2019-2020

Tema 7

Sistema fonológico de la lengua inglesa I: Las vocales. Símbolos

fonéticos. Formas fuertes y formas débiles. Los diptongos. Símbolos
fonéticos. Comparación con el sistema fonológico de la lengua o
lenguas oficiales de la Comunidad Autónoma correspondiente.

Phonological system of the English Language I. Vowels. Phonetic

symbols. Strong and weak forms. Diphthongs. Phonetic symbols.
Comparison with the phonological system of the official language or
languages of the corresponding autonomous community.

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© 2020, Granada, by Stephen Pearse Hughes. All rights reserved. Any copying or
distribution, partial or otherwise, may not be undertaken without the express authorisation of
the authors.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Vowels and their phonetic symbols
2.1 Monophthongs
2.2 Spelling rules and vowel sounds
2.2Diphthongs
2.3 Strong forms, weak forms and vowel length
2.4 Comparison with Spanish
3. Pedagogical and curricular considerations
4. Conclusion
References

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1. Introduction
In 2018 the Council of Europe published an updated Companion Guide to the Common European
Framework (CoE, 2018), and one of the major innovations in this document was the inclusion of a
completely new set of descriptors for ‘phonological control’. Indeed, for a long time, many
language educators, teachers and learners have paid considerably less attention to the question
of pronunciation than other areas. Yet intelligible pronunciation plays a major role in effective
communication and failure to produce sounds correctly in the foreign language can lead to several
problems. Native listeners, for example, may perceive poor pronunciation to indicate a lack of
communicative competence and might even judge what they hear as being unpleasant. In addition
to a potential breakdown in communication, then, bad pronunciation could also lead to problems
in social integration. When speakers find themselves abroad, all of this can potentially have a
significant negative effect on daily functional activities, academic achievement, and success in
finding a job or in making friends. It is not surprising, then, to see that developing good
pronunciation is considered in national legislation (MECD, 2015a) and in regional curricular
guidelines (Consejería, 2016a; Consejería, 2016b).
Helping students to develop intelligible pronunciation is not always an easy task and vowel
sounds, which is the focus of this topic, represent one of the biggest challenges for non-native
speakers of English, both in terms of oral recognition and production and in spelling. English is not
a purely phonetic language and pronunciation depends on how words are spoken and not
necessarily on how they are written. This mismatch can represent a major difficulty for students
and can have a serious impact on how they pronounce sounds in ways which affect the
pronunciation of individual phonemes and, indeed, the overall rhythm and intonation of
utterances.
This topic, then, deals with the treatment of vowels within the phonological system of the
English language and includes the corresponding strong and weak forms of vowels as well as
monophthongs and diphthongs. Furthermore, a number of the more challenging aspects in
relation to the production of vowel sounds by L2 English learners from Spain and will be discussed
and some suggestions will be tentatively made as with regards to important pedagogical
considerations.

2. Vowels and their phonetic symbols

Certain vowel sounds may exist in one language but are not employed in others, and while there
are only 5 written vowels in the English language, the classification is much more complicated than

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that of consonants. This challenge in classifying vowels is due to a number of factors (Brinton:
1984: 34):
• Articulation occurs by moving the tongue; this means that many different vowel sounds
are possible with no distinct boundaries;
• There are important regional and individual variations in the inventory of vowel sounds;
• Academic authorities provide different analyses of vowel sounds and in their transcription
methods;
• Many vowel sounds are produced without complete articulatory gestures (e.g. mouth
open or teeth clenched or without lip rounding);
• Vowels may differ depending on length and quality, but these differences are not always
readily appreciable;
• It is difficult to know exactly where the tongue is placed when vowel sounds are produced;
this is especially true for central and back vowels (discussed below).

Being able to identify exactly how they vowels produced, then, is somewhat problematic; the
challenges here are compounded for non-native speakers whose own language does not employ
specific sounds pertaining to the English language.

