Assignment – FP005 TP
SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
GENERAL INFORMATION:
This assignment must be done individually and has to fulfil the following conditions:
-
Length: between 6 to 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if
there are any-).
Font type: Arial or Times New Roman.
Font size: 11.
Spacing: 1.5.
Alignment: Justified.
The assignment has to be written in this Word document and has to follow the
instructions on quotes and references detailed in the Study Guide.
Also, the assignment has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the
document: “Subject Evaluation”. Sending it to the tutor’s e-mail is not allowed.
It is strongly recommended to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the
document “Subject Evaluation”.
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Assignment instructions:
Choose two problems of transfer which you consider to be obstacles to
efficient communication. Those problems need to be specific to Spanish
and English (that is, specific to Spanish speakers who are English
learners). The problems can either be segmental or suprasegmental.
FIRST, describe, as precisely as you can, the causes of the problems in
phonetic or phonological terms.
SECOND, explain and illustrate how these problems could be addressed
within the usual framework of a language course - the level, age and type
of student presumably being determined by the type of problem you have
chosen. Nonetheless, you should consider the problems in terms of the
three ’E’ variables, and with reference to Brinton’s five variables,
mentioned in Chapter 9.
Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the
next page (the cover). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions will
not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Student’s full name:
Ruth de las Mercedes Estrella Sotomayor
Group:
2021-06
Date:
June 28th, 2022
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Index
Introduction ___________________________________________________ 5
Brinton’s variables ____________________________________________ 6
Learner variables _________________________________________________ 6
Setting variables _________________________________________________ 6
Institutional variables _______________________________________________ 7
Linguistic variables _________________________________________________ 7
Methodological ____________________________________________________ 7
Problem 1 _____________________________________________________ 8
Defective “th” with [θ] sound pronunciation_____________________________ 8
Exposure, Exercise, Explanation ______________________________________ 8
Problem 2 _____________________________________________________ 9
Defective intonation of questions _____________________________________ 9
Exposure, Exercise, Explanation _____________________________________ 10
Conclusions __________________________________________________ 11
References ___________________________________________________ 12
Appendices ___________________________________________________ 13
Figure 1 Phonetic chart ____________________________________________ 14
Figure 2 Anatomy of “th” when sounds [θ] ____________________________ 15
Figure 3 Practice exercise: How to pronounce the unvoiced 'th sound: [θ] __ 16
Figure 4 Anatomy of the vocal tract __________________________________ 17
Figure 5 Demostration of “th” with [θ] sound pronunciation ______________ 18
Figure 6 Key to phonetic symbols ___________________________________ 19
Figure 7 Comparison between native speakers of American English and native
speakers of Spanish reading sentences in English - Wh-questions ________ 20
Figure 8 Body movements to shor stress, pitch, and intonation visually____ 21
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Introduction
Teaching and learning pronunciation is challenging, Lewis and Hill (1985) stand that
“there is no harm in a foreign speaker sounding foreign” (p.72) In general, the aim of a
foreign language learner is to communicate successfully with the target language
speakers, might they be native or not. It can be done by the production of
comprehensible speech. Even though, some students would like to obtain a native
accent, it seems to be difficult if not impossible. In this situation, teachers are called to
guide learners so they at least master intelligible pronunciation, and achieve
communicative competence.
English pronunciation considers segmental and suprasegmental aspects. The former
refers to the oral production of individual vowels and consonant sounds. Despite of its
importance, it does not guarantee communicative competence. Due to the changes in
sound that letters in insolation suffer when found in oral speech. The latter considers
features such as stress in words and connected speech, rhythm, pitch, loudness, vowel
length, quality, tone and intonation which affects intelligibility. In Sabater (1991) words,
appropriate use of the prosodic features of English is “more important for intelligibility
than the correct pronunciation of isolated segments” (p.145).
