Teaching speaking at high schools by incorporating basic phonetic knowledge

 SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ
 TRƯỜNG THCS&THPT THỐNG NHẤT
SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
 “TEACHING SPEAKING AT HIGH SCHOOLS BY INCORPORATING BASIC PHONETIC KNOWLEDGE”
Người thực hiện: Mai Thị Tuyết
Chức vụ: Giáo viên
SKKN thuộc môn: Tiếng Anh
THANH HOÁ NĂM 2017
Table of Contents
I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background and rationale
Teachers and learners of English are well aware of the fact that a good command of the language includes many components, among which aspects of connected speech must be taken into serious consideration if one wants to participate in an international environment. However, at the high school level, aspects of connected speech have not received attention commensurate with their roles. It is suggested that supra-segmental features are far more important and central to communication than accurate production of the individual sounds. Accordingly, the researcher assumes that an adequate knowledge of aspects of connected speech will help improve the students’ communication skill. To examine whether aspects of connected speech could really better students’ ability in oral communication, an empirical study was conducted at my high school. Forty five 12th graders were invited to take part in the study to find out whether they could improve their oral skills with the help of aspects of connected speech. The data, both qualitative and quantitative, were collected through the pre- and post-test, as well as the questionnaires. The results from the statistical analysis of the pre- and post-test showed that there was a significant improvement in the students’ oral communication through the use of aspects of connected speech, which made their speech more natural. In the light of these findings, some recommendations were made for a better instruction of aspects of connected speech, so that they would be used for students of other schools with the same conditions and setting.
Besides academic purposes, English has also voiced its part in the daily life of Vietnamese people. Investors become more and more interested in the young market of Vietnam, and the number of tourists to Vietnamese cities is increasing every year. These really call for the use of English as a means of major business transaction and even small trades; therefore, waiters and waitresses in big cities of Vietnam, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, or Da Nang, now need English to get a good job as well.
The importance of English, as substantiated above, cannot be denied in the context of present Vietnam, and every language learner wishes to communicate successfully; however, Vietnamese learners still have a lot of difficulties in oral communication due to the different nature of the Vietnamese sound system and tunes. In fact, these difficulties stem both from the segmental and supra-segmental features of the English language. Even though it is suggested that supra-segmental features are far more important and central to communication than accurate production of the individual sounds, a dominantly large part of the curriculum for high school students in general and the gifted specifically only focuses on the segmental aspects. Accordingly, the students may acquire a good command of how discrete English sounds are produced, but in connected speech they seem to be out of place with the exception of some cases that undergo certain unofficial instructions. Hence, the teaching of the supra-segmental features to high school students, which is narrowed down to aspects of connected speech in this study, is crucial if the desired result is the student’s improvement of oral communication skill.
Aspects of connected speech (hereafter reduced to ACS) belong to the supra-segmental sphere of phonetics and phonology which includes various issues, namely rhythm, assimilation, elision, and linking. All of them exert a certain impact on the learner’s oral communication because their object is language in action and the interrelation between words in a sentence and even between sentences. Notwithstanding such significance, these items have so far not been given commensurate recognition both from teachers and students at a high school level. Here arises a question about whether it is possible to make the foreign language learning situation at high schools better through the introduction of basic knowledge about distinctive aspects of connected speech and whether the target students can incorporate this knowledge with their rudimentary command of segmental phonetics to achieve success in real-life communication. The course of finding the answer to this question thus gives reason for the being of this study and therefore, I am writing this to provide students and teachers of English with teaching speaking at high schools by incorporating basic phonetic knowledge.
1.2 Aim of the study
Aspects of connected speech are too large a subject to study in full detail together with its pedagogical application within the limit of a research. Therefore, the researcher would hereby certify that only basic features of the aspects of connected speech that help to improve learners’ oral communication will be examined.
With the scope defined above, the thesis aims at finding out the problems related to ACS faced by the students when they take part in authentic communication situations. The researcher would, through this study, also like to investigate if the educational values of ACS can help the students better their oral communication, and assert the fact that aspects of connected speech should be introduced at a high school level to improve the students’ oral skill.
1.3 Significance of the study
The notion of bringing parts of the supra-segmental features, i.e. ACS, into the teaching of English at high schools in Vietnam in general and at my school in particular has never been officially reported, so this research may complement the current practice of teaching and learning English at such educational institutions. 
The study is intended for the advance of the 12-graded students in oral communication. It can, therefore, be hailed as a contribution to changing the viewpoints on teaching the oral skill, which hopefully bears fruit in reaching the standard of natural English.
