Fontys Lerarenopleiding Sittard

Fontys Lerarenopleiding Sittard

Engels

Phonetics Workbook Year 2

MD/HvdT/03

Contents

Introduction......

Activity chart......

TRANSCRIPTION......

PART 1 Self-activity sheets

SELF-ACTIVITY 1: LISTENING TO THE NEWS......

SELF-ACTIVITY 2: SPEAKING SKILL......

SELF-ACTIVITY 3: GRADATION OR WEAK FORMS......

SELF-ACTIVITY 4: ASSIMILATION......

SELF-ACTIVITY 5: ELISION......

SELF-ACTIVITY 6: LIAISON......

SELF-ACTIVITY 7: WORD STRESS......

SELF-ACTIVITY 8: RHYTHM......

SELF-ACTIVITY 9: SENTENCE STRESS......

SELF-ACTIVITY 10: INTONATION......

SELF-ACTIVITY 11: SOUNDS - revision......

SELF-ACTIVITY 12: DIDACTICAL ASSIGNMENT......

PART 2Activity sheets

ACTIVITY SHEET 1: GRADATION......

ACTIVITY SHEET 2: LIAISON......

ACTIVITY SHEET 3: PRIMARY STRESS AND NUCLEUS......

ACTIVITY SHEET 4A: TEXT TO BE READ ALOUD - I......

ACTIVITY SHEET 4B: TEXT TO BE READ ALOUD - II......

ACTIVITY SHEET 5A: WORD STRESS - I......

ACTIVITY SHEET 5B: WORD STRESS - II......

ACTIVITY SHEET 6: SENTENCE STRESS......

ACTIVITY SHEET 7: INTONATION......

ACTIVITY SHEET 8: INTONATION OF RP AND DUTCH COMPARED......

Introduction

This workbook aims to help you:

a.become a more efficient learner and speaker of English,

b.take on more responsibility for your own learning.

Several factors played an important role in writing this workbook:

Interference: The native language is an important factor in learning to pronounce English. Sometimes it is so obvious you can identify a person's origin. One or two features are enough to suggest a particular language 'showing through' spoken English.

The more differences there are between your mother tongue and English the more difficulties a learner will have in pronouncing English. However, people from many different language backgrounds can and do acquire a near-native pronunciation in English, provided they work hard.

Therefore you will find some exercises in this workbook to help you overcome these difficulties.

Time aspect: Another factor is the amount of exposure to English the learner receives. This does not necessarily mean you have to live in an English-speaking country although this constant exposure will most certainly affect your pronunciation. What is highly essential is the amount of time one spends listening or using English.

That is why you will find a chart to be filled in the next page.

Ear training: It is true that some people have a 'better ear' for foreign languages than others. But all of us have this ability and it is a fact that training has an effect. Some people benefit from pronunciation drills, others do not. Some people learn a lot from rules given by teachers or from feedback, etc. This means that the best way to train your ear is to do a variety of tasks.

Again you will find a number of tasks in this workbook.

Motivation: The last factor to be discussed is motivation. A student of English should be concerned about the importance of good pronunciation for ease of communication. Intelligibility and communicative efficiency are the key words.

This is something you have to do yourself, the only thing we can help you with is to demonstrate concern for your pronunciation and your progress in it.

MD/HvdT

Activity chart

(Phonetics & Listening & Pronunciation)

Keep a similar record throughout the year.

TRANSCRIPTION

Here, insert the transcription texts that you and your fellow students have brought to class. Include copies of the texts (written, spoken e/o tapescript) and their phonemic transcription.

PART 1

Self-activity sheets

SELF-ACTIVITY 1: LISTENING TO THE NEWS

Here are some ways of organising your listening practice:

-organise a regular time for listening practice, e.g. the nine o'clock news;

-collect articles from newspapers, magazines on the same or similar topics;

-keep programme guides and reviews for radio/TV programmes;

-record some news or other programmes;

-form a 'listening' club, so you can exchange cassettes and other listening material.

Please listen to the news in English as often as you can.

Activity:

Pre-listening activity:

a.listen to the news in your own language;

b.look at the headlines of a newspaper in your own language;

c.look at the headlines of a newspaper in English (available at the library);

d.make a list of the topics you think will be presented on the news programme;

e.choose two topics and make brief notes about what you expect to be said about them.

