Vowels in English (II)
Main aims of the lesson:
To let the students know the classification and description of English vowels and articulate them correctly
Contents of the lesson & Purposes
The characteristics of the monophthongs
To consider the characteristics of the ‘pure’vowel sounds and to produce them with no movement of the articulators throughout.
The characteristics of the diphthongs
To considere the characteristics of the diphthongs and to describe them in terms of a movement (or ‘glide’) from one vowel position to another.
Activities and Procedures
1. Raise students’awareness of vowel sounds which seem central to the success of communiction.
2. Design a variety of classroom activities for focusing on vowel sounds in the classroom.
3. Involve the students in deciding on priorities for classroom pronunciation work, through helping them to be aware of their pronunciation difficulties.
4. Have the students listen to the tapes, imitate the sound in focus and make a good discrimination of the sounds.
5. Deal with a sound in isolation, if necessary, in the classroom and help students towards more successful pronunciation of the particular vowel which is having an effect on communication and intelligibility.
6. Have the students listen to the conversations recorded by native speakers of English and try to get the sounds in focus correct in their pronunciation.
7. Ask the students to do more practice after class and get ready for presentation during the next session.
3. The characteristics of the monophthongs
Monophthongs, also known as pure vowel sounds, are used to differentiate from diphthongs. They are made with a stable tongue and lip position and vowel quality over time. English speakers usually use twelve monophthongs.
3.1 Front vowels
There are four front vowels in English: /i:/, / /, / / and / /. The reason these are called front vowels is that the tongue body is shifted forward, causing the vowels to be produced in the front of the mouth. In addition, the front vowels may be
subdivided into those that are high (or close), like /i:/ and / /, mid, like / /, and low
(or open), like / /. For the two vowels in the high front space, /i:/ and / /, the tongue is close to the hard palate. Likewise, for the low vowel / / the tongue is nearly flat and the lower jaw more open than for the other front vowels. It has become traditional to locate vowels on a four-sided figure. The following is a description of the four English front vowels.
Characteristics: The front of the tongue is slightly behind and below the close front position. (The ‘close’position is where the tongue is closest to the roof of the mouth.) Lips are spread. The tongue is tense, and the sides of the tongue touch the upper molars. As in…bead, key, cheese, scene, police, people, quay Characteristics: The part of the tongue slightly nearer the centre is
raised to just above the half-close position (not as high as in /i:/). The
lips are spread loosely, and the tongue is more relaxed. The sides of
the tongue may just touch the upper molars. As in…bit, sausage, biggest, rhythm, mountain, busy, women, sieve
Characteristics
The front of the tongue is between the half-open and half-close positions. Lips are loosely spread. The tongue is tenser than for / /, and the sides of the tongue may
touch the upper molars. As in …egg, left, said, head, read (past), instead, any, leisure,leopard
Characteristics: The front of the tongue is raised to just below the half-open position. Lips are neutrally open. As in …hat, attack, antique, plait
/i:/ & / /
/i:/ is a very common sound in the world's languages. It is made by raising the body of the tongue from its rest position and shifting it forward. The / / sound is made by lowering the tongue slightly from the high-front position for /i:/. Besides, /i:/ is a much more tense sound than / /. The fact that English has these two high front vowels, differentiated by muscle tension in the root of the tongue, sets it apart from Chinese and many languages of the world. Both /i:/ and / / can occur in initial, medial, and final position in words.Very little difficulty should be encountered by the Chinese learners in the pronunciation of /i:/, but / / is a problem sound. It is easy for
