Figure 3.2 Articulation of /¥/ PRESENTING CONSONANT CONTRASTS TO STUDENTS “Although consonant sounds can be presented individually they are often taught in come) ar crsonsonant. For example, you may choose 0 teach /y in conjunction with aa ere adents practice minimal pair contrasts, such as “t's a far/fang.” Depending 9° ar pan language backgrounds erin consonants will be harder fr them to disingyish sdentjers, Once you have determined which conirasts are most difficult For your ste dents, more focused exercises can be designed. For less advanced ESL/EFL learners (and especially fr begining leamers), fhe Cone scion on sasing procedure suggested above is clasly ot appropriate, For such earns" eSplematie consonant sounds can be described using a combination of Havin visual aeand word and sentence dil. Give articulatory descriptions 9 informal language: PoP ape, when teaching English /v/ to adult Spanish speakers, you can bem Ooo er eraind show a drawing of how the upper teeth rest inside the lower lip while conueht saat aon of the vocal cords is produced (Figure 32), Stadens can be directed fo feel the vibration by touching their lower lip or Adam’s apple.) Seaton then write several example words onthe board, such as ua, very, move, ate, and clgiotner words containing fom te studens Students should practice saying hese a alond frst in jolation, then in simple sentences, such as Vince drives a mouing 20 Tinally students should workin pairs or groups to create their own sentences using the elicited words, These sentences can then be practiced and performed.nats FRAMEWORK TO TEACH PRONUNCIATION 2 introduction, the presentation of ‘the framework presented in the Part 2 Bee should begin wi a leamer-appropriate description of how the sound's Meee should then have stadents analyze the feaure practice distingyish, (pom similar sounds, and then use it in first more controled and then mare ‘guided oem cniative contets. The activities that follow are intended to illustrate 1s five ane communicative framework and are not intended as one single lesson ‘Depending on the time available for pronunciation practice, we SEES) selecting one or Pes ntivaice in each phase, and if necessary, practicing the different phases" different rane We illustrate tis progression of classroom activities using the consonant contrast vs. Ht. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS: EXAMPLE OF /1/ AND /t/ 1f your student population includes speakers of Asian languages, especialy Japanese, you eyed yourself needing 1 reinforce the distinction berween (andi, in Sasser practice, this Would involve beginning with information about dese 14% sound contrasts, vena using sagital section diagrams andthe consonant chao invice the different . vs of antiulation ofthese two consonants, For initial, for example students need to Fo race tongue makes Contact withthe oof ofthe mouth atthe alveolar AdE*. ee na ihe tangue doesnot touch anything. For MV, have stents consiondly far ridge, then produce led fle. In order to produce an it, ao ae ve ogin by saying “uh” with a relaxed mouth and jaw. While saying-uh Wy sent voll tei longue up and back and then unroll it as they Sty ret re. Siar apoteises would be done to have students experience final and fv ean p would invlverasing students” consciousness as to where these sounds - typically occur. In the ease off vs. ef, 8 numberof ich contexts offer themselves: red, yellow, blue ree, brown, purple, maroon. black, gray 1 comer, across the set place their tongues on the alveot Colors: Directions: tight, let, straight ahead, around the Profession: bastender, bank tele. waitess, cab driver, doctor, English feachel lawyer Places: library, flower shop, ratives and superlatives: better, worse, more graceful, less grocery store, hairdressing salon, church, temple Compan realistic, most terrible Body parts: elbow, ext, finger, knuckle, ankle, Jeg, wrist eyebrow forehead ‘Personal names: Ralph, Beverly, Harold, Pearl, Laura, Larry, Marlon, Laveme ciency level or linguistic sophistication of the students, you othe categories and (1) present the individual words, oF ©) “How many body parts can you name con Depending on the profi may wish to either select one clieit them from students, asking, for example, taining an “1 or an “1°? LISTENING DISCRIMINATION: /I/ AND Ir! ‘Once the consonant sounds have been classified and contexts have been established > aon a pastes in disingishing the sound contrasts. Contextalized diseriminain de nina pairs work well both as a diagnostic tool and as lisiening practice, | for exampleThe Consonant System 3 Circle the word you hear 1. Isthat EileenfIrene? 2. There was a small lakejrake behind the cabin. 