Speech

Phonology What is phonology? Phonology is the study of the sound system of languages. It is a huge area of language theory and it is difficult to do more on a general language course than have an outline knowledge of what it includes. In an exam, you may be asked to comment on a text that you are seeing for the first time in terms of various language descriptions, of which phonology may be one. At one extreme, phonology is concerned with anatomy and physiology – the organs of speech and how we learn to use them.

At another extreme, phonology shades into socio-linguistics as we consider social attitudes to features of sound such as accent and intonation. And part of the subject is concerned with finding objective standard ways of recording speech, and representing this symbolically. For some kinds of study – perhaps a language investigation into the phonological development of young children or regional variations in accent, you will need to use phonetic transcription to be credible.

But this is not necessary in all kinds of study – in an exam, you may be concerned with stylistic effects of sound in advertising or literature, such as assonance, rhyme or onomatopoeia – and you do not need to use special phonetic symbols to do this. The physics and physiology of speech Man is distinguished from the other primates by having the apparatus to make the sounds of speech. Of course most of us learn to speak without ever knowing much about these organs, save in a vague and general sense – so that we know how a cold or sore throat alters our own performance.

Language scientists have a very detailed understanding of how the human body produces the sounds of speech. Leaving to one side the vast subject of how we choose particular utterances and identify the sounds we need, we can think rather simply of how we use our lungs to breathe out air, produce vibrations in the larynx and then use our tongue, teeth and lips to modify the sounds. The diagram below shows some of the more important speech organs. Phonology This kind of diagram helps us to understand what we observe in others but is less useful in understanding our own speech.

Scientists can now place small cameras into the mouths of experimental subjects, and observe some of the physical movements that accompany speech. But most of us move our vocal organs by reflexes or a sense of the sound we want to produce, and are not likely to benefit from watching movement in the vocal fold. The diagram is a simplified cross-section through the human head – which we could not see in reality in a living speaker, though a simulation might be instructive. But we do observe some external signs of speech sounds apart from what we hear.

A few people have the ability to interpret most of a speaker’s utterances from lip-reading. But many more have a sense of when the lip-movement does or does not correspond to what we hear – we notice this when we watch a feature film with dubbed dialogue, or a TV broadcast where the sound is not synchronized with what we see. The diagram can also prove useful in conjunction with descriptions of sounds – for example indicating where the airflow is constricted to produce fricatives, whether on the palate, the alveolar ridge, the teeth or the teeth and lips together.

Speech therapists have a very detailed working knowledge of the physiology of human speech, and of exercises and remedies to overcome difficulties some of us encounter in speaking, where these have physical causes. An understanding of the anatomy is also useful to various kinds of expert who train people to use their voices in special or unusual ways. These would include singing teachers and voice coaches for actors, as well as the even more specialized coaches who train actors to produce the speech sounds of hitherto unfamiliar varieties of English or other languages.

At a more basic level, my French teacher at school insisted that we (his pupils) could produce certain vowel sounds only with our mouths more open than we would ever need to do while speaking English.

We may pause while breathing in, or try to use the ingressive air – but this is likely to produce quiet speech, which is unclear to our listeners. (David Crystal notes how the normally balanced respiratory cycle is altered by speech, so that we breathe out slowly, using the air for speech, and breathe in swiftly, in order to keep talking). In languages other than English, speakers may also use non-pulmonic sound, such as clicks (found in southern Africa) or glottalic sounds (found worldwide). In the larynx, the vocal folds set up vibrations in the egressive air.

The vibrating air passes through further cavities which can modify the sound and finally are articulated by the passive (immobile) articulators – the hard palate, the alveolar ridge and the upper teeth – and the active (mobile) articulators. These are the pharynx, the velum (or soft palate), the jaw and lower teeth, the lips and, above all, the tongue. This is so important and so flexible an organ, that language scientists identify different regions of the tongue by name, as these are associated with particular sounds.

Working outwards these are:

• the back – opposite the soft palate the centre – opposite the meeting point of hard and soft palate the front – opposite the hard palate the blade – the tapering area facing the ridge of teeth the tip – the extreme end of the tongue The first three of these (back, centre and front) are known together as the dorsum (which is Latin for backbone or spine) Phonology, phonemes and phonetics You may have known for some time that the suffix –phone is to do with sounds. Think, for instance, of telephone, microphone, gramophone and xylophone. The morpheme comes from Greek phonema, which means a sound.

• Telephone means “distant sound” Microphone means “small sound” (because it sends an input to an amplifier which in turn drives loudspeakers – so the original sound is small compared to the output sound) Gramophone was originally a trade name. It comes from inverting the original form, phonograph (=sound-writing) – so called because the sound caused a needle to trace a pattern on a wax cylinder. The process is reversed for playing the sound back Xylophone means “wood sound” (because the instrument is one of very few where the musical note is produced simply by making wood resonate)

• The fundamental unit of grammar is a morpheme.

A basic unit of written language is a grapheme. And the basic unit of sound is a phoneme. However, this is technically what Professor Crystal describes as “the smallest contrastive unit” and it is highly useful to you in explaining things – but strictly speaking may not exist in real spoken language use. That is, almost anything you say is a continuum and you rarely assemble a series of discrete sounds into a connected whole. (It is possible to do this with synthesised speech, as used by Professor Stephen Hawking – but the result is so different from naturally occurring speech that we can recognize it instantly. And there is no perfect or single right way to say anything – just as well because we can never exactly reproduce a previous performance.

However, in your comments on phonology, you will certainly want sometimes to focus on single phonemes or small sequences of phonemes. A phoneme is a sound segment of words or syllables. Quite a good way to understand how it may indicate meaning is to consider how replacing it with another phoneme will change the word – so if we replace the middle sound in bad we can make bawd, bed, bid, bird and bud. In two cases here one letter is replaced with two but in all these cases it is a single vowel sound that changes. ) The first people to write in English used an existing alphabet – the Roman alphabet, which was itself adapted from the Greek alphabet for writing in Latin. (In the Roman Empire, Latin was the official language of government and administration, and especially of the army but in the eastern parts of the empire Greek was the official language, and in Rome Greek was spoken as widely as Latin.

Because these first writers of English (Latin-speaking Roman monks) had more sounds than letters, they used the same letters to represent different sounds – perhaps making the assumption that the reader would recognize the word, and supply the appropriate sounds. It would be many years before anyone would think it possible to have more consistent spelling, and this has never been a realistic option for writers of English, though spelling has changed over time. And, in any case, the sounds of Old English are not exactly the same as the sounds of modern English.

As linguists have become aware of more and more languages, many with sounds never heard in English, they have tried to create a comprehensive set of symbols to correspond to features of sound – vowels, consonants, clicks and glottalic sounds and non-segmental or suprasegmental features, such as stress and tone. Among many schemes used by linguists one has perhaps more authority than most, as it is the product of the International Phonetic Association (IPA). In the table below, you will see the phonetic characters that correspond to the phonemes used in normal spoken English.

To give examples is problematic, as no two speakers will produce the same sound. In the case of the vowels and a few consonants, the examples will not match the sounds produced by all speakers – they reflect the variety of accent known as Received Pronunciation or RP. Note that RP is not specific to any region, but uses more of the sounds found in the south and midlands than in the north. It is a socially prestigious accent, favoured in greater or less degree by broadcasters, civil servants, barristers and people who record speaking clock messages. It is not fixed and has changed measurably in the last 50 years.

Consonant and vowel each have two related but distinct meanings in English. In writing of phonology, you need to make the distinction clear. When you were younger you may have learned that b,c,d,f and so on are consonants while a,e,i,o,u are vowels – and you may have wondered about y. In this case consonants and vowels denote the letters that commonly represent the relevant sounds. Phonologists are interested in vowel and consonant sounds and the phonetic symbols that represent these (including vowel and consonant letters). It may be wise for you to use the words consonant and vowel (alone) to denote the sounds.

But it is better to use an unambiguous phrase – and write or speak about consonant or vowel sounds, consonant or vowel letters and consonant or vowel symbols. In most words these sounds can be identified, but there are some cases where we move from one vowel to another to create an effect that is like neither – and these are diphthongs. We also have some triphthongs – where three vowel sounds come in succession in words such as fire, power and sure. (But this depends on the speaker – many of us alter the sounds so that we say “our” as if it were are. For convenience you may prefer the term vowel glides – and say that “fine” and “boy” contain two-vowel glides while “fire” may contain a three-vowel glide.

The examples show the letters in bold that correspond to the sound that they illustrate. You will find guidance below on how to use these symbols in electronic documents. The IPA distributes audio files in analog and digital form, with specimen pronunciations of these sounds.

