Difficulties in pronunciation

It is clear from the previous task that students with different L1s will struggle with
different sounds. This is because certain sounds may not exist in other languages,
such as, the /z/ sound in Spanish, which is why Spanish speakers often use /s/,
thus pronouncing fleas and fleece the same. Similarly, the ‘th’ /θ/ is not used in
Brazilian Portuguese which is why Samia finds this sound hard to pronounce.

In most languages, there are sounds which are equivalent to those in English.
However, in some languages there are also sometimes sounds that fall somewhere
in the middle between two sounds that are clearly distinct in English. This happens
in Arabic with the English sounds /p/ and /b/, which explains why Nahed appears to
say examble instead of example. Other examples of sounds which are not
differentiated include: /b/ and /v/ for Spanish speakers or /l/ and /r/ for speakers
of Japanese.

Nahed says she finds long words difficult to pronounce; for example, she
identified environment as challenging. This is because it has a number of syllables.
Some words have only one syllable, such as dogor door, whereas others may have
two (ea-sy, wa-ter), three (com-pu-ter, te-le-phone) or more (tech-no-lo-gy, cos-
mo-po-li-tan). In words with more than one syllable there is one strong stress and
students often have trouble knowing where to put the stress. For example,
in environment, the strong stress is on ‘vi’ as in en-vi-ron-ment. This area of
pronunciation is called word stress.

Other learners of English can make similar mistakes. For example, Spanish
speakers might say message with the stress on the ‘sage’ rather than on the ‘me’.
This is because in Spanish the word is mensaje and the stress falls on the ‘sa’.

Another area that can be problematic for students is when word stress changes
depending on whether the word is a noun or a verb. For example in Can you record
that programme? the stress on the verb ‘record’ is on ‘cord’. But if we use the noun
as in I need to make a record of your progress the stress falls on the first syllable
‘re’.

Word stress is a very important area for students to focus on since it has a great
impact on whether or not they will be understood by proficient speakers. Often
learners can make a change to a sound e.g. pronunshiation instead
of pronunciation but the listener can still understand the message. In contrast,
wrong word stress e.g. pro-nun-ci-a-tion rather than pro-nun-ci-a-tion can cause
difficulty for the listener and, as they may fail to recognize the word, lead to a
breakdown in communication.

Student Problems with Sentence Stress

A third area of pronunciation which can be challenging for students is sentence stress: which
words are stressed and unstressed in a sentence or clause. It can be very difficult for learners
to know which words or syllables should carry the stress to make their speech intelligible for
the listener. Putting stress on all words or placing the stress incorrectly in a sentence or
utterance can affect the listener. For example, Nahed tends to stress almost every word
equally, which affects the rhythm of her speech. This can cause strain for the listener and
sometimes results in the message being lost.
In summary, it can be seen that in speech the words which will normally carry the
stress are the meaning or content words. In this way, it helps guide the listener to
what the key information in the message is. This is often referred to as neutral
sentence stress.

There is also another type of sentence stress: contrastive sentence stress. This is
where the speaker adds extra stress or volume to a word (these could be content
words or grammar words) and the speaker will choose to do this for several
reasons.

A: Did you photocopy page fifty-four for the lesson this afternoon?
B: No, I copied page fifty-five.
A: Great, so we’re all set for the reading lesson.
B: What? It’s a listening lesson. Have you even looked on page 55?
A: Umm, yeah, briefly, but I’ve been really busy…
B: You’ve been busy? I’m the one who’s doing all the photocopying!
A: Yes, but I picked up the register.
B: The register? That takes two minutes!...

Commentary

B stressed the syllables in bold for a number of reasons:

In the first response: No, I copied page fifty-five, B is correcting A.
In the second response: It’s a listening lesson, B is correcting A.
In the responses: You’ve been busy? The register? B is giving emphasis to those
syllables to show anger.
In the final two responses: I’m the one who’s… That takes two minutes!... B is
contrasting who has been doing the work and how long each task has taken.

Therefore it can be seen that contrastive sentence is used

to correct information, emphasise and contrast particular information to the
listener.

As well as English, other predominantly stress-timed languages include Dutch and

German. This is in contrast to languages such as Korean which is a
predominantly syllable-timed language. This is where the time it takes to say an
utterance depends on how many syllables it contains. Other predominantly syllable-
timed languages include French, Japanese and Spanish.

1. No, the student tends to stress all of the words in the sentences whereas the
proficient speaker stresses the content words.
2. The words are pronounced quite differently by the student and proficient
speaker. The proficient speaker compresses all these grammatical words and
they all contain the sound ( ‘er’ )which will be examined in more detail
on the next screen.

