English Phonological System: Sounds, Stress, Intonation

Posted on Jan 12, 2025 in Other civil servant exams

The present essay aims to study the English phonological system. In order to do so, the topic will be divided into five different parts. The first part will deal with the distinction between phonetics and phonology. The second part will describe the segmental and suprasegmental features. Next, I will introduce the importance of a model of pronunciation. Then, I will focus on how to teach and learn pronunciation. Finally, some problems for Spanish speakers will be presented. To conclude, I will compile the main conclusions and the bibliography used to develop this topic.

As far as foreign language learning is concerned, the legal framework is the Organic Law 2/2006 of Education, 3^rd May, modified by the Organic Law for the Improvement in Educational Quality, 8/2013, 9^th December. Section XII of its preamble establishes that “the command of a second or third language has become a priority in the Education field, as a consequence of the globalization process we live in”.

One of the most relevant aspects of the Organic Law for the Improvement in Educational Quality is related to the Order ECD/65/2015, 21^st of January, which establishes the relation among the key competences, contents, and evaluation criteria in Primary Education. On the other hand, the Royal Decree 126/2014, 28^th of February, establishes the Minimum Teaching Requirement for Primary Education and it states in article 7, Objective F, “to acquire basic communicative competence, in at least, one foreign language to enable expression and comprehension of simple messages and survive in everyday situations”.

In addition, the Order EDU/519/2014, 17th of June, modified by the Order EDU 278/2016, 8^th of April, which establishes the minimum contents for Primary Education in the Autonomous Community of Castilla y León.

Bearing in mind all these legal references, I will start mentioning:

1. Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are made, transmitted, and received. It studies the physical dimension of speech. Moreover, it is concerned with sound as a system of meaning and it studies stress, rhythm, and intonation.

1.1. The Phonemes

Phonemes are the smallest contrastive linguistic units which may bring about a change in meaning. It is possible to establish the phonemes of a language by means of minimal pairs (for example: chin, win). Phonemes are transcribed using phonetic symbols by slant lines / /.

1.2. The Allophone

On the other hand, the allophone is the actual pronunciation of a phoneme. Allophones change the quality of sounds and they are enclosed between brackets [ ].

2. Description of the English Phonological System

The phonological system of the English language is divided into segmental features, which include vowel and consonant sounds, and suprasegmental features, which include items such as stress, rhythm, and intonation.

The main aim of phonetics is the description and classification of speech sounds. We can separate these into vowels, diphthongs, and consonants.

In the first place, we can see that vowels are pronounced depending on the height of the tongue in relation to the palate and from which part of the mouth the sound emanates. There are twelve phonemes in English, and I will give a small selection of front, central, back, short, and long vowels, looking at how and where each one is pronounced.

The first one /i:/, is produced with the front of the tongue raised. Typical spellings for this sound are ee as in tree, or ea as in meat.
A short sound is /o/, produced with the tongue in a fully open position. Normal spellings for this sound are o, as in dog, or a, as in watch.
For the pronunciation of the phoneme /æ/, the front of the tongue is raised to a position midway, the lips are neutrally open. The typical spelling here would be a, as in hand or cat.
A longer sound is /Ɔ:/, which has medium lip-rounding. There are a number of different spellings for this sound, the most common being or, as in sort, our, as in the number four, or oor, as in door.
But the most common vowel sound in English is the weak /ə/ schwa. It is common in unaccented syllables and is pronounced from the center of the mouth. It can be spelt with most vowels or vowel combinations, as we can see in words like famous, mother, collect, or surprise.

On the other hand, diphthongs are sequences within one syllable. Those known as centring diphthongs glide towards the central vowel or schwa, as for example in words like beer or chair. The others are commonly known as closing diphthongs, as they rise towards close vowels. We can see this in words like late, time, boy, home, or house.

Consonants are more complicated. They are voiced and voiceless consonants. Referring to the manner of articulation, consonants can be plosive, fricative, affricate, nasal, lateral, or approximants. As far as the place of articulation is concerned, they can be bilabial, labio-dental, dental, alveolar, palate-alveolar, palatal, or velar.

Now, I will give a small selection of these consonants.

For example /p/ is a voiceless, bilabial, plosive consonant. Typical words would be up or pie.
Another consonant we can examine is /n/. This is a voiced, nasal, alveolar consonant. Typical words with this sound would be nine or knee.
An alveolar consonant phoneme is the /l/, there are various allophones for this sound like in the words love, ill, apple, and play.
The phoneme /ŋ/ is voiceless, plosive, and velar. It would normally be spelt with one g as in go, or with double g in words like egg.
Three consonant phonemes are known as semi-vowels, as they are pronounced like a vowel, but we use them in a consonant way. They can be heard in words like we, west, you, or yes.

2.2. The Suprasegmental

The suprasegmental function operates above the level of individual segments and influences the meaning of chunks of speech.

