTELLIBIBILITY (a form of speech so high that the native listener may not identify it as non-native).

3. TEACHING AN LEARNING PRONUNCIATION.3.1. Perception and discrimination . We must first make our pupils aware of the English pronunciation features. They must be able to perceive and discriminate. Our pupils should be aware that the sounds they are hearing or producing are English. We must first ear-train them. Some exercises: Listening for a specific word Write the word you hear Same or different?Which order?Which sound?Odd one out?

It is important to give our pupils training also in suprasegmental features. English word stress patterns importance may be demonstrated: teaching names of class members or the names of well-known places and people. Once they recognize word stress we may begin with rhythm and intonation. English is a stress-timed language . We can show this by clapping the strong beats in songs, rhymes and jazz chants. Intonation awareness can be developed by telling students to hum rather than say dialogues.

3. TEACHING AN LEARNING PRONUNCIATION.3.2. Production and assesment . Once our students are able to perceive and discriminate, we can ask them to produce those features so that assessment can take place. The integration of pronunciation in English lessons must be consistent and planned , and it requires that students integrate pronunciation in their learning . Students must make acts of monitoring and self-evaluation an integral part of work inside and outside the classroom by: recording or asking for a repetition of a speaking activity, introducing oral homework, and tracking students’ progress.

4. Correction: problems for Spanish speakers. 4.1. Consonant Sounds. Some English phonemes have equivalents in Spanish but others are distinctive sounds. z/∫ / ð / ν / ʤ / ʒ /  h have no real match in Spanish . High priority problems: /b/ and /v/ are confused Spanish words never start with an “s” sound, and words which are similar to English tend to have an initial “ es ” sound instead, as in escuela /school./ð / and /d/ are confused/p, t, k/ are not aspirated in initial position/t/ is dental in SpanishConsonant clusters in general

4.1. Vowel sounds.Spanish has 5 vowel sounds and English has….12. The other problem is that the length of the vowel sound is not an important feature which leads to classic misunderstandings. High priority sounds: / i / and / i :/ are confused /a:/, /ʌ/, /æ/ are all confused. /ɒ/ , /ɔ:/, /əʊ/ are confused . /ɜ:/ is replaced by its spelling.

4.3. StressIn Spanish, vowels instead of syllables are stressed. Spanish students are not used to accentuate 3 and 4 –syllable words on their first syllables. English derivatives do not always follow the patterns of their roots: /ˈ pɜːsn ̩ / / pəˌsɒnɪfɪˈkeɪʃn ̩ /No secondary stresses in Spanish. /, refjʊ'ʤi ː/ /,vɒlən'tɪə/

4.4. RhythmIt is a musicality of the language. Spanish is a syllable-timed language. The number of syllables determines the length of time to say something. English is a stressed timed language. The time it takes something to say in English depends on the number of stressed syllables or words, not on the number of syllables. COMPARE YO-QUIE-RO-SER-TU-MR-JOR-A-MI-GO I-WANT-to-BE-your-BEST-FRIEND

4.5. IntonationWe tend to use a very narrow pitch. Our falling pitch movement is not low enough. We do not use rise-fall tunes.