1

Saja Elshareif 04/24/2013

Pronunciation in the Communicative Classroom: Teaching the North American Flap

Introduction Although the communicative approach proceeded the audio-lingual method for good reasons, it is evident that some positive effects from the previous teaching method faded away as well. As Levis (2005) puts it, Currently, it seems clear that pronunciation deserves neither fate, either to be unfairly elevated to the central skill in language learning or banished to irrelevance (p.369). Pronunciation, which played a central role in the audiolingual method, has ceased to exist in some institutions as an effort to follow the communicative approach. Perhaps pronunciation is deemed to be a dangerous area because it reminds us of drills, repetition, and accuracy; but not only is pronunciation adaptable to the communicative approach, it is also necessary. While we teach our students that intelligibility is key, how can they possibly be comprehensible without any pronunciation lessons to guide their speech development? The answer is that ELL instructors should make pronunciation part of their curricula, without sacrificing the communicative approach. This paper will provide research on implementing pronunciation lessons in a communicative classroom and will be followed by a report about a completed pronunciation lesson.

The Role of Pronunciation

Levis (2005) frames the ongoing conversation about whether to teach pronunciation in a communicative classroom or not by presenting both sides of the the debate. Levis (2010) also explains that teaching pronunciation is negatively associated with the audio-lingual method which encompasses repetition and exercises and is known to lack meaningful teaching (p.369). Consequently, instructors try avoiding pronunciation completely and focus solely on encouraging students to embrace intelligibility and fluency instead. Therefore, due to the fear of teaching in a way that does not follow communicative standards, instructors find it hard to incorporate pronunciation practice into their curriculum (Lane, 2010). Perhaps the most valuable information that Lane (2010) and Levis (2005) give about the topic is the fact that certain types of errors made in pronunciation can make all the difference between comprehensibility. For this reason alone, assimilating pronunciation is crucial to language learning. According to more recent studies, Lane (2010) relates that Recent years have seen a renewed recognition that pronunciation is a crucial element of effective communication and that pronunciation teaching belongs in mainstream communicative ESL classrooms (p.1). Thus, without being able to be comprehensible in the L2, students negotiation of meaning, overall interaction, and motivation will all be curbed; therefore defeating real communicative learning from taking place.

Lesson Planning Twice a week, I host a program called Coffee Talk: an informal conversation English hour for students that wish to practice speaking. The two students that were present for the lesson were Taiwanese students that have been studying in the U.S. for the past eight months. These students are enrolled in a 1-year accelerated MBA program that is offered to international students of Asian descent. Because the students are completely immersed in the U.S. and have the opportunity to interact with native speakers daily, they constantly encounter many new words,

expressions, and accents. Therefore, students easily compile questions throughout the week and bring them to coffee talk to discuss. At one point, the students discovered hearing a pronunciation feature that seemed odd. They had noticed the "flap" or "tap" heard in the U.S. native pronunciation of the word "bottom." Interestingly, they also brought up a similar sound they often heard in words like "button." Thus, they had discovered the "glottal /t/" as well. As the need presented itself, I decided to construct a 50-minute lesson plan on these two pronunciation features.

Wilner and Feinstein-Whittakers (2010) explanation of the North American flap resounded with many of the other descriptions that I came across when planning my lesson: 1. the feature is a challenge for learners that had studied English outside of the U.S.; 2. Learning the feature or deciding not to use it would not affect intelligibility. This was a concern for me because keeping in line with my principles of teaching, I did not want students to think that I was imposing a feature that would strictly be useful if trying to achieve nativeness. Nonetheless, I chose to stick with the topic as a means of testing my theory of pronunciation being needed in the classroom and because students had specifically asked to practice this particular feature. Lane (2010) provided input about this issue that was helpful when thinking about the goal of the lesson, The flapped pronunciation of /t/ and /d/ is characteristic of North American English but does not occur in British English. [But] because flaps can make words difficult to understand, they should be taught for recognition (p.130). I found this bit of information helpful because it was a reminder that recognition and raising awareness about features that occur is important. Lane (2010) went on to say, for most words however, substitutions of regular /t/ and /d/ are acceptable, and the flap need not to be taught for pronunciation (p. 130). With this information, I was ready and confident to formulate a pronunciation lesson that would have a communicative

goal. This information also helped me to constantly remind my students that the feature did not affect their intelligibility which was the most important learning goal that they should work towards.

