MASARYK UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

Supplementary Materials for Teaching English

Vowels and Consonants

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2021

Supervisor: Ph.Dr. Alena Dobrovolná, Ph.D. Author: Bc. Pavel Nikl

Bibliographic note

NIKL, Pavel. Supplementary Materials for Teaching English Vowels and Consonants. Brno:
Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature,
2021. 54 pages. Supervisor: Ph.Dr. Alena Dobrovolná, Ph.D.
Declaration

I hereby declare that I worked on the following thesis on my own and that I used only
the sources listed in the bibliography.

Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracoval samostatně, s využitím

pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním
řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000
Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých
zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

V Brně dne ……………. …..……………………..

Bc. Pavel Nikl

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Ph.Dr. Alena Dobrovolná, Ph.D. for her kind, patient and
valuable advice and the guidance that she provided during my work on the thesis.

I would also like to thank my father Jiří Nikl for help with the graphical processing.
Abstract

The aim of the present thesis is to design and create handouts for teaching phonetic symbols
and phonemes for Czech learners of English. The theoretical part deals with key terms in
pronunciation, phonemes, and the basic differences between the Czech and English speech
systems are outlined. The typical mistakes in English pronunciation by Czech speakers are
presented along with factors that influence teaching and learning pronunciation.

The practical part is focused on the design and creation process of the teaching materials. It
also covers research conducted with the use of the handouts during meetings with secondary-
school learners and the analysis of their pronunciation of single words before and after the
author’s intervention.

Anotace
Cílem této bakalářské práce je navrhnout a zhotovit výukové materiály pro výuku fonetických
symbolů pro české mluvčí anglického jazyka. Teoretická část se zabývá několika klíčovými
pojmy k tématu výslovnosti, jednotlivými fonetickými symboly a fonémy včetně základních
rozdílů mezi českým a anglickým fonetickým systémem. Dále jsou popsány nejčastější chyby
českých mluvčích při výslovnosti angličtiny a faktory výuky a učení se anglické výslovnosti.

Praktická část se věnuje procesu návrhu a tvorby výukových materiálů. Další částí je výzkum
provedený s jejich použitím zaměřený na výslovnost jednotlivých slov žáků druhého stupně
základní školy před a po intervenci autora materiálů.

Keywords:

Pronunciation, phonetic symbols, phonemes, vowels, consonants, lower-secondary school,

teaching materials

Klíčová slova:

Výslovnost, fonetické symboly, fonémy, samohlásky, souhlásky, základní škola, výukové

materiály
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 9

1 Pronunciation – basic terms .............................................................................................. 11

1.1. Studying pronunciation – the aspect of phonetics and phonology ............................ 11

1.2. Suprasegmental features of pronunciation ................................................................ 12

1.2.1. Stress .................................................................................................................. 12

1.2.2. Intonation ........................................................................................................... 13

1.3. Received Pronunciation – Standard English ............................................................. 13

1.4. Phonetic and phonemic transcription ........................................................................ 14

1.5. IPA Chart and phonemic chart .................................................................................. 15

1.6. Phonemes and phonetic symbols ............................................................................... 16

2 Sounds of English ............................................................................................................. 17

2.1. Where and how .......................................................................................................... 17

2.2. Vowels ....................................................................................................................... 18

2.2.1. Monophthongs .................................................................................................... 19

2.2.2. Diphthongs ......................................................................................................... 21

2.2.3. Differences in English and Czech vowels sounds .............................................. 21

2.3. Consonants................................................................................................................. 22

2.3.1. Dividing consonants according to the place of articulation ............................... 23

2.3.2. Dividing consonants according to the manner of articulation ............................ 24

2.3.3. Differences in English and Czech consonant sounds ......................................... 25

3 The most common Czech mistakes in pronunciation of English ...................................... 26

3.1. Mispronunciation of vowel sounds............................................................................ 26

3.2. Mispronunciation of consonant sounds ..................................................................... 28

3.3. Mistakes in suprasegmental features of English pronunciation ................................ 29

4 Teaching and learning pronunciation ................................................................................ 30

4.1. Reason for teaching pronunciation ............................................................................ 30

 4.2. The standards for teaching pronunciation of a foreign language in Czech primary
school 32

4.3. The teacher’s role ...................................................................................................... 33

4.4. The Learners’ role ..................................................................................................... 34

4.5. Factors that affect pronunciation acquiring ............................................................... 35

4.5.1. Age ..................................................................................................................... 35

4.5.2. Native language .................................................................................................. 35

4.5.3. Exposure and use ................................................................................................ 36

4.5.4. Personality and attitude ...................................................................................... 36

4.5.5. Phonetic ability ................................................................................................... 36

4.5.6. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 37

5 Practical part ..................................................................................................................... 38

5.1. The aim of the practical part ...................................................................................... 39

5.2. Materials .................................................................................................................... 39

5.2.1. Mind maps .......................................................................................................... 39

5.2.2. Word classes ....................................................................................................... 40

5.2.3. White circle window and the orange part in the consonant handouts ................ 41

5.2.4. Voiced and unvoiced consonant pairs ................................................................ 41

5.3. The research aim ........................................................................................................ 41

5.4. Pre-research ............................................................................................................... 42

5.5. First recordings .......................................................................................................... 43

5.6. Intervention meetings ................................................................................................ 44

5.7. Second recordings...................................................................................................... 45

5.8. Research findings ...................................................................................................... 46

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 48

List of references ...................................................................................................................... 50

List of figures and tables .......................................................................................................... 52

Résumé ..................................................................................................................................... 53

Appendices ............................................................................................................................... 54
Introduction
English or another foreign language is compulsory at Czech primary schools from the third
grade. It is up to any school, whether English is included earlier, for example, from the first
grade. Among the language skills, teaching pronunciation can be considered the most difficult
thing for many teachers. There are several reasons why.

One of them could be that it has the most personal character, due to the fact that it is mainly
provided by a teacher. Hence, it is up to him/her how it would be transferred to their learners.
Furthermore, the other skills such as grammar and vocabulary are easier to teach, assess and
grade. Grammar and vocabulary are usually provided by the textbook which offers a pattern
to stick with. It is difficult to argue to what extent teachers follow the rule ‘Don’t teach the
book, teach the language.’ Nevertheless, textbooks seldom supply materials or activities for
teaching pronunciation and it is up to the teachers how to deal with this challenging task.

The term pronunciation is also broad as it covers studies in phonetics and phonology.
Moreover, it further divides into segmental and suprasegmental features of pronunciation and
it is difficult for teachers to pass the knowledge adequately and effectively. Learners often
come to these findings for the first time in English lessons because these topics are not
covered in the Czech lessons as the two speech systems differ in many significant aspects.

One of the basic differences is the number of phonemes and their symbols as some of them
don’t exist in the other speech system and vice versa. That is why the aim of the present thesis
is to design and create materials for teaching English vowels and some of the consonants
which are considered difficult to acquire and pronounce by Czech learners.

The first chapter of the theoretical part examines some basic pronunciation terms in order to
get a brief summary of its aspects. The second chapter focuses on the segmental parts of
English pronunciation and compares the most significant differences to Czech language. In
the third chapter, the most common Czech mistakes in pronunciation of English are
highlighted. The last chapter deals with the aspects influencing teaching and learning
pronunciation, such as the native language, the role of the teacher, learner’s attitude, etc.

The main aim of the practical part is devoted to the process of designing and creating the
materials which are attached in the appendixes.

9
Research was conducted at the lower-secondary school in order to implement the handouts
into the teaching process and to get learners’ perspectives and tips for correction and
improvement.

Overall, my intention is to provide supplementary materials for teaching phonetic symbols for
primary and lower-secondary school.

10
1 Pronunciation – basic terms
In the first chapter, we will look at the main features of pronunciation but firstly, the
definition of pronunciation should be mentioned. Hewings (2008: 3) defines pronunciation as
“the components of speech which together combine to form the pronunciation of a language.
These components range from the individual sounds that make up speech, to the way in which
pitch – the rise and fall of the voice – is used to convey meaning.” By the components, he
means the individual sounds, syllables, words, and words in connected speech (ibid).

When talking about pronunciation, authors such as Cruttenden (2008), Roach (2009) and
Kelly (200) claim that the study of pronunciation consists of two fields, namely phonetics and
phonology.

1.1. Studying pronunciation – the aspect of phonetics and

phonology
According to Daniel (2011: 1), phonetics is ”a scientific study of speech that represents how
speech sounds are produced and perceived and what acoustic properties they have. It seeks to
trace the processes physiologically involved in sound production.”

Gut (2009) distinguishes three different areas of phonetics: articulatory phonetics, acoustic
phonetics, and auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics focuses on organs and muscles used
by speakers to produce speech. Acoustic phonetics analyses the physical properties of speech
sounds as they travel in the air between a speaker’s mouth and a listener’s ear. And, auditory
phonetics is concerned with the effect that those sounds have when they reach the listener’s
ear and brain. Kelly (2000) provides more detailed dividing as he adds two more areas of
phonetic studies, namely physiological area and perceptual area. These can be simply
described as the first and the last phase – creating the speech, and its perception by the
listener’s brain. “Phonetic is thus a linguistic field that draws heavily on other scientific
disciplines including anatomy, physiology, neurology, and physics.” (Gut 2009: 6)

If phonetics is focused on the physical reality of speech sounds, phonology is primarily

concerned with how we interpret and systematise sounds. Kelly (2000) states that phonology
deals with establishing a system and the pattern of the sounds which exist within a language.
The study of the phonology of English looks at the segmental and suprasegmental features of
the language.

11
The segmental features of English cover the vowels and consonants and learning and teaching
them is the main aim of this thesis. Therefore, segments are examined in greater detail in the
second chapter. In opposite, the suprasegmental features are only dealt with in the next
subchapters as they are not so significant for the purpose of this paper.

1.2. Suprasegmental features of pronunciation

Cruttenden (2008) claims that the suprasegmental features, also called prosodic, operate on
longer stretches of utterances than the sounds of phonemes. According to Kelly (2000), the
building blocks of suprasegmental features are stress, intonation, and how sounds change in
connected speech. As for stress, we can identify stress in individual words as well as in
sentences.

