Speaking Skill

Language is primarily speech. The ability to speak fluently and accurately enables one to be intelligible, which is one of the important criteria for effective communication.

A brief introduction to the importance of phonemic symbols:
English has 26 letters of the alphabet which represent 44 sounds or phonemes. This means to say, one letter of the alphabet stands for more than one sound and conversely, the same sound is represented by different letters of the alphabet. Thus, there is no one-to-one correspondence between the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they represent, which makes English an un-phonetic language. This also explains the need to be acquainted with the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols.

Consonant Sounds
English language has 21 consonant letters but 24 consonant sounds which are represented by the phonemic symbols as shown below.


 * Identify	the consonant sounds represented by the letter/s underlined	in the following words and write the phonemic symbols in the space	provided

1. Precious _____2. Yellow ______3. Think ______ 4. Phone _____ 5. Measure ________

6. Machine _____ 7. Catch  _____  8. These ______ 9. Thank ______ 10. Engine ________

Pure Vowels

 * Identify	the vowel sound represented by the letter/s underlined in the	following words and write the phonemic symbols in the space provided

1. Cat ____   2. Good _____ 3. Head _____ 4. Word _____ 5. Were ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____

6. Hymn ____ 7. Tell               8. Hot ______ 9. Ask _____ 10. Sister _____

11. Scene ______ 12. Meal________13. Food ______14. Bottle _____15. Push __________ 16. But _____17. Could ______18. Match        19. Cupboard ______20. Daughter _______

Diphthongs
During the process of articulation of sounds of a language, the tongue occupies different positions in the mouth. When it ‘glides’ from one vowel position to another vowel position it forms a ‘Vowel Glide’ which is also called a ‘Diphthong’. There are 8 Diphthongs in the English language.


 * Identify	the diphthongs represented by the letter/s underlined in the	following words and write the phonemic symbols in the space provided

1. Care   ____    2. Go _____ 3. Hide_____ 4. Fail _____  5. File ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____ 6.Foil _____  7. Foul               8. How ______ 9. Deer _____ 10. Air _____ 11. Where _____  12. Road ________ 13.Great ________14.Fear __________15. Tour _____


 * Write	the phonemic transcription of the following words

1. Apple ______________ 2. Fix _________________ 3. Photo   ___________________

4. English ___________  5. Teacher _____________ 6. Student __________________

7. Vowels ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________    8.Button ________________ 9. Phonemes _____________________

10. Wear____________  11. Come ____________  12. Suddenly____________

13. Laugh _____________  14. Fare  ___________   15. Crack ______________

16. Phonics_____________ 17. Judge ___________  18. Packet _______________

19. Marked ______________20. Early ____________

Syllable
A syllable is the basic unit of rhythmic structure in English. It is a sound unit in which the nucleus is a vowel sound.

It is very important to understand how the rhythm is counted in English. A syllable consists of an obligatory vowel segment, plus an optional consonantal segment or segments that surround the vowel. In other words, a syllable ALWAYS has a vowel. It may or may not have a consonant sound/s on the either side of the vowel. The number of syllables in a word is counted by the number of vowel sounds in the word.

It is important to note that when we say the number of vowels, it does not mean the number of vowel letters. When we talk about vowels and consonants, we mean the vowel sounds and consonant sounds.

Words could be monosyllabic (one syllable e.g. cat, book), disyllabic (two syllables e.g. pencil, window), or polysyllabic (three or more than three syllables e.g. computer, potato).

Stress
Stress refers to an extra force of breath that is applied on a particular syllable in a word. It is represented by a small vertical line (ˈ) just before the syllable to be stressed.

Eg. ˈpen / ˈvillage / proˈfessor

Word Stress
a) Some words take the stress on different syllables depending on the different functions they  play b) Some words take the stress on the same syllable whether they are nouns or adjectives or verbs c) Words ending with- ‘ian, ion, ious, al, tion take the stress on the penultimate (2nd last) syllable d) Words ending with ‘ity, cal, gy ‘ take the stress on the 3rd last (ante penultimate) syllable e) Verbs ending in ‘ate, ise, ize, ify’ also take the stress on the 3rd last syllable (ante penultimate)

Eg. 	asˈsociate

ˈsocialise

ˈmemorize

perˈsonify

reˈtaliate

f) Numbers ending in ‘teen’ take the stress on the last syllable

Eg :	fifˈteen

sevenˈteen

g) Words ending with ‘ee’ take the stress on the last syllable.

