Objectives and competences
The objective of this course is to understand the basic principles of the English sound system and the ability to distinguish between sounds and recognise forms of interference, to be able to recognise sound features in the authentic speech of both major English accents (British English and American English), to be able to apply the acquired knowledge in one’s own English as a foreign language.
Content (Syllabus outline)
• Vocal organs.
• Production of sounds (terminology, phonemic and partly also phonetic transcription).
• Distinctive features giving phonemes their names.
• Syntagmatic relationships between phonemes.
• Vowel system of long and short pure vowels and diphthongs, the vocalic triangle, rules of speech production, weak forms of vowels.
• Consonants according to place and manner of production (plosives, fricatives, affricates; nasals, liquids, approximants), the relationship between voiced and voiceless, lenis and fortis sounds.
• Variants depending on position in the stream of speech (assimilation, elision,…).
• Word stress in English (including compounds).
• Sentence stress and sentence intonation – tone groups in different types of sentence (different modalities).
• Elements of acoustic phonetics.
Learning and teaching methods
• lectures (method of explanation and clarification with final discussion),
• lab work:
- auditory and articulatory; individual and in pairs,
- analysis of sounds in spoken texts, phonemic transcription of written texts.
Intended learning outcomes - knowledge and understanding
On completion of this course the student will be able to
• distinguish between:
- phonetics (the study of speech sounds)
- phonology (speech sounds in larger units)
- the phoneme and allophone,
• correct their pronunciation of speech sounds and their variants,
• master the system of English vowels and consonants, the way they behave in different contexts, the phonemic (and partly phonetic) transcription of spoken words and sentences, word stress and sentence stress and intonation,
• explore theoretical issues, i.e. phonetic terminology and the description of speech,
• master the basics of acoustic phonetics.
Intended learning outcomes - transferable/key skills and other attributes
• Knowledge of the basic principles of the pronunciation of English in relation to actual speech enables the student to form a critical attitude toward his/her pronunciation of English as a foreign language and constantly improve it.
• Language learning at higher levels of grammar.
Readings
• Cruttenden, A. 2001: Gimson’s Pronunciation of English, Edward Arnold, sixth edition, London.
• Roach, P. 2001: English Phonetics and Phonology, Cambridge University Press, third edition.
• O'Connor, J. D. 1973: Intonation of Colloquial English, Longman, second edition, London.
Ladefoged, P 1995: Elements of Acoustic Phonetics, University of Chicago Press, second edition.
Prerequisits
Attendance of 80 % and participation in the course and the completion of individual homework assignments are prerequisites for taking the written exam
Additional information on implementation and assessment • class attendance
• active class participation
• written exam
