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LECTURE 5 TEACHING NORMS OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

1What groups of criteriado you know as the teaching norms R.P or G.A.?

2 What are the teaching norms in the articulation of vowels in R.P.?

3 What are the teaching norms in the articulation of consonants in R.P.?

The English language widespread and scattered territorially. By the amount of its speaking population it is the second most spoken language in the world. We know that the pronunciation of English is not Homogeneous over the globe. In each country language develops in its own way and has a lot of different local types of pronunciation.

Since it is the most favored foreign languages in countries where it is not native, the question arises which type of pronunciation should be chosen as the teaching norms R.P or G.A.

In order to do this correctly we should apply some criteria. As a matter of fact, the criteria may be subjective and objective.

Among the subjective criteria we may single out the following:

b) correctness of pronunciation, its beauty and degree of affectation;

c) Coarse character of pronunciation, or vulgarity.

When choosing a type of pronunciation as the teaching norm we shouldn’t take into account these subjective criteria.

Objective criteria are more numerous. They are:

a) the number of native speakers of this type of pronunciation;

b) the geographical situation of an English- learning country;

c) political and economic dependence of an English- learning country upon an English- speaking country;

d) the understandability of this type of pronunciation in all English speaking countries;

e) the extent of investigations made in this type of pronunciation;

f) the number of audio-visual aids in teaching this type of pronunciation;

g) the fact that this type of pronunciation has been compared to the pronunciation system of the mother tongue.

These objective criteria may be crucial for choosing a particular type of pronunciation as the teaching norm.

As far as the number of native speakers is concerned J.Kenyon doesn’t consider it to be decisive. He says: “ mere majorities, without consideration of historical linguistic background and regional distribution, are not decisive. For example, the fact that more speakers in the English speaking world habitually use the General American than any other single type cannot vitiate the standing of the Southern British pronunciation for the educated Englishman”

According to Mario Pei, General American is used by 120 million speakers, 40 million Americans speak Southern-American English, and 30 million people in the USA use the Eastern-American type.

According to Daniel Jones, Received Pronunciation is actually used by a rather small minority of English-speaking people.

The geographical situation together with the political and economic dependence of an English-learning country upon an English-speaking country play an important part in choosing a type of pronunciation as the teaching norm. These factors result in a number of contacts and exchanges between the two countries. For instance, the teaching norm of pronunciation in Latin American countries is that of General American English.

None of these factors are crucial in choosing a type of pronunciation in other countries. What is really important in this country is the followings:

1) the degree of understandability of a certain type of pronunciation in all English-speaking countries. According to D.Jones Received Pronunciation is “… readily understood in most parts of the English-speaking world”.

Speaking about American English G.B. Shaw used to claim humorously that ‘England and America are two countries separated by the same language”. A contemporary American writer says that interpreters are needed between ourselves and the British. It is paradoxical too, but there is some sense in it.

2) the extent of investigations made in a certain type of pronunciation. British Received Pronunciation has been described in a great number of books by English and Soviet linguists, such as L. Armstrong and A. Ward, H. Palmer , D. Jones, J.D. O’Connor and G.F Arnold, R. Kingdon, etc. and also V.A Vassilyev, G.P Torsuev, A.L. Trachterov, E. I. Torsueva, M. A. Sokolova, A.M. Antipova, K.P Gintovt and others.

There are some works on General American Pronunciation as well, but American descriptivists are not unanimous in solving some questions concerning the problems of vowel length. For instance, or of diphthongs, or of function of /r/, the status of the /t/ sound and so on. This may be due to the fact that some phonetic phenomena have not yet been stabilized in American pronunciation in general.

3) the number of audio-visual aids in teaching a particular type of pronunciation. There are a lot of books containing phonetic drills, practical exercises, transcribed texts and also tape-recorded texts and gramophone records based on British Received pronunciation. Besides, some excellent pronouncing dictionaries of R.P. have been published.

4) The fact a certain type of pronunciation has been compared with the pronunciation system of the mother tongue of the students. Many components of the phonetic system of British Received Pronunciation have been described and compared with those in Russian and Kazakh pronunciation.

Bringing all these facts together, we may say that British Received Pronunciation must be prevailing teaching norm in schools and college. And so it is in reality. Practically all teachers have an active knowledge of British Received Pronunciation.

Teaching norms in the articulation of vowels in R.P. are as follows:

1) Diphthongization oh the vowel /i:/ is a specific feature of the English phonetic system. It must be especially clearly heard after /w/ and at the beginning of words. (The tongue slightly changes it is position: the middle part of the tongue moves from a more open and retracted position to a closer and more advanced one.

