ELT News: Think Tank

SLIPPING PRONUNCIATION INTO THE REGULAR CLASS

Judy B. Gilbert

In an ideal English curriculum, all students would have a class dedicated to

pronunciation/listening comprehension. In real life, teachers typically have to squeeze
pronunciation into their classwork by sheer cunning. With time limitations, what is really
important and what should be left for later? For some years I’ve been asking this question
of colleagues, including those familiar with teaching English in Japan. With the
requirement that each topic must meet a standard of both crucial utility, and also
teachability, following is my short list of four crucial concepts:

General approach If the concept has been taught before, you need only reinforce it in a
few minutes during the main lesson. If, however, the concept is new, you will have to
devote 10 or 15 minutes to teaching it. This is not ideal, but it’s realistic. The small lessons
below include an introductory lesson on the concept, and then ideas for reinforcement using
regular texts. If you keep the teaching goals in mind, you should be able to find
opportunities in whatever book you’re using.

CONCEPT 1. JUST A FEW CRUCIAL SOUNDS

The Japanese language doesn’t allow many final consonants. On the other hand, final
consonants are often crucial for grammatical meaning in English. So if time is limited, I
would just focus on the sounds at the ends of words. The really crucial sounds are /d/ or /t/,
/s/ or /z/ and /l/ , and the most practical way to approach them is to teach the difference
between stops and continuant. These sound cues go by very fast in normal spoken English
because auxiliary verbs are generally said as contractions. Examples of grammar cues in
word final sounds:
Tense He’s gone. / He’d gone. I’ll cut it./ I’d cut it. We care. / We cared.
Singular/ plural book/books (or third person singular)
Question words “Where? / What?

Presentation technique
1. Say the word “bus”
2. Continue the final sound as you march back and forth, until you run out of air.
3. Ask students to try it with you.
4. Say the word “but,” throwing your palm up in a Stop! gesture (don’t release the air, but
hold your tongue in the stop position). The air can’t get out because it’s stopped by the
tongue pressed all around the toothridge.
5. Have students try alternating /s/ and /t/ sounds until they can feel the contrast.
6. Put this on the board:
English stops: P T K, English continuants: All other sounds
B D G (including vowels)
(Affricates like the first sound in “chip” and “judge” are combinations of stops and
continuants. /tS/ and /dZ/, but this is an unimportant detail unless some student asks)
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Practice this distinction in class chorus on ANY word you choose, just getting them to focus
on the final sound.

Using your regular text.

A written grammar exercise contrasting What and Where can give you an opportunity to
practice the stop/continuant distinction by asking students to say their answers out loud,
paying attention to the final sound. Or you can choose a word at random, say it by itself,
and ask “Does it end in a stop sound or a continuing sound?”

CONCEPT 2. SYLLABLE NUMBER

Japanese phonology rules tend to make learners produce extra syllables or drop them in
English , so both listening comprehension and intelligibility are improved when students
learn to notice the number of syllables.

All practice with syllable number should be accompanied by some physical gesture, such as
tapping the table or moving a foot. This physical movement is far more effective than
merely taking mental notice. Thus the difference between “can’t and “cannot” is one tap
versus two. Following is a mini-lesson to present the concept, and to slip it into a grammar
lesson. The concept can be recycled during later lessons simply by asking “How many
syllables are in that sentence?” and then giving students time to tap out the rhythm.

LESSON FOR SYLLABLE NUMBER

Presentation technique How many syllables? (English) (Japanese)
sandwich ______ chocolate / chokoleeto
send a witch ______ gift /gifuto

prayed / parade can’t / cannot sport / support Wednesday

blow / below walked / walk it closed / closet

Using your regular text. Add a pronunciation element to any task by choosing a
multisyllabic word and asking students to tap out the number of syllables while you say it.
(several times). Then they should tap while THEY are saying it. Choral repetition can help
bond the rhythm to the word. (Use of katakana for pronunciation tends to defeat English
rhythm)

CONCEPT 3. WORD STRESS: contrastive length

The most significant difference between Japanese and English rhythm is that Japanese
syllables are about equal in length but English syllables are not. A Japanese vowel may be
extra long, but that is because it is a “double vowel”. But in English, lengthening has
several different functions, most importantly to show the difference between stressed and
unstressed vowels. In order to highlight the stressed vowels, most others are shortened for
contrast. This contrastive length is essential to clarity in English, so it is important to give
students enough practice.

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LESSON FOR WORD STRESS
Demonstration technique: using a wide rubber band
Stretching wide, heavy rubber bands while practicing the lengthened vowels can provide
students with a kinesthetic focusing tool to reinforce the contrast in duration. (Note: thin
bands are apt to break and also do not give the full impression of the mental effort involved
in making some syllables longer than others.)

Stress Rules
1. In every English word with more than one syllable, one syllable is stressed the most.
(primary stress)
2. Stressed vowels are made extra long Stressed vowels are lengthened in English, much
like lengthening for double vowels in Japanese, but for a different purpose:
Compare:
(Japanese) biru / biiru Kosaka / Koosaka

3. Many unstressed vowels are made extra short.

(English) ban a na / Calif o rnia / Am e rica r e nted a tom / at o mic

ec onomy/ econ o mic ch o colate

Using your regular text Look for multisyllabic words and help your students decide which
syllable has the most stress. If you’re uncertain, check a dictionary beforehand -- many
native speakers are uncertain when asked this kind of question, although they rarely make
mistakes when they aren’t consciously thinking about it.

Another way to practice is by asking the class to whisper. Whispering seems to focus the
mind better on the teaching point. Also, it changes the atmosphere in the class and so makes
an intriguing alternative mode for practicing.

CONCEPT 4. SENTENCE STRESS --WHICH WORD IS MOST

IMPORTANT?

LESSON FOR SENTENCE STRESS

Rules
1. The focus word in a sentence is “new information” or something especially important.
2. The focus word is emphasized so that the listener will notice.
3. Focus emphasis is made by changing the pitch and lengthening the vowel on the stressed
syllable of the focus word
Compare how Japanese and English might show emphasis:

WATASHI-WA TABETE IMASE-N I didn’t eat it. (My sister did.) [pitch and
length emphasis on “I”]
WATASHI-WA TABE-TE-WA IMASE-N I didn’t eat it. (I just licked it.) [pitch and
length emphasis on “eat”.]
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Practice
1. X: I want some shoes.
Y: What kind of shoe?
X: The beautiful kind.
Y: Black or brown?
X: Neither. I’m tired of black and brown. I want red shoes. Shiny red shoes!

2. The most significant and most easily taught form of the sentence stress is “contrastive
stress”. An especially effective approach is to have students challenge each other to give
the appropriate answer, based on which remark the speaker has chosen. This makes a much
stronger lesson than simply asking students to read from a script marked for emphasis.

1.a. It’s a big dog. No, it’s a wolf.

b. It’s a big dog. No, medium sized.
2.a. But I asked for two cokes! Oh, I thought you wanted tea.
b. But I asked for two cokes! Oh, I thought you wanted one.
3.a: I think that hamburger’s mine. No, it’s your brother’s.
b. I think that hamburger’s mine. Aren’t you sure?

Using your regular book. Any exercise which requires students to disagree is especially
suitable for work on contrastive sentence stress, by practicing the pitch change and
lengthening required in English. Dialogs and skits are particularly useful because the focus
tends to shift from one remark to another.

I am grateful to Professor Kazuhiko Matsuno for giving me some of the Japanese examples.