1. Phonetics & Phonology John Corbett: USP-CAPES International Fellow
Session 11: English as a Lingua Franca 1: Consonants

2. Today´s session This session:
What is ELF (English as a Lingua Franca)?
What is the LFC (Lingua Franca Core)?
What are the LFC recommendations for teaching the consonants of English
Today´s session

3. The sociolinguistic context
Questions to answer:
Why are you learning English?
Are you more likely to use English with a native speaker or an L2 English speaker?
What kind of pronunciation model would be most useful in your likely contexts of use?
The sociolinguistic context

4. The sociolinguistic context: Global English
58,100,000 in United Kingdom, all users.
L1 users: 56,600,000 (2011 census).
L2 users: 1,500,000 (Crystal 2003a).
308,900,000 in United States, all users.
L1 users: 261,000,000 (2016).
L2 users: 47,900,000 (2013).
Total users in all countries: 1,121,806,280
as L1: 378,250,540;
as L2: 743,555,740.
The sociolinguistic context: Global English

5. The sociolinguistic context: Global English
Total users in all countries: 1,121,806,280
as L1: 378,250,540;
as L2: 743,555,740.
Conclusion: L2 speakers of English are much more likely to interact with other L2 speakers of English than with L1 speakers. L2-L2 interaction is ELF.
Why, then, focus strictly on L1 models of pronunciation?
The sociolinguistic context: Global English

6. What is ELF? Published in 2000
Promised ‘a new approach to English pronunciation teaching`
Focus on ‘mutual intelligibility among non- native speakers’ as the goal of teaching and curriculum design
Uses empirical data to determine which sounds cause problems of intelligibility – which sounds are at the root of communication breakdown?
What is ELF?

7. What is intelligibility?
‘Intelligibility’ is a complex phenomenon that depends on issues such as:
Recognition and interpretation of meaningful contrasts in sound
Shared context of knowledge
What is intelligibility?

8. L2-L2 Interaction (a German and Japanese speaker)
J has mentioned ‘let’ cars.
G: I don’t understand the let cars. What do you mean with this.
J: Let [lɛt] cars? Three red [ɾɛd] cars (very slowly).
G: Ah, red.
J: Red.
G: Now I understand. I understood car to hire, to let. Ah, red, yeah, I see.
Example of communication breakdown & repair with little or no shared context

9. One the basis of her analysis of many L2-L2 speaker interactions, Jenkins proposes a ‘Lingua Franca Core’.
This is a set of recommendations for pronunciation teaching based on which sounds seemed to cause communication breakdown in contexts where there was little or no shared knowledge
The LFC is still based on RP and GenAm models but allows for variation between them and the focus is on intelligibility. Substitutions that do not affect intelligibility are recommended.
What is LFC?

10. LFC consonants: Recommendations
Allow substitutions for /ð/ and /θ/
Substitution of /d/ or /v/ and /t/ or /f/ in words like <this, think> does not affect intelligibility.
Many L1 accents also make this substitution.
Allow substitutions for ‘dark’ [ɫ]
Substitution of ‘clear’ [l] or even vocalised [ʊ] in words like <milk, bottle> does not affect intelligibility.
Major L1 accents (like Estuary English) also make vocalise [ɫ]>[ʊ] though it might cause problems in America.
LFC consonants: Recommendations

11. LFC consonants Recommendations
Encourage the use of GenAm [ɻ] and a rhotic accent
A rhotic accent keeps spelling-sound correspondences.
GenAm voiced retroflex approximant (‘caipira r’) is widespread amongst L1 speakers
Use of GenAm [ɻ] reduces the number of diphthongs and triphthongs to be learned.
Encourage intervocalic [t] rather than the voiced alveolar flap [ɾ]
In words like <matter>, the RP [t] phoneme is preferred because the GenAm [ɾ] causes confusion with voiced [d] : <matter> is confused with <madder>
LFC consonants Recommendations

12. LFC consonants Recommendations
Encourage aspirated initial voiceless plosives [pʰ], [tʰ] and [kʰ]
If learners do not aspirate voiceless plosives, they are confused with voiced plosives, e.g. <pig, big> are confused.
Train learners to shorten vowels before voiceless/fortis consonants, so the first vowel is slightly shorter in the minimal pairs /pɪk/ and /pɪg/ or /si:t/ and /si:d/. Maintain the length before a final voiced/lenis consonant
The length of vowels seems to cause communication breakdown at times. L1 speakers automatically shorten the vowels before unvoiced consonants, so encourage L2 speakers to do the same in words like <leaf>, <leak> and <sweet> as opposed to <leave>, <league> and <Swede>.
LFC consonants Recommendations

13. LFC consonant clusters: Recommendations
Allow additional unstressed (epenthetic) vowels in consonant clusters.
Additional unstressed vowels in consonant clusters don’t usually cause intelligibility problems, so don’t worry about them. You can say /’wɒkɪd/ and /ə’speɪs/
Insist on full consonant clusters at the beginnings of words.
Some Asian learners say [´pɒdʌk] for <product> and that causes problems. There is no intelligibility issue with [´pəɻɒdʌk]
LFC consonant clusters: Recommendations

14. LFC consonant clusters: Recommendations
Allow simplification by deletion, especially of /t/ and /d/, in the middle and ends of words
This is a general feature of L1 RP and GenAm too, e.g. you can delete the medial /t/ in <fact-sheet> and the /d/ in <friendship>.
Follow RP in NOT reducing clusters with intervocalic /nt/ to /n/ in words like <international> or <twenty>.
Americans often do elide here but it can cause problems with spelling-pronunciation correspondences.
LFC consonant clusters: Recommendations

15. Forbidden substitutions
In general, use the consonant in your own phonemic inventory that is closest to the corresponding L1 consonant.
However, some transfers cause problems, e.g.
Spanish speakers use a voiced bilabial fricative [β] for the voiced bilabial plosive [b], especially between vowels, and this sounds like the voiced labiodental fricative [v]. So there can be a confusion between <habit, have it> and <a berry, a very>.
Spanish and Portuguese speakers (and also Greeks) transfer their use of voiced [x] to voiceless [h] in words like <house> and this can cause intelligibility issues.
Forbidden substitutions

16. Almost 20 years after the publication of Jenkins’ book, the recommendations and the principles behind them remain controversial.
Watch this 10-minute video about teaching pronunciation with the LFC.
How should teachers use the LFC with international coursebooks?
Do you agree?
LFC in action

17. ELF invites us to readjust our assumptions about why we are teaching and learning English and what kind of pronunciation is acceptable.
The LFC argues that pronunciation models should not be about correctness based on any one L1 model.
Instead, pronunciation teaching should draw upon a ‘rational’, evidence-based model that takes intelligibility as its main goal.
This model (a) is based on a mixture of RP and GenAm; (b) recommends substitutions to promote learnability when intelligibility is not compromised, and (c) allows for variation in accents.
Summing up

18. Next week we look at the LFC recommendations for vowels and vowel length
We ask if intelligibility is a sufficient goal for pronunciation teaching
Next week