Teaching Connected Speech

Abdullah Coskun, Turkey

Abdullah Coskun is an EFL teacher at Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey. He holds an MA in ELT and is currently pursuing a PhD in the same field. His main interests are classroom research and the effects of English as an International Language on the EFL classroom. E-mail: coskun_a@ibu.edu.tr

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Background
Introduction
Lesson plan for teaching reduced forms
References

Background

It is common knowledge that connected speech is a real part of the daily English that we are exposed to everyday; therefore, our students should be aware of connected speech to understand better the language they hear. This paper that ends with a lesson plan for teaching some connected speech forms has the main aim to discuss the importance of teaching connected speech.

Introduction

Connected speech forms are the spontaneous pronunciation changes in adjacent words or sounds spoken at a natural speed (Weinstein, 2001). Some common examples include /gonna/, /wanna/, /hafta/ and /gotta/. Rosa (2002) suggests that these forms are a common element of spoken English, found in all registers and all rates of speech. Brown (2006) lists below some of these forms by giving examples:

• Assimilation of Sounds (e.g. "could have = coulda")
• Linking of Sounds (e.g. "He's a good old man =‘He's a good ol' man")
• Elision of Sounds (e.g. North American English speakers are much more likely to drop the middle vowel in chocolate in a two syllable version pronounced something like chak lut)
• Contractions (e.g. "they will=they'll)
• Intrusion (e.g. in some dialects, the phrase China and Japan is pronounced something like Chiner n Japan)
• Weak Forms of Words (e.g. the citation from of not in do not go can be contracted as in don't go or even further reduced as don go)
• Reduction (e.g. in North American English, the vowels found in unstressed syllables are most often reduced to schwa /ə/ or incorporated into a syllabic consonant like /ŋ/)

Listening is a process affected by the character of the listener, the speaker, the content of the message, and any visual support that accompanies the message (Brown & Yule, 1983). Among many suggestions as to the causes of the difficulty in understanding spoken English, the researchers seem to agree on the idea that connected speech forms are the main cause. Goh (2000) and Chen (2002) claimed that students do not recognize words they know while listening and Sun (2002) made a similar suggestion that students cannot segment speech, and that makes listening difficult. Ur (1984) claims that when a student learns a new word or an expression, he usually learns its written and spoken form in its formal and slow form ignoring how this word sounds when it is said quickly or in an stressed manner in a sentence. Underwood (1989) holds the idea that when encountered with speech they have not heard before, students find that the sounds are lost as the speakers focus on the message rather than the dictation. Students have difficulty in connecting the sounds they hear with words they have seen and recognized in print form.

Considering the challenges students face while listening to English, students should somehow be exposed to connected speech that is a part of the natural language use. As Brown (2006) argues, students need to be able to adapt their styles and registers in using language, and the ability to understand and use connected speech is necessary for these adaptations. Some researchers who are aware of the importance of teaching these forms have made a number of suggestions on how to teach connected speech. Some of their ideas can be listed as follows:

Using background knowledge and relating prior knowledge to the new information contained in the spoken text. It is also important to pre-teach these forms (Hasan, 2000)
Using rhyme and verse as a means of teaching problematic sounds, including reduced forms (Marks,1999)
Promoting practice through cloze tests and dictation is proposed
Analyzing spoken discourse and activities which are meaningful, purposeful, communicative and task-based
Introducing from one to five new reduced forms and explaining how they are reduced at the beginning of each class
Giving dictation of sentences, repeating each sentence twice with relaxed or fast pronunciation
Incorporating the reduced forms into exchanges with the students
Keeping listening journals as a homework assignment
Using games and competitions and various types of cloze exercises, such as songs, dialogues, news broadcasts and interviews (Norris, 1995).

The following lesson plan includes some of the activities suggested above to familiarize students with different connected speech forms by starting the lesson with parts of a song containing some of these forms. Students' opinions about the difficulty they had while listening to the song and the reasons behind this difficult will be elicited to have an introduction to connected speech forms. Then, students try to identify some of these forms in given sentences. Finally, students listen to a dialogue, write down the formal forms of the reduced forms and practice the exact dialogue after a second listening.

