Fonética y fonología del inglés

Profesor Dr. Darío Barrera Pardo

BOOKLET 1: INTRODUCTION

Is it possible for me to acquire a native accent?

Is it necessary for me to acquire a native accent?
Do I want to have a native accent?

Survey: https://tinyurl.com/ycks6d8v

Can I have a native accent?

What the research says:

Laura Colantoni, Jeffrey Steele, & Paola Escudero (2015). Second language speech: Theory and
practice (pp. 20-22). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• children normally acquire the L1 with full mastery

• the vast majority of adult L2 learners fail to acquire native-like competence
• some researchers have proposed that truly native-like attainment is impossible after post-
puberty
• this non-native attainment is most evident in the domains of phonetics and phonology
• most L2 learners (except for a limited number of cases) have some degree of foreign accent
• there are some factors predict
the degree of mastery of the target
language:

Flege, J. E., Yeni-Komshian, G. H., & Liu, S. (1999). Age constraints on second-Language acquisition. Journal of
Memory and Language, 41(1), 78-104

1. age at onset of acquisition, that is, at what age you started learning the L2
2. length of residence in an L2-speaking country
3. formal instruction, that is, pronunciation training
4. degree of motivation to acquire the target language
5. general language aptitude
6. amount of L1 use (as opposed to amount of L2 use)

Do I need to have a native accent?

1
What the research says:

John M. Levis (2005). Changing contexts and shifting paradigms in pronunciation teaching. TESOL
Quarterly, 39, 369-377.

• pronunciation research and pedagogy have long been influenced by two contradictory
principles, the nativeness principle and the intelligibility principle
• The nativeness principle holds that it is both possible and desirable to achieve native-like
pronunciation in a foreign language
• the intelligibility principle holds that learners simply need to be understandable
• The intelligibility principle recognizes that communication can be remarkably successful
when foreign accents are noticeable or even strong, that there is no clear correlation
between accent and understanding (Munro and Derwing, 1999), and that certain types of
pronunciation errors may have a disproportionate role in impairing comprehensibility.

Intelligibility principle > INTELLIGIBILITY WHAT TO FOCUS ON

John M. Levis (2018). Intelligibility, oral communication, and the teaching of pronunciation.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

I. Orthography

• vowel spellings
• final grammatical endings -s/’s, -ed

II. Consonants

• High functional load contrasts (cut-off is 20)

o Initial consonants

 p/b 98
 b/w 76
 h/zero74
 t/d 73
 s/ʃ 55
 k/g 50
 g/w 49
 t/tʃ 39
 d/dʒ 39
 b/v 29
 ʃ/tʃ 26
 f/v 23
 v/w 22
 dʒ/j 20.5

o Final consonants
 t/d 72
 m/n 42
 s/z 38
 t/tʃ 31
 k/g 29
 t/θ 17
 v/z 22
 d/dʒ 22
 b/m 21
 g/ŋ 21
 n/ŋ 18
• Initial consonants
• Aspiration of voiceless plosives

2
III. Vowels

• High functional load (cut-off is 20)

 beet/bit 95
 bought/boat 88
 cat/cot 76
 cat/cut 68
 cot/cut 65
 caught/curt 64
 bit/bet 54
 bet/bait 53
 bet/bat 51
 cat/cart 50
 bought/boot 50
 bead/beard 47
 cart/cought 43
 cart/curt 40
 boat/bout 40.5
 cut/curt 40
 cut/cart 38
 Kay/care 35
 cart/cot 31.5
 here/hair 30
 cot/caught 26
 fire/fair 25
 her/here 24
 her/hair 21
 tire/tower 19

• Vowel quality distinctions

• Vowel length as a cue to voicing in consonants
• Vowels in stressed syllables

3
Key concepts in pronunciation

Concept Definition
1. Intelligibility The extent to which a listener understands the speaker’s intended meaning
2. Comprehensibility The amount of effort expended by the listener to understand the speaker
3. Accentedness The degree to which an individual’s speech differs from that of the local
community
4. Fluency The flow of speech; the extent to which speech is free of dysfluencies such as
pauses, repetitions, false starts
5. Segmentals Consonants and vowels
6. Suprasegmentals Intonation, stress, tone, prominence, linking, rhythm
7. IPA International Phonetic Alphabet: a transcription system that allows for a one-
to-one mapping of sounds and symbols

Ways to measure 1, 2, 3, and 4

1. Intellibillity: number of words correctly transcribed (written) by listeners

2. Comprehensibility: scalar ratings from listeners
3. Accentedness: scalar ratings from listeners
4. Fluency: scalar ratings from listeners; acoustic measures of articulation and pausing

Example of 1:

Speaker: I want to go the bɪtʃ ! [speaker probably means bitʃ beach, not bitch]
Listener: You want to go where?

