Analysis of ′two texts′ written by EAL Learners
Michelle_Michy
Week5Phonologyppt.pptxETL705 Pedagogical Grammar Week 5
Phonology
Key words and concepts
| Phonemes Allophones Syllables Consonants Vowels Voicing quality Suprasegmentals | Connected speech Word and sentence stress Intonation International phonetic alphabet Markedness (terms highlighted in red are relevant to the activities on the next two slides) |
What problems did these learners have understanding or speaking English? What areas of phonology would they need to practice?
Learner: Hey! You didn’t come to the movie last night!
Teacher: (didn’t hear): Sorry?
Learner: Oh! That’s OK. Don’t worry.
Area: ____________________________
Spanish learner to English teacher: We need help with our pronunciation – we’re having trouble with our bowels
Area: ____________________________
Pronunciation is very impotent.
Area: _____________________________
What problems did these learners have understanding or speaking English? What areas of phonology would they need to practice?
A bus driver to a young Italian woman: are you in, love?
Italian to teacher later: Why did he ask me if I was in love?
Area: _____________________________
English speaker: Djuwannagofradrinklata?
Learner: ?????
Area: _____________________________
Sounds (Phonemes)
Individual sounds are the focus of the study of phonetics. In the production of sounds, many organs are involved.
To classify English consonants, we examine the nature of the disturbance in the airflow.
Where is the main disturbance taking place?
- lips
- teeth
- alveolar ridge
- hard palate
- soft palate = velum
- (uvula)
- (pharynx)
- (epiglottis)
- larynx / glottis
This is called place of articulation.
Phonemes
What sort of disturbance is occurring there?
- total block
- forcing the airflow through tiny gaps
- directing the airflow through a fairly small gap
- etc.
This is called manner of articulation.
The information on sound production in terms of place and manner of articulation can be read from chapter 8 in Blake
Some consonant symbols
sound name symbol as in
theta θ third
eth ð them
eng ŋ thing
turned r ɹ or r rough
Sound name symbol as in
esh ʃ or š she
ezh Ʒ or ž measure
combined ‘d’ & ‘Ʒ’ dƷ jump
combined ‘t’ & ‘ʃ’ tʃ chess
IPA vowel chart
(N.B. imagine square
brackets around all
these symbols
– e.g. [i])
Some vowel symbols
Sound name symbol as in
Schwa Ə about
open E ɛ ten
alpha α or a barn
upsilon Ʊ cook
turned a ɒ of
Sound name symbol as in
open o ɔ all
glottal stop Ɂ bottle
reversed open E ɜ nurse
combined ‘a’ & ‘e’ æ cat
lamda or wedge Λ muscle
Semi-vowel:
[j] j yes
[ju] ju you
Some key concepts in phonology
Phonology deals with:
The system of sound patterns of language
Phonemes, allophones, minimal pairs, and minimal sets
Morphophonemics
Stress patterns in words and utterances
Intonation
Connected speech
Phonemes
What’s a phoneme?
Minimal pairs
Minimal sets
Difference between phonemes and phones
/p/, /b/, /m/, /t/
Pin, bin
Can you name some more? ………………
Mean, teen
You name more ……..………..
Morphophonemic
This word is a combination of morph, and phoneme. The rules that bind these two are known as morphophonemic rules. Think of plural forms in English. There are three suffixes that are attached to count nouns for plural. These are /s/ as in 'cats', /z/ as in 'dogs', and /Əz/ as in 'churches'.
Activity 1.
Please provide some words for each phoneme/sound in the spaces below please.
/s/ ............................................
/z/ ............................................
/Əz/ ..........................................
Now, try to write a rule for each sound. These rules that you created are called morphophonemic rules.
Allophones
Allophones are variations of a phoneme which are shown in detailed phonetic transcription. Phoneme /p/, for example, can be pronounced as [ph] in 'put', with an aspiration or puff of air but [p] in 'spill' which is unaspirated (pronounced with reduction or absence in puff of air). You may hold your palm in front of your mouth and say the two words to experience the puff of air. We say these two are the allophones of the same phoneme. The allophones do not make a difference in meaning.
Q. 1. How many allophones are there for /t/?
[................]
Q. 2. How many allophones for /d/?
[................]
Q. 3. What about /p/ and /k/?
[................]
phonological theory
Consider these three phonemes of English:
/t/ /p/ /k/
[ t ] [ p ] [ k ]
[ t̚ ] [ p̚ ] [ k̚ ]
[ th ] [ ph ] [ kh ]
The symbol that represents each allophone is called diacritic.