This work will review two problems of language transfer that represent obstacles to
efficient communication in English in high school 3rd graders of the “Unidad Educativa
Fiscal Alangasí” in Quito Ecuador, whose mother tongue is Spanish. The first problem
is the pronunciation of the “th” sound that belongs to the segmental level, and the
second difficulty considers inappropriate intonation in questions that associates with
the suprasegmental level. Finally, with the propose of finding a solution, the Brinston’s
(1995) five variables analysis, and the Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994) “Exposure,
Exercise, Explantion” paradigrm have been applied.
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Brinton’s variables
Learner variables
This work refers to 140 students coursing the Third grade of “Bachillerato General
Unificado,” males and females, from 17 to 19 years old. They attend to technical
careers and specializations: mechanics, accounting, and general sciences. In general,
students have a low cultural level, due to their humble socio economic and cultural
origins where most parents have not finished the elementary school education. The
majority of families’ resources and incomes are based on agriculture, craft work, street
sales, repairs and construction jobs.
Even though, their English knowledge level is heterogeneous they attend to the same
English class, because it is the manner the school is organized. Based on the Common
European Framework of Reference (CEFR), most students are basic users with an A2
level proficiency.
As a rule, it can be said that the attitude towards the target culture is positive. It can be
explained by the foreign influence of The United States that encourages intrinsic and
extrinsic learning motivation in the students.
Setting variables
The “Unidad Educativa Fiscal Alangasí” is a public high school in the rural town of
Alangasí in D.M. Quito – Ecuador - South America. It has one thousand seven hundred
students in total. In Ecuadorian institutions, the education is divided in four levels. The
compulsory levels are, kindergarten for children from 3 to 5 years old, elementary
school from 2nd to 7th grade, and middle school from 8th to 10th grades. Finally, high
school from 1st to 3rd grades which is optional. The “Curriculum Nacional” developed
by the “Ministerio de Educación y Cultura” is the base that every educational institution
has to follow to teach. The “malla curricular” considers English as the foreign Language
that has to be taught to students, from the 2nd grade of elementary school till the 3rd
grade of high school. Three pedagogical hours of forty minutes each are delivered
weekly during 40 weeks per school year. The aim is to have students with an A2 level
when they finish their high school education. Although, students have access to the
Internet it is limited and slow. Additionally, it is not used to search English content
besides the given by the teachers as class material. Their exposure to English as a TL
is largely limited.
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Institutional variables
The “Unidad Educativa Fiscal Alangasí”, has appropriate facilities. Classrooms are
adequate. There is equipment as laptops, projectors, and speakers that facilitate audio
visual expositions and presentations. However, the students’ population is in average
38 individuals’ per classroom which is challenging for teachers, moreover when
teaching a foreign language. Every teacher has a college teaching degree and more
than half a specialization master in this field. Teachers must permanently attend to
compulsory training seminars, which are given by the “Ministerio de Educación” on its
online platform. The material used for teaching has two components, the first is a
series of English modules and a wide variety of on line contextualized resources
developed by the ME, and the second is the material developed by teachers for their
specific groups of students, which enables explanation, reinforcement, and practices in
diverse class activities.
The curriculum of the Ecuadorian for EFL is oriented to the development of the four
skills with a social orientation. It contains the codified skills that should be developed,
with their evaluation criteria, development indicators, and methodological orientations.
Linguistic variables
Students’ mother language is Spanish; apart from this some are bilingual and use
Quechua as a social and family language. To clarify, Spanish in the area has its
specific accent that differs from other geographical places. A lower number of students
are Colombians and Venezuelans, who have a distinctive Spanish accent. In this
context, on the segmental level the production of the sound “th” presents difficulties
among most students and on the suprasegmental level the questions intonation.
Methodological
About the course, it can be said that there are 40 weeks of classes a year, three
classes a week, and each class period lasts 40 minutes. The material used for English
Language Teaching is based on the Communicative Language (CL) and Content and
Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approaches. Communicative interaction is
encouraged, and meaningful content motivates learners and engages them in their
self-progress.
In addition, the activities for students support their lively interaction and awaken their
consciousness, abilities, and creativity. Finally, a wide variety of strategies and
activities encourage and inspire students to use the foreign language for different
purposes. Intelligibility is addressed and students are expected to be independent and
autonomous language users eventually.