2.1 Monophthongs
As indicated by Brinton (1984), monophthongs are simple vowel sounds in which the position of
the tongue is generally static and there is a relatively constant acoustic property.

Moving from the front of the back to the mouth, the high front monophthongs are vocalised with
the high point of the tongue in the palatal region, all front vowels in English are unrounded and in
the high front area. There are two vowel sounds here: /i:/ (he, she, bead or free) and /I/, (as in hit,
kid, did). In the mid frontal area, the sound /e/ (as in head or bed) is produced, while at the lower
frontal area, the sound /æ/ (as in apple or had) and is made. In the central area, we have the
sounds / ə/ (worker, teacher), /ɜː/ (girl, bird), / ʌ/ (money and the strong form of but), /a:/ (card,
heart). At the top back area, we have /ʊ/ (foot, good) and / uː/ (brood, shoe) and at the mid to
bottom back area we have / ɔː/ (talk, walk) and / ɒ/ (dog, hot).

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 Of all these sounds, it is necessary to highlight the mid-central vowel sound /ə/, also known as
“schwa”, from the Hebrew letter which is employed in the phonetic symbol. This is the most
common sound in the English language for a number of reasons: firstly, as a stress-timed language,
with many unstressed words in speech (e.g. auxiliary verbs, linkers and prepositions), English has
many syllables which are pronounced faster, which means vocalic purity is lost. In addition, the
schwa sound is common before the final /r/ sound, which is a common word ending. As Brinton
(1984) indicates, vowel sounds are often centralised to schwa when they lose stress; this is
particularly visible in word pairs such as catastrophe /æ/ /catastrophic /ə/ – propose /əʊ/
proposition /ə/ – absolve /ɒ/ – absolution /ə/.
In addition to this, it is important to point out that in different varieties of English vowel sounds
may undergo changes. Jansen (1993) indicates that vowels are noticeably longer before voiced
consonants, they may be nasalised if a consonant follows (hand is normally /hænd/, but may be
/hæ̃ nd/.

2.2 Spelling rules and vowel sounds

A further consideration to take into account is the strength or weakness of the
orthographic rules governing the spelling of certain vowels. In this sense, it is possible to
distinguish between more frequent and less frequent spelling forms of vowel sounds, including
the following:
Vowel Frequent spelling Less frequent spelling
/i:/ • ee – meet, teeth • ey – key
• ea – beat, eat • ei – deceive
• ie – thief, relief • ay - quay
• e – obese
• y – nationality, company
/I/ • i – fit, did, exit • e – watches
/e/ • e – send, bent • a – many
• ea – dread, instead • ai – said
/æ/ • a – hat, lamb • ai – plait
/ə/ • a – about, • u – figure
• e –brother • ou – favourite
• i – responsible
• o – obtuse
/a:/ • a - hard • ea - heart
/ɜː/ • e – her • o – word
• u – nurse • ea – earth
• i - girl
/uː/ • oo – mood • ue – blue
• o – grove • oe - shoe

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 • ou – soup
• u - crude
/ɔː/ • a - all • ore - store
• oo - door • au - slaughter
• ou - four • aw - awe
/ɒ/ • o - stop • ou - bought
• a - want • au - austere
/ʊ/ • oo - foot • ou - would
• u – put • o - wolves
/ʌ/ • o - money • ou - tongue
• u - cup • oo - blood

The above vowel sounds are based on standard British English, and while they coincide to a large
degree with North American English, there are some exceptions, for example: 'stop' /stɒp/ (British
English) /stɑːp/ (American English). As discussed below, variations also occur with dipthongs.

