A COURSE IN PHONETICS AND SPOKEN ENGLISH FOR ELT STUDENTS .
A COURSE IN PHONETICS ANDSPOKEN ENGLISH FOR ELT STUDENTSIN INDIAN UNIVERSITIESABSTRACTTHESISSUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OFtNENGLISHUnder the Supervision ofPROF. ASIF SHUJABySHEEBADEPARTMENT OF ENGLISHALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITYALIGARH (INDIA)2004
ABSTRACTTOPIC:A COURSE IN PHONETICS AND SPOKENENGLISH FOR ELT STUDENTS IN INDIANUNIVERSITIESThe proposed research aims at designing a course inPhonetics and Spoken English for ELT s t u d e n t s in IndianUniversities. It does not aim at a t t a c k i n g t h e existingcourses in the field b u t the main objective is to design acomprehensive course in Phonetics and Spoken Englishwhich takes care of the Indian s t u d e n t s ' specific problemsin learning General Phonetics, English P h o n e t i c s a n dSpoken English.Today English is the only language which is spokenall over the world a n d in India it is u s e d a s a secondlanguage. Its main function is communication. S t u d e n t sseeking employment after graduation often find themselvesunable to make their presence felt and succeed in times tion skills. In India, majority of s t u d e n t s cometo the English classroom with a background of differentIndian languages a s their mother tongue. When they haveto face the modern world of competition, they find it difficult1
to compete and succeed in getting their ambitions of lifefulfilled.Therefore, the main objective of t h i s study is tohelp Indian learners of English improve their speaking skillwhich is required for their future career along with theirp r e s e n t academic life.PLAN OF STUDYThe present thesis is divided into three p a r t s : Part-Ideals with Elements of General Phonetics, Part-Il, describesEnglish P h o n e t i c s and Spoken English, Part-Ill isconcerned with Exercises for Practice.In P a r t - I , C h a p t e r - 1 d e f i n e s a n d e x p l a i n s t h edefinitions of Communication, Speech, Writing, Language,Phonetics and Linguistics, The English Language, SpokenEnglish in India, Learning English a s Foreign Language orSecond LanguageChapter 2 is concerned with the production of speechs o u n d s . How the speech s o u n d s are produced and whatare the important organs of speech. The organs of speech,and their speech functions, can be described u n d e r threesystems: the respiratory system, the phonatory system and
the articulatory system.Chapter 3 deals with the analysis of speech sounds.Speech sounds can be analysed with the help of syllable.Syllable is the concept of a unit at a higher level than thatof the sound segment. It can be divided with the help ofvowel and consonant and after the division of syllable thes t r u c t u r e would be CVC ( C o n s o n a n t , Vowel andConsonant).C h a p t e r 4 d e s c r i b e s s e g m e n t a t i o n of GeneralPhonetics. This chapter describes place and manner ofarticulation and naming of vowels and c o n s o n a n t s ,Secondary and Double articulations, Isolations andTaxonomic Terms.Chapter 5 describes structure and system. Phonologyis the study of sounds and p a t t e r n s in a particularlanguage. Each language uses only a limited number ofspeech sounds that human beings can produce. Thesesounds are then organized into characteristic patterns.They are grouped into significant sound units which arearranged in structures and systems.Chapter 6 deals with voice quality and voice dynamics,Non-segmental components of the medium fall into two
groups, one of them, consisting of the components whichcontribute to the general quality of the components, is voicequality. The other consisting of components which ariseout of the way the voice is handled is voice dynamics.Chapter 7 deals with the notation. Notation describesInternational Phonetic symbols, transcription and nonsegmental symbols.Chapter 8 describes assimilation. Assimilation isdefined as the process of replacing a sound by anothersound under the influence of a third sound which is nearto it in the word or sentence. It is of two kinds, (i) Historicalassimilation, (2) Juxtapositional or contextual assimilation.Chapter 9 describes and classifies English speechs o u n d s . This chapter gives the full description andclassification of English speech sounds along with thephonemic and phonetic details.Chapter 10 explains the word stress and connectedspeech. It describes accent, prominence, word neutralisation of weak forms, liaison and juncture.
