Assignment – FP005 TP

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment must be done individually and has to fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: between 6 to 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if

there are any-).
- Font type: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Font size: 11.
- Spacing: 1.5.
- Alignment: Justified.

The assignment has to be written in this Word document and has to follow the
instructions on quotes and references detailed in the Study Guide.

Also, the assignment has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the
document: “Subject Evaluation”. Sending it to the tutor’s e-mail is not allowed.

It is strongly recommended to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the
document “Subject Evaluation”.

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

Assignment instructions:
Choose two problems of transfer which you consider to be obstacles to
efficient communication. Those problems need to be specific to Spanish
and English (that is, specific to Spanish speakers who are English
learners). The problems can either be segmental or suprasegmental.

FIRST, describe, as precisely as you can, the causes of the problems in

phonetic or phonological terms.

SECOND, explain and illustrate how these problems could be addressed

within the usual framework of a language course - the level, age and type
of student presumably being determined by the type of problem you have
chosen. Nonetheless, you should consider the problems in terms of the
three ’E’ variables, and with reference to Brinton’s five variables,
mentioned in Chapter 9.

Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the
next page (the cover). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions will
not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

Student’s full name: MARITZA ROMÁN RODRÌGUEZ

Login: COFPMTFL2942848

Group: fp_tefl_2018-06_uneatlantico

Date: 29 – 06 - 2019

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

INDEX

Page

1. Introduction 5

2. Brinton’s five variables 6

3. Problem 1 - /b/ and /v/ 7

4. Exposure, Exercise, Explanation problem 1 7

5. Problem 2 - /s/, /z/ and /ェ z/ 9

6. Exposure, Exercise, Explanation problem 2 9

7. Conclusion 11

8. Bibliographical references 12

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

INTRODUCTION

A problem that is often debated nowadays is that which Spanish learners of English
face in their learning process: firstly; pronunciation, as a result of variations that both
languages have in terms of phonetic and phonology, besides the highest difficulty to
precise new sounds and this requires the knowledge of a new phonetic alphabet.
Secondly, the enduring stigma is the origin of the accent students should be exposed
to: British or American. Many English learners are still concerned about the correct one
to emphasis their English input, whether or not they have access to speakers with one
or the other, both present special linguistic features and educational backgrounds that
learners have to take into account. Internet and social media have reduced the
distance among them, In fact, “…teachers are expected to help their learners cope with
'real English', which is taken to be the English used by native speakers in their speech
communities in e.g. the UK or the US”. Seidlhofer (2003). It is necessary to consider
the type of instruction, towards a unique way of speaking English or to give the
students a wider perspective regarding this matter it can be said that teaching and
learning English as an international language might be a way to transform paradigms
such as the ideal accent or a specific type of English.

The analysis about pronunciation problems in Spanish learners of English, is one of the
current teachers challenges, we have to deal with it in order to allow students to
improve their speaking. Additionally this work give us meaningful data about their
speaking skill improvements whilst, we can give them a meaningful feedback.
Improving our teaching and learning process is a daily task, in this way we are
responsible to adapt and create activities based on their necessities, consequently, we
will help them to get a good level of fluency.

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

1. BRINTON´S FIVE VARIABLES.

Learners: in this significant opportunity to share our experiences, I will consider the
pronunciation proficiency of intermediate students of English who belong to the third
level of English of the University UCEVA’s language department in Tuluá Valle in
Colombia, their ages are between 13 and 16 years old. There, students have 6 hours
of classes per week. They are also attending their high schools with an average of four
hours more.

Setting: The students here have their own English book named ‘LIFE’, published by
National Geographic Learning and Cengage, This book brings integrated-skills
development required to take students to B1 level. It has a variety of short activities in
12 units, with different pronunciation points and activities in each unit. The students are
in contact with English-speaking teachers at the local university or native English-
speaking assistants in conversations clubs they have to attend at least twice a week.

Methodological: As a starting point they were adressing to previous knowledge of

English, with a diagnoses test. All have achieved a good command of English
grammar, reading and writing throughout their previous experiences, but their skills in
listening and speaking got lowest level.
That is why I decided to stablish continuous questionnaires and class workshops,
which allow me to perceive their improvements. Most of them remark a high interest to
improve pronunciation and placed it as one of the most important issues that they had
to work on with speaking. By virtue of that I worked with pronunciation and speaking
which obviously go hand-in-hand.