Strong and Weak Forms

Since content words carry the main meaning, these words will carry sentence
stress. In contrast, grammatical words which do not carry the main meaning will
often take a weak form in an utterance. Therefore some vowel sounds become
weak while others remain strong. This means that some grammatical words have
two forms, a strong form when the word carries key meaning in a sentence and a
weak form when it does not.

In each of the weak forms, the phoneme is used. This is a special phoneme as
it is the only one with a name. It is called the schwa (this comes from the
Hebrew shva meaning ‘weak’). It is an unstressed sound, and the most common
sound in English in continuous speech.

As well as weak forms, there are also other phenomena which take place to make
speech smoother, quicker and easier to say.

Task 13: Assimilation and Elision

1.

Would you like to live in Paris?

a. In the first sentence the speaker uses the sound /n/ when saying in
Paris.x

b. In the first sentence the speaker uses the sound /m/ when saying in
Paris.

b. The /n/ sounds like /m/. In the phrase in Paris the words connect together and
change to sound like imParis . This is called assimilation, where a sound at the end
(or near the end of a word) changes in preparation for the first sound of the next
word. This can happen, for example, when the sound near or at the end of the word
is a /n/, /t/ or a /d/and often happens when the next word begins with a /p/, /b/ or
/m/ sound.

2.

I went to New Zealand last year.

a. The speaker sounds as if he drops the /d/ in the word Zealand.x

b. The speaker clearly pronounces the /d/ in the word Zealand.

a. Sometimes a sound will disappear, such as the /d/ in Zealand which becomes Zealan . This is
called elision.

Connected Speech
The previous tasks all explored what happens to unstressed syllables in utterances
and what changes may occur to them in order to maintain natural rhythm in
English. All of these changes are examples of a phenomenon called connected
speech.

Connected speech is a phenomenon in natural, spoken language when language is

a continuous sequence as opposed to individual sounds or words in isolation. In
addition to weak forms, assimilation and elision, there are also two other features
of connected speech.

Task 15: Linking

Listen to the other sentences from the teacher recording you heard in Task 11.
Print out the sentences by clicking on the print icon. As you listen, draw a curve
under the sounds which appear to join together.

For example:

Sounds Linkage

The sentences highlight what is called sounds linkage, where the sound at the
end of one word runs into the next. This happens when one word ends in a
consonant sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound. This can be seen in
many of the sentences, such as not as, can I and piece of. Remember that although
the spelling the word piece ends with a vowel, ‘e’, the final sound is a consonant /s/
so it links to vowel sound following it in /ə/ in of.

As was discussed earlier, it can be very frustrating for learners to discover that,
although they may know the words or phrase in isolation, they are often unable to
recognise it in speech because of the way sounds link together. For example, in the
first sentence in the previous task, students will hear She’s no tas ta llas I amand
can be confused as to what ‘tas’ and ‘las’ mean.

In sentence 1, an extra /j/ sound appears between I am so it sounds like I

yam . In sentence 4, an extra /w/ sound can appear between to and a so it
sounds like to wa . In sentence 6, an extra /w/ sound appears
between two and and. Therefore it can sound like two wand

There can also be an intrusive /r/ sound, such as in the utterance law and
order which can sound like law rund order .

The fact that these sounds can appear in speech often causes confusion and
difficulty for learners. They may well know the words written down or in isolation,
but are unable to recognise them when they are listening which can be very
frustrating for learners.

There is a useful pattern to help remember when intrusive sounds occur between
two words:
/j/ occurs after a final where the next word begins with a
vowel sound,
/w/ occurs after a final where the next word begins with a vowel
sound,
/r/ occurs after a final where the next word begins with a vowel sound.

Aspects of Pronunciation

So far this unit has explored the following four areas of pronunciation.
You will probably have noticed that your voice rises and falls depending on the
information which is being given.

In A, the speaker is asking a wh-question so the intonation drops at the end of the
question. In the second question, which is a yes/no question, the intonation follows
a similar pattern but the change in pitch is much wider. The fact that intonation
changes depending on the grammar of the sentence illustrates intonation as
a grammatical function.

In B, the intonation varies according to the mood or attitude of the speaker. In this
case, intonation as an attitudinal function can be seen. Not only does the
intonation rise and fall but the changes in pitch are also note-worthy.

In C, the intonation will rise and fall depending on which information the speaker
wishes to highlight. As was discussed earlier with sentence stress, the new
information is stressed for the listener. To make this clearer, intonation is added to
guide the listener.

When new information is being signaled, the intonation pattern is usually falling,

i.e.

In contrast, when the speaker is referring to given information, the intonation

pattern is a fall-rise,

i.e.

The anecdote therefore highlights intonation as discoursal function. This will be

explored further in Discourse.

Student Problems with Intonation

Intonation is a very complex feature of pronunciation and it is not surprising that
students often find it a challenging area.

