Why the French have difficulty understanding and speaking ... · understanding and speaking English...

Why the French have difficulty

understanding and speaking

English

(and what you can do about it)

[email protected]

Course contents

Lecture 1:

The music of English

Lecture 2:

The sounds of English

[email protected] 2

[email protected] 3

• Prosody, (stress, rhythm and intonation), can change the meaning of an utterancecompletely

• If learners get it wrong, people oftenmisunderstand

• And learners will misunderstand native speakers

• Prosody is :– the first thing we learn in our L1...

– the hardest thing to master in an L2

• So you cannot work on prosody enough...– ...especially rhythm

A reminder 1/2Introduction 1/4

[email protected] 4

• Stress basically falls on:

– the most important / newest information French issyllable-timed

• In English, stress exists at:

– 1. The word level• Word stress

– E.g. uniVERsity

– 2. The sentence (or tone unit) level:• Nuclear / sentence stress

– E.g. I’m a STUdent at uniVERsity

• Contrastive stress– E.g. Is that MY pen or YOUR pen?

• English is stress-timed

• French is syllable-timed

A remind 2/2Introduction 2/4

[email protected] 5

1. Stress – Word stress & focus vs final lengthening

2. Rhythm & syllable reduction, etc. – Strong & weak syllables vs + syllable-timed

3. Intonation– Large range & variety vs small range & variety

4. Vowels – ???

5. Consonants – ???

ENGLISH FRENCH

English vs. FrenchIntroduction 3/4

To improve listening & speaking…

• Listening = active…

• You must practice speaking and listening

• Listening:– comprehensible and incomprehensible INPUT

• …structured (by teachers, text books, PCs, etc.)…

• … and unstructured (films, series, music, etc.)

• Speaking (OUTPUT):– Learn new words orally…

– Practise speaking whenever possible:• Repeating words and short phrases

• Monologues & conversations

[email protected] 6

Introduction 4/4

Outline

Introduction1. The basics

2. Stressed vowels

3. Unstressed vowels

4. Speaking quickly: consonants between words

Conclusion

[email protected] 7

1. The basics

[email protected] 8

i) sound/symbol correspondence:

French

• French pronunciation can be difficult to predict…

• But once learned, it is regular:

[email protected] 9

beaux

fée

Ils travaillent

eau is always /o/

aillent is always /ai/

ée is always /e/ …

1. The basics 1/5

[email protected] 10

word

through

although

cough

rough

home

hot

woman

women

to

sword

toward

Chaotic & unstable!

could out

you soul

i) sound/symbol correspondence:English

1. The basics 2/5

ii. Vowels

• French = simple & tense

– E.g. A E I O U

• English = either : complex or lax

– E.g. A E I O U

–/eɪ iː aɪ əʊ juː/

–/æ e ɪ ɒ ʌ/


1. The basics 3/5

Sounds

• The smallest unit of sound is called: – A phoneme

• Phonemes can be:– Consonants / vowels

– or semi-vowels or affricates…

• French and English use the same alphabet…– The Roman alphabet

• But We pronounce it differently

• So… We invented the IPA– International Phonetic Alphabet


1. The basics 3/5

The IPA: English phonemes


Consonants (pulmonic)

BilabialLabio-

dentalDental Alveolar

Post-

alveolar

Retrofle

xPalatal Velar Uvular

Pharyngea

lGlottal

Plosive p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʔNasal m ɱ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴTrill ʙ r ʀTap or flap ⱱ ɾ ɽFricative ɸ β f vθ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦLateral

fricative ɬ ɮ

Approximant w ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰLateral

approximantl ɭ ʎ ʟ

1. The basics 5/5

2. Stressed vowels


The vowel trapezium


2. stressed vowels 1/11

Tongue position

daniel.frost@univ-grenoble-

alpes.fr16


Describing vowels


close

open

backfront

rounded

spread

neutral

/iː/ long

/i/ short

Lips


French vs English vowels


• Tensed

• Same length

• Simple (constant)

• Relaxed (lax) or tensing

• Long / short

• Simple & not…


English vowels - monophthongs


/iː/

/ɪ/

/e/

/æ/

/ʌ/

/ɑː/

/ɒ/

/ɔː/

/ʊ/

/uː/

/ɜː/

/ə/

GA/ɑ/

/ɛ/

/ɝ/

/ɚ/

cheese

rich

elephant

fat

hut

car

lock

door

book

boot

bird

Camera (schwa)

/lɑk/

bad

bird +/r/

bigger +/r/

• 5 long vowels

• 6 short vowels

• 1 unstressed vowel


Diphthongs 1/2

20

• Complex vowels

• Glides

• Progressive movement:

from a starting vowel

towards

a target vowel

« pays » /pɛi/

“pay” /peɪ/What’s the difference?

[email protected]


Diphthongs 2/2

[email protected]


8 diphthongs

closing ( → /ɪ/) closing ( → /ʊ/) centering ( → /ə/)

/eɪ/ radio /əʊ/ phone /ɪə/ ear

/aɪ/ knife /aʊ/ cow /eə/ hair

/ɔi/ boy /ʊə/ cure

Triphthongs (easy!)


• Closing diphthong + /ə/ (schwa)

/lɔiə/ lawyer

/əʊə/ slower

/aʊə/ hour

/eɪə/ player

/aɪə/ higher

• If you’re American:• + /ɚ/

• (/ə/ + /r/)


English vowels - recap


8 diphthongs

closing ( → /ɪ/) closing ( → /ʊ/) centering ( → /ə/)

/eɪ/ radio /əʊ/ phone /ɪə/ ear

/aɪ/ knife /aʊ/ cow /eə/ hair

/ɔi/ boy /ʊə/ cure

5 triphthongs

/eɪə/ player

/aɪə/ higher

/ɔiə/ lawyer

/əʊə/ slower

/aʊə/ hour

12 monophthongs

5 long vowels 6 short vowels 1 unstressed vowel (schwa)

/iː/ cheese /i/ rich /ə/ camera

/ɑː/ car /e/ elephant

/ɔː/ door /æ/ fat

/uː/ boot /ʌ/ hut

/ɜː/ bird /ɒ/ lock

/ʊ/ book


Two types of vowels


• We can separate all English vowels into:1. Lax vowels (short monophthongs)

2. Tense vowels (long monophthongs and closing diphthongs)

• The examples are RP (GA where necessary)

• We are mainly interested in the following lax & tense vowels:

1. Lax, short vowels

/i/ rich

/e/ elephant

/æ/ fat

/ʌ/ hut

/ɒ/ lock

/ʊ/ book

2. Tense, long vowels & closing

diphthongs

(alphabet vowels: a, e, i, o, u)

/iː/ cheese

/uː/ boot

/ɑː/ car

/eɪ/ radio

/aɪ/ knife

/əʊ/ phone/ɑː/

/oʊ//ɑr/


When is a vowel tense / lax?


lax (-a- = /æ/ ; -e- = /e/ ; -i- = /ɪ/ ; -o- = /ɒ/~ /ɑː/; -u- = /ʌ/ or /ʊ/)

tense (-a- = /eɪ / or /ɑː/ ; -e- = /i:/ ; -i-, -y- = /aɪ/ ; -o- = /əʊ/~ /oʊ/ ; -u- = /(j)uː/ )

• Why do we say:

– “mad” but “made”

– “panic” but “amazing”

– “nation” but “passionate”

• Examples:

– lad, get, bit, not, cut, put....

– cake, nuke, these, write, wrote…

– 'locker, 'picture, bent, 'struggle…

– 'chaos, he'roic, inge'nuity, so'ciety…

• Tip: When learning new vocabulary:

– Write it down

– Underline the stressed syllable

– Say it out loud – and in a sentence


There are patterns (rules…?)

<'VC#> : stressed vowel = lax

<'VC1e#> : stressed vowel = tense

<'VCC> : stressed vowel = lax

<'VV>: stressed vowel = tense

2. Unstressed vowels


They are everywhere!


• Most vowels in English are unstressed

– university ooOoo

– internationally ooOoo

– chocolate Oo

– comfortable Ooo

• Remember this?

– ten pens

– twenty pencils

– seventy elements

– twenty-seven experiments

– seventy-seven universities

7. unstressed vowels 1/3

The most common vowel in English


• 33% of all vowels

• Most reduced unstressed vowels…

/ə/


“schwa”

What happens to them?


• Unstressed vowels might:

1. reduce (usually to /ə/ /ɪ/)• computer /kəmˈpjuːtə/

2. disappear (if we speak quickly)• internationally /ɪntəˈnæʃᵊnᵊli/

3. be (+/-) unchanged (often : beginning / end)

• university /ˌjunɪˈvɜsɪti/

• They may do all 3 !

• Some fixed patterns…

• Some speaker variation

• No “rules”, just listen, practise, repeat


3. Speaking quickly: consonants at

word boundaries


What is connected speech?

• In any language, when we talk faster &

relax, we speak "less well"

• …particularly in a language like English:• we reduce some unstressed syllables

• some unstressed syllables disappear

• we enunciate less clearly

• some phonemes change when in contact with certain

other phonemes

• These phenomena make spoken English

very difficult to understand


3. Connected speech 1/8

Connected speech: categories

• We can place the phenomena of

running speech in 5 categories:

• 3 – 7 phenomena per category

• Just know some examples!

• Try to guess what is happening in

each example...



1. (You know this one already…)

• 007

– The name is Bond, James Bond

>The name’s Bond, James Bond

• These are often called:

–contractions



pronunciation_videos/My Name is Bond...James Bond.mp4

2. (this is easy…)



• This is called:

–Deletion (usually final /t/ or /d/)

3. (You all know this…)

• /ɪd/ (RP)

• /əd/ (GA)

• /ɪz/ (RP)

• /əz/ (GA)



• This is called:

–Epenthesis

4. (This is hard not to do…)


"Go away and stay away"

/gəʊ w əweɪ ənd steɪ j əweɪ/


• This is called: linking

5. (The French do this lots…)

• /haʊ aɪ met jɚ ˈmʌðɚ/

• [haʊwaɪmetʃəmʌðə]

• /ˈbreɪkɪŋ bæd/

• [breɪkɪmbæd]



This is called:assimilation

Recap

1. Contractions, blends, reductions1. E.g. The name’s Bond, James Bond, etc.

2. Deletion 1. E.g. fish ‘n’ chips, etc.

3. Epenthesis1. E.g. Prince /prɪnts/, etc.

4. Linking1. E.g. Go away /w/, stay out /j/, etc.

5. Assimiliation1. E.g. dontcha /tʃ/, etc.




• *Stress allows us to segment speech into syllables & words*

• Stress falls on: the most important / newest information

• There are 3 types of stress

1. Word stress (uniVERsity)

2. Nuclear / sentence stress (I’m a STUdent at uniVERsity)

3. Contrastive stress (Is that MY pen or YOUR pen?))

• Interacting stresses = the complicated rhythm of English

• Only by practice will you make progress….

• …but if you practise, you will make progress

Stress and rhythmConclusions 1/2


• In French: syllables & sounds = important

• In English: rhythm is king!

• 2 main consequences:

– Unstressed syllables:• May be reduced

• May disappear completely!

– Consonants change facilitate speaking faster• E.g. "I dunno", fish n chips", "Whatchawant?", etc.

• When learning new words:

– Underline the stressed syllable when you copy

vocabulary

– Say the word out loud (and in a sentence)

– practice repeating short extracts of English!

Rhythm & soundsConclusions 2/2

Over to my friend, the Linguist Llama…


Thanks again for your attention and participation

Why the French have difficulty understanding and speaking ... · understanding and speaking English...

Documents

Transcript of Why the French have difficulty understanding and speaking ... · understanding and speaking English...