Elf.dec12 pronunciation

Emily Magaziner U.S. Department of State-sponsored

English Language Fellow

PRONUNCIATION Selected Issues in

Today’s group…

•  Secondary-school teachers?

• University teachers?

Agenda for today’s seminar

•  (Amazing) articulators

•  The problem of pronunciation

•  Three tips •  Perspective •  Priorities • Multiple modalities

Say these sentences…

• When it comes to singing, I love to sing French art songs.

•  But when I listen to music, I tend to listen to hard rock or classic rock music.

Our articulators

The problem of pronunciation

• “…a very marginalized topic in applied linguistics” (Derwing & Munro, 2005).

•  “Pronunciation is universally considered to be a ‘difficult’ aspect of an L2 to teach and learn—and probably the most difficult…” (Setter & Jenkins, 2005).

• Gilbert (2014): Pronunciation is the orphan in English-teaching.


•  Critical age

What can teachers do?

① A new perspective. Focus on intelligibility.

② Define priorities.

③ Multiple modalities: Integrate the visual with the auditory.

Three tips

TIP 1: A new perspective

•  Accent seen as a problem.

•  Accent accepted as part of normal variation.

Adapted from Grant (2014)

Normal variation

A new perspective

•  Reduction or elimination of accent.

•  Enhancement of intelligibility.


•  Intelligibility: “…the extent to which a listener understands a speaker’s message” (Grant, 2014)

•  A speaker can have a strong foreign accent and still be easily understood.

A new perspective

•  Native-like speech.

•  Intelligibility-based goals.


A new perspective

• When teaching pronunciation, give everything equal importance.

•  Focus mainly on problems likely to interfere with intelligibility.


TIP 2: Priorities

•  Segmental •  A unit; generally, consonants and vowels •  EX: [k], [ae], [t]

•  Suprasegmental •  EX: Rhythm, word stress, intonation •  Not something that can be ordered •  Stretches over multiple segments

•  The controversy

Jenkins (2002): Lingua Franca

•  Teachable and learnable pronunciation targets?

•  Consonants •  All consonants, except th (thin, then) •  Aspiration of word-initial voiceless stops [p t k] •  Clusters: Insertion is better than deletion (EX: string)

•  Vowels •  Certain vowel contrasts: [i] versus [I], [u] versus [U] •  Shorter vowels: sad versus sat, hid versus hit

•  Suprasegmentals •  Nuclear stress •  Division of speech into thought groups

[i] versus [I], [E] versus [ae]

•  Recent conversation •  Friend: I need to feel the tea kettle for my mother. •  Emily: Oh, why do you need to feel it? •  Friend: It’s empty. •  Emily: Ohhh, you mean “fill it up!” Okay.

•  Segmental

•  Recent conversation •  kettle versus cattle


•  Two reasons for difficulty •  The contrast does not exist in the student’s native

language. •  The two vowels are similar in terms of where they are

produced.

The speech chain…

(LEARNER)


•  Introducing a segmental contrast (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin [2010]) •  STEP 1: Description and analysis •  STEP 2: Listening discrimination •  STEP 3: Controlled/guided practice •  STEP 4: Communicative practice


•  STEP 1: Description and analysis

• Description: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset-ad3.html


• Color vowel chart: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/color-vowel-chart •  “…describe any English word based on the

pronunciation of the primary stressed syllable in the word” (Thompson & Taylor, 2013).

•  green tea versus silver pin (fill) •  feel versus fill

•  red dress versus black cat •  kettle versus cattle


•  Praat: free software, used for speech analysis • More recently: the classroom, for teachers and

learners

•  http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/


•  STEP 2: Listening discrimination

•  Red [E] or black [ae]? •  Is that an X/axe? •  You’ve ruined my hem/ham.

[i] versus [ı]

(Brian Hyland, 1960)

•  It was an ___ ___ ___ ___ yellow polka-dot bikini.

•  It was an itsy-bitsy, teenie-weenie, yellow polka-dot bikini.

•  It was an itsy-bitsy, teenie-weenie, yellow polka-dot bikini.

•  green tea [i], silver pin [I]


•  STEP 3: Controlled/guided practice

•  Focused sentence practice • Heather has seven happy hens in the back pen. •  Isn’t that Nan’s friend Jen dancing in that black leather

dress?

• Heather has seven happy hens in the back pen. •  Isn’t that Nan’s friend Jen dancing in that black leather

dress?


•  STEP 4: Communicative practice

• Mingle

•  Two questions


•  STEP 4: Communicative practice

WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE HOW

[E] Esther umbrella in September dentist’s office recklessly

Ed dentist yesterday restaurant tenderly

Jenna elbow at ten o’clock wedding gently

[ae] Pam hat in the past bank sadly

Dan actor last week at the park rapidly

Ann ankle after school back yard gladly

•  Story-telling

Nuclear (or tonic) stress

①  A b c ②  a B c ③  a b C

•  Three main signals to call attention to an important word •  The stressed syllable in the important word is… •  higher (pitch change) •  longer •  louder

•  Jim was here.

•  Suprasegmental


•  JIM was here.


•  Jim WAS here.


•  Why don’t we go to the movies tonight?

①  I don’t want to go to the ballet.

②  I can’t wait until tomorrow.

•  Using stress to express different meanings


•  You think I saw the monster.

•  (You are the one who thinks this is true.)


•  (This is your belief, but you are not correct.)


•  (Maybe someone saw it, but it wasn’t me.)

•  Why is nuclear stress important?



•  (I didn’t see it; I smelled it.)


•  (I saw something, but it may not have been the monster [e.g., I saw the clown].)


• Partner A: Stress one of the underlined words. (Stretch the rubber band.) • Partner B: Identify the

follow-up statement.

Multiple modalities

•  Phonetics software •  “Phonetics software [such as Praat] allows students to

see what their ears cannot ‘see’” (Ulfsbjorninn, 2012). •  Rubber bands

Multiple modalities

Thank you!

•  Questions?

Elf.dec12 pronunciation

Education

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