2.3 Diphthongs

Diphthongs are vowel sounds which move from one semi-vowel sound to another. They are

formed on the basis of the movement of the tongue from the beginning to the ending position

through a process known as ‘gliding’. As (Brinton, 1984) indicates, there is a relatively wide range

of beginning and ending points of diphthongs and they are not necessarily longer than

monophthongs. In addition, there are two types of diphthongs: falling diphthongs (decreasing

sonority) and rising diphthongs (increasing sonority). These diphthongs are included below

(Brinton, 1984: 39-40)

Diphthong Examples Starting and finishing points in mouth

eɪ they, way, day Mid front to high front
əʊ boat, most Mid back to high back
ɪə dear, near High front to mid front
aɪ night, eye Low central to high front
aʊ hound, down Low central to high back
eə dare, square Mid front to low central
ɔɪ boy, voice Mid back to high front

Again, variations between British and American pronunciation may include:

• boat: /bəʊt/ in British English and /boʊt/ in American English

• near: : /nɪə(r) / in British English and /nɪr/ in American English

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 • dare: /deə(r)/ in British English and /der/ in American English

2.4 Strong forms, weak forms and vowel length

There are a number of vowel sounds which take weak forms. The first of these is the previously
discussed schwa /ə/. This sound is always weak and, given the fact that syllables are more
frequently unstressed, this is the most common vowel sound. Other examples include /I/, which
have a strong form and a weak form in insistence (/ɪnˈsɪstəns/).
Many vowels in English may be stressed depending on the word type or position within an
utterance. In the first case, stress may distinguish different parts of speech (Brinton, 1984: 58-59),
as in the following cases, where the noun has the stress placed on the first syllable and the verb
on the second:

• Record: noun - / ˈrekɔːd/ verb - /rɪˈkɔːd/

• Insult: noun - /ˈɪnsʌlt/ verb - / ɪnˈsʌlt/
• Produce: noun - /ˈprɒdjuːs/ verb - /prəˈdjuːs/

Stress may also be used to distinguish different word types within the same semantic group. For
example:
Concrete noun Abstract noun Adjective
photograph photographic photography
diplomat diplomacy diplomatic

Apart from these distinguishing features, stress on certain vowels may also occur within specific
functional contexts. This is perhaps best illustrated in the following table provided by Brinton
(1984: 60).

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It is worth noticing that weak forms often take place with auxiliary and modal verbs unless the
speaker particularly wants to emphasise a certain word. For example:
• I can do it (normal) -I can do it (e.g. to contradict another speaker)
• She wouldn’t let us go out (normal) - She wouldn’t let us go out (highlighting negation)
• Was he here? – Yes, he was (short answer)

Similarly, prepositions often take a weak form within sentences. However, when they appear at
the end of questions, they do not. For example:
• It was written by me - Who was it written by?
• The present is for her - Who is the present for?

Other word forms which include stressed or unstressed patterns depending on the context are
articles, possessives and conjunctions. For example:
• The best thing to do is wait – He is the best player in the world
• It’s her dog – It’s not my dog. It’s her dog.
• I will sit and wait – You need to look and listen. Not just look.

Very much related to word and sentence stress is the question of vowel length. As Gilbert (2008)
indicates, vowel length between consonants may vary for several reasons (e.g. the type of
consonant that follows the vowel); it is stress, however, that acts as the main determinant in vowel
length.
Short vowels
I ʊ ʌ ɒ ə e æ
Long vowels
i: uː a: ɔː ɜː

2.5 Comparison with Spanish

For non-native speakers of English vowels and stress within the phonological system often
represent a challenge. In Spanish, there are a total of 5 vowel sounds (/i/, /e/, /a/, /o/ and /u/)
and 5 diphthongs (/ei/, /ai/, /oi/, /eu/, /au/), whereas there are 12 monophthongs and 7
diphthongs in English (other sources cite 8). This immediately tells us that there are certain vowel
sounds in English which simply do not exist within the Spanish language. One problem arising from
this is the use of existing Spanish vowels to replace ones which do not exist in the language, such
as / ʌ /, /æ/ and /a:/. At the same time, Spanish vowel sounds are short and generally static, while,
as previously discussed, in English we have short and long vowels. This variance can cause certain
problems among Spanish learners of English, for example, in terms of distinguishing and producing

