07 weinstein

7/29/2019 07 Weinstein

1/8

Understanding Real Spoken English 1

Understanding English as ItsReally Spoken A Powerful Listening Tool

Nina Weinstein

Proceedings of the CATESOL State Conference, 2007

April 25, 2007


2/8


Understanding English as ItsReally Spoken A Powerful Listening Tool

The Presentation

I started by having them work with a partner and imagine they were auditioning

for a part in a movie. They had to make their lines sound natural, like the conversation

producers would hear as they were walking around any campus:

Scene: Turn to the person next to you. Something deeply disturbing has happened

during the morning and you really need to tell him/her about it at lunch. He/She has a

lot of work to finish, but agrees to meet for lunch. Do NOT reduce ANY of the sounds in

the following dialogue. Be sure to pronounce all final gs, ts and ds, and do

NOT reduce the vowel sounds on to and you. However, say the following lines at a

natural speed and dont forget to make them sound like real spoken English:

You: (obviously upset) Im going to be working on something until . . . 12:30, but

I need to talk to you. Do you want to go to lunch?

Your partner: Uh . . . sure. Could you meet me at 1:00?

As I walked around the room, listening to various pairs of participants, I asked if

anyone felt their rendition of the above lines sounded natural. Most were laughing by

this time, quickly realizing the futility of the task theyd been given.

What Are Reduced Forms and Why Was It So Hard To Say the Above Lines

Without Them?

Reduced forms are the spontaneous pronunciation changes in adjacent words or

sounds spoken at a natural speed (Weinstein, 2001). Some common examples include


3/8


*Whaddaya (What do you, What are you), *wanna (want to), and *gonna (going to +

verb) (Bowen, 1975).

They are rule based, and in seven hours of unscripted recordings by highly

educated native English speakers in both formal and informal situations, there was

statistical significance for speed of speech as a cause of reduced forms. Specifically, the

faster the speech, the more reduction (Weinstein, 1984).

The three most common reduced forms were *wanna, *gonna and *hafta. By

counting the occurrences of these forms, one of which was said about every two minutes,

the level used the most by native English speakers was found to be Level 3:

Speed of Speech Level Example Number of Times Used (in

seven unscripted hours)

Slow 1 want to 8

Faster 2 want *ta 47

Fastest 3 *wanna 258

How Do We Teach Reduced Forms to Students?

There are fifty to seventy common reduced forms. The frequency rate, including

the fifty to seventy most common reduced forms, is about one reduction per minute of

spoken English.

Show students the above chart to help them understand how difficult it would

be to understand natural spoken English without understanding reduced forms. Because

reduced forms are rule based, students can learn the rules, then practice hearing the forms

in simple, contextualized, natural spoken English sentences.


4/8


After teaching *Whaddaya and *wanna, English learners now have an extremely

common natural spoken English phrase * Whaddaya *wanna. . . . If they have

access to native English speakers, give them sample sentences where theyll hear the

target reduced forms and the places theyll most likely hear them. One of the easiest

places to hear *Whaddaya *wanna is in a restaurant *Whaddaya *wanna

have?/*Whaddaya*wanna drink? Tell them to focus on hearing *Whaddaya *wanna the

next time they go to a restaurant. At the next class, ask them if anyone heard *Whaddaya

or *wanna outside of class. Ask them to give you what they remember of the situation

and the sentence. I tell them each time they hear a reduced form in a real situation

outside of class, theyve moved forward in their listening comprehension.

Once they learn the reduced forms, youll need to choose a listening book with

real spoken English for additional practice.

Some Guidelines

Its easier to understand an interview-type of discussion with two speakers than a

discussion with three or more speakers. Generally, the more speakers, the more difficult

the listening material.

When you find a possible listening book that includes authentic listening material

with two speakers, play a sample for yourself. Does it include reduced forms? Does it

sound natural? Natural spoken English includes false starts, pauses, repetitions, asides,

explanations, pause holders and so on (Krashen and Terrell, 1983) I call these

vocabulary and tempo changes found in spoken but not written language, conversational

strategies.


5/8


Techniques to Make the Material Easier

1. Play the material in logical chunks rather than playing the whole passage.2. Does the chunk give them a positive or a negative feeling? Why? What do they

guess it means in the most general sense?

3. Then for each chunk, ask basic who, what, where questions or ask them to askeach other these questions.

4. Play the chunk again. Push for more precision. Replay difficult sentences. Dothey hear any reduced forms? If so, repeat the form they say and reinforce what it

means.

