English Pronunciation and the Spelling-Sound Code: What Priorities for Teachers of EFL?
The article aims first to identify significant learner challenges regarding the relationship between written-spoken English which can be usefully addressed by raising awareness of the specificities – and regularities – of the English spelling-sound code. The role of teaching exams is then discussed,...
Kaydedildi:
| Yayımlandı: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ranam, |
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| Yazar: | |
| Materyal Türü: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Dil: | Anglais |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
Recherches anglaises et nord-américaines
2024
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| Konular: | |
| Online Erişim: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Özet: | The article aims first to identify significant learner challenges regarding the relationship between written-spoken English which can be usefully addressed by raising awareness of the specificities – and regularities – of the English spelling-sound code. The role of teaching exams is then discussed, analyzing how specialist competence is tested and how far this relates to learner issues, and a few strategies to bridge the theory-application gap are outlined. Priorities identified concern vowel reduction where the absence of any letter-sound correspondence is an issue, and the articulation and/or perception of sounds, especially certain vowels (/ɪ/, /i:/ and /aɪ/; /ɒ/, /əʊ/ and /ɔ:/), often associated with confusing spellings ( and ). For these, it is argued that awareness of how the English spelling-sound code works should enable learners to improve both production and comprehension. The detailed analysis of the phonology papers of the French teaching exam (agrégation externe d’anglais) based on papers and reports from 2000 to 2020 focuses on three elements: morphophonology where vowel quality is determined by certain endings; IPA transcription/spelling-sound which tests pronunciation and knowledge of the code; and phonetic variation involving connected speech. The study shows that questions regularly focus on aspects of the system which could be usefully transferred to learners. |
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