Teaching pronunciation

Universidad de Jaén

ASSIGNMENT – TP

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment has to fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: between 4 and 6 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if there are any-).

- Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.- Size: 11.- Line height: 1.5.- Alignment: Justified.

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In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the Study Guide.

The assignment mark is 80% of the final mark, and the participation in the activities performed during the tutorials constitutes the remaining 20%.

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ASSIGNMENT – TP

Assignment:

You have a choice of two options for this part of the assignment:

OPTION A.

Take two distinct problems of transfer between Spanish and English (Spanish speakers with English as the target language) which you consider to be obstacles to efficient communication. The problems can either be segmental or suprasegmental.

FIRSTLY, explain, as accurately as you can the causes of the problems in phonetic or phonological terms. SECONDLY, illustrate and explain how you could solve these problems within the normal framework of a language course - the level, age and type of student presumably being determined by the type of problem you have chosen. Nevertheless, you should consider the problems in terms of the three ’E’ variables, and also with reference to Brinton’s five variables, mentioned in Section 9.

OPTION B

Find two books on pronunciation teaching (or two Pronunciation sections from books that cover general teaching issues) that seem to you to advocate very distinct approaches in the classroom. For example, The Pronunciation Book by Bowen & Marks seems very different from a book such as Ship and Sheep by Baker. Review the two books in the following ways:

(a) Describe the general approach of the books/sections - segmental, suprasegmental, exposure-based, explanation-based, humanistic, drill-based, teacher-centred, student-centred, traditional, and unusual, uses phonemic symbols, pays attention to phonological issues, etc.

(b) Which do you prefer? Why? Do you prefer one to another because of your pedagogic situation (Brinton’s fist variable) or because of the type of person and teacher that you are? (Brinton’s 3rd variable) Do you see problems in one of the approaches/methods? What sort of contexts (students, courses and institutions) is implied by the books/sections?

Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions will not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.

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ASSIGNMENT – TP

Teaching Pronunciation

(Option A)

Name and surname(s): Ana María Martín SánchezLogin: ESFPMLAEILE1764402Master edition: 2014-2015Date: 27/02/2015

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ASSIGNMENT – TP

Contents

1- Introduction

2- Pronunciation problems of Spanish native speakers which can be obstacles to efficient communication.

3- Activities to approach these features.

4- Conclusion

5- Bibliography

6- Appendices

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ASSIGNMENT – TP

1- Introduction

Before discussing two distinct problems of transfer between Spanish and English -

Spanish speakers with English as the target language - which I consider to be

obstacles to efficient communication, I think it is important to point out what features of

pronunciation are considered crucial for mutual understanding.

“What needs to be learned, however, is not English as a native language but

communicative effectiveness in English as a business lingua franca, which—as an

international contact language—brings together non-native as well as native Englishes

from various lingua-cultural backgrounds spoken with varying degrees of proficiency.”

(Ehrenreich, S. 2010)

This new role of English, as the common language among speakers of different

languages, has key implications when teaching pronunciation. Users of English

communicate successfully in accents that differ significantly from either Received

Pronunciation (RP) or General American (GA). Many linguists have questioned the use

of these models given the fact that native speaker accents are not necessarily the most

intelligible or appropriate accents when a non-native speaker is communicating with

another.

Jennifer Jenkins conducted some research into the pronunciation of global English

studying spoken exchanges between non-native speakers of English. She found a

number of pronunciation features that were important contributors to mutual

intelligibility. These features are known as the “Lingua Franca Core”.

All the consonant sounds are important except for voiceless “th” /ɵ/,

voiced “th‟ /ð/, and dark “l‟.

Consonant clusters are important at the beginning and in the middle of

words. The deletion of a consonant from a cluster at the beginning of a

word can seriously compromises intelligibility. Certain deletions in

medial position can also cause problems in intelligibility. On the other

hand, the addition of an extra vowel seems not to be a problem.

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ASSIGNMENT – TP

Vowel length contrast. For example, the difference between the vowel

sounds in “pitch‟ and “peach‟. It is also important to shorten all vowels

when placed before a voiceless consonant.

Production and placement of nuclear (or tonic) stress is also essential.

Choosing the correct word for prominence is very important since it can

change the meaning of the sentence.

Robin Walker (2001) states that mastery of these four features means being intelligible

to over 1,000 million people globally.

2- Pronunciation problems of Spanish native speakers which can be obstacles to efficient communication. (See Apendix 1)

Robin Walker (2001) put together a chart with the most common difficulties in

pronunciation Spanish speakers encountered when learning English. (Appendix 1)

Many of these features lie outside the lingua franca core; e.g. consonant items 3,

10, 11 and 13. “Good vowel length, good pronunciation of most of the consonants,

good handling of clusters, the avoidance of incorrect deletions, prominence and good

tonic stress - these are the focus of our work on pronunciation, together with one area

which did not come up in any traditional list, but is a priority in the Lingua Franca Core,

namely the appropriate use of tone groups.” (Walker, 2001).

