Bulacan State University Graduate School School Year 2011-2012

A Presentation by Perlie O. Geron MAE-LE

What do we need to master to speak a language?

Vocabulary
o The sum of words used by, understood by, or at the command of a particular person or group.
the rules for speaking or writing a particular language, or an analysis of the rules of a particular aspect of language. the study of the system or pattern of speech sounds used in a particular language or in language in general

Grammar
o

Phonology
o

Speaking knowledge of a language

GRAMMAR

Prescriptive

Descriptive
DESCRIPTIVE Descriptive grammar simply describes grammar the way it is used every day by people. There are no set definite rules. Descriptive language tells how the language is.

PRESCRIPTIVE Rules of prescriptive grammar make statements about how people ought to use language. Provides rules as to how the language should be.

PHONETIC vs. PHONEMIC

Phonetic (articulation) level

The phonological or phonemic level is in charge of the brainwork that goes into organising the speech sounds into patterns of sound contrasts so that we can make sense when we talk.

Phonemic

Phonetic
The phonetic level takes care of the motor act of producing the vowels and consonants, so that we have a repertoire all the sounds we need in order to speak our language.

Phonemic problems do NOT involve NEW sounds Rather it involves learning NEW ways to USE old sounds Phonological (phonemic) level

Phonemic system are

Command of phonology bears no correlation to education, neither does years of hearing or speaking the target language.

incommensurable

Patterns of the speakers mother tongue are so deeply ingrained as to control the adults/speakers hearing.

Language Acquisition Desiderata

Knowledge of English phonemics

Knowledge of the phonemic system of the target language.

Four Situations on the Phonemic System of the Target Language

1. There may be a relatively
good analysis.

2. There may be a good but

incomplete analysis.

3. There may be a poor

analysis

4. There may be no analysis

whatsoever

There may be a good but incomplete analysis.

These analyses are rendered incomplete because they fail to describe, stress, rhyme and rhythm, and transitions and terminals. Another omission is the failure to provide adequate phonetic descriptions of allophones. ALLOPHONE
one of the slightly differing forms that the same single speech sound phoneme can take.

Evidence of Poor Analysis of Phonology

a) Some state pronunciations with little or no qualification. b) Some direct students to overlook features c) Some state that proper pronunciation is impossible to acquire. d) Some make use of impressionistic and useless terms

Evidence of Poor Analysis of Phonology

e) Some express linguistic features as the result of racial or other irrelevant attributes. f) Some are more concerned with sound not present in the language described. g) Some confuse spelling and pronunciation, h) Some assume perversity of the speaker/learner. i) Some confuse phonetics and phonemics,

Evidence of Poor Analysis of Phonology

j) Some state pronunciations in terms of deviations from a known or reconstructed parent language. k) Some are contradictory l) Some suggest ridiculous gymnastics

In Conclusion
Proper training in phonetics together with close attention to phonemics may enable a student to make first approximation quickly and easily

What Remains

Is to achieve pronunciation acceptable to the last detail and make it automatic.