Lingua Inglese LM 2016 CLEMIFCLESE LESSON 1 1

Lingua Inglese LM 2016 CLEMIF/CLESE LESSON 1 1

Course 26 hours 5 lessons (2 hrs each) 8 oral presentation sessions (2 hrs each) - no final mark - 6 credits will be given for attendance and work done; if you don’t attend and don’t do the work, you don’t get the credits 2

Assessment 20 hrs attendance (all 5 lessons; 5 out of 8 oral presentation sessions) 3 written assignments 3 phonetics tests 1 individual oral presentation 1 final interview This will all be completed before the end of April 3

Level of course B 2 (more or less) You need to be able to do an oral presentation You need to be able to understand what I am saying No attestato 4

Basic rules You register only by filling in the registration form today in person Attend all lessons; don’t arrive late; don’t leave early; no absences Do all assignments; send assignments by email before the deadline Attend oral presentations in your assigned groups and times You cannot make private arrangments with me 5

Assignments should be sent as an email attachment in docx to bowleshugo@gmail. com, Assignments should be clearly marked I will not accept assignments sent after the deadline 6

Communication Check the website every week for downloads I may send you emails if I forget something Emergency communication – I need the name and number of a class representative Do you have a Facebook page? 7

Sounds quiz – n. 1 Who speaks standard English? a. english people b. americans c. australians d. all three of these e. all three of these and f. none of these others 8

Sounds quiz – n. 2 “I scream” has the same sound as “ice cream” Yes or no? 9

Sounds quiz – n. 3 xt xs pxssxblx tx xndxrstxnd whxt I xm wrxtxng xvxn xf x rxplxcx xll thx vxwxls wxth xn x Yes or no? 10

Sounds quiz – n. 4 Phonology is the study of the sound patterns in languages. It uses these categories: Phonemes Prosody (vowels and consonants) (stress, rhythm and intonation) 11

Sounds 5. How many sounds are there? in Italian? Vowels Diphthongs Consonants 5(7) 4 19 in English? 12 8 24 12

6. “English is not a phonographic language” go, though, foe, slow, boat; George, Joe, badge, village many sounds have several different spellings <ough>: though, cough, bough, through, thought, enough many “same spellings” have different sounds 13

7. What are the problems of pronunciation for Italian learners Learners cannot rely on the spelling of a word The problem is the opposite for native speakers – English schoolchildren spend a lot of time learning to read and write. Many adults have very poor spelling. To learn to pronounce English correctly it is of great help to learn to read phonemic transcription and/or have a CD or online dictionary with sound 14

n. 8 Why is english spelling so erratic? 15

8. Why is English spelling so erratic? (1) 83% of English words have predictable spelling The remaining 17% is comprised of the most commonly used, everyday words The greatest difficulties are faced by the learner at the start 16

Why is English spelling so erratic? (2) not enough vowel letters for vowel sounds English does not use accents, umlauts etc. English spelling reflects many archaic forms of pronunciation e. g. night in the past, was pronounced with a fricative 17

Why is English spelling so erratic? (3) English has always resisted spelling reforms and academies to set standards English spelling became fixed in the 16 th-17 th c. with the arrival of printing. Many of the printers were Flemish and had little knowledge of the language. English has borrowed extensively from other languages and has tended to maintain original spelling 18

VOWEL GROUPS SHORT LONG bad bed, friend, head good, put, should his, it, kiss hot, of, on love, must, number the, about car, park door, more, caught free, me, please girl, third, world who, you 19

Vowels may differ in three ways quality oral (i. e. the difference between /i: / and /u: / or nasal production length 20

We will now look at how vowels vary in quality… 21

These are x-rays of a person producing different vowels 22

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In the close front position (unrounded) we produce /i/ - pit 26

In the open front position (unrounded) we produce /a/ - pat 27

Back open (unrounded) - pot 28

Back close (rounded): /u/ - put 29

Connecting these points gives us a box called the Vowel Quadrilateral 30

All the vowel sounds that the human voice can produce may be plotted within the limits of the quadrilateral 31

Here is the vowel quadrilateral divided into sectors with the IPA symbols at fixed points. These are called Cardinal Vowels. 32

N. B. Do not confuse symbols for cardinal vowels with language specific phonemes The IPA vowel quadrilateral is a grid on which we can plot vowels It indicates the total area in which vowels can be produced by human beings, the cardinal vowels are fixed reference points on this chart, just like lines of longtitude and latitude on a map Plots of language specific vowels do not usually correspond to the cardinal vowels, e. g. the Italian /a/ does not correspond to the cardinal vowel [a] 33

These are the places of articulation of English short and long pure vowels 34

The chart of Standard Italian vowels would look like this: 35

The fact that Italian lacks vowels in the central area may well explain why Italian students of English have so much trouble with these sounds 36

Vowel production of English vowels: which is by Italian speakers of english? 37

NATIVE ITALIAN SPEAKER 38

Length English vowels differ in length as well as in quality These differences are as important to perception as quality English long vowels are far longer than Italian equivalents (e. g. /i: /, /u: /) 39

Potential ambiguity Italian speakers of English often produce vowel sounds that can be misinterpreted by native speakers This is particularly important in the case of minimal pairs i. e. where substituting one vowel sound for another leads to semantic changes This can be due to the irregular orthography of English or interference from L 1. We will now examine this second case. 40

/ i: / v. / i / e. g. sheep v. ship Italian speakers often use one vowel sound, the Italian /i: / for both. In the case of sheep the vowel length is too short, in that of ship the quality does not exclude ambiguity. 41

Other cases e. g. ban and bun – here the problem is one of vowel quality e. g. coat and court – the Italian /o/ is often used for both 42

Key websites Sound: http: //davidbrett. uniss. it/ Oral presentation: https: //www. ted. com/talks/browse 43