Lesson plan for teaching reduced forms

Proficiency level: Intermediate
Duration: 50 mins

Objectives

• Help students to become aware of reduced forms.
• Help students to understand the mentality of reduced forms and identify the reduced words and sentences.

Warm-up

Play a song with reduced forms:

I wanna be with you...'cos I'm eighteen...Lights are gonna find me...All you've gotta do...I bet you think this song's 'bout you, don't you? (Retrieved from: http://www.oup.com).

Play it again, pausing after each line and getting students to repeat the lines. Play it one last time to let students take notes of the song and practice the song with their partners.

Presentation

Ask the question: “Was the song hard to understand? Why/Why not?” After eliciting students’ responses, ask them to write the lines of the song in standard written English and sing the song again to their partner in its formal, standard, written form. Ask them how they feel about the two different versions of the song.

Talk about the reasons why there are lines like “I wanna be with you” rather than “I want to be with you”. Ask them to give similar examples in English. Add some more examples of sentences with reduced forms on the board. (adapted from Brown & Hilferty, 1982, 1995).

I am gonna go on a holiday next week. He hasta get up early tomorrow morning. Couldja swin when you were a child? I dunno what you’re talkin’ bout How d’ya feel?

Practice

Ask them to identify the reduced forms in the sentences above and make them repeat the sentences below quickly three or more times to their partners and let them feel the change in the sentences when uttered quickly after a couple of repetitions. At the end, read the sentences quickly yourself and make them repeat after you.

This has got to be the best we have ever done.
There's got to be a better way to do this.
Just as I thought, he is not coming.
Cup of coffee when you have a minute?
Could he been the postman ringing the doorbell.
Peace and quiet. That is what we need.
Is her brother going to come to the party?
What do you think will happen to her?
Give me the key.
I don’t know
What do you want to eat?
Would you like a banana?
Don’t you know?

Production

Play a dialogue between two students in the cafeteria and ask students to jot down the full formal form of the second words of each sentence. (if it is something like /‘s/, they should write “is”). Play it once and give them to students to peer check the words they could catch. After checking students’ words, let them practice the dialogue as it is in the listening material.

Assignment: Watch the film “Identity” or any other American movie, and write down the reduced forms you can catch in the first ten minutes of the film. You can also work on a pop song.

References

Brown, J. D. (2006). Authentic communication: Whyzit importan' ta teach reduced forms? In T. Newfields, et al. Authentic Communication: Proceedings of the 5th Annual JALT Pan-SIG Conference, 13-24. Retrieved June 6, 2007 from http://jalt.org/pansig/2006/HTML/Brown.htm

Brown, G and Yule, G (1983). Teaching the spoken language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chen, S.W. (2002). Problems in listening comprehension for learners of EFL. Studies in English Language and Literature, 10, 57-70.Goh, C.C.M (2000). A cognitive perspective on listening comprehension problems. System, 28, 55-75.

Hasan, A.(2000). Learners’ perceptions of listening comprehension problems. Language, Culture and Curriculum,13 (2),137-152.

Marks, J. (1999). Is stress-timing real? ELT Journal, 53(3), 191-199.

Norris, R.W. (1995). Teaching reduced forms: Putting the horse before the cart. English Teaching Forum, 33, 47-50.

Rosa, M. (2002). Don'cha Know? A survey of ESL teachers’ perspectives on reduced forms instruction? Second Language Studies , 21(1), 49-78

Sun, K.C. (2002). Investigation of English listening difficulties of Taiwan students. The 11^th Conference on English Teaching and Learning in the Republic of China, 518-525. Taipei: Crane.

Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching listening. London: Longman.

Ur.P. (1984). Teaching listening comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Weinstein, N. 2001. *Whaddaya Say? *(2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

The Methodology for Teaching Spoken Grammar and English course can be viewed here
The Methodology and Language for Secondary Teachers course can be viewed here