Phonetics and Phonology Free Essay Example from StudyTiger

REPUBLICA BOLIVARIANA DE VENEZUELA UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA EXPERIMENTAL LIBERTADOR INSTITUTO PEDAGOGICO DE CARACAS CATEDRA DE FONETICA Y FONOLOGIA ASIGNATURA: FONETICA Y FONOLOGIA II AN ANALYSIS OF A SPEECH SAMPLE IN WHICH UNDERLIE A VARIETY OF ENGLISH VOWEL SOUNDS Authors: Aymara Villasmil Daniel Rodriguez CARACAS, FEBRERO DE 2011 INTRODUCTION Throughout the years, a variety of famous linguists have made an attempt to define the difficult question of what language is. For instance, Halliday (1973) affirms that language is an instrument of communication among members of a social group.

In relation to this, Gimson (1962) states that a language is a system of conventional signals used for a communication by a whole community. On the other hand, Whitman (1975) when trying to describe the concept of language establishes a particular connection between the use of language and the mental processes speaker experiences. He states that language, far from being independent of the mind, was so inextricably tied to the mind that the study of language was virtually the study of human mind.

These different assumptions of what language is impel us, as future EFL teachers, to recognize the enormous responsibility teaching English as a foreign language involves. Due to the fact that we will necessarily have to handle several definitions of what language is and its components (syntax, grammar, phonetics and phonology, semantics,…) in order to help students realize the variety of elements they use when communicating with others.

For instance, when teaching our students a language level such as phonetics and phonology, which primary involves pronunciation we have to make them aware that it is not only a matter of pronouncing sounds in isolation, but that these sounds are part of a communicative system the use in daily life. In relation to this, Strickland ( U. D ) states that learning a language, whether it is the mother tongue or a foreign one, is learning a system of sounds and their arrangements in words and patterns of organization together with the concepts the words and patterns represent.

The following written work has as a primary proposal, the analysis of a speech sample recorded from a beginner speaker of English language who read a four - paragraph newspaper article in which the following vocalic sounds were immersed: mid - low back /? /, low front /? / , mid -high back / /, mid - high front /? / . Through the record we will be analyzing the substitution the speaker made or not of any of the four vocalic sounds mentioned before.

We will be explaining why the speaker made that substitution, which factors influenced in the substitution and finally, we will be giving a variety of suggestions / recommendations for the appropriated production of vowel sounds of English and the rest of the inventory sounds. General Objective ? To explain the transference the speaker makes when pronouncing the English vowels which do not belong / exist to Spanish inventory sounds. Specific Objectives ? To demonstrate the articulatory features that influence the speaker when pronouncing English vowel sounds. To establish different factors that affect the Speaker when pronouncing English vowels. ? To provide students accurate and useful pronunciation techniques that will make them improve their pronunciation of English. ONE of the few surprises at the Golden Globes two weeks ago — you’ll be forgiven if you’ve already forgotten about that odd little broadcast — was the award given to “Carlos,” the French director Olivier Assayas’s five-hour-plus reconstruction of the life and career of the notorious terrorist of the 1970s and ’80s Carlos the Jackal.

But so does everything else about the way the Academy deals with movies from the rest of the world. An elaborate and mysterious winnowing process pares down the thousands of potential nominees to five. This year they are “Dogtooth” from Greece, “Incendies” from Canada, “Biutiful” from Mexico, “Outside the Law” from Algeria and “In a Better World,” which might be considered the front-runner if you take the Globes as an omen. /b? t so d? z ? vri??? ?ls ? bawt ?? we ?? ?k? d? mi dilz w?? muviz fr? m ?? r? st ? v ?? w? rld. ?n ? l? br? t ? nd m? st? ri? w? no?? pr? s? s p? rz dawn ?? ?awz? ndz ? v p? t? n?? l n? m? niz tu fajv. ?? s j? r ? e ? r dogtooth fr? m gris, incendies fr? m k? n? d? , biutiful fr? m m? ks? ko, awtsajd ?? l? fr? m ? ld?? ri? ?nd ? n ? b? t? r w? rld, w? t? majt bi k? ns? d? rd ?? fr? nt- r? n? r ? f ju tek ?? globz ? z ? n om? n/ |Phonetic Transcription |Well pronounced |mispronounced |Segment used for substitution | |/? vri??? / | | | | |/? k? d? i/ | | | | |/w?? / | | | | |/? n/ | | | | |/? l? br? t/ | | |Substitution of the low front vowel /? / for| | | | |the central Schwa /? | |/? nd/ | | |Substitution of the low front vowel /? / for| | | | |the central Schwa /? / | |/m? st? r? z/ | | |Substitution of mid high front /I/ for the | | | | |mid-front /e/ in the second syllable. | |/w? no?? | | | | |/?? s/ | | |Replacement of the mid high front /I/ for | | | | |the highest front /i/ | |/j? r/ | | | | |/k? n? d? / | | |The speaker did not produce de vowel sound. |/? ld?? ri? / | | |Substitution of mid high front /I/ for the | | | | |mid-front /e/ in the second syllable. | |/? ld?? ri? / | | |Substitution of the low front vowel /? / for| | | | |the Mid-low back /? / in the first syllable | |/? n/ | | | | |/w? ? / | | | | |/k? ns? d? rd/ | | | | |/? f/ | | | | |/? z/ | | |Substitution of the low front vowel /? / for| | | | |the central Schwa /? | |/? n/ | | |Substitution of the low front vowel /? / for| | | | |the central Schwa /? / | “Dogtooth” came and went on a few American screens last spring, and “Outside the Law” had a brief run in December (and may return shortly); only “Biutiful,” whose globally famous star, Javier Bardem, was nominated for best actor, is likely to be playing now at a theater near you.