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Problem 1
Defective “th” with [θ] sound pronunciation
These Spanish native speakers do not have the “th” in their inventory when it sounds
as [θ] (see Figure 1) because it is not found in their mother language. Their range of
sounds is narrowed, and they present difficulties when producing this unfamiliar
phoneme. This makes learners tend to substitute it by sounds such as “s”, “z”, “d” or “t”
which are common in Spanish. This substitution makes their pronunciation defective,
inaccurate, and noticeable when speaking, and what is worse it might avoid intelligible
communication.
As an attempt to understand the problem, precise phonologic generalization of this
sound will be presented. According to the anatomy of “th” is voiceless when sound [θ].
McMahon (2002) explains that “pulmonic egressive air flows through the trachea, or
windpipe, and up into the larynx, (…) acting to control the airway to and from the lungs”
(p.26) In other words voicelessness is one of the main settings of phonation, or state of
the glottis. The manner to articulate a consonant is determined by how the active and
the passive articulators relate. For “th” [θ] the former is the tip of the tongue and the
latter are the teeth. Consequently, “th” [θ] is fricative, and its place of articulation
happens as follows, “during the production of a fricative, the active and passive
articulators are brought close together, but not near enough to totally block the oral
cavity.” (McMahon, 2002, p.29) The air is flown by a narrow gap at high speed; it
creates a turbulence similar to hissing. (see Figure 2)
The specific place of articulation is dental “the passive articulator is the top front teeth;
the active articulator is the tip of the tongue.” (McMahon, 2002, p.32). In this case “th”
is represented by [θ] phonetic symbol and it is a thigh voiceless dental fricative sound.
Exposure, Exercise, Explanation
With the aim to teach “th” when it has the thigh voiceless dental fricative sound [θ] the
Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994) paradigm is applied. The first step is exposure, one text
containig particular example words is presented to the students. Additionally, it is read
aloud by the teacher. The topic of the text is a gossip between two girls. (see Figure 3).
When reading aloud, “it is better to give students a model at natural speed, using
natural pronunciation and, if necessary, repeat it several times, rather that slow down.”
(Lewis & Hill,1992, p.66) to avoid distortion.
The second step is exercise, it is relevant to confirm if the students can perceive the
sound and differenciate it from others, it can be done by asking them to repeat what
they have heard. Some students, probably will be able to reproduce the sound
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Assignment – FP005 TP
acurently enoght to be understood, however others will need explicit explanation about
what to do to reach intellegibility.
The thrid step is explanation, in this stage a clear description in terms of anatomy (see
Figure 4) could be appropriate followed by “demostration and an invitation to imitate
and practise.” (Ur, 1995, p.53) (see Figure 5)
Eventually, the pronuntiation should be satisfactory, but not necessarelly perfect. From
here, practice should take place for “consolidating and establishing the habits of
acceptable pronuntiation through exercisess that provide repetition and reinforcement.”
