200354569 ENGL303 Intro to TEFL Sue Thompson

EFL Methodology – Teaching Sounds

The Sound System of English

Learning English as a foreign language can be a particularly challenging task. There are many
pitfalls in the components which make up the English Language, including unusual spelling
which does not match the sounds, eg. “ghost” or “enough”; a word stress system which
does not have a pattern and is therefore unpredictable; multiple word meanings and
strange idiomatic phrases and sayings. However, one of the most important elements of
learning English as a foreign language is mastering the complex pronunciation, or in other
words the ‘sound system of English’. The study of English pronunciation in EFL, involves both
the production of speech and also the perception of speech. Generally speaking, a student
must first be able to hear the individual sounds of English before he or she can accurately
reproduce that sound.

In recent years teachers of English have concentrated progressively more on pronunciation,

as it directly affects the communicative competence that a learner has. It has become the
main focus of situational teaching and concentrated on increasingly during group work,
drills, and conversation. It is important to catch errors in pronunciation early on in the
learning process to avoid the incorrect pronunciations of words becoming a bad habit for
the learner.

A learner can have an excellent vocabulary and an exceptional grasp of English grammar,
however if their pronunciation falls below a certain threshold then they will be unable to
effectively communicate verbally with other speakers of English.

Pronunciation involves several different elements, including the basic individual phonemes
of English but also sentence stress and intonation and the use of strong and weak forms of
particular words.

Phonetics of English

Generally the phonemic problems which students face when learning English are based
upon their mother tongue, nearly all Spanish students will encounter the same
pronunciation problems whilst those with an Arabic mother tongue will encounter different
difficulties. Each language has its own phonemic system and the mouths of those who speak
each language become accustomed to these sounds over time. This means that it becomes
harder for a person’s lips, palate and vocal cords to make sounds which are not native to
their language.

The following are common phonemic problems which may be encountered -

 Consonants – Asian speakers such as those with a Japanese or Chinese mother

tongues will often have difficulties in distinguishing between the liquid consonants
/r/ and /l/. In Asian languages there is only one liquid consonant which is used for
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both lateral and rhotic allophones meaning these students would need extra
attention to be able to produce and hear the lateral /l/ and rhotic /r/. Those
speakers who have an Arabic mother tongue, often have difficulty in distinguishing
between the voiced bilabial plosive /b/ and voiceless bilabial plosive /p/ which leads
them to pronounce words such as “paper” as “baber” which although may be
vaguely intelligible in context, is more likely to cause confusion and communication
breakdown.
 Vowels – Speakers of Arabic will often have difficulty distinguishing between the
open mid front unrounded vowel /ɛ/ and the near close near front unrounded vowel
/I/ in words such as “bet” often being mispronounced as “bit”.

Strong and Weak Forms

The English Language is a stress timed language which generally implies that if a word
has no stress in a sentence, then a weak form of that particular word will be used. On
the contrary if a word has a particular importance in a sentence then the strong form of
that word will be used. The weak form of a word and the strong form of a word are
phonemically different but the strong form of a word is the form which represents a
word in isolation.

Distinguishing between the strong and weak forms of a word is important for an English
Language student to learn because it represents natural speech. A student needs to be
able to accurately reproduce both strong and weak forms of words but also needs to be
able to hear and recognise both forms in natural rapid speech.

The following examples demonstrate the differences between the strong and weak
forms of several words –

 ME –
“Can you help me carry this suitcase?” – Weak form /mI/
“Hey! Wait for me!” – Strong form /mi:/
 HER –
“I don’t recognise her brother” – Weak form - /ə/ or /hə/
“Her? She’s my Mum” – Strong form - /hɜ:/
(NB. With “her” the /r/ is always pronounced if a vowel follows the word, “give
he/r/ a chance”)

Sentence Stress

Many of the problems which students encounter during their studies of English can be
based around ‘sentence stress’ also known as ‘prominence’. Stress can be a difficult area to
teach and therefore is often neglected but it is a crucial element of understanding natural
speech and the impacts on the student’s own communicative competence. Even the most
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simple of sentences can have several different meanings depending on where the stress is
placed. The following sentence demonstrates this –

“I said he might consider a new car” – With the stress on the pronoun “I”, the underlying
meaning of the sentence suggests ‘It was my idea’.

“I SAID he might consider a new car” – With the stress on “said”, the underlying meaning
suggests that the recipient has asked you to repeat yourself.

“I said HE might consider a new car” – With the stress on “he”, the underlying meaning is
that you are stressing that what you are saying is about a particular person and not
somebody else.

“I said he MIGHT consider a new car” – With the stress on “might”, the underlying meaning
is that what you are saying is only a possibility.

“I said he might CONSIDER a new car” – With the stress on “consider”, the underlying
meaning is you think for whatever reason that he should think about getting a new car.

“I said he might consider a NEW car” – With the stress on “new”, the underlying meaning is
that you are not just talking about any car but a brand new one.

“I said he might consider a new CAR” – With the stress on “car”, the underlying meaning is
that the recipient has misheard the end of the sentence.