Without an awareness of intonation, students can sound either too flat or

conversely, they may vary their intonation too much or inappropriately, thus
making it difficult for the listener to follow the message.

Remember that although learners need to develop their pronunciation in order to

achieve clear and intelligible English, it is unnecessary and often impossible for
learners to achieve ‘perfect’ pronunciation. What is important, however, is for
teachers to provide ways of practising and developing learners’ pronunciation in the
classroom.

You will have already seen teachers in your observations and in your Teaching
Practice group responding to difficulties learners may have with pronunciation.
There are a number of solutions for helping learners with pronunciation and these
can be broadly divided as follows:

 Drilling
 Boardwork
 Coursebook activities
 The Phonemic Chart.

Drilling

Nahed had difficulty in pronouncing the sound /p/ in example. In order to help her
with this, the teacher could model the sound and the word and ask Nahed and
other class members to repeat. This technique, drilling, allows the teacher to drill
sounds, words and phrases to help students with all aspects of pronunciation,
including sounds, stress and intonation.

Modelling the language for the students and drilling helps students achieve better
pronunciation of language items, builds their confidence and helps them to
remember new items. By repeating words and more usefully, phrases, drilling
encourages greater spoken fluency.

If you would like to watch clips of experienced teachers drilling and remind yourself
of drilling techniques, look back at the unit Using the Coursebook 2 where drilling
was examined in more detail.

Boardwork 1

As well as modeling and drilling the language, it is a good idea to write the sounds
students have problems with in phonemic script just above the word or syllable.
Remember that the Phonemic Chart will be looked at in detail in Pronunciation
2: The Phonemic Chart.

For example, the words that students struggle with can be highlighted on the board
as below.
By writing the pronunciation on the board, the teacher can provide a written record
for the students which they can refer to after the lesson.

Boardwork 2

Similarly, the board can be used to highlight and record word stress and sentence
stress by putting stress boxes or circles above the stressed syllable.

It is also useful to show students how stress is recorded in dictionaries so that

students can identify word stress outside class. Most learner dictionaries will use a '
symbol before the stressed syllable. The word example will therefore appear
as as the stress falls on the second syllable.

Stress circles

By highlighting the stressed syllables, the learners have a visual image of where
the stress falls to reinforce drilling. Not only can the teacher highlight the stressed
syllables but the learners can also be asked to predict stress patterns and listen and
check. Or the teacher can model the utterances and the students identify where the
stress falls. This encourages the students to notice how stress falls on content
words and makes the activity more student-centred.

While listening to the sentences, you may have noticed additional, secondary
stresses in the sentences. These have not been marked on the model answer for
the sake of clarity.

Remember stress circles can also be used for word stress and teachers can
encourage students to use these when recording new grammar and lexis so that
they have a written record of the pronunciation.

Intonation Arrows

As with sentence stress, teachers can highlight intonation on the whiteboard for
learners. For intonation, it is useful to first mark where the stress falls and then
draw arrows from the stressed words. By drawing arrows to show when intonation
rises and falls and how much it rises and falls helps provide learners with a visual
image of the pronunciation, as in the last task.

For example, when Samia is talking about pronunciation, she says:

It’s easy, not too easy, but

The listener believes that Samia would like to continue speaking because her
intonation does not fall at the end of the utterance.

Therefore, it would be useful for the teacher to highlight how she can signal that
she has finished speaking by giving alternative endings to the utterance and
drawing arrows as shown on the board below. For example, the arrow goes down
on easy in the first example and though in the second.

Commentary for Part 2

In this dialogue, the intonation rises when the waiter asks the customer short
questions, such as Anything else? The customer’s intonation falls when replying to
these short questions. With a longer question the intonation rises and then falls at
the end, for example Are you ready to order?
Although Annie and Dave did not mention all the techniques in the box above, all
these methods are beneficial for students. For example, training students to write
the sounds in phonemic script in their notebooks will encourage them to remember
how to pronounce difficult sounds and words. For example, the word enough
is often difficult for students because the spelling looks very different from how it is
pronounced. Learners often try to write the sounds using normal letters e.g. inuff
which is unhelpful and often causes confusion. By encouraging students to compare
problem sounds to their own language, students will start to notice differences
between their L1 and English.
Pronunciation is a key part of language and it is a part that students need and
enjoy developing. When you focus on pronunciation in class, remember the
following points:

 remember to make time for this in the classroom; not only will you be
helping students’ pronunciation but you will also be improving their listening
skills
 give students the opportunity to listen to proficient speakers using the
language and focus on how they sound and how their speech connects
 give students plenty of practice by drilling both chorally and individually
so that learners become more confident with their pronunciation
 encourage students to notice differences between how language is written
and how it is said and use your board to give learners a visual image of
sounds, stress and intonation and make pronunciation more memorable
 remember that each student is different and will have different areas to
work on so ensure there is a variety of activities in the classroom to cover
all aspects of pronunciation and cater for different learning preferences
 students value pronunciation work and often find it very enjoyable to
do in the classroom.
 Hancock, M (1995) Pronunciation Games, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. This book has lots of practical ideas for activities to use with students
of all levels.

