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    Josesaulbarajas Task 4

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    José Saúl Barajas Villegas
    This document analyzes the pronunciation of vowels and consonants by 6 native English speakers recording nonsense words. The author transcribes the pronunciations using phonetic symbols and finds some variations. Most speakers pronounced words similarly following patterns, but some differed in vowel sounds. Inconsistencies occurred from individual differences like nervousness or relating words to context. The analysis helps understand English pronunciation mechanisms and how to more efficiently teach students.

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    Josesaulbarajas Task 4

    Uploaded by

    José Saúl Barajas Villegas
    32 views5 pages
    This document analyzes the pronunciation of vowels and consonants by 6 native English speakers recording nonsense words. The author transcribes the pronunciations using phonetic symbols and finds some variations. Most speakers pronounced words similarly following patterns, but some differed in vowel sounds. Inconsistencies occurred from individual differences like nervousness or relating words to context. The analysis helps understand English pronunciation mechanisms and how to more efficiently teach students.

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    Pronunciation of native speakers

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    This document analyzes the pronunciation of vowels and consonants by 6 native English speakers recording nonsense words. The author transcribes the pronunciations using phonetic symbols and finds some variations. Most speakers pronounced words similarly following patterns, but some differed in vowel sounds. Inconsistencies occurred from individual differences like nervousness or relating words to context. The analysis helps understand English pronunciation mechanisms and how to more efficiently teach students.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    32 views5 pages

    Josesaulbarajas Task 4

    Uploaded by

    José Saúl Barajas Villegas
    This document analyzes the pronunciation of vowels and consonants by 6 native English speakers recording nonsense words. The author transcribes the pronunciations using phonetic symbols and finds some variations. Most speakers pronounced words similarly following patterns, but some differed in vowel sounds. Inconsistencies occurred from individual differences like nervousness or relating words to context. The analysis helps understand English pronunciation mechanisms and how to more efficiently teach students.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 5

    UNIVERSIDAD DE GUADALAJARA

    LICENCIATUTRA MODULAR SEMIESCOLARIZADA EN


    DOCENCIA DEL INGLS COMO LENGUA
    EXTRANJERA (LIMSEDILE)

    MODULE: DESCRPTION OF CONTEMPORARY


    ENGLISH

    TASK 4: PRONUNCIATION OF NATIVE SPEAKERS.

    STUDENT: JOS SAL BARAJAS VILLEGAS

    TUTOR: JUAN JOS AVILA RESENDIZ

    Guadalajara, Jalisco. November 27TH, 2016


    INTRODUCTION
    The language teacher must understand the rules and principles that are involved in the
    learning and teaching of English pronunciation. These include the segmentals and
    suprasegmentals. In that way the teacher will identify effective ways to teach and correct the
    learners slips or errors in their pronunciation. In this essay, I will focus on the pronunciation of
    vowels and consonants by native speakers. Six native speakers have been recorded reading
    some sentences that contain some nonsense words. I will transcribe the information recorded
    using the American Phonetic Alphabet, then, I will analyze any variations in the pronunciation of
    the nonsense words. This essay comprises an introduction, literature review, analysis and
    conclusion.

    LITERATURE REVIEW

    This essay will be focused on the description of consonant sounds and vowels sounds
    (segmentals). The pronunciation of consonant sounds is based on three basic characteristics:

    1. Place of articulation: where in the mouth the airstream is obstructed.


    2. Manner of articulation: the way in which the airstream is obstructed.
    3. Voicing: whether there is vibration of the vocal cords. (Avery, P. & Erlich, S. p. 11)

    In English, there are six places in the mouth where the airstream is obstructed in the
    formation of consonants.

    1. Bilabial: They are consonant sounds produced by using both lips together. Both lips touch each
    other momentarily. /p/, /b/, and /m/ are bilabial consonants as in bump, pat, bat and mat.
    2. Labiodental: Labiodental are articulated by using both the lower lip and the upper front teeth.
    Examples of these sounds in English are in any words that contain the letters /F/ and /V/, as in
    the word favor, flavor fat, vat, very, vacation.
    3. Interdental: This sound is made with the tip of the tongue placed between (inter) the teeth
    (dental). The phonetic symbols for this sound is // as is thy, them, they, this, etc. and //
    as in think, thing, healthy, thick, throw, through, etc.
    4. Alveolar: This sound is pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth
    just behind the upper teeth. The sounds /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /z/, and /r/ are referred to as alveolar
    sounds because the tongue either touches or approaches the alveolar ridge (tooth ridge) in their
    production.
    5. Alveo- palatal: The sounds //, as in she, //, as in occasion, /t/, as in choose, and /d/, as in
    jug are referred to as alveopalatal sounds.
    6. Velar: The sounds /k/, /g/ and // are referred to as velar sounds because they are made with
    the back of the tongue to touch the soft palate or velum.
    1
    Manner of articulation. - Refers to the way in which the obstruction of the airstream is
    achieved. According to this characteristic, consonants can be classified in:
    1. Stops: The air that passes from the lungs into the mouth can be completely stopped
    because the lips or the tongue touch some part of the upper mouth. Examples of stops are
    the consonant sounds /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/.