1.2.1. Stress
In general, the words stress in English is considered complicated because it seems
unpredictable. However, Roach (2009) proposes some basic rules or regularities which help to
identify the stress in simple words. The stress or accent in a single word can be characterised
as the louder (strong) syllable. The terms of strong or weak syllable play their significant role
in their distribution within a word as a weak syllable (often contains ‘schwa’) is never
stressed. The strong syllable has its prominence in the word. Another signs of such
prominence are the length of the stressed syllable, its pitch, and the vowel quality in the
stressed syllable which is different from neighbouring vowels within a word. Kelly (2000)
adds that stress in single words is usually indicated in dictionaries as ‘.
As the issue of the word stress is not significant for this thesis, only the crucial facts will be
presented. According to Roach (2009), stress placement depends on:

a) whether the word is morphologically simple, complex, or a compound word;

b) what grammatical category of the word is, whether it is a noun, verb, adjective;
c) how many syllables the word has;
d) phonological structure of the syllables.

The sentence stress1 can be defined as a pattern of stressed and unstressed words across a
sentence. Normally this emphasis is on words that carry important information, although this
can change significantly, depending on the specific meaning the speaker wants to
communicate.

1 https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/sentence-stress

12
 1.2.2. Intonation
When talking about intonation, we usually refer to “It’s not what you say, but the way you say
it.” Underhill (2005: 74) claims that the manner of speaking is more important than the choice
of words. “Within any given context an utterance can give a variety of different meanings
according to the intonation patterns chosen by the speaker.” Lane (2010: 85) states that in
discourse:
“Intonation identifies important information for the listener and shows how the different
pieces of information relate to each other. Intonation also establishes a level of engagement
between the speaker and the listener, and manages conversational turns“.

Particular intonation patterns are also common in grammar as they help to distinguish
statements from questions or direct object nouns (I know Peter.) from direct object address
nouns (I know, Peter.) The topic of intonation and stress is so broad that each of them may
cover its separate thesis (ibid).

1.3. Received Pronunciation – Standard English

There are many varieties of English and nowadays learners are exposed to many of them. As
using the Internet and access to unlimited sources of spoken language is available, it is
important to set a standard of what to teach. The Received Pronunciation and the General
American are the two main pronunciation models to follow.

According to Roach (2009), Received Pronunciation (RP) is defined as the “standard” English
or BBC English is recommended for foreign learners studying British English as it has always
been chosen by British teachers and it has been most fully described and used as the basis for
textbooks and pronouncing dictionaries. In other words, this accent could serve as the
standard model for teaching English pronunciation for EFL learners.

Collin and Mees (2013) add that RP can be also regarded as a classic example of a prestige
accent as only a small percentage of the population speaks it. Another reason for calling RP a
prestige accent may be the fact that the London area has been historically richer than the rest
of the United Kingdom (Dalton and Siedlhofer, 1994).

The Received Pronunciation and the General American present standard models to follow for
English teachers and learners across the globe. However, intelligibility remains the main goal
in teaching pronunciation. That is why it is worth thinking of choosing and sticking with a
pronunciation model. Some authors propose various facts to consider. Mompean (2008)

13
claims that the RP is spoken by only about 3% of the British population and the level of
intelligibility may be different between non-native speakers or between the native and non-
native speaker. He also adds that the teacher may consider students’ exposure to different
models outside the classroom. Hancock (2017, online) claims that students have different
needs and what may be an appropriate model for one may not be necessarily appropriate for
other students. Mompean (ibid) also questions whether students want to imitate a native
model or whether they want to speak English with their own national flavour.

Another significant fact is that teachers have different accents. Hancock (2017, online) states
“it would be unrealistic and unhelpful to expect them to fake an accent in class, or else avoid
speaking altogether and use audio recordings instead. Within the classroom, the most realistic
and appropriate model is probably the natural accent of you, the teacher.” Mompean (ibid)
adds that another important criterion to consider is the choice of the teaching material such as
textbooks, CDs, videos, etc. He concludes that teachers might end up teaching a given
pronunciation model because it’s the only one available.

The reality in Czech schools depends on teachers’ language proficiency and chosen textbooks
which are mostly from British public houses. Therefore, the RP is the model for the proposed
materials in the practical part.

1.4. Phonetic and phonemic transcription

In this thesis, transcription is discussed in the linguistic sense as a representation of a spoken
language in a written form. Unlike the Czech language, the English language is written and
pronounced differently. There are two types of transcription in English – phonetic and
phonemic. According to Cruttenden (2008), phonetic transcription is allophonic or narrow,
and phonemic transcription is broad.

In the phonemic transcription, one symbol is used for each phoneme of the language and is
expressed in /forward slash brackets/. The phonetic transcription is more detailed as it
contains additional details about the contextual variations in pronunciation and specifies how
sounds are actually made. The phonetic transcription uses [square brackets]. Cruttenden
(2008) adds that phonetic transcription is useful when the focus is on particular details of
pronunciation.. The phonetic symbols are organised in the IPA chart.

14
For the purpose of this thesis, phonemic transcription is used as this is the one that is taught in
English classes and it is also used in textbooks for learners at lower levels of English
proficiency.

1.5. IPA Chart and phonemic chart

The abbreviation stands for the International Phonetic Alphabet which and it used to
transcribe speech into sounds in their written form. Every sound has its unique symbol. The
IPA chart was introduced by the International Phonetic Association which was established in
1886 in Paris with its primary goal to promote the scientific study of phonetics and the
various practical applications of that science2. The association, as well as the phonemic chart,
have gone through changes in times and the IPA chart was last revised in 2020. The Czech
author Melen (2010) confirms the fact that the IPA chart presents the ‘standard’ for
transcription.

However, the complete IPA chart is too complex and difficult to use for teachers and learners
at primary school, there is a phonemic chart used in the RP represented by IPA symbols. The
phonemic chart contains 44 symbols/phonemes and is divided into two main parts – vowels
and consonants. Vowels stand in the upper part and consist of monophthongs in the left
section and diphthongs in the right section. The layout of vowels is arranged according to the
tongue position, horizontally from front to back and vertically from close to open vowels. In
the lower part, the consonants are divided according to their segmental features (Underhill
2005). Fort the purpose of this thesis, the phonemic chart suits enough. The further
distribution of phonemes is contained in the next chapter.

Underhill (ibid) emphasizes that it is the sounds that are the most important thing to get
familiar with, not the symbols. This idea reflects the author’s intention for creating the
materials not only to learn the sounds by providing the simple example words but the symbols
as well. Underhill (ibid, x) also explains that:

“The chart is not a list to learn, but a map representing pronunciation territory to explore.
Like any map it can help in two ways: it can help travellers to become more familiar with
areas they have already visited; and it can help travellers to be clear about which areas they
have yet to explore.”

2
https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/

15
In order to have the correct pronunciation, Underhill (ibid) also advises dividing the work into
smaller parts and focusing on each of them thoroughly. The first level should be getting
familiar with sounds in general. This means how to operate with one’s vocal muscles in order
to produce the correct sounds. At the second level, the connection of individual sounds into
words is taking place. Here, the ‘flow of sounds’ is important because the neighbouring
sounds modify each other. The third level incorporates the correct pronunciation into
connected speech. For the purpose of this thesis, only the first two levels are covered.

In conclusion, the phonemic chart is a must have in English classes where learning
pronunciation takes place and the teacher should be able to help learners with learning the
sounds and assigning them to the correct symbols in order to improve their pronunciation.

Figure 1: The English phonemic chart (Underhill, 2005, viii)

1.6. Phonemes
Speaking of the phonemic chart, it is necessary to mention phonemes. It was already stated
that the English phonemic chart consists of 44 symbols/phonemes. Since teaching the
phonemes and the symbols is the main concern of this paper, let us look at some definitions
what exactly a phoneme is:

Underhill (2005: viii) defines a phoneme as “the smallest sound that can make a difference in
meaning“.

16
Hewings (2008: 3) characterizes phonemes as “the individual sounds which are the building
blocks of pronunciation.”

Roach (2009: 2) identifies phonemes as “a small number of regularly used sounds (vowels
and consonants)”.

The presented definitions give us a concrete idea of a phoneme. The symbols represent the
phonemes in the IPA chart and phonemic chart. As the English language differs in spelling
and pronunciation, to get acquainted with the phonemes and the symbols is a good starting
point.

2 Sounds of English
In the first chapter, we defined the basic terms concerning pronunciation. The second chapter
focuses on the segmental features of pronunciation – the single sounds and representation by
the symbols. It summarizes phonetic and phonologic aspects of vowels and consonants. After
each category, there is a brief comparison with the Czech sound system. In addition, the most
significant differences in terms of segmental and suprasegmental features between the two
speech systems are highlighted.

2.1. Where and how

In order to understand learning and teaching pronunciation better, let us focus on the
description of vowels and consonants in greater detail. According to Underhill (2005), sounds
are all produced in the vocal tract which refers to the parts of the body that contribute to the
production of vocal sounds: the lung, larynx, oral cavity (mouth), lips, and nose.

17
Figure 2: The vocal tract (Roach, 2009:8)

Underhill (2005) adds that for learning of the phonemes, it is important to comprehend:

- how each sound is produced within the vocal tract (referred to as manner of
articulation)
- where in the vocal tract each sound is produced (referred to as place of articulation)

These two essential features help us distinguish between the two main categories which are
vowels and consonants.

2.2. Vowels
Roach (2009: 13) states “vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air
as it passes from the larynx to the lips.” In other words, vocal tract is open while producing
vowels. Underhill (2005) adds that all vowels are voiced. Cruttenden (2008) claims, that from
the phonological point of view, vowels are traditionally those segments that occur at the
centre of syllables.

Roach (2009) mentions the term semi-vowels /j, w, r/ which are phonetically like vowels, but
phonologically are like consonants. In other words, the vocal tract is relatively unrestricted
while forming these sounds, but they are not syllabic. In comparison to Roach, Cruttenden
(2008) states the apart from /j, w, r/, the Southern British /l/ also meets the features of semi-
vowel.

Underhill (2005) distinguishes vowels according to:

18
 - the horizontal tongue position (front – centre –back)
- the vertical tongue position (close – close-mid – open-mid - open)
- the lip position (rounded – neutral – spread).