If I replace the initial consonant (/r/) from rubble, I can get double or Hubble (astronomer for whom the space telescope is named) or meaningless forms (as regards the lexicon of standard English) like fubble and wubble. The same thing happens if I change the vowel and get rabble, rebel, Ribble (an English river) and the nonsense form robble. (I have used the conventional spelling of rebel here, but to avoid confusion should perhaps use phonetic transcription, so that replacements would always appear in the same position as the character they replace. But what happens when a phoneme is adapted to the spoken context in which it occurs, in ways that do not alter the meaning either for speaker or hearer. Rather than say these are different phonemes that share the same meaning we use the model of allophones, which are variants of a phoneme. Thus if we isolate the l sound in the initial position in “lick” and in the terminal position in “ball”, we should be able to hear that the sound is (physically) different as is the way our speech organs produce it. Technically, in the second case, the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum or soft palate.

The initial l sound is called clear l, while the terminal l sound is sometimes called a dark l. When we want to show the detail of phonetic variants or allophones we enclose the symbols in square brackets whereas in transcribing sounds from a phonological viewpoint we use slant lines. So, using the IPA transcription [l] is clear l, while [? ] is dark l. If this is not clear think: am I only describing a sound (irrespective of how this sound fits into a system, has meaning and so on)? If so, use square brackets. Am I trying to show how the sound is part of a wider system (irrespective of how exactly it sounds in a given instance)?

If so, use slant brackets. So long as we need a form of transcription, we will rely on the IPA scheme. But increasingly it is possible to use digital recording and reproduction to produce reference versions of sounds. This would not, of course, prevent change in the choice of which particular sounds to use in a given context. When people wonder about harass (h? r? s) or harass (h? r? s) they usually are able to articulate either, and are concerned about which reveals them as more or less educated in the use of the “proper” form. In English the segments would correspond to vowel sounds and consonant sounds, say. This method allows us to describe them as front, central and back. We can qualify them further by how high the tongue and lower jaw are when we make these vowel sounds, and by whether our lips are rounded or spread, and finally by whether they are short or long. This scheme shows the following arrangement: Front vowels

• /i? / – cream, seen (long high front spread vowel) – bit, silly (short high front spread vowel)  – bet, head (short mid front spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol /e/ /? – cat, dad (short low front spread vowel); this may also be shown by /a/ Central vowels

• /?? /- burn, firm (long mid central spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol  – about, clever (short mid central spread vowel); this is sometimes known as schwa, or the neutral vowel sound – it never occurs in a stressed position.

• /u? / – boob, glue (long high back rounded vowel)  – put, soot (short high back rounded vowel); also shown by /u/ – corn, faun (long mid back rounded vowel) also shown by /o? / /? /- dog, rotten (short low back rounded vowel) also shown by /o/  – hard, far (long low back spread vowel) We can also arrange the vowels in a table or even depict them against a cross-section of the human mouth.

Diphthongs are sounds that begin as one vowel and end as another, while gliding between them. For this reason they are sometimes described as glide vowels. How many are there? Almost every modern authority says eight – but they do not all list the same eight (check this for yourself). Simeon Potter, in Our Language (Potter, S, [1950] Chapter VI, Sounds and Spelling, London, Penguin) says there are nine – and lists those I have shown in the table above, all of which I have found in the modern reference works. The one most usually omitted isas in bored.

Many speakers do not use this diphthong, but use the same vowel in poured as in fraud – but it is alive and well in the north of Britain. Potter notes that all English diphthongs are falling – that is the first element is stressed more than the second. Other languages have rising diphthongs, where the second element is stressed, as in Italian uomo (man) and uovo (egg). Consonants Some authorities claim one or two fewer consonants than I have shown above, regarding those with double symbols (/t? / and /d? /) as “diphthong consonants” in Potter’s phrase. The list omits one sound that is not strictly a consonant but works like one.

The full IPA list of phonetic symbols includes some for non-pulmonic consonants (not made with air coming from the lungs), click and glottal sounds. In some varieties of English, especially in the south of Britain (but the sound has migrated north) we find the glottal plosive or glottal stop, shown by the symbol (essentially a question mark without the dot at the tail). This sound occurs in place of /t/ for some speakers – so /bot? l/ or /botl/ (bottle) become /bo/ or /bo  We form consonants by controlling or impeding the egressive (outward) flow of air.

We do this with the articulators – from the glottis, past the velum, the hard palate and alveolar ridge and the tongue, to the teeth and lips. The sound results from three things: Voicing All vowels must be voiced – they are caused by vibration in the vocal cords. But consonants may be voiced or not. Some of the consonant sounds of English come in pairs that differ in being voiced or not – in which case they are described as voiceless or unvoiced. So b is voiced and p is the unvoiced consonant in one pair, while voiced g and voiceless k form another pair.

We can explain the consonant sounds by the place where the articulation principally occurs or by the kinds of articulation that occurs there. The first scheme gives us this arrangement: voicing – causing the vocal cords to vibrate where the articulation happens how the articulation happens – how the airflow is controlled.

Velar articulation – we do this with the back of the tongue against the velum. We use it for initial hard /g/ (as in golf) and for final /? / (as in gong). Palatal articulation – we do this with the front of the tongue on the hard palate. We use it for /d? / (as in jam) and for (as in sheep or sugar). Alveolar articulation – we do this with the tongue blade on the alveolar ridge. We use it for /t/ (as in teeth), /d/ (as in dodo) /z/ (as in zebra) /n/ (as in no) and /l/ (as in light). Dental articulation – we do this with the tip of the tongue on the back of the upper front teeth.

• Bilabial voiced /b/ (as in boat) and voiceless /p/ (as in post)
• Alveolar voiced /d/ (as in dad) and voiceless /t/ (as in tap)
• Velar voiced /g/ (as in golf) and voiceless /k/ as in (cow)
• Affricates are a kind of stop consonant, where the expelled air causes friction rather than plosion.
• They are palatal /t? / (as in cheat) and palatal /d? / (as in jam)
• Fricatives come from restricting, but not completely stopping, the airflow.

The air passes through a narrow space and the sound arises from the friction this produces. They come in voiced and unvoiced pairs: o o o o Labio-dental voiced /v/ (as in vole) and unvoiced /f/ (as in foal) Dental voiced (as in those) and unvoiced  (as in thick) Alveolar voiced /z/ (as in zest) and unvoiced /s/ (as in sent) Palatal voiced /? / (as in the middle of leisure) and unvoiced (as at the end of trash)

• Nasal consonants involve closing the articulators but lowering the uvula, which normally closes off the route to the nose, through which the air escapes.

When you think of individual sounds, you may think of them in terms of syllables. These are units of phonological organization and smaller than words. Alternatively, think of them as units of rhythm. Although they may contain several sounds, they combine them in ways that create the effect of unity. Thus splash is a single syllable but it combines three consonants, a vowel, and a final consonant. Some words have a single syllable – so they are monosyllables or monosyllabic..

Students of language may find it helpful to be able to identify individual syllables in explaining pronunciation and language change – one of the things you may need to do is explain which are the syllables that are stressed in a particular word or phrase. Suprasegmentals In written English we use punctuation to signal some things like emphasis, and the speed with which we want our readers to move at certain points. In spoken English we use sounds in ways that do not apply to individual segments but to stretches of spoken discourse from words to phrases, clauses and sentences.

Such effects are described as non-segmental or suprasegmental – or, using the adjective in a plural nominal (noun) form, simply suprasegmentals. Among these effects are such things as stress, intonation, tempo and rhythm – which collectively are known as prosodic features. Other effects arise from altering the quality of the voice, making it breathy or husky and changing what is sometimes called the timbre – and these are paralinguistic features. Both of these kinds of effect may signal meaning. But they do not do so consistently from one language to another, and this an cause confusion to students learning a second language.

We use varying levels of pitch in sequences (contours or tunes) to convey particular meanings. Falling and rising intonation in English may signal a difference between statement and question. Younger speakers of English may use rising (question) intonation without intending to make the utterance a question. Tempo – we speak more or less quickly for many different reasons and purposes. Occasionally it may be that we are adapting our speech to the time we have in which to utter it (as, for example, in a horse-racing commentary).

But mostly tempo reflects some kinds of meaning or attitude – so we give a truthful answer to a question, but do so rapidly to convey our distraction or irritation. Rhythm – patterns of stress, tempo and pitch together create a rhythm. Some kinds of formal and repetitive rhythm are familiar from music, rap, poetry and even chants of soccer fans. But all speech has rhythm – it is just that in spontaneous utterances we are less likely to hear regular or repeating patterns. Paralinguistic features How many voices do we have? We are used to “putting on” silly voices for comic effects or in play.

We may adapt our voices for speaking to babies, or to suggest emotion, excitement or desire. These effects are familiar in drama, where the use of a stage whisper may suggest something clandestine and conspiratorial. Nasal speech may suggest disdain, though it is easily exaggerated for comic effect (as by the late Kenneth Williams in many Carry On films). Such effects are sometimes described as timbre or voice quality. We all may use them sometimes but they are particularly common among entertainers such as actors or comedians.