I based my lesson plan on Lanes (2010) Tips for Teaching Consonants (p.123). In summary, the tips related a communicative pronunciation approach which included the following components : directing students attention to visible clues; teaching the pronunciation of

communicatively useful words; and integrating the lesson with functional language (Lane, 2010, p.123). I began with description and analysis (See appendix A.) of the feature, first asking students to identify a difference between medial and matter. This was a little difficult for them to do on their own, but after I pronounced the words, they were able to notice what they described sounding like a fast d (as described by Lane (2010) as well) (p.128). After giving students a couple more words, they began to ask whether this feature occurred with every /t/ and /d/ or whether it was in special cases. At this point, I had students turn to listening and discriminating /t/ and /d/ pronounced without a flap and gave them an explanation which was aided with visuals from the University of Iowas phonetics website. The clearest definition I gave them was based on Lanes (2010) description of the feature being a North American feature in which the tip of the tongue quickly taps behind the teeth (p.129). This was very helpful for students and they expressed much interest when seeing the animations from the Univ. of Iowa showing the articulation taking place. In addition, I played a short clip that showed a British speaker of English differentiating between the American and British pronunciation of /t/. This helped students to notice a difference and to recognize the American accent that they had become accustomed to hearing around them.

During the Controlled Practice activity, students were given the IPA symbol for the tap/flap (they were already accustomed to using IPA before). Interestingly, although the students had learned IPA in elementary school, they were unfamiliar with the tapping symbol. Students were then asked to come to the board and transcribe some words that they had been given. This allowed students to differentiate between the types of /t/ or /d/ phonemes that they were hearing. During this time, students worked together and negotiated whether each one was done correctly. Finally, we went over the words together to correct any errors. During this part of the lesson, I felt that the students were happy just to be able to describe and transcribe the feature that they had been hearing. Again, the students were the ones that had suggested the topic, so they were interested in discussing something that they felt they had discovered themselves. Even more so, I noticed that there was a peak in confidence as they noted patterns across the words (i.e. stress) and became increasingly better at hearing the flap.

During the guided practice (see appendix A) section in the lesson, the students were introduced to the glottalized /t/ that they had noticed occurred in button. I gave students the IPA symbol for that feature as well and asked students to discern between pairs of words by transcribing using the new symbols. We proceeded to looking at sentences that had multiple words that included a flap or glottalized /t/.

Finally, during the communicative practice round, we played a game called would you rather. This game gave students the opportunities to go back and forth with one another asking and answering. This tied in with the pronunciation lesson features because by producing output, students were likely to practice and notice the form they had just learned. For example, a question that one of the students asked was, would you rather visit Italy or France which

resulted in the students using a glottalized /t/ at the end of visit and a flap in Italy. Although not every round would require students to use the target forms, the students were able to engage in an activity which recycled some of the new features that they had just seen and been made aware of. Prior to engaging in the activity, students were told that they would be brought back to a discussion in order to see whether their pronunciation had improved and whether they had used the new feature. In order to tie the lesson together, I closed with a discussion which reflected upon the game. I asked students to recall whether every turn had required them to use the flap or glottalized /t/. Students were able to contribute by saying that although it did come up, they realized it was not something that occurred all the time. To aid my discussion, I relied on information from Goh and Burns (2012) and the necessity of differentiation between written and spoken discourse (p.100). I helped students to regain scope of a bigger picture by asking them whether the new feature was something that would affect their writing. The obvious answer was that this feature is something that only occurs in speech. Thus, students began discussing why some forms occurred in speech and not in writing.

Conclusion Perhaps the most important parts of our closing discussion centered was about whether this feature affected comprehensibility. The students had requested to learn this feature even though they knew they were capable of being understood without it. I thought this was interesting and a bit concerning because it seemed that this would be a feature to achieve if one was looking to imitate nativeness. However, this was not the case. At the end of our lesson, students had concluded that it was simply easier to pronounce the /t/ even if Americans did not. They were satisfied with knowing about the feature, being able to explain it, and being aware of it. I felt that

this moment was an epitome for all communicative approach classrooms that were barring pronunciation from being taught. Even if we include pronunciation in our lessons, it is possible that students will embrace intelligibility after all!

References

Goh, Christine C. M. & Burns, Anne. (2012). Teaching Speaking: A Holistic Approach.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-1107648333

Lane, Linda. (2010). Tips for Teaching Pronunciation: A Practical Approach. White Plains: Pearson Education. ISBN: 978-0138136291

Levis, J. M. (2005). Changing contexts and shifting paradigms in pronunciation teaching.TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 369-377.

Phonetics: The Sounds of English and Spanish - The University of Iowa. (n.d.).The University of Iowa. Retrieved April 22, 2013, from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetic

Wilner, Lynda Katz & Feinstein-Whittaker,Marjorie. (2010) Do You Speak American English? SPLIS News, Volume 7:2 (October 2010). (n.d.). TESOL International Association. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://www.tesol.org/news-landingpage/2011/11/03/splis-news-volume-7-2-(october-2010)

Saja Elshareif 4/19/2013 Pronunciation Lesson plan General learning goal of the lesson: Tapping;Glottalized T Students: Intermediate-high http://www.antimoon.com/how/flap-t.htm http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html

Phase 1. Description and analysis: Introduction to Flap

When?(Time) 12:3012:35

What? (topic) Flap

How? (method) A.T writes down material and matter on the board and asks

Media? White board and marker

Who? T and Students discuss

Why? Students will be introduced to the topic and begin noticing on

students what the difference is between the two words B. Whats the difference between wetting and wedding? C. Do you know any other words like this? Whats the pattern? 2. Listening identification and discriminatio n: Phonetic explanation British vs American 12:35-12:45 A.Middle consonants (i.e. wetting and wedding) are pronounced as flaps. These are also called taps because the tip of the tongue quickly taps the top of the mouth behind the teeth A. Students are directed to IOWA website on projector and shown the regular T and D animation B. Explanation of difference between british and american /t/ and /d/ flap C. Listen to pronunciatio ns, repeat the difference D. Watch: youtube video E. Discuss the difference heard 3. Controlled practice: 12:45-12:50 A. Students are given a list of words A.T passes out a list of words in two List Students Projector; Laptop; Whiteboard; Marker Teacher http://www.u iowa.edu/~ac adtech/phon etics/english/ frameset.htm l

their own

Examples:

https://www. youtube.com /watch?v=p5 T3ubSdhSM video 1:55

A.Students will be able to visualize what is happening when the flap occurs and are given the opportunity to notice that this is a different sound than the normal T or D B. Students will be able to see other examples on the board

Students will get to practice

10

Practice Flap

in category A and B with different stress patterns that they can practice with a partner (pg.129)

categories. Students are asked to transcribe the words using the flap symbol learned and then to practice saying them with a partner. A. T writes examples of glottalized T on the board and asks students what the difference is then explains phonetic articulation, (p. 130) B. Students are asked to add to the list. T adds in another category of instances in which T is not glottalized C. Ss practice the new words in the mirrors

Example A:

saying words with middle T or D consonants. By transcribing the given words, they are using the new phonetic symbol that they have learned. T and Ss Students pay attention to a new feature and notice a difference between the last one that they learned. Watching the animations a helps them to visualize the pronunciatio n B. Ss add to the list from what they know/heard. Ss see a difference b/w glottalized and not C.students see the difference while practicing T and Ss Students use flap in a larger context when they realize it happens at

4, Guided practice: whats the difference? Glottalized T

12:50-1:05

Introduction of a similar feature and the IPA symbol.

Projector; Laptop; Whiteboard; Marker Example: mountain, satan button vs maintain satanic baton

5. Communicati ve Practice game: Would you

1:05-1:15

T gives Ss example sentences which are connected with a final

Ss work in pairs and ask ?s back and forth, taking note of any tap/flaps

11

rather

reduction flap (i.e. would you rather visit Italy or France? Ss continue playing this game, asking each other would you rather ?s

sentence level too. When using it context, they are able to see how often it occurs and realize that it is only noticed in speech.

6. Discussion how often does it occur? Is it necessary for comprehensi on?

1:15-1:20

Class comes back together to discuss findings.

Students share their findings with the class by telling where there were flaps or glottalized T

T and Ss

Students notice that it occurs sometimes, but not always