Teaching

Phonology

Didctica Especfica I

Teaching Phonology
The process of learning Phonology constists of:
Sounds (basic units)
Word Stress
Sentence Stress
Intonation
Connective Speech

Through REPETITION
Sounds
In order to work with phonemes, teachers
can:
Integrate phonemic work into all the
teaching of grammar and lexis.
Observation of mechanics
Ear-training
Tongue twister
Transliteration
Train learners to use dictionaries



Keep a phonemic chart in the classroom.
Word Stress

Mispronunciation of word stress can make
our message to be misunderstood.

Prominence
Sentence stress can also make substantial
differences to meaning.
Connected Speech
When we speak or read fluently the
following things tend to happen:
Unstressed syllables tend to have weak
sounds.
Sounds get dropped.
Sounds get changed.
Sounds are added.

Intonation
The music of language.
We use it as a kind of oral equivalent of
written punctuation.
It has a definite effect on meaning and
also gives us information about the
speaker`s attitude.


Some Ideas
Get students to mark intonation patterns
on dialogues.
Get students to say the same single word
with different intonation to convey
different meanings.
Hum/whistle/sing the sentence without
words before you say it.
Indicate intonation with your hands,
gestures, waves, etc.
How Can We Teach
Phonology?
Model new words in context.
Modelling intonation.
Recognise the feeling.
Use dialogues.
Chants.
Shadow reading.
Voice setting.
To Take into Account
Students need to learn pronunciation that
will allow them to be understood where
they need to use the language. It is
appropriate to teach the pronunciation you
speak, to draw attention to local variations,
to highlight differences in accent that
appears in course material.
International Inteligibility
Bryan Jenner attempted to determine
what all native speakers of all varieties of
English have in common which enables
them to communicate effectively with
native speakers of varieties other than their
own. It was called The Common Core, a
list of features of English pronunciation he
considered essential for intelligibilty
anywhere in the world.
International Inteligibilty
Jennifer Jenkins modified it and created the
Lingua Franca Core (LFC) which identifies
seven areas in which it is essential to
eliminate error in our students
pronunciation.
The seven categories are:
Vowel Length
Consonant conflations
Phonemic realisations


International Inteligibilty
Consonant cluster simplification
Prominence and weak forms
Nuclear/contrastive stress

Interesting
Students can approach English sounds
through comparing such sounds to those of
their mother tongue. Non-native teachers of
English are in advantage when teaching
because (unlike native speakers) they know
both the students mother tongue and the
foreign language.