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sounds with minimal differences, such as full-fool, cat-cart or dip-deep; it is also particularly
noticeable when students present problems in recognising and producing the different sounds
involved in numbers such as fifteen-fifty, sixteen-sixty, seventeen-seventy, etc.
Even when similar sounds do exist in Spanish, such as the diphthong /ei/ (Spanish) and /eI/
(English) there may also be interferences from the written word, for example in the word ‘break’
/breɪk/, often pronounced /break/. This is particularly problematic for the schwa sound /ə/, which
does not exist in Spanish and which is the most commonly used sound in English. Often, the
tendency here is again to use a pronunciation form which is based on spelling.
A further difficulty arises in the timing of spoken utterances. English is a stress-timed language,
whereas Spanish is syllable timed. Sounds which are unstressed in English, then, are often
incorrectly stressed in Spanish. For example, in the question ‘What are you doing?’ the words you
and are could be incorrectly stressed:
• ˈwɑt ɑr juː ˈduːɪŋ? (normal)
• ˈwɑt ˈɑr ˈjuː ˈduːɪŋ? (not normal unless deliberately stressed)

Stress and rhythm can also be affected when there is an inclusion of extra vowel sounds. This is
the case, for example, when speakers introduce a 'schwa' sound at the beginning of words which
start with the letter ‘s’ and a consonant (school, Spanish, student). The inclusion of this
"epenthetic" vowel means that an extra syllable is added to words and can have negative effects
on the overall rhythm and intonation of utterances.
The 'schwa' sound is, in itself, problematic since speakers of Spanish often tend to pronounce
vowel sounds as they are written; for example, 'computer' (/ kəmˈpjuːtə(r)/) may be
mispronounced as / komˈpjuter/ or 'responsible' (/rɪˈspɒnsəbl/) as /rɪˈspɒnsibl/.
Another problem may occur with the rounding of certain vowel sounds (i.e. rounding of the
lips). In English, for example, the vowel sound /i:/ is rounded, but /i/ is not. A common occurrence,
here, for example, is to see an incorrect rounding of the first syllable in the word little. The end
result is a distortion in the quality of the sound.
Mother tongue influence may also be found in nasalisation, which often occurs in Spanish
vowels which precede the letter ‘n’ (e.g. the number 5 is / θĩŋko̞ /). This can lead to students
wrongly nasalising sounds that similarly precede the ‘n’ sound in English.
Another common occurrence is the inclusion a schwa sound at the beginning of words which
start with the letter ‘s’ and a consonant (school, Spanish, student). The inclusion of this

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"epenthetic" vowel means that an extra syllable is added to words and can have negative effects
on the overall rhythm and intonation of utterances.
Finally, the production of diphthongs also represents a challenge for speakers of Spanish; in
particular, difficulties arise in the sounds /oʊ/ (as in 'wrote', 'old') and sometimes with /eɪ/ (as in
'date') and /aɪ/ (as in 'right'). This production of two blended vowel sounds, seen, for example in
the word 'coat' (/kəʊt/) may be erroneously converted into two discrete sounds (/koat/).
As well as the difficulties already inherent in the pronunciation of English, then, it would seem
that there are a number of error types which are more frequently present among speakers of
Spanish. This would suggest, perhaps, that there is a need for our students to focus more
specifically on these problematic areas.