This is not surprising, as they practise using their voices in unusual ways, to represent different characters. The performers in the BBC’s Teletubbies TV programme use paralinguistic features to suggest the different characters of Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, La-La and Po.

Most human beings adjust their speech to resemble that of those around them. This is very easy to demonstrate, as when some vogue words from broadcasting surf a wave of popularity before settling down in the language more modestly or passing out of use again. This is particularly true of sounds, in the sense that some identifiable groups of people share (with some individual variation) a collection of sounds that are not found elsewhere, and these are accents.

We think of accents as marking out people by geographical region and, to a less degree, by social class or education. So we might speak of a Scouse (Liverpool), Geordie (Newcastle) or Brummie (Birmingham) accent. These are quite general descriptions – within each of these cities we would differentiate further. And we should also not confuse real accent features in a given region with stereotyped and simplified versions of these which figure in (or disfigure) TV drama – Emmerdale, Brookside, Coronation Street and Albert Square are not reliable sources for anything we might want o know about their real-world originals. And the student who hoped to study the speech of people in Peckham by watching episodes of John Sullivan’s situation comedy Only Fools and Horses was deeply misguided. Thinking of social class, we might speak of a public school accent (stiff upper lip and cut glass vowels). But we do not observe occupational accents and we are unlikely to speak of a baker’s, soldier’s or accountant’s accent (whereas we might study their special uses of lexis and grammar). This is not the place to study in detail the causes of such accents or, for example, how they are changing.

Language researchers may wish to record regional variant forms and their frequency. In Britain today (perhaps because of the influence of broadcasting) we can observe sound features moving from one region to another (like the glottal stop which is now common in the north of England), while also recording how other features of accent are not subject to this kind of change. Studying phonology alone will not answer such questions. But it gives you the means to identify specific phonetic features of accent and record them objectively.

Received Pronunciation

RP is a special accent – a regionally neutral accent that is used as a standard for broadcasting and some other kinds of public speaking. It is not fixed – you can hear earlier forms of RP in historical broadcasts, such as newsreel films from the Second World War. Queen Elizabeth II has an accent st close to the RP of her own childhood, but not very close to the RP of the 21 century. RP excites powerful feelings of admiration and repulsion. Some see it as a standard or the correct form of spoken English, while others see its use (in broadcasting, say) as an affront to the dignity of their own region.

Its merit lies in its being more widely understood by a national and international audience than any regional accent. Non-native speakers often want to learn RP, rather than a regional accent of English. RP exists but no-one is compelled to use it. But if we see it as a reference point, we can decide how far we want to use the sounds of our region where these differ from the RP standard. And its critics may make a mistake in supposing all English speakers even have a regional identity – many people are geographically mobile, and do not stay for long periods in any one place.

RP is also a very loose and flexible standard. It is not written in a book (though the BBC does give its broadcasters guides to pronunciation) and does not prescribe such things as whether to stress the first or second syllable in research. You will hear it on all the BBC’s national radio channels, to a greater or less degree. On Radio 3 you will perhaps hear the most conservative RP, while Radio 5 will give you a more contemporary version with more regional and class variety – but these are very broad generalizations, and refer mainly to the presenters, newsreaders, continuity announcers and so on.

RP is used as a standard in some popular language reference works. For example, the Oxford Guide to the English Language (Weiner, E [1984], Pronunciation, p. 45, Book Club Associates/OUP, London) has this useful description of RP: “The aim of recommending one type of pronunciation rather than another, or of giving a word a recommended spoken form, naturally implies the existence of a standard. There are of course many varieties of English, even within the limits of the British Isles, but it is not the business of this section to describe them.

The treatment here is based upon Received Pronunciation (RP), namely ‘the pronunciation of that variety of British English widely considered to be least regional, being originally that used by educated speakers in southern England. ’ This is not to suggest that other varieties are inferior; rather, RP is here taken as a neutral national standard, just as it is in its use in broadcasting or in the teaching of English as a foreign language. ” Accent and social class Accent is certainly related to social class. This is a truism – because accent is one of the things that we use as an indicator of social class.

For a given class, we can express this positively or negatively. As regards the highest social class, positively we can identify features of articulation – for certain sounds, upper class speakers do not open or move the lips as much as other speakers of English. Negatively, we can identify such sounds as the glottal stop as rare among, and untypical of, speakers from this social class. Alternatively we can look at vowel choices or preferences.

Lewis in The Great Divorce depicts a character who pronounces God as “Gud” – “ ‘Would to God’ he continued, but he was now pronouncing it Gud…” We may think of dropping or omitting consonants as a mark of the lower social classes and uneducated people. But dropping of terminal g – or rather substituting /n/ for /? / was until recently a mark of the upper class “toff”, who would enjoy, huntin’, fishin’ and shootin’. We can find a celebrated literary example in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey. Among real life speakers in whom I have observed this tendency I would identify the late Sir Alf Ramsey. I do not know whether Alf Ramsey, who managed the England football team, was brought up to speak in this way or acquired the habit later. ) Investigating the connection can be challenging, however, since social class is an artificial construct. Assuming that you have found a way to identify your subjects as belonging to some definable social group, then you can study vowel choices or frequencies. Even the most cursory attention tells us that the Queen has distinct speech sounds. But can we explain them in detail? Does she share them with other members of her family?

Do other speakers share them? 

Phonology Pronunciation and prescription The English Language List is an Internet discussion forum for English language teachers. Recently a student, not a native speaker but clearly a very competent writer of English, asked where he could get help to learn to speak in a standard British accent. Many of the responses came from people who were not answering his question but trying to persuade him to stick with his current accent (which he felt would disadvantage him in his business career).

Yet we are not disparaging regional accents when we try to learn the neutral and prestigious standard form. (What the discussion never really revealed was how many of the list members would identify themselves as RP speakers. ) The prescriptive tradition in English grammar was unscientific and perhaps harmful. But setting down authoritative standard forms is not always so unwise. In spelling they are useful, and the same may be true of pronunciation. Dictionaries do not compel the reader to learn and use the pronunciations they show – but they do give a representation of the pronunciation according to RP.

Some show variant pronunciations as well as the principal RP form. If you are a student (or even a teacher) you may find RP an unfamiliar accent – maybe you can see that the phonetic transcription indicates a pronunciation different from the one you normally use. No one is forcing you to change your own speech sounds, in which your sense of identity may be profoundly located. But you can become aware that the local norm is not the universal standard. Now that English is an international language, its development is certainly not controlled by what happens in the UK. So British RP may cease to be a useful standard for learners of English.

Increasingly, language learners favour a mid-Atlantic accent, which shares features of British RP and the speech of the eastern USA. Language acquisition Very young children do not produce the sounds they will use as adults partly because they are unable to form them (physically their speech organs have not developed fully) and partly because they may not know exactly what the sound is that they wish to produce. Children may also be less subtle in controlling the flow of egressive air, so that they will continue speaking, rather than pause briefly, while drawing more air in.

Young children may have a sense of stressed syllables as more important – so they may omit unstressed elements before or after. So, for example, a child may ask for a ‘nana rather than a banana. (Alternatively, the child may know that there is some repetition of sound here, but limit it to two syllables. ) I am supposing that the non-standard form is spoken by a child, but perhaps repeated back by adults. But one often observes adults (unhelpfully) using what they suppose to be an easier form of a word. On the other hand, some children have resisted this tendency.

Though they may not articulate a word in full or exactly, they can recognize it as an incomplete or mistaken form when an adult repeats it back to them. We see this in this exchange between an adult and a four year old, recorded by George Keith and John Shuttleworth: Adult: What do you want to be when you grow up? Child: The child cannot articulate the /k/ initial sound but knows that what he hears from the adult is not the form of the word he is used to hearing, so protests.

Since children learn by imitation of examples it may be helpful when they begin formal education to give them such examples, but not by continually rebuking them for saying things “wrongly”. Children do not learn to articulate all sounds at the same stage in their development. Teachers of children in early years (nursery and reception) classes should be able to identify the few cases where there is a disorder or problem for which some specialist intervention is appropriate.

Change happens in language – and the sounds of English are not exempt. Of course, basic sounds do not change in the sense that the phonemes represented in the IPA transcription will not go away. And it is rare, but not impossible, for speakers of a given language to begin to use phonemes they did not use before. Thus, most English speakers faced with French –ogne (as in Boulogne or Dordogne) anglicise to Boloyn. And Welsh double l in initial position (as in Llanfair and many other place names) they sound simply as /l/ rather than a voiceless unilateral l.

