ESP COURSE(English for Specific Purposes)

for Class Teachers(3-4, 5-6)

Vera Savic, MA Lecturer in English

Faculty of Education in JagodinaUniversity of Kragujevac

vera.savic@pefja.kg.ac.rs

Phonology

The study of the sound features used in a language to communicate meaning

Sound features in English: 1. Phonemes2. Word stress3. Sentence stress4. intonation

Phoneme, phonemic symbol & phonemic script

• The smallest unit of sound that has meaning in a language

• Symbol used to represent only one phoneme (different from the letters of the alphabet: hat, made, usually, what, war, whale)

• Set of phomenic symbols which show how words are pronounced (dictionaries)

• IPA – International Phonetic Alphabet

English Phonemic Script

Vowel Phonemes - 20– Monophthongs - 12– Diphthongs – 8

Consonants - 24– Plosives - 6– Fricatives - 9– Affricates - 2– Nasals - 3– Approximates - 4

Silent consonants

• silent p: psychology, pneumonia, cupboard, receipt• silent b: climb, subtle, doubt• silent d: Wednesday, sandwich, handkerchief• silent g: reign, ought, long• silent l: half, talk, could• silent k: know, knee• silent n: autumn, column• silent w: write, wrong, two, answer, yellow• silent r: word, car, more, bother• silent h: hour, what, ought• silent c: scissors, scene, muscle• silent s: island, aisle

Pronunciation and SpellingIn English the relationship

between sound and spelling is very complex.

200 rules even for the commonist words

400 most frequent words have irregular spelling

Minimal Pair - words distinguished by only one phoneme:

• ship – sheep• hut – hat• thing – think• chip - ship

• Homophones – words which are spelled in different ways and have different meanings, but sound the same when pronounced:

• their – there• heir - air • knew – new• here - hear

• Homographs – words which have the same spelling, but with different pronunciations and meaning:

• read – read• wind - wind

Word Stress, Sentence stress & Intonation

• Signs used to show the part of the word which we say with greater energy (on its vowel sound); maked: ‘ , _ , ° .

• Sentence pronunciation – one word has main stress (the most important word in a sentence): She came home late last night.

• The movement of the level of the voice (rising or falling) to express emotions and attitudes, to emphasise, and to signal the function (statement, question, surprise, ...)

Intonation & tone

• The movement of the level of the voice (rising or falling), used

- to emphasise the most strongly stressed word in a sentence

- to show the grammatical function of what is being said- to express emotions and attitudes

• The movement of pitch; the tone can be:Falling – Sit down.Rising – Have you got a pen?Fall-rise – What time does your train leave? (confirmation)

Intonation (cont.)

The most usual intonation pattern in English uses a falling tone:

- to make a short statement: She lives in London. My name’s Carlos.

- in wh-questions: Where’s my bag? - in commands: Sit down.- in exclamations to show surprise, anger, or give

warning: Be careful!- in question tags: You’re French, aren’t you?

(expecting confirmation)

Intonation (cont.)

The rising tone is used:- to make requests: Can we open it?- to make questions from statements: He’s too

tired?- in yes/no questions: Would you like a lift?- in clauses or phrases that come before the main

clause: What there is left we will put in the pot

- in sentences with a question tag: You’re French, aren’t you? (less certainty)

Tasks

1. What do the following groups of words illustrate: - yet, be, pale- by, buy, fight, lie, island2. How many phonemes are there in each of these words:book, flashcard, number, thirteen, morning3. Underline the stressed syllable in each of these words:twenty, monkey, difficult, forget, remember, important,

complain, medicine, advertisement 4. On which word would you put the main stress in each of

these sentences?My name is Julia, not Janet.The girl was much taller than her brother. He was rather

short.