4. Articulatory settings. Articulatory settings in English and Russian: comparison and contrast. Problems of foreign language acquisition.

Although the speech apparatus is the same with all humans, speakers do not use the full of its potential. Every language suggests certain manner of articulation, i.e. certain positions and movements of speech organs used by speakers of this language and tightly connected with its phonetic system. Here we can speak about articulatory settings of a language.

The articulatory settings of a language can be described through the following characteristics:

– activity, – localization, (eng- back, rus- front) – typical movements of speech organs. (the tongue - the most active; eng- move from the lower jaw upper alvelour; rus- между зубами)

As for localization, the Russian articulatory settings are the following:

1. The tip of the tongue is positioned against the lower teeth. 2. The middle part of the tongue is a little raised and advanced forward. 3. The lips are a bit protruded.

Finally, the typical movements of the speech organs are the following:

1. The tongue moves forward towards the lower teeth, touching them with the tip.

2. The tongue-tip moves upward towards the hard palate .

3. Light, smooth movements: from position 1 to the vocalic position (dental consonants + front vowels); from position 2 to the vocalic position (palatal consonants + front vowels). Articulation settings: 1) Statics - neutral position of speech organs ( when the speaker is silent) 2) Dynamics - position of articulation in sound to sound

The Russian articulatory settings: 1) The front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate 2) The tip of tongue is toward and it touched the lower teeth 3) The lips are slightly rounded The English articulatory settings:

1) Energetic, forceful articulation

2) The tip of the tongue tends to be back-retracted

3) The lips are spread and pressed against the upper teeth

4) The tip of the tongue is positioned against the lower alveoli and doesn’t touch it

Problems of foreign language acquisition.

The articulatory settings of a language together with its prosody (rhythm and intonation) comprise the phonetic settings of a language. Thus, «good» pronunciation presupposes the right use of both articulatory and prosodic settings. The differences between sounds which do not exist (are not meaningful) in the native language (e.g. long/short vowels in Russian) are not perceived by the learners unless specially worked through. The sound characteristics which do not distinguish meaning remain “unheard” by learners.

Thus, teaching pronunciation appears to be quite a problem. The question is how to teach students new phonetic settings (the one of the TL). Here are a few basic strategies applied in teaching pronunciation today:

− imitation;

− contrasting the SL and TL positions of speech organs;

− familiarizing learners with the new phonetic settings (building the phonetic system of the TL) by focusing on the crucial differences between the systems and contrasting the distinctive features of sounds, rhythm and intonation of the two systems.