Phonetics and phonology, winter-term course, KBFON Course ...

Phonetics and phonology, winter-term course, KBFON
Course description
The course aims to upgrade students´ command of English pronunciation and to raise their awareness of
theoretical issues such as model accents of English, different transcription systems and pronouncing dictionaries,
and differences between the Czech and British inventory of segmental and suprasegmental features. Students
become familiar with different sources and methods suitable for teaching pronunciation to primary and
lowersecondary
learners.
Course format
There are three 90-minute taught sessions, a lecture and a seminar type. Apart from that students are expected to
provide the evidence of approximately 20 hours of online work and 30 hours of independent studies.
Course syllabus:
Session 1
Introduction to phonetics and phonology.
Course outline and course objectives. The familirization with the phonemic
chart (I.P.A.); model pronunciations (British: received pronunciation (R.P.), BBC
English; American: General American), and model transcriptions (British,
American, Czech simplified version).
Pronunciation in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. Word stress
(primary/secondary stress, in function words, in dictionaries).
Classification of speech sounds, sound and spelling correspondence.
The phoneme and minimal pairs. Pronunciation of different sounds in minimal
pairs.
Session 2
The Schwa. The dichotomy of stressed and unstressed syllables, the schwa,
/I/, and /U/.
Weak and strong forms - outline and activities.
Diphthongs. Homophones and homographs.
Variable stress in two-syllable words. Pronunciation of different sounds in
minimal pairs, namely /v/,/w/. Silent letters w, p, t, k, g, h.
English Rhythm.
Pronunciation of grammatical endings (-s, -es, -ed).

Session 3
Classification of consonants. Aspiration. Voiced and unvoiced consonants.
Sentence (contrastive) stress.
Word stress influenced by word formation (preffixes and suffixes).
Intonation (the structure of intonation unit, tones, functions)
Features of connected speech.
Self assessment grid.
Assessment
Assessment involves oral and written part of the test, each for 50%.
Credit requirements
1. Attendance
• Students are expected to attend at least 75% of lessons, that is 6 out of 8 lessons.
Although some exceptions are negotiable with the course teacher under some circumstances, they will be rare.
• Students are expected to do online coursework regularly throughout the course.
2. Participation
Students are expected to
• Participate actively in lessons (If they do not, they will be asked to do extra tasks.).
• Prepare for each lesson, do all assigned work - both oral and written - on time. (Students who fail to
fulfil this duty, will be assigned extra work.)
• Submission of two reading aloud texts including one’s own and your peer comments.
Exam requirements
1. Tests
Students are required to sit two tests, the written and the oral one (the presentation of
Pronunciation Portfolio).
Pass the end-of-term written test. The passing grade is 70%. This test can be retaken
twice. The test draws on both practical and theoretical issues dealt with during the course
following the basics of recommended reading: Roach PeterEnglish Phonetics and
Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983 (or later editions). It also includes
some listening tasks related to pronunciation features.
In the oral test you should prove that you are a good model of English pronunciation when
you read aloud and speak English and that you are aware of theoretical issues related to
pronunciation teaching at primary and lower-secondary level. It involves thepresentation of
Pronunciation Portfolio (PP).
Pronunciation Portfolio (PP) should include
1. All course materials
2. Self-evaluation
Continuous evaluation:
Different pronunciation tasks carried out throughout the term by students.
Final evaluation:
A set of listenings to native English speakers (identifying different pronunciation features)

Recording of one’s own speech and reading aloud and its analysis with one’s own comments
(peer work)
3. Collection of Czech students’ errors in pronunciation be them the errors of university
students or pupils’ errors.
4. Evidence of learning strategies which help the student to acquire better pronunciation
5. Anything else which the author of PP considers fundamental for improving their own
pronunciation.
The exam score breakdown:
written test – 50 points,
oral test – 30 points
recordings and comments – 20 points
The oral exam takes 20 minutes and students are examined in pairs.
Criteria to assess your pronunciation and perception of pronunciation features:
· Pronunciation of individual phonemes
· Rhythm
· Intonation and sentence stress
· Word stress
· Connected speech (how natural your speech including reading aloud sounds)
Basic reading and course material:
ROACH, P. English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1983 (3rd edition, 4th printing).
BOWLER, B., CUNNINGHAM, S. New Headway Pronunciation Course. Upper-
Intermediate. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
VOLÍN, J. IPA-Based Transcription for Czech Students of English. Praha: Univerzita
Karlova, Nakladatelství Karolinum, 2003.
Recommended reading:
BOWLER, B., CUNNINGHAM, S. Headway Upper-Intermediate Pronunciation. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1991.
HANCOCK, M. English Pronunciation in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2003, s. 22, 28, 40-42, 60-65,68-70, 74-93, 92, 106-114.
JONES, D. English Pronouncing Dictionary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006
(17th edition, ed. by Roach, P., Hartman, J., Setter, J.).
SKALIČKOVÁ, A. Fonetika současné angličtiny. (Phonetics of Contemporary English.)
Praha: SPN, 1982, s. 79-96.
WELLS, J. C. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited
(third ed.), 2008.
Recommended websites:
www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/home/htm
http://www.yaelf.com/rp.shtml (Received Pronunciation)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American (General American)
http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm (pronunciation of English phonemes
and their transcription)
http://ebooks.unibuc.ro/filologie/mateescu/pdf/86.pdf (strong and weak forms of grammar
words)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/ (English sounds
and how to form them)
Other recommended sources:
HANCOCK, M.; DONNA, S. English Pronunciation in Use. Intermediate. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978 0521 68752 2
HEWINGS, M. English Pronunciation in Use. Advanced. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978 0521 69373 8
HEWINGS, M. Pronunciation Plus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Student’s Book ISBN 978 0521 57797 7, Teacher’s Manual ISBN 978 0521 57796 0, Audio
CDs (5) ISBN 978 0521 78522 8
BRADFORD, B. ntonation in Context. Student’s Book. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1988, s. 5-33.
CELCE-MURCIA, M.; BRINTON, D. M.; GOODWIN, J.M. eaching Pronunciation. A
Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996, s. 289-371.
GIMSON, A. n Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. London: Arnold, 1989 (4th
ed.), s. 35, 127-146, 289-311.
WELLS, J. C. Intonation. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2004.