3. Pedagogical and curricular considerations

As mentioned at the beginning of this topic, pronunciation is essential for effective communication
and this is recognised in national legislation Royal Decree 1105 (MECD, 2015) and regional
curricular guidelines (Consejería, 2016a; 2016b).
In the specific case of Andalusia1, younger students (1st year of Compulsory Secondary
Education), speakers should be able to pronounce and intonate in an intelligible way, even though
an accent might be noticeable or there are mistakes in pronunciation (see Consejería, 2016a). By
the time they reach their final year of upper secondary education (2º Bachillerato), students are
required to be able to orally produce a standard variety of the language and to employ the most
common patterns of stress, rhythm and intonation (see Consejería, 2016b).
The teaching of pronunciation is a complex area and not all language learning approaches focus
on linguistic aspects in the same way. Certain methods, for example, might advocate the use of
the phonemic alphabet since it may help students know the pronunciation when no audio is
available and might help them to focus on particular sounds; others believe this approach simply
confuses students and might opt for audio references which are widely available online (Harmer,
2012).
The pronunciation of vowel sounds, however, involves much more than individual phonemes.
English pronunciation is influenced by word and sentence stress, intonation and word-linking. The
complexities are considerable and a large amount of time is needed for the development of other
communication skills. In addition to time concerns and other challenges, Gilbert (2008) mentions

1
It is the same in MECD (2015a) in reference to 1º-3º ESO and Bachillerato

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the fact that the presentation and practise of pronunciation is often tedious and treated in
isolation from other skills; this often leads to a lack of student interest.
Another important question is the fact that it is extremely difficult for students to attain native
like pronunciation even after years of study and acquisition. Indeed, this concern is addressed in
the recently published Companion Volume and new descriptors for the Common European
Framework (CoE, 2018), which states that the previous ‘focus on accent and on accuracy instead
of on intelligibility has been detrimental to the development of the teaching of pronunciation’.
This does not mean that pronunciation should not be given its due attention, on the contrary;
it has been shown that by working on pronunciation, learners may significantly enhance their
understanding and production of English sounds. In order for students to effectively develop their
pronunciation, several considerations would need to be in place. Firstly, students need to have
contact with rich and varied input (see Krashen, 1985). Additionally, students need opportunities
for noticing the language (Schmidt, 1990). One way in which students may receive purposeful
input and, through repeated encounters with the language, notice and acquire correct forms of
pronunciation is through frequent contact contextualised examples (see Nation, 2001), as in the
case of intensive and extensive listening. Students also require opportunities to practise the
language in order to consolidate what they have learned (see Swain, 1985). Throughout this
process, it would seem useful for students to receive support through prompts and visual aids as
well as the presentation of pronunciation patterns within a clear and meaningful context (see
Harmer, 2012).
According to Newby et al. (2007) an important language teacher ability is that of being able to
“evaluate and select a variety of techniques to make learners aware of, discriminate and
pronounce sounds in the target language”. A number of activities to help students with
pronunciation could include these three areas of discrimination, awareness and pronunciation of
sounds. Some possible techniques are presented below. However, it would, perhaps be more
useful to focus firstly on the prosodic elements (rhythm and melody) of the language (Gilbert,
2008).
In terms of more discrete areas of practice, a number of examples are provided below. A
number of these may also incorporate prosodic practice:

Discrimination and awareness-raising

• Use of minimal pairs (nice – niece, chip-cheap) to help students focus on vowel
pronunciation and length

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 • Marking vowel reduction in simultaneously heard and read texts
• Student identification of correct and incorrect forms of pronunciation
• Categorizing. Students place words in categories which share similar sound characteristics.
• Using diagrams or gestures. For example: positions of the mouth to show rounded and
unrounded vowel sounds
• Use of other visuals. For example, stretching and contracting an elastic band to highlight
long and short vowels (e.g. sixteen - stretched vs. sixty - contracted)

Production of sounds
• Imitation. Students may imitate pronunciation forms, for example, in rehearsed dialogues
which have been previously heard
• Backchanting (starting with end words in a phrase or sentence and gradually joining other
words) in order to link words and sounds: e.g. is - it is – I know it is – I’m sure I know it is.
• Tongue-twisters. Authentic tongue-twisters used in English-speaking countries may be
used to practise specific vowel sounds.
• Repeating sounds from memory rather than listen and repeat
• Creating similar sound patterns from previously heard sounds
• Dictogloss. In this procedure, students hear a passage and must recreate it through
listening, pair or group speaking and writing.