2) The vowel /e/ is to be pronounced with the bulk of the tongue in the front part of the mouth cavity and the middle of the tongue raised in the direction of the hard palate.

3) The vowel /ǽ/ is always pronounced in its broad variation of the low position of the tongue, which makes it possible to oppose /ǽ / with /e/.

4) All the English labialized vowels- both monophthongs and diphthongs – must be pronounced with rounded but not protruded lips.

5) While articulating the vowel /Λ/ the tongue must be held back more and a little higher as compared with its position in pronouncing the Kazakh /a/. Besides the tongue must be held more in front and a little higher as compared with its position in pronouncing the English /a:/.

6) While pronouncing the vowel /з:/ there must be no lip-rounding in all the position of the sound /з:/, /wз:/ included. The flat position of the tongue must be strictly kept in all the combinations.

7) The nucleus of the diphthong /ai/ and /au/ is to be pronounced as a front open vowel.

8) The facultative phoneme /oə/ is not included into the teaching norms.

9) The nucleus of the diphthons /ei/ is articulated as in the vowel /e/.

Teaching norms in the articulation of consonants in R.P. are as follows:

1) The forelingual consonants /t, d, n, l/ must have apical articulation with the tip of the tongue against the teeth-ridge. Raising the middle part of the tongue towards the hard palate is not permitted. It is not included into the teaching norms except in case of “clear” /1/.

2) While articulating the final voiced plosive consonants the vibration of the vocal cords (vocal bands) must cease before the obstruction is realized.

3) The constrictive fricative consonants /ө, ð/ must have interdental articulation.

4) The sonorant /w/ is to be produced with the round narrowing of the lips, the latter slightly protruded , the back of the tongue raised towards the soft palate.

5) The constrictive fricative consonants /ƒ, з/ must be articulated with two fact, one of which is made up by the tip and the blade of the tongue held close to the back of the teeth-ridge and the other – by the middle of the tongue raised in the direction of the hard palate. Care must be taken not to palatalize / ƒ/ /з/ too much, on the one hand, and not to make them too hard, on the other.

6) The voice occlusive-constrictive /dз/ is to be pronounced with the dorsal articulation of the tongue typical of the modern development of the phoneme. It draws the two foci nearer and makes it possible to pronounce the two sounds as one.

7) Labialization and retro flexion of the sonorant /r/ are not included into the teaching norms.

8) In producing the English /h/ the bulk of the tongue and the lips are held in the position necessary for the articulation of a following vowel.

We do not always pronounce the same words in the same way. Different circumstances influence the pronunciation of one and the same person. For instance, delivering a lecture or speaking over the radio differs greatly from chatting with intimate friends.

D. Jones points out that a person may utter one and the same word quite differently under different circumstances: for example, in serious conversation with an official person the conjunction “and” might often reduced to /and/, while in rapid conversation it is often reduced to /n/, as in “bread and butter” /’bred n ‘bΛtə /.

Different ways of pronouncing words depend upon the different styles of speech, and consequently upon different styles of pronunciation. Several such types may be distinguished.

D. Jones speaks of five styles of pronunciation:

1) the rapid familiar style,

2) the slower colloquial style,

3) the natural style used in addressing a fair-sized audience.

4) the acquired style of the stage,

5) he acquired style used in singing.

L.V. Shcherba thinks it convenient that only two styles of pronunciation should be distinguished:

1) colloquial style characteristic of people’s relaxed speech, and

2) full style, which is used when we want to make our speech especially distinct.

The degree of carefulness of pronunciation distinguishes different styles.

1) The full style is characterized by a slow tempo and careful pronunciation. Words are pronounced in their full forms without vowel reduction or assimilation.

2) The slower colloquial style is characterized by a quicker tempo and by a more carelessness in articulation of words. It is the result of reduction of speech sounds and various kinds of assimilation.

3) The rapid familiar style (or, in other words, the careless, colloquial style) differs from the careful colloquial style in free use of non- obligatory assimilation.

For example, the sentence “I should like to see her” is pronounced differently in the three different styles:

1) the full style: /ai ƒud ‘laik tu ‘si: hз:/;

2) the careful colloquial style: /ai ƒəd ‘laik tə’si: hз:/;

3) the rapid familiar style: /ai ƒt’laik tə ‘si: ə/

In teaching a foreign language to students the teacher is faced with the problem of choosing a style of pronunciation to begin with.

D. Jones considers the slower colloquial style to be the most suitable for the use of foreign students.

A.C. Gimson also recommends “the foreign learner to aim at a careful colloquial style of English in his own speech” but advices him “to be aware of the features which characterize the rapid colloquial style.

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