The last feature of vowels does not depend on tongue or lip position and it is the length of the
vowel (long – short). These qualities determine the arrangement of the vowel sound in the
phonemic chart.

As it was already stated, vowels are further divided into monophthongs and diphthongs.
Roach (2009: 18) also mentions triphthongs as “a glide from one vowel to another and then to
a third.” However, for the purpose of this thesis, triphthongs are not covered as Roach adds
that these sounds are difficult to pronounce, and very difficult to recognise. The characteristic
of vowels is provided by Underhill (2005: 5-21) and spelling examples according to
Cruttenden (2008: 105-135)

2.2.1. Monophthongs
Monophthongs are further divided into ‘short’ and ‘long’ according to the length they last.
The short monophthongs are represented by the sounds /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɒ/, /ʊ/, and the schwa
sound /ə/ (Roach 2009). The long monophthongs are /iː/, /ɑː/, /ɔː/, /uː/, including the long
schwa/ɜː/. (ibid)

2.2.1.1. Short monopthongs:

/ɪ/ - close, front, lips slightly spread, may occur in all positions in the word,
spelling examples: sw im, pretty, symbol, lady, village
/e/ - mid-close, front, lips slightly spread, does not occur in final open syllables,
spelling examples: bed, head, many
/æ/ - mid-open, front, lips are spread, now generally a bit longer than the other short vowels,
particularly occurs before voiced consonants,
spelling examples: bat, apple, marry
/ʌ/ - open-mid, central, neutral lip position,
spelling examples: cut, Monday, country, blood, does
/ɒ/ - open-mid, back, lips are slightly rounded, does not occur in the final open syllable
spelling examples: dog, was, cough, sausage
/ʊ/ - close, back, rounded lips, does not occur in word initial positions, nor before final /ŋ/
spelling examples: pull, good, wolf, would

19
/ə/ - middle, central vowel with neutral lip position, extremely short, the most frequently
occurring vowel in English, always associated with (weak) unstressed syllables. Schwa is the
only vowel with its own name which signifies its prominent role in the speech system
(Underhill 2005). As for the spelling, schwa can be described as the most unpredictable. It
might be spelt by means of most vowel letters and their combinations. Melen (2010) provides
the common spelling patterns – a, ar, ai, e, er, o, or, oar, ou, our, u, ure, iry, i, re.

Figure 3: English short vowels (Roach, 2009: 13)

2.2.1.2. Long monopthongs:

/iː/ - closer and more front than /ɪ /, lips are only slightly spread, often diphthongized,
especially in the final positions

spelling examples: tree, be, reach, machine, field, key, receive

/ɑː/ - open, back, lip position neutral, does not normally occur before /ŋ/

spelling examples: car, heart, clerk, last, half, aunt

/ɔː/ - mid-close (more close than the short /ɒ/), fully back, strong lip rounding, does not
normally occur before /ŋ/

spelling examples: war, horse, more, bought, four, broad, board, door, fault, saw,
sure

/uː/ - close (more close than the short /ʊ/), back, lips moderately rounded,

spelling examples: June, food, do, group, chew, blue, juice, shoe

20
/ɜː/ - Roach (2009, 17) describes the long schwa as: “The mid-central vowel which is used in
most English accents as a hesitation sound (written – ’er’), but which many learners find
difficult to copy.” It has a neutral lips position.

spelling examples: her, turn,bird, myrthle, work, heard, journey

Figure 4: English long vowels (Roach, 2009: 16)

2.2.2. Diphthongs
Roach (2009: 17) defines diphthongs as “sounds which consist of movement or glide from
one vowel to another.” Cruttenden (2008: 134) also claims that “diphthongs form a glide
within one syllable.” In their length, diphthongs are similar to the long vowels. The first part
is longer and stronger than the second part, hence it carries the stress. The loudness of the
sound decreases and as a result, the second element is shorter and quieter.

Diphthongs are divided into two subgroups: centring /ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/ - towards the schwa vowel
sound /ə/, and closing /eɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aɪ/, /aʊ/, and /əʊ/ which end with a glide towards a relatively
closer vowel (Roach: 2009)

2.2.3. Differences in English and Czech vowels sounds

For learning of English vowels, Cruttenden (2008) claims that most languages have five to
seven vowel sounds, thus the English vowel system is one of the less common and more
complex types. Therefore, it is completely predictable that most foreign learners will have
trouble attaining it. The Czech vowel system is significantly less complex compared to the
English one as it only contains ten monophthongs, in particular five short sounds /a, e, i, o, u/,
five long sounds /á, é, í, ó, ú/, and three diphthongs /au, eu, ou/ (Skaličková, 1982).

21
This author also mentions a significant difference in articulation (ibid). While producing
Czech vowels, the tip of the tongue is practically always touching the lower part of the oral
cavity. On the other hand, while producing English vowels, the tip of the tongue hardly ever
touches these parts (ibid).

Another significant distinctive feature in English is timbre, i.e. a quality of a vowel that
makes sounds different from each other (Melen, 2010). In other words, it is essential to
follow the correct articulation which is different for every vowel sound in English. In Czech
the main difference is the quantity (length). The quantity of an English vowel in English is
also affected by the succeeding consonant and it depends on whether the succeeding
consonant is voiced or unvoiced. An unvoiced succeeding consonant makes the preceding
vowel shorter and a voiced consonant does not change the quality of the preceding vowel
sound (ibid).

As for diphthongs, Czech learners tend to pronounce the second element too strongly. Melen
(ibid) highlights the difference between English cry, high and Czech kráj, háj. The two
elements in Czech diphthongs are approximately equal.

In conclusion, before starting speaking English, it is essential to understand the differences in

quantity and quality of vowels in English and Czech speech since these two systems are
irrelevant to each other. Notwithstanding the given facts, for starting the correct articulation in
English, it is essential to get the tongue from the relaxed position on the bottom of the oral
cavity (Melen, 2010)

2.3. Consonants
As opposed to a vowel, a consonant is a sound in which there is a restriction to the flow of air
(Roach, 2009). However, the restriction is not caused by producing semivowels /w/ and /j/.
Underhill (2005: 29) also adds an important fact that “consonants, either singly or in clusters,
mark the beginning and end of syllables.” There are 24 consonants in the English phonetic
system.

A significant feature plays role while dealing with consonants and it is their voicing (whether
consonant is voiced or unvoiced/voiceless) (Underhill, 2005). Voicing is caused by the
vibration of the vocal folds. According to Melen (2010), these 15 sounds of /b/, /d/, /ɡ/, /v/,
/ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /r/, /j/ and /w/, belong among voiced consonants and the rest

22
of these 9 consonant sounds /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/ and /ʈʃ/ are voiceless. The voiced
and unvoiced consonants create pairs worth remembering.

As for voicing, Roach (2009) also mentions the terms fortis and lenis. He explains that the
distinction of voiced/unvoiced consonants is not accurate since voiced consonants in final and
initial position are scarcely voiced at all. Fortis are called voiceless consonants that are
produced with more force. On the other hand, lenis are voiced consonants produced with less
force. Cruttenden (2008) adds that fortis and lenis pairs are distinguished by the degree of
breath and muscular effort involved in the articulation.

By producing consonants sounds, place of articulation affects where the physical restriction of
a block of air takes place and manner of articulation refers to how the physical restriction to
the airflow is initiated (Underhill, 2005) These two main features, together with voicing,
determine the further division of consonants in their arrangement in the phonemic chart.

2.3.1. Dividing consonants according to the place of articulation

According to the place articulation, Cruttenden (2008) divides consonants in following
groups: bilabial, labio-dental, dental, alveolar, palate-alveolar, palatal, velar, and glottal.

Bilabial consonants /p/, /b/, /m/ and /w/ are those phonemes, where both lips play dominant
role as the articulators. When we produce the sounds of /f/ and /v/, there is a contact of the
lower lip and the upper teeth. That’s why this group is called labio-dental. In the dental group,
the upper teeth are in connection with the tip of the tongue /θ/and /ð/. The alveolar group has
its name because while producing sounds of /t/, /d/, /l/, /n/, /s/, and /z/, the tip and blade, or the
tip of the tongue reacts with the alveolar ridge. The sounds of /dʒ/, /tʃ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /r/ belong
to palato-alveolar consonants since while producing them, the front part of the tongue is
raising towards the hard palate. When the tongue is in contact with the hard palate, we are
talking about palatal consonants /j/. Velar consonants are made by the contact of the back of
the tongue and the soft palate and consist of the sounds /k/, /g/, and /ŋ/. And finally, /h/
belongs to the glottal group and it can be described as an obstruction or a narrowing causing
friction without vibration in the vocal cords. The glottal stop /ʔ/ belongs here as well, but
Underhill (2005) states that it is not considered as a significant sound in that it cannot change
the meaning of a word. The glottal stop is not integrated in the phonemic chart and it has no
means for the purpose of this thesis to examine it in detail.

23
 2.3.2. Dividing consonants according to the manner of articulation
As for manner of articulation, Cruttenden (2008: 28) states that “the obstruction made by the
organs may be total, intermittent, partial, or may merely constitute a narrowing sufficient to
cause friction.” These features indicate the further dividing of consonants into: plosives,
affricatives, and nasals (complete closure), lateral consonants (partial closure), fricatives
(narrowing closure) and narrowing without friction.

Plosives contain the sounds of /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /ʔ/ and can be described as “a complete
closure at some point in the vocal tract, behind which the air pressure builds up and can be
released explosively”. (ibid, 28) Affricatives are defined as “a complete closure at some point
in the mouth, behind which the air pressure builds up; the separation of the organs is slow
compared with that of a plosive, so that friction is a characteristic second element of the
sound’’ (ibid, 28). These are the sounds /dʒ/ and /tʃ/. The last group with the complete closure
are nasals /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ and while producing them, the soft palate is lowered and the air
escapes through the nose. Cruttenden (ibid, 28) ads that “these sounds are continuants and, in
their (most usual) voiced form, have no noise component; they are, to this extent, vowel-like”.

