two short essays
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Online teacher training solutions for Teaching English as a Foreign Language
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Module 9
The Phonology of English, Teaching Pronunciation and the Phonemic Script
9.3 Teaching Sound Recognition and Pronunciation The word "phoneme" has been used several times already. A phoneme is the smallest recognizable sound that we produce to communicate meaning. For example, in the word "heat" there are three phonemes: /h/ /i/ and /t/. Many speakers of other languages have great difficulty distinguishing between the long "e" sound of /i/ and the short "e" vowel / I /. One effective way to address this difficulty is to contrast two words in which only this problem phoneme differs: heat and hit. This variation of only one phoneme (in this case the middle one) is called a minimal difference. The two words that share this one difference are called a minimal pair. Minimal pairs might differ in the initial phoneme (fat and pat), the middle phoneme (fat and feet), or the final phoneme (fat and fan).
There are literally dozens of minimal differences represented in hundreds of minimal pairs in English that can highlight a pronunciation problem for students around the world. Each language group learning English, however, usually has a select number of minimal differences causing problems for speakers of that particular group. The problem may be that English has two phonemes that sound similar to a learner studying English or it may be that the phoneme does not exist at all in the learner's native language. For example:
Vat and bat are difficult for Latinos and many others to distinguish. They confuse the /v/ and the /b/ sounds.
Koreans have difficulties distinguishing /b/ and /f/ as in bar and far.
Thais, Poles and Hindi speakers among many others cannot distinguish between /w/ and /v/ as in went and vent.
Arabs have great difficulty distinguishing between /b/ and /p/ as Arabic has only one sound for these two phonemes which is closer to our /b/ sound. Thus, it's hard for them to distinguish between the words, Ben and pen.
And, almost everyone learning English has difficulty with the two "th" sounds!
What can you do to help your students take note of correct pronunciation and practice it?
Of course, you can just correct your students and show them how to produce the sound. A mirror is sometimes useful so they can see how they are forming the sound themselves after you've modeled how to produce a sound with tongue, teeth, etc.
Pronunciation games (see activities in Module X and suggested books in the Resource Center) are effective because they combine fun with an important skill. Play Pronunciation Bingo as in the example below:
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PRONUNCIATION BINGO
beat sit fought bet sight
sat sate bite fat book
set mat FREE seat fight
but boat bait mate bat
fate bet feet bought mitt
You can also assign words for students to look up in their dictionaries. Have them check the pronunciations and report back to the group.
Sometimes, listing groups of words with difficult similar sounds and spellings can help as:
no though
know through
now thorough
knew throw
new thought
Have the students practice reading down the list and write out the phonetic spelling they find in their dictionaries.
One of the best ways to help with sound recognition and do practice with troublesome sounds is to work with a minimal pair drill.
Techniques for Drilling Minimal Pairs Identify a sound that students are having problems with. Are they confusing it with another? (If you're not sure, there are lots of resources available that can identify these for you such as Pronunciation Contrasts in English by Nilsen and Nilsen.)
In this example, we'll use the "ch" and "sh" sounds that many groups have difficulties distinguishing and, or, pronouncing including Latinos, Arabs, Koreans, Thais and Vietnamese. Remember, the sound may occur in a final position as in the example below with "watch"/"wash", but it could also occur in a medial (middle) position like "washes"/"watches" or an initial position like "chew"/"shoe".
Step #1 Write the two sounds contained in a minimal pair on the board. Pronounce both words clearly while pointing to them. Ask the students, "Are these the same or different?" (This is to encourage association of spelling of the word with the target sound.)
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Then give your students ample opportunity to hear the difference between the two sounds. Make sure they can see you pronouncing the sound.
Teacher: "If I say "watchwatch" you say "same". If I say "washwash" you say ......? If I say "watchwash" you say "different". If I say "wash watch" you say.....?" (elicit as much from students as possible)
Step #2 Now write number 1 under "watch" and the number 2 under "wash". This time stand behind the students or turn around so they can't see your mouth. This is to make it a little more challenging. Again start slowly (choral [the group answers together] to individual responses) and then go faster and faster, making the practice into a game.
Teacher: "If I say "watchwatch" you say "11". If I say "washwash" you say.....? If I say "watchwash" you say...? If I say "washwatch" you say....? (elicit as much from students as possible)
Step #3 Now it's time for the students to produce the sound. Tell them that you'll say the number (1 or 2) and they will say the word or words, do singles, the same pair and the minimal pair.
Step #4 Now write a short sentence with each word contained in it to make a pair of minimal sentences. Note, except for the one word, the sentences must be exactly the same as in:
Give me my watch! Give me my wash!
1 2
Students do the same drill with the numbers in identifying and then in producing the sentences just as with the individual words in step 3. Note: minimal pairs and minimal sentences must use authentic words to be viable. Nonsense words defeat the purpose!
Finally, a lot of students have problems with the pronunciation of the past tense 'ed' which has three sounds: /d/ as in 'opened', /t/ as in 'asked' and /Id/ as in 'studied'. A good way to teach this is to list a group of verbs and have students practice pronouncing the past tense 'ed'. See if they can begin to figure out the rule for the difference in pronunciation. (See the "While we're on the subject" box below.)
While English has 44 phonemes expressed through an alphabet of only 26 letters, Thai has an alphabet of 44 consonants and 22 vowels representing the 29 phonemes of that language!
Among all of the world's languages there exist a total of approximately 200 phonemes! These range from 13 phonemes in Hawaiian to the largest group of 141 in !Xu, a 'click' language of southwest Africa!
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What do you think? 1. The / t / sound as represented on the phonetic chart represents one phoneme in English.
TRUE
FALSE
2. A good minimal pair to contrast the sounds of /I/ and / / is sit and sled.
TRUE
FALSE
3. The word "fearlessness" contains one diphthong.
TRUE
FALSE
Score 67% Miniquizzes do not count toward your final grade. Print
Teaching Phonology & The Phonemic Script Research and then tell what the rules are for the pronunciation of final "ed" in past tense verbs that you saw in this section. How would you teach this to your students? Look in our Resource Center for the rule.
List the minimal pairs you'd use to teach the following for initial, medial or final location:
/ i / and / I / / p / and / f / / r / and / l / / r / and / h / / v / and / b /
This is the end of this section. Click on the next module section in the table of contents © 20062009,
Bridge Linguatec, Inc
