Talk a Lot Foundation Course Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com i Lesson 2: Spelling and Sounds Le sn 2: Spe ling uhn Tsaundz Reference: Talk a Lot Handbook (English Banana.com, 2009) 18.1 Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) 18.48 Vowel Digraphs 18.55 List of Vowel Clusters – In Alphabetical Order 18.62 Spelling and Sounds – The Magic “e” Rule 19.1 IPA Practice Worksheets and Tests Talk a Lot Foundation Course New English Alphabet – 48 Phonemes (Individual Sounds) Key – v = vowel sound: s = short l = long d = diphthong | c = consonant sound: v = voiced u = unvoiced Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com i 23 vowel sounds: 8 short 5 long 10 diphthongs | 25 consonant sounds: 15 voiced 10 unvoiced Each phoneme always has the same written identifier (ID). Letters not used from the old alphabet: c, q, x When pronounced on their own, all consonant sounds (including unvoiced) are followed by a Schwa sound, e.g. 7. buh, 16. fuh, and 37. tuh . This is called an embedded Schwa sound No. Phonemic ID Old IPA Symbol Old Spelling New Spelling Type 1. a LôL= bat Bat v /s 2. ai L~fL= time Taim d 3. aiy L~f]L= hire Haiy d 4. ar L^WL= star Star v /l 5. au L~rL= cow Kau d 6. auw L~r]L= power Pauw d 7. b LÄL= bag Bag c /v 8. ch LípL= cheese Cheez c /u 9. d LÇL= dice Dais c /v 10. e LÉL= leg Leg v /s 11. ee LáWL= three Ttree v /l 12. ei LÉfL= plane Plein d 13. eir LÉ]L= pear Peir d 14. er L‰WL= shirt Shert v /l 15. eu L]rL= home Heum d 16. f LÑL= frog Frog c /u 17. g LÖL= glass Glars c /v 18. h LÜL= head Hed c /u 19. hh LñL= loch Lohh c /u 20. i LfL= dish Dish v /s 21. ii LáL= happy Ha pii v /s 22. iy Lf]L= here Hiy d 23. j LÇwL= jam Jam c /v 24. k LâL= kit Kit c /u 25. l LäL= lake Leik c /v 26. m LãL= music Myoo zik c /v 27. n LåL= nurse Ners c /v 28. ng LÏL= ring Ring c /v 29. o LflL= sock Sok v /s 30. oo LìWL= shoot Shoot v /l 31. or LlWL= ball Borl v /l 32. oy LlfL= toy Toy d 33. p LéL= pig Pig c /u 34. r LêL= road Reud c /v 35. s LëL= snow Sneu c /u 36. sh LpL= shop Shop c /u 37. t LíL= taxi Ta ksii c /u 38. th LaL= brother Bru th c /v 39. tt LqL= thousand Ttau znd c /u 40. u L¾L= cup Kup v /s 41. uh L]L= arrive uh Raiv v /s 42. uu LrL= pull Puul v /s 43. uuw Lr]L= pure Pyuuw d 44. v LîL= van Van c /v 45. w LïL= week Week c /v 46. y LàL= yoghurt Yo gt c /v 47. z LòL= zip Zip c /v 48. zz LwL= revision r Vi zzn c /v _ L\L= went out Wen_ Au_ Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 2 – Spelling and Sounds For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 2 Page 1 2.1 English is not a phonetic language, which means that often spelling and sounds do not match. The English spelling system doesn’t work. The words that we write are supposed to represent the sounds that we make when speaking. That is the whole point of the alphabetic system of spelling that we use – letters are meant to represent sounds. However, more often than not, this does not happen, which means that English spelling is of only limited help for working out pronunciation. Unfortunately, students of English often try to pronounce all the letters in word they don’t know, especially all of the vowel letters, just to “make sure” that they are pronouncing them correctly. In fact, the opposite happens – the pronunciation is wrong – and miscommunication takes place because the stress is messed up and the stressed vowel sound is incorrect. The problem is that sounds in English do not each have individual identifiers (IDs): There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, but 48 different sounds (see Glossary and NEA Handout). There are 5 vowel letters but 23 vowel sounds = spelling problems! Examples: 1. Words with “hard” spellings: 1. daughter Dor t 2. natural Na chrl 3. pharmacy Far m sii 2. Common vowel digraphs (two vowel letters together) that represent different sounds: 1. the spelling “oo” can represent the following sounds: oo in “shoe” uu in “book” u in “flood” eu in “brooch” 2. the spelling “ie” can represent the following sounds: ai in “tie” iy in “field” ee in “believe” aiy in “variety” and so on… Activity: • Try to pronounce the words above, first without the phonetic spelling to help you, then with it. What is the difference? Discussion Questions: 1. Is it a problem for you that spelling and sounds don’t generally match in English words? If yes, how do you handle it? 2. How phonetic is your first language? How closely does the spelling match the sound of words? 