5. If theres a word or words they dont understand, ask them to reproduce anysounds they can. If its a reduced form, write it on the board or say it after them.

What does it mean?

Because this is real spoken English, English learners dont need to hear it

perfectly to be successful. Success can be measured in improvement. Pre and post test

scores that show dramatic improvement constitute successful mastery of real world

listening material.

The teacher can move away from the components of spoken English (reduced

forms, conversational strategies, etc.) when students can understand the discussion

without pointing these out. When learners dont understand the discussion, however,

they have a powerful tool to figure it out.

At What Level Do You Begin to Teach Reduced Forms as a Component of Spoken

English?

This is the experience I had after Id just received my TESL training from UCLA:


6/8


I was teaching a multi-level,multi-cultural, beginning adult school class. Our lesson was

on the future tense with to be going to Id spent the entire week going over this form

and having them practice common usages. Wed done everything you could legally do

with to be going to.

The following Monday, one of my students came up to me before class. Hed

heard something outside of class and didnt have any idea what it meant. Hed heard

*gonna.

It became obvious to me I was teaching only one half of the story the written

half. After recording ninety hours of unscripted material in the early 1980s, writing a

book on reduced forms, doing a Master of Arts thesis on reduced forms and writing the

second edition of my book on reduced forms, I feel that there are two systems of English

spoken and written. When students are ready to learn want to as a written form,

theyre equally ready to learn that native speakers will pronounce that form as *wanna.

When students are advanced enough to learn the future tense using to be going to, then

theyre equally ready to learn that native English speakers will predominantly pronounce

that form as *gonna. Any other approach constitutes teaching our students to listen to

written English.

Because There Are Two Systems of English Written and Spoken Should We

Teach Our Students to Use Reduced Forms in Their Own Speech?

Ive spoken on and written about reduced forms for almost thirty years. I get

asked this question frequently, and I used to answer it differently than I do now.

If youd asked me thirty years ago, then as now, amazingly, the subject of reduced

forms in spoken English was controversial. Many teachers could agree that we needed to


7/8


teach our students to listen to English as its really spoken and that to do otherwise was to

put students at a disadvantage. However, at that time, I would have said that students

should not use reduced forms in their own speech. In my own teaching experience, it

sounded odd when students tried to read back the reduced forms, though I wasnt

exactly sure why.

After I went back to UCLA to work on my MA thesis on reduced forms, I

discovered the reason students rendering of reduced forms had often sounded so odd.

As was mentioned earlier in the article, I found statistical significance for speed of speech

as a cause of reduced forms. Specifically, the speed that naturally creates reduction can

be twice as fast as the fully pronounced slow English. Please note that this is the speed

at which the word or words are said (not necessarily the speed of the whole sentence). In

any event, students have difficulty reaching the speed in English at which reduced forms

occur naturally; thus, they dont sound natural.

Now, however, Ive reconsidered this issue. Often, my students want to sound

more natural, and its clear to me that there are two systems of English. Why would I

want to make them sound unnatural? However, how can they sound natural when their

speed of speech isnt generally fast enough to cause reduction naturally?

Theres an instant way to satisfy the need for students to sound more natural

without having them adopt pronunciations that do just the opposite. As was mentioned

earlier, *gonna, *wanna and *hafta were shown in my seven hours of unscripted speech

samples to be the three most common reduced forms (Weinstein, 1984). One of these

three forms occurs about every two minutes. These three forms are so common, each is

pronounced as a chunk, as if it were a vocabulary word rather than a pronunciation


8/8


change caused by speed of speech. Because of this, theyre relatively easy for English

learners to pronounce naturally. Due to the fact that one is used approximately every two

minutes, although English learners are using only three forms, it sounds like theyre using

a lot more. This quick and easy approach naturalizes their speech without raising

pronunciation issues.

* an asterisk is used with all reduced forms to show theyre a representation of

spoken English

References

Bowen, J.D. 1975. Patterns of English Pronunciation. Massachusetts: Newbury House.

Krashen, S., and T. Terrell. 1983. The natural approach. New York: Pergamon Press

and San Francisco: Alemany Press.

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

reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge,

England: Cambridge University Press.

Weinstein, N. 1984. The effects of levels of formality and tempo on reduced forms.

Unpublished Masters Thesis. University of California at Los Angeles.

Weinstein, N. 2001. Whaddaya Say? (2nd

ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

07 weinstein

Documents