Introduction To Phonology

Presenter: Paul Mercieca

School of Education

Curtin University of Technology

Tel: 9266 4224

E-mail: p.mercieca@curtin.edu.au

Overview

• Sounds – the alphabet and spelling, phonemes

and allophones, accent and intelligibility

• Word stress, syllables, weak forms, stress-

timing and rhythm

• Sentence stress – emphasis, content and

structure words – some teaching techniques

• Connected Speech – Simplification and Linking

• Intonation and Suprasegmentals – different

meanings of intonation patterns

• Teaching phonology – speaking skills, isolated

and integrated activities

Overview

This is a big area covering all the following areas, often just

called pronunciation. You may wish to look in more detail at

the readings, also the Underhill book, if you are curious.

Sounds – the alphabet and spelling, phonemes

and allophones, accent and intelligibility

English is notoriously non-phonetic as a result of the 15C Great

Vowel Shift and its hybrid nature. 44 phonemes, including

vowels, diphthongs and consonants represent the significantly

different sounds of English, but each phoneme also has many

allophonic variants.

Some accents may be more or less widely intelligible, but not all

phonemes in all positions, initial, medial or final, require exact

realisation. ‘Minimal pair’ teaching, focussing on small

differences between similar sounds, is useful but needs to be

deployed carefully, unless our goal is ‘perfect accent’ -whatever

that might be!

Swan’s Learner English is a useful guide to the differences

between English and many other languages. But although

there are always some unfamiliar sounds in L1-L2 transfer, it

is often the case that one language’s phoneme is another’s

allophonic variant.

The phonemic chart is a good but not mandatory aid for

teachers and learners. It helps identify different aspects of

articulation, and is also very useful in helping students to

become autonomous by using dictionaries more effectively.

There are some useful strategies or tricks for helping with

remediation and correction, but we will look at the wider

implications of teacher intervention and feedback in a later

session.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/activities/phonemic-chart

http://www.onestopenglish.com/section_flash.asp?catid=60030

http://www.phonemicchart.com/

Word stress, syllables, weak forms, stress-

timing and rhythm

In multi-syllable words, one syllable receives more

emphasis – force/volume….and because English is stress-

timed unlike Italian, which is syllable-timed – more length.

The resulting rhythm creates ‘weak forms’ - non-stressed

vowels often change - e.g. banana

There are some patterns, which help us – but most words

have to be ‘learnt’ – which means being able to notice

where the stress falls –not easy for everyone! Again

dictionaries help, and teachers need to help learners to

note.

Sentence stress – emphasis, content and

structure words – some teaching techniques

As with syllables in words, so with words in sentences.

Sentences usually have one main stress, on a ‘content’

word, and often at the end. We often change the neutral

form, to alter emphasis. This results in many weak forms,

particularly on small ‘structure, words like a, and, at, to etc.

English often sounds mumbled as a result, but this is

natural and needs presenting as such, and there are many

useful teaching techniques such as ‘jazz chants’

Connected Speech – Simplification and Linking

In speech, sound and word boundaries are artificial. So

inside and between words, sounds may change

(assimilation), disappear (elision), appear (liaison) or

cause confusion (juncture).

Again, we need to resist the tendency to unnaturally

over-articulate when teaching.

Simplification

Assimilation - good boy, in bed

Elision - old man, sandwich

Linking

Liaison - linking /r/ - her English

intrusive /r/ - law and order

intrusive /w/ - you are

intrusive /j/ - he is

Juncture - Ice Cream = I scream

- Grade A = Grey Day

Intonation and Suprasegmentals – different

meanings of intonation patterns

Prosodic features such as stress and intonation are all

suprasegmental – above the phonemic level. They are also a

question of ‘not what you say but the way that you say it’,

and related to paralinguistics like gesture, posture, timbre.

Intonation or melody:

pitch/height and range for attitude – easier to notice and

reproduce…but ‘no rules’

direction mostly for grammatical or discourse meaning –

harder to notice and reproduce..but some ‘rules’. e.g. Man

City 6 Man United 1

Teaching phonology – speaking skills, isolated

and integrated activities

Phonology is often taught and learnt per se, also as part

of Speaking skills work, and included in specific language

work which focusses on how particular language is

pronounced.

The focus may be on specific elements or on more

fluent mastery of a range of elements.