2.2 The spelling of a word and its sounds are usually two different things in English. You need to learn two parts of each word: the spelling and the sounds. When you are learning vocabulary, you should learn not only the spelling, but also the sounds of each word – and which syllable is stressed. Life is made more complicated because you then have to predict how each word will change when it comes up against other words. We will find out more about this in Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 2 – Spelling and Sounds For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 2 Page 2 Lesson 4 – Connected Speech. Of course, there are plenty of spelling rules in English – with their numerous exceptions. But these only seem to exasperate learners, who tend to conclude that “English spelling doesn’t make sense!”1 Some English words are phonetic in that the pronunciation is easily guessable from the spelling (List 1), but more often than not, the pronunciation is not obvious or easily guessable (List 2). Examples: List 1: 10 phonetic English words whose pronunciation can be easily guessed – they sound how we expect them to: big, fell, frog, crash, greeting, keep, land, milk, string, upset List 2: 10 English words which are not phonetic – their pronunciation cannot be guessed, but has to be learned. They don’t sound how they look: breakfast, attendance, comfortable, famous, cough, gymnasium, knowledge, straighten, vegetable, wouldn’t Another good example of this problem is the phenomenon of homophones, which are pairs or groups of words that have the same pronunciation, but different spellings and different meanings: e.g. piece /peace poor /pour I’ll /aisle its /it’s one /won pear /pair new /knew plane /plain, etc. This can often lead to confusion, as well as many jokes and puns, which abound in English: e.g. “What kind of chocolate do pilots like?” “Plain!” (plane) Activities: 1. Find 5 more words which are phonetic – i.e. they are spelled how they sound. 2. Find 5 more words which are not phonetic – i.e. they are not spelled how they sound. 3. Find 5 more examples of homophone word pairs. 4. How many English spelling rules do you know? Discuss them with a partner. 2.3 Part of the problem is the high frequency of silent letters in English spelling. These are extra letters which appear in the spelling of a word when we write it, but are not pronounced when we say the word. Many of these are vowel letters, which are not pronounced because the syllable in which they appear is not stressed, and the vowel sound is a Schwa sound rather than a strong vowel sound – or it does not exist. Examples: Which letters are silent? 1. famous 2. attendance 3. knowledge 4. straighten 1 This web page lists thirty spelling rules. Do you know them all? Can you memorise them and use them when you write in English? http://www.phonicslessons.co.uk/englishspellingrules.html. See also: 18.62 Spelling and Sounds – The Magic “e” Rule, Talk a Lot Handbook (English Banana.com, 2009) Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 2 – Spelling and Sounds For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 2 Page 3 Activity: • Find 5 more words in English that contain one – or more – silent letter. 2.4 Students usually pronounce far too many vowel sounds when they speak English. In general, in English spelling there is one vowel letter in each syllable which represents one vowel sound. Learners will often try to pronounce the vowel letter that they see as they think it ought to sound – i.e. with a full sound – when in fact many of these vowel sounds are pronounced as Schwa sounds (weak stress vowel sounds – see below). The result is that there are too many redundant vowel letters in written English, leading to mistakes by students who stress extra vowel sounds in a word as well as the correct stressed vowel sound. This messes up the stress pattern and makes the sound spine harder to hear. This problem is historic and has grown up over hundreds of years of spoken English. Unlike the proud peoples of other countries, e.g. France and the USA, nobody in the UK has tried to control and tame the spelling of the English language, and as new words have flooded into the language, spelling has expanded to become a history of the development of English, rather than a useful tool for noting down the sounds that