Listening activity:

a.record the programme;

b.make notes while listening;

c.try to predict what the speaker will say. Have you ever found finishing other people's sentences? The more you predict, the easier it becomes to understand.

Post-listening activity:

a.see whether your predictions about the two selected news items were correct;

b.listen again to the recording and check the notes you made;

c.check any words you did not know or had your doubts about.

SELF-ACTIVITY 2: SPEAKING SKILL

Here are some ways of organising your speaking practice:

-organise a regular time to practice;

-use a dictionary to help you with pronunciation and stress;

-have blank cassettes available so you can record yourself;

-find a fellow-student to practise with;

-vary in your ways of practising e.g. reading aloud from a text, having a talk with a friend, speaking about a topic without any preparation time, practising sounds only, do pronunciation drills etc. etc.

Before you can assess your speech, you must be clear about the aspects you want to focus on. Is it accuracy or fluency?

This often depends on your strong and weak points and on your personal level of satisfaction.

Please practise as often as you can.

Activity 1:

a.Take a text ( from a newspaper, magazine or book ) and record your own voice on tape.

b.Assess:-the pronunciation of sounds

-the word stress

-the intonation

c.Make notes of your findings.

d.Swap cassettes with a fellow student and ask him/her to make notes as well.

e.Compare the notes.

Activity 2:

a.Select a topic you want to talk about, write down 10 key- words and then talk about it for 5 minutes, recording it on tape.

b.Assess:-vocabulary a.the right word

b.variety in word choice

-grammara.the right tense

b.the correct prepositions

-stylea.formal/informal

Activity 3:

a.Record a conversation with a friend or record an unprepared speech on cassette.

b.Assess:-meaningclarity

structured

- fluencysilences

hesitations/corrections

c.Ask a friend to listen and comment on your performance.

SELF-ACTIVITY 3: GRADATION OR WEAK FORMS

Please bear in mind, if you do not stress one syllable more than another, you make it very difficult for a listener to follow you. It happens very often that a native speaker (listener in this case) mishears a word, because a foreigner has put the stress in the wrong place and not because he/she mispronounced the word.

Activity 1a:

Use a 3-minute extract from the program you taped for Self-Activity 1. Write down at least five examples of phrases containing weak forms. Copy the speaker by repeating the selected phrases.

Activity 1b:

a.Select a page from a book.

b.Copy it.

c.Read it aloud once.

d.Record it on tape.

e.Give the tape to a fellow student without providing the text.

f.Ask him/her to summarize what you have said.

g.Give the text and see what he/she missed.

h.Try to find the reason for this.

Activity 1c:

Now use the same text as in 1b and underline where you –appropriately- used a WF. Underline in a different colour where you missed a weak form.

Have your partner check your performance, regarding weak forms.

Activity 2:

In the following passage, highlight the words or clusters of words which are subject to gradation, categorize them, transcribe them and read them aloud.

If you were asked who shot Lee Harvey Oswald you would probably say Jack Ruby. But there is another possible answer to the question: the photographer who shot those staggering pictures of Ruby gunning him down. And what has teased my mind ever since is wondering whether, if he had dropped his camera and grabbed the gunman, we might, with Oswald alive, know more than we will now ever be able to find out about why Kennedy died.

SELF-ACTIVITY 4: ASSIMILATION

Introduction:

Besides the 3 standard Dutch assimilations-to-avoid-in-RP in your reader:

• regressive voicing
• progressive devoicing
• intervocalic voicing,

there is a 4th undesirable assimilation typical of Dutch speakers:

• palatalisation of alveolar sounds

/  / + /  / = / / as in Dutch liedje, weet je, handje

/  / + / / = /  / as in Dutch plunje, kun je,

/  / + /  / = /  / as in Dutch mesje, was je, kistje*, dansje, kunstje*

In RP, alveolars /  / do NOT become palatal under the influence of a following / j /. So try to pronounce a preglottalised /  / in e.g. not young, a firm alveolar /  / in onion and a sharp /  / in e.g. miss you.

