Cambridge Delta Course LSA 1 – System – Phonology

Cambridge Delta Course
LSA 1 – System – Phonology

Developing B2 learners' awareness of assimilation and elision to help them
more easily understand and produce speech.











Candidate's name: Theo Navarro

Centre Number: GR108

Candidate Number: 7

Number of words: 2084





Table of Contents
Introduction 3
1.1 Pardon? 3
Analysis 4
2.1 When words come together. 4
2.2 Assimilation. 4
2.3 Elision 5
3.1 Issues and possible solutions regarding Assimilation. 6
3.2 Issues and possible solutions regarding Elision. 7
Bibliography 9






Introduction


2 Pardon?

Since becoming a teacher, I have noticed that many B2 students have
relatively few issues with pronunciation of individual words, having had
thorough practice and exposure at lower levels. The Council of Europe, in
their CEFR descriptors, state several times that B2 learners should be able
to understand native speakers of English with ease, and be able to
communicate with them in a way that doesn't pose difficulties in
understanding. (Schneider, Peter, Lenz , & Günther, 2004, pp. 12, 24, 27,
30, 49, 55, 56, 57, 62)

However, even with individual words being pronounced "correctly," there
is still something "unnatural" about most learners' pronunciation at the
beginning of an Intermediate course. Roach (2009, p.120) described a
similar phenomenon with machines designed to produce what he called
"Mechanical Speech." Roach describes the product as "practically
unintelligible."

Roach (2009 p.120) maintained that the biggest difference between
"mechanical speech" and authentic human speech is that of connected speech
features. While he does not specifically mention assimilation and elision
as deterrents to comprehension, they are essential aspects of the things
mentioned in the CEFR descriptors mentioned above. Connected speech,
according to Roach, is divided into four sub-groups. Underhill (1994 pp.58-
93), on the other hand, goes into more detail, splitting those 4 sub-groups
into 9 sub-groups, though the areas covered are essentially the same, with
Kelly (2000 pp.108-121) bridging the gap between them, including elements
of both Roach's and Underhill's subgroupings.

All three of these authors maintain that assimilation and elision are
factors of connected speech that affect learners' comprehension and
production, with other factors being agreed on by one two or all of these
authors, though they do not make reference to at which specific level these
become important factors.







Analysis




2.1 When words come together.

It seems to be universally accepted that words are influenced by the
words around them and do not exist in a vacuum. These relationships between
words, or these changes, are what we refer to as "connected speech" and can
be contrasted against words pronounced in isolation (e.g. in dictionary
entries).

Underhill (1994, p.58) defines connected speech as "a flow of sounds
which are modified by a system of simplifications though which phonemes are
connected, grouped and modified."

In this essay I will be discussing Assimilation and Elision, as I
believe they are the most significant sub-groups for learners of this
level, due to the fact that words pronounced in isolation in coherent
utterances create difficulties for me and other native speaker teachers I
have known when listening to students speak at length.


2.2 Assimilation.



Assimilation, according to Kelly (2000, p. 109) is the modification of
phonemes, both across word-boundaries and within words. Underhill (1994)
states that these modifications cause sounds to become similar or
identical, to each other. All three authors mentioned above state that
assimilation is more common in rapid colloquial speech (e.g. native
speakers talking to each other informally as friends) than in careful
connected speech (e.g. a newscaster on Euronews or BBC World reading from a
teleprompter), and Underhill (1994) presents these as polar contrasts of
each other.

Roach maintains that consonants can change in three ways during
assimilation, as detailed below in an extract from (Roach, 2009):

i. Differences in place of articulation

ii. Differences in manner of articulation

iii. Differences in voicing.

For example, when the alveolar consonants /t/, /d/ and /n/ are the
final consonant of a word, and either /p/, /b/, or /m/ are the initial
consonant of the following word, these sounds become bilabial, i.e.
assimilation of place. The following chart, taken from Underhill (1994,
p.60), illustrates this point perfectly:

"Ten pin bowling "/ten pɪn "/tem pɪm bəʊliŋ/ "
" "bəʊliŋ/ " "
"In bed "/ɪn bed/ "/ɪm bed/ "
"Good boy "/gʊd bɔɪ/ "/gʊb bɔɪ/ "


The consonant /d/ can also assimilate into the consonant /g/, as is
the case with phrases such as "bad guy," where most people would say /bæg
gaɪ/ rather than /bæd gaɪ/ in rapid colloquial speech. This happens when
the initial consonant of the following word is either /g/ or /k/. This
would also be considered assimilation of place.

