Pronunciation

CC3606 will not focus on theoretical stuff such as Bilabial, Labiodental, Interdental, Alveolar, Places of Articulation. Instead, we will have a practical focus

IPA Symbols

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 1

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 2

Notes for Students 1_D.J. Pronunciation Symbols

Challenge: How could I remember so many symbols? I could never do it
-Whats this word? -Which symbols are consonants and which are vowels?

Voiced consonant/Voiceless consonant

Voiced consonant: Vocal cord vibrates (All vowels are voiced but only some consonants are voiced) Feel it: Touch your vocal cord, read out go and ko, which one carries more vibration? HOW to pronounce /f/ vs. /v/ (e.g. van vs. fan)? Place your hand on vocal cord (/v/ Stronger vibration) OR Bite your lower lip harder with /v/: Less air flows out and more energy concentrates on the vocal cord

Never rote-learn the symbols. Build habit: When looking up unknown words in dictionary, use the first page of dictionary to deduce the individual sounds. Make good guess from first-page examples for all consonants and vowels Combine the pronunciation of the individual sounds to form the pronunciation of a word. Tongue twister: First read out all the vowels in a chain. Then try the consonants How to pronounce the above word? **e= (e.g. air)
CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 3

HOW to pronounce /s/ vs. /z/ (e.g. Sue vs. zoo)? Voiced: Make a long [zzzzz], feel the vibration on the throat 2. Voiceless: Make a long [sssss], feel the vibration off 3. Turn the VIBRATION on and off to switch between /z/ & [s]: [zzzzsssszzzzsssszzzzsssszzzzsssszzzz] Feel the on and off!! CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 4
1.

/m/ vs. /n/ vs. // E p.38

n At beg.: Nancy Tongue touching upper palate e.g. nei At the end: Sing Tongue not touching upper palate e.g. ngo

and

thing thanks three

(voiced) this those that

Match with /m/ or /n/ or //

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 5

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 6

Exercises: Consonants

More sound pair exercises in English pronunciation in use

Distinguishing the pronunciation symbols E 144-160

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 7

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 8

Syllable
Syllable (Minimal unit of sound that could be pronounced) Why do we call consonant and vowel in Chinese (Son & Mother)? Vowel is the core of a syllable while consonant(s) helps to modify the vowel into different pronunciations A vowel alone can form a syllable (e.g. open ) but a consonant alone must form a syllable with a vowel. How many syllables? (Occupation, slogan, mentality)

Stress
Stress Primary Stress: Shorter words usually have one stress (picnic, unique) E52-53

Secondary Stress: Theoretically less stressed than primary stress but more stressed than unstressed syllables Practically difficult to distinguish between unstressed, secondary stress and primary stress Secondary stress: Pronounce as primary stress or unstressed. However, never omit primary stress Slight fall between secondary-stressed syllable and primary-stressed syllable, e.g. Occupation (Which Primary?)
CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 10

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 9

Oc

cu

pa

tion

2 exercises No. of syllables? Primary stress?

High Middle X Low X

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 11

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 12

Key Problem 1: Missing Sounds (Vowels)

Why do we find it difficult to learn accurate English pronunciation?

Cantonese vs. English

Tongue Twister: Out in the town, opening an account, only have a pound, feeling down Playing with which vowel? **/a / Look at the IPA table. What vowels are missing in formal Cantonese? / :/ // /a / Bird (lee lee lue lue) Hat ( dae dae) Mouth (~)

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 13

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 14

Key Problem 1: Missing Sounds (Consonants)

She sells sea shells by the sea shore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore, I'm sure she sells seashore shells. -Playing with which sound pairs? -/s/ vs. / / Look at the IPA table. What consonants are missing in Cantonese? /v/ Very Van, (only f or w) // & // Think/The (only d) /z/ Zoo // Vision/she / / Jump / / Cheese /r/ Run (only w) Cantonese has fewer voiced and kissing shape consonants (e.g. is a good student) CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 15

Key problem 2: Consonant clusters

A big black bug bit a big black bear, made the big black bear bleed blood. b+l Cantonese has fewer consonant clusters: (e.g. vs. glow)

Train Place Three

How to practise? Separate the 2 consonants, add / / to the first consonant, e.g. blow /b / +/ l / Speak out the 2 syllables slowly and separately Gradually increase speed, reduce the / / and combine into one syllable naturally
CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 16

Key problem 3: Ending consonants

Fat frogs flying past fast. t Cantonese has fewer ending consonants
Goat vs. Cars vs. Lock vs. Lied vs. Aisle vs.

Useful Pronunciation Reference

Dictionary with clear phonetic symbols http://dictionary.reference.com/ http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ Speaking Dictionary (English) http://www.merriam-webster.com/ Speaking Dictionary (Chinese) http://hk.dictionary.yahoo.com/ Iowa Project (Individual sounds) http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eacadtech/phonetics/about.h tml# Launch English Library

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 17

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 18

D.J.(UK) vs. K.K. (US)

**D.J. is used in our course

Homework 1
(Identify the commonly mispronounced words)

Next lesson: Demonstrate the combination of sounds into syllables

Build up the habit of looking up pronunciations in dictionary. Keep the pronunciation symbols (notes 1) and refer to the examples to recall the sounds. (A similar page will be provided in Pronunciation Quiz) Then you will remember the sounds naturally within a few months.

