ỀVALUATION

TEACHING PRONUNCIATION: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Designed & Presented by: Vu Thi Hoang Mai, MA
Faculty of English
International Standard Program

What is pronunciation?
Why teaching pronunciation?
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
The way a word/language is spoken
The manner in which someone utters a word
Segmentals vs. suprasegmentals: individual sounds vs. stress & intonation
Intelligibility: The recognition of a word or another sentence-level element of an utterance
Pronunciation
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
Goals:
to enable learners to understand and be understood,
to build their confidence in entering communicative situations,
to enable them to monitor their speech based on input from the environment (Goodwin, 2001).
Approach:
a balance between segmentals and suprasegmentals,
enhancement of intelligibility,
applicability in real communicative situations
Teaching English Pronunciation
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
Consonants
Vowels
Stress
Strong forms & Weak forms
Rhythm
Linking
Intonation
What to include?
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
English Consonants
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
English Vowels
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
English Diphthongs
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
English Triphthongs
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
Word stress
Sentence stress
Primary stress: /‘ /
Secondary stress: / , /
Placement of stress:
whether the word is morphologically simple or complex
the grammatical category to which the word belongs
the number of syllables in the word
the phonological structure of the word
Stress
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
Two-syllable Words
Nouns 1st syllable stressed
Verbs & Adjectives, Prepositions, adverbs  2nd syllable stressed
Except verbs ending with /əʊ/: (e.g., borrow, furrow) or a short vowel (e.g., punish, furnish)
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
Last syllable: short vowel + 1 consonant  2nd syllable stressed
Last syllable: long vowel /diphthong/ ending with 2+ consonants  last syllable stressed
Three-syllable Verbs
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
Last syllable: short vowel or /əʊ/  unstressed
2nd syllable: long vowel/ diphthong / ending with 2+ consonants  stressed
2nd and last syllables: short vowel + 1 consonant  1st syllable stressed
Last syllable: long vowel/ diphthong / ending with 2+ consonants  1st syllable stressed
Three-syllable Nouns & Adjectives
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU
Stress in derived words
Primary stress on the affix
Primary stress on the stem
Primary stress on a different syllable of the stem
Stress in compound words
1st word/part is adjectival  primary stress on the 2nd
1st word/part is a noun  stress on the 1st
Complex Words
Vu Thi Hoang Mai, ULIS - VNU