(Ur, 1995, p.54)
Problem 2
Defective intonation of questions
“It’s not what you say, but the way you say it.’ The choice of words is less important
than the manner of speaking.” (Underhill, 1994, p.74) Even though most learners will
maintain their accents, it might be worth spending some time perfecting a standard
accent if there is such a thing, so learners’ approximations would be intelligible for
competent users of the tongue and be able to communicate effectively. Speech should
carry meaning and indicate what the speakers want to communicate and their
intentions. Intonation can change due to the background differences between the
speakers involved in a conversation, whether cultural or linguistic and the changing
context. Indeed, Underhill (1994) explains:
That intonation is attached to the existence of common ground between
speaker and listener. Common ground is the knowledge and experience that
the participants think they share about the world, the topic and each other in
terms of ideas, emotions, attitudes, viewpoints, etc at any given point in the
interaction. Common ground is the shared knowledge and experience of the
speaker and listener.(p.86)
Ur, (1995) emphasizes and refers to intonation as “the rises and falls in tone that make
the ‘tune’ of an utterance, is an important aspect of the pronunciation of English, often
making a difference to meaning or implication.” (p.49) Owing to this, English is an
intonational tongue, where the use of different tones changes the meaning of the
utterance. Four symbols show intonation: rising, ╲ falling, ╲╱fall-rise, and ╱╲ risefall. Additionally, stress representation is to write the stressed syllable or word in capital
letters. Finally, the rhythm consists of tone units that enable stress and intonation to
join. All these elements make the English language sound English. (see Figure 6)
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Regarding intonation, the problem is that these students do not use it at all; when they
do, it is erroneous. This situation causes misunderstandings during oral interactions
because provided meanings and intentions are not evident. In particular, the
construction and intonation of questions differ in Spanish and in English, making
negative L1 transfer occur. (see Figure 7) In addition, according to how the question is
said, referring to the intonation, it can mean anger, deception, discomfort, annoyment,
friendship, courtesy, reluctance, happiness, or only be a polite or neutral question. This
English language music is not always identified, understood, and reproduced by the
students. Moreover, when in the English language, the intonation, rhythm, and stress of
the words in insolation change significantly from their phonological representation when
said in connected and spontaneous speech. In this case, utterances are usually
disorganized, and the students are listeners and speakers simultaneously. “Intonation
seems not to be as accessible to direct cognitive intervention as the pronunciation of
individual sounds or the manipulation of grammatical constructions or the learning of
new vocabulary.”(Underhill, 1994, p.194)
Exposure, Exercise, Explanation
The Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994) paradigm is applied to improve intonation in the
students. The first point is to awaken students' awareness of the importance of
intonation to communicate effectively and make themselves understood. Therefore,
they should compromise to identify and notice particular features of connected speech
pronunciation and practice them to improve their confidence when speaking.
The first step is exposure. In this case, an authentic and exciting podcast is presented
to the students. The podcast is about what questions are recommended to ask to
develop an interesting interview. The content is of the students' interest making the
whole activity meaningful for them. A wide variety of questions will be presented orally,
allowing the opportunity to listen to their intonation repeatedly. As a product, the
students will work in pairs and record a podcast with an interview about any topic they
decide, which will be shared in the class.
The second step is exercise. A series of activities take place in this step. They all start
with listening to the recording and the teacher modeling the intonations of tag, inverted,
repetition, and Wh-questions. Initially, the intonation would be exaggerated with pitch,
stress, and intonation movements and their drawings on the board, using hand
movements and body language to express attitude and emotions. (see Figure 8)
Students should do activities during the connected speech intonation practice to
improve their pronunciation. As Ur (1998) exemplifies, they can contrast their recording
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Assignment – FP005 TP
with a native model and self-correct, imitate question drills, choral repetition, and varied
repetition by changing speed, volume, and mood. (p.54)
The final step is the explanation. In most cases, intonation should be demonstrated.
Although, if it is seen that students still struggle with questions' intonation, some
exhortation and explicit explanations could benefit them. The main point would be to
exemplify with content material familiar to the learners how intonation can change the
meaning and the results of communicative interaction, provoking misunderstandings.
Students should interiorize that this English language melody means attitude and
emotions. Consequently, it shows people's intentions. Intonation is intrinsic to human
effective oral speech; otherwise, a person would sound like a robot. Learners should
avoid a flat sound and generalize the falling English contour without noticing its
pragmatic use. According to Ur (1995), "systematic explanation and instruction
including details of the structure and movement of parts of the mouth" (p.54) can
improve learners' pronunciation. These explicit explanations are directed to the
student's cognitive system and need their will to function. Sometimes learners requiere
to be told what to do, how it ought to be, or precisely what they are doing wrong.
Conclusions
"If students are to use the spoken language effectively, stress and intonation need to
be given their real place in the teaching at all times." (Lewis & Hill, 1985, p.74)
To sum up, pronunciation plays a significant role in language learning when effective
communication is at risk. These students faced two pronunciation problems: the "th"
when sounds [θ] at a segmental level and the question intonation at the
suprasegmental level. With the purpose of helping students overcome these difficulties,
it was determined how to approach this problems, so the learners can be understood
when speaking and feel more comfortable with their oral performance. A comparative
analysis between native English and ESL Spanish speakers' utterances has shown
that even though they have significant differences and negative transfer occurs from
Spanish into the L2, they can approximate enough to meet and allow intelligible
communication between the participants. Additionally, this oral interaction can be
enriched when the speakers share a common ground. The final objective when
teaching pronunciation is to assure that learners can master connected speech in the
English language well enough to communicate successfully.
