Unit 13

WORKSHEET – UNIT 13

Task 1 – Why is the teaching of pronunciation important, but often neglected by teachers?

Many teachers give less attention to the teaching of pronunciation because oftentimes, they lack the confidence and training to teach such skill effectively. Native English speakers are rarely taught phonetics in school and it can be said that they learn how to pronounce words along the way. As such, learning about phonology including the IPA and teaching it is a foreign concept for them.

On my part, I’m a non-native English speaker but I have never studied the IPA system in school either. I have seen the symbols before but I’ve never given much thought to any of it. In fact, I only learned to write the phonetic symbols here in China. When I first came to China, I would cover pronunciation in my classes but when the students started asking me to write the phonetic spelling, I didn’t know how to do it. Looking back, I realized I should have taken my TEFL course before I came to China! J

Task 2 – State, with a brief description, techniques that can be used to indicate intonation and stress:

1.     Nonsense words – Teachers ask their students to utter nonsense words like ‘ging geng gong pak pik’ to convey different feelings such as being angry, bored, happy, surprised, etc. After practicing with nonsense words, the students can then practice with real sentences.

2.     Use of gestures – Teachers can use their hands to guide the students by giving a clear sweep of the hand either up or down to indicate a high or a low pitch. Gestures such as clapping, clicking of fingers, and tapping on the desks or board are also helpful in indicating stress.

3.     Humming or singing – Students can also sing out the sentences or hum the words together.

4.     The board – The board is there for teachers to utilize. Giving a visual presentation by using straight or angled arrows, stress marks, underlines, and capital letters can emphasize the point being made.

5.     Contrastive stress – Let the students hear the difference in stress and intonation by giving them two examples, one is the correct one and the other is the incorrect one. Teachers just need to make sure that they repeat normally so the last thing in the students’ mind is the correct one.

Task 3 – For each of these sentences, give the meanings indicated by the

          i) rise/fall intonation pattern

          ii) fall/rise intonation pattern

a) I’m going to tell you a story.

i)                    The person wants to tell an important story.

ii)                  The person wants to start telling a story and wants the listener not to say anything because the story is about to begin.

b) She’s not going out tonight, is she?

i)                    The person talking knows that she is not going out but simply making a statement.

iii)                The person talking is a bit dismayed that she is going out and thinks it’s not a good idea for her to go out.

c) I don’t understand.

i)                    The speaker is simply stating that he/she doesn’t understand something.

iv)                Expressing shock or disbelief over something

d) Goodnight!

i)                    The person is saying goodnight but is not actually waiting for a reply.

ii)                  The person is saying goodnight and wants some acknowledgement.

Task 4 – Say each of the following sentences and then underline the stressed syllables in each:

a) I know why he wanted to see you.

b) What’s the time?

c) Don’t forget to turn out the light!

d) It’s another beautiful day today.

Say each of the following sentences and then underline the unstressed syllables in each:

a) Once upon a time, there was an old woman…

b) In the light of the above statement, I shall abstain from voting.

c) Good morning. How can I help you?

d) I’m away for the rest of the week.

Task 5 – Make up a sentence similar to that in the example on page 7 of the unit, and explain its various possible meanings, when different words in it are stressed:

1. JACK wanted to join the singing competition yesterday.

-          It was Jack who wanted to join the singing competition, not ME or anybody else.

2. Jack WANTED to join the singing competition yesterday.

-          Jack really wanted to join the competition. He made the decision himself.

3. Jack wanted to JOIN the singing competition yesterday.

-          Jack wanted to be in the competition as a competitor, not as part of the audience or as a judge.

4. Jack wanted to join the SINGING competition yesterday.

-          This means he wanted to join the singing competition and not any other competitions like dancing or cooking.

5. Jack wanted to join the singing COMPETITION yesterday.

-          He wanted to join the competition, not the free show or the charity event.

6. Jack wanted to join the singing competition YESTERDAY.

-          He wanted to join yesterday and not the day before yesterday or any other day.

Task 6 – How and why can a student’s pronunciation affect the quality of his/her communication?

Pronunciation can affect the quality of a student’s communication in many ways. For one, mispronouncing words can alter the meaning of what is being and eventually lead to misunderstanding. It is therefore important for students to understand that correct pronunciation is the key to effective communication. In other cultures, people who often mispronounce words are sometimes perceived as uneducated. If this happens, it can seriously affect the confidence of the English learner and hamper his/her learning. The student would rather stay quiet in class than become the laughing stock of the entire class. While it takes hard work and years of learning for a non-native speaker to sound like a native speaker, what’s important for students is to learn how to speak clearly and ensure they are being understood correctly.

Task 7 – Indicate the major ways in which English sounds are joined and linked. Give your own examples:

a.     Linking                          -        What do you want to eat for lunch? becomes ‘Whatcha wanna eat for lunch?’                                

b.     Sound dropping (t,d)     -        sandwich becomes ‘sanwich’ 

c.      Sound changing             -        Grandpa becomes ‘grampa’

d.     Extra lettering                -        ‘law and order’ becomes ‘lawr and order’ 

Task 8 – What are the benefits in students learning the phonemic alphabet?

Learning the phonemic alphabet is beneficial to students and teachers alike because it serves as a standard pronunciation guide for all varieties of English. If students are familiar with the IPA system, then they can easily improve their learning on their own. They can learn how to correctly pronounce words using this system because it is consistent. It’s also important to language learners whose 1^st language lack sounds that are present in the English language.

Task 9 – Referring to the phonemic alphabet, transcribe the phonemic text at the end of the course unit into standard script:

Yogi:           What’s the matter, Boo-Boo?

Boo-Boo:    My tummy hurts and feels really big.

Yogi:           Why? What’ve you been doing?

Boo-Boo:    I think I’ve been eating too much honey.

Yogi:           Have you considered going on a diet?

Boo-Boo:    No I haven’t. Do you think I should?

Yogi:           You’re very fat, so yes!

Boo-Boo:    Thanks for the advice

Yogi:           Any time my friend

Boo-Boo:    See you later.