Teaching Pronunciation Some fundamentals of English articulation and stress

Why is learning pronunciation difficult? Varying phonemic inventories between languages Differing stress/intonation patterns For a comprehensive list of phonemic differences, go to o.html Common Mistakes in English by Language Background by Ted Power

Another reason: Articulatory Setting First defined by Beatrice Honikman (1964) The way a native speaker articulates the language has as much to do with the position of the speech articulators (the tongue, the jaws and the lips) as it does with the sounds themselves.

English/Polish comparison J. Ozga.‘Teaching English Articulatory Settings to Polish Users’

The articulatory setting of English External jaws - little mobility, non extensive & non energetic movements, small aperature, loosely closed Lips - neutral, slightly & loosely apart, slightly cornered, moderate mobility Cheeks - neutral & relaxed

Internal Tongue Apex is main active articulator. Anchorage is lateral to the roof. Body is concave. Glottis - devoicing From Ozga, J.‘Teaching English Articulatory Settings to Polish Users’ …and inside the mouth

Honikman’s ‘English gear’ Advice for setting the ‘setting’ “Taper and concave the tongue, draw it as a whole back into the mouth so that the pointed tip presses against the edge of the alveolar ridge; close the jaws, don’t clench them; still the lips; swallow to relax; now to limber up repeat [t,d,n,l].” Brown, Adam. Teaching English Pronunciation: A Book of Readings. Routledge, 1991.

Keep it in gear: Pronouncing /l/ Find the English gear. Open your mouth and let the front of the tongue lower. Put a pencil across your tongue. Place the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth. Remove the pencil. Breathe in and out through your mouth repeatedly. If the sides of your tongue get dry, you are doing it correctly.

Pronouncing /r/ Find the English gear. Gently retract the tip of the tongue to the middle of the roof of the mouth. Do not touch the tip to the roof. Make sure you keep the sides of the tongue up along the sides.

Pronouncing /m/,/n/, / ŋ / With all three of these consonant sounds, no air is escaping via the mouth (nasal sounds). /m/ - Find the gear, bring both lips together, and voice the sound. /n/ - Find the gear, gently rest the entire outer edges of the tongue up, part the lips, concave the tongue, and voice the sound. / ŋ / - Find the gear, lower the front of the tongue and raise the back of the tongue to close off the air passage, part the lips, and voice the sound.

Pronouncing / θ / / ð / sounds Put your finger in front of your lips. Touch your tongue to your finger. As you say the sound, quickly retract your tongue. The friction caused by retracting your tongue is what makes the sound. If your finger is wet, you are doing it correctly.

Voiced & Unvoiced /th/ voicedunvoiced thisthink thatthought thetheory thesetheater thosetheme therethrow thenthistle

Pronouncing /s/ and / ʃ / For /s/ - find the gear Retract the cheeks slightly Bend the top of the tip of the tongue up toward the alveolar ridge With the sides of the tongue still in gear, pass air through the opening between the tongue and the alveolar ridge For / ʃ / - curl the tip of the tongue back from the /s/ position Make sure the sides of the tongue are still up and pass air through the opening For /z/ and / ʒ /, add voice.

Pronouncing STOPS /p/ /b/ Take a piece of paper. Hold it in front of your lips. Put your lips together. To say /p/, release the air explosively. The paper should move. The sound is made by the sudden escape of air. To say /b/, add voice. Does the paper move? Why/why not?

Pronouncing STOPS /t/ /d/ Find the English gear. Put your hand in front of your mouth. To say /t/, release the tip of the tongue from the alveolar ridge while exhaling explosively. You should feel a slight release of air. To say /d/, add voice. What do you feel on your hand?

Pronouncing STOPS /k/ /g/ Find the English gear Lower the front of your tongue Raise the back of your tongue to close the air passage. Put your hand in front of your mouth. To say /k/, release the air passage by lowering the back of your tongue while exhaling explosively. You should feel a slight release of air. To say /g/, add voice. What do you feel on your hand?

Pronouncing / ʧ / / ʤ / Find the English gear. Put a piece of paper in front of your mouth. To say / ʧ /, quickly release the entire tongue down while exhaling explosively. PRETEND YOU ARE SNEEZING. The paper should move. To say/ ʤ /, add voice. Does the paper move?

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Stress is important! Syllable stress Word Stress Timed Stress

Syllable Stress What is a syllable? The smallest unit of sound containing one vowel SOUND in a word One syllable - time Two syllables - remind Three syllables - pineapple Four syllables - information Five syllables - theoretical

What is stress exactly? In English, stress is mostly about length. To demonstrate, use rubber bands. time remind pineapple information theoretical

Word Stress Syllable stress: Information Word stress: Where’s the station? Usually the last content word in a sentence is stressed. For special meaning, any word can be stressed. This is focal stress. I walked my dog.

Content words & Structure words Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Question words Negatives Demonstratives Pronouns Prepositions Articles ‘to be’ verb Conjunctions Auxiliary verbs

Timed stress The stressed syllable in each content words gets a beat. I went to the store to buy some milk. He returned the video to Blockbuster on Saturday morning.

Try these: What are you doing? Can I help you? What seems to be the problem? He took my pencil. Why did he do that? He lost his pencil. He left it in his last class. Oh, I could lend him my pen.

Try these: What are you doing? Can I help you? What seems to be the problem? He took my pencil. Why did he do that? He lost his pencil. He left it in his last class. Oh, I could lend him my pen.

Sally Speaks Spanish Sally speaks Spanish, but not very well. When she tries to speak Spanish, you really can’t tell what language she’s speaking or trying to speak. The first time I heard her, I thought it was Greek. From Carolyn Graham’s Jazz Chants

Sally Speaks Spanish Sally speaks Spanish, but not very well. When she tries to speak Spanish, you really can’t tell what language she’s speaking or trying to speak. The first time I heard her, I thought it was Greek. From Carolyn Graham’s Jazz Chants

Make it meaningful and FUN! If possible, do a personal accent inventory for each student. Assign Pronunciation Practice Logs Give students Internet sites for practice. Make it fun. Use games (Pronunciation Games by M. Hancock), Jazz Chants, limericks, tongue twisters, and songs to support the lesson.