    2. Fricatives: Partial obstruction of the airstream. These are the fricative consonants in
    English. /f/, /v/, / /, //, /s/, /z/, // and //
    3. Africatives: An affricate is a stop with an extended and controlled fricative phase following
    the obstruction. It is a combination of stop + fricative.
    The africates consonant sounds are: // as in watch, teacher, catch and / / as in juice,
    jug, bridge,change, etc.
    The third characteristic of consonants is voicing. That is, when pronouncing some
    consonants the vocal cords make a vibration those are voiced consonants while when other
    consonants are pronounce the vocal cords are not used and consequently there is no vibration of
    the vocal cords.
    Voiceless consonants are: /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, / /, /s/, //, and //.
    Voiced consonants sounds are: /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, / /, /z/, //, //, /m/, /n/, //, /l/, /r/, /w/, /y
    ANALYSIS

    This analysis will be focused on the way native speakers pronounced the nonsense words

    Nonsens Speaker Speaker Speaker Speaker Speaker Speaker


    e words #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6
    Pratted /prr d/ /praurd/ / prrd/ /prrd/ /prrd/ /prrd/
    Bicked /bkd/ / bkt/ /bkt/ /bkt/ /bkt/ /bkt/
    Rathed /reid/ / rd/ / rd/ /rd/ /reit/ /reit/
    Crants /krntz/ /krntz/ / krntz/ / krntz/ / krats/ / krats/
    Wugs /wugz/ / wgz/ / wgz/ / wgz/ / wgz/ /wgz/
    chugles / glz / / glz / /tglz/ /tglz/ / glz / / glz /
    Woiter /wt/ /weir/ /wt/ /weir/ /weir/ /wt/
    Woider /w/ /weir/ /wd/ /weir/ /weir/ /wd/
    sphinger /sfnj / /sfg/ /sfg/ /sfg/ / spr/ /sfg/
    Sphing / sf / / sf / / sf / / sf / / spr / / sf /
    Tingrene / taigrn/ /tndrin /tgrin/ /trg/ / tngrin / /tgrin/
    Tinger / tg / /tg/ /tg/ /tg/ tng /tg/

    I have transcribed the key words (nonsense words) which are included in the sentences that the
    speakers read loudly in order to be recorded.

    Sentences to be read:

    1. The man pratted over the group, bicked the woman and rathed in front of her.
    2. Susan went to the local market and bought her favorite crants, some fresh wugs and coice
    chugles.
    2
    3. The woiter told his brother, the woider, what to do.
    4. Where did that fantastic sphinger learn to sphing so well?
    5. A tingrene uses a metal tinger to point with.

    Most of the speaker pronounced the words in the same way, this is because they were able to follow
    the pronunciation patterns of similar words. That is, words with the same spelling may be pronounced same
    way. For example four speakers out of six pronounced the word pratted as /pr rd/ the /a/ was
    pronounced as / / as in cat, bad, and sad. However, that is not always true in some occasions. Two
    speakers may pronounce the same word differently. It is difficult to say why exactly they pronounced it that
    way. It may be because they were nervous. The mispronunciation may lead to failure in conveying real
    meaning.

    In the word rathed , the interdental consonant sound / / was used interchangeably with the
    interdental sound / /. Most of the inconsistencies found occurred in vowel sounds. I think, this is because
    the pronunciation of vowels is the most difficult due to the lack of fixed rules. Some other inconsistencies
    occurred because the speaker related the non-existing word to a word that fits the context of the sentence.

    CONCLUSION
    In conclusion, I can say that by doing this assessment task I have learned more about the
    mechanisms involved in English pronunciation, the main features involved in the segmetals; that is
    the pronunciation of vowels and consonants. Likewise, I have learned that individuals may
    pronounce words slightly different due different factors such as nervousness, changes in their
    physiological speech mechanism and the way they articulate. Now I am more aware of all the
    aspects of pronunciation and I feel I can help my students improve their pronunciation more
    efficiently. Finally, I want to say that the objective of teaching and learning pronunciation should be
    help the learner to achieve real communication.

    REFERENCES:

    Avery, P. and Erlich, S. (1992). Teaching American Pronunciation. UK: Oxford University Press
    Roach, P. (1991). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. Cambridge: CUP

    3
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