A. Stress is the degree of prominence associated with a word or syllable. We can hear it in football, forget, or in misunderstanding. Some words can change their stress pattern depending on their function. We can see this in a noun like record or a verb like record.

B. Rhythm involves some noticeable event happening at regular intervals of time. We can see this in the sentence “‘Mike and his ‘sister are ‘clever.”

C. Speech has a melody called intonation, the significant changes in the musical pitch of the voice. There are four tone movements: fall, rise, fall-rise, rise-fall. Intonation has two basic functions: grammatical function and emotional function:

A falling tone indicates surprise, commands (be quiet), warning.
A rising tone is used in friendly greetings (good morning), polite enquiring.
A falling-rising tone may indicate uncertainty (really?).
A rising-falling tone indicates an impatient attitude (come on).

Now that we have studied the phonological system, we will continue dealing with:

3. Pronunciation Models and Learning Techniques

Perception, Discrimination, and Emission of Sounds, Intonation, Rhythm, and Stress

Pronunciation teaching will form an important and integral part of our foreign language class. Learners need motivation and time to practice pronunciation. We should encourage children with songs or rhymes. Also, listening to recordings of their own voices gives an excellent opportunity for self-evaluation.

On the other hand, some of the aspects for pronunciation teaching are the difference between long and short vowels, the word accent, and the pronunciation of final “s” sounds. When teaching pronunciation, we should try to create a communicative context and take a learner-centered approach. Learners should be able to develop their own skills in critical listening.

3.1. Models

In English, there are two main candidates as basic models: British Received Pronunciation and the American one. So it is very important that the teacher’s own pronunciation reaches the highest level possible.

3.2. Learning Techniques

The teacher should present and practice pronunciation as he introduced new aspects of language. Learning pronunciation has two phases: learning to discriminate English sounds, stress, and intonation; and learning to produce those sounds, stress, and intonation. Therefore, listening is the first step in the teaching-learning process of pronunciation.

A basic approach to teaching pronunciation follows an order from the smallest unit of speech (phonemes) to the word (stress) and finally to connected speech, incorporating features such as rhythm and intonation.

A. Discriminating Sounds: In the listening stage, the teacher must devise ear-training activities such as discrimination drills, discrimination games (odd one out, phonetic bingo), and dictations. In the production stage, the teacher should devise exercises for the production of sounds, such as repetition drills, meaningful drills, songs, chants, tongue twisters situated in context; and finally in the free production stage, children should practice sounds in dialogues.

B. Stress: In the listening stage, the students have to point out the stressed syllable in a word or phrase. The teacher should provide the students with recognition activities clapping their hands when hearing the stressed syllable, marking the stress on words, and classifying words. In the production stage, the teacher first has to read out the whole sentence, then he reads out only the stressed syllable, next the students repeat the whole sentence and finally the pupils practice the words in context.

C. Rhythm: In the listening stage, the teacher should ask the children to clap to the strong beats, but in the production stage, songs and rhymes are carried out.

D. Intonation: In the listening stage it is important to recognize the rising or falling pattern, drawing arrows or moving their arms to indicate the direction of the intonation. In the production stage, children will imitate the intonation pattern using gestures or arrows as well. The teacher can help students’ intonation with drawings (showing moods) or providing them with integrated exercises, role-plays, or dialogues.

4. Phonetic Correction

4.1. Problems for Spanish Speakers

The difficulty in distinguishing long and short vowels, confusion between the voiced and voiceless realization of sounds. The difficulty in pronouncing three and four-syllable words with the stress on their first syllables or how to use weak forms in the rhythm.

4.2. Correction Techniques

Instant remedial: the teacher will draw attention to the problematic sound and pronounce it in isolation, then he will associate it with a familiar one and then he will explain how the sound/pattern is formed.

Planned remedial: in which the teacher should make a note of the problem and make a short plan discrimination drills and practice activities.

Through exposure to English in the form of classroom language, instructions, games, stories, dialogues, rhymes, chants, and songs, children develop familiarity with the sounds, rhythm, and intonation patterns of English and imitate these features in a natural way.

5. Conclusion

I would like to say that teaching to pronounce and recognize sounds should form part of the didactic procedures because if students receive correct pronunciation from an early age, they will be much more likely to produce this pronunciation themselves.

The bibliography used to develop this unit includes:

COUNCIL OF EUROPE. (2003). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
EMMER, E.T. & GERWELS, M.C. (2002). Cooperative Learning in elementary classrooms: Teaching practices and lesson characteristics. The Elementary School Journal.
GARDNER, H. (2001): Reformulated Intelligence. Multiple Intelligences in XXI Century. Buenos Aires: Paidós.
HARMER, J. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman, 2008 (4th ed.)
NUNAN, D. (2010): Language Teaching Methodology. University Press.

Referring the webpages: