UNIT 3

PHONOLOGY

Phonology is the study of the sound system used within a language in order to communicate meaning. In phonology we have some sound features and those are intonation, phonemes, word stress and sentence stress. A phoneme is known as the smallest unit of sound in a word, which marks a distinction in meaning from another word, for example the word ‘bus’ has 3 phonemes ‘b’ ‘u’ and ‘s’. The phonemes form part of a “phonemic chart”, designed to distinguish between the pronunciation and the writing of a word. Each phoneme is written as a character that represents a sound. It has the function of helping the reader to distinguish which is the correct pronunciation of a word.

On the other hand, there is the word stress which are the phonemic symbols that are used to show the stress of a word, for example in the word technology. In addition, we can find the sentence stress that is when the speaker pronounces different parts of a sentence with more or less force. In this case we can classify sentence stress in primary or main stress and secondary stress. Primary or main stress is the word that contains the loudest syllable in the sentence, and the speaker considers it as the most important part of the sentence in terms of meaning, while secondary stress are the words that the speaker considers as not so important to the meaning of the sentence.

Additionally, contrastive stress is evident when we put the stress on an unpredicted word in a sentence as in the example “She said you did”, where the contrastive stress is in the word “she”. When we talk about phonology, we can find terms like connected speech and intonation, too. Connected speech refers to a spoken language in which all the words join to make one sound. It happens when a vowel and a consonant join together. for example, I went on a trip with a friend of mine.

Then, we have intonation that is the changes that the speaker produces in terms of level of their voice when speaking with the intention to show meaning. Intonation is divided into two categories: rising intonation which is used in yes/no questions, and falling intonation which is used or wh-questions and normal statements. Finally, it is important to mention the emphasize that we use when we talk, and it works as a way to give force to a word. It is an important aspect. Since it permits us express feelings and meaning when we talk.

To improve students’ knowledge in phonology, teacher can apply “counting syllables” which is an activity in which students must count the syllables of some words. For this, the teacher will provide a clear explanation of the phonological structure of each vocabulary word in order to facilitate the development and practice of the activity in students. Then, teacher should start with the dictation of the words using a natural intonation and without hesitation or pause. Finally, all the students repeat each word. And finally, the counting of the syllables begins. After a little practice, the students will have been able to identify the number of syllables as well as the correct pronunciation of each word.

Another alternative that teachers can implement to develop phonetics in students is to learn the sounds in English together with those words that in Spanish handle a similar pronunciation. Here, the teacher must first position her class by establishing the topic to be discussed. Afterwards, the teacher will familiarize his students with the different types of words that share similarities, such as "false friends". Subsequently, students must develop activities related to identifying the meaning of words in order to put into practice the new vocabulary acquired. Finally, the teacher will evaluate the knowledge regarding "false friends" that the students have acquired.

Additional information:

5 Phonological & Phonemic Awareness Activities

References

Learning Without Tears. 2021. 5 Phonological & Phonemic Awareness Activities. [online] Available at: <https://www.lwtears.com/blog/phonological-phonemic-awareness-activities> [Accessed 21 May 2021].

Harappa.education. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/speaking-skills-and-its-importance> [Accessed 20 May 2021].

Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT Course Modules 1, 2 and 3 (2nd ed., TKT Course). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139062398