GST 111

STATUS: REQUIRED

CREDIT UNITS: 2

LECTURE DAY: THURSDAY

LECTURE TIME: 12 – 2PM

LECTURER: DR. FLORENCE CHIKA NWOSU

DEPARTMENT: LINGUISTICS AND NIGERIAN LANGUAGES,

FACULTY OF ARTS
 MODULE
This topic on GST 111 compliments the fact that languages of
the world to an extent demonstrate grammar specificity.
English language shows some exceptional characteristics
which differentiate it from what we have in Nigerian
languages for example. As a result of language specifics
existing in the linguistic backgrounds of English and Nigerian
languages, native speakers of any of the Nigerian languages
tend to encounter challenges in speaking skills in English.
Therefore, this section of the course in GST 111 is intended
to alleviate the difficulties non native speakers of English may
encounter in mastering and displaying effective speaking skills
in the use of the vocabulary and grammar of the English
language. This section concentrates on sound system of
English, stress pattern of English, intonation in English, and
guidelines for effective speaking skills.
 LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the teaching and learning, student should be

able to:

i. differentiate between English letters of alphabet and the

speech sounds;
ii. itemise the major classes of English speech sounds;
iii. pronounce English words with no or with less mother
tongue interference;
iv. demonstrate significant English accent in spoken texts with
minimal mother tongue interference; and
v. highlight the guidelines to effective speaking skills.
 AIM
This course aimed to:

i. explore the differences that exist between English letters

of alphabet and the speech sounds;
ii. identify the major classes of English speech sounds;
iii. determine how English words can be used by the learners
of English with no or with less mother tongue
interference;
iv. discuss measures to take by learners of English in
incorporating English accent in their spoken English with
minimal mother tongue interference.; and
v. examine the guidelines to effective speaking skills.
 TITLE

SPEAKING SKILLs
 INTRODUCTION

There is no gainsaying that languages of the world share certain similarities

such as having letters of alphabet, speech sounds, word classes, vocabulary
and grammar, and that letters of alphabet of any language is used in the
formation of its words while the speech sounds are for the pronunciation
of words. Nonetheless, every language has its phonotactics or the rules of
grammar that guide its vocabulary and grammatical construction. This
means that the way features in language are harnessed differ from
language to language. For example, unlike English language, Nigerian
languages such as Yoruba and Igbo are one to one correspondence, that is,
the way a word is spelt in Igbo and Yoruba is the way it is pronounced but
the way a word is spelt in English may not be the way it is pronounced.
Igbo has 36 letters of alphabet, so also the number of its speech sounds;
Yoruba has 25 letters of alphabet, so also its speech sounds; but English has
26 letters of Alphabet with 44 speech sounds. Igbo, Yoruba and many
other Nigerian language are tonal languages while English is stress and
intonationally patterned, These identified features made the learning and
usage of English a bit complex to the native Nigerian language speakers.
We are going to explore the sounds of English and its classification, stress
and intonation patterns in English, with the aim of lessening the level of
difficulty Nigerian learners of English encounter in the usage of English.
 PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF ENGLISH

The phonological system of English is divided into two broad

types. The include:
Segmental
Suprasegmental

The segmental system encompasses the sound system of

English while the suprasegmental covers the stress and
intonation aspects.
 SEGMENTAL SYSTEM

All speech sounds result from air being somehow

obstructed or modified within the vocal tract. The
obstruction or modification of the air involves three
processes working together.
These processes
iv.
are:
highlight the guidelines to effective
The Airstream process
speaking skills.

