Basic Phonologies of English Lyndsey Pollard WGU Language Production, Theory and Acquisition 9/15/14

Basic Phonologies of English

Lyndsey PollardWGU

Language Production, Theory and Acquisition 9/15/14

Overview

ELL teachers would be unable to support student errors in phonology if they, themselves did not understand how speech occurs. There

are various components that relate to the phonology of the English Language. Speech

sounds, voicing, articulation and placement of the sounds are the basis of resonances in the

English language.

Voicing

• As a native language speaker, you are accustomed to its sounds.

• Do you ever consider the individual letters that make up those sounds?

The word bus…b/u/s

Voicing

• All sounds are a constitute of a class of sounds that the human vocal tract is designed to make

• Did you know that no two speakers ever say the same word identically? Even one person does not say the same word each time in the same manner. -232 chapter 6

VoicingThe Speaker

There are many factors that affect the speech of an ELL student Cultural Slang

Accents (Midwest vs. northwest regions) Lack of education

Number of other languages learned Age, 6 or younger tend to not have an accent after learning a

new language

Voicing Merging

• A merger occurs when two formerly distinct sounds are merged into a single sound

• For example, words like meet and meat used to be pronounced with distinct vowels (meet sounded like mate and meat something like met) though today these items have the same sound in most dialects of English. (PBS,2014)

Voicing

• In the English language there are words/sounds that are not deemed an official word or sound, however they are universally known and used in communicating (chapter 6, 232)

• In some countries they use clicking sounds to communicate

• Tsk, tsk!

Voicing ELL difficulties-the accent

• Watch this video on the different dialects in the US. How could this be difficult to a person just learning the English language?

• Sounds different, vowels are articulated differently- very confusing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL0--f89Qds

Voicing ELL difficulties-same sounds, different letters

• In the English language so many letters and combinations of letters say the same sound, ee, ea, e, ie, eo, ey. All say- “eee” This can be very confusing for ELL students

• Watch the following video to see and hear examples of these sounds

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO1ylMaWf0w

Voicing ELL difficulties- Silent letters

• Imagine this- the English language has words that contain silent letter sounds.. Yes silent, as in they are there but don’t make a sound… (232, chpt6)

• Ghost• Autumn • Mnemonic• Sword• Knight

VoicingIPA- International

PhoneticAlphabet

What is IPA?*Alphabetic symbols that have one sound per symbol.* Universally includes the undetermined sounds of all languages –(233 chpt 6)

Place of Articulation • Place of articulation refers to which articulators are involved

in the production of a particular sound (university of Iowa) There are 7 sounds

• Bilabial, labiodental, lingua-dental, lingua-alveolar, lingua-platal, lingua-velar, and glottal.

Place of Articulation Bilabial

• The use of the upper and lower lips such as /m/ and /w/.

Labio-dental

• Consonant that is produced by the lower lip touching the upper, front teeth such as /f/, and /v/

Place of Articulation

Lingua-dental • This is a consonant that is

produced with the tongue touching the teeth.

Lingua-alveolar• A consonant produced with

the tongue contacting the upper alveolar ridge. /t/ /d/ or/s//z/

Place of Articulation:

Lingua- palatal• Consonant that is produced

with the tongue contacting the hard palate /r/ or /j/

Lingua-velar• This is a consonant that is

produced with the tongue contacting the velum.

Place of Articulation Glottal

Glottal is where the place of articulation occurs when a consonant is produced by completely or partially constricting the glottis. Example- /h/

Manner of Articulation Phonetics: The Sounds of American English

Stops Beginning, middle, and ending sounds

/p/- pot, happy, top /b/-ball, taboo, rub/t/ - telephone, attack, loot/d/-deer, radar, bleed/k/- cow, peeking, wake /g/-goose, ago, flag

Stop: • A stop is a consonant

characterized by, the articulators, a build up of intraoral air pressure, and a release.


• Fricative- A fricative is a consonant produce by forcing the breath stream through a constriction formed by articulators in the vocal tractExamples- /f/ /v/ /h/Visit Iowa University’s website for video clips and examples for each of the Manners of Articulation.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/english.html

• Affricate-An affricate is a consonant characterized as having both a fricative and stop manner of production /tʃ/ or /dʒ/


• NasalNasal refers to a consonant produced with complete closure in the oral cavity along with a lowered velum to allow airflow through the nasal cavity. Example- /m/ /n/

• LiquidLiquid is a generic label used to classify two English approximant consonants, /r/ and /l/


• Glide• A glide is a consonant

characterized by a continued, gliding motion of the articulators into the following vowel; also referred to as the semi-vowel, e.g., /j/ and /w/

This information about manner of articulation was provided by the University of Iowa. For more detailed examples and sound clips/videos, visit • http://www.uiowa.edu/

~acadtech/phonetics/english/english.html





Manner of Articulation Great video!

