UNIT 3

PHONOLOGY 

In this unit I checked some relevant aspects about Phonology as everyone knows this is a complex subject that involves many things which help to improve our pronunciation. To have a clear idea about it, let’s define it and it is the study of the sound features used in a language to communicate meaning.

Furthermore, in this unit I reviewed some key concepts like phoneme it is the smallest unit of sound that can make a difference to meaning for instance, the ed in studied in English shows the past of a verb. Moreover those phonemes are represented by phonemic symbols which are difficult to learn or memorize but we can find them in a phonemic chart.   Regarding to intonation it is another important feature of connected speech since it helps to differentiate if a person is saying a question or a sentence it depends on the level of his or her tone of voice (raising or falling intonation). In addition, intonation can show our emotions and attitudes, emphasise or make less important particular things.

Within the study of this unit we can find some tips which I would like to apply with my students to teach phonology since they are useful for learners who want to improve their pronunciation for instance; teachers should integrate activities like listening to recordings of speakers from a range of countries to let students get familiar with different English accents. There are also two more interesting tips the first one says that we teach new language by asking learners to repeat models of the new language to allow them practice the proper pronunciation, the second one we might use activities which focus just on word stress, sentence stress or minimal pairs they are difficult to recognize in a speech since they vary by only a single sound, usually meaning sounds that students often get confused by, like the "th" and "t" in "thing" and "tin.

References:

Ldonline.org,. (2015). Phonological Awareness: Instructional and Assessment Guidelines | LD Topics | LD OnLine. Retrieved 23 April 2015, from http://www.ldonline.org/article/6254/

Allaboutlearningpress.com,. (2015). Teaching Phonological Awareness. Retrieved 23 April 2015, from http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/teaching-phonological-awareness

Videos:

YouTube,. (2015). Teaching Phonology. Retrieved 23 April 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM5OgB7ycfg

YouTube,. (2015). Introduction to Teaching Pronunciation Workshop - Adrian Underhill (COMPLETE). Retrieved 23 April 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kAPHyHd7Lo