I will focus on one segmental and one suprasegmental feature that are included in

the Lingua Franca Core.

No length variation in vowel pronunciation is a segmental problem most Spanish

speakers have. In Spanish the length of the vowel is not significant in distinguishing

between words while in English the length of the vowel sound plays an important role.

Some clear examples are words such as cart/cut live/leave or taught/tot.

Besides that, there is no significant tense-lax distinction for Spanish vowels, and

this together with problems of length, is the source many problems of intelligibility.

The other feature I will focus on is a suprasegmental one, and that is nuclear stress

production which has no equivalent in Spanish. Nuclear stress in English conveys

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ASSIGNMENT – TP

differences in meaning, “putting nuclear stress on the wrong word in an utterance, will

direct the listener’s attention to the wrong place, leading to confusion.” (Walker, 2001).

Many meanings which are conveyed in English through sentence stress are

conveyed in Spanish through the use of particular words. One clear example is when a

Spanish speaker says “I need them”. By stressing the word them, it almost sound as “I

need ten”, whereas competent users would pronounce “I need them” /’niːd əm/.

English is a “stress-timed‟ language which means that the length of an utterance

depends on the placement of stressed sounds in words and the stress of those words

in the sentence as a whole, while Spanish is a syllable-timed language. The rhythm of

stress-timed languages may well exhibit a musical quality, while the syllable-timed

languages tend to have a predictable meter. David Crystal (2010) states that “English

makes use of the stressed syllables produced at roughly regular intervals of time (in

fluent speech) and separated by unstressed syllables – a „stress-timed‟ rhythm.” In

Spanish the syllables are produced in a steady flow – a „syllable-timed‟ rhythm.

When Spanish speakers transfer their rhythm patterns into English, the result can

be unintelligible to other speakers of English. This is because the meaning or

information usually conveyed in English by the combination of pitch, loudness and

rhythm, in a sentence is flattened by the Spanish speaker.

3- Activities to approach these features.

Taking into consideration the five variables Brinton proposes, I will be discussing

how we can approach these problems in a group of IT English learners, between 35

and 45 years old who need English in order to exchange and enrich knowledge, to

generate and produce new knowledge; to present new ideas, participate in meetings

and sell their products. Most of these students need to use English with either

colleagues from the same organization or clients; who may be native speakers of

English or who may not. Anyway, either with native or with non-native speakers of

English, they use English as the common language for communication; English as the

Lingua Franca. Their English levels range between B1 and B1+ of the Common

European Framework. The courses are designed based on their needs and interests

and they are delivered at their premises. These are monolingual groups; all of them

share the same mother tongue, Spanish. A communicative approach is generally used

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and the main goal is to provide the students with the communicative competence they

need in order to fulfill their job related tasks.

Segmental Problem – vowel length.

Suprasegmental problem – nuclear stress.

A “bottom-up approach” would begin with the articulation of individual sounds or

phonemes and works up towards stress, rhythm, tone and intonation. On the other

hand, the “top-down approach” starts with patterns of intonation and brings separate

sounds or phonemes into sharper focus as and when required.

Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994) explain that the bottom up approach to teaching

pronunciation rests on the idea that if the segmentals are taught first, the

suprasegmentals will then be acquired while the top down one is based on the

assumption that once the suprasegmentals features are learned, the segmental

discriminations will follow accordingly.

Jenkins (2002) proposes starting holistically from voice quality and then moving to work

on segmental features since suprasegmental features contribute more to intelligibility

than segmental ones.

“Pronunciation as a speaking activity and pronunciation as a listening activity

are two end of the same stick.” Underhill (1998). So, exposure, as Dalton & Seidlhofer

(1994) state, is crucial. “Spoken language occurs contingently in the context of some

task or other activities which motivates the use of language...The assumption is that

because the use of language is motivated by some communicative purpose, sounds

will be heard as significantly and will be learnt as such.” (Dalton & Seidlhofer 1994: 72).

After exposure, noticing is a necessary to draw the students attention towards

those features they have more difficulties with, either the segmental or suprasegmental

one. Using some authentic IT spoken texts we can focus on nuclear stress or vowel

length. In these cases and for this specific group of students, explanation would really

help in the learning process, e.g. explaining the different circumstances that govern the

place of prominence – new information, emphatic stress or contrastive stress. Then,

some exercises can be done to practice and recognize different nuclear stress. For

instance, conscious raising activities like pronouncing the same sentences placing the

stress on different words and checking intended meaning, for example “I’m watching

TV (I’m not doing anything else)” vs. “I’m watching TV (don’t change the channel)”.

Some guided and communicative practices can be designed to focus on this.

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ASSIGNMENT – TP

For vowel length and tense/lax difference, making pronunciation a physical activity

and a visible one, as Underhill suggest, is a good strategy.

4- Conclusion

As Adrian Underhill (1998) states “the primary aim must be to help learners to

communicate successfully when they listen or speak in English…. To help my learner

develop the awareness that will enable them to model their own pronunciation in any

direction.” Many people argue that with good pronunciation despite some accuracy

errors a speaker is usually more intelligible than with poor pronunciation but more

accuracy.