3. The teacher collectedicorrected the homework.” ‘This discrimination practice can be followed by controlled production exercises & which students produce these types of minimal pair sentences CONTROLLED PRACTICE AND FEEDBACK: /1/ AND ‘Cotored rods (see Chapter 1) provide an exsy-o-use und effective way of Domes the A Coles dention, even with bepining level students. These smal ticks of wore 208 a eioce nd colors. Thus, color names as well as vocabulary, such #8 herelthere, vetnigh and longertskoter,can be practiced, is as isaated words f neocsary and then in simple sentences. Question Answer “Where is the brown rod? Here. (pointing) Which rod is there? The red one. ‘Which rod is on the left? ‘The blue one. ‘Where is the black rod? (On the right ‘Which sod is Longer? ‘The yellow one. ‘Compare the blue rod and red one. “The red rod is longer than the blue one. Simple vocabulary can also be used 10 create another cononed POSS activity, amely, a dalogoe for students to read and perform forthe class, he) should be told in aan ty pay special attention 10 the pronunciation af Vand ft. Hers is example: {A police acer stops a car ona busy city street. The driver rolis down his window.) Ron! ‘What's the problem. officer? Pave officer: Didn't you see the traffic ight? It was red and you went right through it! Ron! ‘Oh no, offices! I'm sure the light was green! Ron: officer: Tihink you should takeoff those sunglasses. Your clots are all nixed up! (He writes outa ticket and hands it to Ron.) Ron: Does this mean I have to goto traffic school? Rom: icer: Well if you don't want your insurance rates t go up i does And aybe you should get your eyes checked while you're at Many other contexts exist for practicing the / vs. distinction, AS noted, one of the riche mat of body pets. For younger or lower level students whe 9% 0 afraid to ‘Mand up and be active, a game of "Simon Says” works well. You © first elicit vocabu- Ta Bing to pas ofthe boy, and perhaps write these on te Doar ‘Then lead the {ay Per ltr “Simon says touch your elbow” (in which case suv should reste the ection) or only “Touch your elbow” (in which case studen's should not mimic aan ad those who do ae out ofthe game). For subsequent rounds, on of the stu- dens (perhaps the winter of the previous round) becomes the leader. an excellent resource for such minimal pir sntenees is Bowen (19750),ms is directions and place names. Using & for NV vs. /n/distinetior in which students give ‘vicinity, you can create a map-based activity ‘to various locations, for example: “across the street from the flower shop. park is three blocks straight ahead. ‘hs a vasiation on this activity, Celee-Murcia and Goodwin (1991) suggest the se of “Gites of familiar locations (e-. the college carpus) to guide student discussion ane Pennine the class with local points of interest. The teacher would iitlly marate the slide show, saying, for example: (Slide #1) This is Rolfe Hal, Ws located across from Royce Hal, where the Gernot ‘and Italian Departments are housed. Rolfe Hall was named after Franklin 1D Rolfe. a professor of English and Dean of Humanities at UCLA. world-respected collection of the North Campus cafeteria and the (Slide #2) Here's the Research Library, It has @ resource materials. It's located near t ‘Sculpture Garden ‘As a follow-up activity, the same slides are shown, but the students provide the oral narrative. GUIDED PRACTICE WITH FEEDBACK: /I/ AND /t/ ly less controlled practice in the Ml) vs. dstinetion ~ or indeed in spmually any consonant contrast ~is the use ofan information gap activity involving 10 aay ofa mombly calendar, each containing different pieces of information about @ ven individuals plans. This guided practice activity represen a departure from he Eied practice stage in which students simply read aloud sentences or short disiogcs focusing on the articu sound contrast. Students are especial Ty motivated to participate i his activity when it involves the ftionl activites of» Pop oetiebnity sich asa polician, movie star, oF singer. Figure 33 represents Elizabei) ‘Taylor's plans forthe month of Apri. To do the activites you would divide students 08 ta. then give each member ofthe pata diferent calendar (version Aor B). They fill 'n ‘An example of slight ion of a particular sound or Figure 3.3 Calendars lor guided practice activityThe Consonant System ‘awed Ea aa 7 et fee z ie | Figure 3.3 Conrinved the missing information by asking each other questions about the blank (i... unshaded) areas othe calendar. Sample questions are: What are Elizabeth Taylor’s plans on April fourth? Is she busy on the sixteenth? What is she doing on April twenty-third? ‘COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICE AND FEEDBACK: /I/ AND /r/ Once students have had a chance for controlled and guided practice, they should engage in communicative practice using the same consonant contrasts. In this phase of practice, students aie provided with a context and Key words that contain the targeted sounds. An example ofthis type of practice involving the /V’ vs.) contrat isto divide students into small groups, give each group a lst of words like the following, and have them create a 1oup story selecting their favorite words from the ls. GROUP STORY: AVS. ®7 In your group, choose eight words from the list below. Then create a story using these words in any order. Iel Mw right, write light wrong. long road