The dental fricatives /s/ and /z/ can change into /ʃ/ and /ʒ/,
respectively, when the initial consonant of the proceeding word is /ʃ/.

"This shines "/ðɪs ʃɑɪnz/ "/ðɪʃ ʃɑɪnz/ "
"These shine "/ði:z ʃɑɪn/ "/ði:ʒ ʃɑɪn/ "



The consonant /n/ can also assimilate to /ŋ/ when the initial
consonant of the following word is either /g/ or /k/. As can be seen when
saying "been going" in rapid colloquial speech ( /bɪŋ gəuɪŋ/ instead of
/bɪn gəuɪŋ/).



We can also see examples of consonants coalescing, as Underhill (1994),
Kelly (2000), and Roach (2009) put it, or combining into one. The
consonants /d/, at the end of the preceding word, and /j/, at the beginning
of the proceeding word, fuse together and form /dʒ/. Similarly, /t/ and /j/
coalesce to become /tʃ/.

"Hard year "/hɑ:d jɪə/ "/hɑ: dʒɪə/ "
"Bright yellow "/brɑit jeləʊ "/brɑi tʃeləʊ "
"house. "haʊs/ "haʊs/ "


Voicing of consonants can also be observed as changing when sounds
are assimilated, such as the voiced /v/ becoming the voiced /f/ when
appearing before an initial unvoiced /t/. For example, "I don't have time"
would normally be said as /ɑɪ dəʊnt æf tɑɪm/ and not as /ɑɪ dəʊnt æv tɑɪm/
in rapid colloquial speech.






2.3 Elision



Kelly (2000, p.110) describes elision as "the disappearance of a
sound" and maintains that elision is the result of "an economy of effort"
on the part of the speaker.

The most frequently elided consonants in English are /t/ and /d/
within consonant clusters.

Complex consonant clusters, as well as simple ones, according to both
Roach and Kelly, tend to be simplified through elision.

E.g. The film title "The Sixth Sense" is usually pronounced as /ð sɪk sens/
and not /ð sɪksθ sens/

Kelly (2000, p.110) also states that that schwa (/ə/) has a tendency
to disappear in unstressed syllables, as in the example of "The Sixth
Sense" above; and both he and Roach (2009, p.127) say that the /v/ in "of"
is often elided when it precedes a consonant. For example, the film title
"The Lord of the Rings" is often pronounced as /ð lɔ:d ə ð rɪŋz/ and not /ð
lɔ:d ɐv ð rɪŋz/.

Roach states that another common form of elision is the loss of weak
vowels after the consonant /p/, /t/, and /k/. This means that words such as
"perhaps" are pronounced as /pəhæps/ and not as /perhæps/.






Issues and suggestions for teaching.


3.1 Issues and possible solutions regarding Assimilation.



Many learners might find assimilation to be confusing, either by not
noticing the assimilations at all, or expressing assimilated phonemes that
they regularly come across in written form. This could lead to confusion on
the learners' part, such as learners understanding /bæg gaɪ/ as "bag guy"
instead of "bad guy", which mean two very different things.

Learners who come from an L1 with different assimilation patterns to
English may continue to use these patterns when speaking English, which
according to Underhill (1994), could prove to be difficult for other
English speakers to comprehend and follow. For example, learners might say
/brɑj jeləʊ haʊs/ instead of /brɑi tʃeləʊ haʊs/, causing confusion or
creating a need for the speaker to repeat themselves without using features
of connected speech in order for listeners to understand

One way to combat this specific issue is to raise learners' awareness
of what types of assimilation exist in English. If teaching a monolingual
class, this could include elements of contrastive analysis, highlighting
the similarities and differences between types of assimilation in the L1
and the target language. Whether using contrastive analysis or not, it is
imperative that students are made aware of the rules of assimilation in
English in order to combat issues with assimilation in general.

