Since a lot of
the other ALTs are talking about practicing speeches, and some have requested
explanations of what I do in class, I'm going to post a mini-lesson on
pronunciation.
Disclaimer: I am American and was trained in American English. Sorry to all your British and Australian and New Zealand readers-- I'm not sure how much of this (well, the vowel section) will apply to you!
Usually I am
doing this as a warm up to speech competition practice. I teach 40 students in
one class, and all of my students have to memorize the speech and then get
tested on it.
So, I read a
sentence or phrase of the speech out loud, the students repeat, if they didn't
do it well (or we're just beginning) I say it again for a second or third time.
Then, when we come to a word or sound of interest, I go into pronunciation
mini-lessons!
I start
with voiced and unvoiced sounds.
It's easiest to
represent this with "s" and "z"-- try saying
"sssszzzzssssszzzz" without stopping between the sounds. You'll
notice the only thing that's changing is your throat-- your mouth stays in the
same position. This is the difference between voiced and unvoiced: the sounds
are produced in exactly the same way in the mouth, but the vocal chords are
either turned on (vocalized) or turned off (unvoiced). (In this
case, "S" is unvoiced, "Z" is voiced.) I've had
my students touch their throat when doing this so they can feel the difference. It's
pretty easy for the Japanese to get this concept, because in the Japanese
syllabary, generally if you add the ten-ten symbol ("), the sound becomes
voiced. Thus, "sa" becomes "za," "ka" becomes
"ga," "sha" becomes "ja," and so forth. (Note: Be
careful with "ha", "pa", and "ba"! That little
circle is weird! The unvoiced sound is "pa" and the voiced sound is
"ba" and "ha" is linguistically very different, but the
Japanese alphabet lumps them together oddly. I just skip it and don't talk
about it.) I don't use the words "voiced" or "unvoiced"--
usually I say "のどを使う"--
use your throat. Sometimes I explain it with ten-tens ("). It really
depends on the level of the students and how much linguistic vocabulary you
want to teach them.
Okay, so now the
students know voiced and unvoiced in Japanese. Time to teach them the sounds
that use it in English: "F" and "V", "Th"
(unvoiced: month, faith, cloth, etc.) and "th" (voiced: these, this,
the, there, etc.).
F (and
V)
They need to
know how to shape their mouths to get "F"-- I tell them they can bite
their lip and it's fine. Or, once they are used to it, they can use just the
back of their lip against their teeth. But it has to touch. The Japanese "ふ" is different because there's no
contact. Once they get their F, it's easy to get them to V-- they just keep the
same mouth shape and add the throat vibrations. I have them shift between f and
v, going "fffffvvvvffffvvvv." It should tickle and feel
uncomfortable. That means their lip is making contact with their teeth and
vibrating-- they're doing it correctly!
Th
"Th"
is difficult. First, I explain to my students that "th" is a very
rare sound in the world, so it's a difficult sound for many people across the
globe. But, even though it's a rare sound, it's not a very difficult one to
make.
And then the
work starts. The students find all sorts of creative ways to not stick their
tongue out. (I find that when my students get embarassed, they pull the
tip of their tongues back in behind their teeth, creating a strange
"sh" sound. Sometimes it's hard to get them to just stick out their
tongue.) Usually now, the first time I teach it to my students, I get them
to stand up, close their eyes, tilt back their heads, and stick out their
tongues waaaay far, and then make the "th" sound while shaking their
head from side to side. Of course, I demonstrate first, so I'm the first one
who looks silly (and I am unabashed about it, too!). Usually, distracting them
with the other motions (standing up, closing their eyes, sticking their heads
up) helps them not pay as much attention to their tongue, and I hear nice,
clear "th"es, and I praise them very happily with clapping and
cheers. And then, usually, they keep saying their "th"es pretty well.
After getting the sound out, I show them there is a different way it's
pronounced (the voiced "th" at the beginning of "the" and
the voiceless "th" at the end of "month").
To check their
pronunciation, I have them say the word "months". And the two sounds
at the end of the word have to be different. They have to say
"Mon-th-s." If they say one sound at the end of the word--
"mons"-- they are saying it wrong. I say it with three distinct
sounds. "Mon. Th. S." Then get faster, with the snake-like flick of
the tongue out, pulling it in, and changing to "s". Sometimes I do
this near the beginning of the "th" lesson, demonstrating how the
sound changes from "th" to "s" as you pull the tongue into
the mouth. I moved it to the end of the "th" lesson because
"months" is a word in the speech my students memorized, and it was a
nice way to wrap up the pronunciation lesson and move back into speech
pronunciation.