As can be seen, there are 7 different meanings to exactly the same sentence. This
demonstrates the difficulty that a student may face as not only do they need to understand
the words in the sentence but also where the stress lies to truly understand the meaning.
They also need to have the ability to reproduce this themselves to be understood
effectively. When a student is able to master word stress, the ability to use the correct
intonation is usually an easier task as they often fall together in the same category. They are
both equally important for communicative competence.

Approaches to Teaching Pronunciation

Throughout previous years, the approach to teaching pronunciation to EFL students has
changed. Today the primary approach is the communicative approach which focuses on the
idea that communication is the most important element in language and so it should be
concentrated on in the classroom situation. This theory brings a higher importance to
teaching pronunciation because a poor ability to hear and reproduce English sounds will
cause the student to be cut off from language and communication. The aim of teaching
pronunciation is not to teach students how to sound exactly like a native speaker but to
instead give them the ability to reach a level of pronunciation which is above the threshold
meaning their pronunciation ability will not affect their communication.
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Demonstration

Demonstration is an important element of teaching pronunciation to students, particularly if

it is their first exposure to a set of words. The aim of a demonstration is to introduce the
students to the target language and pronunciation point for a particular lesson. There are
many ways in which to do this, in a vocabulary lesson the teacher might write words on the
board, in a reading lesson the teacher might ask the students to read a text at the beginning
of the lesson. However in a pronunciation lesson, the aim is for the students to make the
correct sounds, place stress in the correct places and use the correct intonation.

An example exercise of this could be for a teacher to use their hands when demonstrating
the pronunciation of a word. So whilst demonstrating the pronunciation of “My name is
John” the teacher’s hand would rise and fall with the intonation and also tap out the rhythm
and stress of the sentence,

THAT WAS A GREAT PERFORMANCE

The arrows here indicate the rising intonation which could be indicated with hand gestures
by the teacher. The squares indicate the stressed words in this particular instance.

It would also be possible for the word ‘performance’ to also demonstrated in isolation in
this way.

PERFORMANCE

The dots indicate the intonation and stress on particular parts of the word. The middle
section of the word is stressed more than the rest, ‘perFORmance’.

With demonstration, it is important for the teacher to realise that not every student will find
these approaches useful, some may “like to see written explanations, diagrams on boards or
overhead projectors” (Harmer, 2007: 205). In these circumstances it would be useful for the
teacher to demonstrate stress and intonation in a written form such as using dots for the
stress and intonation pattern as shown in the above example of “performance”.

Discovery
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When someone learns their mother tongue, they are not handed a sheet of rules which
explains how their language works. Instead children acquiring language test out rules,
making many mistakes along the way until they understand the rules and understand where
the exceptions lie. This is the general principle of ‘discovery’ and it is very useful to use in an
EFL environment. The students are given a set of examples which they need for the exercise
and instead of trying to guess the rules they are asked to answer questions about the
examples, these questions are usually focused on the target language of the lesson. This
question and answer session is intended to make the students think about the language and
come to their own conclusions about the language you are teaching. The benefit of
‘discovery’ is that a student is more likely to remember language from an exercise in which
they were actively involved in and “had to make some cognitive effort as they uncovered its
patterns” (Harmer, 2007: 208)

An example of using a ‘discovery’ approach to teaching pronunciation could be to present

the students with a text or an audio tape containing the target language, for example,
“enough, thought, ghost, rough, bought”. The next part of the exercise would be to ask the
students to identify which sounds match each other, eg, “thought and bought”. This type of
discovery activity can be extremely enjoyable for students as they like to work things out.
However, teachers are warned to use such discovery exercises with care as not every
student will warm to this approach. Many will prefer to be ‘spoon fed’ the language but “a
lot will depend on their level” (Harmer, 2007: 208).

Accurate Reproduction

It is important for students to be able to accurately reproduce the sounds of English,

therefore it is important for the approach to teaching a student the accurate reproduction
of a word to be specific.

A useful exercise for accurate reproduction is ‘repetition’ in particular choral repetition.

Students will then have the opportunity to practise saying the word aloud with the other
students rather than feeling embarrassed by doing it alone. It is also useful for the teacher
to “help the students with the rhythm by ‘conducting’ the chorus, using arms and hands to
show where the stress occurs” (Harmer, 2007: 206). In terms of pronunciation the students
can practice both speaking and listening skills on the way to accurately reproducing the
sounds of English.

Ideally the teacher needs to speak to the students using natural rapid speech. If a teacher
uses unnatural, slow, over articulated speech then the students are likely to pick this up and
imitate them, causing them in turn to speak unnaturally. This can also contribute to a
student’s inability to be able to recognise natural speech outside of the classroom.

The students need to hear natural and relaxed pronunciation at the speed which a native
speaker would speak at. In order for a student to be able to understand this, the teacher will
need to explain to the students about connected speech. This type of speech is only found
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in natural conversation where the words flow into each other. Depending on which words
are next to each other in a sentence, the way words are spoken can change.

