efl methodology

8/7/2019 EFL Methodology

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200354569 ENGL303 Intro to TEFL Sue Thompson

EFL Methodology Teaching Sounds

The Sound System of English

Learning English as a foreign language can be a particularly challenging task. There are many

pitfalls in the components which make up the English Language, including unusual spelling

which does not match the sounds, eg. ghost or enough; a word stress system which

does not have a pattern and is therefore unpredictable; multiple word meanings and

strange idiomatic phrases and sayings. However, one of the most important elements of

learning English as a foreign language is mastering the complex pronunciation, or in other

words the sound system of English. The study of English pronunciation in EFL, involves both

the production of speech and also the perception of speech. Generally speaking, a student

must first be able to hear the individual sounds of English before he or she can accurately

reproduce that sound.

In recent years teachers of English have concentrated progressively more on pronunciation,

as it directly affects the communicative competence that a learner has. It has become the

main focus of situational teaching and concentrated on increasingly during group work,

drills, and conversation. It is important to catch errors in pronunciation early on in the

learning process to avoid the incorrect pronunciations of words becoming a bad habit for

the learner.

A learner can have an excellent vocabulary and an exceptional grasp of English grammar,

however if their pronunciation falls below a certain threshold then they will be unabl e to

effectively communicate verbally with other speakers of English.

Pronunciation involves several different elements, including the basic individual phonemes

of English but also sentence stress and intonation and the use of strong and weak forms of

particular words.

Phonetics of English

Generally the phonemic problems which students face when learning English are based

upon their mother tongue , nearly all Spanish students will encounter the same

pronunciation problems whilst those with an Arabic mother t ongue will encounter different

difficulties. Each language has its own phonemic system and the mouths of those who speak

each language become accustomed to these sounds over time. This means that it becomes

harder for a persons lips, palate and vocal cord s to make sounds which are not native to

their language.

The following are common phonemic problems which may be encountered -

y Consonants Asian speakers such as those with a Japanese or Chinese mothertongues will often have difficulties in distinguishing between the liquid consonants


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/r/ and /l/. In Asian languages there is only one liquid consonant which is used for

both lateral and rhotic allophones meaning these students would need extra

attention to be able to produce and hear the lateral /l/ and rhotic /r/. Those

speakers who have an Arabic mother tongue, often have difficulty in distinguishing

between the voiced bilabial plosive /b/ and voiceless bilabial plosive /p/ which leads

them to pronounce words s uch as paper as baber which although may be

vaguely intelligible in context, is more likely to cause confusion and communication

breakdown.

y Vowels Speakers of Arabic will often have difficulty distinguishing between theopen mid front unrounded vowel // and the near close near front unrounded vowel

/I/ in words such as bet often being mispronounced as bit.

Strong and Weak Forms

The English Language is a stress timed language which generally implies that if a word

has no stress in a sentence, then a weak form of that particular word will be used. Onthe contrary if a word has a particular importance in a sentence then the strong form of

that word will be used. The weak form of a word and the strong form of a word are

phonemically different but the strong form of a word is the form which represents a

word in isolation.

Distinguishing between the strong and weak forms of a word is important for an English

Language student to learn because it represents natural speech. A student needs to be

able to accurately reproduce both strong and weak forms of words but also needs to be

able to hear and recognise both forms in natural rapid speech.

The following examples demonstrate the differences between the strong and weak

forms of several words

y MECan you help me carry this suitcase? Weak form /mI/

Hey! Wait for me! Strong form /mi:/

y HER I dont recognise her brother Weak form - // or /h/

Her? Shes myMum Strong form - /h:/

(NB. With her the /r/ is always pronounced if a vowel follows the word, give

he/r/ a chance)

Sentence Stress

Many of the problems which students encounter during their studies of English can be

based around sentence stress also known as prominence. Stress can be a difficult area to

teach and therefore is often neglected but it is a crucial element of understanding natural

speech and the impacts on the students own communicative competence. Even the most


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simple of sentences can have several different meanings depending on where the stress is

placed. The following sentence demonstrates this

I said he might consider a new car With the stress on the pronoun I, the underlying

meaning of the sentence suggests It was my idea.

I SAID he might consider a new car With the stress on said, the underlying meaning

suggests that the recipient has asked you to repeat yourself.

