Lecture Teaching pronunciation (1-6-forms) Plan

Lecture 1. Teaching pronunciation (1-6-forms)
Plan:
1. The essence of teaching pronunciation
2. Distribution and typology of pronunciation material
3. Activities for teaching pronunciation

Pronunciation plays a special role in the content of language material, as it requires the awareness of pronouncing and linking sounds of a sentence as well as following intonation. Pronunciation consists of three parts as hearing (acoustic), uttering (motor) and meaning (semantic). They have their own peculiarity of action in every language. Acquiring phonetic side of the language, i.e. mastering pronunciation skill is one of the core conditions of speech communication. There appears a question - Is it possible to achieve perfect foreign pronunciation? Methodologists have the exact answer: pupils learn approximated foreign language (proper pronunciation could be achieved in mother tongue and second language). According to the idea of approximation, it is available to limit the volume of phonetic material and have the lower quality of some sounds than native speakers. But the definite foreign sound could be the reason of changing the meaning, i.e. it could play phonemic role, in this case it is recommended to achieve the highest approximation, e.g., it is important to seek high approximation in long – short vowel sounds in English, voiced and unvoiced consonants in the end of the word, otherwise the meaning will be lost.

Approximation of the pronunciation is firstly characterized by the condition of secondary education, i.e. the unnatural climate of teaching foreign language, so pronunciation is more complex than vocabulary and grammar.
The main requirement is acquiring relatively fluent foreign pronunciation. Firstly, it provides comprehension of communicants, secondly it demands acquiring middle speed of speech skill (it is known the speed of the EL speech means to be average pronunciation 220- 250 words in a minute. Keeping in mind that speech units exist only in sound images and that pronunciation is mixed with vocabulary and grammar skills, they are usually acquired integrally. Pronunciation skill is a unique language act that provides the expression of speech units through relevant sounds.
The issue of when to start teaching pronunciation was the reason of various discussions. It is not logical to select definite grade or stage in methodology as acquiring pronunciation depends on speech skills and habits. The following order as a general law is recommended for all schools: almost all sounds are introduced in the initial stage of education; the middle stage continues teaching new sound combinations, stress and intonation; in the middle or higher stages all pronunciation cases are developed. Hearing during acquisition of language materials as vocabulary and grammar develops pronunciation skill.
Distribution and typology of pronunciation material
Minimum of the EL phonetic (pronunciation) is selected according to vocabulary and grammar minima. Language material is usually consisting of active and passive minima. The notions of active and passive in phonetic (pronunciation) minimum are treated differently. Active and passive pronunciation minima are learned simultaneously. They are included in the complex language skills and appear in speaking and perception.
Active and passive minima are distinguished as follow: active minimum admits approximation, but it is not found in passive. Active minimum works in the range of limited phonetic material and in passive it is possible to meet variants of foreign language phonemes.
Pronunciation minimum is general for definite educational institution, for ex., for secondary schools in spite of the language experience of pupils. As the sounds, sound combinations, phonetic cases and intonation of the learned foreign language compile pronunciation minimum. It is inevitable that all phonetic units of foreign language lexical-grammatical material occur in pronunciation minimum. But it is methodically known that pronunciation units that are easy to learn are not taught in separate exercises, because they are not included into the content of teaching pronunciation. Thus minimum doesn’t consider language experience, and the content of teaching pronunciation compiles cases that require special time and power for definite difficulties in acquisition. There is a classification that takes into account the difficulties of assimilation of all units in different norms that are included in the content of teaching pronunciation (CTP): difficult cases referring to articulation, opposition, position and acoustics.
Pronunciation minimum is selected according to the following criteria: (1) the proportion of phonetic unit to the need of speech communication; (2) appropriate style for selection; (3) normativity of pronunciation; (4) prevalence.
According to the first criterion there are selected phonemes and intonemas that differ meaning, as pronunciation minimum includes all phonemes (but not their variants).
Appropriate style for selection takes as a base full style of pronunciation, i.e., literary, academic style (conversation style is not appropriate). Literary style could seem to be more artificial but it is more suitable to secondary education.
Criterion of pronunciation norm is close to style criterion, the task of which not to allow the inclusion of dialectal pronunciation into pronunciation minimum. It is recommended to learn phonetic sample, i.e. literary pronunciation.
Prevalence is also like criteria of style and norm. The most used phonetic units are selected and included into phonetic minimum.
On the base of these criteria pronunciation minimum is selected from the phonetic system of the learned foreign language. The most used phonetic units in speech are selected and included into minimum. In keeping the criteria, the phonetic peculiarities of the EL are taken into consideration.
In distribution of vocabulary and grammar material the first issue was to divide into active and passive. Distribution of phonetic material in pronunciation is particular. The listened (passive) and uttered (active) pronunciation units are not acquired alternately but simultaneously, there occur inner speech in listening and outer (oral) speech in utterance.
Distribution of phonetic material occurs according to the following scientificmethodical criteria: 1) speech orientation; 2) distribution of difficulties. These criteria act variously in different textbooks. The common thing is that the received lexical-grammatical distribution predetermines pronunciation distribution.
Typology of pronunciation material. The most appropriate methodic way is that phonetic material is methodically typed for forming pronunciation skill.
There are two types in methods of teaching foreign language. The first leads to find reasonable methods of teaching pronunciation through dividing all units of phonetic minimum into easy/difficult.
According to the second type only difficult units of the content of teaching pronunciation (CPT) are divided into noted four (articulation, opposition, position and acoustics) groups. From the content of typology we see that it covers sounds, sound units and phonetic cases. Typology of intonation is another kind. Methodical typology of the definite language pronunciation units are considered in the stages of presentation, doing exercises and usage that are carried out for developing pronunciation skills.