What does change is the choice of which sound to use in a given context – though choice may suggest that this is voluntary whereas the change normally happens unnoticed. At a very simple level we can see, from rhymes in poetry that no longer work, that one or more words has acquired a new standard pronunciation. So John Donne writes (1571-1631) “And find/What wind/Serves to advance an honest mind”. We have retained the vowel sound in wind (verb, as in wind up) but not in wind (noun, as in north wind). We can still observe vowel change. In my own lifetime envelope was pronounced with the initial vowel /? (as if it were onvelope). This pronunciation is becoming more rare, and persists mostly among older speakers. Turquoise was once commonly sounded as in French /t?? kw? z/ – but now it is more or less uniformly /t?? k?? z/ or /t?? k?? s/ (perhaps by analogy with tortoise). Far more common are changes in stress patterns. So research (more or less universal in the UK when I was a child) has given way to re-search. In the case of harass the stress has shifted the other way, giving harass. We cannot sensibly say that the new form is “wrong” or “bad English” (even if we prefer the older form).

But we can observe the frequency with which the new form occurs, and see if it does come to supplant the older form or whether both forms persist. Change happens within regional varieties, too – so the glottal stop has moved its way northwards from London and southwards from Glasgow (where it has been found for 150 years). This is one feature of what Paul Kerswill calls dialect levelling. Similarly use of /f/ or /v/ in place of /? / and /? / is spreading north from London. Perhaps the most well documented change occurring now is in sentence intonation. This is especially common among younger people, but not exclusively so.

The change lies in a tendency to use rising (question) intonation more frequently. What is not clear, in contexts that allow either, is whether the speaker intends to ask a question or means to make a statement. We cannot be sure if the rising intonation conveys meaning, or is habitual. One common way for pronunciation to change is by elision – compressing the word to remove a syllable. Once it was common to sound the –ed ending on past tense verbs, whereas now these verbs end with a /t/ sound. We do still sound the –ed ending on adjectives, even when these are formed from the past tenses – as in naked, wicked and learned.

In written exams, you may want to comment on some features of phonology in explaining example language data – these may be presented to you on the exam paper, or may be your own examples, which illustrate, say, some point about language change, language acquisition or sociolinguistics. You may wish to use diagrams, models or the IPA transcription – and if you are able to do so, this may be helpful. But if you do not feel confident about using these, you can still make useful points about phonology – you can show stress simply by underlining or highlighting the stressed syllable.

These are either the SIL IPA fonts (such as SILdoulosIPA) or Unicode fonts (like Lucida Sans Unicode, which I have used in this document). If you are producing work that will be printed, then you can add things by hand later, but this is messy and best avoided. There is a lot of guidance on the IPA homepage about how to cope with this problem. If you do find a way to reproduce the symbols you need, it may make sense to paste them all at the end of the document on which you are working. Then, you can copy and paste as you need to use them. If you do not do this, then you will have to use he Alt key and the numeric keypad, since the keys on the normal keyboard will only give you the symbols that resemble ordinary letters. Different ways of representing sound Conventions of language science and lexicographers If you study reference works you may find a variety of schemes for representing different aspects of phonology – there is no single universal scheme that covers everything you may need to do. And many dictionaries may not even use the IPA alphabet, for the very obvious reason that the reader is not familiar with this transcription and can cope without it.

The text on the left comes from the Pocket Oxford Dictionary – this shows a simple phonetic representation based on the standard Western alphabet, with accents to show different vowels. Look in any dictionary you have and you may find something similar.

Here is a fairly early example, from the second chapter of Wuthering Heights (1847), in which the servant Joseph refuses to admit Mr. Lockwood into the house: “ ‘T’ maister’s dahn I’t’ fowld. Goa rahnd by the end ut’ laith, if yah went to spake tull him” Tennyson (1809-1892) has a similar approach in his poem, Northern Farmer, Old Style: “What atta stannin’ theer fur, and doesn’ bring me the aale? / Doctor’s a ‘toattler, lass, and ‘e’s allus i’ the owd taale…” Joseph comes from what is now West Yorkshire, while Tennyson’s farmer is supposedly from the north of Lincolnshire.

Here is an earlier example, from Walter Scott’s Heart of Midlothian (1830), which shows some phonetic qualities of the lowlands Scots accent. In this passage the Laird of Dumbiedikes (from the country near Edinburgh) is on his deathbed. He advises his son about how to take his drink: “My father tauld me sae forty years sin’, but I never fand time to mind him. – Jock, ne’er drink brandy in the morning, it files the stamach sair…” George Bernard Shaw, in Pygmalion (1914), uses one phonetic character (? schwa) in his attempt to represent the accent of Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl: “There’s menners f’ yer! T? -oo banches o voylets trod into the mad…Will ye-oo py me f’them. ” However, after a few sentences of phonetic dialogue, Shaw reverts to standard spelling, noting: “Here, with apologies, this desperate attempt to represent her dialect without a phonetic alphabet must be abandoned as unintelligible outside London”. In Pygmalion Professor Higgins teaches Eliza to speak in an upper-class accent, so as to pass her off as a duchess.

In the course of the play, therefore, her accent changes. The actress playing the part, however, may have a natural accent closer to that with which Eliza speaks at the completion of her education, so in playing the part she may doing the reverse of what Eliza undergoes, by gradually reverting to a natural manner of articulation. (Eliza’s pronunciation improves ahead of her understanding of grammar, so that at one point she says memorably: “My aunt died of influenza: so they said. But it’s my belief they done the old woman in. ) In Pygmalion Shaw does not merely represent accent (and other features of speech) but makes this crucial to an exploration of how speech relates to identity and social class. Charles Dickens is particularly interested in the sounds of speech. He observes that many speakers have difficulty with initial /v/ and /w/. Sam Weller, in The Pickwick Papers, regularly transposes these: “ ‘Vell,’ said Sam at length, ‘if this don’t beat cock-fightin’ nothin’ never vill…That wery next house…’ “ Mr. Hubble, in Great Expectations does, the same thing when he describes young people as “naterally wicious”.

Joe Gargery, in the same novel, has many verbal peculiarities, of which perhaps the most striking is in his description of the Blacking Warehouse, which is less impressive than the picture Joe has seen on bills where it is “drawd too architectooralooral”. In Chapter 16 of Our Mutual Friend, Betty Higden is proud of Mr. Sloppy (an orphan she has fostered) not only because he can read, but because he is able to use different voice styles for various speakers. “You mightn’t think it, but Sloppy is a beautiful reader of a newspaper. He do the Police in different voices. ” Dickens also finds a way to show tempo and rhythm.

In Chapter 23 of Little Dorrit, Flora Finching speaks at length and without any pauses: “Most unkind never to have come back to see us since that day, though naturally it was not to be expected that there should be any attraction at our house and you were much more pleasantly engaged, that’s pretty certain, and is she fair or dark blue eyes or black I wonder, not that I expect that she should be anything but a perfect contrast to me in all particulars for I am a disappointment as I very well know and you are quite right to be devoted no doubt though what am I saying Arthur never mind I hardly know myself Good gracious!

I, How many of you have been hearing about bullying? As you may hear on TVs or news or people are talking about the rates of bullying is going up from years to years.

II, According to a research survey, bullying occurs once every 7 minutes in schools. Due to the National Youth Violence Prevention Center, almost 30% of adolescences in the USA (or over 5. 7 millions) are estimated to take part in bullying either bullying, being bullied or both. Also according to a 2007 nationally representative poll by The Workplace Bullying Institute, 37% of US workforce or 54 million employees have been bullied some time during their work time.

III, Bullying can affect anyone, so you can gain something from this speech by being informed about bullying

IV, Today, I am going to explain the definition of bullying, what its effects are and how to prevent it. Body I, First of all, let’s explain in details what bullying means.

A. What is bullying exactly and why?

1. Firstly, bullying is intentional behaviors that are designed to hurt, harm, or damage the victims. It can take many forms like verbal, physical, social/relational/emotional, or cyber bullying – or any combination of these).

Next, there must be an imbalance power involved (the bullies have power over the victims). Finally, it is often repeated periodically.

2. So what do bullies want? The book “Talking about Bullying” says:

a. Bullies want to feel important and big, create attention: dominate others or use others to get want they want

b. They want to feel like they are better than others

c. They want to hurt others and make them feel small

B. In order to know when bullying happens, we also need to know about ways and means of bullying

1. Physical

a.Typically, physical bullying involves: hair pulling, pinching, pushing, shoving, slapping, kicking, tripping, poking, stabbing, spitting, hitting, punching, head butting, choking, scratching, hiding or destroying someone’s property, etc.

b. Example: pushing peers against the lockers to ask for money, or touching someone in a sexual way when it’s not wanted…

2. Verbal

a. Ways bullies can use language or words to hurt others: name calling, taunting, swearing, spreading rumors, gossip, note writing, laughing at someone’s mistake, insulting nicknames, hate speech, mocking or imitating, threats, abusive remarks, etc.

b. Example: Calling someone crybaby, trout mouth; saying nasty things about someone else…

3. Emotional/ Relational:

a. Nonverbal: pointing, staring, laughing, making faces, rolling their eyes, making loser signs, or sticking up middle fingers, etc.

b. Psychological: excluding, isolating, ignoring or turning their back on someone such as leaving someone out of activities or game, purposely not talking to someone… c. Another type of relational bullying is cyber-bullying is now very popular.