Practice: Pronunciation unit 71

Activity 1:

What assimilations would you expect a Dutch speaker to have in the following words and phrases:

1. the British Army
2. ten years later
3. a horsebox
4. obvious
5. kiss them

1. exam
2. Dutch visitors
3. disguise
4. This is it!
5. if only

Activity 2:

Are these assimilations acceptable in RP?:

Activity 3:

Use a 3-minute extract from a program you’ve taped, featuring an RP speaker.

Try to list at least 5 examples of RP assimilations.

*In these words / t / is elided in Dutch.

SELF-ACTIVITY 5: ELISION

Activity 1:

Would you expect schwa-elision in any of the following words?:

1. nunnery
2. runner-up
3. dictionary

1. exaggerate
2. artillery
3. lavatory

1. factory
2. natural
3. salary

Activity 2:

Listen to a BBC news braodcast. Keep pen and paper ready. Take notes of words you hear that have schwa-elision.

Repeat the words/phrases aloud.

If you want to have this activity checked by a fellow student, tape the program and yourself.

Activity 3:

Would you expect /  / or /  / to be elided in the following phrases?:

1. deckchair
2. best man
3. the first yard
4. postcard
5. must hurry
6. act three
7. locked doors

1. standpoint
2. landscape
3. sandwich
4. she loved him
5. windscreen
6. ranger
7. picture

Activity 4:

Select a page from a book or magazine. Read until you’ve found at least 3 examples of words that have /  / elision.

Read out the sentences that contain the words that have elision.

SELF-ACTIVITY 6: LIAISON

In speaking a person generally does not pause between each word, but he moves smoothly from one sound to the next. In order to do this a 'linking sound' is used or one sound merges with another (cf. assimilation). This 'linking sound' can be a /  / e.g. in go in or a /  / e.g. inthe apple.If a learner of English does not use liaison , listeners may have the feeling of something peculiar going on.

However, an insertion of a sound that is not used in English is even more peculiar. Take for example an Italian pronouncing the sentence: 'It is a big one'. He would be inclined to say: It is a big ~a~ one.

So use liaison when it is appropriate. Here are some guidelines to help you along:

a.When a word ends in a consonant and the next word starts with a vowel, please use a smooth link between the two.

Examples:This dress~is pretty

Eat~it~up

Get~a job

It´s less~expensive

b.When a word ends in a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel too, a 'linking sound' is used (see above).

Examples:The story~j~is very~j~interesting

Oh, it's a lovely~j~ice cream!

andThe ball went through~w~a window

How~w~old is he?

c.When a word ends in an /  / and the next word starts with a vowel, a linking r is used.

Examples:He pays more~interest, I think.

It takes an hour~and a half.

NB.The intrusive linking r is another form of liaison. An intrusive linking r is inserted between a word ending in the vowel / ... , ... , ... , ... / and a word starting with a vowel.

Examples:Emma~r~and Ben are coming over next week.

The idea~r~of it makes me sick.

There's a flaw~r~in the argument.

This cinema~r~audience is rather noisy.

Activity 1a: Read the following text and mark the liaison.

There is a cake in the oven. Could you please take it out and cut it in slices. After that you can have a cup of tea. Then sit and relax while I put it on a plate and bake another one.

Now practise it aloud.

Activity 1b: idem.

Read the following text:

I want to buy a new coat, less expensive than the one I have at the moment: This old thing, I suppose I´m going to give it away and buy myself a new one or shall I save all this trouble and stay at home.

Activity 2:

Copy a few sentences (approx. 40 words) from an radio/tv program and indicate where you hear liaison. Record yourself.

SELF-ACTIVITY 7: WORD STRESS

Here are some English word stress rules:

a.Two syllables: most of the time the first syllable is stressed.

Examples:tablebutterkitchenclever

b.Two or three syllables which have a prefix: the stress is on the second or third.

Examples:inspectdisapproveconclusion

c.Words with suffixes: suffixes are never stressed

Examples:originalclearlyconsecutive

d.and many other rules, but first try to master a + b + c.

Activity 1:

Pronounce the following words and state the rule

1.distrust2.quietly

3.exhaust4.apple

5.finger6.invite

7.lunatic8.begin

Activity 2:

Shifting stress also exists. Look at this aspect of the English language:

a.photographphotography

b.librarylibrarian

c.advertisementadvertiser

What did you notice?

Activity 3:

Underline the accented syllable:

1.presidentreductionimportant

2.afternooncapitalengineer

3.adventurepotatounderpaid

4.exampleavenueanimal

5.physicianmagazinememory

Now pronounce them.