Eg :   nomiˈnee

traiˈnee

h) Stress/Accent in compound words

A compound word is composed of two separable words with or without a hyphen between them. In most compound words in English the primary accent falls on one of the two elements.


 * The most common type in English is the first of the two elements receiving the primary accent.

Eg :


 * There are, however a few compound words with -ever –self and selves as the second elements in which the second element receives the primary accent.

Eg :


 * There are other compound words in which both the elements are accented, but the primary accent falls on the second element.

Eg:

Sentence stress
As a rule, in connected speech the content words are stressed and the structural words are not. However, if a structural word requires emphasis in relation to the context, it gets stressed.

Content words

Nouns    - man, tree, axe, forest, friend, trip, prize, president..

Verbs    - cutting, arranged, received..

Adverbs    - slowly, carefully, fast..

Adjectives    - old, big, sharp, thick..

Reflexives    - myself, himself..

Demonstratives    - this, that..

Interrogatives    - who, when..

Structural words
Pronouns              -     personal, possessive & relative –I, she, her, who

Articles                 -     a, an, the

Auxiliaries            -     is, was..

Prepositions         -     in, into...

Conjunctions        -     and, but..

Eg:

1. ˈMaria has ˈjust reˈturned from ˈLondon.

2. I reˈceived a ˈprize from the ˈminister.

3. My ˈfriend has arranged my reˈturn ˈtrip.

Exception:  A. Can you ˈdrive a ˈcar?

B. ˈYes I ˈcan.

Intonation:

Input: This is another important supra-segmental feature which plays a significant role in communication. When we speak the pitch of the voice goes on changing, that is, the voice rises and falls. This rise and fall of pitch in speech is called modulation of voice or ‘intonation’. Though there are many tones, knowledge of the major tones would suffice.

Falling Intonation is used in


 * 1) statements	made without implications

I’m going

I shall see you this evening


 * questions beginning with a question word

What’s your name?

How’s your father?


 * commands

Go and post it

Go away


 * exclamations

How annoying!

What lovely roses!

Rising Intonation is used in


 * 1) incomplete	utterances, often the first clause of a sentence.

Eg : Luckily / the snake didn’t bite anyone.


 * 1) questions	that demand a Yes or a No answer.

Can you come?

Are you there?

Haven’t you seen it yet?


 * 1) ‘Wh’ questions (asked with warmth)

What’s the matter?

How’s your head-ache?


 * 1) polite requests

Do sit down.

Come here.

Could I borrow your newspaper?

Fall-Rise Intonation is used in


 * 1) implication of something one doesn’t want to express openly

The coffee is good.... (but it’s very expensive)


 * 1) surprise and doubt

Ready? (because s/he is usually late)


 * 1) differences of opinion

A: She’s so humble

B: Certainly not


 * 1) comparison and contrast

He writes better than Balu.

Reading Aloud - Practice

1. Listen and repeat:

toy Joyce destroy

boys enjoying noisy

Roy annoyed spoiled

voices annoying


 * 1) Dialogue:

Roy: Boys! Stop making so much noise!

Boys: What?

Roy: Keep your voices down! YOU’RE MAKING TOO MUCH NOISE!

Joyce: Why are you so annoyed? They’re enjoying themselves. They’re little boys – of course they’ll make noise.

Roy: We’ll it’s very annoying…

(raising his voice) Boys!

They don’t listen. They’re spoiled. They destroy all the toys I buy them. And they’re the noisiest boys I’ve ever heard. I’m sure I wasn’t that noisy when I was a little boy.

Joyce: Well, maybe you shouldn’t buy them such noisy toys.

Roy: It’s not the toys that are noisy – it’s the boys!

