In the middle of teaching English
phonetics
Sadu A.M.
Student of Eurasian National University after L. N. Gumilyov, Faculty of
Philology, department of the theory and practice of foreign languages,
Astana, Kazakhstan
Associate Professor, Eurasian National University after L. N. Gumilyov,
Faculty of Philology, department of the theory and practice of foreign
languages
Astana, Kazakhstan
Key words: pronunciation, phoneme, sounds, higher learning, goals.
The scope of this paper
assumes the learners to be intermediate level students in institutions of
higher learning or to be national teachers of English. The students’ goals will
relate to their future professions of teaching or translating. They will need
to communicate effectively by understanding and being understood. The teachers’
goals would include learning methods of teaching pronunciation, principles of
English phonology and patterns for practical use in the classroom.
Данная статья предназначенна для студентов высших учебных заведений среднего уровня или для преподавателей английского языка. Цели
учащихся будут связаны к своей будущей профессии обучения или перевода. Это им
понадобится для эффективного общения, взаимопонимания и понимания. Цели
учителей будут включать в себя изучение методики обучения произношению,
принципы английской фонологии и структуры для практического использования на
занятиях.
Бұл мақала жоғары оқу орындарының орта
деңгейдегі студенттеріне және ағылшын тілін оқытушыларына арналған. Оқушылардың мақсаттары
болашақ мамандықтарына байланысты болады. Бұл оларға балалармен тиімді
қарым-қатынас, өзара түсіністік және түсіну
үшін қажет. Мұғалімдердің мақсаттары айтылу
әдістемесін зерттеу, ағылшын фонологиясының принциптері мен
құрылымын практикалық сабақтарда пайдалануын
қамтиды.
Important issues
to initially consider are the teaching methods familiar to the students and
teachers and the seemingly limited emphasis on pronunciation teaching in the
past. Emphasis should be placed on pronunciation in order to best be
understood, rather than on sounding native-like. Helping these learners to
understand the need for good pronunciation should be made easier by the fact
that they are now able to actually interact with native speakers.
Since time allowed
for pronunciation teaching is most likely limited, it would be best to
initially focus on the most crucial issues of pronunciation for the learners.
Dickerson sets forth general objectives to pronunciation teaching. She suggests
the use of perception, production, and prediction skills. Perception skills
help to discriminate English phonemes and understand spoken English. Production
skills allow the learner to be understood by native speakers and prediction
skills help the learner determine probable pronunciation of both segmental and supra segmental.
Because the
learners already have a good grasp of the English language and pronunciation,
it would be best to concentrate on their needed areas of improvement. In teaching
the segmental, it would be advisable to first give a general overview of the
consonant and vowel sounds and symbols. Having a native speaker as a teacher
should help to correct any basic pronunciation mistakes that are made with
sounds that are similar in English and their native language. More time should
be spent on those sounds that differ in English and the two local languages. A
first priority would be those sounds that are difficult for both Russians and
Kazakhs.
These sounds include:
|
y/ vs. /i/] / [p/ vs. /b/] [/æ/ vs. /a/] |
[/ vs. /ɔ>/] /ð [/ vs. /θ/] / [ә>/ vs. /a/] |
[/ vs. /z/] /ð [/ vs. /d/] [w/ vs. /hw/] |
e [/ vs. /æ/] /p [/ vs. /f/] / [w/ vs. /ŋ>/] |
As the results from our practice show, the following sounds should be
practiced:
|
For Russian Speakers For Kazakh Speakers |
m/ vs. /ŋ>/] /ð[/ vs. /z/] /[v/ vs. /ð/] /e [y/ vs. /e/] / [w/ vs. /v/] |
[/ vs. /s/] [/w/ vs. /r/] /h /u [/ vs. /uw/] / [a/ vs. /aw/] |
/ //vs. /h/] /d[з>/ vs. /з>/] /a [/ vs. /ow/] /f [/ vs. /θ/] |
At the same time, consideration should be given to the
functional load of these sounds in spoken English. The more often the sound is
used in English and the more difficult the sound is to pronounce for the
learner, the higher the priority should be for practice of this sound. Special
attention should also be given to diphthongs and consonant clusters that are
considered difficult to Russians and Kazakhs.