1.4 Methodologies 
- Theorical framework
- Emperical analysis
- Data collection 
- Analytical framework
- Data analysis
II. CONTENT
2.1. Literature review
This chapter reviews the theory related to various aspects of connected speech including rhythm, assimilation, elision, and linking. All of those will lay the groundwork for the research design and method of investigation in the next chapter.
2.1.1 Speech rhythm
There are generally two types of speech rhythm, namely “stress-timed rhythm like in English, Russian, and Arabic, and syllable-timed rhythm such as in French and Italian” (Roach, 2000, p. 135). 
2.1.1.1 Stress-timed rhythm
As asserted by Roach (2000) English is the type of language featured by the stress-timed rhythm, which indicates that the occurrence of the stressed syllables will be at relatively regular intervals with or without their separation by unstressed syllables. Take one English sentence for example, with the numbers from 1 to 5 placed above each stressed syllable. It can easily be noticed that syllables 1 and 2 are not separated by any unstressed syllables, 2 and 3 are separated by one, 3 and 4 by two, and 4 and 5 by three unstressed syllables. However, the times from each stressed syllable to the next tend to be the same, regardless of the number of intervening unstressed syllables.
1
2
3
4
5
e.g.
 Walk down the path to the end of the canal.
2.1.1.2 Syllable-timed rhythm
The second type of speech rhythm is syllable-timed rhythm. The main distinguishing feature of the latter type is its regular time-intervals, regardless of whether the syllables are stressed or unstressed. As in the following example, the English version is divided into five feet based on the stressed and unstressed syllables, whereas the Vietnamese version has six feet which indicates its regular time-intervals.
Examples:
	Several experts are to give evidence on the subject. (English version)
	Nhiều chuyên gia sẽ đưa ra bằng chứng cho vấn đề đó. (Vietnamese translation)
Vietnamese is a tonal syllable-timed language (as asserted in a study done by Honey (1987)); therefore, Vietnamese people will have a lot of difficulties in learning English, a language of stress-timed rhythm. It is advisable that Vietnamese learners of English practice speaking with a regular rhythm and repeating strongly rhythmical utterances. By this way the learners will be made self-aware of concentrating on making unstressed syllables weak.
2.1.2 Assimilation 
As classified by Celce-Murcia, M. et al. (1996) there are three types of assimilation in English, namely progressive (or perseverative), regressive (or anticipatory), and coalescent.
2.1.2.1 Progressive assimilation
A change in sounds is called progressive assimilation when the conditioning sound precedes and affects the following sound (the assimilated sound changes to become like the conditioning sound that precedes it). The figure below depicts what happens in progressive assimilation. 
Conditioning sound
Assimilated sound
	 "
The clear manifestation of progressive assimilation can be observed in the changes of sounds in –s ending and –ed ending.
e.g.
	beans 	/bi:n"z/	beats	/bi:t"s/
	moved	/mu:v"d/	fished	/fiʃ"t/
2.1.2.2 Regressive assimilation
The second type of assimilation is Regressive. In regressive assimilation, the conditioning sound follow the assimilated sound as described in the chart below.
Assimilated sound
Conditioning sound
 !
e.g.
	have /hæv/ +	to /tu:/	¨	/hæftə/
	has /hæz/	 +	to /tu:/	¨	/ hæstə/
	used /ju:zd/ +	to /tu:/	¨	/ju:stə/
So far we have studied the most common types of regressive assimilation, in which there are changes in place of articulation or in voicing. However, changes in manner of articulation also occur in regressive assimilation but much less commonly and most cases are in informal speech.
e.g.
Could you give me a call? ¨ /gimme/ Let me do that for you. ¨/lemme/
	[m:]	 [m:]	 
I saw her in the bar.	¨ /inne/ 	Get them!	¨ /gettəm/
	 [n:]	 [t:]
2.1.2.3 Coalescent assimilation
Coalescent assimilation frequently occurs when final alveolar consonants or final alveolar consonant sequences precede initial palatal /y/, resulting in the creation of palatalized fricatives and affricates respectively. The process is illustrated in the chart below.
Coalescent assimilation frequently occurs when final alveolar consonants or final alveolar consonant sequences precede initial palatal /y/, resulting in the creation of palatalized fricatives and affricates respectively. The process is illustrated in the chart below.