The others will be released in the late winter or early spring, in the hopes of realizing some kind of box office bounce. The usual pre-nomination handicapping — the canvassing of critical opinion and the weighing of popular sentiment — does not apply to these movies, which might in principle make the choices less compromised, but in practice only serves to make them more confusing. dogtooth kem ? nd w? nt ? n ? fju ? m? r? k? n skrinz l? st spr?? , ? nd awtsajd ?? l? h? d ? brif r? n ? n d? s? mb? r ( ? nd me r? t? rn ?? rtli); onli biutiful, huz glob? i fem? s st? r, h? vi? r bardem, w? z n? m? net? d f? r b? st ? kt? r, ? z lajkli tu bi ple?? naw ? t ? ?i? t? r n? r ju. ?? ??? rz w? l bi rilist ? n ?? let w? nt? r ? r ? rli spr?? , ? n ?? hops ? v ril? jz?? s? m kajnd ? v b? ks ? f? s bawns. ?? ju?? w? l pri- n? m? ne?? n h? ndik? p?? ?? k? nv? s?? ?v kr? t? k? l ? p? nj? n ? nd ?? we?? ?v p? pj? l? r s? nt? m? nt d? z n? t ? plaj tu ? iz muviz, w? t? majt ? n pr? ns? p? l mek ?? t?? js? z l? s k? mpr? m? jzd, b? t ? n pr? kt? s onli s? rvz tu mek ?? m m? r k? nfjuz?? / Phonetic Transcription |Well pronounced |mispronounced |Segment used for substitution | |/? nd/ | | |Substitution of the low front vowel| | | | |/? / for the central Schwa /? / | |/l? st/ | | |Substitution of the low front vowel| | | | |/? for the low-back. | |/spr?? / | | | | |/? nd/ | | | | |/h? d/ | | | | |/? n/ | | | | |/? d/ | | | | |/? kt? r/ | | | | |/? z/ | | | | |/ple?? / | | | | |/? t/ | | | | |/n? / | | |Substitution of the mid-high back | | | | |vowel /I/ for the central diphthong| | | | |/I? / | |/w? l/ | | |Substitution of the mid-high back | | | | |vowel /I/ for the Spanish /i/ | |/? / | | | | |/w? nt? r/ | | | | |/spr?? / | | | | |/? n/ | | | | |/ril? jz?? / | | | | |/? ? s/ | | |Substitution of the mid low back | | | | |/? /, for the Spanish /o/ | |/h? ndik? p?? / | | |Substitution of the mid-high back | | | | |vowel /I/ for the Spanish /i/ | |/h? ndik? p?? | | | | |/k? nv? s?? / | | | | |/k? nv? s?? / | | |Substitution of the mid-high back | | | | |vowel /I/ for the Spanish /i/ | |/kr? t? k? l/ | | | | |/? p? j? n/ | | | | |/? nd/ | | | | |/we?? / | | | | |/w? t? / | | | | |/? n/ | | | | |/pr? s? p? l/ | | | | |/? n/ | | | | |/pr? kt? s/ | | | | |/k? nfjuz?? / | | | | METHODOLOGY