I said HE might consider a new car With the stress on he, the underlying meaning is

that you are stressing that what you are saying is about a particular person and not

somebody else.

I said he MIGHT consider a new car With the stress on might, the underlying meaning

is that what you are saying is only a possibility.

I said he might CONSIDER a new car With the stress on consider, the underlying

meaning is you think for whatever reason that he should think about getting a new car.

I said he might consider a NEW car With the stress on new, the underlying meaning is

that you are not just talking about any car but a brand new one.

I said he might consider a new CAR With the stress on car, the underlying meaning is

that the recipient has misheard the end of the sentence.

As can be seen, there ar e 7 different meanings to exactly the same sentence. This

demonstrates the difficulty that a student may face as not only do they need to understand

the words in the sentence but also where the stress lies to truly understand the meaning.

They also need to have the ability to reproduce this themselves to be understood

effectively. When a student is able to master word stress, the ability to use the correct

intonation is usually an easier task as they often fall together in the same category. They are

both equally important for communicative competence.

Approaches to Teaching Pronunciation

Throughout previous years, the approach to teaching pronunciation to EFL students has

changed. Today the primary approach is the communicative approach which focuses on theidea that communication is the most important element in language and so it should be

concentrated on in the classroom situation. This theory brings a higher importance to

teaching pronunciation because a poor ability to hear and reproduce English sounds will

cause the student to be cut off from language and communication. The aim of teaching

pronunciation is not to teach students how to sound exactly like a native speaker but to


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instead give them the ability to reach a level of pronunciation which is above the threshold

meaning their pronunciation ability will not affect their communication.

Demonstration

Demonstration is an important element of teaching pronunciation to students, particularly if

it is their first exposure to a set of words. The aim of a demonstration is to introduce the

students to the target language and pronunciation point for a particular lesson. There are

many ways in which to do this, in a vocabulary lesson the teacher might write words on the

board, in a reading lesson the teacher might ask the students to read a text at the beginning

of the lesson. However in a pronunciation lesson , the aim is for the students to make the

correct sounds, place stress in the correct places a nd use the correct intonation.

An example exercise of this could be for a teacher to use their hands when demonstrating

the pronunciation of a word. So whilst demonstrating the pronunciation of My name is

John the teachers hand would rise and fall with the intonation and also tap out the rhythm

and stress of the sentence,

THAT WAS A GREAT PERFORMANCE

The arrows here indicate the rising intonation which could be indicated with hand gestures

by the teacher. The squares indicate the stressed words in this particular instance.

It would also be possible for the word performance to also demonstrated in isolation in

this way.

PERFORMANCE

The dots indicate the intonation and stress on particular parts of the word. The middle

section of the word is stressed more than the rest, perFORmance.

With demonstration, it is important for the teacher to realise that not every student will find

these approaches useful, some may like to see written explanations, diagrams on boards or

overhead projectors (Harmer, 2007: 205). In these circumstances it would be useful for the

teacher to demonstrate stress and intonation in a written form such as using dots for the

stress and intonation pattern as shown in the above example of performance.


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The students need to hear natural and relaxed pronunciation at the speed which a native

speaker would speak at. In order for a student to be able to understand this, the teacher will

need to explain to the students about connected speec h. This type of speech is only found

in natural conversation where the words flow into each other. Depending on which words

are next to each other in a sentence, the way words are spoken can change.

A useful way to demonstrate connected speech if the students involved are at a high

enough level, is to use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) . This way the students can

visibly see the way sounds have merged together and shortened. The following example

illustrates this

Unnatural articulated speech I will be going on Wednesday /aIwIl bi: goI n wedzdeI/

In connected speech becomes /aIl bIgn n wenzdeI/

This system can be useful if a student comes from a background where they struggle to hear

and identify particular sounds of English. This way they are able to see that it is one of thosesounds and make an effort to either correct themselves or make a similar sound which they

can produce instead.

Analysis of Teaching Materials

The two extracts from teaching materials deal with the idea of emphatic stress. This type of

word stress is generally found when a speaker wishes to highlight the extraordinary natur e

of something, or requires to make a correction to what a recipient thinks the speaker has

said.