Another aspect is the complementary work of attending to different institutions and

where they can make a constant comparison of their native and qualified English
teachers and assistants, as a result of this experience, they could adjust pronunciation
efficiently. I consider that to have the opportunity of being exposed to different accents
as I mentioned in my introduction is a fruitful way to improve English pronunciation.
When they are exposed to two types of teachers, as highlighted by Jenkins (1998:
122), the crucial difference between a non-native speaker of English and a native
speaker as regards segmental, which I will remark in this assignment, is that the non-
native may diverge from native models in precisely those sounds that are considered to

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

be ‘core’ sounds of English, and therefore it is indispensable to find a way to face

student with natives in their learning process.
.

Linguistic: the linguistic variables which I consider relevant for this assignment are the
segmental level of production in L2 pronunciation. Bearing in mind their English level,
some general errors students make when pronouncing basic and very common words
in English, also these problems of pronunciation have been reflected since I am
teaching English more than 7 years. I have noticed common problems on the
pronunciation between [b] and [v] and the final /s/ in the third singular person (e.g. he
plays) and in plural (e.g. boys). Moreover, these problems are segmental and
phonological because they are associated with particular individual sounds. In the next
pages, I will be explained and proposed their possible solutions.

PROBLEM 1: [B] AND [V].

One of the most important difficulties to a Spanish learner in the speaking practice is to
use b and v, because in the standard Spanish there are any different in their
pronunciation. Even though, English makes a clear distinction in how the two letters are
pronounced, Spanish does not. The sound of the English "v" such as in the word
"vigour" does not exist in standard Spanish. The sound of the letters diverges,
nevertheless, depending on the sounds around them.

Additionally, it is a well-known fact that b and v are so-called voiced fricatives — in this
occasion, a sound somewhat like the English "v" but with the two lips touching instead
of the lower lip and upper teeth. In this way, something like the English "b" but quite a
bit softer. This type of misperception when pronouncing words with “v” or “b” in their
own language is mostly transferred to L2, in this case “English” in many situations of
spelling, because learners sometimes are not aware of their differences while they are
producing.

Exposure, Exercise and Explanation problem 1.

In order to tackle with these kind of complications, there are promising methods to
emphasis on them and improve. In the exposure stage, the students will be asked to
perceive the second language sounds and to use them in communicative tasks, in
order to get accuracy. A worthy activity in this matter is to include tongue twisters since,

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

firstly it is a challenging and catchy activity. It also allows enjoyment time during the
class, a meaningful way, can be to have the students to read the tongue twister and
repeat it several times and practice with a partner. Finally, after they get the ability to
pronounce it in a fast way, they can challenge a partner.

Regarding a good feature of this strategy, the students will use and practice the sounds
without complete conscious of the formal pronunciation features. After that, they can be
faced of the prosodic features (stress, intonation and rhythm) and perform
communicative autonomous activities. Griffiths (2007) also described that
pronunciation work can be kept simple and employ exercises which are both
accessible and enjoyable for students, whatever their level is. Thanks to that, learners
can practice by themselves in order to get a better pronunciation of the target
language.

In future activities, it would be superlative that the teacher explain the phonological
features and phonetic sounds, once students are aware of the reason of their already
used pronunciation they will be able to integrate new pronunciation experiences for real
and successful communication (Griffiths, 2007). Furthermore, teachers will “enable
learners to surpass the threshold level so that their pronunciation will not detract from
the ability to communicate”

Finally, effective explanations, methods and plans to overcome pronouncing words

problems with “v” and “b” can help them to get accuracy at the moment of expressing
their ideas. Moreover, Underhill (1998) claims that even as one becomes slightly
more sensitive to the inner muscular movements, so one is abler to observe them
visually in another speaker. Aufderhaar (2004) in his study about discourse intonation-
based pronunciation training showed us that listening activities with intact and filtered
samples (prosodic and phonemic information on separate tracks) of audio literature
appeared to have a positive influence on production as measured by both subjective
(raters’ judgments) and objective (vowel duration) means.

PROBLEM 2: THE FINAL /S/ IN THE THIRD SINGULAR PERSON AND IN PLURAL
NOUNS

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

In many Colombian regions people do not pronounce the final /s/ of any kind of word.
In English the final /s/ in the third singular person (e.g. he plays) and in plural (e.g.
boys). In both cases it marks an important feature of grammar, the main reason of this
pronunciation difference lies in the Spanish phonological settings. Bell (1981) explains
that underdifferentiation, appears when the learner does not “recognize in the L2 a
phonemic distinction”. Underdifferentiation is commonly found by Spanish speakers in
the following sounds /s/-/z/ and /b/-/v/. Bearing this in mid with this problem the strategy
can be focus in a formal explanation of the phenomenon and to take advantage of it,
the instructor can highlighted the two different cases (verbs third singular, and noun
plural) of the same pronunciation as an advantage.