Toad rate late red led wrist list arrive alive pirate pilot correct collect Irene Eileen As each group tells its story, the students in the other groups listen and check off ‘which words on the list were used. They also check whether these words were pronouncedey ep et trey make sense within the content of the tory. As 9 FONE SP Seay, 2 dfterean group can ty 10 retell the story, using the words they ‘checked as a Bee Ancxzmple of sudent story might be as follows: ‘Seiden 1; Last summer, my friend Bileen and 1 went to New York. ‘Student 2: Eileen had a long list of things she wanted to sec. ‘Student 3: Our plane arrived late. Secat Then ou taxi took the wrong road and we had to walk five Jong blocks carrying a heavy load. What a terible beginning! More advanced stadenis can perform role plays — another form of communicative practice ~ which you can audiotape and play back for self- and peer conection ‘Although races Ti eleary more on meaning than form in such an activity, students can be asked ae eee oneon the particular sound(s) being practiced. Feedback can also be focused 08 Torres consonant dsinction(s) The following role cards st up situations in which ‘Af and [rf occur frequently: Student A: F Gall McDonald's in Ridgemont. You want to find out what hours the restaurant is open, the | address, and where to park You work at Thrifty Drug Store. The phone rings. FYou answer it. The caller has the wrong number. it's dificult to understand what the caller is saying because it's very noisy. You don't know the phone ress of the place the caller wishes “Student A: Role Play #2 Your car broke down on the freeway near the Foyal Boulevard exit. Call Lou's Towing Sevice “fo have someone come and tow the car to the nearest garage. I's late at night and you are “calling fom the freeway telephone. Teil them to hurry Deane =~The Consonant System “Student B: Role Play #2 You are Lou. You own Lou's Towing Service. ‘Someone is calling to get a car towed to the nearest garage. The caller is stranded on the freeway. Tell the caller that you are located too far away and to call someone olse._ TEACHING OTHER CONSONANT CONTRASTS “The progression from controlled to guided 0 communicative practice is one we suggest for teaching problematic consonant sounds. We include a few additional activities for teaching other consonant contrasts. These activities demonstrate the range of possible classroom activities for teaching pronunciation contrasts “The following guiding principles are suggested when developing such activites: tify your students’ problem areas (different groups have different problems) Find lexical/grammatical contexts with many natural occurrences of the problem sounds. Kdentify contexts for all the positions in which the sounds occur. Draw on these contexts to develop activites for analysis and listening that will assist ‘your students in understanding and recognizing the target sounds. Using the contexts you have chosen, develop a progression of controled. guided, ‘and communicative tasks that incorporate the sounds for practice. For each stage of practice (ie., controlled, guided, communicative) develop two or Ahrve activites o that you can recycle the problem and keep practicing the target sounds with new contexts ‘With this framework in mind, let us survey some sample activities for practicing the ‘consonant sounds that your students may have difficulty distinguishing or producing. Js! in word endings Within a multisklls clas that features work on vocabulary and word building, it can be useful to present students with an analysis activity involving the pronune! eon of word endings. The sound /3, for example, occurs frequently in words ending Proaure, such as pleasure, treasure, measure, leisure, and exposure. Another environment for fs) is words ending in rs + ~ion (eg. version, excursion) or vowel + 5 + ion (©-6~ confasion, decision). As part of the vocabulary instrtion, you can point out that the sux cron is often used to form a noun from a verb. The following chart illustrates this lal Is b> i5) Wooly) vowel + -de vowel + overt ‘conclude conclusion confuse confusion ‘convert conversion | include inclusion transfuse transfusion invert inversion exclude exclusion revise revision divert diversion delude delusion supervise supervision revert reversion "Compare, divide division decide decision provide provision collide collision explode explosion persuade persuasion however, emiision an compulsion, where the 5 preceding ~on is pronounced ff. See caret ioe frie’ ascusion of wing spelling pattems a4 predictor for pronunciation. —ereerere—The Sound System of North American English Directions: Choose the word that fits in each blank below and then read the sentence aloud: ‘exposure explosion confusion diversion, decision pleasure. division 1. Watching television is my favorite —______ 2. The river marks the _____ between the two cities. 3. Are you here on business or for _____? 4. Mary is very wishy-washy and can’t seem to make ‘5. When she lit the gas range there was a loud 6, Too much, to the sun can cause sunburn. 