UNIT 3: PHONOLOGY AND PHONETICS - SURYA MAHILA

Module 1 (1 of 3)
TASKS
TASK 1
COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES
TERMINOLOGY IN PHONOLOGY AND PHONETICS
Match the term with its definition:

A Phonology 1 i. The rise and fall of the voice when speaking.

B Phonetics 2 ii. The smallest element of sound in a language which is
recognised by a native speaker as making a difference in
meaning.
C Phoneme 3 iii. A vocal sound made without the audible stopping of
breath.
D Stress 4 iv. The study of speech sounds and sound production in
general.
E Vowel 5 v. The greater emphasis of some syllables or words over
others during speech.
F Rhythm 6 vi. The different phonemes that make up a language’s
phonology.
G sound system 7 vii. The regular repetition of stress in time.
H Intonation 8 viii. The study of how speech sounds are produced and
used and distinguished in a specific language

1. Phonology - The study of how speech sounds are produced and used and
distinguished in a specific language
2. Phonetics - The study of speech sounds and sound production in general.
3. Phoneme - The smallest element of sound in a language which is
recognised by a native speaker as making a difference in meaning
4. Stress - The greater emphasis of some syllables or words over others
during speech.
5. Vowel - A vocal sound made without the audible stopping of breath
6. Rhythm - The regular repetition of stress in time.
7. Sound system - The different phonemes that make up a language’s phonology.
8. Intonation - The rise and fall of the voice when speaking.

Look at the sums overlesf. Complete each one with an appropriate word, as has been done in
ɪ + ə = ɪə cheer
the first example.
Choose different
ʊ + ə = ʊə words from those in
the exercise above.
E + ə = eə

A + ʊ = aʊ

E + ɪ = eɪ

ɔ + ɪ = ɔɪ

A + ɪ = aɪ

ə + ʊ = əʊ
ɪ + ə = ɪə - cheer
ʊ + ə = ʊə - tourist
e + ə = eə - hair
a + ʊ = aʊ - cow
e + ɪ = eɪ - take
ɔ + ɪ = ɔɪ - boy
a + ɪ = aɪ - pride
ə + ʊ = əʊ - go

TASK 2
ACTION RESEARCH
Choose and carry out ONE of the action research projects outlined below.
Project A
With a class, plan and teach a lesson which involves an introduction to the phonemic chart. In
your presentation of the project include class profile, brief individual learner profiles, lesson
plan, rationale, materials, and reflections on the lesson.

Aim :
To teach the students the introduction of phonetics language with the help of phonemic charts
and examples.
Class profile:
Students of class 10
No of students: 30
Individual learner profiles:
Each student has the knowledge of the pronunciation of words and the syllables of each word.
They have taken different types of tests on words and their syllables.
Materials required:
Phonemic chart, dictionary, blackboard, chalk piece etc. for the brief understanding of the
students.
Lesson Plan:
Procedure –
Pronunciation as a whole – Considering that pronunciation is part of the language we’re
teaching, it must be taught as a whole. Phonology and grammar are related, they both convey
meaning. The way we pronounce or organize a sentence matter in how we are understood or
misunderstood.
Phonemic Chart –
The chart as a tool and reference in class –As Adrian Underhill has put it, using the chart
not only helps us do existing pronunciation activities with more insight, but it also enables a
range of other activities that are not possible without the chart. The Phonemic chart is another
tool in the language classroom, therefore it should be used when necessary. The best way to
work on pronunciation is ‘little and often’.
Contrast sounds in English and Student’s mother tongue – New speech habits require a
great deal of practice. The performance of a new contrast, once it can be heard, involves a
new orientation of the motor control centre in the brain to produce unfamiliar muscular
movements. The sounds a student produces may not be exactly what a native speaker would
produce, but fine tuning of the actual sounds can be done gradually. But it’s not enough for
the students to produce the contrast satisfactorily once or twice. They must be brought to the
point where, at any rate in classroom/real life conditions, they can do it every time.
Pronunciation makes physical –It also helps us make pronunciation physical. Students stop
thinking about pronunciation as something abstract. If we, the teachers, engage them to sense
and notice what their muscles do when pronouncing a word and how the movements of those
muscles affect what they hear, then students become aware of their own process and their
own development and therefore improvement. So, in addition to hearing sounds with our
ears, we can see movements with our eyes and also feel movements through the internal
sensation of muscles.
Pronunciation in 3 levels –It helps students to practise individual sounds, but then we, the
teachers, have to make sure they join the sounds up into words, and join the words up into
connected pieces of speech. Stress, rhythm and intonation convey meaning too and perhaps
more than the exact sounds themselves. It is important to bear this in mind when we deal with
oral English in the classroom. That’s to say that pronunciation should be worked at three
levels: the first level involves work with individual sounds. At the second level we string the
sounds together into words, adding the word stress. At the third level we string words into
connected speech, adding intonation, as well as the various simplifications of connected
speech.
Reflection on students:
The basic theory is explained to the students with the help of chart. It helps the students to
understand the necessity of learning phonetics which helps in pronunciation of words.
The student might feel a little bit tough during the start as the phonetic symbols are somewhat
different to the English alphabets but can find it easy once practiced.