The sound /l/ belongs to Lateral consonants and this group characterised by “a partial (but
firm) closure is made at some point in the mouth, the air-stream being allowed to escape on
one or both sides of the contact. These sounds may be continuant and non-fricative and
therefore vowel like” (ibid: 29).

In the narrowing group, one can find fricative consonants with the sounds /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/,
/z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ /, and /h/. Cruttenden (ibid: 29) claims “two organs approximate to such an extent
that the air-stream passes between them with friction.’’

The last consonant category is characterised as narrowing without friction and here “a
narrowing is made in the mouth but the narrowing is not quite sufficient to cause friction.”
(ibid: 29) These sounds are called Approximants (or frictionless) and are presented by the
vowel-like sounds /w/, /r/, and /j/.

24
Figure 5: Chart of English consonant phonemes (Roach, 2009: 52)

2.3.3. Differences in English and Czech consonant sounds

The first difference between English and Czech consonants is in their count. Skaličková
(1982) refers to 24 consonant sounds in English to 27 in Czech. As Melen (2010) claims, the
sounds /ř/, /ť/, /ď/, /ň/, and /x/ do not exist in English and the Czech speech system does not
contain the sounds /θ/,/ ð/, and /w/. Hence, it is foreseeable that these consonants cause
problems to Czech learners. The consonants sounds of /θ/,/ ð/, and /w/ are significant for this
thesis, as they are covered in the proposed materials.

According to Skaličková (ibid), the distribution of Czech consonants sounds based on the
manner of articulation is slightly different into occlusives /p, b, t, d, ť, ď, k, g, ʔ/, semi-
occlusives /c, z, dz, dž/, constrictives /f, v, s, z, š, ž, j, x, h/, semi-constrictives (nasals) /m, n,
ň/ and l- and r-sounds /l, r, ř/. Based on the manner of articulation, the distribution is in the
same way as in English.

Melen (2010) explains the contrast among the consonants according to their voicing as the
voiced/unvoiced consonats create pairs. These pairs are presented by /p-b, t-d, k-g, f-v, s-z, tʃ
- dʒ, ʃ - ʒ, θ- ð/. In Czech, voicing makes the main difference between such pairs. In English,
the main difference is presented in the length of the consonant itself or the lenght of the
preceeding vowel. Skaličková (1982) also mentions fortis and lenis but also claims that the
differences are much more complicated and will not be dealt with in detail. Melen (ibid)
concludes that in English, a voiced consonant is shorter, lax (lenis), and does not shorten the
preceeding vowel. In its initial and ending position in the word, its voicing is practically
inaudible. On the other hand, a voiceless consonant is articulated with bigger muscle tension
(fortis), might be longer than the voiced consonant, and makes the preceding vowel shorter.

25
As for voicing, Skaličková (ibid) claims that in Czech, consonants that stand at the end of a
word are naturally devoiced in Czech, as opposed to English, which should never devoice
final consonants. Devoicing by Czech speakers is realized in respect of consonant pairs in
which both of them are identical in place and manner of articulation, with one of them being
voiced and the other one being voiceless.

Roach (2009) makes a significant point about aspiration of /p, t, k/ in English which is
realized by audible plosion – a burst of noise making a sound like /h/. Melen (2010) adds that
aspiration is strongest and most conspicuous by the sound /k/.

3 The most common Czech mistakes in pronunciation of

English
The previous chapter informed us about the phonemes of English and the basic differences
between the English and the Czech speech systems. In order to acquire correct English
pronunciation, one has to be aware of common mistakes that Czech learners make. This
subchapter briefly deals with the most common mistakes according to the Czech author
Skaličková, who describes them in great detail. Some of the mistakes may be considered
significant for a more advanced level of English. However, it is worth mentioning them for
purpose of this paper since some of them are covered in the proposed materials.

3.1. Mispronunciation of vowel sounds

Incorrect vowel length

In terms of the vowel length, the most significant difference between the two language
systems lies in the fact that English distinguishes three lengths as opposed to two in Czech.
Skaličková (1982) lists the examples in bit (shortest), bid and beat (medium), and bead
(longest). She insists on keeping this rule since the length of the vowel sound influences the
following consonant. On the top of that, it can change the meaning of an utterance.

To deal with this issue, Skaličková (ibid) suggests a quick pronunciation of the vowel in front
of fortis consonants and a slow pronunciation in front of lenis consonants, e.g. sent / send.

No distinction of timbre in certain vowel pairs

26
Another problem of Czech speakers is that they do not distinguish timbre (different vowel
qualities) between individual vowels within a vowel pair as it does not play a significant role
here: /ɪ/ – /iː/, /e/ – /æ/, /ʌ/ – /ɑː/, /ɒ/ – /ɔː/, /ʊ/ – /uː/. In English, however, the difference in
pairs hid – heat, bed – bat, dug – dark, nod – nought, should – shoot lies in their quality, not
quantity (ibid).

No reduction of vowels in unstressed syllables

Czech speakers also do not reduce vowels in unstressed syllables and instead of schwa, /ɪ/ or
sometimes even /ʊ/ they replace these sounds with /e/ or other sounds depending on the
spelling. Skaličková (ibid) explains that mixed vowels do not appear as a functional element
in Czech and that is why Czech students are not sensitive for their timbre.

Adding /r/ to vowels

Czech pronunciation of words with r in spelling either contains the /r/ sound or is strongly “r-
coloured”. Such pronunciation occurs in words with /ɜː/ sound as in her, bird, first.
Skaličková (ibid) ascribes this to the American-like pronunciation without using other
features of this model.

In terms of RP, Roach (2009) claims that there is only one pronunciation that can be
recommended to the foreign learner – a post-alveolar approximant. Post alveolar – because
the tip of the tongue is positioned further back in the mouth than for alveolar /t/ and /d/ and
approximant because the tongue never makes contact with any part of the roof of the mouth,
contrarily to the Czech /r/, where some kind of tongue-palate contact is made.

Melen (2010) concludes that Czech speakers who have difficulties with the correct
achievement of Czech /r/ sound also have problems with it within the English pronunciation.

Substitution of /eə/ by /ɜː/ and vice versa

According to Skaličková (ibid), the interchange of the diphthong /eə/ for a long vowel /ɜː/ can
cause changes in meanings such as in: worse and wears, spur and spare, curd and cared.

Mispronunciation of diphthongs

It was already stated that Czech speakers pronounce both elements of diphthongs with the
same quality. The shifting of the length of the first element is also influenced by the following

27
consonant as in: robe (longer) – rope (shorter). The diphthong /əʊ/ is incorrectly pronounced
as the Czech /ou/ and sometimes even as /o/ as in: old, cold.

3.2. Mispronunciation of consonant sounds

Incorrect pronunciation of consonants in the final position

This feature is already stated in the previous chapter and according to Melen (2010), this is
one of the most often pronunciation mistakes by Czech speakers since they tend to add schwa
sound behind lenis consonants: sad /sæd/ becomes sadder /sædə/, etc. And, they replace lenis
consonants by their corresponding fortis ones: buzz /bʌz/ becomes bus /bʌs/, sad /sæd/
becomes sat /sæt/.

Incorrect assimilation of paired consonants

It is natural that Czech speakers tend to create incorrect assimilations based on Czech
principles. This is also wrong because in Czech, only paired consonants are assimilated,
whereas it is contrary in English, where only unpaired consonants /r, j, l, w/ assimilate.
Skaličková (ibid) provides example with the words backbone as /ˈbægbəʊn/, which implicates
a different meaning: “pytlová kost”; similarly, since the /sɪns ðə/ as /sɪnz ðə/ or even /sɪndz
dzə/. On the other hand, Czech speakers do not respect assimilation in cry, plot, etc.

Incorrect realisation of /ŋ/

This is also a very frequent mistake by Czech speakers since the /ŋ/ sound occurs only in front
of /k, g/ in Czech. According to Skaličková (ibid), this makes its correct realization unusual
especially in the final position or in front of a vowel. The mistake occurs in the form of /n/ or
/ŋk/ in words such as rang, thing, sing. In contrast, Czech speakers pronounce only /ŋ/ where
it should be followed by /g/ sound in words like finger, anger, stronger. This problem with
the /ŋ/ sound is significant for this paper as one of the materials is dedicated to its practice.

No aspiration after /p, t, k/ sounds

The topic of aspiration is explained in the previous chapter and Czech speakers incline to
pronounce words /p, t, k/ without doing so. Melen (ibid) describes the aspiration by /k/ as the
/ch/ like sound, slightly sibilant by /t/, and as a blend of lip humming made in the place of
creating the following vowel.

Incorrect articulation of /ð/ and /θ/

28
This mistake is also important for the thesis as these consonant sounds are considered difficult
for Czech speakers since they do not have their equivalents. Czech speakers tend to
pronounce the /ð/ sound as /dz/ or /d/ and /θ/ as /f/ or /s/, because it corresponds better to
Czech sounds that are natural for them. Skaličkova (ibid) adds that the articulation of these
two sounds usually happens with the tongue between the teeth which is incorrect. Melen
(ibid) ascribes that incorrect articulation and replacing the sounds is not only tolerated but
also taught in Czech schools due to insufficiency of qualified teachers.

Both authors (ibid) explain the correct articulation by the tip of the tongue touching the inside
of the lower front teeth and the blade touching the inside of the upper teeth. The air escapes
through the gaps between the tongue and the teeth According to Skaličková (ibid), the
auditory impression of /ð/ is similar to the Czech lisping /dz/ or /z/ and /θ/ corresponds to the
lisping /s/.

Substitution of /v/ and /w/

This presents another significant occurrence by Czech speakers as they interchange these
sounds because in Czech, these sounds do not determine different meaning of words.
Skaličková (ibid) emphasizes that in English /v/ and /w/ function as two individual units and
if interchanged, confusion may appear as in veal – wheel, vale – whale, vile – while. For
preventing such confusion, these sounds are also covered by the proposed materials.

No linking of neighbouring consonants

This mistake appears in connected speech as well as in pronouncing of a single word.

According to Skaličková (ibid), linking of identical or paired consonants should sound as one,
slightly longer sound as in: stop playing, sit down, big gift, this song, nine nuts etc. However,
Czech speakers usually pronounce both consonants with the same intensity.