7. There was some —_____ because the instructions were uncle Figure 3.4 Sentences for controlled practice with 3/ As controlled practice, students could be given the task in Figure 3.4, [6] and /0/ An example of a guided practice activity that provides a rich context for the troublesome sounds /8/ and fy is “The Family Tree” (Figure 3.5). In the analysis phase, it is important to point out to students that voiced /8/ occurs commonly in relationship terms, such as mother. brother. and father, whereas the voiceless / occurs frequently in personal ‘names. The students should also be alerted to their own substitutions, such ast, /s/. and /f/ for voiceless (9; and (dl. /, and /v/ for voiced /8/. This activity is also an excellent way to reeycle the /s/ and /2/ pronunciations of possessive endings (e.g.. Agatha s/2/ mother Garth /s/ father). assuming these have been taught previously. ‘The Family Tree 1918.81 Cla) Joesitan + Cynthia Gg Sew ¢ Cate? Fray « Aente ants? TH cn on 1h werdin Ro Bah Figure 3.5 “The Family Tree" for guided practiceThe Consonant System ‘Once students have moved through the guided practice, they should do a « sunicative activity, like the following: ed com On a shect of paper, complete your family tree, going back as far as your grand. parents. Then tell your partner about your own Family. A more communicative activity involves the same kind of group storytelling activity described for rf and fl. this time designed to practice the distinetion between /0/ and/). GROUP STORY: /8/ VS. 18) In your group, choose eight words from the list below. Then create a story using these words in any order. ‘0 We thier father ruth brother theory mother author this think that through these thorough those Cynthia then Theo there Matthew together For example: ‘Student 1: Last Thursday, my sister Cynthia went on a tip to Boston, ‘Student 2: She wanted to visit my brother Matthew, who lives there. ‘Student 3: She traveled through many small towns. She didn’t know that it was so far. Student 4: After she arrived, a thief stole her money and she had to return home. nfl and [a3/ Another common difficulty for many students is producing the voiceless affricate \f/ and the voiced /d)." In terms of analysis, it can be useful to explain to students that /f/ is similar to a combination of // and /{/. Have them first produce (then /f/, 10 get 4 feel for the position in the mouth. Next try having students put the two sounds together Quickly. The same procedure is followed for /d3/, which is a combination of /A and /3). ‘Once they are able to produce the sounds in isolation and then in words, adequate opportunity for controlled practice (e.g. having students read short sentences or dialogues containing the target sounds) should be provided. The pair interview exercise in Figure 36 is an example of the guided practice that should follow. in! and /y/ For learners from certain language backgrounds (e.g. Chinese, Farsi, Portuguese). the distinction between /n/ and /g/ can be difficult both to hear and to produce. ‘The principle difference is inthe place of articulation, In the analysis stage, have students, use mirrors to see if they are placing the front of their tongue on the alveolar ridge for Jn and the back of their tongue on the velum for /q/. They may double-check their tongue "For some students, the position in which theve sounds occur is a factor. Depending on eave language, there may be a tendency for the student o produce only the voiceless africate Afi the final postion,‘the Sound System of North American English ‘Shopping Interview: Afi VS. (a Directions: Imagine you are going shopping for the things on this list, Working in pairs, decide where you will make your purchases. The list of stores is on the right. potato chips a jug of wine jelly doughnuts rape juice Joe's Liquor Store jumbo shrimp Churchill's Bakery cheddar cheese + George's Supermarket chewing gum simwberry jam cherry pie snatches | | ie chicken leps Now ask and answer the following questions: A; What will you buy at eee fein bays ee ‘A: Where will you buy the B: Tl buy Gthem) at A: How much/many — will you buy? B: I'l'buy E ire 3.6 Shopping interview for guided proctice placement during a controlled practice exercise involving minimal pair word and sentence Contrasts. This would then be followed by a guided practice activity such as that in Figure 3.7 (which is also good for practicing the structure gone + VERB-ing). For a communicative extension of the activity in Figure 3.7, the class could play a ame of “Twenty Questions.” A student volunteer (V) chooses one character from the grid (c.g, Ron) and writes down the name without revealing ito the class. The other students then ask a series of yes/no questions until the name is discovered:!? Is the person a man? Yes. Has he gone skiing? No. Has he gone swimming? No. Has he gone shopping? Yes, Is it Ron? Yes! spseensese ‘Teachers can reinforce the “Has hehe gone VEREB-ing?™ pater by modeling it for students in the insiractions for this activity