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 19

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 20

Homework 2: Identify the sentence by its IPAs

Pronunciation: Word-level

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 21

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 22

Beginning consonant clusters (l, r)

V.. aint (ei) eel (i:) air (e) eat (i:) all ( : ) ice (ai) oh ( ) CV.. rain reap rest read lord liar low **CCV.. t+rain t+ree d+ress th+read f+loor f+ly f+low

E57_Beginning consonant clusters

More exercises: st+reet, b+read, c+lock, f+ruit, t+rip, p+rocess, d+rain

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 23 CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 24

Ending consonant: /l/

Whale smile small bell hole

ed endings
If the last sound (not last letter) is /t/ or /d/ -ted hated /-tid/: hated /heitid/, shouted /-tid/, rested /-tid/ -ded added, ended /-did/: added /did/, mended /-did/, nodded /-did/ -played /plei_/, loved /lv-_/, robbed /r b-_/ End: t or d? -danced /da:nts-_/, watched /w -_/, asked /a:sk-_/ If the last sound is not /t/ or /d/ played /plei_/, loved /lv-_/, robbed /r b-_/ End: t or d? If the last sound is a voiced consonant or vowel /-d/ (d is voiced, goes with that ending voiced sound) danced /da:nts-_/, watched /w -_/, asked /a:sk-_/ End: t or d? If the last sound is a voiceless consonant /-t/ (t is voiceless, goes with that ending voiceless consonants)

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 25

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 26

E63 & Ex 7

Verb vs. Noun

Eason is recording (v) his latest record (n).
What are the stresses for the (v) and (n)? Noun: Stress First syllable Verb: Stress Second syllable

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 27

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 28

Noun & verb practices

Noun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 conflict contract defect digest Verb con flict 9 10 11 12 13
The results of the new research conflict with existing theories.

Noun permit protest present produce project

Verb per mit pro test pre sent pro duce pro ject re cord re fuse content (adj)
He is content with his life.

E64-65: First guess then listen & one more exercise

con tract de fect di gest

14 record export ex port 15 refuse extract ex tract import im port 16 content object ob ject 10% discount, 10% increase He is exporting some exports to Kentucky. He contracts his muscle to sign the contract with Kentucky. He refuses to receive the refuse from his neighbor. He is producing some produce (product/plants) in his farm. He is projecting some figures in his project.

The company publishes a monthly digest of its activities.

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 29

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 30

Compound words
1. 2.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Two individual words white board: A board white in color

There is a white house near the police station. All US presidents live in the White House.

What are the different patterns? Work out the rules to govern the different patterns 2 key individual ideas: Stress each word. 1 key and global idea: Stress the first word only.

green house: A house green in color heavy weight: A weight which is heavy

One compound word whiteboard: Where lecturer writes common room : Where students have meetings in dormitory crossword : A puzzle game darkroom: Where you develop your photo greenhouse: Where plants are grown heavyweight: A boxer >175 pounds Secondhand (adj or adv): Not new He bought secondhand clothes vs. He bought the clothes secondhand. hotcake: pancake

hot cake: A cake which is hot

red coat: A coat red in color blue bird: A bird blue in color yellow stone: A stone yellow in color
CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 31

redcoat: British Soldier bluebird: Yellowstone: A river Yellow Stone National Park cold cream: a cream cosmetically used on face
CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 32

cold cream: Cream that is cold

E66-67

Good Reference
UST very comprehensive phonetics website (with detailed theories, exercises with answers and tape recordings) http://lc.ust.hk/~material/pl/

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 33

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 34

Linking the sounds

Cantonese : Pronounce words separately (e.g. ) English: Do not pronounce words separately (e.g. hold a party).
1st word (ends with a consonant) + 2nd word (begins with a vowel)

Pronunciation: Sentence-level

Is + it? Is + it? // + /z t/ Make your English will sound smooth and natural

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 35

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 36

E84_Read out the left column first Then listen and check

More on linking: Ending /r/

Ending /r/: Usually not pronounced in British English However, if the next word begins with a vowel Linking E.g. There is a car accident. /r/

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 37

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 38

E39_Read out the central column first Then listen and check

Determine which sounds you could link up and then listen and check
1. talk about it 2. move it across 3. pick up a pen 4. fight it out 5. turn it off 6. give it away 7. walk along a road 8. drink it all up e.g. 1. talk_about_it

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 39

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 40

Greater challenge: A tongue twister

If you stick a stock of liquor in your locker, it is appropriate to put a lock on the door.

Stress pattern in Sentence E106-115

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 41

CC3606 Oral Business English/ Teaching_Common/ Pronunciation Slide 42