This could be done either deductively, by presenting students with the
rules, or inductively, by presenting students with examples (audio
recordings, transcriptions, or a combination of both) and having students
discover the rules themselves. For example, "Pronunciation Practice
Activities" (Hewings, 2004, pp. 80-82, ex.3.2) includes an activity on
assimilation of /t/, /d/, and /n/ which has both inductive and deductive
stages. It has the teacher providing some information, and guiding students
to discover the rest.

While awareness is essential for learners to be able to understand
rapid colloquial speech, it alone is not enough. Learners who do not
assimilate in any way recognized by English speakers tend to sound
"finicky, over-precise, [and] too careful," according to Underhill (1994,
p.61). While this does not affect intelligibility, this does require the
listener to hang on to every single word of a conversation, which is not
natural in rapid, colloquial speech.



In my experience, once learners are aware of the rules of
assimilation, repetition and controlled practice is what needs to happen
next. For example, having learners repeat snippets of conversations (in
pairs) with the goal of emulating the recorded speakers is a great way of
helping students become accustomed to assimilating words together.
Following this, another thing that has worked to some level of success in
my classrooms has been for the teacher to read a small paragraph without
assimilating any words, with students identifying where and how
assimilation needed to happen on their own copies of the short text. The
students can then try to read the paragraph to each other themselves using
the assimilations that they had prepared. What this type of activity does
is allows students to use their knowledge of the rules in a controlled and
practical way.

Moving on from such controlled practice, the teacher can set
secondary goals to speaking activities. For example, asking students to
focus on using assimilation while simulating an interview between a
journalist and a celebrity will make them sound more natural, and the
product will sound more authentic. This could also serve as an extra goal
for the students to achieve, as many of my B2 students have expressed
feelings of boredom when the speaking activities I give them are too narrow
in their focus.





3.2 Issues and possible solution regarding Elision.


Many learners tend to have issues with complex consonant clusters, trying
to pronounce every consonant sound perfectly. They often "stumble" over the
consonants, reducing how well they are understood by other English
speakers. For example, saying "The Lord of The Rings" without eliding
consonants is complicated for many of my learners, and has led to a number
of students needed to repeat themselves once or twice to get it right in my
lessons.

Many learners already use elision in some form or another, and need to be
made aware of this. For example, at B2 level learners undoubtedly know the
word "comfortable", and they also know that it's pronounced as /'kʌmftəbəl/
and not /'kʌmfɔ:rtæbɪl/. They're already eliding the /ɔ:r/ sound that the
word appears to have. Increasing their awareness of how they're already
using elision serves to make the learners thing of elision as a more
"normal" thing, and not "lazy" behavior.

As for complex consonant clusters, one way of helping learners is to
present learners with a list of phrases that produce these clusters, and
have the learners read them to each other at varying speeds. When the
learners understand the rules of elision and have practiced comprehending
speech that uses elision, have the learners start speaking very slowly, and
then slowly increase speed until the only way to comprehensibly communicate
the utterances is to simplify them with elision.

Roach (2009, p.127) states that while learners need to be aware of elision
in order to understand native speakers, as many of the sounds they will
expect to hear will not be pronounced, it is not necessary for learners to
learn how to elide sounds themselves. Underhill (1994, p.62), while
agreeing with Roach on how awareness will improve learners' comprehension,
also goes on to say that learners can eventually learn to elide sounds
themselves. One observation that I have made is that students who have the
ability to use features of connected speech such as elision tend to get
higher scores in the speaking sections of their IELTS and TOEFL exams, and
have had fewer issues with communicating with native speakers who served as
guest speakers in our lessons.


As I suggested for assimilation above, integrating connected speech
practice into regular speaking activities has been successful for my
learners. Phonology is a system which cannot be separated from speaking
skills, and integrating the two together is a much more natural way of
practicing phonological features in general.








Bibliography

Hewings, M. (2004). Pronunciation Practice Activities. Cambridge University
Press.

Kelly, G. (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Longman.

Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology - A practical course (4th
ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Schneider, Peter, Lenz , & Günther. (2004). A bank of descriptors for self-
assessment in European Language Portfolios. Council of Europe,
Language Policy Division.

Underhill, A. (1994). Sound Foundations. Macmillan Heinemann.