Classifying syllables in the classroom

We need our students to see English as having 3 types of syllables (stressed, reduced and full but unstressed) rather than the single type their L1 probably has (full but unstressed). To do this, they have to engage with the language in these terms.

In the video below, you will see how a sentence can be analysed by a class so that they can learn to say it confidently and correctly.

We'd be happy to read your comments.

Posted Thu Jan 19, 2017 at 10:14 am

Web LinkClassifying syllables

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHpRQxrbvCE&index=8&list=PL4DXj09icrC8Fwv14wpIvdUOvceoy7n-7 

Summary of stress and reduction

Here is a Summary video of how the Stress and Reduction systems of English are two of the three principal way of making particular syllables more or less prominent as we speak. (Intonational pitch changes are the third.)

There are two important points. Firstly, that physical actions generate the distinctions in prominence that we make use of in English.  These are all teachable. Secondly, that the syllables of most languages contain full vowels and are unstressed. This type of syllable is in the minority in English. Instead, most syllables are either stressed or reduced, and learning to differentiate and produce syllables in these ways is the start of good pronunciation for a learner.

You can download the slides below, and please share any thoughts you have in the Comments section.

Posted Tue Jan 17, 2017 at 8:48 pm

Adobe PDFEVO Week 2 Summary slides.pdf252 KB

summary video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6INymM6k_c&feature=youtu.be

Syncope (or compression)

Count the number of syllables in the following sentence:

History is her favourite subject

Did you count there to be 9 syllables or 10 syllables, perhaps? The normal pronunciations of history and favourite are with just two syllables, so we would count 8.

These words are examples of syncope: the complete elision of a syllable which the written form of the word suggests should be present. Syncope is found in words like secretary, camera, general and library; where in some cases a syllable has disappeared completely and in other cases it is optional, appearing perhaps when a speaker decides to speak carefully but not in his normal speech. There are many dozens of words like this.

Syncope is sometimes called ‘compression’. It is often found in the presence of /r/, where the syllable which precedes it in a multi-syllabic word may completely disappear. All the examples above show pre-/r/ syncope. The phenomenon is also seen in a few words before /n/, like business and personal (for example, in personal pronoun), and before /l/, in words like chocolate and occasionally.

Unfortunately, different native speakers make different judgements about when syncope is required, acceptable or unacceptable. When we looked up a selection of words in the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (1990), Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (1995) and Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary (2003) (all for British English) we got the results in the table below. A zero (0) indicates that the weak syllable is elided (it isn't even given as an option for the primary pronunciation), a 1 indicates that it is shown as optional, and a 2 shows that the primary pronunciation is given with the weak syllable as definitely present:

	LPD	OALD	CALD
camera	1	2	0
boundary	1	0	1
secretary	1	0	0
library	1	2	2
different	0	0	1

So camera is given as /kam^ərə/, /kæmərə/ and /kæmrə/ respectively. As you can see, the native-speaker judgments of the various pronunciation editors differ somewhat.

There are words for which everyone is in agreement. Chocolate and business are two-syllable words. When there is some uncertainty, though, there may be a 'maximal-syllable' way of pronouncing a word that is acceptable even if it is not always the most natural. Learners are usually happy with this pronunciation, since it will be what corresponds most readily with the spelling. One can then ask the students which syllable might be left out. If they are already familier with syllable reduction, we find that they get it right most of the time. They quickly get a feel for the system.

Using light verse for stress and reduction

At the beginning of the week, you used a verse from Bananas and Cream to work on stress. Here is the complete poem. It's an excellent text for practising stress and reduction.

Share any thoughts you have in the Comments section. Have you tried using this in class?

Posted Thu Dec 8, 2016 at 10:53 am

Adobe PDFBananas and cream.pdf772 KBVIEW

Practising reduction in the classroom

Download the document below, and work through the examples. If possible, then try them with your students.

Please share your thoughts below.

Posted Thu Dec 8, 2016 at 10:48 am

Adobe PDFExample sentences for reduced sounds.pdf

Part 2: Reduction

Watch these two YouTube videos on the schwa family, The Nature of Reduced Vowels and Making and Teaching Reduced Vowels, and follow along with the activities.

You can download the slides below (together with some notes about them). This will enable you to do the practical activities off-line.

If you are interested in the phonetics behind open transition-type reduction, we've also added some further notes about this (called The nature of reduction in English).

See what other people think and share your own thoughts on vowel reduction in English by participating in the Comments section below.

Posted Wed Jan 11, 2017 at 10:20 pm

Adobe PDFThe nature of reduction in English.pdf469 KBVIEW

Adobe PDFTPD Week 2 Reduction #1.pdf314 KBVIEW

Adobe PDFTPD Week 2 Reduction #2.pdf413 KBVIEW

THE NATURE OF REDUCED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRu3Lcl0WIs&feature=youtu.be 

REDUCTION

The nature of reduction in English
For language teaching, J.C. Catford is the phonetician who worked most helpfully on vowel reduction. He noted (Catford, 1985) that there are two different kinds of schwa:

•   a minimal vowel-type sound, as in comma,
  
•   an open transition, as in today.
  The first of these will be familiar to you. The second, the idea of an open transition, was an insight which enables students to improve their pronunciation quickly and easily. As mentioned earlier, we have found that asking students to stutter is the best way into producing schwa as an open transition.
  Catford identified three differences between open transitions and full vowels. They differ in their duration, in the cross-sectional area of the channel (the extent to which the vocal tract gets opened), and in their phonation.
  He quotes figures showing that:
  

1. On average, open transitions are completed in only a quarter of the time it takes to
   say a vowel.
   
2. In his speech, the channel area for the open transition in cop apart was just 20 mm2
   while that for the vowels in copper part and cop up, Art were both over 200 mm2.
   
3. Open transitions may be fully voiced, partially voiced or totally voiceless (voiceless,
   for example in the to of He went to Trafalgar Square), while vowels are virtually always voiced.
   

So, when watching yourself making open transitions, notice,

1. how quick they are,
   
2. how little movement they involve, and
   
3. how their voicing depends on their context.
   

Once students understand how minimal an open transition should be, they are well equipped to produce the whole range of schwa, schwi and schwu.
They also understand how native speakers distinguish sentences such as My shoe’s dirty and My shoes are dirty, and can hear the difference that makes the difference even when listening to fast speech.
A quarter to two is a powerful example because it containts two succesive open transitions. It also demonstrates that there need be no consciously produced vowel sound at all. In fact, in this example, the vocal folds don’t vibrate; all that we hear is the release of the /t/’s, so one could reasonably say that there is no vowel being produced at all. An offer for free and nine and a ninth are similarly powerful phrases.
Teaching Pronunciation Differently is a TESOL EVO session.
For information and materials on teaching pronunciation, go to www.pronunciationscience.com