Many teachers Monolingual groups may not be the ideal context in which to

improve pronunciation skills, but they are a reality for most of us, and one, which will

not change, in the immediate future. However, as Donna Brinton indicates, “... the task

of the EFL pronunciation teacher is simplified by the homogenous first language

background of the learners since knowledge of this language can generally be brought

to bear in constructing the pronunciation syllabus.”

“If we cease to see the learner’s L1 as an obstacle to be overcome en route to

achieving our goals, and view it much more as the basis on which to build our progress,

and as a means of access to the new pronunciation goals... we reduce the negative

psychological effects of always stressing what students ‘lack’, and highlight the value of

their own language as a tool for learning English.” (Walker, 2001).

5- Bibliography

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Brumfit, C.J. (2001) Individual Freedom in Language Teaching: Helping

Learners to Develop a Dialect of their Own. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Crystal, D. (1987, 1997, 2010). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language

(Third Edition). New York: Cambridge University Press

Dalton, C. & Seidlhofer, B. (1994). Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Ehrenreich, S. (2010) English as a Business Lingua Franca in a German

Multinational Corporation: Meeting the Challenge. Journal of Business

Communication vol. 47 no. 4 408-431

Jenkins, J. (2002). The Phonology of English as an International Language.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Underhill, A. (1998): "Get an ear for pronunciation". In EL Gazette, Issue no.

223, August 1998

Walker, R. (2001) Pronunciation for International Intelligibility. English Teaching

Professional. Issue 21

Walker, R. (2001) Pronunciation priorities, the Lingua Franca Core, and

monolingual groups. Speak Out! Pronunciation SIG

6- Appendices

Appendix 1

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Priorities for Spanish Speakers of English, based on Kenworthy (Teaching

English Pronunciation).

O’Connor (Better English Pronunciation)

Taylor (Pronunciation in Action).

Vowels

1. /i:/ and /I/ confused and a vowel more like /i:/ used for both (HP)

2. /Q/ and /E/ confused and /E/ used for both (HP)

3. /Q,√,A:/ confused, a sound like /√/being used, except where ‘r’ occurs in the

spelling, when /A:/ is replaced by vowel + /r/ (HP)

4. /Å/, /´U/ and /ç:/ confused (if there is no ‘r’ in the spelling), a vowel intermediate

between /Å/ and /ç:/ being used. Where ‘r’ occurs in the spelling /ç:/ is replaced by

vowel + /r/

5. /u:/ and /U/ confused with a vowel similar to /u:/used for both

6. /Œ:/ is replaced by the vowel + /r/

7. /´/ is usually replaced by the vowel suggested by the spelling (HP)

8. /eI/ and /E/ confused (HP)

9. /I´/, /E´/ and /U´/ are replaced by the vowel + /r/

10. No length variation - all vowels generally have the same length as the

English short vowels, so long vowels seem too short (HP)

Consonants

1. Confusion between /b/ and /v/ - /B/ tends to be used for both; sometimes /b/ is

used for /v/ (HP)

2. /t/ is very dental in Spanish

3. /d/ and /D/are confused and often used interchangeably (HP)

4. /g/ is often replaced by a similar friction sound (/F /)

5. /s/ and /z/ confused - /s/ used for both (HP)

6. /S/ does not occur in Spanish - /s/ used instead (HP)

7. /Z/ does not occur in Spanish - /s/ used instead

8. /dZ/ and /tS/ confused - /tS/ used for both, or the sound in the Spanish ‘yo’ is

used instead

9. /j/ does not occur - the sound in ‘yo’ is used instead (HP)

10. /h/ does not occur and is either deleted or substituted by /x/(HP)

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ASSIGNMENT – TP

11. /N/ does not occur and is substituted by /n/ (HP in some cases)

12. /l/ is always clear in Spanish

13. /r/ in Spanish is a tongue-tip flap or roll

14. /w/ does not occur and is substituted by /b/or /B/, or by /g/ if /w/ comes

before /U/

15. /p, t, k/ are not aspirated in Spanish (HP for /p/ and /t/)

Clusters

1. /e/ is inserted before /s+C/ or /s+C1+C2/ clusters

2. Learners tend to add /s/ for plurals: ‘pens’ sounds like ‘pence’

3. /s + C + s/ clusters difficult, with one of the /s/ being deleted

4. /s/ sometimes deleted when final in a word-final cluster

5. Final clusters with /t/ or /d/ are problematic, with deletion of /t, d/

or the insertion of a vowel

Stress, rhythm and intonation

1. Incorrect stress of compound words and ‘adj + noun’ combinations

2. Speakers have an over-even rhythm. Stressed syllables occur, but each syllable

has approximately the same length

3. There are no weak forms in Spanish

4. There is no equivalent system in Spanish to the system of nuclear stress of

English

5. Pitch range is too narrow and lacks high falls and rises

6. Final falling pitch may not sound low enough

The rise-fall seems difficult

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Teaching pronunciation

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