Teaching English Pronunciation: What & How? 田朝霞 南京师范大学

Expectations?

Ancient Wisdom

Confucius 551B.C. — 479B.C. 知之者不如好之者，好之者 不如乐之者。 He who knows the truth is not equal to him who loves it, and he who loves it is not equal to him who delights in it. by Confucius

Ancient Wisdom Xun Zi (? 325 B.C. – 235 B.C.) 不闻不若闻之，闻之不若见之， 见之不若知之，知之不若行之 。 —— 《荀子 · 儒效篇》 Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand. by...

Contents What? –In general How? What? –In detail

Misconceptions Pronunciation? ？？ vowels + consonants Good pronunciation? ? clear, native-like Clear pronunciation? ？ of each sound ?pronunciation vs. intonation

What's wrong Healthy food is important for me. I need to keep fit. I always have milk and bread for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, I usually eat fish and vegetables. Sometimes I feel hungry between meals, so I eat an apple or a pear. I seldom eat cakes or sweets. They have too much sugar and are bad for my teech.

What's missing? A feel Effective communication

The only way to learn pronunciation Imitation (Strong motivation) Teacher's major task(s) –To facilitate –(To motivate)

Teaching English Pronunciation: How? Imitation coupled with theories Emphasis on input (listening) Facilitation (guide)

To be a facilitator ??? Practice makes perfect. To develop a feel for English –rhythm & intonation Importance of listening

Steps to good pronunciation Motivation Method –Listen –Discriminate + compare + try –Listen –Try + compare –Listen –Imitate (Practice) When and where?

Listen for what? To gain a feel –Rhythm & intonation Too abstract! To spell out the feeling –Rhythm –Intonation –Sounds

What Rhythm Intonation Speech sounds

Rhythm English vs. Chinese stress-timed vs. syllalbe-timed At both the word level and the sentence level e.g. Healthy food is important for me. I need to keep fit.

Pronunciation is important. 發 音 很 重 要● ● stress-timed vs. syllable-timed

Rhythm Sentence stress –meaning; new information –content words (n., v., adj., adv. …) –flexible Contrast between stressed & unstressed Weak form –function words (aux., art., prep., conj., pron….)

weak form content words vs. function words

常以弱式形式出现的功能词 a, an am, are, be, been, can, could, do, does, had, has, had, is, must, shall, should, was, were, would and, as, but, than, that, or at, for, from, of, to, he, her, him, me, she, them, us, we, our there some saint

You’ll see a bank at the corner. We shall be there in plenty of time. It’s old but useful. What can I do to help you? You could do it if you tried. What does he do for a living?

I can’t tell one from the other. She has got her ticket. Give him my best wishes. Would you like some water? What was he saying?

Dilemma Grammar vs. weak form e.g. What will happen to her after that? Will she meet the white rabbit again? Why do we study grammar/phonetics? To forget it.

Intonation Intonation → Meaning e.g. He stayed with the boy and played with him for two hours before the boy's parents came. Intonation group (sense group) Nucleus (information focus) Basic tones

–High-fall –Low-fall –High-rise –Low-rise –Fall-rise Yes.

An example From bbclearningenglish.combbclearningenglish.com

Hello. I’m a very interesting and intelligent man. And today these eyes and I will be getting together to teach you some English idioms. These eyes and 'eye'! Get it? These eyes and EYE! Ha! These eyes and 'eye'! I’m so funny. Anyway. Enough of that. Today I have to do something very difficult. It’s… a baby. My boss’s wife is sick so he's had to bring his baby into work. But now he’s gone out for lunch so he's asked me to keep an eye on the baby. Cootchie coo…

In English, if we want someone to look after something or to watch it closely, we say “keep an eye on something”. To keep an eye on something. Well, here I go… And now for…our next eye idiom. But first you’ll have to stop messing around and start paying attention. You think because I’m not facing you that I can't see what you're doing… but you’re wrong!

English sounds Not in isolation In an intonation group –Parts of a whole –Influence between adjacent sounds e.g. ability vs. again, beautiful, badly...

English sounds –English vs. Chinese Sound Changes –For the effectiveness of information –For the convenience of articulatory ogans

English vs. Chinese Similar but different absent from Chinese

Similar but different e.g. palace, next, on; story, foot, father, sea, university, town, potato, side; who, judge, read, match Sunday, ten, cake, bad, get, sister, pleasure...

Absent from Chinese e.g. think; this train; drink cold; build, gentlemen, candle, didn’t, class, badly, spring, …

Sound changes Weak form ( 弱式 ) –What are you going to do tonight? –Would you like some water? Linking (Liaison) ( 连读 ) –Do you have any questions? –Can you see it? Incomplete plosion ( 不完全爆破 ) –Stop talking. –I don’t know.

Elision ( 省略 ) –Has he left? –I must go. Assimilation ( 同化 ) –Would you like to have a try? –He is a good boy. –As you know…

Other changes ？ Length of vowels ( 音长 ) –We need some seeds. –We need some seats. Devoicing 辅音清化 –Dad, please be seated.

Summary How –Listen –Compare –Think & Practise What –Rhythm –Intonation –Sounds and sound changes

Highlights Beyond the sounds –Rhythm & intonation Listening and imitation –Awareness of the differences