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This unit covered the topic of Pronunciation and Phonology - which each relate to the physical properties of sounds and their production. It is suggested that an educated English person cannot always detect these things so the topic is sometimes considered irrelevant to EFL learners but should not be neglected at all. Pronunciation can be taught for entire lessons, in lesson slots or can be simply included as and when needed for each individual student. Intonation (the variation in volume and pitch in a whole sentence) is used to carry meaning and will let listeners know if a response is required etc. by using rising, falling or flat tone. Likewise, stress is placed on individual words in a sentence to convey different meaning. Intonation can be taught in several ways like using gestures for rising and falling or writing sentences on the board and drawing the tone line. Sound joining is something which happens naturally for a native English speaker and therefore can be taught to students who want to learn to speak more fluently and native sounding. There are 4 major ways sounds are joined - linking, dropping, changing and extra lettering. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabet which is used to denoted how words are pronounced and not convey any insight into how they are spelled in their native language. It included 44 phonetic symbols and when used in conjunction, these can produce the pronunciation of theoretically any word or sound in the world. Some students may know the IPA and they will see these symbols used in dictionaries, so as a teacher, it will be worth familiarising myself with it. There are quite a few different ways in which we articulate sounds using the different parts of our mouths and throats. When combined with the different manners of articulation (Plosive, Fricative etc.) we get many different overall techniques for sound production. These can be taught using visual diagrams, modelling with your own mouth or having the students run drills of dictation or tongue twisters etc.