Sound 1
Sound 2
Sound 3
	É
Examples:
He is coming this year.	[ rule: /s/ + /y/ ¨ /∫/
	 [∫] as in issue
	Does your mother know?	[ rule: /z/ + /y/ ¨ / ʒ/
	 [ʒ] as in pleasure	
	Is that your dog?	[ rule: /t/ + /y/ ¨ / tʃ/
	 [tʃ] as in stature
2.1.3 Elision
Elision is the dropping of a sound or sounds which once existed or which still exists in precise speech (Jones, 1998, p. 133) Similar to assimilation, elision is common in rapid, casual speech, which may cause difficulties to foreign language learners when some phonemes they expect to hear are not actually pronounced. Below are some examples of elision provided by Peter Roach (2000).
2.1.3.1 Loss of weak vowel after p, t, k
The vowels in the first syllables in such words as ‘potato’, ‘tomato’, ‘canary’, ‘perhaps’, ‘today’, etc. may disappear, and the aspiration of the initial plosives occupy the whole of the middle portions of the syllables.
ph,teitəʊ	th,mɑ:təʊ	kh,neəri	ph,hæps	th,dei	
tattoo ¨ th,tu:	catastrophe ¨ kh,tæstrəfi	parade ¨ ph,reid
2.1.3.2 Weak vowel becomes syllabic before n, l, or r
When weak vowels precede consonants n, l, or r, they will become syllabic consonants, which means n, l, or r stands as the peak of the syllable instead of the vowel. 
e.g.
tonight ¨ tņait	police ¨ pļi:s	correct ¨ kŗ	ekt	cattle ¨ kætļ
muddle ¨ mʌdļ	threaten ¨ θretņ	particular ¨ pŗtikjulŗ 
2.1.3.3 Avoidance of complex consonant clusters
Roach (2000) asserts in his book ‘English phonetics and phonology” that a normal English speaker would never pronounce all the consonants in a consonant cluster of three plosives plus a fricative, and that in such a case the middle plosive may disappear like in the examples below.
e.g.
	George the Sixth’s throne ¨ dʒɔ: dʒ ðə siks θrəʊn
	instead of	dʒɔ: dʒ ðə sikθs θrəʊn
	Act ¨ æks 	instead of	ækts
	looked back ¨ lu:k bæk	instead of 	lu:kt bæk
2.1.3.4 Loss of final v in ‘of’ before consonants
When ‘of’ precedes a consonant the ‘v’ sound is normally not pronounced. Nevertheless, when it goes before a vowel the ‘v’ is retained.
e.g.
	lots of them 	¨ 	lɒts ə ðəm	
	waste of money	¨	weist ə mʌni
	District of Columbia 	¨ 	distrikt ə kəlʌmbiə 
2.1.4 Linking
2.1.4.1 Linking consonants to vowels
A highly common case of linking is known to be the one in which a word ends with a consonant followed by a word that begins with a vowel (especially function words). Thus, the consonant seems to become part of the following words.
e.g.
Labial consonant + Vowel: 	stop it	came in	leave early
Dental consonant + Vowel: 	with it	breathe it	 breathe out
Alveolar consonant + Vowel: 	washed it	played on	run around
Palatal consonant + Vowel:	cash out	camouflage it	march it
Velar consonant + Vowel: 	back out	drag out	sing it
2.1.4.2 Linking identical consonants
When the final consonant of the preceding word is the same as the initial consonant of the following word, the two consonants are usually pronounced as one long consonant.
e.g.
t + t: hurt Tom	p + p: ripe plum	k + k: black cat	
b + b: grab Bill	d + d: played darts	g + g: big girls	
f + f: if Fred	θ + θ: with thanks	s + s: ice skating
ʃ + ʃ: push Shirley	r + r: far reacher	l + l: fall leaves
2.1.4.3 Linking vowels to vowels
When one word or syllable ends in a tense vowel or diphthong and the next word or syllable begins with a vowel, the vowels are linked by a process called ‘glide’. (Celce-Murcia, et al, 1996)
e.g.
	/y/ glides	/w/ glides
/i:/ + vowel: be yable, cre yate	/u:/ + vowel: blue wink, Stu wart
/ei/ + vowel: say yit, lay yette	/əu/ + vowel: no wart, no wel
/ai/ + vowel: my yown, na yive	/au/ + vowel: how wis it, flo wur
/ɒi/ + vowel: toy yairplane, boy yish
Another case of linking vowels to vowels is “linking r” or ‘intrusive r’. The two low tense vowels /ɑ:/ and /ɒ/ often have the ‘intrusive r’ come in between if they precede a vowel.
e.g.
spa /r/ owner	saw /r/ Ann	 vanilla /r/ ice cream	 media /r/ event 
formula /r/ A	Australia /r/ all out	here /r/ are	 four /r/ eggs	 	
2.1.4.4 Linking vowels to semi-vowels
Like linking identical consonants, when a word ending with a tense vowel, such as /i:/, /ei/, /u:/, or /əʊ/ comes before a word beginning with the same semi-vowel that ends the tense vowel, the tense vowel and semi-vowel are pronounced as one long vowel.
e.g. 