3.3. Mistakes in suprasegmental features of English

pronunciation
Since this thesis deals mainly with segmental features of English pronunciation, the following
subchapter summarizes problems with rhythm and intonations only briefly.

As for rhythm, mistakes occur in quantity in unstressed syllables within single words and in
connected speech as well. Skaličková (1982) claims that Czech speakers tend to keep their
length similar. In other words, the length of mummy, lucky, metal and rocky does not

29
correspond to Czech mami, laky, metl and roky as the second syllable should sound longer in
English. No reduction quantity of unstressed syllables and vowel quality in longer words or
utterances is another common mistake in rhythm of Czech speakers. Skaličková (ibid)
concludes that words as considerable, usually, vegetable, medicine may present difficulties.
Lastly, Melen (2010) proposes to treat the occurrence of one stressed syllable to another as
one word – feet and not to divide its components. Thus, some of us and seal it should sound as
/samovaz/ and /sílit/.

For the mistakes in intonation, Skaličková (ibid) explains that the principles of melody are the
same in both languages. It depends on where the stresses of single words are placed in a
sentence. After achieving its highest point on the first stressed syllable, the tone falls until it
reaches the last stressed syllable. Here, three possibilities of intonation offer: a sharp fall for
declarative statements, a sharp rise for questions, and a slight rise indicating a pause.

In Czech the first syllable is always stressed but in English, an unstressed syllable should
sound natural at the beginning of a sentence. The problem arises as Czech speakers tend to put
the stress at the beginning of each word and that is why the intonation sounds inappropriately
for an English ear.

4 Teaching and learning pronunciation

In the preceding chapters, pronunciation and its features, major differences to the Czech
speech system, as well as common mistakes of Czech speakers of English are covered. The
last chapter of the theoretical part inquires into aspects of teaching and learning
pronunciation. Firstly, why it is important to teach and learn correct pronunciation. Second, to
what extent the Czech curriculum covers pronunciation in teaching a foreign language.
Thirdly, the roles of the teacher as the model of pronunciation are listed. These are followed
by the brief characteristic of young learners. Lastly, aspects that affect pronunciation learning
are indicated.

4.1. Reason for teaching pronunciation

Every language has its unique pronunciation. Therefore it is important for learners to acquire
correct pronunciation habits. Dalton & Seidlhofer (1994) claim that pronunciation is
significant because it can be received as a part of a language code of and to be able to receive
or even produce it, it is necessary to know the language code which might be a designation for
a code containing letters and numbers as identifiers or language classifiers.

30
While learning pronunciation, learners must be able to hear the sound correctly in order to
imitate and produce it on the same level. Underhill (2005) claims in order to hear a new
language accurately enough to imitate it, the foreign learner must respond to a whole new
sound system. Hearing correctly is not easy for learners, because they have a lack of control
over the new sound structure and moreover a lack of knowledge of the new language in
general.

Another significant reason for teaching pronunciation is when a learner gets a chance to speak
with a foreign or native speaker. Hewings (2008) describes that a problem might occur when
two foreign speakers talk to each other in ordinary situations and their only common language
is English. In this case, it might be extremely difficult for them to understand each other when
the pronunciation is incorrect and unintelligible for both of them.

Dealing with this issue, Kelly (2000) adds that a learner who consistently mispronounces a
range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community
to understand. This can be very frustrating for a learner who may have a good command of
grammar and lexis but have difficulty in understanding and being understood by a native
speaker.

Both Kenworthy (1987) and Lane (2000) agree that acquiring a native-like pronunciation
seems to be non-realistic goal for most learners. They claim that intelligibility should be the
main goal in pronunciation acquiring. According to Lane (2000), “Intelligibility refers to the
degree to which a listener can recognize words phrases and utterances”. Without
intelligibility, communication is not possible. Confidence in speaking is another significant
factor that comes hand in hand with intelligibility.

This is why teaching pronunciation should be regularly implemented into language classes
and its importance should not be undervalued. If learners acquire correct pronunciation habits
it boosts their confidence in spoken English and it will not cause them difficulties to interact
not only within the learning group but with foreign or native speakers as well.

31
 4.2. The standards for teaching pronunciation of a foreign
language in Czech primary school
With the implementation of the Framework Education Program for Elementary Education (in
Czech Rámcový vzdělávací program pro základní vzdělávání - RVP3) into the Czech school
system in 2005, teaching a foreign language is obligatory since the third grade of elementary
schools and teaching of the second foreign language since the eighth grade in lower secondary
schools according to the Czech Ministry of Education and Sport (MSMT). As English has
become the lingua franca, it is recommended as the first foreign language to be taught in
Czech schools, which has become a common fact. In many schools, English is taught since
the first grade usually a lesson for a week. It is also common that teaching English takes place
even in kindergartens. This means that learners are exposed to English at a very young age.

Learning a foreign language at school is always connected with a textbook and a workbook.
These create a basic set for every learner. Schools can decide what kind of textbook is used
and the outputs and key competences for every grade get formulated and realized in
connection with the chosen textbook. Learners’ outputs and competitions stated in the School
Education Program (Školní vzdělávací program, ŠVP) reflect basic standards set by the
language teachers at every school deriving from the standard of the RVP. However, the
outputs and competences often represent what a learner should be capable to produce in the
terms of speaking, grammar, vocabulary, writing, reading, listening, and pronunciation.

For teaching pronunciation of a foreign language in primary school, the RVP states that
learners are able to understand the teacher with his/her ‘conscientious’ pronunciation.
Learners are also introduced to a graphic and sound form of the foreign language which they
should be able to distinguish. They should acquire correct basic pronunciation habits and
know (passively) the phonetic symbols. In lower secondary schools, the standard is set for
producing and developing adequate pronunciation and the ability to comprehend and
distinguish the features of the phonological system of the language, as well as word and
sentence stress, and intonation. According to the RVP, it cannot be said, that teaching
pronunciation may seem to be omitted or neglected in Czech schools as the standards are

3
https://www.msmt.cz/file/43792/

https://www.msmt.cz/ministerstvo/podnety-k-vyuce-cizich-jazyku-v-cr

32
firmly set. After observing the RVP, we can say that the goals for teaching English
pronunciation are set and then it completely depends on education institutions that are held
responsible for the proper teaching methods. In other words, the accountability is on teachers.

4.3. The teacher’s role

As models of their learners’ pronunciation, teachers carry a huge responsibility as they
influence their learners in a positive or negative way. They should not only present a model to
follow but also be able to effectively instruct and lead their learners in acquiring correct
pronunciation habits. According to Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994), if the teacher can only
exemplify pronunciation by his or her own speech performance, the learners are left to work
out what is significant for themselves, and will not readily discern crucial phonological
distinctions. In other words, teachers should draw their learners’ attention to how sounds
should be pronounced and guide them in order to achieve intelligible pronunciation.

In terms of pronunciation teaching, Kenworthy (1987:1) lists several roles of teacher:

 Helping learners hear

Teachers have to help their learners to perceive sounds that are often misperceived because of
the false similarity in their mother tongue. They need to check whether learners are hearing
sounds according to the appropriate categories and help them develop new categories if
necessary.

 Helping learners make sounds

Explaining and guiding learners how to imitate and pronounce new sounds that do not exist in
their mother tongue.

 Providing feedback

Giving learners accurate and constructive feedback about how they are doing, since they are
not able to judge whether their pronunciation is comprehensible or not. Without teacher’s
feedback, learners may make wrong assumptions about their pronunciation.

 Pointing out what’s going on

Learners need to know what to pay attention to and what to work on. Because speaking is
unconsciously controlled, learners may miss something important. Teachers need to make

33
learners aware of the key features of pronunciation for successfully sending spoken messages
by the learners.

 Establishing priorities

Learners themselves are aware that some of the features of their pronunciation are different
from the pronunciation of native speakers. What are they not aware of is that whether it is
relevant or not and they may try to change it. Teachers should guide them on what to
concentrate on.

 Devising activities

When choosing activities for pronunciation, teachers should keep in mind the learning styles
of their learners as well as the aim of such activities and consider whether the purpose is for
practice, experimentation, or exploration.

 Assessing progress

Assessing progress is not an easy task for teachers but it is a crucial factor in maintaining
motivation.

In conclusion, teachers not only serve as models of pronunciation for their learners but they
should also keep learners involved with appropriate activities and learners have to be aware of
why and how in terms of pronunciation. Providing relevant feedback for letting learners know
about their progress is significant for keeping them motivated.

4.4. The Learners’ role

Having listed the various aspects of the teacher’s role, let us focus on the role of learners.
Kenworthy (1987) states, that to respond is the first thing to do. However, she emphasizes that
ultimately success in pronunciation depends on how much effort learners put into it. The
willingness to take responsibility for their own learning as well as taking action and trying to
monitor their own efforts are key competences not only while learning English pronunciation
of a foreign language.

In order to understand young learners better, a brief description and distribution to groups
according to their age needs to be given. Primary school pupils are children from 6 to 10,
lower secondary school pupils are 11 to 14, and upper secondary pupils are those over 15.

34
Since the pupils who participated in the research belong to this age group (12-14), let us have
a closer look at the typical features of adolescence. Lewis (2007) mentions, that at this age,
young people undergo a great number of changes in terms of physical and social development
and their thinking changes too. Moodiness is the basic factor. Another feature typical for this
age group can be a variety of emotions accompanied by strong egocentrism. Such young
people tend to be very sensitive to their appearance which determines their self-confidence
and also a position at school.

Schratz and Pruchta (1993) claim, that low motivation to learn something new commonly
occurs in this age group. They conclude that choosing appropriate activities to attract young
learners are crucial for teachers in order to achieve goals. This can be considered very
significant as pronunciation may seem inconsiderable as it is usually not graded.

4.5. Factors that affect pronunciation acquiring

According to Lane (2000), there are several factors that affect the degree of success in
learners’ pronunciation acquiring. Some of them are even beyond the control of the teacher
and the learner.

4.5.1. Age
The common belief among authors such as Celce-Murcia (1996), Lane (2000), and
Kenworthy (1987), is that the sooner learners start with acquiring the second language, the
better pronunciation they can achieve.