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Assignment – FP005 TP
References
Brazil, D. (2011). Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English. Cambridge
University Press.
British Council. (n.d.). Phonetic Chart. Retrieved June 20, 2002, from
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/TEphonemic_GreyBlue
2.png
Dalton, C., & Seidlhofer, B. (1994). Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, M., & Hill, J. (1985). Practical Techniques for Language Teaching (Revised ed.).
Heinle & Heinle Pub.
McMahon, A. (2002). An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh University
Press. http://staffnew.uny.ac.id/upload/132107096/pendidikan/Book%2Bone.pdf
Rachel's English. (n.d.). English TH - Accent Training.[video]. YouTuve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KaYtW-MjPQ&t=324s
Sabater, M. (1991). Stress and Rhythm in English. Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 4.
Retrieved 21 June 2022, from
https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/5496/1/RAEI_04_13.pdf
Underhill, A. (2022). Sound Foundations: Learning and Teaching Pronunciation
(MacMillan Books for Teachers) by Adrian Underhill(2007–01-01). MacMillan
Education, Limited.
Universidad de Guanajato. (n.d.). How to pronounce the voiced and unvoiced 'th
sounds' /ð,θ/. Retrieved June 15, 2002, from
https://blogs.ugto.mx/englishugto/pronouncing-the-conversation-2/
Ur, P. (1995). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge
University Press.
Valenzuela Farías, M. (2013). A comparative analysis of intonation between Spanish
and English speakers in tag questions, wh-questions, inverted questions, and
repetition questions. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada. 13. 1061-1083.
10.1590/S1984-63982013005000021.
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Appendices
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Figure 1
Phonetic chart
Note. From British Council. (n.d.). Phonetic Chart. Retrieved June 20, 2002, from
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/TEphonemic_GreyBlue2.png
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Figure 2
Anatomy of “th” when sounds [θ]
Note. From Spoken Word English School. (n.d). “th” sounds!. Retrieved June 15, 2022,
from https://spokenwordenglish.wordpress.com/2016/05/07/th-sounds/
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Figure 3
Practice exercise: How to pronounce the unvoiced 'th sound: [θ]
Note. From Universidad de Guanajato. (n.d.). How to pronounce the voiced and
unvoiced
'th
sounds' /ð,θ/.
Retrieved
June
15,
2002,
https://blogs.ugto.mx/englishugto/pronouncing-the-conversation-2/
16
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Figure 4
Anatomy of the vocal tract
Note. From Cooke, I,. (n.d.). A Tour of the Human Vocal Tract (Language Development
16). .[video]. YouTuve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z4mH4Bc8Vg
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Figure 5
Demostration of “th” with [θ] sound pronunciation
Note. From Rachel's English. (n.d.). English TH - Accent Training.[video]. YouTuve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KaYtW-MjPQ&t=324s
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Figure 6
Key to phonetic symbols
Note. From Key to phonetic symbols for Pronunciation for advance learners of English.
From Brazil, D. (2011). Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English. Cambridge
University Press. (pp. vi,vii)
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Figure 7
Comparison between native speakers of American English and native speakers
of Spanish reading sentences in English - Wh-questions
Note. From Valenzuela Farías, M. (2013). A comparative analysis of intonation
between Spanish and English speakers in tag questions, wh-questions, inverted
questions, and repetition questions. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada. 13.
1061-1083. 10.1590/S1984-63982013005000021. (p.1070)
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Assignment – FP005 TP
Figure 8
Body movements to shor stress, pitch, and intonation visually
Note. From Lewis, M., & Hill, J. (1985). Practical Techniques for Language Teaching
(Revised ed.). Heinle & Heinle Pub. (p.74)
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