Connected speech
Submitted by Vanessa Steele on 17 January, 2005 – 13:00.
Teaching pronunciation used to involve little more than identifying and practicing the sounds of which a language is composed, that is to say, its phonemes. Recently however, there has been a shift of focus towards the other systems operating within phonology, which may be more important in terms of overall intelligibility.
What connected speech is
"English people speak so fast" is a complaint I often hear from my students, and often from those at an advanced level, where ignorance of the vocabulary used is not the reason for their lack of comprehension.
When students see a spoken sentence in its written form, they have no trouble comprehending. Why is this?
The reason, it seems, is that speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without clear-cut borderlines between each word. In spoken discourse, we adapt our pronunciation to our audience and articulate with maximal
economy of movement rather than maximal clarity. Thus, certain words are lost, and certain phonemes linked together as we attempt to get our message across.
How this affects native and non-native speakers
As native speakers, we have various devices for dealing with indistinct utterances caused by connected speech. We take account of the context, we assume we hear words with which we are familiar within that context.
In real life interaction, phonetically ambiguous pairs like " a new display" / " a nudist play", are rarely a problem as we are actively making predictions about which syntactic forms and lexical items are likely to occur in a given situation.
Non-native speakers, however, are rarely able to predict which lexical item may or may not appear in a particular situation. They tend to depend almost solely on the sounds which they hear. Learners whose instruction has focused heavily on accuracy suffer a "devastating diminution of phonetic information at the segmental level when they encounter normal speech." (Brown 1990.)
Aspects of connected speech
So what is it that we do when stringing words together that causes so many problems for students?
(One example is) Weak Forms: There are a large number of words in English which can have a "full" form and a "weak" form [...] The relevance of certain features of connected speech to students' needs is often debated. However, this is not the case with weak forms. Learners must come to not only recognize and cope with the weak forms they hear,but also to use them themselves when speaking English. If they do not their language will sound unnatural and over formalised, with too many stressed forms making it difficult for the listener to identify the points of focus. This, the degree to which connected speech contributes towards "naturalness" or "intelligibility", is a useful starting point from which to measure the value to students of the different features of connected speech. [...]
Conclusion
[...] Raising students awareness of these forms, whenever they arise, is the first step towards helping your learners to speak a little more naturally. Even if they do not assimilate these forms at first, "...in many cases, the simple awareness of their existence can help enormously in enabling students to better understand the language they hear." ( Gerald Kelly- "How to Teach Pronunciation.")
What connected speech is
"English people speak so fast" is a complaint I often hear from my students, and often from those at an advanced level, where ignorance of the vocabulary used is not the reason for their lack of comprehension.
When students see a spoken sentence in its written form, they have no trouble comprehending. Why is this?
The reason, it seems, is that speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without clear-cut borderlines between each word. In spoken discourse, we adapt our pronunciation to our audience and articulate with maximal
economy of movement rather than maximal clarity. Thus, certain words are lost, and certain phonemes linked together as we attempt to get our message across.
How this affects native and non-native speakers
As native speakers, we have various devices for dealing with indistinct utterances caused by connected speech. We take account of the context, we assume we hear words with which we are familiar within that context.
In real life interaction, phonetically ambiguous pairs like " a new display" / " a nudist play", are rarely a problem as we are actively making predictions about which syntactic forms and lexical items are likely to occur in a given situation.
Non-native speakers, however, are rarely able to predict which lexical item may or may not appear in a particular situation. They tend to depend almost solely on the sounds which they hear. Learners whose instruction has focused heavily on accuracy suffer a "devastating diminution of phonetic information at the segmental level when they encounter normal speech." (Brown 1990.)
Aspects of connected speech
So what is it that we do when stringing words together that causes so many problems for students?
(One example is) Weak Forms: There are a large number of words in English which can have a "full" form and a "weak" form [...] The relevance of certain features of connected speech to students' needs is often debated. However, this is not the case with weak forms. Learners must come to not only recognize and cope with the weak forms they hear,but also to use them themselves when speaking English. If they do not their language will sound unnatural and over formalised, with too many stressed forms making it difficult for the listener to identify the points of focus. This, the degree to which connected speech contributes towards "naturalness" or "intelligibility", is a useful starting point from which to measure the value to students of the different features of connected speech. [...]
Conclusion
[...] Raising students awareness of these forms, whenever they arise, is the first step towards helping your learners to speak a little more naturally. Even if they do not assimilate these forms at first, "...in many cases, the simple awareness of their existence can help enormously in enabling students to better understand the language they hear." ( Gerald Kelly- "How to Teach Pronunciation.")
Extract from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/connected-speech
* SOME ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16342276/Some-Aspects-of-Connected-Speech
* SOME ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16342276/Some-Aspects-of-Connected-Speech
PRACTICE:
1) Sentences to analyze:
from Rhymes and Rhythm
a) She wants ten pounds.
b) A lamp post
c) I watched TV yesterday. / I watch TV every day.
d) I saw him half an hour ago.
e) Susan played tennis last Monday.
f) John and Patricia.
g) Could you lend me your book, please?
h) You can play the piano, can't you?
i) Is this yours?
j) He's your brother.
k) My dear Anna.
l) I saw it happen.
2) Cash-flow problems:
Audio: http://www.goear.com/listen/e128a93/Cash-flow-problems-Rhymes-and-Rhythm
3) Born and Bred in London:
Audio: http://www.goear.com/listen/9798408/Born-and-Bred-in-London-Rhymes-and-Rhythm
Palais:
French.a palace, esp. a French government or municipal building.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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