Kenworthy (ibid) proposes a question of whether there is an age-related limit on the mastery
of pronunciation in a second language. Her question is documented by researches for this
issue, but no clear answer was given as some researches contradict. Lane (ibid) mentions
Lennberg’s theory that there is ‘a critical period’ for learning a second language natively
extends to puberty. She adds that adults possess greater analytic abilities which help them in
acquiring other skills of language but without these analytic abilities, children are more
effective in acquiring pronunciation of a new language. Since this paper aims at young
learners, the question of age does not play a significant role here.

4.5.2. Native language

As the pronunciation of English and Czech differ in many aspects, the effect of native
language presents a greater factor here. The differences between the speech systems as well as
the most common mistakes of Czech learners of English are dealt with in previous chapters.

35
In this case, authors often describe the differences in segmental features and suprasegmental
features.

Kenworthy (1987) concludes that the more differences there are the more difficulties learners
will have in pronouncing English. At the same time, she points out not to overstate the
differences in terms of handicap or barriers to learning as she claims that people from many
different language backgrounds can and do acquire a near-native pronunciation in English as
the role of other factors should not be denied.

4.5.3. Exposure and use

For exposure to English, it depends on the choice of learners to what extend are they
surrounded by English. As there are not many native speakers available in the Czech
environment, the use of the Internet and media seems like the most frequent supplement to
school lessons. After listing the advantages of English speaking environment, Kenworthy
(ibid) highlights that it is not merely exposure that matters, but how the learner responds to
the opportunities to listen to and to use English. In other words, passive and unconscious
exposure to English does not improve one’s pronunciation without aimed and active
participating of the learner.

4.5.4. Personality and attitude

According to Lane (2000), there does not exist a clear link between personality characteristics
and success in language learning. However, she claims that it is reasonable to suppose that
outgoing, sociable learners will have an advantage over introverted, shy learners in acquiring
oral-aural skills, including pronunciation. Outgoing learners will likely more participate in
conversation overall.

The attitude toward English presents another personal aspect that influences the learning
process. Some learners might like English more and some less. Lindsay and Knight (2010)
state that attitude towards English, in general, might affect the process of learning and
acquiring pronunciation. For young people, English may be perceived as something
fashionable as it has become a lingua franca and the language of the Internet.

4.5.5. Phonetic ability

Simply said, we can claim that some people have a ‘better ear’ for foreign languages than
others. For this, Kenworthy (1987) provides terms ‘aptitude for oral mimicry’, ‘phonetic
coding ability’ or ‘auditory discrimination ability’. She refers to researches inquiring into this

36
ability and distinguishes good and poor discriminators. It is necessary to state that training has
an effect on both groups. However, poor discriminators seem to be less successful in terms of
drilling and imitating the sounds again and again. “In fact, drills seem to cause their attempts
to stabilize before they reach an accurate production of a sound.” (Kenworthy, 1987, 7) For
teachers, this factor seems to be out of their control, and Kenworthy (ibid) concludes that we
can only operate on the assumption that our learners have the ‘basic equipment’ and provide a
variety of tasks so that something will suit the needs and abilities of each learner.

4.5.6. Conclusion
After examining several of the factors which may affect pronunciation accuracy, the question
to ask is: “Which of these factors can themselves be affected by teaching and training?”
(Kenworthy, 1987, 9)

We can’t change the age or the raw phonetic ability of our learners, and we can only increase
exposure to a certain degree. Kenworthy (ibid) discusses how to affect learners’ motivation
and concern for good pronunciation in the following ways:

a) We can persuade learners of the importance of good pronunciation for ease of

communication.
b) We can continually emphasize that intelligibility and communicative efficiency are
our realistic goals.
c) We can demonstrate concern for learners’ pronunciation and their progress in it.

According to Kenworthy (1987: 9), the last point is especially important because “a teacher
who clearly demonstrates concern for the pronunciation and speaking skills of learners will
stand a good chance of instilling a similar concern in the learners themselves.”

37
5 Practical part
The theoretical part provides the background for the practical part in terms of English
pronunciation and its features and mainly, the analysis of English vowels and consonants.
Teaching pronunciation is considered one of the more difficult skills to teach for many
reasons. One of them may be lack of time during the lessons when learning other skills like
grammar and vocabulary is considered more important and more frequent, not only because it
is easier to assess and grade.

Melen (2010) states that pronunciation is often not only neglected in lessons but also in
textbooks devoted to studying English. He also claims that the textbooks rely primarily on the
teacher’s professional qualification and his/her skills and knowledge of how to teach
pronunciation effectively. It is important to mention, that the author also doubts this condition
in the Czech learning environment (ibid).

Since Project English is one of the most common textbooks used in Czech schools, the
analysis of pronunciation focus of the third edition has been done with this conclusion:

 There is an exercise for teaching pronunciation in every unit;

 The exercises are not arranged systematically;
 Their focus does not usually directly correspond with the topic of the unit;
 It covers more pronunciation features, such as phonetic symbols, stress, rhythm, and
intonation;
 Audio recordings are provided for pronunciation practice;
 The overview of the phonetic symbols is only Project 1;
 The phonemic transcription of vocabulary items is present in the workbook;
 It is difficult to regularly implement such isolated topics into classes.

The table with analysis of Project 1 and 2 can be found in the appendix B.

When we look closer at the pronunciation exercises, monophthong sounds are covered in the
first two units. In the pronunciation corner, as these exercises are often called, there is a list of
phonetic symbols with one word for each symbol. When we assume that for most Czech
schools, these are the topics for fifth-graders one must consider that this is not enough.
Furthermore, in the fourth edition, the ‘Pronunciation corners’, as these exercises are called,

38
were rearranged to pages separated from the units in the back of textbook. One may assume
that pronunciation practice was displaced even more.

Generally speaking, the background for sufficient and effective pronunciation teaching is not
provided and supplied by this textbook and it is really up to the teacher to help him/herself.

5.1. The aim of the practical part

From the obvious subchapter, it is apparent that lower-secondary school teachers do not have
appropriate support in the most frequently used textbook so it is up to themselves to integrate
pronunciation teaching into their classes. That is why the aim of the present thesis is to design
and create teaching materials that could help teachers and learners in endeavouring in passing
and acquiring pronunciation basics.

As Underhill (2005:x) recommends, it is best to start with getting familiar with the sounds in
isolation and their production in one-syllable words. The motivation for doing so was also
influenced by the author’s belief that while teaching the symbols and the sounds, learners
need to be exposed to more than one or three example words containing the symbol/phoneme.

At the same time, further utilization of proposed materials needs to be incorporated in order to
consider them more than just handouts with many example words for each symbol. Hence, the
research of whether the proposed handouts improve pronunciation of their users can not be
left out.

5.2. Materials
In this subchapter, the inspiration, the process of the design, and the content of the materials
are explained in greater detail for getting a clearer author’s intention. First, the inspiration by
mind mapping and benefits of this method are listed. Second, a brief description of word
classes covered by the handouts is justified. And lastly, it is explained why not all the symbols
are included in the handouts.

5.2.1. Mind maps

The idea for the layout of the handouts was inspired by the Czech book Vocabulary Maps aka
Kreativní slovník by Tomáš Bednář and Suzannah Gearing. This book uses mind maps for
vocabulary and partly grammar learning. While using the book during my teaching, the idea
for designing materials for teaching pronunciation was born. Therefore, let us now briefly
focus on mind mapping.

39
The technique of mind mapping was popularized by Tony Buzan in 1970s and since then, it
has provided an interesting strategic approach to teaching and learning. Mind maps attempt,
visually and graphically, to portray a relationship of ideas and concepts. The keyword/main
idea (in this case a phoneme) is in the centre of the mind map and other ideas, words, pictures
are positioned around it. The fragments are usually connected with lines (branches) but for the
purpose of the handouts in this thesis, lines were omitted. As Buzan (2018:1) claims “A Mind
Map is a revolutionary thinking tool that, when mastered, will transform your life. It will help
you process information, come up with new ideas, strengthen your memory, get the most out
of your leisure time and improve the way you work.”

One of the benefits of using mind maps is using multiple intelligences that’s why this method
helps to learn and comprehend faster and more effectively. The differentiated approach of
mind mapping from the linear concept is also beneficial for learning. Buzan (ibid) stresses the
importance of colours and graphics as well as a form to make the information memorable.
This is why some of the example words, which are A1-A2 level and also considered familiar
for learners are replaced by the pictures and their written form is not present.

As for using mind maps, Buzan (2018) states that mind maps help you to manage information
effectively and increase the potential for success. Students who use mind maps usually report
that they feel a sense of confidence, that their aims are achievable and that they are on track
for reaching their goals.

5.2.2. Word classes

One of the aspects while designing the handouts was the idea of distributing the example
words for each phonetic symbol according to their word class. There are ten word classes in
Czech and eight in English, particularly – nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs,
prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

According to Quirk and Greenbaum (1990), words are also characterised as lexical or
grammatical. Lexical words contribute to or carry the meaning, often called content words.
Therefore, nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs belong to lexical words. Lexical words are
also referred to as open-class words because new words may appear. On the other hand,
grammatical words or closed-class words tend not to change very often and instead of
carrying meaning, they are often described as the glue, or connectors, inside the sentence.
Pronouns, propositions, conjunctions, and interjections fulfil these characteristics so they are
labelled as grammatical words.

40
While composing the materials, the basic distribution of nouns, adjectives, and verbs was
made. The reason for doing so was the intention of raising learners’ awareness of the English
word classes. Different colour background was used for every word class to make it clearer.
The colours for the word classes also differ between vowels and consonants to make the
difference more obvious.

Another reason for using word classes may be for example applying follow-up activities with
the materials such as making a sentence with the same vowel/consonant sound for further
pronunciation practising.

5.2.3. White circle window and the orange part in the consonant handouts
There is a white circle window in most of the handouts. Its purpose is to provide some
interdisciplinary information, for example, a geographical name of a country or a city, or a
frequently used word. The reason for this was to make the materials more diverse and
interesting for learners.

As for the bottom orange part in consonant handouts, it usually refers to a link with grammar
feature such as ordinal numbers and grammatical words with frequent occurrence of the
symbol/sound in examples given.

