Syllabus
- 1. UNIVERSID AD TECNÓLOGIC A DE PEREIR A FACULTAD DE BELLAS ARTES Y HUMANIDADES LICENCIATURA ENSEÑANZA DE LA LENGUA INGLESA Subject: English Pronunciation I Code: LI 133 Credits: 3 credits Intensity: 3 hours per week Professor: Claudia Andrea Cárdenas Jiménez E-mail: clauditacar@utp.edu.co “The voice is articulated by the lips and the tongue… Man speaks by means of the air which he inhales into his entire body and particularly into the body cavities. When the air is expelled through the empty space it produces a sound, because of the resonances in the skull. The tongue articulates by its strokes; it gathers the air in the throat and pushes it against the palate and the teeth, thereby giving the sound a definite shape. If the tongue would not articulate each time, by mean of its strokes, man would not speak clearly and would only be able to produce a few simple sounds” Hippocrates, De Carnibus, VIII 1. General Description Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds (phones): their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status. English Pronunciation I is the first of two courses designed to enable students to identify, describe, and reproduce the basic elements of the English phonemic system. The course focuses on the physiological processes involved in speech production, the phonemes that comprise the sounds of the English language with their specific characteristics. In this course, the students have the opportunity to learn to produce English phonemes and segmental elements in isolation and in context, while being introduced to their graphic representation by means of the International Phonemic Alphabet (IPA). Although English Pronunciation I emphasizes the acquisition of English pronunciation, basic theoretical aspects of English phonology are introduced. As future professionals students are encouraged to apply these concepts to the construction of their own professional approach to the teaching of ESL. As most experienced ESL teachers are aware, pronunciation is the area of language learning most resistant to change or improvement. By the time ESL students begin our program, they have probably already developed speech habits which have fossilized and become progressively harder to unlearn or change without serious and concerted effort. This problem emerges from the students’ own lack of awareness of their communication and pronunciation problems. Hence, this course facilitates some strategies to self correction and self monitoring in terms of the production of consonant and vowel sounds 1
- 2. 2. General Competences Students who successfully complete this course will be empowered to: - Produce the phonemes and supra-segmental of English in communicative contexts in a way that is readily comprehensible and acceptable to native and non-native speakers. - Draw on linguistic and phonetic theories of speech in formulating pedagogical criteria for the teaching of pronunciation in communicative contexts. - Apply strategies for learning and teaching pronunciation 3. Specific competencies - Identify and use individual phonemes within contextual words. - Understand, within contextual practice, the connection between English spelling and pronunciation. - Use the vocal tract to identify the different places and manners of articulation of consonant sounds. - Identify defined phonemic problems caused by mother tongue interference. - Describe and produce, in communicative contexts the accents appropriate to words and sentences used in authentic English conversations. - Elaborate pedagogical concepts concerning English Pronunciation. - Use the International Phonetic Alphabet to learn appropriate pronunciation of words in dictionaries. - Identify and recognize the production of the sound-units (phonemes) of the language and their realization in particular contexts (allophones). - Identify and recognize the phonetic features which distinguish phonemes (distinctive features, e.g. voicing, rounding, nasality, plosion). - Identify specific terminology used during the course. 4. Methodology and strategies As students of English, learners will memorize and practice the use of International Phonemic Alphabet symbols to interpret and represent the phonemes of the language. As users of English, they will engage in drills, semi-controlled exercises and listening tasks in order to develop the audio-lingual skills needed to distinguish and reproduce English sounds. As future English teachers, they will process input from readings, class lectures and audio-visual presentations, will engage in peer micro- teaching presentations and will keep portfolios in order to become familiar with the physiological processes of speech production and formulate concepts concerning the teaching of English pronunciation. Besides, the course will contain the following stages adapted from Eckstein (2007); input, practice, noticing, feedback and production. In relation to strategies and techniques for teaching pronunciation, students will be exposed to backchaining, minimal pairs, backward buildup, bingo, brainstorming, categorizing, chain stories, 2
- 3. dialogues, exaggeration, information gap, minimal pairs, mirrors, pictures, reference words, rules, spelling equivalencies, and tongue twisters among others. 5. Thematic Units The graph below shows the aspects of pronunciation that will be studied during the course. Voiced Consonants Voiceless /prə'nʌnsi'eɪʃən/ Phonemes Single Vowels Diphthongs The learning units covered in this course are: 1. Description of the speech a. The physiology of pronunciation b. The articulation of phonemes c. Phonemic transcription 2. Consonant sounds a. The characteristics of consonant sounds b. Manners and places of articulation c. Voiced and voiceless consonants d. Strategies for teaching consonant sounds 3. Vowel sounds a. The characteristics of the pure vowel sounds b. The characteristics of diphthongs c. Strategies for teaching vowel sounds 4. Pronunciation of past tenses with regular verbs (ed- d) 5. Pronunciation of plural forms or third person simple present tense (es- s) 3
- 4. 6. Evaluation Three types of evaluation will be implemented during the course: - Formative evaluation: this will be an ongoing process and students are expected to take control of their own learning. - Summative evaluation: this includes quantitative data on what students have achieved. - Metacognitive evaluation: students are expected to reflect on their own learning. ITEM PERCENTAGE FIRST PARTIAL 20% SECOND PARTIAL 20% THIRD PARTIAL 30% PORTFOLIO 20% ACTIVITIES 10% 7. Student profile - An independent learner is aware of the role he/she should play in his/her learning process within and outside the classroom. - A student with attitudes that reflect respect and tolerance for himself/herself, his/her peers, teachers and academic processes in the academic program. - A student who recognizes and appreciates the class sessions as crucial to their own linguistic and professional development. - An active, reactive and proactive student who views the teaching practicum in the courses in which he/she participates, as an experience toward his/her own training as an English teacher to be. - A student who uses the English language as a means of oral and written communication with others in his/her context. 8. Teaching Materials - Blogs, platform, worksheets, internet, CD player, video beam. 4
- 5. 9. Bibliography Kelly, Gerald. How to Teach Pronunciation. Longman, 2000. 154 pp. New Headway Pronunciation Intermediate IPA(International Phonetic Alphabet) Monolingual English dictionary http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/ http://www.wordreference.com http://plataforma.utp.edu.co/course/view.php?id=366 http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ http://www.pronuncian.com/assess.aspx http://davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/aspects_of_connected_speech_inde.htm http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/ http://www.photransedit.com/Online/Text2Phonetics.aspx http://yt-subs.appspot.com/ http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html http://www.eyespeakenglish.com/en/products/demo_us/index.php 5