Week 3: Jeopardy for Pronunciation (Review)

Jeopardy for Pronunciation

It's time to review what we have studied the first two classes.

Let's review the class contents with a Jeopardy Game.

Visit the following link:

http://clear.msu.edu/quizbreak/play.php?board=35074-1274464903

Seven Tips to Improve your Accent

Please check the tips provided on this Web-page, and decide which can be applied to your particular learning needs and situation. Do not try to do too many things at a time; it’s better to begin with one “problem” and master it, than to try to cover many things and not succeed in any of them.

http://www.eslmania.com/students/accent_reduction/AccentTips.htm

Read rest of entry

Week 2: What does __________ mean?

Now it is time to start working on vowel recognition. In real life, words will not be written for you, so you must rely on your ears and sound discrimination.

The following exercise is then a recognition exercise of vowel sounds. Whether you are in class working with your partners or at home working by yourself, answer the following question for every single pair of contrastive words out loud.

In this oral exercise, we will practice with these four vowel sounds /iy/, /ı/, /ey/, and /ε/. Take a look at the example:

What does _________ mean?

Ex. leave: the opposite of stay

Ex: live: the opposite of die

1. scene / sin
2. miss / mess
3. deed / did / dead
4. heal / hill / hell
5. mitt / met / meat / mate
6. heat / hit / hate
7. beads / bids / beds
8. sweet / sweat
9. bean / been
10. it / eat / eight
11. bait / beet / bit
12. feet / fate / fit
13. wit / wait / wet

Now, as the second part of this exercise, try to transcribe the words above:

1. scene /siyn/
2. sin /sın/
3. miss /mıs/
4. mess /mεs/
5. deed /diyd/
6. did /dıd/
7. dead /dεd/

Continue with the rest of the words in the first exercise, and then compare with a partner or ask your teacher to take a look at your transcriptions.

Get the answers to the transcription exercise here:

http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=147994

Practicing with /ey/ and recognizing transcriptions

http://www.esltower.com/PRONUNCIATION/interactive/Phonetic%20Vowel%20Sound%20Quiz%20-%20EI%20-%20output/quizmaker.html

Read rest of entry

Week 2: The English Vowels /ey/ and /ε/

/ey/ -a Spanish-Like Vowel

If your mother tongue is Spanish, pronouncing this particular vowel will not be much trouble. What you have to be careful with is which words are actually pronounced with this vowel sound. Take a look at these sample words to consider:

face race case trace place phase

came fame name same tame

make take fake quake rake

wait rain mail day play stay x-ray

rein eight neighbor vein

break great

they grey

Now that you have practiced with the words above, take a look at these sample sentences:

1. Her face looks great.
2. The famous car race takes place at eight.
3. Wait awhile; it's going to rain.
4. The mail comes every single day.
5. His neighbor's case is definitely fake.
6. They'll stay up late to play that grey table game.
7. The apes ate grapes and stayed by the lake.
8. That lady waited eighty minutes at the table.
9. Kate had a terrible toothache and a bad backache.
10. Gail was able to paint the reddish symbol.
11. Baseball is a fun game for some people.
12. Raisins, baking soda, and flour are ingredients for a cake.

/ε/ = Epsilon

Epsilon is not at all similar to the regular Spanish /e/. Now that you have studied the concept of "lax" and "tense," we can state that /ε/ is a lax sound, and that feature makes it different from /e/ in Spanish. In other words, /e/ is a tense vowel whereas epsilon is a lax sound.

What's the difference between /I/ and /ε/?

The difference between these two vowel sounds relies on how much you open your moutn. When pronouncing the vowel /I/, your mouth needs not to be as close as a tense "i," but it has to be less open than /ε/.