5.2.4. Voiced and unvoiced consonant pairs

These materials with the consonants pair are meant as a supplement for the materials focused
on phonetic symbols. They were not completed before conducting the research hence they are
not covered in it. The intention for making them is to provide some basic background for the
terms voicing and final consonant devoicing, which is typical feature of Czech. The handouts
for consonant pairs also intend to cover aspiration.

5.3. The research aim

The research was conducted in the lower-secondary school in Jihlava in March and April
2021. The aim of the research was to find out:

Are the participants able to ‘read’ words written in phonemic transcription?

Do the proposed materials help learners with their pronunciation?

How do the participants perceive such materials?

41
Due to Covid19 pandemics and online lessons, getting participants for the research was not
that easy as it would have been under normal circumstances. Since I work as a teacher in this
school, the easiest way was to offer my learners to participate in the research. Taking part in
the research was voluntary and the final sample consists of 36 participants of seventh-graders
and eighth-graders.

It is necessary to state that an effort in teaching pronunciation during the classes is made. The
BBC pronunciation videos are used and getting familiar with the symbols and the phonemes
is also covered. However, it has been more on a correction level during the online lessons.
Simply said, the participants are exposed to teaching pronunciation. That is why no
questionnaires about pronunciation teaching were integrated into the research since the aim is
mainly on the materials.

5.4. Pre-research
The process began with the quiz in MS Forms as the pre-research part. The quiz aimed for
awareness of phonetic symbols and the participants’ task was to rewrite thirty vocabulary
items written in a phonemic transcription.

The average score was 22.1 out of 30 which marks 74% accuracy.

For more specific information, here are the questions and with results in detail:

Table 1: MS Forms Quiz results

transcription spelling correct other other other

answers answers answers answers
/wɜːk/ work 16 week – 16 walk - 2
/triː/ tree 28 three – 7 tri - 1
/wɔːk/ work 6 walk – 22 work - 6 weak - 2
/ʃɜːt/ shirt 26 feet – 6 flat 2 skirt 2
/weɪl/ whale 14 wail – 8, wait way – 2, Real weigh 2, will
–2 –2 -2, well - 2
/kɪŋ/ king 34 kin – 2
/ˈrɪv.ər/ river 36
/θriː/ three 36
/ˈreɪn.bəʊ/ rainbow 32 reinbow – 2

42
/maʊθ/ mouth 32 mauth – 2
/mæθs/ Maths 28 math – 4 mauth - 2 ‘nevím’ - 1
/ˈdʒʌŋ.ɡəl/ jungle 30 jongle – 3 jungel – 2 ‘nevím’ - 1
/ˈfɒr.ɪst/ forest 32 first - 4
/driːm/ dream 32 ‘nevím’ - 4
/frɪdʒ/ fridge 30 friends - 4 fridge - 2
/ˈwʊm.ən/ woman 26 women – 9 žena - 1
/skuːl/ school 32 skul – 3 skull - 1
/ˈdɔː.tər/ daughter 26 doctor – 6 daughter – 3 ‘nevím’ - 1
/ˈæn.ɪ.məl/ animal 34 ‘nevím’- 2
/θæŋk/ thank 30 thanks – 5
/lɑːf/ laugh 22 love – 8 leaf – 5 life - 1
/jɪər/ year 32 ear - 3
/paʊər/ power 36
/ˈəʊ.ʃən/ ocean 28 often - 3 ‘nevím’- 5
/tʃaɪld/ child 35 ‘nevím’ - 1
/kləʊðz/ clothes 30 closed – 4 closhed – 1 clouds - 1
/ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/ English 33 muffin – 1 party - 1 ‘nevím’ - 1
/ˈvɪl.ɪdʒ/ village 33 vilage – 2 ‘nevím’ 1
/ˈwɔː.tər/ water 36
/bʊk/ book 36

After observing the results, the occurrence of the words with initializing w seems to be the
only major issue. Most mistakes appeared in words: /wɜːk/ - work, /wɔːk/ - walk, and /weɪl/ -
whale. In addition, only one participant scored below 10 points. It can be said that the
participants did not have any major difficulties in reading the words written in transcription as
the words were mostly written correctly. Some minor mistakes in spellings appeared as in:
rainbow, jungle, mouth, etc.

5.5. First recordings

The next step was the record of reading single words. There were 21 of them and all of them
are covered by the Project English. The level was A1-A2 and 15 of them were single syllable
and only 6 were two-syllable words. The intention was to cover as many vowel sounds as

43
possible together with the ‘problematic’ consonants sounds. The participants recorded
themselves at home and they had as many attempts as they wanted. They were instructed to
send their recording via the application Talk and Comment.

The list comprises of:

brother, apple, king, three, work, this, river, wear, mouth, whale, angry, they, shirt, maths,
wait, there, learning, air, wing, visit, thanks

After transcription and evaluation of the recordings, the average number of correct words
without a single mistake was 12 for each participant, which marks 55% accuracy overall.

The average accuracy for each single word can be found in the chart below:

Table 2: first recordings evaluation

brother apple king three work this river wear mouth whale angry
72% 83% 13% 38% 61% 41% 69% 80% 58% 50% 66%
they shirt maths wait there learning air wing visit thanks
41% 92% 8% 77% 75% 81% 89% 8% 25% 69%

The words containing /ŋ/ in the final position occurred as the most mispronounced. In
addition, the consonant sounds caused more mistakes than the vowel sounds as the typical
mistakes in interchanging the sounds of /w/ and /v/. The transcriptions of the first recordings
are listed in appendix C.

5.6. Intervention meetings

Before the intervention, the plan of what to focus on was assembled. In particular, the /æ/, /ɜː/,
/ɔː/, /eə/ vowel sounds and the /w/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /ŋ/ consonants sounds were assessed as the
most critical according to the theoretical part of this paper, the pre-research quiz, and the first
recordings.

There were 2 meetings scheduled aimed at improving the participants’ awareness of

mispronounced sounds. Both meetings were taking part in the afternoon after classes and
lasted 45 minutes each.

The specified team was created in MS Teams. The content of the first meeting was the vowel
sounds. The explanation of producing vowel sounds was the initiating part. The participants
were informed about the necessity of getting the tongue from the relaxed position on the

44
bottom of the oral cavity according to Melen (2010). Simply, getting the tongue into the
motion was the first basic instruction. Afterwards, getting familiar with, where and how the
vowel sounds are created according to the phonemic chart followed.

During the next phase, the example words were read aloud. The screen with the handouts was
shared and the participants repeated the example words with muted microphones. This took
around 10 minutes. After that, participants were divided into 6 groups and read the example
words. Everyone should have read at least 3 and the participants were instructed not to read
the same words as their group members. Monitoring of the groups was done without
interfering or corrections in order not to make participants feel inappropriate. The notes of the
mispronounced words and sounds were taken for the concluding part. This lasted about 20
minutes.

The final part of the meeting was summarizing the ‘problematic’ sounds and words. Again,
these were repeated with muted microphones. A brief discussion followed about the form of
the second meeting. The participants expressed a request to be divided into groups according
to their class. This idea seemed reasonable because some of them seemed bashful during the
practising in groups. I complied with that and we scheduled the next meeting.

The second meeting was arranged two days later with the focus on consonants sounds. Its
course was similar to the first one. The participants were more involved during the group
work and everything went faster and smoother.

The feedback on the materials was positive as some participants expressed that they have
broadened their vocabulary. The graphic form of the materials was mentioned as appealing.
Overall, organizing the meetings was a pleasant experience and it was good to see that
somebody actually cares and is willing to spend his/her free time helping me out. The last
thing that remained to be done was to ask the participants to make the second recording.

5.7. Second recordings

For the second recordings, no special tips were given for what to beware of or focus on. The
list comprised of the same words. However, this time, only 17 participants sent their
recordings so the acquired data sample may not be valid for the comparison. Some progress
was achieved as the overall accuracy climbed to 70%. In particular, the words containing
dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ were among those whose pronunciation improved the most. On the
other hand, the sounds of /w/ and /v/ caused even more troubles in the smaller sample as they

45
were mispronounced more often than in the first recordings. Finally, the /ŋ/ sound in the final
position proved to be the major issue even during the second recordings.

After transcription and evaluation of the recordings, the average number of correct words
without a single mistake was 15 for each participant, which marks 70% accuracy overall. The
second transcriptions are listed in appendix D.

Table 3: second recordings evaluation with comparison to the first recordings

brother apple king three work this river wear mouth whale angry
94% 94% 29% 88% 65% 59% 88% 82% 76% 41% 100%
+ 18 % +9% + 16 % + 50 % +4% + 18 % + 19 % + 2% + 18 % -9% + 34 %
they shirt maths wait there learning air wing visit thanks
88% 88% 17% 94% 100% 58% 82% 35% 11% 94%
+ 47 % - 4% + 9% + 17% + 25% - 23% - 7% + 27% - 14% +25%

5.8. Research findings

The fact that only two meetings were scheduled means that the results cannot be generalised.
Moreover, getting more participants for a better data sample was hindered by the Covid19
pandemic situation. The interaction via MS Teams as the participants took part without
cameras and were muted during the instructed practice did not help here either.

As for the research questions, the following conclusions were found out:

Can the participants ‘read’ words written in phonemic transcription?

The accuracy over 70% in the Forms quiz shows that most participants did not have
significant difficulties in this part. As one could expect, the phonetic symbols which are
different from their Czech equivalents among consonant sounds together with the wider range
of English vowel sounds caused most difficulties for reading. The fact that the participants did
the quiz at home has to be taken into consideration as some of them may have wanted to
succeed and may have used some tools for a better score.

Do the proposed materials help learners with their pronunciation?

The materials were accessible for the participants before and after the meetings. They were
posted in the MS Team a week before the first meeting. The span between the second meeting
and the deadline for recordings was also one week. Even if the second recordings showed

46
some improvement, this can’t be taken as proof that the participants worked with them in the
meantime. There was some positive feedback on the materials from the participants but again,
that can’t guarantee some progress. Here, the answer should be given after a longer period of
working with the materials, ideally during contact lessons.

How do the participants perceive such materials?

During the final discussion, the visual aspect of the materials was mentioned as appealing.
The distribution of words according to the word classes and the use of pictures were evaluated
positively. This is also probably not the final form of the materials as my intention is to create
some more activities focused on writing and transcription on the other pages. Overall, the
participants expressed a positive feedback and I intend to implement them in my teaching.