The Phonation process

The Oro-nasal process

The airstream process tells the sources of the air that is

used in producing sounds in language; phonation process
tells when a sound is voiced or voiceless; and oro-nasal
process tells if a sound is an oral or nasal sound.
Articulatory Phonetics is that branch of Phonetics that
studies the production of human sounds made with the
organs of speech.
All speech sounds are made within the human organs of
speech provided the human vocal tract is capable of
producing it and the human ear is capable of hearing it.
English speech sounds are made by manipulating air as it
is exhaled from the lungs. The air that pushes the
produced sounds may or may not encounter certain
constrictions or blockage. Vowel sounds of English are
classified as oral sounds because they are produced
without any form of constriction of the airstream in the
oral cavity, but with rigorous obstruction mounted around
the larynx (i.e. the Adam’s apple), which causes the
vibration of the vocal chords. The vibration of the vocal
folds results to the vowel sounds being voiced.
On the other hand, consonant sounds of English are
produced with obstructions which can be complete or
partial. The blockage becomes complete, when two
articulators come together to produce sound without
any available space for air to escape until the sound is
produced as in the case of stops/plosives. While the
obstruction can iv. be partial
highlight if air can
the guidelines escape while two
to effective
speaking skills.
organs of speech meet to produce sounds as in the
case of fricatives and affricates and some others.
 CLASSIFICATION OF SOUNDS OF ENGLISH

Sounds of English are 44 in number. They are divided into two,

which are;

Vowel
Consonant
iv. highlight the guidelines to effective
Vowel sounds are 20speaking
whileskills.
consonant sounds are
24 in number.
The 20 vowel sounds are divided into two; monothongs and
diphthongs. The monothongs are 12 in number while the
diphthongs are eight. The monothongs are sub-divided into
short and long vowels. The short vowels are 7 while the long
ones are 5 in number. All the vowels are voiced.
The 24 consonant sounds on the other hand, are classified as
either voiced or voiceless. They are also classified based on
their place and manner of articulations.
 The Monothongs
/i:/, /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /a:/, /ɔ/, /ɔ:/, /ʋ/, /u:/, /ɜ:/, /ə/, /ʌ/

The Shor Vowels

/ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɔ/, /ʋ/, /ə/, /ʌ/

The Long Vowels

/i:/, /a:/, /ɔ:/,/u:/, /ɜ:/
In order for the non natives of English to attain
proficiency in the use of the vowels of English, the
vowels of English shall be listed and their pronunciations
be exemplified in words.
The vowels that should be pronounced as /i:/when found
in English words are:
‘ea’ as in team, cheap, stream, lead, read, leak, please,
meal, sea, mean, etc.
‘ee’ as in keep, sleep, seed, weed, week, jeep, need, see,
meet, knee, etc.
‘ei’ as in conceive, deceive, receive, perceive, etc.
‘ie’ as in belief, field etc.
‘ua’ quay, etc.
‘i’ as in police, machine, pizza, liter, meter, system, busy,
pity, sunny, key, etc.
‘e’ as in complete, me, be, eve, friend, said, etc.
/i/ are found in words like, is, sit, hit, sip, busy, big
England, myth, this, with, if, think, kiss, etc
/e/or /ɛ/ in words like head, bed, sect, shed, any, length,
leopard, etc.
/æ/ as in pan, man, lad, slab, cat, sat, etc.
/a:/ as in park, car, hard, arm, heart, hearth, clark, pass, calm,
aunt, march, etc
/ɒ/ as in dog, pot, dot, hot, holiday, what, cough, knowledge,
etc
/ɔ:/ fork, war, warm, law, court, hurt, before, etc.
/ʋ/ as in full, look, book, woman, put, foot, would, should, etc.
/u:/ as in who, food, music, you, new, boot, to, too, soup,
group, do, move, rule, chew, blue, shoe, juice etc.
/ɜ:/ as in girl, birth, heard, word, world, work, her, earth, bird,
church, journey etc.
/ə/ as in about, around, Lagos, announce, the, us, above,
famous, colour, doctor, figure, etc.
/ʌ/ as in son, sun, cut, fuck, luck, blood, rough, does, love, etc.
 Diphthongs

Diphthongs are vowel sounds that are formed by the combination of

two vowels in a syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and
moves towards another. They can also be defined a s gliding vowels,
which are created when a speaker glides from one vowel sound into
another.
There are eight diphthongs in English, which are:

/aʋ/ as in shout, loud, cow, town, bow, etc.

