Phonology – phriend or - PowerPoint Presentation

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Phonology – phriend or phoe?

Ray Parker

NALA Dublin, 2013

Slide2

A few simple principlesEnglish language teachers teach two languages not one!

Spoken language is at least as systematic as any other part

By focussing on important aspects of pronunciation we can score a double whammy!

There’s nothing mysterious or complicated about phonology

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3

Two Languages not One!

Writing

Graphic

Permanent

Conservative

Delivered in wordsHigh prestigeSecondaryLearned

Speaking

Acoustic

Ephemeral

Progressive

Delivered in utterances

Low prestige

Primary

Acquired

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The size of the problemHow many words?

17,000?

How much grammar?

400 structures?

How many phonemes?44

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Elements of pronunciation

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The possible components of the pronunciation element of a

general English course

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Pronunciation - our priorities

Word stress

Delaying graphical interference

Stress timing

Modelling & correcting without distortion

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Word stress

You always get it right in speech

Some people have problems identifying it.

Physical violence is really helpful!

We really have to be confidentWe really have to help learnersBe consistent & make it routine

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Word stress

Have a consistent board use strategy

Share it with colleagues in your institution

Use symbols which couldn’t possibly be confused with normal writing

Mine – and now that of many colleagues – is the following

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10

Misleading spellings

bough

cough

though

through

thoughthiccough

enough

thorough

/baʊ/

/kɒf/

/ðəʊ/

/θru:/

/θɔ:t/

/'hɪkʌp/

/ɪn'ʌf/

/'θʌrə/

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Who is it?

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ghoti

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ghoti

=

fish

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ghoti

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gh

oti

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Enou

gh = /f/

gh

oti

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gh

o

ti

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enou

gh = /f/

gh

o

tiwomen = / ɪ /

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gho

ti

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na

ti

on

= /ʃ/enough = /f/ghotiw

omen

= / ɪ /

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So what about this?

tchughce

21

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one

two

three

four

fivesixseven eightetc…..

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Egyptian women manage businesses

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Egyptian women manage businesses

/

ɪ'ʤɪpʃən 'wɪmɪn 'mænɪʤ 'bɪznɪsɪz/

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Unhelpful spelling

Egyptian women manage businesses

/

ɪ'ʤɪpʃən 'wɪmɪn 'mænɪʤ 'bɪznɪsɪz/

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Unhelpful spelling

So in our sample sentence these vowels represent the sound /

ɪ/:

a

e o u y i X

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Delaying graphical interferenceResisting bullying

Designating space on board and a specific time in the lesson for adding written forms

Eliciting rather than presenting written form

Anticipating and focusing on potential interference features

bizarre spellings silent lettersredundant syllables

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Components of pronunciation

28

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The possible components of the pronunciation element of a

general English course

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Components of pronunciation

Top-down or bottom-up?

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Utterance stressWhat’s the system?

The good news:

There

is

a system

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Utterance stressWhat’s the system?

The better news:

The system is regular, reliable, predictable

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Utterance stressWhat’s the system?

The best news:

It’s simple

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Utterance stress

So which words are stressed in utterances and which ones normally aren’t?

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Stress in utterances

Open classes

content words

(stressed in sentences)

(one syllable if polysyllabic)

Closed classes

structure words

(normally not stressed in sentences)

(except polysyllabics)

class

examples

Class

examples

nouns

book, Ray

pronouns

he, there (e.g. there is ....)

(lexical) verbs

to speak, to love

conjunctions

and, but

adjectives

intelligent, green

auxiliary verbs

was, must

adverbs

nicely, well

prepositions

for, from

numbers

five, third

determiners

his, the

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stress-timing

Ti

amo

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stress-timing

1 2 3

Ti

amo

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stress-timing

Ti

amo

,

tesoro

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stress-timing

1 2 3 4 5 6

Ti

amo

, tesoro

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stress-timing

Fish, chips, peas

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stress-timing

1 2 3

Fish, chips, peas

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stress-timing

It’s in the shed at the bottom of the garden

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stress-timing

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

It’s in the shed at the bottom of the garden

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Sentence stress

Dogs bark

The dogs bark

The dogs will bark

The dogs are barkingThe dogs have been barkingThe dogs will have been barking

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45

“Unusual stressing of items which would normally not be stressed

Have you

done

your

homework?(¿Has hecho tus deberes?)

Have

you

done

your

home

work?

(

¿

Es

verdad

que

has

hecho

tus

deberes

?)

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“Unusual stressing of items which would normally not be stressed

Have

you

done

your homework?(¿Tu, has hecho tus deberes?)

Have you

done

your

home

work?

(

¿Has

hecho

tus

propios

deberes

?)

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Workshop task 1After you’ve completed the listening task, pair up with the other letter.

Correct each other’s work. (between you, you have all the words

D

iscuss the level of difficulty you encountered. Was one version more challenging than the other?

How would your learners manage such tasks?

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Task 1 Big messagesIn terms of developing accurate listening expectations, version B is immensely valuable.

In terms of moving towards acceptable pronunciation,

version B is immensely valuable

.

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Task 2 marking keyAustralia is a country where some of the most unusual animals in the world live. They’re called marsupials and include animals such as the kangaroo and the koala. The mother animals have got pouches of skin like pockets and they keep their babies there for the first few weeks of their lives.

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Big messages from the workshop

We should help learners with word stress

We should delay boarding of new words

We should focus on a top-down approach to phonology

We need to help students with utterance stress by helping them to focus on unstressed words

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Techniques for achieving these aims

Consistent but delayed written modelling

Back-chaining when drilling utterances

Specially focussed listening activities