Finally Chapter 11 provides them with some usefulmeasures to prevent Indian students from making mistakesin the articulation of English sounds, stressing of Englishwords and sentences, in the use of tonality, tonicity andtones in connected speech while reading aloud or in theirEnglish conversation. It also offers a few suggestions tothe teachers of English taking into consideration the ELTsituations existing in the colleges and universities in India.Part-Ill is designed to provide some useful exercisesfor practice.It is hoped that ELT students and teachers will findthis course profusely meaningful in the improvement oftheir spoken English with a reasonable amount of fluency,intelligibility and acceptability at the n a t i o n a l andinternational levels.yfy -- - -. ''v/
A COURSE IN PHONETICS ANDSPOKEN ENGLISH FOR ELT STUDENTSIN INDIAN UNIVERSITIESTHESISSUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OFp0tf0r 0f pi tl0Si0pi(gINENGLISHUnder the Supervision ofPROF. ASIF SHUJABySHEEBADEPARTMENT OF ENGLISHALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITYALIGARH (INDIA)2004
THESIS2 8JUL ziLbXP,T6046
.UJedlcatedtof arentd
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISHALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITYALIGARHDated :.?). . 3.'.okCERTIFICATEThis is to certify that the Ph.D. Thesis entitled ''A COURSEIN PHONETICS AND SPOKEN ENGLISH FOR ELT STUDENTS ININDIAN UNIVERSITIES"s u b m i t t e d by Ms. Sheeba u n d e r mysupervision for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in English, isthe result of her own endeavour. She is allowed to submit herthesis for the award of Ph.D. in the Department of English, AligarhMuslim University, Aligarh. /' XProf. AsifShujaSupervisor
CONTENTSPage No.AcknowledgementList of AbbreviationsList of Phonetic Symbols and SignsIntroduction: Aim and Scope: Method and Approach Adoptediiiiii-vivii-xvPART-I ELEMENTS OF GENERAL PHONETICSChapter-.! eechWritingLanguageLinguistics and PhoneticsThe English LanguageSpoken English in IndiaLearning English as Foreign Languageor Second LanguageChapter-2 The Production of Speech2.12.22.317-32Speech MechanismAir-stream MechanismArticulatory DescriptionChapter-3 Analysis of Speech3.13.23.31-1633-41The SyllableAnalysis of the SyllableVowel and ConsonantChapter-4 Segments4.1Vowels4.2Consonants4.3Secondary and Double Articulations4.4Isolations4.5Taxonomic Terms42-76
Chapter-5 Structure and lsVocoidsQuantitySystemPhoneme TheoryVoice Quality and Voice 'Pyncomic6.16.26.36.46.56.694-107Features of Voice QualityFeatures of Voice DynamicsRhythmTessituraRegisterPitch FluctuationChapter-7 Notation7.17.27.37.477-93108-114Phonetic SymbolsInternational Phonetic AlphabetTranscriptionNon-segmental SymbolsChapter-8 Assimilation115-119PART - IIENGLISH PHONETICS AND SPOKEN ENGLISHChapter-9 The Description and Classitication of EnglishSpeech Sounds9.19.29.3The English VowelsThe English ConsonantsPhonemic and Phonetic DetailsChapter-10 The Word and Connected Speech10.110.210.310.4120-133AccentProminenceWord Accentual PatternsElision134-169
10.510.610.710.810.910.1010.11Stress and RhythmQuantity and QualityIntonationThe Word in Connected SpeechNeutralization of Weak FormsLiaisonJunctureChapiter-11 Suggestions for the Improvement ofIndian Speaker's English Pronunciation11.114-2170-175Features that Affect the Intelligibility ofIndian Speakers English SpeechSuggestions for ImprovementPART-IIIEXERCISES FOR nsonant ClustersConversationsBibliography198-212
ckitoLviedaeinent9preient nititutewriter woitia tike to place on record tke gratitudeof C ngudk and foreignto tnecJ.angu.age6 IL J/ C JLj y uderabad;vSritiihL oiincil cJ ibraru, i niueriitu of .yv uderaoad, .J uderabad;. zadcJiiorarij,cLinguiiiticiSeminarcJ-ibrarieiand C-ngiiin,bcoki and /Keroxed iillA, tigarkl. ligark'ibeparttnentandfor kii iupportJ keCollege,f6 kigktu2) epartment Ugarkl/r/odernC-uropeanC ducation,jL kairman,oLanguagei,and co-operation in uarioui waui. Owe feeti. ued lA/iqar .J uiiain,JWlUjforobligedf rof-eaortkei r uiej-ulto ker iuperi/iiorof Cngliikandfor ker ualuabie.jrarkatuilakft/lodern J\iikorekigktuJ\kan,\rrincipal,iuggeitioni.f- rof. M6ifCuropean kujaif- rofeiior,J.anguageiguidance.S ke ii indebted to ker parenti ivko kai/e been a continuouiand encouragementofIKazartment of L ngiiikf frl 14I and f- rofeidor minaVUom.n\il/laulanafor tkeir asdis ta nee in tke form ofto i- rofe66or rrl. tl/i. . dnanof (Lngiiikobliged to j- rofeiioro (tke.Jkemateriali.immendeCu grateful2)ep artmenti entraliource ofinipirationfor ker.S ke would like to exprea ker tkankfulneiito all ker friendi and reiearck-mated.J4er y kmcid,sincereL kcunplontkankirr/atket,to irlr. Mrrilj,fair degree of competence and/ akeer ligark(competentfor kauing completed/XeroxL entre,tnii work witkprofeisionciliilim.J kee ba
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSAMUAligarh Muslim UniversityBCLBritish Council Library, New DelhiCIEFLCentral Institute of English and Foreign LanguagesCIILCentral Institute of Indian LanguagesELTEnglish Language TeachingIPAInternational Phonetic AlphabetRPReceived Pronunciation of EnglandAdjAdjectiveVVerbNNoun
LIST OF PHONETIC SYMBOLS AND SIGNSI:front, close, unrounded vowelIcentralised, front unrounded vowel; between close and halfcloseefront, half-close, unrounded vowel; sometimes centralizedcfront half-open, unrounded vowel.aefront, unrounded vowel; between half open and opena:back, open, unrounded vowel0back, half-open, rounded vowelo:back rounded vowel between half-open and half-closeucentralized back rounded vowel, between half-close andcloseu:back, close, rounded vowel' central, half-open, unrounded voweld:unrounded central vowel as in British R.P. 'word'dunrounded central vowel, short (English initial vowel in'above').eia glide from a front unrounded vowel, below half-close to acentralised front unrounded vowel, just above half-close.aia glide from a front open unrounded vowel to a centralisedfront unrounded vowel, just above half-close.01a glide from a back rounded vowel between open and halfopen to a centralised front unrounded vowel, just above halfclose.iii
aobegins at a back open unrounded position; neutral in thebeginning, rounded in the end. Longer in word-finals.9ua glide from a central unrounded vowel between half closeand half-open to a centralised back rounded vowel, justabove the half-close positions.\da glide from a centralised front unrounded vowel, just abovehalf-close to a central unrounded vowel between half-closeand half-open.oaa glide from a centralised back rounded vowel just abovehalf-close to a central unrounded vowel, between half-closeto half-open.69a glide from a front half-open unrounded vowel to a centralunrounded vowel between half-close and half-open in nonfinal diphthongs.pvoiceless bilabial plosivebvoiced bilabial plosivetvoiceless alveolar plosivedvoiced alveolar plosivekvoiceless velar plosivegvoiced velar plosivetjvoiceless palato-alveolar affricated3voiced palato-alveolar affricatemvoiced bilabial nasalnvoiced alveolar nasalr)voiced velar nasaliv
fvoiceless labio-dentai fricativeVvoicedlabio-dental fricative9voiceless dental fricative6voiced dental fricativesvoiceless alveolar fricativezvoiced alveolar fricative1voiceless palato-alveolar fricative3voiced palato-alveolar fricativehvoiceless glottal fricative1voiced alveolar lateralrvoiced post-alveolar fricative or frictionless continuant; alsoused for linguo-alveolar roll or flapjvoiced unrounded palato semi-vowelwvoiced labio-velar semi-vowelMvoiced labio-velar fricativejvovoiced unrounded palatal semi-vowel2glottal stop["]slight aspiration, e.g. [p"][h]strong aspiration, e.g. [th][:]full length of preceding segment, e.g. [i:][ ]half lengh of preceding segment, e.g. [ i ][ ]centralisation, e.g. [a-][ ]nasalisation e.g. [0;]
[Jdental articulation, e.g. [t][Jdevoiced lenis consonant, e.g. [b][ ]post-alveolar articulation, e.g. [d][ ]syllabic consonant, e.g. [1]Hnasally exploded consonant, e.g. [P" ][ ]laterally released consonant, e.g. [f-][ ]unexploded consonant, e.g. [p ][ ]geminated consonant, e.g. [k»][']primary or tonic accentual stress or pitch prominence onfollowing syllable, e.g. 'about[,]secondary accentual stresson following syllable, e.g.after'noonf ]high falling tone, e.g. 'yes[Jlow falling tone, e.g. ,yes[']high rising tone, e.g.'yes[Jlow rising tone, e.g. .yes[ ]falling-rising tone, e.g. yes[ ]rising-falling tone, e.g. ' yes//phonemic transcription/pause or end of tone group// //sentence group boundarydenotes linking of words in lists where a reader is likely toseperate consonants.denotes a nasal vowel, e.g. gendarme [za-n"da:m]vi
introduction
INTRODUCTIONAIM AND SCOPEThe present study aims at designing a course in Phoneticsa n d Spoken English for ELT students in Indian Universities. Themain objective is to design a comprehensive course in Phoneticsa n d Spoken English which can take care of the Indian s t u d e n t sspecific problems in learning General and English Phonetics andSpoken English. It is therefore proposed to offer a p p r o p r i a t esolutions by providing these students with specific informationa b o u t the basic concepts of General Phonetics, English Phoneticsand Spoken English. Useful diagrams and exercises are used toe n h a n c e clarity a n d avoid confusions. It is hoped t h a t ELTs t u d e n t s will find this course profusely meaningful.Various works and researches have been carried out byseveral researchers, but no systematic and detailed study of thePhonetics and Spoken English has yet been attempted and a studyof the problems faced by ELT students, while learning Generala n d English Phonetics and Spoken English, h a s so far beencompletely neglected. Previous studies on Phonetics and SpokenEnglish reveal that both the aspects were dealt with individuallyin those studies. The present study tries to combine these twoa s p e c t s with G e n e r a l Phonetics b e c a u s e t h e s e a s p e c t s arevii
interrelated. Earlier some studies were u n d e r t a k e n in this fieldby English and American theorists but Indian l e a r n e r s find itdifficulties to comprehend most of the studies because they cometo the English classroom with a background of different Indianlanguages as their mother tongue. Hence, this work is a rathersimplified version w i t h o u t any change in the c o n c e p t s . Thep u r p o s e is to help the Indian learners grasp the basic notions,theories and principles offered by native English speaking writersof General/English Phonetics and Spoken English text-books. Atthis point, the question arises: why do Indian l e a r n e r s need tolearn English Phonetics or Spoken English.Today English is the only language which is spoken all overthe world and in India it is used as a second language. Its mainfunction is communication. It is also used as the associate officiallanguage of the Union, as a link language among educated people,when they don't share a common Indian language or when theyfind English more suitable for their purpose and a s the languageof a d m i n i s t r a t i o n a n d higher e d u c a t i o n . S t u d e n t s , seekingemployment after graduation, often find themselves unable tom a k e their p r e s e n c e felt and succeed in times of c u t - t h r o a tc o m p e t i t i o n b e c a u s e of t h e i r poor c o m m u n i c a t i o nskills.Therefore, this course is designed to serve those s t u d e n t s whowant to improve their pronunciation and English speech. Thisviii
course will definitely help these learners improve their speakingskill which is required for their future career along with theirpresent academic life.METHOD AND APPROACH ADOPTEDAny utterance can be approached from a general phonetic ora phonological point of view. The general phonetic approachidentifies and describes the elements of an utterance in relationto general human phonetic resources without any reference to aparticular language. The phonological approach, on the otherhand, brings out the "pattern forming capabilities of the elementsof utterance as used in a particular language, rather than placethem in relation to general human phonetic resources". Phoneticsand phonology complement each other as the one deals with 'form'and analyses sounds as physical entities without knowing towhich language they belong while the other deals with 'function'and describes these sounds in terms of similarities anddissimilarities which are functional in a particular language, i.e.relevant for the purpose of communication.Most of the phonological approaches are based on phonemics.But the a p p r o a c h adopted in the p r e s e n t s t u d y for thephonological analysis is phonemic and phonetic. The minimaldistinctive sound units are segmental phonemes. These phonemesIX
can be analysed by phonemic approach. In English there are someof the f i n e / m i n u t e d i s t i n c t i o n s which can be a n a l y s e dphonetically. Several of suprasegmental features of prosodicanalysis - e.g., aspiration, retroflexion, valarisation, etc. areanalysed as belonging to segments rather than higher units.However, stress, rhythm and intonation are treated as prosodicor suprasegmental rather than phonemic entities and thus stress,rhythm and intonation are analysed as u n i t s higher thansegments.The idea behind choosing these approaches is that onlyphonemic analysis is not sufficient to analyse English soundsystem. Phonemic analysis can analyse only the basic phonemesegraents. But it left the fine distinctions which can only beanalysed with the help of phonetic approach.Descriptive a p p r o a c h is used for the p r e s e n t study.Everything is described in a systematic m a n n e r . No newhypothesis has been made, only the existing theories andmaterials have been described. The researcher only concentrateson the existing syllabi followed in Indian Universities. Theresearcher studied the syllabi of English language courses ofvarious universities and institutes in India to find out that ELTcourses at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels. She