In both extracts the pronunciation point is demonstrated by using an audio recording of a

conversation. Both extracts introduce the student to the recording b y using cartoon pictures

and also by providing a short introduction to set the scene before they will listen to the

recording. Extract B tells the students, Unfortunately her grandfather is deaf. He also

worries a lot about what Sally does, and who she me ets. This suggests that there will be

some misunderstanding in the recording and Sally may need to put emphatic stress on

particular words for her deaf grandfather to be able to hear and understand. Extract C on

the other hand uses the cartoon in more detail; it shows two paintings which both look

exactly the same apart from the colour. The dialogue for the extract shows two friends

discussing which of the paintings is better than the other. If the student fully understands

the dialogue then they will unde rstand the humour of the cartoon, in that both paintings are

virtually identical. However the focus of the task is on how comparative adjectives can be

stressed to modify nouns and adjectives for emphasis.

In extract B the pronunciation point is not explai ned in full. The aims of the materials are to

practice the pronunciation point by using several different activities. The extract uses the

discovery approach to teaching the pronunciation point meaning that the students must


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work out for themselves the rules of emphatic stress by practising and using their own logic

to derive the answers to the questions set in the extract such as, why do they stress these

particular words?. In contrast extract C has a lot more text boxes with extra information

written in them. In the extract these are called Language boxes and they give information

and examples as to what the rules are for modifying adjectives and nouns and also stressing

for emphasis. Both of these extracts have good and bad points about how the pron unciation

point is explained, whereas the discovery technique used in extract B is a proven way to

reinforce learning, extract C on the other hand offers an explanation which can be looked

back on after the lesson and provides multiple examples of what it is demonstrating.

Ultimately I believe that a mixture of both discovery and Language boxes would provide a

good balance for students.

Extract B has several activities in order for the students to be able to practice the

pronunciation point. The first is a simple listening task to familiarise themselves with the

task, the next task is to listen to the dialogue a second time however this time marking the

stresses onto the written dialogue. The next task is to listen to the dialogue a third time but

this time to hum the words, putting emphasis on the stressed word. The fourth task is to

practise reading the dialogue with a partner, still concentrating on the stressed words.

Whilst practise is essential for students to gain practical knowledge of the pronuncia tion

point, extract B seems to overdo it. The tasks are all too similar in content and aim and

could cause the students to lose focus on the tasks and become bored, a state in which they

would not be at their optimum level of learning. All but one of the four tasks in this extract

are individual and dont give the students a sense of being involved in their learning process

which can be an important element of a good language learner.

In contrast extract C has a larger variety of tasks for the students to be able to practice thepronunciation point . There is a written exercise, a listening and discovery exercise, a task

where the students must listen to the text and fill in the gaps to a written text, (of which all

the missing words happen to be stressed), the final task is to focus specifically on only a few

lines of the dialogue and to look in more detail at the stressed words and syllables. The

varying activities in this extract have the potential to provide the students with more

enjoyment during their learning because they are moving from skill to skill. Essentially the

more variety found in a lessons activities the more a student will want to take part and

ultimately learn.

One modification which I believe would improve extract B would be to provide th e studentswith a task which would engage them much more than just reading over the same text four

times. This task would follow on from exercises 1 and 2 and would involve the students

devising a short dialogue with a partner illustrating emphatic stress. Ideally this dialogue

would be read out in front of the rest of the class, allowing the students to see many

variations of dialogues on different topics, giving them a wider example of emphatic stress.


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This task would also empower the students, as they are able to use their own knowledge

and creativity to demonstrate the pronunciation point.

A modification which I believe would improve extract C would be to have more speaking

related tasks. As a teaching material which aims to teach and improve a students

pronunciation in the area of emphatic stress, it does a poor job at providing tasks forstudents to be able to practise aloud. It would have been beneficial for the extract to have

included some pair work or group work in which the students could have had a chance to

attempt accurate reproduction and practise.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Celce-Murcia,M. Brinton, DM. Goodwin, JM. 2000 . Teaching pronunciation: a reference for

teachers ofEnglish to speakers of other languages. Cambridge University Press.

Crystal, D. 1995. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge

University press.

Harmer, J. 2007. The Practice ofEnglish Language Teaching . Pearson Longman.

Hedge, T. 2000. Teaching and Learning in the Classroom . Oxford: OUP.

Hewings,M. 2004. Pronunciation practice activities: a resource book for teaching English

pronunciations, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press.

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