An IPC student from the Second semester was selected for the recording of the speech sample which was one of the main concerns of this investigation. The recording was made on February 9th in a classroom of the IPC. The electronic device used was a low quality cell phone whose recording application allowed us to record the student’s speech and then, through USB connection, transferred the audio to the PC and copied the data in a CD-ROM. ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS • CHART N? 1 Production of the vowel sound mid - low back /? / in a text read by a student of the second semester at the IPC. | |Pronunciation | | |Sound | | | | | |Substitution | | |Well - Pronounced | | | | | |Mispronounced | | | | | |Substitution of the mid | |/? |0 |4 |low back /? /, for the | | |0% |100 % |Spanish /o/ in most of | | | | |the cases. | • For the vowel sound low front /? / (fifty – three times). • For the vowel sound mid -high back /? / (two – times). • For the vowel sound mid - high front /? / (eighty – two times). • For the vowel sound mid-low back /? / ( four times) Sound |Right |Wrong |Substitution | | |2 |0 | | |/? / |100% |0% |None | |Sound |Right |Wrong |Substitution | | |57 |24 | | |/? |70% |30% |In most of the cases, | | | | |replacement of the mid high | | | | |front /I/ for the highest | | | | |front /i/ | Sound |Right |Wrong |Substitution | | |22 |31 | | |/? / |42% |58% |In most of the cases, | | | | |Substitution of the low front| | | | |vowel /? for the central | | | | |Schwa /? / | 1- The speaker’s most troublesome sound was the mid – low back vowel of English /? /, although its incidence in the whole article was very low, only four times. Nevertheless, the student substituted the English sound /? / whose lip- position is similar to the one of Spanish / o /, that is, slightly rounded. 2- After the mid-low back vowel, the most troublesome sound was the low front vowel /? /, due to the fact that the speaker substituted this sound /? / in most of the cases for schwa /? or Mid-low back /? /, in which the lips are slightly spread and the vowels for the substitution are lax (/? /) and tense (/? /) respectively. Some aspects that may cause trouble for the speaker is the word spelling, because sometimes they tend to get confused or doubtful when pronouncing a word, in the moment they see a difficult or uncommon spelling. RECOMMENDATIONS In order to facilitate our labor as future English teachers and to encourage our students to learn the language while developing effective skills, being speaking our main concern, the researchers selected a series of educational techniques: ? Readings

As future EFL teachers we have to expose our students to English language through “readings” in which students will find a visual stage (graphemes) and an auditory one (phonemes). Students will read aloud pieces of writings made by them or any selected reading material made by the teacher such as, short stories A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, To Build a fire by Jack London, or any play such as: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Students will read or hear structures like: pot - stop, tip - sleep, car - bad and the will also be aware of the likenesses or differences among vocalic sounds immersed in the readings. Dictation EFL teachers must develop listening skill, so as a speaking one, in their students and this can be done through the appropriate use of dictation as a useful and realistic technique that will allow students to receive a phonic background and then to analyze the spelling data involved, that is, graphemes. The most important part of this method is that students will be able to create the pieces of writings that will be read by the teacher or among the classmates and whose content will be according to their interests and experiences, so student? creative expression will also be taken into account as essential part of the learning process. ? Poetry According to Stuckland (1962) students like poetry first for its singing quality, for its rhyme, rhythm and all that goes into the melody of verse. That is, the enjoyable environment poetry creates when students interpret its content. Suggested poems will be: Hickory, Dickory, Dock by William Wallace Denslow in whose content are presented a variety of vowel sounds. CONCLUSIONS

In order to make our students aware of the different vowels in English, we as English teachers, have to clarify and exemplify several exercises for them, to make a distinction in pronunciation patterns of the sounds they can find more troublesome in English. We can write similar words in the board and provide a distinction of sounds to differentiate them, so students could see the pronunciation if we would practice with them the distinction and very essential, the spelling patterns for the English vowel productions and examples with these.

Furthermore, if we teach these spelling patterns criteria and we practice the pronunciation of these difficult vowels for our students, they will assimilate and acquire a better understanding, specifically if we focus our attention on these vowels /? / and /? /. As another useful activity, we can encourage our students to produce the different vowels of English by different techniques, and be aware of common mistakes in the utterance of the mid-low back and /? / and the low front /? /.

Regarding this, we can explain our students different techniques to practice in the classroom, such as reading activities, dictations, spelling patterns, pronunciation differences and others. Finally, we as EFL teachers have to be more sensible while listening to our student? s vowel production and when they find it difficult to make a distinction between the vowel systems of English and Spanish, and we can provide them with a comparison and contrast pattern, in order to provide them with the comprehension and accurate distinction between these systems, making their pronunciation more accurate. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

SAPIR, EDWARD (1921) Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. Harcourt Brace and Company, Orlando, Florida. STRICKLAND, RUTH (1969) The language arts. D. C Health and Company. Lexington, Massachusetts. A. C,GIMSON (1962) An introduction to the pronunciation of English. Reader in Phonetics, University College, London. A. C,GIMSON (1975) A practical Course of English Pronunciation, a perceptual approach. Edward Arnold Publishers, 25 Hill Street, London. ----------------------- Professor: Viktor Carrasquero Hickory, dickory, dock The mouse ran up the clock The clock struck one, The mouse ran down, Hickory, dickory, dock

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