L and R
The most
difficult sounds. "L" is closer to the Japanese ”ら” so I start there. The tip of the tongue
touches the ridge behind the teeth. Unlike the Japanese R, it stays there, and
you can elongate the sounds. (I'm pretty sure the place where the tongue
touches the roof of the mouth is different between English "L" and
Japanese "r".) In English, we touch the ridge behind the teeth-- I
visually representing it by folding my fingers forward so they are teeth, and
turning my hand up so the heel of my palm sticks down, forming the ridge, and
the rest of my forearm is my soft pallet and throat. Then I touch the tip of my
other fingers against the ridge to represent my tongue. I also invite them to
stare into my mouth while I say "LLLLL~" because you can pretty well
see the tongue sticking up there. I also tell the the air goes out from the
sides of the tongue.
R is harder. The
tongue pulls back towards the throat, without curling back on itself (a lot of
students try to swallow their tongue by folding it back on itself. It's just
the back part of the tongue that moves back!). I represent it by pulling my arm
back from the top arm, usually bending my wrist so the heel of my palm can look
like the back of my tongue pulling back.
(Here's a good
visual
representation: http://beyondgrammar.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/lr.jpg?w=584)
The tongue is
also lifted at the two edges, so the air goes down over the center of the
tongue. The back sides of the tongue touch the back teeth.
I don't really
know how to explain it better, but here's another
visual: http://englishcafecdn.englishcafe.com/files/images/ec_8693_1263925372.post.jpg
Vowels.
Oh my god,
Vowels. The Japanese are lucky. They only have five. Americans have 10 to chose
from, plus 5 diphthongs. (Or maybe this makes the Japanese unlucky, because
they can't pronounce five vowels that we Americans can!)
Our vowels
are: i, ɪ, e, æ, ɑ, ʌ or ə, o, ʊ, u, and sometimes ɔ. *
And then we have
the diphthongs: ai, au, ei, ou, and oi.
Examples of
all: i "feel", ɪ "fill", e "fell", æ "cat", ɑ "hot", ʌ or ə "America" (the "uh"
sound), o "home", ʊ "book", u "moo",
and ɔ (only sometimes used: as in Boston's accent for "coffee". It's like a mix
between "aw" and "o." I don't think Californians say it
often, but I know I use it in some words, and it's prevalent in Boston and New
York accents.)
The diphthongs:
ai (I love you), au (Ouch!), ei (hey!), ou (hello [have
you noticed how Americans add a "u" sound to the end, while Japanese ハロー doesn't?), and oi (boy).
*The sounds that
are present in Japanese I marked in blue. The sounds not present in Japanese I
marked in red. The diphthongs are thankfully fairly easy for the Japanese to
pick up, since they use them a lot, too. It's just getting them used to saying
the diphthongs when only one vowel is written. (But, I won't get into spelling.
English spelling is crazy, and has a lot to do with history. I liked one
professor who said "English spelling shows the scars of language." I
like to think it's the scars from when English beat up other languages and
stole loose grammar from their pockets. [though, honestly, it was more the
Brittish being beaten up by the Vikings and the Romans and the French, but
shhhh.])
Sometimes this
chart
helps: http://clas.mq.edu.au/phonetics/phonetics/vowelgraphs/USE_Diphthongs.html
The Vowel
Chart: http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/IPA/VowelChartLF.gif (This one is a
little more complex than the one I use.)
I just have the
students slide around the vowels. You can get the ɪ sound
by sliding from "i" to "a". (Try saying
"yyyyyyeeeaaaahhhhh" really slowly. Then stop when you've only said
half. Yay, there's the ɪ sound!) The chart is designed so you can
slide along the lines to different vowels. (It's actually a representation of
the human mouth, sideways. It'd be easier if I could show it to you-- maybe if
we skype sometime before Friday.)
I think, though,
ultimately it just rests on the students being able to hear it. If they repeat,
a lot of students will say the right vowels. Some never do. Just lots and lots
of repetition-- listening to you, then repeating.
Here is an audio
IPA chart. If you click on the symbols, you can hear the sound they represent.
http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm
The chart is
usually way too intimidating to show any but my most advanced students, but I
sometimes find it helpful to explain the differences in the 'th' sound using
the IPA symbols "θ" (voiceless, as in "month") and the
voiced "ð" (as in "those," "the," and
"this"). Then they can have a visual symbol to match with the
different sounds. Some of my students are learning IPA at their juku.
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