47
Conclusion
As a student in English teacher’s program, I want to dedicate my thesis to something practical
that could be actually used for teaching. While pondering what to focus on, the pronunciation
was the logical choice because even as I have been teaching English for several years I hadn’t
had any experience with phonetics and phonology until the beginning of my studies at the
department of English language and literature.

Since textbooks usually do not offer much in terms of pronunciation teaching, it is up to

teachers to provide appropriate materials and activities for their learners. Personally, I think
that pronunciation is the most visible or better said audible manifestation of English skills.
One may be on an advanced level in terms of grammar and have a wide vocabulary range,
whereas his/her pronunciation may not be considered as intelligible and he/she may feel
insecure or uncomfortable and struggle in spoken communication. That is why intelligibility
should remain the main goal.

At this point, I can’t agree more with Kenworthy’s claims (1987: 9) that we can persuade
learners of the importance of good pronunciation for ease of communication, and that “a
teacher who clearly demonstrates concern for the pronunciation and of learners will stand a
good chance of instilling a similar concern in the learners themselves.” I´m absolutely
convinced that when we try and care, the results will come. I consider myself fortunate to
witness progress in the pronunciation of my learners. Moreover, elementary school learners
acquire the pronunciation habits so smooth and naturally even without specialized activities
focused strictly on pronunciation. With the use of the pictures, the materials may be beneficial
even for elementary school learners.

After the meetings with the participants, I came to the idea that it would be beneficial for both
teachers and learners if the teachers of the Czech language dedicated at least some time to
phonetics and phonology. I am not familiar with the curriculum of the Czech language but I
believe that some basic knowledge in this area would help learners sense some basic
differences and make the job for English teachers easier. If we just consider the impact of
voiced and unvoiced consonants on the English pronunciation, being familiar with voicing
from the Czech lessons would be a nice head start. This interconnection could help in more
ways, e.g. countable and uncountable nouns in terms of grammar.

48
Overall, studying the literature for the theoretical part of this paper has enriched me with
several inspiring titles that can be used for my teaching and has broadened my pronunciation
knowledge. Moreover, it has encouraged the awareness of the importance of teaching
pronunciation. In addition, skimming through theses focused on pronunciation and using the
terms qualified/unqualified teacher and evaluating un/willingness to adapt pronunciation
teaching and the approach to teaching this skill, this has lead to one exclamation point for me.
And, the point is that even though teaching pronunciation is challenging and demanding to see
and to hear your learners making progress and being concerned with their pronunciation is the
best reward one can hope for.

49
List of references
Baker. A. (2006). Ship or Sheep? An Intermediate Pronunciation Course. Cambridge
University Press.

Broughton, G. (1980). Teaching English as a Foreign Language. J. Eggleston (Ed.). London:

Routledge.

Buzan, T. (2018). Mind map mastery. Watkins.

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Goodwin, J. M. (1996). Teaching

pronunciation:A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Collins, B. and Mees, I., M. (2013). Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A resource book for
students (3rd ed.). London and New York: Taylor & Francis.

Crutenden, A. (2008). Gimson’s pronunciation of English. Hodder Education.

Dalton, C. & Siedlhofer, B. (1994). Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Daniel, L. O. (2011). Introductory Phonetics and Phonology of English. Cambridge Scholars.

Greenbaum, S. & Quirk, R. (1990). A Student’s Grammar of the English Language.

Longman.

Gut, U. (2009). Introduction to English Phonetics and Phonology. Peter Lang.

Hancock, M. (2017, 28th Feb). Models in Pronunciation Teaching.

http://pronpack.com/models-in-pronunciation-teaching/

Hewings, M. (2007) Pronunciation Practice Activities: A Resource Book for Teaching

English Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kelly, G. (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Harlow Longman.

Lane. L. (2010). Tips for Teaching Pronunciation: A Practical Approach. Pearson Longman

Lewis. G. (2007). Teenagers. Oxford University Press.

Lindsey, C. & Knight, P. (2010). Learning and Teaching English. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

Melen, D. (2010). Výslovnost angličtiny na pozadí češtiny. Praha: Big Ben Bookshop Prague.

50
Mompean, J. A. (2008) Consumers’ Preferences and the Choice of English Pronunciation
Models. (p. 959-964). https://www.um.es/lacell/aesla/contenido/pdf/9/mompean2.pdf

O’Connor, J.D. (1980). Better English Pronunciation (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology. 4th ed., Cambridge Univ. Press.

Schratz, M., & Puchta, H. (1993). Teaching teenagers: model activity sequences for humanistic
language learning. Harlow: Longman Group UK.

Skaličková, A. (1982). Fonetika současné angličtiny. Státní pedagogické nakladatelství.

Underhill, A. (2005). Sound foundations: living phonology. Oxford: Heinemann.

51
List of figures and tables
Figure 1: The English phonemic chart (Underhill, 2005, viii) ................................................. 16
Figure 2: The vocal tract (Roach, 2009:8) ............................................................................... 18
Figure 3: English short vowels (Roach, 2009: 13) ................................................................... 20
Figure 4: English long vowels (Roach, 2009: 16) .................................................................... 21
Figure 5: Chart of English consonant phonemes (Roach, 2009: 52) ....................................... 25
Table 1: MS Forms Quiz results .............................................................................................. 42
Table 2: first recordings evaluation .......................................................................................... 44
Table 3: second recordings evaluation with comparison to the first recordings ...................... 46

52
Résumé
The aim of the present thesis is to design and create materials for teaching phonetic symbols
and phonemes for Czech learners of English. In the theoretical part, the key terms for the
topic pronunciation are introduced followed by examining the English vowels and consonants
in greater detail. The two remaining chapters deal with the most common mistakes made by
Czech speakers of English and the aspects of teaching and learning pronunciation.

The output of the practical part is the proposed handouts which are attached in the appendices.
The motivation, inspiration, and the process of making the materials are described and
explained. In addition, research focused on the use of the handouts was conducted with 36
participants at lower-secondary school in Jihlava.

53
 Appendices
Appendix A – Teaching materials

Appendix B – Project English analysis

Appendix C – Transcription of first recordings

Appendix D – Transcription of second recordings

54
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B

Project 1
unit topic grammar vocabulary pronunciation
1A Hello greetings short vowels - 6 symbols
classroom
vocabulary
In the and
1B classroom articles a/an isntructions long vowels - 5 symbols
Rhyme (matching words with the some
1C Numbers numbers vowel sound)
How do you The alphabet - 7 symbols ordering sounds
1D spell that? plurals via the alphabet
Where are Word stress - 8 Countries 4 stress
2A you from? verb to be countries patterns
possesive
2B My family adjectvies family schwa -er ending
Mickey,
Millie and
2C Mut to be - questions /i/ and /i:/
What day is to be - yes/no days of the Sentence stress (marking stresses in
2D it today? questions week sentences)
I've got a electronic Intonation: sencences (copying the
3A computer verb have got devices intonation)
Have you have got - yes/no Intonation: yes/no questions(copying the
3B got a pet? questions pets intonation)
Mut's
3C present adjectives /r/ and /l/
school
3D My school subjects /tš/ and /dž/
What day is on/at - time telling the
4A it today? prepositions time Rhythm and stess - Hickory dickory dock
present simple
4B My day (PS) - affirmative daily routines schwa
PS - negative and free time
4C Free time 3rd singular activities /o/ and /ou/
Mickey, PS - questions
Millie and and short
4D Mut answers Intonation: Why- qustions
prepositions of Word stess (marking the stress in single
5A My room place furniture words)
house
5B Our house there is/are equipment /o/ and /ó/
there is/are - town
5C Her town short answers vocabulary /š/ and /s/
Mickey,
Millie and
Mut's day
5D out can/can't can / can't
 to be /have got
for describing vowel sound (matching words with the
6A My friends people appearances same sound)
Saturday present shopping
6B morning continuous (PC) phrases 7 symbols revision
Are we present simple /
going to the present
6C shops? continuous The letter "i"
6D Clothes clothes Syllables - how many syllables you hear
Project 2
unit topic grammar vocabulary pronunciation
giving
Intro Hello, my family, at revision - to be, personal
the sports centre,
A What can you do? can information same spelling/different sound - 5 symbols
My room,
Intro what has revision - have
B she got? got
revision - present school
1A My school simple vocabulary transcription into spelling
months,
brithday
1B Birthdays ordinal numbers vocabulary th spelling 2 symbols
Mickey,
Millie and revision - PS -
1C Mut questions Intonation - yes/no questions
adverbs of
1D Daily life frequency houseworks endings -es /iz/
Our school revision - present
2A trip continuous animals Syllables - how many syllables you hear
Mickey's
model revision - PC -
2B dinosaur questions stress and rhythm
My present simple /
favourite present Word stess (marking the stress in single
2C animals continuous animals words)
The story
Chicken object pronouns; same sound - vowels in single syllable
2D Licken must words
Where were
you last past simple - to
3A week? be travelling weak and strong forms - was/were
past simple -
3B Our holiday regular verbs travelling endings -ed /id/ /d/ /t/
past simple -
3C Problems negative changing the sound in negative auxiliaries
Mut's past simple -
3D holiday questions /h/
Food and countability of food and
4A drink food drinks phrasal stress - food
4B Stone soup some/any food and /tš/ and /dž/
 drinks
Mut goes countability of food and
4C shopping food drinks /a/
George's
apple countability of cooking same sound - vowels in single syllable
4D crumble food vocabulary words
how for
5A My country questions adjectives stress and rhythm - rhyme
North and adjectives -
5B south comparatives opposites /o:/
Record Word stess (marking the stress in single
5C breakers superlatives adjectives words)
Mickey and
Millie go adjectives/compa
5D camping rites/superlatives adjectives same sound - vowels in words
TV Sentence stress (marking stresses in
6A programmes to be going to watching TV sentences)
At the adjectives and
6B movies adverbs /r/
Film,
cameras, types of TV
6C action have to programmes the letter "a" (4 symbols)
The lost making
6D penguin suggestions Rhythm - rhyme
APPENDIX C
APPENDIX D