Besides, the ending is pronounced /s/ after a voiceless sound, it is pronounced /z/ after
a voiced sound and is pronounced /ɪz / or /əz/ after a sibilant sound:

Voiceless: helps /ps/ -- sits /ts/ -- looks /ks/

Voiced: crabs /bz/ -- words /dz/ -- gloves /vz/,
Sibilant: buses /sɪz / or /səz /, bridges /dʒɪz / or /dʒəz /, wishes /shɪz / or /shəz /

 The pronunciation of the S at the end of words in English

 The pronunciation of the final S in plural words and verbs in the third person
depend on the final consonant sound before that S.

Exposure, exercise and explanation of the problem 2:

Students can be exposed to listen the different pronunciation of the two cases of “s”.
Place each sound at the top of each column. Students are asked to notice and try the
three kind of sounds in verb/noun and students have to say it in the third person
singular or plural. Ask the student which verb/column belongs to, depending on the
pronunciation.

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

Table 1.

Moreover, the students will work in teams to practice, pronunciation and to find the
modifications of each word in the column. Then, the teacher have the right moment to
explain the sounds and practice pronunciation of each case. Students can have the
opportunity of listening an audio and classify each verb/noun with the “s” or “z” sound
at the moment of pronouncing these. Then, they compare the activity with a partner
and the teacher can call some students at random to say them and also to express a
sentence by using this sound; next, he/she gives them the appropriate feedback
according to their accuracy and fluency. Tice (2004) has mentioned that “for drills to be
meaningful, learners need to understand what they are being asked to say.in this
sense, the mission of the teacher when drilling is to provide students with a model of a
certain structure or just to repeat a word they have already seen and get them
pronouncing in unison. A strategy like this benefits learners to shape their confidence at
the moment to speak, however, drilling exercises should not be used too much time
because it can be exhausting and unexciting.

Further activities which may be implemented from well-known texts like: Pre-
Intermediate series by Oxenden, Latham-Koenig & Seligson (2001). In the first
activity (Table1.) with the three sounds being represented by the phonetic symbols. In
order to present those to children these symbols can be represented with a picture of a
word in which this sounds appears, for example, /s/ for snake. It is a great way for them
to memorize and practice the new sounds. Then, students can listen and check their
answers.

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

Finally, we are also confronted of working with millennials students which are involved
in technological free time activities, in this way, we need to include media interactive
tools and applications on line like Kahoot or Quizlet that are free and available for
teachers around the world, those can be configured to students on pronunciation and
intonation, activities which involve matching words to sounds in individual or teamwork
tasks.

CONCLUSION

Thanks to this assignment I recognized myself in a profession that is constantly

confronted, and now is required to include pronunciation as a vital practice to help
students to communicate without less difficulties. We must take additional
pronunciation elements in our lessons that allow solid practices. In this way,
pronunciation is perhaps the greatest challenge for me and my learners, in order to
master great processes with better result day by day. That is way, it has been included
in more curriculum, materials and even applications as part of the fundamental tools to
learn languages.

To conclude, it seems to me that nowadays teachers have increased pronunciation

knowledge as a way to guide their students in their pronunciation problems, according
to Krashen (1996). ..”in the foreign language classroom that students start establishing
pronunciation habits In this way, teachers can guide their learners to achieve the
appropriate pronunciation by applying drilling exercises and contextualizing these into
communicative activities.”

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 Assignment – FP005 TP

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

1. Aufderhaar, C. (2004). Learner Views on Using Authentic Audio to Aid

Pronunciation. TESOL. Quarterly,38 (4), 735-746.
2. Bell, R. T. (1981). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. Approaches and Methods
in Language Teaching . London: Bastford Academic and Educational Ltd.
3. Griffiths, B. (May de 2007). Integrating pronunciation into classroom activities.
Obtenido de http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/pron/integrating/shtml.
4. Jenkins, J. (1998): “Which pronunciation norms and models for English as an
International language?”. In ELT Journal 52/2, pp.119 -126

5. Krashen, S. D. (1996). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the

classroom. . New York, NY: Prentice Hall International.

6. Seidlhofer, B., (2003), “A Concept of International English and Related Issues:

From 'Real English' to 'Realistic English'?” University of Vienna.
7. Tice, J. (2004). Drilling 1. British Council & BBC. Obtenido de Retrieved from
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/drilling-1.
8. Oxenden, C., Latham-Koenig, C. & Seligson, P. (2011): New English File: Pre-
intermediate - Student’s Book and Workbook. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

9. Underhill, A. (1998). “Get an ear for pronunciation”. El Gazette Issue , p.10.

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