Bullies can send emails spreading rumors, making vulnerable digital images of someone else, texting someone mean messages, online exclusion, videotape assault, etc.

II, Bullying has extremely great effects on children so I will go into depth about children’s effects of bullying

A. Educational and mental fear always in the bullied’s minds.

1. Keeping secrets and fears become phobia:

• a. Ashamed of being bullied
• b. Afraid of retaliation if telling an adult
• c. Don’t think anyone can help
• d. Don’t think anyone WILL help
• e.Lie

1. “The parent’s book about bullying” states the real effects are:

• a. skip schools ( In 2001, The journal of the American Medical association reported that > 160,000 students skip school every day because they are fearful of being bullied)
• b. don’t join in extracurricular activities
• c. carrying weapons
• d. Avoiding peers and social group at school
• e. reluctance to talk about what is happening at school
• f. sad and depressed
• g. Unexplainable drop in academic performance

2. Being bullied can lead to commit suicide.

• 1.Example: Jan 1999, Manchester, England, 8-year-old Marie Bentham hanged herself in her bedroom with her jump rope because she felt she could no longer face the bullies at school. She is considered Britain’s youngest bullycide.
• 2. Example: June 29, 2005, a 15-year-old in Cape Coral, Florida, hanged himself after being repeatedly taunted online for 2 years by his classmates.

III, Bullying is a life-death issue so we need to prevent it at home, school, or work.

A. For parents

• 1. intervene immediately with discipline
• 2. create opportunities to “do good”
• 3 . report the incident to school or child’s care
• 4. teach friendship’s skill
• 5. closely monitor children’s TV viewing, video game playing, computer activities, etc.
• 6. engage in more constructive, entertaining, and energizing activities

B. For teachers and school

• 1. gathering info about bullying at school directly from students
• 2. establishing clear school-wide and classroom rules about bullying
• 3. training all adults on school to respond sensitively and consistently to bullying
• 4. providing adequate adult supervision
• 5. mproving parental awareness of and involvement in working on the problem C.

For the bullied Tell the bullies to stop Speak to the school personnel, parents or adults outside of school Have your parents contact the school or school district Seek help for mental health issues if needed Anyone can become a victim of bullying but we can decrease our chances of being bullied of ours and others by being more informed on the concept, the effects of bullying and how to prevent it. Now, since you have more information about bullying, you may protect yourself and the ones you love!

Everybody knows millions of years ago before the manifestation of the global society, man and woman ran around buck naked and fancy-free. However, Nowadays running around naked is somewhat frowned upon society. On a show of hands how many of you are all about living green? On a show of hands how many of you like to save money while giving profit/donations towards a good cause?

Good Afternoon class, My name is Pearl Bentum and I shall be discussing with you the mission of different types of thrift retails, How to donate items, and last but not least items you could find at these stores. Let’s begin with the missions of different types of thrift retail. Salvation Army is one of the most popular amongst them all. Due to the fact that it’s the only religious one. Their mission is to use donations to Care for the poor, Feed the hungry, Shelter the homeless, Cloth the naked, Love the unlovable, and Befriend the friendless.

Another type of thrift retail is the Good Will. Their mission is to provide vocational education for people with disabilities, training programs, services based on the needs of the community, and the financial resources of the organization. Let’s move on to how to donate items. There are three steps to take in order to donate your items. Number one, you have to determine whether or not your item/items are useful. Most charities can only make use of items that are new, unused, or nearly new.

If you don’t have any use for your old, tattered couch, rusty washing machine, or other used item, chances are neither will a charity. Similarly, a timeshare that has turned out to be a bad investment for you won’t do much to help out a worthy charity. Number two, Consider selling your items and donating the proceeds to charity. By donating cash instead of goods you allow charities greater flexibility in spending the money so that it reaches the people or animals that need it the most.

When you sell the items yourself you also eliminate the for-profit middleman that can take a big cut of the money intended for charity. When you sell the items yourself you also unburden charities of any time and money they would have to spend on selling or refurbishing the items, allowing them to spend more resources directly fulfilling their missions. Finally, by selling the items yourself, you know the exact value of the donation you can report to the IRS and don’t have to worry about estimating the amount for your tax returns.

Number three, Start locally to find the right charity. In order to avoid transportation costs that can lower the impact of your donation, look first in your local community to find a charity to support with your noncash contribution. Call around and ask charities if they accept the kind of items you are looking to donate, and if they don’t find out if they have any suggestions of a charity that does. Lastly, I would like to share with you what you can find at these thrift retails. You can items such as clothes and shoes.

For example this whole outfit I have on today I purchased at the thrift store. You can find items such as couches and decorative pillows such as this one I purchased about a year ago. There is also a wide variety of electronics that you could find. In brief, getting involved in the thrift retail business, weither its thru purchasing items or donating items it goes to a good cause and also helps you to save money and go green. Just know that every little thing counts. And hopefully you will go out and donate or even shop at the thrift stores. Thank you

Effective Speech Susan B. Anthony Speech 1873 Susan B. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820 and she was one of the many women in the nineteenth century to fight for women’s rights. She would travel all over the nation and create petitions for the right for women to vote and also slavery. She was an abolitionist, an educational reformer, a labor activist, and of course a women’s right campaigner. As brave as she was, she voted illegally in the presidential election of 1872 in Rochester, New York and arrested.

They had fined her 100 dollars but did not imprison her, which she refused to pay. The next year, Susan presented a speech explaining and demanding that women had the right vote just as much as men did. She states, “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. (1873)”. She pointed out that the constitution itself stated that people as a whole would help and contribute to justice and establishment in the United States.

Most importantly, Susan Anthony’s speech in 1873 was effective in every way. Although, it took as long as 14 years after her speech for women to have the lawful right to vote and exactly one hundred years after her birth, she campaigned and petitioned all over the nation and was part of several organizations against slavery, women’s suffrage and the labor movement. She fought and petitioned for the thirteenth amendment which was to outlaw slavery. She was threatened by many people and humiliated but nothing stopped Susan from continuing to fight for everyone’s rights.

I define effective as being helpful and successful, in Susan’s case, it wasn’t successful right away, but her intelligence throughout all the years after her arrest, made her stronger and that’s what made her goal become a success, she never gave up. The speech took place in 1872 in Rochester, New York after she voted for the presidential election. It was after the judge had fined her with $100 to pay for unlawfully voting for a candidate. The court room was filled with politics, former presidents, women and men that supported her words.

She stood alone at the Canandaigua Courthouse and gave her speech before her sentencing. She stood handcuffed but nothing stopped Susan B. Anthony from expressing her feelings towards the authorities that were trying to keep her from voting. Susan opened her speech by addressing it to each and every single person in the room. She did not mention only men or only women but stated, “Friends and fellow citizens”. Her main ideas that she was mainly focused on getting across were the constitution itself explained how we the people were to help establish a better and equal America.

She did not understand why the constitution contradicted itself because later, women were still not allowed to vote. She also explained, if the government wouldn’t allow women to vote, they were degrading us. “For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity” (Susan B.

Anthony 1873). In this quote she strongly expresses her feelings and beliefs, if the government were to ever pass that law, liberty and equality were to be taken from women forever. Women all over the nation supported her and felt the same exact way. She used effective language and everyone understood where she was coming from. Susan was very motivating and persuading, not only in her speech but many of the other speeches she had presented in the past in court rooms, events in town during the woman’s suffrage movement.

She created petitions all over the nation to get people to support her so she would have many reasons and supporters when the time would come. The speech wasn’t so conversational but more of a last words speech before she was sentenced. She had many goals she wanted to achieve but her main concern was to be able to have the same rights as men had. Men at the time had the right to vote, and were eligible to run as a candidate in a presidential election. They treated women as animals that were not capable of managing anything and had no say in who would be the best choice for America.

Many people were emotionally affected by Susan’s speech because she wasn’t only fighting for herself but for other women and also slaves. She did not only think about herself but others too. People realized that she casted this vote for women and slaves so that the government would know that Susan was no longer taking any disrespect from her fellow citizens. I’m not sure if she was well prepared because when she had given her speech she was in court. She probably felt a lot of pressure because this speech determined if they would really listen to her or sentence her to a long time in jail or bombard her with fines from he government. The text from the speech is well said and well thought out, every word came out one hundred percent strong and she spoke with powerful words. If you pay attention on how she stands up for women and the slaves at the time, she was very serious and completely heartbroken because of the decisions and laws that the government had created at the time. “To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor.

An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household – which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation”(Susan B . Anthony 1873 Speech) Susan believed that the government ad only focused on the negativity.

Instead of them trying to educate the “ignorant”, why wouldn’t they try to educate “just people” in general? Not everyone had the same opportunities as other so why not give them the opportunity to learn and share that knowledge. She also didn’t understand why the head of household was always addressed as the father, or if the father died the son would take his place for example in a royal chain, if the king dies, the son automatically became king. The rich were always the superior because they had the money. I support Susan B.