Or
Project B

With a class that is already familiar with the chart, research the students´ feelings on the use
and usefulness of phonemic symbols. In the presentation of the project include your specific
aims, class profile, brief individual learner profiles, any questionnaire or research materials
used, results and your conclusions.

TASK 3
MATERIALS EVALUATION
Choose and use in a lesson one activity from Hancock.
Write a short class profile.
Give a detailed description of how you conducted the activity, any adaptations you made of
the material, and an assessment of the usefulness of the material for your students´ learning.
The lesson below is taken from Mark Hancock’s English Pronunciation in Use Book, Unit 3:
I basically follow the lesson plan by Hancock. I also include my own strategy which is
introduce the lesson by using the counterparts of the English consonants in this way:
 I let my students produce this sound by pressing their upper and lower lips and
making a sound without vibrating the vocal cords.

The students are asked to reproduce this sound by pressing their upper and lowers
together and making a sound while clearly vibrating the vocal cords.

In addition, I also used minimal pairs:

Beginner:

 BP
 bar Pa
 bay* pay
 be P
 bear* pair
 berry perry*
 bet* pet
 big pig
 blaze* plays
 but putt*
 butter putter*
 buy pie
 by pie
 bye pie
 cub* cup

Pre-Intermediate

 band panned*
 bat pat*
 beer pier*
 belt pelt*
 bill pill
 bin pin
 bit pit*
 blade* played
 blain* plane
 bland* planned
 bore poor
 bored pawed*
 bought port
 braid* prayed
  bull* pull
 lib* lip
 pub pup*
 tab* tap

Intermediate

 banned panned*
 bare pare*
 base pace
 beak* peak
 bear pear
 beat peat*
 bee pee*
 bitch* pitch
 blain* plain
 blank plank*
 blot* plot
 board pawed*
 bow pow*
 braise* prays
 bride pride
 browed* proud
 burr* per
 robe rope

Upper-Intermediate

 bah* par
 bead peed*
 beak* peek
 bier* peer
 blaster* plaster
 bleed plead*
 blink plink*
 bore pour
 braise* praise
 breast pressed
 breech* preach
 brick prick*
 cab cap
 rib rip
 tribe tripe*

Advanced

 batty patty
  beep peep
 beet peat
 bi pi
 blade plaid
 bleat pleat
 bloom plume
 blunder plunder
 blush plush
 boar paw
 boar pour
 boo poo
 braise preys
 brat prat
 brawn prawn
 brig prig
 brim prim
 burr purr
 butt putt

TASK 4
DRAW DETAILED, CLEARLY LABELLED DIAGRAMS TO SHOW:
Either
 the movements and positions of the speech-organs in pronouncing the word optically.
Or
 The position the speech-organs move through in pronouncing the word ‘afterwards.
Support your diagrams with brief notes.
The position the speech-organs move through in pronouncing the word ‘afterwards.
Transcription: æftəwərdz

/æ/ stress the first syllable

/f/ don’t vibrate vocal cords

 /t/ don’t vibrate vocal cords

/ə/ make unstressed schwa sound

/w/

/ə/ make unstressed schwa sound

/r/ vibrate the vocal cords

 /d/ vibrate the vocal cords

/z/ vibrate the vocal cords

TASK 5
Prepare to write ONE essay. Arrange for a colleague to supervise the writing of the essay. Do
not use any referente materials or rouge notes. Do not write for more than 40 minutes.
 To what extent, in your opinion, are the symbols of the International Phonetic Association
useful for (a) teachers and (b) learners at different levels?

 Are there any nasal sounds in English? If so, describe and illustrate by diagrams, the
formation of each one. Mention any restraints on their occurence in spoken English.