discovered that M.A. (ELT) and B.A. (Communicative English) mainc o u r s e s are available only at Aligarh Muslim University so far.M.A. (ELT) is also a two year full time course offered by H.M.Patel Institute of English Training and Research, Vallabh VidyaNagar, Gujarat. Other universities have ELT c o u r s e s a s optionalsubjectsat the u n d e r g r a d u a t e and postgraduate levels.MODEL SELECTEDReceived Pronunciation of England (R.P.) is chosen a s areference point in this study for various r e a s o n s . It is highlys o p h i s t i c a t e d , widely u n d e r s t o o d all over t h e world, vastlyd i s c u s s e d and adequately described, well d o c u m e n t e d a n d an e u t r a l accentless form of English. Abercrombie calls R.P. a nonregional and accentless form of 'Standard English' within England,which he defines a s "that kind of English which is the officiallanguage of the entire English speaking world, and is also thel a n g u a g e of all educated English speaking people". S t a n d a r ddescriptions, dictionaries and teaching materials of R.P. are easilyavailable.SOURCESMaterials are extracted from the following sources:Abercombie, D. (1967). E l e m e n t s of General P h o n e t i c s ,Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.xi
Balasub
comprehensive course in Phonetics and Spoken English which takes care of the Indian students' specific problems in learning General Phonetics, English Phonetics and Spoken English. Today English is the only language which is spoken all over the world and in India it is used as a second language. Its main function is communication. Students
Abidjan 9 May 2014 Dafydd Gibbon: Phonetics Course 3 Abidjan 2014 3 The Domains of Phonetics Phonetics is the scientific discipline which deals with – speech production (articulatory phonetics) – speech transmission (acoustic phonetics) – speech perception (auditory phonetics) The scientific methods used
2. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 2.1 Sounds of English The study of the sounds of human language is called phonetics. Phonology is concerned with the properties of sounds and the ways that they are combined into words. Important: Sounds, in the sense that we discuss them, are totally different from letters.
PHONETICS AS A SCIENCE. PHONEME. The study of pronunciation consists of two fields: phonetics and phonology. Phonetics is a science, which deals with pronunciation and the phonetic structure of a language. It refers to the study of speech sounds. Pronu
Phonetics is divided into three main branches: Articulatory phonetics or the physiology of speech sound production: deals with how the human organs produces speech sounds (brain/mind to speech organs) Auditory Phonetics or the Aural Dynamics of Speech sound perception: deals with how the human auditory system perceives, processes and decodes speech
properties)) (3) auditory phonetics looks at how humans perceive theses speech sounds (what happens in the ear) acoustic phonetics auditory phonetics fundemental frequency . (it does not matter whether there is a source signal or not!!!) try this: whisper the following:
exploration. The UCL Summer Course in English Phonetics, commonly known as SCEP, started 100 years ago. It may now appear unique, but at the time of its inception it was only one among many phonetics and pronunciation-oriented summer courses held in Britain and on the continent. The history of the clientele, syllabus, teaching staff and
on both English and general phonetics. JOHN MAIDMENT is Lecturer in Phonetics at University College London, and an experienced teacher of phonetics at both undergraduate and graduate level. He is co-author of English Transcription Course (2000), and has been Director of an HEFCE-funded projec
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing at a great pace and is spreading across many industry sectors. AI as a concept was first coined in the 1950s and has been the basis for a plethora of science fiction novels and movies. Now, 60 years later, AI is rapidly entering nearly every industrial sector and is increasingly embedded into modern society. The UK government is dedicated to advancing .
