Pronunciation and listening comprehension.

As listeners expect spoken English to follow certain patterns of rhythm and intonation, they need to employ these pattern to communicate effectively.

Similarly, listeners need to know how speech is organized and what patterns of intonation mean in order to understand speech accurately. Thus, learning about pronunciation develops learners’ abilities to comprehend spoken English.

Pronunciation and spelling.

Learning about pronunciation also helps learners with the spelling system of English. Learners expect to find a one-to-one correspondence between a sound and its spelling. However, the letter a, for example, can be pronounced in five different ways, as these words demonstrate: same, sat, father, call, about. Often, a speaker has difficulties with pronunciation because of a misinterpretation of the spelling system rather than difficulty with the pronunciation of the sound.

Pronunciation and grammar.

Pronunciation can convey grammatical information.

Consider the following sentences:

a.I’m sorry. You can’t come with us.

b.I’m sorry you can’t come with us.

The difference between (a) and (b) can be seen in writing, but how can this difference be shown in speech? What punctuation and capitalization do in writing, rhythm and intonation do in speech.

In (a), a rise and fall in pitch on sorry, followed by a pause perform the same function, as a period. This tells the listener that I’m sorry is one idea and the next set of words constitutes a second idea. In (b) the rise and fall on come indicates that there is only one idea in the sentence. This example shows how rhythm and intonation can perform grammatical functions.

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