Anthony completely because even though, it took many years for the law to become effective, she did everything possible to help out women and slaves. She risked her life in some situations, was arrested for illegally voting knowing she couldn’t vote but did anyways for the sake of women. She has motivated me to want to be superior in a large company one day. The CEO of many companies are always men and very few women. Society has painted a picture out for us that make us think automatically that the CEO of a popular firm or chain is man instead of a woman.

Also, America back in 2008 had the chance to vote a woman for president, Hilary Clinton, but we did not because we felt as if she wasn’t capable of running a country all on her own and America wasn’t ready for a woman president. Others believed that if she were to have won the election, Bill Clinton would’ve helped her run this country which is a very negative comment to say. There is nothing I would have changed about her speech but what I would have changed was the timing of the law becoming effective. Susan was an extraordinary woman who had courage, determination, and motivated many other women after that to continue her footsteps.

Syllabus design is an built-in portion of English linguistic communication instruction and as instructors seek develop linguistic communication proficiency in 2nd linguistic communication scholars they are expected to make constructions of larning which will enable the accomplishment of this enterprise. As such, this essay provides a justification for a course of study designed to be used in learning speech production and pronunciation to Libyan secondary pupils with Arabic as their first linguistic communication. Ideally, the syllabus marks to decide speech production and pronunciation jobs experienced by English linguistic communication scholars of Arabic descent. More frequently than non, Libyan and Arabic speech production pupils are merely exposed to larning English through formal instructions as explained by Rabab’ah ( 2003:181 ) . Following this, they are unable to to the full foster their speech production and pronunciation accomplishments which are best acquired through synergistic and communicative acquisition. As a consequence of the differences which are present between English and Arabic pronunciation, most of these scholars experiences jobs related to emphasis and modulation. However, the greatest hard present amongst Arabic scholars of English is their incapacity to pass on fluently and proficiently in English. It therefore becomes rather important to turn to these jobs by explicating an effectual course of study.

The speech production and pronunciation course of study is hence aimed at developing English linguistic communication proficiency and particularly with focal point at developing expert eloquence which as asserted by Chambers ( 1997:536 ) , is the chief index of communicative proficiency. This purpose will at the terminal facilitate communicative and matter-of-fact competences which will let scholars to use the English linguistic communication suitably in their twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours interactions. The scholars targeted by this course of study have shown great enthusiasm for the acquisition of English speech production and pronunciation. Their motive is fuelled by the demand to interact and pass on with English talking tourers who usually frequent Libya. The scholars who are aged between 16 to 17 old ages possess limited capacities in speech production and pronunciation accomplishments as indicated by a nosologies trials carried out prior to the designing of the course of study. At the pre-intermediate degree, this course of study is ideal for them.

Organization and Description of the Syllabus

The course of study which focuses on developing speech production and pronunciation accomplishments is comprised of a sum of 12 Sessionss with each session amounting to one hr. As such, scholars will hold a sum of 12 hours of contact. There will be 16 Libyan scholars go toing the Sessionss at a linguistic communication centre located in Tripoli. The course of study is organized in such a manner as to reflect the subject, speech production and pronunciation focal point and the speech production activities for every session. In the first unit of the course of study the chief focal point is on talking where scholars will larn how to do questions and besides give information. In making so, they will besides integrate this in larning the pronunciation of long vowel sounds. The 2nd unit follows the same guidelines but the speech production focal point is directed towards speaking about others in a conversation while at the same clip familiarising oneself with the pronunciation of the shwa sound.

While the speech production focal point for most Sessionss revolves around doing questions, giving information, doing remarks and explicating descriptions, pronunciation ‘s focal point is at groking the usage of vowels and consonants. Unit 6 utilizes descriptive undertakings in larning the usage of consonants /s/z/iz. Other elements of pronunciation are besides addressed with Unit 3 learning scholars how to associate words and sounds in sentences. Unit 4 marks to learn contracted address signifiers. Other phonological constituents such as modulation, falling and raising modulation are tackled in Unit 7. Word emphasis which is an of import facet of pronunciation is taught in Unit 8. Unit of measurements 11 and 12 accommodate assimilation and the pronunciation of the [ -ed ] signifier severally. The course of study ideally reflects its aims by supplying speech production activities for each session which are meant to supply scholars with an synergistic environment for tackling their speech production accomplishments. Evident in the course of study is the usage of synergistic activities throughout all Sessionss. These activities include pair work, function drama, treatments, group work, questionnaires and games. These activities fit the purpose of the course of study as they will give scholars ample pattern on their English communicating, speech production and pronunciation accomplishments.

The sample lesson program for Unit 4 clearly indicates learning processs for this scholar centered course of study. Since the chief focal point is to transfuse talking accomplishments to scholars, the instructor is expected to use instruction methodological analysiss which mostly focus on the scholar ‘s acquisition demands. Indeed, functional purpose of the lesson is to enable scholars to seek and give information utilizing telephone devices while the phonological aims include larning how to use contracted address suitably. As indicated by Nunan ( 1998:26 ) , such a scholar centered course of studies can be implemented efficaciously by integrating ample communicative and synergistic undertakings. This is observed in the lesson program as scholars are invariably asked inquiries by the instructor ; they are besides involved in synergistic group work where they pattern colloquial accomplishments. The lesson program is besides realistic and made more effectual by the instructor ‘s usage function drama undertakings and the usage of familiar content such as the engagement of hotels frequently done by tourers with whom these scholars would desire to interact with. In general, scholars will hold acquired equal speech production accomplishments which they can use in their day-to-day interactions with other English talkers. Talking besides accommodates the formation of relationships with others and the Libyan scholars will make so during their extremely synergistic speech production and pronunciation lesson.

Follow up is an of import facet of instruction and acquisition. From the lesson programs guided by the course of study, scholars ‘ apprehension of the content is evaluated by the instructor during the assorted lessons. For case in Unit 4, scholars are expected to transport out group function drama undertakings as they examine their capacity to inquire and give information. The instructor ‘s function in this activity as in all other lesson activities is to interact with the scholars and point out countries which need rectifying. Oral accomplishments are likely to attest with the usage of such synergistic and prosecuting follow up activities as indicated in the course of study.

Theoretical Justification of the Syllabus

It is quite cardinal in the designing of such a course of study to organize a theoretical footing for its content. This factor provides intent for the course of study and besides provides a nexus between its design and pattern. This course of study chiefly targets the Libyan pupils ‘ capablenesss to pass on efficaciously with other English speech production persons. As such, the course of study must concentrate on bettering eloquence, rightness and intelligibility in their usage of the linguistic communication. Contrary to old aims of larning speech production and pronunciation which was to derive native like speech pattern, current purposes of larning pronunciation focal points on deriving intelligibility as observed by Tarone ( 2005 ) . It is therefore critical to see the rules of the communicative attack of linguistic communication larning utilised as a footing for the course of study. In this attack, the focal point is chiefly on communicating and the content being taught depends on the scholar ‘s demands. Since the Arabic speech production Libyan learners seek to go better communicators, the course of study has accommodated legion speech production and synergistic undertakings and chances.

Libyan scholars are observed to hold troubles in articulating [ -ed ] signifiers and besides the plural signifiers /s/z/iz. Following this analysis, it is important for the course of study to integrate communicative chances for them to pattern the pronunciation of these sounds. Indeed as Brinton, Goodwin and Celce-Murcia ( 1996:8 ) assert that such methodological analysiss like listening and copying and phonic preparation are rather effectual in learning pronunciation. These techniques are reflected in the course of study as scholars are encouraged to accommodate the instructor ‘s competent pronunciation by copying and so practising pronunciations during the lesson activities. In add-on, Libyan scholars will profit amply from the interactive linguistic communication they will larn whose accent as described by Richards ( 1990 ) is to let the creative activity of positive interactions between persons and this is reflected in the course of study as it focus on subjects aimed at leting scholars to do little talk, questions, give regards and do new brushs.

The above communicative attack which has been used in the course of study incorporates undertakings which will enable scholars to incorporate both eloquence and truth in their speech production. Indeed as postulated by Ellis ( 2003 ) , the usage of such undertakings like descriptions and narrations which are dominant in the course of study non merely allows scholars to pattern linguistic communication usage but besides sums to complex and accurate usage of the linguistic communication. Talking truth is besides said to emerge from the usage of unwritten communicating undertakings as described by Lynch ( 2007:317 ) who argues that when scholars cooperate in placing their speech production mistakes and rectifying them they are able to derive assurance in the mark linguistic communication and even strive to talk the linguistic communication suitably. This factor implies that as Libyan scholars who experience troubles in utilizing contracted address will happen it helpful to engaged in undertakings which encourage both the scholars and the instructor to rectify their mistakes and besides steer them towards avoiding the unneeded usage of long words and sentences.

