WEEK |
TOPIC |
1 |
Introduction |
Organisation of the course. Phonetics and phonology as scholarly disciplines. Varieties of English pronunciation. The model: BBC pronunciation. Articulatory phonetics: the speech organs | |
2 |
Phonemic transcription |
The case for phonemic transcription of English. The International Phonetic Alphabet. Phonetic versus phonemic transcription. BBC phonemes: an overview. Pronunciation in dictionaries. | |
3 |
English vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs |
Short and long vowels in English. The Cardinal vowel system. English vowels versus cardinal vowels: a comparison. Diphthongs and triphthongs. Teaching English vowels by Adrian Underhill. | |
4 |
Consonants |
English consonants: plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, approximants. Slovak and English plosives compared: voiced versus voiceless, fortis versus lenis. Teaching English consonants by Adrian Underhill. | |
5 |
Strong and weak syllables |
Stressed and unstressed syllables. Strong and weak syllables. Schwa: the central vowel. Weak vowels: occurrence and neutralisation. Syllabic consonants. | |
6 |
Stress in simple words |
The nature of stress. Level of stress. Stressed and unstressed syllables. Two, three and four-level stress analysis. Free-stress and fixed-stress languages. Tips for TEFL/TESOL teachers. | |
Mid-semester written test on topics 1 - 6 |
|
7 |
Complex word stress |
Prefixes and suffixes in relation to word stress. Compound words. Stress shift and individual variation. Word-class pairs. | |
8 |
Weak forms: Part I |
Weak-forms as a feature of suprasegmental phonology. Weak and strong forms: definition and occurrence. Exercises. | |
9 |
Weak forms: Part II |
More exercises. | |
10 |
Varieties of English pronunciation: BBC Accent v. General American |
BBC and GA compared. Phonological differences. Variation in word stress. | |
11 |
Aspects of connected speech |
Rhythm, stress-timing, assimilation, elision, linking. | |
12 |
Intonation: Part I |
Form and function, simple and complex tones. | |
13 |
Intonation: Part II |
The tone unit. The functions of intonation -- attitudinal, accentual, grammatical, discursive. |
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