There are many other activity types that could be employed to help students increase their
awareness, comprehension and production of words with a particular focus on the vowel sound.
It would, however, appear necessary to ensure that activities do not merely consist in repetitive
drilling, but would also have some other purpose. Here there are a number of ways in which
students can be given useful practice scenarios and feedback; some of these can include:
• dramatization - this contextualises the language in a way which can be highly motivating
for learners
• music and songs - in addition to practising sounds, music has a special appeal to many
adolescent language learners
• games and mimicking - this can help students focus on particular sounds in a way which
has an element of fun

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 • new technologies - computer-assisted pronunciation activities have been shown to be
effective ways in significantly improving student pronunciation.

In addition, the students’ needs should also have a place in ESL/EFL pronunciation instruction. As
teachers who listen to their perceptions and impressions about pronunciation, we can integrate
students in the teaching/learning process and establish a positive educational rapport with them
in this area, which undoubtedly has a high level of importance on their communicative
competence.

4. Conclusion
Despite the challenges involved, investing time in pronunciation training would seem to be a
worthwhile endeavour. Poor pronunciation can lead to misunderstandings and even isolation and
can seriously limit development in areas of study, work and social life. By gaining mastery in
pronunciation, then, students are developing a fundamental part of their language skills which
increases their chances of success not just in the language itself, but in other important areas. It
would appear that students need to have a wide range of opportunities to hear, notice and
practise their pronunciation skills.
In specific terms of vowel sounds, there are a number of considerations which make this area
of pronunciation particularly challenging yet at the same time important. Firstly, the most
common sound in the English language is the schwa sound. It would appear necessary to give
students opportunities to notice and practice this sound both to aid comprehension and facilitate
expression. The remainder of the monophthongs and diphthongs, as well as other strong and weak
sounds also require practice, and it is possible perhaps also to highlight some of the major
differences between the pronunciation of vowel sounds in British and American English. It would
appear necessary, however, to focus on the most salient and frequent sounds within meaningful
contexts and to allow for processes of conscious learning or noticing and less conscious forms of
acquisition.
While vowel sounds are just one area, it is, nonetheless, a fundamental one and plays an
essential role in listening comprehension and in terms of the intelligibility of student utterances
and, hence, in their communicative competence. Problems may arise, however, due to
interference from the mother tongue. Certain vowel sounds do not come naturally to native
Spanish-speaking students, and specific efforts are required to address this. Given all of these
reasons and taking into account its inclusion in national and regional legislation for the language

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learning curricula, the treatment of vowel sounds within the area of pronunciation merits careful
planning and varied treatment inside and outside of class.

Legislation
Consejería (2016a). Orden de 14 de julio de 2016, por la que se desarrolla el currículo
correspondiente a la educación Secundaria Obligatoria en la Comunidad Autónoma de
Andalucía.
Consejería (2016b). Orden de 14 de julio de 2016, por la que se desarrolla el currículo
correspondiente al Bachillerato en la Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía.
MECD (2015a). RD 1105/2014, de 26 de diciembre, por el que se establece el currículo básico de
la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato.
MECD (2015b). Orden ECD/65/2015, de 21 de enero, por la que se describen las relaciones entre
las competencias, los contenidos y los criterios de evaluación de la educación primaria, la
educación secundaria obligatoria y el bachillerato.

References

Brinton, L. J. (1984). The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam:

John Benjamins.
CoE (2018). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching,
assessment. Companion volume with new descriptors.
Gilbert, J.B. (2008) Teaching Pronunciation: Using the Prosody Pyramid. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Harmer, J. (2012). Essential teacher knowledge: Core concepts in English language teaching.
Harlow: Pearson.
Krashen, S. D. (1985). The Input hypothesis: Issues and implications. London: Longman.
Nation, P. (2001). Vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Newby, D. et al.(2007). European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages. Graz: European
Centre for Modern Languages.
Schmidt, R. W. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics,
11, 129-158.
Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and
comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass, & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in
second language acquisition (pp. 235-253). Rowley, MZ: Newbury House.

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