There
has been a great deal of debate on what techniques can be used to teach
pronunciation effectively. One of the prominent debates centers on whether to
teach pronunciation through imitation or through consciousness-raising. In this
regard, Jones highlights the importance of habit-formation and imitation and
its persistence in teaching pronunciation even after the rise of Communicative
language teaching. As he states: “Part of the reason for the focus on
habit-formation in acquiring L2 phonology is the special characteristic of
pronunciation, which, unlike other language skills, involves both cognitive and
motor functions: few would deny that repeated practice of motor functions
results in increased dexterity.”
One
of the prominent techniques used in the teaching of pronunciation is one that
makes use of phonemes and minimal pairs. According to Cook, the concepts of
phoneme and minimal pair have proved useful in organizing materials for
teaching pronunciation. Generally, students are presented with pairs of words
like “car” / kaː/ versus “cow” / kaʊ/ or “bra” /braː/ versus
“brow” /braʊ/. Then, they are asked whether they are different or not.
This allows the teacher to build the whole phonemic inventory from scratch.
Furthermore, for students, learning how to distinguish one phoneme from another
becomes easy by distinguishing minimal pairs.
Another
application of the same technique is discussed in Bowen. According to the
latter, a contrast (or minimal pair) is illustrated, explained and then
presented for identification by students. For instance, for the contrast
[base/vase], two words will be presented, sometimes alike (base…base), and
sometimes different (base…vase). Students will be asked to respond “same” or
“different”. Furthermore, the words can also be given one at a time with
instructions to raise the left arm if “base” is heard or the right arm if it is
“vase”. In this way, the teacher can make use of several contrasts which can be
practiced later by students.
Finally,
in terms of classroom procedures, we advocate that “little and often” teaching
sequence. As Broughton describes it: “The
teaching sequence must therefore be organized in terms of priorities and
degrees of difficulty. The amount of time devoted to specifically pronunciation
teaching depends on the larger priorities of the course in general”.And we
join to his opinion.
More
specifically, pronunciation practice can be introduced into a lesson at any
point where a significant problem is noticed. Broughton et. al. further
presents some guidelines that can be followed in the teaching of pronunciation,
chief of which are the following:
·
Recognition practice should precede
production practice.
·
The sound to be heard and spoken
should be clearly highlighted in short utterances.
·
Students should be given the
opportunity to hear the same things said by more thanone voice as the model.
The
English sounds can be demonstrated in contrast with other English sounds or in
contrast with sounds from the native language.
All
in all, the teaching of pronunciation has witnessed a considerable amount of
changes in both approaches and techniques. Since the rise of traditional
approaches to language teaching, teaching pronunciation has gained momentum.
However, with the increased focus on the learner in learner-centered approaches
and with the continuing emphasis on the communicative aspect of language teaching,
teachers have sought new ways of incorporating pronunciation with other
language skills. This has resulted in pronunciation being linked mainly to
speaking and listening. Nevertheless, one should not deny the role of phonetics
and phonology in the teaching of pronunciation since the more students are
aware of the precepts and underpinnings of these branches of study, the more
they will become aware of the idiosyncrasies of the target language and the
more they are likely to achieve a native-like pronunciation.
References:
1. W. Dickerson, Empowering Students with Predictive Skills.-Washington,
DC: TESOL, 1994
2. D.Nilsenand A.P.Nilsen,Pronunciation Contrasts in English.
Englewood Cliffs: Regents Prentice Hall, London, 1973
3. Olcott, Martha Brill:
The Kazakhs. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987
4. J. Richards and W. Renandya, Methodology
in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2002.
5. J.Morley, The Pronunciation Component in Teaching English to Speakers of Other
Languages.TESOL Quarterly,Chicago,1991.
6. J.O'Connor,Better English
Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.1967.