UNIT 3: PHONOLOGY AND PHONETICS

Module 1 (1 of 3)

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 overleaf. Complete each one with an appropriate word, as has been done in the
first example. Choose different words from those in the exercise above.

ɪ + ə = ɪə
cheer
ʊ + ə = ʊə pure

e + ə = eə air

a + ʊ = aʊ bow

e + ɪ = eɪ pain

ɔ + ɪ = ɔɪ oil

a + ɪ = aɪ buy

ə + ʊ = əʊ phone

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 students the introduction of phonetics language with the help of phonemic charts
and examples
Class profile: This is a class of 20 freshman university students majoring in English. Most of
them are 18 years old. Their overall level is pre-intermediate (A2–B1). Most of them can
communicate in simple English but struggle with pronunciation and listening.

Lesson Plan:

Stages Time Procedure

Warm-up 5 minutes Simple pronunciation game: students pronounce words with
difficult sounds (e.g.,, /θ/, /ð/).
Presentation 10 minutes Show the phonemic chart on screen. Explain what it is, and why it
helps. Highlight vowels, consonants, and diphthongs
Practice 20 minutes - Matching game: students match sounds with example words.
- Listen & repeat: Teacher says phonemes, students repeat. Then
practice words.
 - Controlled practice: students work in pairs, use flashcards with
phonemes.
Production 8 minutes Have students tell a story using minimal pairs of sounds
Homework 2 minutes Ask students to pick 5 new words and write their phonemic
transcriptions.

Rationale: It is hard for most students to read because they usually pronounce words based on
their spelling. The phonemic chart shows the actual sounds behind the letters. It also encourages
them to use dictionaries more effectively. This lesson is taught through visuals, listening, and
speaking so that students learn the chart in steps and don't feel threatened.

Materials:
- Phonemic chart poster (Hancock, 2020)

- Flashcards with phonemes + example words.

- Speakers or audio for clear sounds.
- Blackboard and chalks for drawing symbols.
Reflection: After the lesson, I observed that students were curious but confused by some
symbols, especially vowels, since they are very different from the letters they have known. Pair
work helped them remember better. Next time, I would spend more time on minimal pairs and
pronunciation games to make it less theoretical and more practical.

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 from English Pronunciation in Use by Hancock (2003, pp. 24-25).
Short Class Profile
There are 18 university students majoring in English Education. Most of them are 18 - 19 years
old. Their overall English level is B1–B2, they have a decent level of English as English majors,
but they still lack a solid basic knowledge of how individual sounds work. Many of them have
difficulty distinguishing similar consonant sounds, especially /f/ and /v/, due to mother tongue
influence. Most of them are confident speaking in pairs but shy when speaking out loud in front
of the whole class.

How I conducted the activities

- Step 1: On the first page, I introduced the sounds /f/ and /v/:
+ I showed the mouth diagram and demonstrated the position of the top teeth on the
bottom lip.
+ I played the section A audio and made students hold their hands before their mouths to
feel the air for /f/ and the vibration for /v/.
+ Next, we practiced the minimal pairs (few–view, leaf–leave, free–three, etc.) in sections
B and C. I read them first as a model, the students repeated chorally, then they practiced in pairs,
and finally, I invited some students to read the pairs individually.

- Step 2: We drilled the example words (photo, fly, visa, vote, etc.). I also asked the students to
find some more examples they knew consisting of /f/ and /v/.

- Step 3: I used the spelling table to explain common patterns (F, FF, PH for /f/; V for /v/). I also
conducted a mini spelling game: students wrote 5 words with /f/ and 5 with /v/ in pairs and
exchanged with another pair to check.

- Step 4: For the second page, we did:

+ Students read out loud the numbers and counted how many /f/ and /v/ sounds were
there.
+ The students did the blanks in pairs first, and then we played the audio to check the
answers.
+ We did the word search on the board as a whole class. I divided the class into two
groups, and they took turns finding words.
+ We listened and circled the words. Then the students practiced reading the sentences in
pairs, changing roles to focus on clear pronunciation.

Adaptations
Some adaptations that were applied are:
- A pair and group game to keep students engaged and motivated.
- More real-life examples that students added.
- Letting shy students practice first in pairs before reading aloud to the class.

Assessment of the material’s usefulness

The materials are brief, visualized, and functional. The minimal pairs help the students see the
difference, and the word list is familiar enough for the students to understand completely. The
integration of listening, speaking, reading, and writing keeps the lesson balanced. Students
reported that the mouth diagram helped them place the tongue and lips correctly, and therefore
pronounced words precisely. Observing patterns on the spelling table worked well. Overall, this
is an effective material for practicing the/f/ and /v/ sounds.