we make. Examples: The Schwa Sound gets everywhere in English! In the following common food and drink words the Schwa sounds are in bold. Vowel sounds which are silent are crossed-out: tomato banana potato mineral water lemonade butter chocolate pasta chicken strawberry water vegetable Activity: Look for the hidden Schwa sounds in these words: 1. presenter (of 3 vowel sounds, 2 are Schwa sounds – which ones?) 2. responsibility (of 6 vowel sounds, 3 are Schwa sounds – which ones?) …and in these common shopping vocabulary words: customer groceries promotion assistant delicatessen escalator manager frozen food Discussion Questions: 1. Tell me about the alphabet in your language. Does it have vowels, diphthongs, and consonants? Compare it to the English alphabet. 2. Do words in your first language have silent letters? 2.5 The Schwa sound is the most common vowel sound in English – and the least discussed. The Schwa sound is a short unstressed vowel sound, which is pronounced uh . It is simply an expulsion of air that comes straight from the gut. It sounds like the noise you would make if somebody hit you in the stomach: uh! [The teacher models and students practise making the Schwa sound.] Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 2 – Spelling and Sounds For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 2 Page 4 The Schwa sound is a vowel sound, but one which has been reduced as far as possible. It can be found in the weak stressed syllables of many words, e.g. teacher, arrive, and twice in elephant (see also 2.4, above). As we have seen, one of the main problems in English pronunciation is that students pronounce full vowel sounds which should be Schwa sounds. They look like vowel sounds in the spelling, but are actually Schwa sounds. It is typical of the chaos in English spelling that there is no dedicated vowel letter for the Schwa sound, which is the most common vowel sound of all! Instead we need to use all of the vowel letters, often in different combinations (see above). The Schwa sound is not unique to English, but can be found in many other languages, e.g. Russian and French. Do you have it in your language? If you don’t consciously use the Schwa sound in English at present, then you are definitely pronouncing a lot of unnecessary vowel sounds when you speak. Two top tips: 1. Notice places where Schwas often appear, e.g. suffixes (“-tion”, “-ment”, “-ance”, etc.) and function words (a, the, for, you, etc.) 2. Be suspicious of long words, e.g. four-syllable words. Only one syllable is stressed in each content word. How many of the rest of the syllables have Schwa sounds? Examples: These words all contain at least one Schwa sound. Find them and repeat each word: slipper buttons trousers underwear necklace glasses pyjamas trainers In a quick test, I examined a text of 201 words. 57 of them contained a Schwa sound – around one quarter. If you read this text without using the vowel sound you would have made at least 57 errors. Your listener would have heard far too many unnecessary vowel sounds, which would have messed up the sound spine, leading to miscommunication and the question: “Sorry, can you say it again, please? I didn’t catch it…” Activities: 1. Find 5 more English words that contain a Schwa sound. 2. Say the word below: permission Which syllable is stressed? Find the Schwa Sound(s). Answer: this word is pronounced: p Mi shn . The middle syllable is stressed, while there is a Schwa sound on each of the other syllables. Note: in the NEA we rarely have to write the Schwa sound because the sound is made naturally when single consonant sounds are pronounced, e.g. p , t , b , etc. In the word “permission” students might try to pronounce “er” and “io”, both of which should be Schwa sounds (see 2.4 above). For example, in the word p Mi shn when we say p we hear the Schwa sound too. It naturally follows the p sound. This is called an embedded Schwa sound (see Glossary for more details). Discussion Questions: 1. Were you aware of the Schwa sound? Have you learned about it before? If yes, where and when? 2. Do you use the Schwa sound in your language? What are the similarities and differences in how you use it, compared with English? 3. Do you have a problem with pronouncing the Schwa sound? How can you improve your skill in physically making this sound? How can you increase your understanding of when to use it? Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 2 – Spelling and Sounds For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 2 Page 5 2.6 The glottal stop is not a sound but rather an action – the cutting off of a sound at the moment of making it. This action puts a tiny pause into the flow of sounds as you speak. We make a glottal stop by closing the glottis for a moment. The glottis is the small space at the top of our throat, in between the vocal cords. When you close it the air flow is stopped for a brief moment, and the previous sound is cut short – clipped. It is possible to learn to control the glottis – to open and close it – since this is only a physical action. It’s like learning to click your fingers, or whistle. It might take some practise, but it can be learned. [The teacher models the glottal stop and students practise: late night Lei_ Nai_ ] The glottal stop is common in Standard Pronunciation, as well as in English spoken with an accent, e.g. a London accent. The glottal stop is not unique to English, but can be found in many other languages, e.g. Chinese, German, and Arabic. If you are not using glottal stops, your spoken English won’t sound as natural and smooth as it could, because you are pronouncing too many consonant sounds, especially t, d, and k . This will slow down your speech and mess up the stress pattern and the sound spine. Remember that the glottal stop is not a sound – a vowel, diphthong, or consonant sound – but rather an action; it’s something that we do when we want to get rid of cc sound connections from our speech (see Glossary for more details). It is written as _ in the NEA – the underscore implying that there is something missing (i.e. an unnecessary consonant sound). I’m afraid neither the Schwa Sound nor the glottal stop can be avoided if you want to speak like a native speaker. Both have to be – and can be – learned and mastered. Examples: 1. “We ate out late last night.” can mean making five glottal stops: wi Yei_ Au_ Lei_ Lar_ Snai_ vv cv cc cc cc vc vv vc vc vc Four of the five sound connections are now vc, where none was before. It doesn’t matter if we lose the t sound because the vowel sounds are the most important sounds in these four stressed syllables. 2. “ a lot, lot worse” in normal Standard Pronunciation (e.g. a politician) = uh Lo_ Lo_ Wers vc cc cc vc vc vc Activities: 1. Practise the phrases above – both without and with glottal stops. 2. Practise the following phrases – both without and with glottal stops: fight night blood brother rude dog book club week day heart to heart 3. Find more English words or phrases where we need to use a glottal stop, e.g. “completely” = km Plee_ lii Discussion Questions: 1. Were you aware of the glottal stop in English before this lesson? 2. Do you use the glottal stop in your language? What are the similarities and differences in how you use it, compared with English? 3. Do you have a problem with the glottal stop? How can you improve your glottal stop technique? Are you prepared to practise the technique over and over again until you have completely mastered it? If not, why not? Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 2 – Spelling and Sounds For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 2 Page 6 2.7 We need to combine the written alphabet and the phonetic alphabet into one New English Alphabet (NEA). We need a new written English alphabet. The old one (a, b, c, etc.) is not fit for purpose because it doesn’t contain enough letters (especially vowel letters) to adequately represent all of the 48 sounds of English. We cannot write phonetically – as we speak – with this alphabet. It allows us to write words, but we speak syllable by syllable, not word by word. It doesn’t show stressed syllables, but it is vital for us to know which syllables are stressed. It doesn’t show the “hidden” features of spoken English – Schwas and glottal stops – but if we don’t use these features our pronunciation will be much worse, and communication will be reduced. We also need a new phonetic alphabet. The widely-used IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) was invented in the 19th Century and is no longer fit for purpose because it cannot be easily typed on a keyboard or keypad, or shared electronically. Also the strange and unfamiliar symbols add an extra burden for busy students and can put them off learning about pronunciation altogether. We