Activity 4:

Many unaccented syllables are pronounced with a schwa. Look at the following words, underline the stressed syllable and indicate with an * whenever here is a schwa.

1.holidaydisagree

2.realizetelegram

3.medicinecompany

4.possessionsyllable

5.governmentsuggestion

SELF-ACTIVITY 8: RHYTHM

Rhythm is a product of word stress and is characterized by the alteration of weak and strong syllables and important items are foregrounded through their occurence on a strong beat and unimportant items are backgrounded by a weak beat.

Rhymes and limericks etc. can be a help:

D is for duck, with spots on his back,

who lives in the water, and always says, quack.

There was a young lady of Norway,

Who casually sat in a doorway,

When the doorsqueezed her flat,

She saidwhat of that?

That courageous young lady of Norway.

There was an old man of Blackheath

Who sat on his set of false teeth

Said he with a start

Oh, Lord bless my heart

I´ve bitten myself underneath.

Activity 1:

a.Find a famous poem, or a lyric of a pop song or a nursery rhyme.

b.Make two copies.

c.On one copy indicate stress patterns, so the stronger and weaker beats.

d.Read it aloud and record.

Activity 2:

a.Select a short dialogue.

b.Ask a fellow-student to act out the dialogue together.

c.Give feedback.

d.Read it again.

e.Record it.

Activity 3:

a.Record an interview from radio/TV.

b.Listen to it carefully, focusing on rhythm.

c.Write down your findings concerning the rhythm.

d.Indicate your reaction to this use of rhythm.

SELF-ACTIVITY 9: SENTENCE STRESS

A speaker can help the listener by clearly indicating the importance of different sentence parts, called tone units. In this way the listener can spot in no time points of focus in the stream of speech. So in other words, a speaker must highlight the essential elements in his speech.

When you begin learning a foreign language every word seems important, because you encounter many problems in the selection, pronunciation etc. An unfluent speaker gropes for words, pauses a lot and therefore stresses practically every word. The only way to overcome this problem is by practising a lot.

Activity 1:select the points of focus

a.Collect a few examples of headlines .

b.Copy them.

c.Write down the words that have been left out.

d.Read the 'complete' headline stressing the original words but the new words are unstressed.

Activity 2:focus & shifting stress

Example:A.Have you got any greenpeppers?

B.No, sorry, we only have red ones.

a.Write a short dialogue, which includes an example of stress shift.

b.Practise it.

c.Ask a friend to assess your performance.

d.Write down the results.

Activity 3:

Example sentence:David gave Jackie the bicycle.

a.Read the 4 different questions and underline the stressed word and do the same with the answer.

1.Who gave Jackie the bicycle?

2.How did Jackie get the bicycle?

3.Who did David give the bicycle to?

4.Which present did David give Jackie?

1. Read it aloud.

Activity 4:

Do “To check understanding”, bottom of p. 48, Penny Ur.

SELF-ACTIVITY 10: INTONATION

Intonation is the way your voice rises or falls when you speak English.

Some general aspects to remember:

a.a falling tone 

This is the most common intonation pattern of English

(cf. the intonation pattern in Limburg).

b.a rising tone 

This is often used in questions to which the answer is yes or no.

c.a falling tone 

In question tags, when the speaker is certain of himself.

d.a rising tone 

In question tags, when the speaker is not certain.

e.a fall -rise pattern 

When the speaker gives two options e.g. Do you like oranges or apples?

So intonation can indicate:-what a speaker means

-how he feels

Activity 1: Read out aloud the following conversation:

A:Can I help you?

B:I hope so. I have a complaint. I bought a coat in your shop, the other day.

A:Anything wrong with it?

B:Well, you said you would pack it and send it to a friend abroad.

A:And, what happened?

B:That's just it! My friend never received it.

A:Oh, dear. I'm so sorry!

B:Well, that doesn't get me anywhere, does it?.

A:Now, don't get overexcited. I'm sure we can find a way.

B:Yeah. Can I speak to the manager or the boss?

A:Of course!

Activity 2: Go back to activity 3 on sentence stress. Look at the wh-questions and read them aloud.

Activity 3: Read out aloud the following conversation:

A:Can I take two or three?