Suprasegmentals

Candy Zhang

Teaching English Pronunciation

Prof. Sunny Tseng

Term Paper

Suprasegmentals

Motivation and significance

Research in the teaching of English pronunciation as a second and foreign language

(ESL/EFL)

over

the

last

decade

or

so

has

made

evident

the

significance

of

suprasegmental features (i.e., stress, rhythm and intonation) in the comprehension and

production of the language. Furthermore, from a pedagogical point of view, it has also

been

found

that

speakers

who

had

had

instruction

emphasizing

suprasegmental

features

could

apparently

transfer

their

learning

to

a

spontaneous

production

more

effectively

than

those

who

received

instruction

with

only

segmental

content

(i.e.,

vowels and consonants). However, the teaching of English suprasegmentals is not a

priority in most EFL/ESL programs or in commercial materials for instruction; there

is, generally speaking, more emphasis placed on segmental aspects of the language.

The neglect in teaching suprasegmentals does not seem to be due to those extensive

gaps that generally exist between theoretical investigations and pedagogical materials

based

on

those

investigations.

Both

teachers

and

material

designers

have

in

fact

highlighted

the

need

to

concentrate

more

on

rhythm

and

intonation

than

any

other

aspect

of

pronunciation

because

of

their

importance

to

communicate

meaning.

The

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lack of attention more to be due to the difficulty found in teaching some features of

rhythm and intonation.

In order to facilitate the instruction of suprasegmentals, pedagogical priorities should

be

established

mainly

through

the

choice

of

features

that

are

more

relevant

for

the

learner's intelligibility in spoken English. As Roach (1996:47) has stated: we need to

distinguish between

learn

The

purpose

of

this

paper

is

to

examine,

in

the

light

of

relevant

research,

pedagogical experience, and an understanding of the native speaker competence, basic

issues of English rhythm and intonation which are important to communicate meaning.

These features, in turn, serve to determine a basic system to be used as a starting point

in the instruction.

Review of the literature and Discussion

The

paper

Perception

of

English

Suprasegmental

Features

by

Non-native

Chinese

Learners

written

by

The

Chinese

University

of

Hong

Kong

focuses

on

suprasegmental

features

that

relate

to

the

communicative

functions

of

highlighting

and

phrasing

, which may be applied at both the lexical and utterance levels to convey

linguistic and paralinguistic information. This study is an initial attempt to assess the

knowledge and perception of English suprasegmental features by non-native (Chinese)

learners. Their findings suggest the need to enrich pronunciation training in terms of

knowledge

and

production

of

English

suprasegmental

features.

Learners

have

2

particular

difficulty

with

stress

patterns

of

long

polysyllabic

words,

unreduced

function

words,

intonation

of

Wh-questions

and

continuation

phrases,

as

well

as

prosodic disambiguation for semantic interpretation. Their findings also show that the

learners are capable of perceiving acoustic realizations of the suprasegmental features,

which brings performance improvements between the knowledge test and perceptual

test.

This

validates

the

value

of

developing

speech

technologies

that

can

support

perceptual

and

productive

training

of

English

suprasegmental

features

on

a

computer- aided language learning platform.

In

paper

A

New

Look

of

Suprasegmentals

by

Universidad

de

Antioquia,

Medellin,

Colombia,

it

presents

different

activities

they

use

to

teach

suprasegmentals

to

first

semester students in a pronunciation course in the undergraduate program directed to

prepare teachers of English and French at the University of Antioquia. It finds out that

working

with

the

suprasegmental

aspects

of

English

is

fun

and

rewarding

for

both

students

and

teachers.

Many

different

activities

can

be

designed

besides

the

ones

outlined

in

the

paper

which

will

help

students

improve

their

intelligibility

both

as

speakers and listeners.

In

paper

Intelligibility,

suprasegmentals,

and

L2

pronunciation

instruction

for

EFL

Japanese learners,

written by Toru Nakashima (

福 岡教育大學

)

，

it first argue for the

teachability

of

L2

pronunciation

if

the

goal

of

teaching

is

shifted

from

native-like

pronunciation

to

intelligibility

and

the

author

proposes

a

framework

for

discussing

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