Materials:
Mouth diagrams
 /f/ sound (no voice, no vocal cords vibration)

/v/ sound (voice, vocal cords vibration)

Minimal pairs (Baker & Goldstein, 2009)

/f/ /v/
fan van
fine vine
few view
file vile
safe save
leaf leave
life live
belief believe
wife wives
off of
thief thieves
fat vat

TASK 4
DRAW DETAILED, CLEARLY LABELLED DIAGRAMS TO SHOW:

The position the speech-organs move through in pronouncing the word ‘afterwards. Support
your diagrams with brief notes.

afterwards /æftərwərdz/

/æ/

/f/ don’t use voice, don’t vibrate vocal cords

/t/ don’t use voice, don’t vibrate vocal cords

/ə/
the unstressed schwa sound

/r/ use voice, vibrate vocal cords

/w/ vibrate vocal cords

/ə/
the unstressed schwa sound
/d/ use voice, vibrate the vocal cords

/z/ use voice, vibrate the vocal cords

TASK 5

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

(a) nasal consonants
- In the production of nasal consonants, the breath is completely stopped at some point in the
mouth (as for the plosive consonants), but it is then permitted to escape through the nose as the
velum is lowered (Roach, 2009).
- There are three nasal consonants regarding the three places of articulation where the air can be
stopped.

i. Bilabial nasal voiced consonants /m/

- Two lips obstruct the air
- The air goes out through the nose
- Examples: mile, mine, mummy, comb,…
ii. Alveolar nasal voiced consonants /n/
- The tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge and obstructs the air flow
- The air goes out through the nose
- Examples: Nile, nine, cone, …

*Syllabic consonants
- This is the case of syllables in which no vowel is found. Instead, a consonant, either /l/, /r/, or a
nasal, stands as the center of the syllable
- Example: cattle, nation, particular,…

*Nasal plosion:
- When a stop appears before /m/ or /n/, either in the same word or between words, the stop is
not released in the usual way. The air pressure that is built up behind the stop closure is released
through the nose by the lowering of the soft palate for the nasal consonant. This phenomenon is
known as nasal plosion.
- Examples: sudden, happen, kitten,...

iii. Velar nasal voiced consonant /ŋ/

- The back of the tongue touches the velar and obstructs the air stream.
- The air goes out through the nose.
- Examples: wing, thing, bang, rang,…

*Important notes:
- This velar nasal never occurs in the initial position. In other words, it never starts a syllable.
- /n/ changes to /ŋ/ when the next sound after it is /k/ or /g/. For example, thin /θɪn/ but think
/θɪŋk/, fin /fɪn/ but finger /fɪŋɡər/

(b) plosive consonants

- Plosive consonants are produced when the air stream is stopped completely at some point in the
mouth, then released suddenly with an explosive sound (Roach, 2009). The production of plosive
consonants consists of four phases:
1. Closure phase: The first phase when the articulator(s) move to form the stricture for the
plosive
2. Hold phase: The second phase when the compressed air is stopped from escaping.
3. Release phase: The third phase when the articulator(s) used to form the stricture are moved to
allow air to escape
4. Post-release phase: what happens immediately after (iii)

- English has six plosive consonants: /p/, /b/, /k/, /g/, /t/, /d/

i. Bilabial plosive consonants: When the lips are pressed together, we have /p/
and /b/
- To make /p/ or /b/ sound:
1. Close and slightly tense your lips, and relax your tongue
2. Build up air pressure behind your lips and hold it for a moment
3.
+ Release the air using no voice for /p/ (e.g., pin, pen, cap,…)
+ Release the air while producing voice for /b/ (e.g., bin, bear, cab,…)
 ii. Alveolar plosive consonants: When the tip of the tongue is pressed against the
alveolar ridge, we have /t/ and /d/
- To make /t/ or /d/ sound
1. Open your mouth slightly and relax your lips
2. Place the tip of your tongue on the gum ridge just behind your upper teeth
3. Build up the air pressure in the space between your tongue and the top of your mouth
4.
+ Suddenly release the pressure by dropping your tongue, do not use voice for /t/ (e.g.,
cart, train, write, trunk,…)
+ Suddenly release the pressure by dropping your tongue, use voice for /d/ (e.g., do, send,
card, ride,…)

iii. Velar plosive consonants: When the back of the tongue is pressed against the
area where the hard palate ends and the soft palate begins, we have /k/ and /g/
- To make /k/ or /g/ sound
1. Press the back of your tongue up against your soft palate
2. Build up the air pressure behind this
3.
+ Release the pressure, using no voice for /k/ (e.g., coat, curl, class,…)
+ Release the pressure, using voice for /g/ (e.g., goat, girl, glass,…)

*Notes
- /b-d-g/ are unaspirated in all positions, whereas /p-t-k/ are aspirated in initial and final positions
- In initial position, /b/, /d/, and /g/ cannot be preceded by any consonant, but /p/, /t/, and /k/ may
be preceded by /s/. When one of /p/, /t/, /k/ is preceded by /s/, it is unaspirated.