• Please visit the following link in Youtube for a fantastic visual video on the places and manners of articulation in English.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF9qTJD25Ig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF9qTJD25Ig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF9qTJD25Ig

Phonetic Features that do not distinguish phonemes

Phoneme- Distinct units of a s sound in a language that distinguishes one word from another. Such as p, b, and d -> pad, bad. Phonetics- The study of speech sounds

Phonetic features that do not distinguish phonemes

Syllabic Consonant

• Consists of a syllable or syllables. Traditionally, they are considered a consonant but can sometimes do something that only vowel sounds are supposed to be able to do- create a syllable.

• In the English language there are three, known syllabic consonants…

/l/ /n/ and schwa+r sounds

Non-syllabic Consonant

• These consonants do no form a syllable or the nucleus of a syllable.

• Nucleus-The part of a syllable that has the greatest acoustic energy; the vowel portion of a syllable, /i/ in /mit/, meet.


Syllabic examples: /l/ the letter l becomes “vowel like”

Look and listen to the words, simple vs. simplyIn simple the vowel is silent, in simply the y is heard and contains an extra syllable. Final, special and local- The vowel before the letter are silent Potentially, especially,-the vowels before the /l/ are silent, however the y is pronounced and has its own syllable. ( Seattle Learning Academy)


Stress • A syllable with relatively

greater length, loudness, and/or higher pitch than other syllables in a word, and therefore perceived as prominent.

Nonstress• A syllable with regular

length and/or pitch


Aspiration vs. Nonaspiration • Describes a voiceless stop

produced with a puff of air that results when the vocal cords remain open for a brief period after the release of the stop(An introduction to Language.)

• When we say pit, the vocal cords remain open for a very short time after the lips come apart to release the p. We call this p aspirated because a brief puff of air escapes before the glottis closes. (239chapter 6)

• Now say “spit”, the /p/ is unaspirated.

• Pit vs. spit ( put your hand to mouth when saying these words to feel the difference.

The Importance of the Characteristics of Speech

• As an ELL teacher it is utmost important to understand the characteristics of speech in order to correctly teach an English Language Learner

• From experience:I have had ELL students in my reading groups who accentuate vowels in syllabic words. Example- /little/ was pronounced, /li/tt/l/ee • As teachers we must explain to students sometimes

letters in words can be silent Knight, sword, are

The Importance of the Characteristics of Speech Pronunciation

• Pronunciation is vital for proper communication

• It is good for ELL students to listen, and hear a language spoken in order to compare how words are pronounced


• If learners do not have a stable pronunciation for a word, it cannot easily enter long-term memory because it cannot be held in the phonological loop (Ellis and Beaton, 1993; Baddeley, Gathercole and Papagno, 1998; Singleton, 1999: 148–151).

The Importance of the Characteristics of Speech Pronunciation

• With ELL students, it is imperative that words are pronounced correctly so that their working memory is affected by their correctness in patterns of pronunciation or grammar in the second language.

• ELL teachers must be aware that some students may be shy or embarrassed to speak in English, or to say a particular word or phrase due to their lack of correct pronunciation.


• Model- Modeling speech correctly will in turn, affect the correctness of speech of an ELL student.

• Speaking- Saying words correctly is crucial for when it comes time to spell words both phonetically and syllabically. Explanations are easier to understand when a student can correctly say a word with correct pronunciation


• Auditory Providing multiple, and numerous examples of the English language being spoken correctly will also reinforce the correct pronunciation of words and/or phrases for ELL students Example- learning a phone number. We repeat the number over and over again to store it in our long-term memory correctly.


Examples, Examples, Examples

ELL teachers MUST give an abundance of examples in all forms, auditory, visual, tactile, real world to strengthen and solidify the correct characteristics of speech

Work sited • American English is Changing Fast. (2009, November 1). Retrieved September 24,

2014.• American English Pronunciation Podcasts. (2012, January 1). Retrieved September

24, 2014.• Ee ea ey y e ie - Alternative Spellings. (2008, January 1). Retrieved September 24,

2014.• Fromkin, V., & Rodman, R. (1974). Phonetics: Sounds of Language. In An introduction

to language. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.• Mod 3 Lesson 3.5.2 Consonants: Place of Articulation. (2010, January 1). Retrieved

September 24, 2014.• Nation, I., & Newton, J. (2009). Pronunciation. In Teaching ESL/EFL listening and

speaking. New York: Routledge.• Phonetics - Basic Segments of Speech (Consonants). (2012, June 6). Retrieved

September 24, 2014.• Phonetics: The sounds of American English. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24,

2014.Sea to Sea: American Varieties. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2014.

Documents

Basic Phonologies of English Lyndsey Pollard WGU Language Production, Theory and Acquisition 9/15/14