Example of 2:

A speaker who for various phonological reasons is difficult to understand

Example of 3:

A speaker that has a broad Spanish accent when speaking English

Example of 4:

Speaker: Ok, today uh uh I’m going to say [pause] I’m going to talk mm about uh about [pause]

Example of 5:

/b/ and /tʃ/ are consonants, /ɪ/ is a vowel

Example of 6:

Speaker: I’d like a big BOTTle, please

Listener: Sorry, we only have SMALL bottles

Example of 7:

The words shame, chef, mission, and sugar all have the IPA symbol /ʃ/

4
A. HOW MUCH IMPROVEMENT MAY TEACHERS AND LEANERS EXPECT?

“A consistent research finding over recent decades is that when students are asked about
their pronunciation aspirations, most L2 learners will respond that the want to attain native
or near-native pronunciation abilities … while this is a clear research finding, teachers need to
interpret it with care because there is also ample empirical evidence of very real limitations to
native-like pronunciation attainment. The fact is that very few people who initiate L2 study in
adolescence or adulthood ever attain native-like pronunciation in a new language … and it is
important for pronunciation teachers to be aware of this consistent research finding” (p. 17)

Murphy, J. (2017). Introduction and background to pronunciation teaching. In J. Murphy

(Ed.), Teaching the pronunciation of English: Focus on whole courses (pp. 1-29). University of
Michigan Press.

B. What is “good” pronunciation? What is “bad” pronunciation?

Answer: pronunciation is good when the pronunciation is intelligible to the interlocutor;

pronunciation is bad when the pronunciation is unintelligible to the interlocutor. Within this
definition, native speaker-like pronunciation can be bad pronunciation if it is unintelligible to
the interlocutor; likewise, pronunciation that deviates from native speaker-like pronunciation
can be good pronunciation if it is intelligible to the interlocutor … it is the intelligibility of the
pronunciation that warrants the designation “good” or “bad,” not approximation to a
standard.”

O’Neal, G. (2015). Consonant clusters and intelligibility in English as a Lingua Franca in

Japan: Phonological modifications to restore intelligibility in ELF. Pragmatics and Society, 6(4),
615–636.

C. INTELLIGIBILITY, COMPREHENSIBILITY, AND ACCENTEDNESS

“While laypersons would tend to think of L2 pronunciation as a single construct, … a

specialist definition … separates it into three components: intelligibility, comprehensibility,
and accent. Each is defined relative to the perceptions of proficient English language listeners
… intelligibility is tied to products of a listener’s understanding (i.e., How much of the
content does the listener understand of what the speaker is saying?). Comprehensibility is
tied to the degree of effort a listener finds she or he must expend to understand a speaker (i.e.,
Is it easy or hard to for the listener to follow what the speaker is saying?), and accent is tied
to any differences the listener may be perceiving between the speaker’s and the listener’s
pronunciation (i.e., Is the speaker’s pronunciation almost the same, similar, or is it very
different from the style of pronunciation the listener is used to?) … intelligibility and
comprehensibility … contribute more to effective communication”

Murphy, J. (2017). Introduction and background to pronunciation teaching. In J. Murphy

(Ed.), Teaching the pronunciation of English: Focus on whole courses (pp. 1-29). University of
Michigan Press.

5
 EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS

“Some well-known non-native accented speakers of English who many native speakers would
consider to be both intelligible and comprehensible include the actors Javier Bardem, Ingrid
Bergman, Gael Garcia Bernal, Jackie Chan, Penélope Cruz, and Sofia Vergara; politicians Kofi
Annan, Henry Kissinger, and Vicente Fox; news commentator Jorge Ramos; and
actor/politician Arnold Schwarzenegger”

Murphy, J. (2017). Introduction and background to pronunciation teaching. In J. Murphy

(Ed.), Teaching the pronunciation of English: Focus on whole courses (pp. 1-29). University of
Michigan Press. pp. 8-9

Discurso motivador de Arnold Schwarzenegger 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Eqm85FQSc

Penélope Cruz Shares What It Was Like to Party with Prince | The Tonight Show
Starring Jimmy Fallon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiDcjSIj8K0

Young Gael Garcia Bernal Was a Top Lip Kisser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v65fp4c_a84

Fmr. Mexican President Vicente Fox | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChX-2vALWVs

Javier Bardem On Performing With His Wife Penélope Cruz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DD_HixIxfo

A. Watch at least two of these non-native speakers:

1. decide why they are described as intelligible or unintelligible. To do this, try to write
down three or four sentences the speaker says, not looking at the subtitles (disable this
option in the Youtube video)

2. are there any specific sounds (vowels or consonants) that make them sometimes
unintelligible?

3. decide why they are described as comprehensible: how much effort do you have to
make to understand them? To do this, use this scale:

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Very Very
difficult to easy to
understand understad

4. which of the non-native speakers has a ‘good’ pronunciation?

5. which of the non-native speakers has a ‘bad’ pronunciation?

B. In your team, write up a short report with your answers to the five questions above, and
briefly present it to the class on the date set by the instructor. This activity is worth 3
points (ACTIVITIES).

6
 English pronunciation

Word-level Discourse-level Related areas

Segmentals Word stress Rhythm Intonation

Rate Loudness

Fluency Voice quality

Pronunciation features related to intelligibility

Levis, J. M. (2018). Intelligibility, oral communication, and the teaching of pronunciation.
Cambridge University Press. p. 35

1. Look at the figure above. Team up with a classmate and ask her/him the following:

(i) which of these eight features is more difficult for them?

(ii) which of these eight features does she/he regard as more important?

(iii) ask them to give you a specific example of two pronunciation features in
which they have difficulty

(iv) now swap roles and answer the three questions above (that is, she/he asks
you the same questions

2. In general, which of these pronunciation features do you feel Spanish learners of

English have more trouble with?

7
INTELLIGIBILITY

Levis, J.M. (2018). Intelligibility, oral communication, and the teaching of pronunciation.
Cambridge University Press

Indirect pronunciation issues: What to teach

Word-based pronunciation: the problem of difficult words

More important Less important

Useful words Words you are unlikely to use, learning

Potential taboo words vocabulary pronunciations just because
Professional vocabulary you want to improve your vocabulary

Personal names Nonsense words

“the pronunciation of words that can sound like taboo words (e.g., beach/bitch, sheet/shit,
piece/piss, focus/fuck us, fork/fuck, peanuts/penis). Because of their social impact, L2
learners need ways to either say these taboo sound-alike words clearly, or avoid them
successfully, which is not always possible. For example, in English paper is counted in pieces
and sheets, making such words often unavoidable in university contexts”

Fluency features
More important Less important

Working on general speaking skills Attention to linking and connected speech

so that production is comfortable. in order to build more fluent speech
Thought groups (phrases) in reading
aloud and in spontaneous speech

Lack of fluency may be connected to excessive number of filled pauses, poor phrasing (this
can serioulsy affect other suprasegmental features), and speech that is excessively slow

Orthography
More important Less important

Basic skills in decoding written English Complex spelling rules that have minor
into spoken, especially for vowels; payoff, e.g., <th> spelling-sound
changeable consonant letter/sound correspondences
correspondences, and
final grammatical endings such as —s/’s
and —ed

“unlike Spanish or Turkish, English has a relatively opaque orthography. This means that the
way words are pronounced is often not directly connected to the way they are spelled. It
means that the same spelling can have multiple realizations (e.g., the <ch> in character,
chicken, machine, and choir all sound different). It also means that the same phonetic
realization may have multiple spellings (e.g., [ʃ] can be found in sugar, social, shoes, nation,
mission, and machine) … written English is nearly an ideal spelling system to allow written
communication to be mutually intelligible across varieties and across space and time. For
example, Australian, Nigerian, Scottish, Indian, South African, and North American writers
can be understood anywhere in the world, despite vast differences in pronunciation. The
nearly invariant English spelling system also means that modern readers can read texts from

8
other centuries, even though the English of hundreds of years ago was pronounced very
differently from today”
Segments, syllables and word stress: What to teach
Consonants
More important
High functional load (e.g., /l/-/n/,
/p/- /f/)
Lengthened vowels before voiced
consonants or in open syllables
Initial consonants
Vowels
More important
High functional load contrasts (e.g.,
/ɛ - æ/, /i - ɪ/, /ɑ - ʌ/)
Vowel quality distinctions rather than
length as a phonemic distinguisher (see,
however, Table above for the importance
of vowel length as a cue to voicing in
consonants
Vowels in stressed syllables
Consonant clusters and syllable structure
More important
Initial consonant clusters
Final consonant clusters, including
those created with —ed and —s/’s
endings
Vowels pronounced when no vowel is
expected (e.g., evening, temperature,
chocolate with all written vowels
pronounced), the insertion of
unexpected vowels with grammatical
endings (e.g., walked ➝ walk it)
Unexpected sound or syllable deletions
Less important
Low functional load (e.g., /d/ - /ð/)
Allophonic variants that mark varieties,
such as the flap for intervocalic /t-d/ in
American English, the labiodental
approximant for /ɹ/ for some British
English speakers
Medial consonants between vowels
Less important
Low functional load contrasts (e.g., /u - ʊ/
Vowel distinctions in syllables ending in
<r> and those not before <r> (e.g., paid/
pair, feel/fear)
Distinctions in which vowels have merged
in certain varieties (e.g., distinguishing the
vowels in cot-caught)
Vowel distinctions in neutralizing contexts.
especially before [g], [ŋ], and [ɫ] (e.g.,
beg/bag, sing, pool/pull)
Less important
Medial consonant clusters
Complex consonant clusters when NSs simplify
(e.g., months pronounced as [mʌnθs] rather than
[mʌns], or clothes pronounced as [kloʊðz] rather
than [kloʊz]
Well-attested epenthesis examples in NS speech
(e.g., ath(e)lete, real(a)tor)
Well-attested syllable deletions (e.g., sent some,
cost more)
9
Word stress
More important Less important

Rightward mis-stressing (e.g., Leftward mis-stressing (e.g., inSURE said as

COMfort said as comFORT; FOLLow Insure; comPLETE said as COMplete)
as foLLOW)
Minimal straightforward rules that do not Teaching stress patterns for large number of
require extensive morphological knowledge suffixes, especially those than don’t affect stress
(e.g., stress the vowel before the i+Vowel (e.g., Dauer, 1993; see Chapter 5 for more)
ending as in ˈnation, anti ˈsocial, ˈradius —see
Dickerson, 1989)
Unpredictable minimal pairs (e.g., innocence/ Noun-verb stress pairs (e.g., an Insult/to
in essence — see Dauer, 1993) inSULT) or numbers (e.g., thirteen/thirty)
Mis-stressings that changed vowel quality Mis-stressings without changed vowel quality
(e.g., senTENces) (e.g., concenTRATE)
Embodied practice for stress differences
(Gilbert, 2001; Murphy, 2004) using
tricks like stretching rubberbands

Rhythm
More important Less important

Perception training to identify key words Production of schwa in unstressed syllables

in the stream of speech
Lengthening of stress syllables, and Distinctions in unstressed syllable quality, e.g.,
shortening of unstressed syllables between [ə] and [ɪ]
Being able to guess unstressed function
words from inadequate acoustic signals
Connections of stress and word classes
Weak forms of frequent function words

Connected speech
More important Less important

Perception of connected speech features Production of most types of connected speech

that result in unexpected segments, both
in controlled contexts and in “jungle
listening” (Cauldwell, 2013)
Perceiving differences between full and Producing reduced vowels, apart from
reduced vowels (especially schwa) in normal durational differences between stressed
speech, and being able to interpret speech and unstressed syllables
based on full vowels
Perception of linking that does not change
segments
Contractions versus full forms (e.g., I’m
versus I am)

10
Prominence
More important Less important

Default prominence (i.e., the last
content word of the thought group)
Contrastive prominence (e.g., I’d like the
RED rose)
Exceptional patterns (e.g., when the final content
word is an adverbial, e.g., I’d like to LEAVE soon)
Low-frequency patterns (e.g., event sentences
such as The KETTle’s boiling)

New information (e.g., The singer is GOOD,

but not THAT good)
De-accented given information (e.g., The
singer is GOOD, but not THAT good)

Intonation
More important Less important

Rising/falling distinctions on declaratives Rising/falling on yes/no questions

or incomplete sentences
Intonation across multiple phrases, with Intonation on structures that are rarely used
rising intonation early in extended speech by L2 learners, e.g., tag questions
and falling intonation as a pause break
(Pickering, 2001)
Perception of meaning of falling-rising Intonation rules tied to grammatical structures
contours and other nonfinal contours
(e.g., level contours)
Liveness of intonation and rhythmic Intonation as determinative of emotional or
variation for monologic speech (Hincks, attitudinal meaning
2003)
Topic-changing pitches (paratones) in
speech (e.g., The NEXT topic we’ll discuss
is intonation). These paratones signal
changes in what is being talked about
and are critical for intelligibility in both
perception and production

11
 Time for some practice! Reverse transcription

1) Put the following transcriptions in stadard spelling. The accent is GenAm.