(c) fricative consonants

- Fricatives are consonants produced with the air escaping through a small passage and making a
hissing sound. To create this narrow passage, the speech organs are to move close together, yet
not firmly against each other. Fricatives are continuant sounds, which means that you can
continue making them without interruption as long as you have enough air in your lungs (Roach,
2009).
- The fricatives of English include 9 members

i. Labio-dental fricative consonants /f/, /v/, the lower lip is in contact with the
upper teeth
To make /f/ or /v/ sound:
1. Touch your upper teeth with your lower lip
2. Blow out air between your lips and your teeth
+ Don’t use your voice for sound /f/ (e.g., fan, fine, safe, few,…)
+ Use your voice for sound /v/ (e.g., save, vine, veil, view,…)

ii. Dental fricative consonants /θ/, /ð/ - the tongue is sometimes described as
being placed between the teeth; however, the tongue is normally positioned inside
the teeth with the tip touching the inside of the lower front teeth and the blade
touching the inside of the upper teeth.
- To make /θ/ or /ð/ sound:
1. Put your tongue between your teeth
2. Blow out air between your tongue and your top teeth
3.
+ Don’t use voice for /θ/ (e.g., thank, thin, thunder,…)
+ Use voice for /ð/ (e.g., these, the, breathe,…)

iii. Alveolar fricative consonants /s/, /z/ - the tip of the tongue touches the tooth
ridge
- To make /s/ or /z/ sound:
1. Touch your top teeth with the sides of your tongue
2. Put the tip of your tongue forward to nearly touch the roof of your mouth
3.
+ Don’t use your voice for /s/ (e.g., sit, sound, Sunday,…)
+ Use your voice for /z/ (e.g., zoo, zipper, zero,…)

iv. Palato-alveolar fricative consonants /ʃ/, /ʒ/ - the tongue is in contact with an
area slightly further back than the alveolar ridge

- To make /ʃ/ or /ʒ/ sound:

1. Put the tip of your tongue a little back behind the tooth ridge
2. Push air through the gap between the tongue and the tooth ridge
3.
+ Don't use your voice for /ʃ/ (e.g., she, shoe, sugar,…)
+ Use your voice for /ʒ/ (e.g., beige, massage, prestige,…)

v. Glottal fricative consonant /h/ - the narrowing is between the vocal folds
- To make /h/ sound:
1. Make a small gap at the back of your mouth
2. Push a lot of air out very quickly through the small gap
3. Do not touch the roof of your mouth with your tongue
- Examples: hold, heat, hill, honey,…

(d) Affricative consonants

- Affricatives are rather complex consonants. The production of these sounds is similar to that of
plosives, but the release of the air is less sudden, so that it sounds like a plosive consonant
followed by a fricative one. In other words, affricatives begin as plosives and end as fricatives.
Yet, we would not class all sequences of plosive plus fricative as affricates. The plosive and the
following fricative must be homorganic (made with the same articulators). Affricatives are
usually regarded as single, independent sounds (Roach, 2009).
- The affricatives of English include 2 members /tʃ/, /dʒ/ palato-alveolar affricative consonants
- To make /tʃ/ or /dʒ/ sound:
1. The tip of the tongue touches the back part of the tooth ridge.
2. The tongue tip moves away from the tooth ridge a little way, and the whole tongue is then in
/ʃ/, /ʒ/ position.
3. The friction for /tʃ/, /dʒ/ is not as long as for /ʃ/, /ʒ/ alone
+ Don’t use your voice for /tʃ/ (e.g., chair, children, chest, each,…)
+ Use your voice for /dʒ/ (e.g., jeep, joke, large, age,…)
References:

Baker, A., & Goldstein, S. (2009). Pronunciation Pairs: An Introduction to the Sounds of
English. Cambridge University Press.

Hancock, M. (2020). Mark Hancock's 50 Tips for Teaching Pronunciation. Cambridge

University Press.

Hancock, M. (2003). English Pronunciation in Use (Intermediate). Cambridge University Press.

Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course (4th ed.). Cambridge
University Press.