Allophones of /t/
Aspirated [ th ]
[thɔl thɪk thim]
Unaspirated [ t ]
[stɔl stɪk stim]
No audible release [ t̚ ]
[wit ̚ wit ̚ bɪks nɒt]
Absent [ ]
often, apprentice
Dental [ t̪ ]
[eɪtƟ]
Tap [ ſ ]
letter, gotta
Affricated [ tʃ ]
tune, virtually
Allophones of /d/
'Plain' [ d ] (fully voiced alveolar stop)
childish, indent
No audible release [ d̚ ]
[wid, nɒd]
Can we distinguish (a) 'wheat' from (b) 'weed', and (c) 'not' from (d) 'nod' when the stops have no audible release?
Occasional allophones of /d/
Nasal release [ dn ]
hidden, sudden
Lateral release [ dl ]
middle, saddle
Affricated [ ʤ ]
[ʤuli]
Dental [ d̪ ]
[wɪdƟ θaʊzəndθ]
Tap [ ſ ]
border
Partially devoiced [ do ]
Deck the halls...
Absent [ ]
[fʌnəmɛnəl]
Did you ever think there would be so many allophones for each of these English phonemes?
Word stress
Attributive and predicative forms
Indoor vs. Indoors
An outdoor life is very healthy
Famers live mainly outdoors
Overseas
An overseas student is unlikely to get government benefits
We’re travelling overseas next month
Everyday vs. Every day
An everyday activity
I work out every day
Accentual alterations – mark the stress in the following words
Apply – application
Democracy – democrat – democratic
Allergy – allergic
Prefer – preference – preferential
Legislate – legislation – legislative
Vary – variable – variation
Rely – reliable – reliability
Declare – declaration
Demonstrate – demonstrative – demonstration
Accentuation of compound words
Baby sitter
Book seller
Car dealer
Pain killer
Ballet dancer
Taxi driver
Lie detector
Accentuation of compound words
Driving licence/school/test
Shopping bag/basket/centre/list/ street
Writing desk/ paper/ pad
Hearing aid
Boarding school
Parking zone
Waiting list
Freezing point
Steering wheel
Selling price
Swimming school
Two-word verbs which give origin to nouns
A hold-up
A let-down
A take-off
A walk-over
(exception: a lie-down)
Verb and nouns –accentual patterns
Increase (v)
Increase (n)
Import (v)
Import (n)
Object (v)
Object (n)
Insult (v)
Insult (n)
Exceptions: (comment – concrete – deposit – direct)
Double-accented compounds – mark the primary accent
Black market
Developing country
Vicious circle
Civil war
Best man
Prime minister
Alternative accentual patterns
Adult
Research
Detail
Controversy
Kilometre
Television
Sentence stress (and markedness)
Mark the primary stress in the following sentences- any problems?
There were no seats left
There’s been an accident
There’s someone at the door
There should be a thousand
I’ve been there before
Are these books yours?
More stress! (and more clauses)
Read the following sentences slowly first and then fast. Try stress- and some intonation!.
1. You couldn’t give me a lift, could you?
2. I asked her for the best tickets they’d got left.
3. Next Friday, I’ll meet you around four by the bus station not the art gallery, then we can collect Steve at five.
Connected Speech: What sound changes occur in the following?
In Africa an egg She’s ill
I’ll look big girl Peter’s sister
First page next week mashed potatoes
For ever their own my aunt boy and girl do it!
I have to go does she? Is she?
Could you? Ten men
Consonant/vowel elision
Textbook
Clothes
Months
Last time
Cold day
It must be
Five past nine
Most people do
The second day
Try transcribing these as part of longer utterances. What is the more natural pronunciation? It will vary: -what are the teaching implications?
Let’s have
I’ll be going
Got to
There isn’t any
As usual
How are you?
Allright
You shouldn’t have
There were two of them
Intonation –voice going up or down
Rising intonation
Falling intonation
------------------------- question tags ------------------
You went to the meeting, didn’t you?
It’s a nice day, isn’t it?
The communicative functions of intonation
Emotional
Grammatical
Information structure
Textual
Psychological
Indexical
David Crystal ‘The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language’
Intonation of questions with ‘or’
In questions with ‘or’ the intonation usually goes down at the end.
Would you like veal or beef?
Would you like coffee or tea?
Would you like coffee, tea or milk?
What are the intonation patterns in the following?
What do you want?
Are they coming next week or the week after?
Would you mind putting it over there?
You were here yesterday, weren’t you? (not sure)
You were here yesterday, weren’t you? (sure)
Last week he went out with Susan, Hilary, Mary, and Jane.
Summary of issues connecting Grammar and Pronunciation (1)
The most common vowel in English is the unstressed schwa. It occurs in many function words, so can be hard for learners to notice
Vowel or consonant elision in connected speech can also make some grammatical features hard to notice (try saying: he walked down the road)
Summary of issues connecting Grammar and Pronunciation (2)
Word stress may often give clues about word class
Sentence stress can help identify content (and if used incorrectly can obscure meaning)
Intonation: utterances that are grammatically correct can be rendered inappropriate without awareness of intonation patterns
Discussion
What are the implications for teaching all the aspects of phonology mentioned in this session?
In other languages you know, are there similar or different rules?