looked at the problem in 2.1, above: The old written alphabet has 26 letters – but there are 48 sounds in English. The old written alphabet has 5 vowel letters – but there are 23 different vowel sounds in English. The NEA provides the remedy to both problems, because it allows us to write phonetically, representing the sounds we make when we speak. It is a true alphabet. It also clearly shows individual syllables, stressed syllables, Schwas, and glottal stops. Examples: 1. In the NEA there is one written identifier (ID) for each of the 48 different sounds. Each sound always has the same ID. The letters “ei” are always pronounced ei , like “train”; the letter “a” is always pronounced a like “cat”, etc. [Look at the NEA handout.] Features of the NEA: • Each ID matches a sound • Each sound always has the same ID • A capital letter always indicates a stressed syllable – not a new sentence or proper noun, etc. • Apart from that, punctuation remains the same – we still use full stops, commas, question marks, etc. • Schwas and glottal stops can be seen • It can be typed on a keyboard or keypad because it uses the Roman alphabet (a, b, c, etc.) • This alphabet is already familiar to learners of English – there are no new symbols to decode • You can write the way you speak – so when I read your writing I “hear” your voice in my head 2. [The teacher models each of the 48 different sounds and the students repeat them, making notes to help them remember each sound.] 3. Compare the IPA and NEA spellings of these transport words. Which spelling is easier to read? Why? Which helps you more to understand the sounds in each word? Why? What is the difference? Normal Spelling (Roman Alphabet): NEA Spelling: IPA Spelling: journey Jer nii LDÇw‰WKåáL= engine En jin LDÉåKÇwfåL= garage Ga rij LDÖôKêáÇwL= Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 2 – Spelling and Sounds For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 2 Page 7 aeroplane Eir r plein LDÉ]KêÉKéäÉfåL= motorway Meu t wei LDã]rKí]KïÉfL= tyre Taiy Lí~f]L= Activities: 1. Write your first name using the NEA: _____________________________________ 2. Write some more transport words using the NEA: a) car _____________________________________ b) bike _____________________________________ c) station _____________________________________ d) airport _____________________________________ 3. Look at the following Tips for Working with the NEA. Match the first half of a sentence with the second half. Which tips are going to be the most helpful for you? Tips for Working with the NEA: 1. Don’t expect the sounds of English… 2. Focus on learning the vowel sounds… 3. There will be an initial outlay of time and effort in learning the NEA, but learning is intuitive – 4. We can afford to get some consonant sounds wrong, or leave a few out… 5. When a syllable comes before a punctuation mark, e.g. a comma or full stop… 6. If a written text in the NEA looks strange and hard to read… a) …but we must get the correct vowel sound on the correct stressed syllable. b) …to be the same as in your first language. c) …try reading each syllable slowly, pronouncing all of the sounds fully – then getting faster and faster, and using the stress. d) …because consonant sounds may be similar to those in your language. e) …the NEA gets easier the more you use it, because the sounds always look the same. f) …the final consonant sound of that syllable can be pronounced in full, because there is nothing for it to connect to. Discussion Questions: 1. Do you know all of the sounds of English in the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)? If yes, where, when, and how did you learn it? If no, why haven’t you learned it? Do you recognise any of the symbols? 2. Do you think that you will be able to learn to write using the NEA… a) individual words, b) sentences including the features of connected speech? If not, what will stop you from learning this? 3. What are the potential difficulties for you in learning the NEA? How will you overcome them? What is easy for you and feels natural? 4. Is it important to you to be able to spell well in English? Why? /Why not? Does bad spelling obstruct communication? How? Homework: • Study the NEA Handout. Learn the IDs and sounds that they represent. Practise making the sounds. • Translate words into the NEA… a) 10 household things, e.g. “guitar”, b) 10 everyday actions, e.g. “eat”.