Grado en Educación Primaria
Didáctica de la Fonética del Inglés
(5513)
Departmento de Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura
Dr. Jonás Fouz González (jfouz@[Link]) 1
Introduction to English phonetics and
phonology
1. Pronunciation: the Cinderella of EFL
2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
3. Things to consider when teaching/learning
pronunciation
4. Sound vs. spelling
5. The physiology of speech
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Introduction to English phonetics and
phonology
Think about your experience as an EFL learner (school, high-
school or in a language class)…
❑What percentage of your lesson time was devoted to pronunciation?
❑How would you rate the quality of your teachers’ pronunciation of
English (good, fair, poor)?
❑Which techniques for teaching pronunciation did your teachers use?
❑What type of feedback did you receive regarding your pronunciation?
❑What else contributed to your English pronunciation learning? (at and
outside school)?
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1. Pronunciation as a Cinderella
Pronunciation has long been “the Cinderella” of language
teaching
➢ Neglect in FL teaching in favour of other skills (e.g. grammar,
reading, or writing) because of examination cultures focused on
that (Setter, 2008)
➢ Ignorance of the relationship between the sound system and
meaning (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 2010), even in
Communicative Language Teaching!
➢ The long-held belief that pronunciation cannot be taught or that
it is acquired naturally.
➢ Lack of (or inadequate) teacher training on how to teach
pronunciation.
➢ Shortage of adequate materials.
➢ Lack of attention to pronunciation in curricula.
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2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
Why do you think pronunciation is important?
Meyday, meyday, meyday
[Link]
- Meyday, meyday! we are sinking… we’re sinking…
- What are you sinking about?
An example of a very serious misunderstanding
(possibly with tragic consequences) resulting from a
common mispronunciation.
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2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
Pronunciation is essential for:
• Intelligibility (making ourselves understood)
• Understanding other people (it improves listening comprehension)
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2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
Understanding intelligibility
Wooclap + pen & paper
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2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
Min. 0:57
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2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
Min. 2:30 9
2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
Min. 5:03 10
2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
However, pronunciation also affects…
• How easy or difficult it is for other people to understand us
(comprehensibility – i.e. the amount of ‘effort’ people have to make
to understand us)
• Our representation as people (the way people see us)
– Grammaticality (Kennedy, 2015)
– Status (Brennan & Brennan, 1981)
– Credibility (Lev-Ari & Keysar, 2010)
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2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
Statements about pronunciation:
• Young children who are learning English don’t need a great
deal of help with pronunciation.
• Learners older than 12 are more likely to have trouble with
specific words, sounds, intonation patterns… and require
focused instruction.
Do you agree? (why/why not)
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2. Why teach/learn pronunciation?
So… why teach pronunciation?
➢ It is vital for adequate communication.
➢ It is one of the most challenging competences to master for
foreign language learners. Its acquisition is hindered by
numerous factors (see Pennington, 1998 for a review), including:
• Perceptual (learners’ incapacity to perceive the FL phonological
system correctly as a result of their L1)
• Cognitive (challenges learners face when categorising the FL
sounds and patterns adequately)
• Psychomotor (failure to perform the FL articulatory movements
accurately)
• Affective (shyness, motivation, etc.)
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3. Things to consider when teaching
pronunciation
➢ Aptitude: learners’ individual capacities.
➢ The learners’ mother tongue (L1): The sounds of the first language are
imprinted very early in the child’s development; however, most children
are born with the vocal equipment to produce the sounds of any
language.
➢ Context in which the language is learnt: learners in FL contexts have
limited opportunities for exposure to the target language.
➢ Attitude: learners need to have a positive view towards modifying their
articulatory habits.
➢ Motivation: pronunciation is one of the most difficult competences to
master. In fact, very few people acquire native-like pronunciation, so,
motivation is central in order to make improvements.
➢ Shyness: learners often feel ‘funny’ when imitating the sounds and
patterns of the L2/FL, but not making the effort will distort sounds for
native (and non-native) speakers therefore hampering intelligibility.
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4. Sound vs. spelling
“Because of the notoriously confusing nature of English spelling, it is
particularly important to learn to think of English pronunciation in
terms of phonemes rather than letters of the alphabet” (Roach, 2000,
p. 1).
