ESP COURSE
(English for Specific Purposes)
for Class Teachers
(3-4, 5-6)
Vera Savic, MA
Lecturer in English
Faculty of Education in Jagodina
University of Kragujevac
vera.savic@pefja.kg.ac.rs
Phonology
The study of the sound features used in a
language to communicate meaning
Sound features in English:
1. Phonemes
2. Word stress
3. Sentence stress
4. intonation
Phoneme, phonemic symbol &
phonemic script
• The smallest unit of sound that has
meaning in a language
• Symbol used to represent only one
phoneme (different from the letters of the
alphabet: hat, made, usually, what, war,
whale)
• Set of phomenic symbols which show how
words are pronounced (dictionaries)
• IPA – International Phonetic Alphabet
English Phonemic Script
Vowel Phonemes - 20
– Monophthongs - 12
– Diphthongs – 8
Consonants - 24
– Plosives - 6
– Fricatives - 9
– Affricates - 2
– Nasals - 3
– Approximates - 4
Silent consonants
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
silent p: psychology, pneumonia, cupboard, receipt
silent b: climb, subtle, doubt
silent d: Wednesday, sandwich, handkerchief
silent g: reign, ought, long
silent l: half, talk, could
silent k: know, knee
silent n: autumn, column
silent w: write, wrong, two, answer, yellow
silent r: word, car, more, bother
silent h: hour, what, ought
silent c: scissors, scene, muscle
silent s: island, aisle
Pronunciation and Spelling
In English the relationship
between sound and spelling
is very complex.
200 rules even for the
commonist words
400 most frequent words have
irregular spelling
Minimal Pair - words
distinguished by only one
phoneme:
•
•
•
•
ship – sheep
hut – hat
thing – think
chip - ship
• Homophones – words which
are spelled in different ways
and have different meanings,
but sound the same when
pronounced:
• their – there
• heir - air
• knew – new
• here - hear
• Homographs – words which
have the same spelling, but
with different pronunciations
and meaning:
• read – read
• wind - wind
Word Stress, Sentence stress &
Intonation
• Signs used to show the part of the word which
we say with greater energy (on its vowel sound);
maked: ‘ , _ , ° .
• Sentence pronunciation – one word has main
stress (the most important word in a sentence):
She came home late last night.
• The movement of the level of the voice (rising or
falling) to express emotions and attitudes, to
emphasise, and to signal the function
(statement, question, surprise, ...)
Intonation & tone
• The movement of the level of the voice (rising or falling),
used
- to emphasise the most strongly stressed word in a
sentence
- to show the grammatical function of what is being said
- to express emotions and attitudes
• The movement of pitch; the tone can be:
Falling – Sit down.
Rising – Have you got a pen?
Fall-rise – What time does your train leave? (confirmation)
Intonation (cont.)
The most usual intonation pattern in English uses
a falling tone:
- to make a short statement: She lives in London.
My name’s Carlos.
- in wh-questions: Where’s my bag?
- in commands: Sit down.
- in exclamations to show surprise, anger, or give
warning: Be careful!
- in question tags: You’re French, aren’t you?
(expecting confirmation)
Intonation (cont.)
The rising tone is used:
- to make requests: Can we open it?
- to make questions from statements: He’s too
tired?
- in yes/no questions: Would you like a lift?
- in clauses or phrases that come before the main
clause: What there is left we will put in the pot
- in sentences with a question tag: You’re French,
aren’t you? (less certainty)
Tasks
1. What do the following groups of words illustrate:
- yet, be, pale
- by, buy, fight, lie, island
2. How many phonemes are there in each of these words:
book, flashcard, number, thirteen, morning
3. Underline the stressed syllable in each of these words:
twenty, monkey, difficult, forget, remember, important,
complain, medicine, advertisement
4. On which word would you put the main stress in each of
these sentences?
My name is Julia, not Janet.
The girl was much taller than her brother. He was rather
short.