/ˈpʊt ˈten ˈpeɪpɚz ɑn ˈðæt ˈteɪbl/

/səm ˈmɪʃənz ɑɹ ˈmɔɹ ˈdɪfɪkəlt ðən ˈʌðɚz/

/maɪ ˈneɪm ɪz ˈbɑnd ǀ ˈdʒeɪmz ˈbɑnd/

/ʃi ˈsɛlz ˈʃɛlz baɪ ðə ˈsi ˈʃɔɹ/

/dɪd ju ˈhɪɹ hɪz ˈlæst ˈdʒoʊkǀ noʊ ǀ ju ɑɹ ˈlʌki/

/ɪn ˈskɑtlənd ɪt ˈnɛvɚ ˈɡɛts soʊ ˈhɑt/

/ˈθæŋks fɚ jɔɹ ˈhɛlp ǀ aɪ ʃəl ˈnɑt fɚˈɡɛt ɪt/

/ˈðæt ˈnɑlɪdʒ ɪz ˈpɹɑbəblɪ ˈjusləs/

/ɪf ju ˈliv ˈtaʊn ˈnaʊ | ɪtl bɪ ə ˈɹil ˈʃeɪm/

/hɪz ˈfit wɚ ˈtu ˈtaɪɹd fɚ ˈwɔkɪŋ/

2. Put the following English sayings in standard spelling.

What do they mean?

Transcription Standard spelling

1. /ˈdoʊnt ˈpʊt ˈɔl jɔɹ ˈɛɡz ɪn ˈwʌn
ˈbæskət/
2. /ˈizi ˈkʌm|ˈizi ˈɡoʊ/

3. /wʌns ˈbɪtən|twaɪs ˈʃaɪ/

12
 4. /wɛn ðə ˈkaʊz ˈdʒʌmp ˈoʊvɚ ðə
ˈmun/

3. Look at the idioms and expressions below. Can you put them in standard spelling?

IDIOMS & EXPRESSIONS STANDARD SPELLING

1. /ˈeɪks ənd ˈpeɪnz/
2. /ˈswit ˈdɹimz/
3. /ˈbɹið ˈdiplɪ/
4. /ˈkul əz ə ˈkjukʌmbɚ/
5. /ə ˈlus ˈskɹu/
6. /ˈhæpɪ əz ə ˈbʌɡ ɪn ə ˈɹʌɡ/
7. /baɪ ˈhʊk ɔɹ baɪ ˈkɹʊk/
8. /ˈɹeɪz ˈkeɪn/

4. The following monosyllabic words (i.e. words with one syllable) are written in transcription. These words
belong to three vocabulary categories (parts of the body, food items, animals). Write each word in standard
orthography and put it in the appropriate vocabulary section of the table below. The first two are done as a
model.

Transcription
1. /fɪʃ/ 2. /wɔsp/ 3. /dɪɹ/ 4. /splin/ 5. /skʌŋk/
6. /fit/ 7. /fɑks/ 8. /veɪn/ 9. /rɪb/ 10. /plʌm/
11. /lɔɪnz/ 12. /fli/ 13. /ni/ 14. /læm/ 15. /tɪk/
16. /kɹoʊ/ 17. /tʃik/ 18. /weɪst/ 19. /sɔlt/ 20. /fɪntʃ/

Body parts Food items Animals

6. feet 1. fish 1. fish

13
5. The chart below has two columns; in the left column the titles of a 11 movie titles have been
transcribed, and in the right column there are the names of 11 actors/ actresses in phonemic transcription
as well. You have to place the movie titles and actors/actresses in standard spelling in the empty chart,
and try to match them in the column labeled ‘Answers’.

• Test your Cinema culture •

Movie title Actor/Actress

1. /ˈtɜ˞mɪneɪtə˞/ A. /ˌvɪvɪən ˈli/

2. /ˌdɜ˞tɪ ˈhæɹɪ/ B. /ˌhʌmfɹɪ ˈboʊɡɑɹt/
3. /ˈaʊt əv ˈæfɹɪkə/ C. /ˌsɪɡə˞nɪ ˈwivə˞/
4. /ˈmætɹɪks/ D. /ˌtʃɑɹltən ˈhɛstən/
5. /ˈɡɒn wɪð ðə ˈwɪnd/ E. /ˌnu ˈɹivz/
6. /ðɪ ˈɛksə˞sɪst/ F. /ˌklɪnt ˈistwəd/
7. /ðɪ ˌæfɹɪkən ˈkwin/ G. /ˌɹɑbə˞t ˈɹɛdfə˞d/
8. /əˈpɑkəlɪps ˈnaʊ/ H. /ˌɑɹnəld ˈswætsə˞ˌnɛɡə˞/
9. /ˈwɪtnəs/ I. /ˌmɑɹlən ˈbɹændoʊ/
10. /ˈeɪlɪən/ J. /ˌhæɹɪsən ˈfɔɹd/
11. /ˈplænɪt əv ðɪ ˈeɪps/ K. /ˌlɪndə ˈblɪɹ/

14