 Explain, with examples from English, the following classification of consonants:

(a) nasal consonants
A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered
velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts
as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is
blocked by the tongue. Rarely, other types of consonants may be nasalized
Acoustically, nasal stops are sonorant’s, meaning they do not restrict the escape of air and
cross-linguistically are nearly always voiced. A notable exception is Icelandic which has four
unvoiced nasal sounds. (Compare oral plosives, which block off the air completely, and
fricatives, which obstruct the air with a narrow channel. Both stops and fricatives are more
commonly voiceless than voiced, and are known as obstruent’s.) However, nasals are also
stops in their articulation because the flow of air through the mouth is blocked completely.
This duality, a sonorant airflow through the nose along with an obstruction in the mouth,
means that nasal stops behave both like sonorant and like obstruent. For the purposes of
acoustic description they are generally considered sonorant, but in many languages they may
develop from or into plosives.
Very few languages contain no nasal consonants. This has led Ferguson (1963) to assume
that all languages have at least one primary nasal consonant.
(b) plosive consonants
 Plosive consonants are oral sounds, i.e. the soft palate is raised so that air from the lungs
cannot pass upwards into the nasal cavity. The air can, therefore, only escape through the oral
cavity. All plosives are produced by a complete obstruction of the airflow at some position in
the mouth, for example by the lips coming together. Air from the lungs is then compressed
behind the temporary obstruction and the air pressure builds up in the mouth. The obstruction
is then removed (in this case, by the lips parting) and the air rushes out of the mouth with a
slight explosive force, hence the name plosive. Because plosives are made by a complete
obstruction that briefly stops the airflow, they are also referred to as stops or stop
consonants. Plosives, or stops, occur in pairs and may be produced with or without the vocal
folds vibrating. Recall that sounds produced without vocal fold vibration are said to
be voiceless. In contrast, sounds produced with vocal fold vibration are said to be voiced.

(c) fricative consonants

Fricatives
Fricatives are consonants produced when air passes through a narrow channel between two
articulators. This passage of air creates the pronunciation of the fricative consonant. There are
different types of fricative consonants depending on the articulators involved in the emission
of the sounds.
One particular type of fricatives are sibilants in which the tongue moves longitudinally to
cause air to pass over the edge of the teeth and create a hissing sound. 
In English, the sibilants are /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, and /ʒ/. In addition, fricatives can be labiodental,
dental, alveolar, alveolo-palatal, and glottal.
Fricative Pronunciation
Here is a list of the fricatives in modern English, organized by their manner of pronunciation.
Labiodental Fricatives
These fricatives are made using the lower lip and the upper teeth.
Voiceless
 /f/
Examples: five /faɪv/, four /fɔː(r)/, fine /faɪn/
Voiced
 /v/
Examples: vine /vaɪn/, violet /vaɪələt/, vital  /’vaɪt(ə)l/
Dental Fricatives
The tip of the tongue against the teeth creates these fricatives.
Voiceless
 /θ/
Examples: thistle  /ˈθɪs(ə)l/, thing /θɪŋ/
Voiced
 /ð/
Examples: this /ðɪs/, that /ðæt/
Alveolar Fricatives
For these fricatives, the tip of the tongue moves up against the gum line behind your upper
teeth.
Voiceless
 /s/
Examples: sue /suː/, sip /sɪp/
Voiced
 /z/
Examples: zoo /zuː/, zip /zɪp/
 Alveolo-Palatal Fricatives
These fricatives are made using the tongue and the alveolar ridge at the top of the mouth,
further behind the teeth than the alveolar fricatives.
Voiceless
 /ʃ/
Examples: shore /ʃɔː(r)/, ship /ʃɪp/
Voiced
 /ʒ/
Examples: azure /ˈæʒə(r)/
Glottal Fricatives
For the final category of fricatives, the back of the tongue moves up against the gum line
behind your upper teeth.
 /h/
Examples: hot  /hɒt/, heat /hiːt/
(d) affricate consonants
Affricates
In English, there are only two affricate consonants: /tʃ/ and /dʒ/. Both of these sounds are
alveolo-palatal sibilants. 
Make them by beginning with the tip of your tongue against the back of your top teeth,
stopping any air from flowing out of your mouth. Then, move your tongue back to behind the
alveolar ridge to release the air.
Affricate Pronunciation
The affricates are a little more complex to pronounce. In fact, their pronunciation is divided
into two phases starting with an interruption in the passage of air followed by a fricative
sound. 
Voiceless
 /tʃ/
Examples: choose /tʃuːz/, beach /biːtʃ/, change /tʃeɪndʒ/, chops /tʃɒps/, China /ˈtʃaɪnə/
Voiced
 /dʒ/
Examples: joy /dʒɔɪ/, siege /siːdʒ/, John /dʒɒn/, orange /ˈɒrɪndʒ/