Ms. Donna C.

Regulto Ling 501 Introduction to Linguistics

Dr. Gina O. Gonong Paper #1

PHONOLOGY: Implications to Teaching of English I. Introduction Phonetics deals with the study of the sounds which are present in a language. Phonology studies how these sounds combine and how they change in combination, as well as which sounds can contrast to produce differences in meaning. These are important aspects in the teaching of English since they provide the basic foundation in the study and acquisition of English as a second language. How does the study of phonology affect the teaching of English? II. Implications of Phonology to Teaching of English Phonemic awareness is the understanding that words are made up of individual sounds or phonemes and the ability to manipulate these phonemes either by segmenting, blending, or changing individual phonemes within words to create new words (Chard and Dickson, 1999). Becoming phonologically aware prepares children for later reading instruction, including instruction in phonics, word analysis, and spelling. To teach phonological awareness, Chard and Dickson suggested that a teacher begins by demonstrating the relationships of parts to wholes. Then model and demonstrate how to segment short sentences into individual words, showing how the sentence is made up of words. Once the students understand part-whole relationships at the sentence level, move on to the word level, introducing multisyllable words for segmentation into syllables. Finally, move to phoneme tasks by modeling a specific sound and asking the students to produce that sound both in isolation and in a variety of words and syllables. In this process, the teacher models the sound or the strategy for making the sound, and has the children use the strategy to produce the sound. It is very important that the teacher model the correct sounds. Students need to recognize each sound and know that the sounds may cause the change in meaning of words.

For example, different vowels cannot generally be substituted for one another without a change in meaning. If you tried to produce the word beat with the vowel [] instead of [i], you would not be understood as saying beat especially if you are talking to native speakers. Instead, you would be understood as saying a different word which is bit. The pronunciation of these words by Filipinos can be similar because we do not have the difference in meaning if we use the short [I] a long [i]. For this reason, speakers of English must be very careful in producing the exact sounds. An awareness of phonemes is necessary to grasp the alphabetic principle that underlies our system of written language. Specifically, developing readers must be sensitive to the internal structure of words in order to benefit from formal reading. If children understand that words can be divided into individual phonemes and that phonemes can be blended into words, they are able to use letter-sound knowledge to read and build words. As a consequence of this relationship, phonological awareness in kindergarten is a strong predictor of later reading success (Chard and Dickinson, 1999). Research has shown that children who begin reading instruction with sufficiently developed phonological awareness understand the instruction better, master the alphabetic principle faster and learn to read quite easily. This also leads to better efficiency in spelling among pupils. However, children who are not native speakers of English and with culturally diverse backgrounds may have difficulties with phonological awareness. Their native language and dialect affect the ability of children to understand the phonological distinctions on which the English language is built. Teachers of English as a second or foreign language must apply sensitive effort and use a variety of techniques to help children learn these skills. In speaking the English language, correct pronunciation of words and sentences is very crucial conveying our messages to other people. This is not only focused on the articulation of consonants and vowels as stated above in the phonological awareness. This also includes emphasis on suprasegmental features such as stress and intonation as the variation of these may alter the meaning of what one is saying.

In natural discourse, we use pauses to divide our speech into manageable chunks called thought groups. For example, the sentence: I was speaking to him / on the phone yesterday is divided up in two parts. You cannot have this as I was speaking to / him on the / phone yesterday since this one is less fluent and causes breaks in the discourse. Pauses can also be used to emphasize ideas more strongly and make them easier to process just like a politician who speaks this, My fellow citizens / this / is / our moment. or a frustrated parent to his child, Come / here / right / now!. In these cases, the speakers have their reasons for wanting to emphasize each word. Within each group, there is generally one prominent element, a syllable that is emphasized, usually by lengthening it and moving the pitch up or down: I was SPEAKing to him / on the PHONE yesterday. Another illustration is the answering of I am reading to each of the following questions: What are you doing? I am READing; Whos reading? I am reading; Why arent you reading?!! I AM reading. This shows the differences in meaning in each situation. Each thought group also has another distinctive feature, namely its intonation. This certainly carries meaning to our statements as questioning, agreeing, disagreeing and confirming. Often, intonation is one factor among many that communicate an attitude. Others that contribute to imparting an utterance with emotion are word choice, grammatical structure, the situational context, facial expressions, and body movement. As teachers, we need to make learners aware that correct pronunciation of words and sentences and the pronunciation features work together to make their utterances convey clear messages to their listeners. Finally, the study of phonology gives us the method of transcribing the sounds using the International Phonetic Alphabet. In a phonetic transcription, every symbol stands for one sound, and one sound only. A phonetic transcription can be used prescriptively, to show students how a given word or phrase should be pronounced. A phonetic transcription can be used diagnostically, to record and analyze the speech of students. A student can often better understand his errors in pronunciation if he sees them laid out in static visual form. As teachers of English,

we should take time to learn and teach the IPA since phonetic transcription can save time and facilitate the teaching of concepts related to the spoken language. III. Conclusions English teachers must give effort in teaching phonology to their students especially if they are not native speakers. Researches have shown that knowledge on phonology has effects on children who begin reading instruction, including instruction in phonics, word analysis, and spelling. Exact production of sounds leading to correct pronunciation of words and sentences has effect on the meaning a speaker intends to make. Some pronunciation features for functional communicability also affect greatly on the transfer of messages in a situational context. As our students gain communicative skill, their self-confidence is also increased especially those who are not native speakers like Filipinos. Finally, the use of IPA symbols also contributes in our goal to teach English effectively. This can be used for learners to attend to their speech deficiencies as they do not only hear and try to imitate the sounds but also know how this sound is exactly produced. References: Chard, David and Dickson, Shirley. (1999). Phonological Awareness: Instructional and Assessment Guidelines. http://www.ldonline.org/article/6254. Goodwin, Janet. (2006). Teaching Pronunciation. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Heinle & Heinle.