The Syllabus and Pragmatic Competence

The mark of the course of study is non merely to develop communicative competency in scholars but besides matter-of-fact competency. Matter-of-fact competency trades chiefly on the utterance degree of linguistic communication and with factors which allow native talkers to use the mark linguistic communication in societal interactions uninhibited. Harmonizing to Rueda ( 2006: 170 ) there are many facets of matter-of-fact competency which can be facilitated during schoolroom direction which means that the course of study needs to actively integrate such sole instructions. For scholars to derive this signifier of competency, they must possess the ability use the mark linguistic communication for different intents. Besides, scholars must get the ability to grok a talker ‘s purposes and have a bid of the linguistic communication regulations utilized in making signifiers of discourse. Explicit direction in the instruction of English to the Arabic speech production pupils is rather necessary. Such direction is expected to expose scholars to the accurate English linguistic communication input as observed in the course of study where scholars are provided with relevant speech production and pronunciation contents. Besides as seen in the course of study, it is important to make chances for the pattern of the matter-of-fact cognition that scholars have acquired during the learning procedure.

Arabic talking scholars frequently experience jobs in understanding intended significances in discourse chiefly because they are unable to hold on the usage and significances of modulation and word emphasis. Harmonizing to Smith and Swan ( 2001:198 ) the unpredictable nature of English word emphasis eludes most Arabic talkers and instructors need to fit them with accomplishments for observing alterations in significances brought approximately by English word emphasis. As this is important to deriving matter-of-fact competency, the course of study has incorporated these facets as scholars engage in larning undertakings which enable them to separate between falling and raising modulation and the several implied significances. Chapman ( 2007:10 ) points out that the instruction of modulation in an synergistic environment will let scholars to understand how native talkers of English construe them.

While trying to learn the Libyan pupils English and promote matter-of-fact competency, it is of import to see the function of top- down and bottom-up abilities. In order to accomplish the acquisition of these accomplishments, learning schemes need to see the differences which exist between linguistic communications and guarantee that scholars utilize these differences in larning the mark linguistic communication and that their native linguistic communication competency does non impede their mark linguistic communication acquisition. For case as illustrated by Chang, El-Ashry, Leclere and Palmer ( 2007:8 ) negative transportations can happen in the acquisition of English vowels by Arabic talkers due to the bing difference in the writing system of both linguistic communications. While vowels are found in the English alphabet and each of them stand foring multiple phonemes, Arabic talkers express their long vowels utilizing letters which represent individual phonemes. This contrast needs to be clearly addressed in the instruction of English long vowels to Arabic scholars.

McCarthy and O’Keeffe ( 2004:26 ) ascertain that the usage of spoken principal has become rather of import in the instruction of speech production. Corpus in the instruction of Arabic talkers provides a native illustration of the usage of the mark linguistic communication and efficaciously assists scholars in look intoing their competency. The usage of written texts and recordings in the mark linguistic communication is demonstrated in the course of study and lesson program and promises to heighten eloquence and pronunciation. In learning matter-of-fact competency in Arabic scholars of English, there are assorted underlying premises which include the fact that the act of speech production is tantamount to executing speech Acts of the Apostless, that there are peculiar address Acts of the Apostless used by all linguistic communications and that there are differences in how talkers of different linguistic communications do things and in when they do them. The elaborate course of study has accommodated a huge scope of address Acts of the Apostless as scholars are taught how to transport out assorted colloquial undertakings. Besides, the usage of communicative activities like group work and function drama provides an effectual manner of leaving matter-of-fact competency.

Decision

From the above treatment, it is apparent that syllabus design is a complex and affecting undertaking. The analyzed course of study will efficaciously transform the speech production and pronunciation capablenesss of the targeted Libyan pupils. Greatly motivated to derive communicative competency in English, the scholars will profit from a communicative instruction attack which is besides learner centered. In add-on, this attack makes it easy to get matter-of-fact competency every bit good. The course of study has incorporated assorted countries in speech production and pronunciation which are considered to be debatable amongst Arabic talking 2nd linguistic communication scholars. As such, the surveies of contracted address, modulation, word emphasis, [ -ed ] signifier application, long vowels and plural signifiers of /s/z/iz/ have been incorporated. Other facets of significance which have been addressed include the usage of spoken principal and the top-down, bottom-up abilities in scholars. In kernel, this course of study has the capacity to act upon the accomplishment of the larning aims desired by the Libyan pupils.

Talking, listening, reading and composing are considered to be reciprocally mutualist upon one another in linguistic communication acquisition. Although talking coherently and clearly is by and large recognised as the most of import end for 2nd linguistic communication ( L2 ) talkers, peculiarly ESOL talkers ( Murphy 1991:52 ) , competency in reading and composing finish a scholar ‘s proficiency in L2. Speaking and hearing may be described as the major accomplishment countries of interpersonal communicating ( Murphy 1991: 52 ) . Whether through synergistic or teacher-instruction, the hearing accomplishment will find how scholars develop eloquence and competency in the linguistic communication being learnt ( Nation and Newton 2009 ; Ellis 2003 ) .

Listening is cardinal in linguistic communication acquisition because it non merely aids competency in speech production, but besides in reading. Ellis ( 2003 ) has noted that research workers and instructors have their ain purposes in prosecuting hearing as a linguistic communication accomplishment. For research workers, listening provides agencies for look intoing scholars ‘ ability to treat specific lingual characteristics ( Ellis 2003: 37 ) . In position of this, he suggests that focused undertakings can be devised by ‘seeding ‘ the input with the targeted characteristic and planing the undertaking in such a manner that the merchandise result can merely be achieved if the scholars are successful in treating the targeted characteristic. Therefore, listening undertakings provide an first-class agencies for mensurating whether scholars have acquired the characteristic in inquiry. On the other manus, listening accomplishments can be devised to ease the acquisition of the targeted characteristic ( Ellis 2003: 37 ) .

This essay discusses how the four linguistic communication accomplishments of hearing, reading, speech production and composing are mutualist in assisting a scholar achieve competency in larning English as a 2nd linguistic communication. As we already know, synergistic linguistic communication larning depends a batch on listening and talking accomplishments ( Ellis 2003 ) . However, a good balanced linguistic communication class which consists of four approximately equal strands of learning/instruction in the linguistic communication schoolroom ( Nation and Newton 2009 ) , known as meaning-focused input, meaning-focused end product, language-focused acquisition, and eloquence development, conveying out the common dependence of the four linguistic communication accomplishments. The four strands methodological analysis as described by Nation and Newton ( 2009:1 ) may be summarised as follows:

larning though meaning-focused input, that is, larning through hearing and reading where the learners’attention is on the thoughts and messages conveyed by the linguistic communication

larning through meaning-focused end product, that is, larning through speech production and composing where the learners’attention is on conveying thoughts and messages to another individual

larning through deliberate attending to linguistic communication points and linguistic communication characteristics, that is, larning through direct vocabulary survey, grammar exercisings and account, through attending discourse characteristics and consider acquisition and pattern of linguistic communication acquisition and linguistic communication usage schemes, and

larning through developing fluid usage of known linguistic communication points and characteristics over the four accomplishments of hearing, speech production, reading and composing

Second linguistic communication acquisition shows that suitably focussed attending to linguistic communication points can do a really positive part to acquisition ( Doughty 2003 ; Doughty & A ; Williams, 1998 ; Ellis 2005 ) . A well-planned linguistic communication class has an appropriate balance of these four strands. Through these four strands the scholars achieve the learning ends of a linguistic communication class, viz. fluid control of sounds, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and discourse characteristics of linguistic communication, so that they can be used to pass on efficaciously.

A justification of the four strands is the time-on-task rule, that is, learning-to-read by reading or learning-to-write by composing ( Nation & A ; Newton 2009:2 ) . The more clip one spends making something, the better they are likely to make it. Those who read a batch, for case, are better readers ( Cunningham & A ; Stanovich 1991 ) , and those who write a batch normally become better writes. The grounds for the four strands draws on a big and turning organic structure of research into the functions of input, end product and focussed direction on L2 acquisition and on development of speech production and reading eloquence ( Nation & A ; Newton 2009:3 ) .

Meaning-focused input: acquisition through hearing and reading

The meaning-focused input strand involves larning through hearing and reading, that is utilizing linguistic communication receptively. It is called ‘meaning-focused ‘ because in all the work done in this strand, the scholars ‘ chief focal point and involvement should be on understanding, and deriving cognition or enjoyment or both from what they listen to and read. Typical activities in this strand include extended reading, shared reading, listening to narratives, watching Television or movies, and being a hearer in a conversation ( see Hinkel 2006 ) .

Meaning-focused end product larning

Meaning-focused end product involves the scholars bring forthing linguistic communication through speech production and composing were the scholars ‘ focal point is on others understanding the message ( Nation & A ; Newton 2009 ) . It occurs when scholars write essays, and assignments, when they write letters, dairies, direct electronic mail and text messages to each other and when they write about their experience. As spelling is peculiarly of import in authorship, holding to compose can do scholars cognizant of the spreads in their spelling cognition ( Nation 2009:18 ) .

