IA902 Practical Description of English : Session Two
How we make speech sounds
Vocal organs
Lungs, throat, mouth, nose
Inside the mouth: lips, tongue, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft
palate, uvula
Inside the throat: pharynx, larynx
Inside the larynx: glottis – air between vocal folds
Articulatory anatomy
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From: Roach, P. (2009) English Phonetics and Phonology : A Practical Course. 4th Edn. Cambridge
University Press. p.8
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session Two
Manner of articulation
fricatives
plosives
affricates
approximants
laterals
nasals
Match the terms above with their definitions below:
A complete closure in the vocal tract causes a build up of air pressure which is then
released explosively
A complete closure in the mouth leads to air escaping through the nose
Like plosives but with a slower release of air. Friction is audible after an initial
‘explosive’ sounds
Partial closure, with air escaping around the sides of the closure
Two vocal organs move closely together so as to create audible friction as air passes
between them
Could be described as “semi-consonants” or “semi-vowels”. These sounds are
phonetically like vowels as they are made without audible friction, but linguistically,
they are like consonants because of the way they are distributed (i.e. they occur at the
margin of syllables).
[l] and [r] : approximants / frictionless continuants
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[w] and [j] : semi-vowels
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session Two
Phonetics v Phonology
Phonetics: “the study of the production of speech sounds by speakers, their perception by hearers and
their acoustic properties”
Phonology: “the branch of linguistics which investigates the ways in which speech sounds are used
systematically to form words and utterances”
Katamba, F. (1989) An Introduction to Phonology Longman. p.60
Discussion points for journal articles
SPEECHANT
1. What, according to the authors, are the advantages of using Speechant?
2. Does Speechant seem like a system that you could use effectively in your own teaching?
3. Can you see any potential disadvantages to using the Speechant system?
VOICE-SETTING PHONOLOGY
1. What, according to Scott Thornbury, was ‘wrong’ with the teaching of pronunciation when he
wrote this article (back in 1993)?
2. What suggestions does he make to remedy this?
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3. What do you think about his suggestions? Can / would you implement them in your own
teaching?
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session Two
References and further reading
Crystal, D. 2006 How Language Works. Penguin
Culpeper, J. et al (eds) 2009 English Language: Description, Variation and Context. Palgrave Macmillan
Field, J. 2003 “Promoting perception: lexical segmentation in L2 Listening”, ELT Journal 57/4
Katamba, F. 1989 An Introduction to Phonology. Longman
Roach, P. 2009 English Phonetics and Phonology : A Practical Course. 4th Edn. Cambridge University Press
Roca, I., and Johnson, W. 1999 A Course in Phonology. Blackwell
Journal articles for discussion
Dos Reis, J. and Hazan, V. 2011 “Speechant: a vowel notation system to teach English pronunciation” ELT
Journal. Available online at http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ [Retrieved 13 October 2011]
Thornbury, S. 1993 “Having a good jaw: voice-setting phonology” ELT Journal 47/2
Teaching pronunciation
Baker, A.1981 Ship or Sheep. Cambridge University Press
Hancock, M. 1995 Pronunciation Games. Cambridge University Press
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Underhill, A. 2005 Sound Foundations : Learning and Teaching Pronunciation. 2nd Edn. Macmillan