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4. Sound vs. spelling
Taken from Marks (2007)
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4. Sound vs. spelling
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4. Sound vs. spelling
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4. Sound vs. spelling
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4. Sound vs. spelling
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4. Sound vs. spelling
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4. Sound vs. spelling
[Link] 22
ge=en
5. The physiology of speech
➢ Differences between vowel and consonant sounds
➢ Main parameters used to describe segmentals:
Vowels: Consonants:
1. Tongue height 1. Voicing
2. Tongue location 2. Place of articulation
3. Lip rounding 3. Manner of articulation
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5. The physiology of speech
Taken from Roach (2009, p. 8) 24
5. The physiology of speech
Taken from Roach (2009, p. 9)
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5. The physiology of speech
Vowel sounds
1) Tongue height and 2) location
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5. The physiology of speech
Vowel sounds
1) Tongue height and 2) location
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5. The physiology of speech
Vowel sounds
3) Lip rounding
• Rounded
• Neutral
• Spread
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5. The physiology of speech
Consonant sounds
1) Voicing
Taken from Roach (2009, p. 22) 29
5. The physiology of speech
Consonant sounds
1) Voicing
Taken from Roach (2009, p. 23-24)
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5. The physiology of speech
Consonant sounds
1) Voicing
Listen to the following sounds and judge whether they are voiced
or voiceless.
/f/
/s/
/ʒ/
/z/
/v/
/ʃ/
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5. The physiology of speech
Consonant sounds
2) Place of articulation: the point of the vocal tract where a sound is
produced
a) bilabial
b) labio-dental
c) dental
d) alveolar
e) post-alveolar
(or palato-alveolar)
f) palatal
g) velar
h) glottal
Taken from Roach (2014)
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5. The physiology of speech
Consonant sounds
3) Manner of articulation: the way in which a sound is produced
a) plosive/stop
b) fricative
c) affricate
d) approximant
e) nasal
Check this out with animations here:
[Link]
[Link] 33
5. The physiology of speech
5. The physiology of speech
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References
• Brennan, E. M., & Brennan, J. S. (1981). Accent scaling and language attitudes:
Reactions to Mexican American English speech. Language & Speech, 24, 207–221.
• Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Goodwin, J. (2010). Teaching pronunciation. A
reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages (2nd ed.).
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Cenoz, J., & García Lecumberri, M. L. (1999a). The effect of training on the
discrimination of English vowels. International Review of Applied Linguistics,
37(4), 261–275.
• Collins, B., & Mees, I. (2009). Practical phonetics and phonology. A resource book
for students. (2nd ed.). London, UK/New York, NY: Routledge.
• Kelly, G. (2000). How to teach pronunciation. Harlow, UK: Longman.
• Kennedy, A. S. (2015). Non-native accent and listener perceptions of
grammaticality. In J. A. Mompean & J. Fouz-González (Eds.), Investigating English
pronunciation: Trends and directions (pp. 131–146). Basingstoke, UK/NewYork,
NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Henderson, A., Curnick, L., Frost, D., Kautzsch, A., Kirkova-Naskova, A., Levey, D.,
Tergujeff, E., & Waniek-Klimczak, E. (2015). The English pronunciation teaching in
Europe survey: Factors inside and outside the classroom. In J. A. Mompean & J.
Fouz-González (Eds.), Investigating English pronunciation: Trends and directions
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(pp.260–292). Basingstoke, UK/New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
References
• Lev-Ari, S., & Keysar, B. (2010). Why don’t we believe non-native speakers? The
influence of accent on credibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
46(6), 1093–1096.
• Marks, J. (2007). English Pronunciation in Use. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
• Morley, J. (1994). A multidimensional curriculum design for speech-pronunciation
instruction. In J. Morley (Ed.) Pronunciation, pedagogy and the theory: New
views, new directions (pp. 64–91). Bloomington, IN: TESOL.
• Pennington, M. C. (1998). The teachability of pronunciation in adulthood: A
reconsideration. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 36, 323–41.
• Pennington, M. C., & Richards, J. C. (1986). Pronunciation revisited. TESOL
Quarterly, 20, 207–225.
• Roach, P. (2000/2009). English phonetics and phonology. A practical Course. (4th
ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Setter, J. (2008). Theories and approaches in English Pronunciation. In R. Monroy
& A. Sánchez (Eds.), 25 Years of Applied Linguistics in Spain: Milestones and
Challenges, (pp. 447–457). Murcia, Spain: Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de
Publicaciones.
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