ESP COURSE
(English for Specific Purposes) for Class Teachers (3-4, 5-6) Vera Savic, MA Lecturer in English
Faculty of Education in Jagodina University of Kragujevac
[email protected]
Phonology The study of the sound features used in a language to communicate meaning Sound features in English: 1. Phonemes 2. Word stress 3. Sentence stress 4. intonation
Phoneme, phonemic symbol & phonemic script • The smallest unit of sound that has meaning in a language • Symbol used to represent only one phoneme (different from the letters of the alphabet: hat, made, usually, what, war, whale) • Set of phomenic symbols which show how words are pronounced (dictionaries) • IPA – International Phonetic Alphabet
English Phonemic Script Vowel Phonemes - 20 – Monophthongs - 12 – Diphthongs – 8
Consonants - 24 – Plosives - 6 – Fricatives - 9 – Affricates - 2 – Nasals - 3 – Approximates - 4
Silent consonants • • • • • • • • • • • •
silent p: psychology, pneumonia, cupboard, receipt silent b: climb, subtle, doubt silent d: Wednesday, sandwich, handkerchief silent g: reign, ought, long silent l: half, talk, could silent k: know, knee silent n: autumn, column silent w: write, wrong, two, answer, yellow silent r: word, car, more, bother silent h: hour, what, ought silent c: scissors, scene, muscle silent s: island, aisle
Pronunciation and Spelling In English the relationship between sound and spelling is very complex. 200 rules even for the commonist words 400 most frequent words have irregular spelling Minimal Pair - words distinguished by only one phoneme:
• • • •
ship – sheep hut – hat thing – think chip - ship
• Homophones – words which are spelled in different ways and have different meanings, but sound the same when pronounced: • their – there • heir - air • knew – new • here - hear • Homographs – words which have the same spelling, but with different pronunciations and meaning: • read – read • wind - wind
Word Stress, Sentence stress & Intonation • Signs used to show the part of the word which we say with greater energy (on its vowel sound); maked: ‘ , _ , ° . • Sentence pronunciation – one word has main stress (the most important word in a sentence): She came home late last night. • The movement of the level of the voice (rising or falling) to express emotions and attitudes, to emphasise, and to signal the function (statement, question, surprise, ...)
Intonation & tone • The movement of the level of the voice (rising or falling), used - to emphasise the most strongly stressed word in a sentence - to show the grammatical function of what is being said - to express emotions and attitudes • The movement of pitch; the tone can be: Falling – Sit down. Rising – Have you got a pen? Fall-rise – What time does your train leave? (confirmation)
Intonation (cont.) The most usual intonation pattern in English uses a falling tone: - to make a short statement: She lives in London. My name’s Carlos. - in wh-questions: Where’s my bag? - in commands: Sit down. - in exclamations to show surprise, anger, or give warning: Be careful! - in question tags: You’re French, aren’t you? (expecting confirmation)
Intonation (cont.) The rising tone is used: - to make requests: Can we open it? - to make questions from statements: He’s too tired? - in yes/no questions: Would you like a lift? - in clauses or phrases that come before the main clause: What there is left we will put in the pot - in sentences with a question tag: You’re French, aren’t you? (less certainty)
Tasks 1. What do the following groups of words illustrate: - yet, be, pale - by, buy, fight, lie, island 2. How many phonemes are there in each of these words: book, flashcard, number, thirteen, morning 3. Underline the stressed syllable in each of these words: twenty, monkey, difficult, forget, remember, important, complain, medicine, advertisement 4. On which word would you put the main stress in each of these sentences? My name is Julia, not Janet. The girl was much taller than her brother. He was rather short.
