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Helping Learners of English with Relating Letters to Sounds

LSA 2 Background Essay

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................3

2. Analysis of Pronunciation....................................................................................................................4

2.1. Definition.....................................................................................................................................4

2.2. Phoneme Analysis........................................................................................................................4

2.2.1. Consonant Sounds...............................................................................................................5

2.2.2. Vowel Sounds......................................................................................................................8

2.3. Phonemic Awareness...................................................................................................................9

3. Typical Learners Problems and Their Solutions.................................................................................10

3.1. First Language Influence............................................................................................................10

3.2. Cognates....................................................................................................................................11

4. Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................12

Appendix A................................................................................................................................................13

Appendix B................................................................................................................................................14

Appendix C................................................................................................................................................15

Bibliography...............................................................................................................................................16

1. Introduction

Throughout my years as a teacher, I have often seen second language learners’

struggling with producing the right sounds to communicate effectively. They are

mostly influenced by their first language phonetic system, and therefore

sometimes lead to misinterpretation. Weaknesses in this area of pronunciation

can prevent higher level learners from reaching fluency in English as a second

language, as their utterances, which could be grammatically and lexically

accurate, might lack intelligibility if they fail to produce the correct sounds.

Working on developing the learners’ phonemic awareness, proves to be relatively

crucial for them to develop oral proficiency in English as a second language

(Kenworthy, 1987). This background essay is focusing on developing the learners’

phonemic proficiency, and helping them distinguish the spelling-sound

relationship in English.

2. Analysis of Pronunciation

2.1. DefinitionThe study of pronunciation consists of two fields, phonetics and phonology.

Phonemes as Kelly (2000) defines them, are “the different sounds within a

language,” and as “the units of sound that we can analyze.” Phonology on the

other hand “is primarily concerned with how we interpret and systemize sounds”

(Kelly, 2000; p.17). Therefore, we can understand that phonetics deals with

pronunciation on the level of phonemes and sounds, while phonology is more

concerned with the suprasegmental features of pronunciation such as stress and

intonation. The focus of this essay is on teaching phonemes to upper-

intermediate learners. It is at this critical part of language learning, when they

have the grammar and lexical proficiency to express themselves with ease, but

might fail to communicate intelligibly because of issues with the phonemes they

use.

2.2. Phoneme AnalysisIn the English language, there are 44 phonemes. The set of phonemes consists of

two main categories; consonant sounds and vowel sounds. However, there is no

direct link between written and spoken consonants and vowels in English. There

are five vowels in the written English alphabet compared to twelve vowels in the

spoken counterpart, for example. In written English, we use letters to identify and

decode words, while in spoken English, we use phonemes (written in phonemic

transcript and commonly found in dictionaries). We will look further into how we

can successfully identify consonant sounds and vowel sounds in English.

2.2.1.Consonant Sounds

There are twenty-four consonants in English, and each consonant represents a

different sound, as compared by the English written alphabet where only 17

consonants are presented. Consonants are mainly the sounds that require most

of the organs in the mouth and the respiratory tract to react in order to vocalize

the required phoneme. In Appendix A, we can find a labeled anatomy of the

mouth and throat to help clarify the organs responsible for the production of

spoken consonants.

Three notions need to be addresses when analyzing consonants, voicing; place of

articulation; and manner of articulation.

2.2.1.1. Voicing

Consonants are of two types;

- Voiced consonants are the ones that require the engagement and

production of sound by the vocal cords with the air coming out the mouth.

- Unvoiced consonants do not engage the vocal cords and depends only on

the air forced out.

2.2.1.2. Place of Articulation

There are seven places of articulation in English, as described below:

- Bilabial: which requires the engagement of the upper and lower lips to

produce the phoneme such as; /p/, /m/, and /b/.

- Labiodental: which engages the upper lip and the lower teeth to produce

sounds like /f/, and /v/.

- Dental: requiring both upper and lower teeth to produce sounds like /θ/

and /ð/.

- Alveolar: requiring the blade of the tongue to touch the alveolar ridge to

produce sounds like /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/ and /n/.

- Palate-alveolar: when the blade of the tongue is in contact with the back of

the alveolar ridge and closer to the hard palate, to produce sounds like

/ʃ/, /Ʒ/, /ʧ/ and /ʤ/.

- Velar: requiring the back of the tongue to be in contact with the velum to

produce sounds like /k/ and /g/.

- Palatal: when the front of the tongue is raised close to the palate to

produce sounds like /j/.

- Glottal: when there is a gap between the vocal cords to make an audible

friction to produce sounds like /h/.

2.2.1.3. Manner of Articulation

- Plosive: is a complete closure made somewhere in the vocal tract, and the

soft palate is also raised. Air pressure increases behind the closure, and is

then released explosively, producing sounds like /p/ and /b/.

- Affricative: is a complete closure made somewhere in the mouth, and the

soft palate is raised. Air pressure increases behind the closure, and is then

released more slowly than in plosives, to produce sounds like /ʧ/ and /ʤ/.

- Fricative: happens when two vocal organs come close enough together for

the movement of air between them to be heard, to produce sounds like /f/

and /v/.

- Nasal: is a closure made by the lips, or by the tongue against the palate, the

soft palate is lowered, and air escapes through the nose like /m/, /n/ and

/ŋ/.

- Lateral: is a partial closure made by the blade of the tongue against the

alveolar ridge. Air is able to flow around the sides of the tongue like /l/.

- Approximant: when the vocal organs come near to each other, but not so

close as to cause audible friction, like /r/ and /w/.

