Phonology – phriend or phoe?

Ray Parker
NALA Dublin, 2013
 A few simple principles
• English language teachers teach two
languages not one!
• Spoken language is at least as systematic as
any other part
• By focussing on important aspects of
pronunciation we can score a double
whammy!
• There’s nothing mysterious or complicated
about phonology
 Two Languages not One!
Writing Speaking
Graphic Acoustic
Permanent Ephemeral
Conservative Progressive
Delivered in words Delivered in utterances
High prestige Low prestige
Secondary Primary
Learned Acquired

3
 The size of the problem
• How many words?
• 17,000?
• How much grammar?
• 400 structures?
• How many phonemes?
• 44
Elements of pronunciation
The possible components of the pronunciation element of a
general English course

articulatory setting
intonation
stress timing
utterance stress
strong & weak forms

csp’s
clusters
phonemes

allophones
 Pronunciation - our priorities
• Word stress
• Delaying graphical interference
• Stress timing
• Modelling & correcting without
distortion
 Word stress
1. You always get it right in speech
2. Some people have problems identifying it.
3. Physical violence is really helpful!
4. We really have to be confident
5. We really have to help learners
6. Be consistent & make it routine
 Word stress
1. Have a consistent board use strategy
2. Share it with colleagues in your institution
3. Use symbols which couldn’t possibly be
confused with normal writing
4. Mine – and now that of many colleagues – is
the following
 Misleading spellings
• bough /baʊ/
• cough /kɒf/
• though /ðəʊ/
• through /θru:/
• thought /θɔ:t/
• hiccough /'hɪkʌp/
• enough /ɪn'ʌf/
• thorough /'θʌrə/
10
Who is it?
ghoti
ghoti
=
fish
ghoti
ghoti
Enough = /f/

ghoti
ghoti
enough = /f/

ghoti
women = / ɪ /
ghoti
 nation = /ʃ/
enough = /f/

ghoti
women = / ɪ /
• So what about this?

tchughce

21
 one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
etc…..
Egyptian women manage businesses
 Egyptian women manage businesses
/ɪ'ʤɪpʃən 'wɪmɪn 'mænɪʤ 'bɪznɪsɪz/
 Unhelpful spelling

Egyptian women manage businesses

/ɪ'ʤɪpʃən 'wɪmɪn 'mænɪʤ 'bɪznɪsɪz/
 Unhelpful spelling
So in our sample sentence these vowels
represent the sound /ɪ/:
a
e
o
u
y
iX
 Delaying graphical interference
• Resisting bullying
• Designating space on board and a specific
time in the lesson for adding written forms
• Eliciting rather than presenting written form
• Anticipating and focusing on potential
interference features
– bizarre spellings
– silent letters
– redundant syllables
Components of pronunciation

28
The possible components of the pronunciation element of a
general English course

articulatory setting
intonation
stress timing
sentence stress
strong & weak forms

csp’s
clusters
phonemes

allophones
Components of pronunciation

Top-down or bottom-up?
 Utterance stress

What’s the system?

The good news:

There is a system
 Utterance stress

What’s the system?

The better news:

The system is regular, reliable,
predictable
 Utterance stress

What’s the system?

The best news:

It’s simple
 Utterance stress

So which words are stressed in

utterances and which ones
normally aren’t?
 Stress in utterances
Open classes
content words
(stressed in sentences)
(one syllable if polysyllabic)
Closed classes
structure words
(normally not stressed in sentences)
(except polysyllabics)

class examples Class examples

nouns book, Ray pronouns he, there (e.g.

there is ....)

(lexical) verbs to speak, to love conjunctions and, but

adjectives intelligent, green auxiliary verbs was, must

adverbs nicely, well prepositions for, from

numbers five, third determiners his, the

35
stress-timing

Ti amo
stress-timing

1 2 3

Ti amo
 stress-timing

Ti amo, tesoro
 stress-timing

1 2 3 4 5 6

Ti amo, tesoro
 stress-timing

Fish, chips, peas

 stress-timing

1 2 3

Fish, chips, peas

 stress-timing

It’s in the shed at the bottom of the garden

 stress-timing

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
It’s in the shed at the bottom of the garden
 Sentence stress
Dogs bark
The dogs bark
The dogs will bark
The dogs are barking
The dogs have been barking
The dogs will have been barking
 “Unusual stressing of items which
would normally not be stressed
• Have you done your homework?
• (¿Has hecho tus deberes?)

• Have you done your homework?

• (¿Es verdad que has hecho tus deberes?)

45
 “Unusual stressing of items which
would normally not be stressed
• Have you done your homework?
• (¿Tu, has hecho tus deberes?)

• Have you done your homework?

• (¿Has hecho tus propios deberes?)

46
 Workshop task 1
After you’ve completed the listening task, pair
up with the other letter.
1. Correct each other’s work. (between you,
you have all the words
2. Discuss the level of difficulty you
encountered. Was one version more
challenging than the other?
3. How would your learners manage such tasks?
 Task 1 Big messages
• In terms of developing accurate
listening expectations, version B is
immensely valuable.
• In terms of moving towards
acceptable pronunciation, version B
is immensely valuable.
 Task 2 marking key
Australia is a country where some of the
most unusual animals in the world live.
They’re called marsupials and include
animals such as the kangaroo and the
koala. The mother animals have got
pouches of skin like pockets and they keep
their babies there for the first few weeks of
their lives.
 Big messages from the workshop
1. We should help learners with word
stress
2. We should delay boarding of new words
3. We should focus on a top-down
approach to phonology
4. We need to help students with
utterance stress by helping them to
focus on unstressed words
 Techniques for achieving these aims

• Consistent but delayed written modelling

• Back-chaining when drilling utterances

• Specially focussed listening activities