Writing activities that can assist with spelling are copying, delayed copying, read and compose from memory, command, the assorted signifiers of guided authorship, composing with the aid of a dictionary and free authorship.

Language-focused acquisition

Language-focused acquisition has many names ; concentrate on signifier, form-focused direction, deliberate survey and consider instruction or acquisition as opposed to acquisition, or knowing acquisition ( Nation & A ; Newton 2009:7 ) . It involves calculated acquisition of linguistic communication characteristics such as pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and discourse. A assortment of activities may be used, such as pronunciation pattern, utilizing permutation tabular arraies and drills, larning vocabulary from word cards and intensive reading. Other activities may be interlingual rendition, memorizing duologues an acquiring feedback about authorship.

There are legion techniques for giving calculated attending to spelling, for illustration. . The critical factor is doing certain that there is an appropriate balance of each of the four strands so that there is some calculated attending to spelling but this attending does non go inordinate. Deliberate attending can include a figure of activities such as screen and recover, utilizing analogies, utilizing word parts, articulating the word the manner it is spelled and visualizing. There is need to look at each of these techniques:

Cover and Retrieve

The scholar writes a list of hard to spell words down the left-hand side of the page ( state 2009:19 ) . The first missive or two of each word is written following to it, for illustration:

yacht Y

happening O

The words are studied and so covered and each word is written from memory utilizing the first missive hint. The first missive is written once more so that the activity can be repeated.

yacht yacht Y

Using analogies

Working with the instructor or in little groups, the scholars think of known words that portion similar spelling characteristics to words that they have trouble in spelling. For illustration, if larning to spell ‘apply ‘ , the scholars think of the known words ‘reply ‘ , ‘supply ‘ which are words with similar spelling characteristics and sound ( Nation 2009:19 ) .

Using word parts

Word parts may be helpful in pulling attending to word constructing units. This may be peculiarly utile with progress scholars. For illustration, the word ‘separate ‘ contains the root ‘par ‘ which is besides in ‘part ‘ . Therefore, the spelling is ‘separate ‘ non ‘seperate ‘ .

Pronouncing the word the manner it is spelled

Teaching spelling is one of the great challenges of linguistic communication instruction. As a guideline, Nation ( 2009 ) encourages that students may be encouraged to intentionally misspeak a word like ‘yacht ‘ /yaect/ as a sort of mnemonic for spelling.

Learners may besides be encouraged to look at a word, close their eyes and seek to ‘see ‘ the spelling of the word in their head. This is what is called ‘visualising ‘ a word.

The instance for incorporating linguistic communication acquisition accomplishments

Although a big figure of traditional methods of linguistic communication larning continue to be utile, current surveies encourage incorporating linguistic communication accomplishments in the linguistic communication schoolroom. For case, learning reading can be easy tied to instruction on authorship and vocabulary, and unwritten accomplishments lend themselves to learning pronunciation, listening and cross-cultural linguistic communication interaction ( Hinkel 2001 ; Lazaraton 2001 ; McCarthy & A ; O’keeffe 2004 ) .

Task-based instruction of L2 accomplishments has built-in chances for more accurate and complex utilizations of linguistic communication ( Ellis 2003 ) . For illustration, narrations and description undertakings in fluency-focused instruction, arguments and problem-solving undertakings promote increased grammatical and lexical complexness in learner linguistic communication. Through these undertakings a significant betterment in the sum of spoken discourse and in grammatical, lexical and articulative competency is enhanced.

English linguistic communication has become more internationalised, and hence, instruction of accomplishments such as pronunciation has shifted from aiming native-like speech patterns to aiming intelligibility ( Tarone 2005 ) . In this respect, instruction has to turn to issues of segmental lucidity, that is, the articulation of specific sounds, word emphasis and inflection and the length and timing of intermissions.

The current attack to learning pronunciation is by and large based on three principled standards. First, pronunciation and modulation are taught in context and in concurrence with specific accomplishments. Second, direction in pronunciation serves broader communicative intents, and eventually but non least, the instruction of pronunciation and modulation is based on realistic instead than idealistic linguistic communication theoretical accounts ( Chun 2002 ) .

The 1980s saw a displacement from the position of L2 listening every bit preponderantly lingual to a schema-based position, and listening teaching method moved off from its focal point on the lingual to the activation of scholars ‘ top-down cognition ( Hinkel 2006:9 ) . Emphasis now, is on the incorporate instruction of listening for communicating and in concurrence with other L2 accomplishments such as speech production, socio-pragmatics, grammar and vocabulary. The lingual and schema-driven strands of learning listening have found a niche in current incorporate attacks, such as task-based or content-based direction ( Snow 2005 ) .

The design of listening pattern, for case, can integrate a figure of characteristics that make the development of L2 listening abilities relevant and realistic. Listen-and-do undertakings, for illustration, stand for a flexible beginning of listening input for get downing o intermediate scholars.

The content of undertakings can be easy controlled in respect to their lingual and conventional variables, such as frequent happenings of mark syntactic and lexical constructions in the context of meaning-focused undertaking ( Ellis 2003 ) . This is done in countries of grammar buildings, words and phrases or colloquial expressions.Recent research has shed a great trade O visible radiation on the procedures and acquisition of L2 reading. As in hearing, L2 reading involves both top-down and bottom-up cognitive processing. Eskey ( 1988:95 ) suggests that the strongly top-down prejudice neglected scholars weak Aress of lingual processing.

the bottom-up processing of reading involves a wide array of distinguishable subskills, such as word acknowledgment, spelling and phonological processing, morpho syntactic parsing and lexical acknowledgment ( Eskey 2005 ) . The reader needs to garner ocular information from the written text, place the significance of words, and so travel frontward to the processing of the construction and significance of lager syntactic units, such as phrases or sentences. Ocular processing of words and letters represents a cognitively complex undertaking ( Koda 1999 ; Chikmatsu 1996 ; Shimron & A ; Savon 1994 ) . Readers whose L1 writing systems are markedly diffrent from the that of L2 may be slowed down in their reading procedure by the demand to achieve fluid L2 word acknowledgment before geting text-processing accomplishments. The findings of L2 reading research on the cardinal function of bottom-up processing, word acknowledgment eloquence, and the acknowledgment of the morphophonemic construction of words and phrases have led to substantial displacements in reading and literacy direction to immature and big L2 scholars likewise. As an illustration, in 1999, the National Literacy Strategy in the UK introduced work on phonics, word acknowledgment, and in writing cognition primo to sentence and text degrees of direction ( Hinkel 2006:13 ) . In teacher instruction, current methodological analysis text editions reflect the alteration in positions on learning L2 reading, literacy and authorship.

Most influential L2 instruction and larning publications have seen the demand to include at least a chapter on the instruction of bottom-up reading accomplishments normally followed by direction in top-down and strategic reading ( Celce-Murcia 2001 ; Carter & A ; Nunan 2001 ; Mckay 1993 ; Nunan 1999, 2003 ; Wallace 1993 ) .

If people knew the beneficial effects of music it may help them succeed. How does listening to music help you succeed? Depending on the type of music you listen to it could help improve your mood. It can bring a “more positive mindset’, which helps with the reduction of stress, which essentially can improve your immune system. How music can decrease stress “Listening to music can have a tremendously relaxing effect on our minds and bodies.

Music can have a beneficial effect on our physiological functions, slowing the pulse and heart rate, lower Eng blood pressure, and decreasing the levels of stress hormones. ” according to Psych Central. B. It is said that classical music is what you should listen to but researchers say t at you can listen to any music for a stress reliever. “We think the pleasant State that can be induced by music leads to special pH histological changes which eventually lead to stress reduction or direct immune enhancement. Said Dry. Irony En, Dry. En lead recent research about music’s effect on the immune system. I. So, if you’re feeling stressed listen to your favorite music. Transition: Reducing stress will help you from getting sick. L. Stress hormones are likely to leave the body and Mucilaginous A is increase De when listening to music A. “Scientists found that after volunteers had listened to just 50 minutes of uplift Eng dance music, the levels of antibodies in their bodies increased.

They also found that stress hormone levels, which can weaken the immune system, decreased after being exposed to music. The scientists tested 300 people, asking them to listen to the dance music or to a random collection of tones. ” Transition: Music will help you remember stuff. Music can help you remember important things, and help you study for a test It has been said, “Research has shown that music with a strong beat can stir elate brain waves to resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper concentration and more alert thin inning”.

II. At the University of California at Irvine researchers had students study for an et SST without listening to music and then take the test. Then had students study for another test while listening to music c, they then took the test the second time. The outcome was that when the students listened to music the test scores we re higher from when they studied without music. After this study they began to name this the “Mozart Effect”. Psych Cent trial. Conclusion: People should listen to music if they are feeling sick, stressed out, or want to  Ochs on something.