Preparatory Test 3

1. Listen to the words and write them down in transcription. Lay stress-tone marks.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

2. Transcribe the following words. Lay stress-tone marks.

vowel lateral

consonant obstruction

classification nasal cavity

occlusive sonorant

constrictive reduction

3. Lay stress-tone marks, transcribe and give tonograms of the following:

I’m Carol Fenton.

I’m Mrs. Hunt’s sister.

This evening my sister’s family is coming to celebrate my nephew’s birthday.

I’ve planned a small party but Simon doesn’t know about it yet.

It’s a surprise.

4. Listen to the conversation, write the utterances down and lay stress-tone marks.

Mrs. Fenton: Hello, Sheila.

Sheila: How do you do, Mrs. Fenton.

Mrs. Fenton: Please, call me Carol.

Now sit down everyone.

I’ve made some tea.

It’s in the kitchen.

Can Jane help me?

Mrs. Hunt: Of course, she can.

Preparatory test 4

1. Listen to the words and write them down in transcription. Lay stress-tone marks.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

2. Transcribe the following words. Lay stress-tone marks.

palatalisation spread

nucleus strong

falling weak

rising raise

pre-head element

3. Lay stress-tone marks, transcribe and give tonograms of the following:

My aunt and uncle are so kind. They remember my birthday every year. I’ve already received one present. Mum’s parents have sent me two pounds.

4. Listen to the conversation, write the utterances down and lay stress-tone marks.

Mrs. Hunt: Hello, Sheila.

Sheila: How are your sons?

Mrs. Fenton: Tim’s still living with us.

Mrs. Hunt: Has he finished university yet?

Mrs. Fenton: Yes, he has. He’s worked here in London for eighteen months.

Pedagogical classification of pronunciation errors and problems

I. Most important pronunciation errors or problems

A. Those which occur most frequently

1. pronunciation of a particular phoneme (e.g. /r/as [rr]).

2. mispronunciation of a common morpheme (e.g. past tense -ed as [d] after voiceless stops, as in worked, slopped).

3. mispronunciation of a common lexical item (e.g. she, can't).

B. Those which are the most serious, i.e. have the greatest effect on intelligibility

(1) stress placed on wrong words or syllables of words.

(2) misleading intonation (e.g. high pitched intonation on old information; a sharp rise or fall, or a separate intonation pattern on each word).

(3) loss of one or more final consonants (e.g. in can't, sent, dusk).

II. Pronunciation errors or problems that will benefit most from remediation

A. Those whose improvement will have the greatest effect on performance

(1) a very soft or monotonous voice.

(2) incorrect stress or intonation.

(3) loss of final consonants in lexical items.

B. Those for which there is the greatest chance of successful remediation, i.e. those which will be the easiest to correct

1. a very soft or monotonous voice.

2. misleading intonation.

3. stress on an incorrect word.

III. Errors or problems identified by the learners of their language needing attention

A. Stereotyped errors

1. unreduced vowels.

2. substitutions such as /i:/and//, /l/and /r/, /s/ and //.

3. loss of -ed and -(e)s endings.

B. Errors causing embarrassment or obvious miscommunication

1. incorrect stress or intonation.

2. mispronunciation of common words (e.g. she, his).

1. Unintential profanity caused by phonemic substitutions (e.g. opening of the initial consonant in sit or lowering/laxing of the vowel in sheet).

C. Items they would like to pronounce correctly

1. new words, phrases or sentences which they have recendy encountered in their reading or picked up from friends or the media.

2. common or favorite expressions.

3. key words in their field of specialization.

IV. Errors or problems in areas of language that are of importance for the learner's social, ocademic_r or professional needs

A. Errors or problems in communicational pragmatics

1. inappropriate voice quality (e.g. talking on the telephone socially or professionally, disagreeing with someone in different social, academic or professional circumstances).

2. incorrect or misleading intonation.

3. failure to use prosodic backgrounding and foregrounding to indicate the informational structure of messages.

B. Errors or problems related to specialized areas of language

1. stress placed on the wrong syllables of key words in the learner's field of specialization.

2. lack of elision and other coarticulatory effects in commonly used or key phrases.

3. commonly mispronounced words or expressions needed for social, academic or professional encounters.