Be yourself	free union	see Europe	free uniform
pay yourself	stay united	say yes	play yeti
do we?	Who wouldn’t	blue water	too wicked
blow wind blow	go west	show window	no weed
Up to this point, all the fundamental theory of connected speech has been discussed. It is controversial whether teachers should teach different aspects of connected speech to students. However, it is a fact that a basic knowledge of connected speech will help students in listening comprehension and actual communication with native speakers when aspects of connected speech, especially linking and elision are utilized. 
2.1.5 The correlation between spoken competence and aspects of connected speech
The fact that speaking is the most important among the four basic skills (listening, reading, writing, and speaking) was proposed by Ur (1996) and was then supported by many other educators, among whom was Nunan (1999) who asserted that “If listening is the Cinderella skill in second language learning, then speaking is the overbearing elder sister.” It is incontrovertible that speaking is critical; then what is indispensable for one who desires to speak in another language? Nunan (1999, p. 226) suggested that a person needs to achieve the linguistic competence to be a fluent speaker, which consists of phonetic knowledge of both segmental and supra-segmental aspects, an adequate vocabulary, and a mastery of syntax. Within the scope of this thesis, the author would dedicate to the in-depth study of the supra-segmental sphere that involves connected speech aspects and their effects on students’ spoken competence.
2.2 The reality of the study
This analyzes and discusses the students’ results as obtained from the pre-test’s scores. The analysis and discussion of findings serve to discover the students’ difficulties in using ACS in communication and to find out the best approach to help them effectively learn to use ACS in oral communication naturally.
2.2.1 Results from the diagnostic test (Pre-test)
The test consisted of 12 questions covering all four aspects of connected speech surveyed in the study. It required the students to read the model sentences in a way as natural as possible to the best of their ability. Therefore, this section is further split up into the four themes closely following these aspects of connected speech: rhythm, assimilation, elision, and linking. They will be presented in turn in the following four sub-sections.
2.2.1.1 Problems with rhythm 
	Amongst the 45 testees, a substantial number of 31 students that accounted for 68.9% scored bad points (Problems with stress-timed rhythm) in the first three questions regarding rhythm. This is followed by a less crowded group of 14 students (31.1%) who exposed the sole problem of not lending proper weight to different words in a sentence. These students had a few problems with syllable-timed rhythm; they, however, had difficulty dealing with stress-timed rhythm and seemed to treat every word with equal importance resulting in the monotonous and non-rhythmic speech. The data collected are presented in the following table.
Problems
Rhythm
Raw count
Percentage
Problems with stress-timed rhythm
31
68.9%
No or little problem 
14
31.1%
2.2.1.2 Problems with assimilation
The next three questions of the test were engineered for judging the students’ performance related to assimilation. The researcher noticed a stark contrast to the favorable result obtained from analyzing the first three questions, which was presented in the chart below.
Students’ problems with assimilation
2.2.1.3 Problems with elision
The third part of the test looked into the students’ difficulty with elision. Among the 45 test-takers, over half of them showed serious problems in elision of weak vowels and /v/ in /əv/, but up to 64.4% underwent a hard time pronouncing consonant clusters. They tended to pronounce all the consonants clearly, which makes their speech awkward and adversely affects fluency. The table below summarizes the statistics discussed above.
Type of problems
Elision
Raw count
Percentage
Problems with weak vowels 
25
55.5%
Problems with elision of /v/ in /əv/
22
48.9%
Problems with consonant clusters
29
64.4%
Students’ problems with elision
The figures suggest a telling sign of great difficulties faced by students when they deal with weak vowels, with elision of /v/ in /əv/ and consonant clusters. 
2.2.1.4 Problems with linking
The final test items served the researcher’s purpose of finding out the students’ trouble associated with linking sounds in English. While the students reported in their questionnaires that they were familiar with linking, in practice many a problem were pinpointed. Out of the 45 participants, more than a half (53.3%) did not link ending consonants to vowels in their speech. The resul