A useful way to demonstrate connected speech if the students involved are at a high
enough level, is to use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This way the students can
visibly see the way sounds have merged together and shortened. The following example
illustrates this –

Unnatural articulated speech “I will be going on Wednesday” /aI wIl bi: goƱIŋ ɒn wedŋzdeI/

In connected speech becomes /aIl bIgəƱn ɒn wenzdeI/

This system can be useful if a student comes from a background where they struggle to hear
and identify particular sounds of English. This way they are able to see that it is one of those
sounds and make an effort to either correct themselves or make a similar sound which they
can produce instead.

Analysis of Teaching Materials

The two extracts from teaching materials deal with the idea of emphatic stress. This type of
word stress is generally found when a speaker wishes to highlight the extraordinary nature
of something, or requires to make a correction to what a recipient thinks the speaker has
said.

In both extracts the pronunciation point is demonstrated by using an audio recording of a

conversation. Both extracts introduce the student to the recording by using cartoon pictures
and also by providing a short introduction to set the scene before they will listen to the
recording. Extract B tells the students, “Unfortunately her grandfather is deaf. He also
worries a lot about what Sally does, and who she meets”. This suggests that there will be
some misunderstanding in the recording and Sally may need to put emphatic stress on
particular words for her deaf grandfather to be able to hear and understand. Extract C on
the other hand uses the cartoon in more detail; it shows two paintings which both look
exactly the same apart from the colour. The dialogue for the extract shows two friends
discussing which of the paintings is better than the other. If the student fully understands
the dialogue then they will understand the humour of the cartoon, in that both paintings are
virtually identical. However the focus of the task is on how comparative adjectives can be
stressed to modify nouns and adjectives for emphasis.

In extract B the pronunciation point is not explained in full. The aims of the materials are to
practice the pronunciation point by using several different activities. The extract uses the
‘discovery’ approach to teaching the pronunciation point meaning that the students must
work out for themselves the rules of emphatic stress by practising and using their own logic
to derive the answers to the questions set in the extract such as, “why do they stress these
particular words?”. In contrast extract C has a lot more text boxes with extra information
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written in them. In the extract these are called “Language boxes” and they give information
and examples as to what the rules are for modifying adjectives and nouns and also stressing
for emphasis. Both of these extracts have good and bad points about how the pronunciation
point is explained, whereas the discovery technique used in extract B is a proven way to
reinforce learning, extract C on the other hand offers an explanation which can be looked
back on after the lesson and provides multiple examples of what it is demonstrating.
Ultimately I believe that a mixture of both discovery and “Language boxes” would provide a
good balance for students.

Extract B has several activities in order for the students to be able to practice the
pronunciation point. The first is a simple listening task to familiarise themselves with the
task, the next task is to listen to the dialogue a second time however this time marking the
stresses onto the written dialogue. The next task is to listen to the dialogue a third time but
this time to hum the words, putting emphasis on the stressed word. The fourth task is to
practise reading the dialogue with a partner, still concentrating on the stressed words.
Whilst practise is essential for students to gain practical knowledge of the pronunciation
point, extract B seems to overdo it. The tasks are all too similar in content and aim and
could cause the students to lose focus on the tasks and become bored, a state in which they
would not be at their optimum level of learning. All but one of the four tasks in this extract
are individual and don’t give the students a sense of being involved in their learning process
which can be an important element of a good language learner.

In contrast extract C has a larger variety of tasks for the students to be able to practice the
pronunciation point. There is a written exercise, a listening and discovery exercise, a task
where the students must listen to the text and fill in the gaps to a written text, (of which all
the missing words happen to be stressed), the final task is to focus specifically on only a few
lines of the dialogue and to look in more detail at the stressed words and syllables. The
varying activities in this extract have the potential to provide the students with more
enjoyment during their learning because they are moving from skill to skill. Essentially the
more variety found in a lesson’s activities the more a student will want to take part and
ultimately learn.

One modification which I believe would improve extract B would be to provide the students
with a task which would engage them much more than just reading over the same text four
times. This task would follow on from exercises 1 and 2 and would involve the students
devising a short dialogue with a partner illustrating emphatic stress. Ideally this dialogue
would be read out in front of the rest of the class, allowing the students to see many
variations of dialogues on different topics, giving them a wider example of emphatic stress.
This task would also empower the students, as they are able to use their own knowledge
and creativity to demonstrate the pronunciation point.

A modification which I believe would improve extract C would be to have more speaking
related tasks. As a teaching material which aims to teach and improve a student’s
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pronunciation in the area of emphatic stress, it does a poor job at providing tasks for
students to be able to practise aloud. It would have been beneficial for the extract to have
included some pair work or group work in which the students could have had a chance to
attempt accurate reproduction and practise.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Celce-Murcia, M. Brinton, DM. Goodwin, JM. 2000. Teaching pronunciation: a reference for
teachers of English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge University Press.

Crystal, D. 1995. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University press.

Harmer, J. 2007. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson Longman.

Hedge, T. 2000. Teaching and Learning in the Classroom. Oxford: OUP.

Hewings, M. 2004. Pronunciation practice activities: a resource book for teaching English
pronunciations, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press.