TEACHING PHONETICS
GOALS:
Some time ago it might have been said that the goal should always be native-like pronunciation.
Even though it was realised that this would be achieved by relatively few, most people now think that this is an inappropriate goal for most learners.
The great majority of learners will have a very practical purpose for learning English:
- want native-like accent because their work requires them to deal on equal terms with native speakers with E-speaking country of abroad (occupation related e.g. teachers of E. need to have native like accent+ know some accents; telephone operators easily understood pronunciation.
- In multilingual nations of India and Africa, its used for communication between people, who are speakers of the different languages [no need to have native-like pronunciation]
- While native-like pronunciation may be a goal for particular learners, and we should never actively discourage learners from setting themselves high goals, for the majority of learners a far more reasonable goal is to be comfortably intelligible.
We can make distinction between hearing and listening. We realize that some people are more difficult to listen to than others, and when we hear a foreigner speaking our native language we expect to have to work a little but harder. But if we have to work too hard if the person pronounces in such a way that we have to constantly ask for repetitions then at some stage we reach our threshold of tolerance. We become irritated and maybe even resentful of the effort that is being required of us. In some cases we may be willing to be patient and ultra-tolerant, in some cases we have to be (e.g. customs officer at a border control), but for the most part we expect conversations with non-native speakers to be comfortable. In setting goals for our learners we must consider the effect of mispronunciation on the listener and the degree of tolerance listeners will have for this. Poor pronunciation may lead to misunderstanding thus can be no communication.
The teacher should know what to teach.
Learning to pronounce a language is a very complex task and, and as with any other complex learning can be facilitated if the task is structured in some way and if the learner is aware of exactly what is involved. This means dividing the task into its components, ordering the components in some way (basic complex; easy difficult) and showing the learner why each component must be learnt.
Once learners are aware that E. words have a stress pattern, that words can be pronounced in slightly different ways, that the pitch of the voice can be used to convey meaning, then they will know WHAT to pay attention to and can build upon this basic awareness.
The CONTENT of teaching phonetics implies:
- teaching sounds / pronunciation (sounds, consonants, diphthongs)
- teaching stress (word-stresses, sentence stress and logical stress)
- teaching intonation
- developing ability to divide sentences into intonation or sense groups and pronounce these s. with proper intonation. [Part of the sentence, that is intonation independent is syntagm]
- making correct pronunciation habitual.
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Received pronunciation (used by radio and TV speakers) is considered to be devoid of such items which fetch it to some region or dialect.
PRINCIPLES of TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
- contrasted analyses of phonic phenomenon of the native language and those of English.
- contrasted analysis within English.
eg. sound [ ] should be shown in contrast with [۸]
- the use of analytic imitative way while teaching phonetics. (some models should be presented and a pupil should imitate; and a pupil should be explained how this or that sound is formed) implies description of sound forming and imitation
- development of phonetic ear and intonation comprehension (as much as possible recorded material for them to listen)
- providing a good model for pupils. It can be provided either by the teacher or by using technical aids.
- teaching phonetic throughout the course of study
(phonetic drills, reading when attention is on accuracy)
- proper sequence in teaching phonetics: sound word sentence.