P is for Pronunciation
Read my lips

I’ve just completed a nine-hour block of sessions on phonology on the MA TESOL course that I’m
teaching at the New School. Apart from the inevitable (and sometimes intractable) problems involved
in reconfiguring my knowledge of phonology so as to accommodate North American accents, the
question that simply will not go away is this: Can pronunciation be taught?

As a teacher, I have to confess that I can’t recall any enduring effects for teaching pronunciation in
class – but then, I very seldom addressed it in any kind of segregated, pre-emptive fashion. Most of
my ‘teaching’ of pronunciation was reactive – a case of responding to learners’ mispronunciations
with either real or feigned incomprehension. There are only two pron-focused lessons that I can
remember feeling good about: one was where I used an inductive approach to guide a group of fairly
advanced learners to work out the rules (or, better, tendencies) of word stress in polysyllabic words
(the students seemed generally impressed that the system was not as arbitrary as it had appeared),
and another where I used a banal dialogue that happened to be in the students’ workbook to highlight
the different spellings of the /ay/ phoneme – a lesson that was more about spelling than
pronunciation, really – but, again, one that helped dispel the myth that there are zero sound-spelling
relationships in English.

As a second language learner, any attempts to improve my pronunciation have fallen (almost literally)
on deaf ears. I remember being told by a well-intentioned Spanish teacher: “Your problem is that you
use the English ‘t’ sound instead of the Spanish one”. To which I replied, “No, the ‘t’ sound is the very
least of my problems! My problem is that I don’t know the endings of the verbs, that I don’t have an
extensive vocabulary, that I can’t produce more than two words at a time. … and so on”. That is to
 say, in the greater scheme of things, the phonetic rendering of a single consonant sound was not
going to help me become a proficient speaker of Spanish. Nor was it something I would be able to
focus any attention on, when my attention was so totally absorbed with simply getting the right words
out in the right order. And nor, at the end of the day, would I ever be able to rid myself of my
wretched English accent, however hard I tried (assuming, of course, I wanted to).

Hence, I’m fairly sceptical about the value of teaching pronunciation, and I suspect that most of the
exercises and activities that belong to the canonical pron-teaching repertoire probably have only
incidental learning benefits. A minimal pairs exercise (of the ship vs sheep type) might teach some
useful vocabulary; a jazz chant might reinforce a frequently used chunk. But neither is likely to
improve a learner’s pronunciation. Certain learners (a small minority, I suspect) with good ears and a
real motivation to “sound like a native speaker” might just squeeze some benefit out of a pron lesson,
but for the majority it will probably just wash right over them.

In An A-Z of ELT, I hint obliquely at these doubts – doubts which I claim are justified by research
studies. What studies?

Well, here’s one for starters. In an early attempt to tease out the factors that predicted good
pronunciation, Suter (1976) co-opted a panel of non-specialist informants to assess the pronunciation
of 61 English learners from a range of language backgrounds and with different histories of exposure
and instruction. Twelve biographical factors were found to correlate with good pronunciation, and, in
a subsequent re-analysis of the data (Purcell and Suter 1980), these were reduced to just four. These
four predictors of acceptable pronunciation were (in degree of importance):

 the learner’s first language (i.e., all things being equal, a speaker of, say, Swedish is more likely to
pronounce English better than a speaker of, say, Vietnamese)

 aptitude for oral mimcry (i.e. ‘having a good ear’)

 length of residency in an English-speaking environment

 strength of concern for pronunciation accuracy

Significantly, none of the above factors is really within the teacher’s control (although the last – the
motivtaional one – could arguably be nurtured by the teacher). Nevertheless, the learners’ histories of
instruction seemed not to have impacted in any significant way on the accuracy of their pronunciation.
The researchers commented: “One of the most obvious [implications of the study] relates to the fact
that teachers and classrooms seem to have had remarkably little to do with how well our students
pronounced English”.

Now, is this bad news (we can’t do much to help our learners achieve acceptable standards of
pronunciation)? Or is it good news (we don’t have to teach pronunciation, and can spend the time
saved on more important stuff)?

References:

Purcell, E.T., and Suter, R.W. 1980. Predictors of Pronunciation Accuracy: a Re-examination. Language
Learning, 30, 271-287.

Suter, R.W. 1976. Predictors of Pronunciation Accuracy in Second Language Learning. Language
Learning, 26: 233-253.