Appendix B provides a table showing all three criteria of consonants.

2.2.2.Vowel Sounds

In the English language, there are twelve spoken vowels as compared to five in

the written alphabet. Vowels are produced when the airstream is voiced through

the vibration of the vocal cords in the larynx, and then shaped using the tongue

and the lips to modify the overall shape of the mouth. The position of the tongue

is a useful reference point for describing the differences between vowel sounds.

There are two representation of the vowel space in the center of the mouth

where the vowel sounds are articulated:

Close, Mid and Open refer to the distance between the tongue and the roof

of the mouth.

Front, Center and Back and their corresponding vertical lines refer to the

part of the tongue.

Illustrations can be found in Appendix C.

However it is important to mention the distinction between single vowels, as

explained above and multi vowel sounds which are also called diphthongs.

Diphthongs are gliding vowels, where two adjacent vowel sounds occur within the

same syllables. Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in

rapid speech during a conversation. A graphical representation of diphthongs in

English can be seen in Appendix C.

2.3. Phonemic AwarenessAlthough there are twenty-six letters in the English language, there are forty-four

phonemes. These phonemes are represented in two hundred and fifty different

spellings (like the phoneme /f/ can be spelled ph, f, gh and ff).

Smith et al. (1998) mention that “the ability to hear and manipulate phonemes

plays a casual role in the acquisition of beginning reading, listening and speaking

skills.” Phonemic awareness requires learners to notice how letters represent

sound, especially in a second language context, when the learners already come

from a well grounded phonemic system in their first language, which they tend to

refer to in vague situations related to pronunciation.

3. Typical Learners Problems and Their Solutions

Many learners express difficulties when acquiring English pronunciation,

especially on the phonemic level, as research highlights that lack of phonemic

awareness can lead to reading difficulties and unintelligible verbal production

(Smith et al. 1998). Phonemic awareness is also an important factor in developing

learners’ oral fluency in English (Kenworthy, 1987). In addition Jannuzi (1998)

suggested that second language students:

"must: (1) learn and / or acquire an adequate interlanguage

phonology that compensates for the lack of native competence and

THEN learn and/or acquire the phonemic awareness... Indeed, it

could be logically concluded that effective phonemic awareness

training cannot precede the development of a sufficient, internalized

interlanguage phonology" (p. 8).

3.1. First Language Influence

It is evident that transfer occurs with second language learners even in early

stages of second language acquisition. Pronunciation in English is based on

sounds, not spelling. This can prove difficult for learners whose first language is

Arabic, as it is a language with a direct letter sound relation. Some sounds in

English (v for example for Arabic learners and r for Japanese learners) do not exist

in other languages. Errors in these areas can make it difficult to be understood by

native English speakers.

To overcome this issue, it is important to raise phonemic awareness among

learners and work on substituting the phonemes that do not exist in their first

language and extensively drill them so that the learner can have a good chance to

practice and listen at the same time.

3.2. Cognates

Cognates, also known as false friends, can also present a challenge for learners of

English, as they tend to pronounce them the same way as they do in their first

language. This issue, if not dealt with as early as possible, can lead to fossilization

of such cognates and would result in sometimes unintelligible words that would

impede fluency of the learners.

To overcome this issue, the teacher has to be very sensitive to the issue of

cognates and act on that as soon as possible, during any lessons, teachers can use

a reactive approach to teaching pronunciation and allow a few minutes to drill

and practice these cognates with the proper pronunciation in English.

4. Conclusion

Throughout this essay, the issue of teaching phonemes to second language

learners of English has been investigated. Raising phonemic awareness among

higher level learners is a crucial component in oral fluency and reading fluency.

Learners would benefit greatly if the teacher can provide them with constructive

practice on areas in pronunciation where they might experience issues, or have

pertaining influence from their first language. Unfortunately, teaching

pronunciation is an unexplored area in the classroom, and that directly results in

graduating learners with high written fluency and great proficiency in grammar

and lexis. On the other hand, we find that these same learners might produce

unintelligible speech segments, which is directly linked to the lack of practice that

was available in the classroom when they were still learning.

It is highly recommended that teachers themselves work on researching any

pronunciation issues that they might encounter with their learners in class and

work on exploring them in class, even if the focus of the class is not dedicated to

pronunciation. A few minutes would be sufficient for drilling the learners’ issues

and providing mini production and recognition tasks to consolidate that the

learners have noticed their errors in pronunciation, and can avoid it in the future.

Appendix A

Adopted from Kelly, G. (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Harlow: Pearson

Appendix B

Adopted from Kelly, G. (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Harlow: Pearson

Appendix C

Adopted from Roach, P. (2004). British English: Received Pronunciation. Journal

of the International Phonetic Association, 34(02), 239-245.

Bibliography

Jannuzi, C. (1998). Key concepts in FL literacy: Phonemic awareness. Literacy

Across Cultures, 3(1), 7-12.

Kelly, G. (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Harlow: Pearson

Kenworthy, J. (1987). Teaching English pronunciation (Vol. 11). New York:

Longman.

Roach, P. (2004). British English: Received Pronunciation. Journal of the

International Phonetic Association, 34(02), 239-245.

Roach, P. (2010). English Phonetics and Phonology Fourth Edition: A Practical

Course. Ernst Klett Sprachen.

Smith S. B., Simmons, D. C., & Kame'enui, E. J. (1998). Phonological awareness:

Instructional and curricular basics and implications. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence

Erlbaum Associates.

Underhill, A. (1994). Sound foundations: Living phonology. Heinemann.