Sid / said

sit / set

big / beg

bitter / better

rid / red

pin / pen

here / hair

fill / fell

bill / bell

hid / head

lid / led

been / Ben

miss / mess

lift / left

mitt / met

CONTRASTIVE WORDS: /ɪ/ vs. /ɛ/

Now read the following sentences:

1. Sid got rid of his red pen.
2. Sit here while they set a bigger table for dinner.
3. I met Ben when he fell on his head.
4. Bitter and better are spelt similarly.
5. This is a mess: hair on the mitt and a bill over the bell.
6. They hid Miss Bell's pin.
7. I've been trapped in a lift.
8. Any egg is OK for the experiment.
9. The elephant breaks the fence at times.
10. Bread is the best food.
11. Seven dead men were found next to the river.
12. I wrote a letter with a red pen!

For some extra information on epsilon, origins and use in the International Phonetic Alphabet, visit the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon

To see the actual position of epsilon and the rest of the vowels in English, take a look at these twe pages:

http://www.uoregon.edu/~l150web/vowel.html

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/linguistics/resources/phonetics/vowelmap/vowelmap.html

http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/folkchart.htm

In order to get much more familiarized with consonants and vowels in English, visit this other Web link:

http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm

For further practice and homework on these souds, work over here:

Contrast between /I/ and /ε/ http://www.shiporsheep.com/page2.html

Contrast between /ε/ and /ey/ http://www.shiporsheep.com/page4.ht

Audio Practices

Audio practice for epsilon: http://www.pronuncian.com/sounds.aspx

Audio practice for /ey/ http://www.pronuncian.com/sounds.aspx

Audio practice for lax "i" http://www.pronuncian.com/sounds.aspx

Audio practice for tense "i" http://www.pronuncian.com/sounds.aspx

Read rest of entry

Week 1: The concept of Tense and Lax in English Vowels

The Concept of Tense and Lax in English Vowels

Vowels in English can be characterized in various ways; one of these ways is the lack or presence of tension in the muscles in your jaw and chin. The presence of tension or tenseness refers to "tense vowels" such as the tense "i," and the absence of tension refers to "lax vowels" such as the lax "i."

Tense "i" is represented by this phonetic vowel: /iy/. On the other hand, lax "i" is represented by this other symbol: /ı/

Tense "i" examples: /iy/

sheep /ʃiyp/

eat /iyt/

beat / beet /biyt/

deed /diyd/

feet /fiyt/

heat /hiyt/

meat / meet /miyt/

Pete /piyt/

read / reed /riyd/

seat /siyt/

Lax "i" examples: /ı/

ship /ʃıp/

it /ıt/

bit /bıt/

did /dıd/

fit /fıt/

hit /hıt/

mitt /mıt/

pit /pıt/

rid /rıd/

sit /sıt/

VIDEO EXERCISE: CONTRASTIVE WORDS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE SUBJECT

Let's take a look at the following chart that summarizes which vowels in English are lax and which ones are tense:

https://www.msu.edu/course/asc/232/Charts/Tense-Lax_Vowels.html

To fully explore the concept of the lack or presence of tension in vowels, you may read the article on this Web-page:

http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Phonetics/Vowels/Phonetics4e.html

To practice with the difference in vowel quality between /iy/ and /ı/ work on the following links:

http://www.shiporsheep.com/page1.html

http://www.paulnoll.com/Books/Clear-Speech/Clear-p09-vowels-exercises.html

Exercise for homework:

http://esl.about.com/od/speakingenglish/a/pr_shortv.htm

TRANSCRIPTION EXERCISE WITH LAX /ɪ/

In order to become familiarized with the phonetic symbols you are studying, transcribe these very common words pronounced with /ı/. The first four are given to you as examples.

in /ın/

him /hım/

miss /mıs/

quick /kwık/

is

sit

list

inch

if

did

fish

still

with

live

since

bring

his

give

ship

fill

this

think

wind

six

which

big

sing

wish

if

hill

spring

milk

will

kill

trip

skin

Here you will find the answers:

http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=149731

Read rest of entry