/aɪ/ as in sky, my, lie, nine, side, light, might, buy, by, rice, like, etc.
/ɔɪ/ as in soil, coin, loin, toy, joy, boy, oil, voice, etc.
/əʋ/ as in go, goat, slow, boat, home, etc.
/eɪ/ as same, game, play, cain, make, etc.
/eə/ as in air, hair, there, care, ear, bear, claire, heir, etc
/iə/ as in here, deer, fear
/ʋə/ as in poor, tour, sure, pure
 CONSONANT SOUNDS OF ENGLISH

Unlike vowels, consonant sounds are produced with either

complete or partial constriction of air in the oral and in the
nasal cavities. Consonant sounds are either voiced or
voiceless. The consonant sounds that are voiced are fifteen
(15) in number while the voiceless consonants are nine (9) in
number.
The voiced consonants are:
/b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, /ʤ/, /l/, /r/, /w/, /j/, /m/, /n/,
/ŋ/.

The voiceless ones are:

/p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/, /ʧ/.
The following are the adjectival description of the
consonant sounds and their examples in words:
/p/ voiceless bilabial stop/plosive paul, pink, pan
/b/ voiced bilabial stop/plosive back, burn, ball
/t/ voiceless alveolar stop/plosive tin, truck, tap
/d/ voiced alveolar stop/plosive dog, dine, day
/k/ voiceless velar stop/plosive king, sack, care
/g/ voiced velar stop/plosive gun, guy, group
/ʧ/ voiceless palato-alveolar affricate chin, chalk,
/ʤ/ voiced palato-alveolar affricate joy, George
/f/ voiceless alveolar fricative fan, five, fun
/v/ voiced s alveolar fricative vow, van, volvo
/θ/ voiceless dental fricative thing, think
/ð/ voiced dental fricative mother, father
/s/ voiceless alveolar fricative sin, sake, socks
/z/ voiced alveolar fricative zinc, zion, songs
/ʃ/ voiceless palato-alveolar fricative sure, should,
chalet, champagne
/ʒ/ voiced palato-alveolar fricative pleasure, measure,
genre, vision, garage
/h/ voiceless glottal fricative hope, rehearsal
/m/ voiced bilabial nasal might, make, must
/n/ voiced alveolar nasal noise, name, snake
/ŋ/ voiced velar nasal sing, king, crying
/l/ voice alveolar lateral long, last, like
/r/ voiced post-alveolar continuant rice, grace
/w/ voiced bilabial approximant work, week
/j/ voiced palatal you, university urine
 AUTOSEGMENTAL SYSTEM

The autosegmental aspects to consider

include:

 Stress
Intonation
 STRESS

When producing a word, a part of the word is usually heard to be

louder than the other and a part is spoken with greater energy
than the rest. It is the loudness and greater force applied to a part
of a word that is called STRESS.
Application of stress at the right place is very important in spoken
English because, stress determines the meaning of what one says.
A good knowledge of Syllable also, is prerequisite to a good
understanding and mastery of Stress in spoken English.
A syllable can be defined as a unit of pronunciation having one
vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming
the whole or a part of a word.
Stress usually coincides with chest pulse when an utterance is
made.
Every stressed part has a vowel segment as its nucleus.

TYPES OF STRESS IN ENGLISH

They are three, namely

 Primary stress
Secondary stress
Weak stress/unstressed syllable

Primary stress is the syllable with the most emphasis in a word.

Its pitch is usually louder, longer and higher.

Secondary stress is the syllable with lesser emphasis than primary

stress. It is usually quiet and short.

Weak/Unstressed syllable is usually shorter and lower than

primary and secondary stress syllables. It is marked by the absence
of any type of prominence.
Examples:

One word syllables: ˈcome, ˈman, ˈsick, go, ˈdance,

ˈland.
Two syllable words: ˈleader, ˈstudent, ˈpower, ˈ ˈ
ˈjourney, ˈmadam, aˈbout, ˈtable,
aˈcross.
Three word syllable: inˈfection, aˈttention, ˈlimited, ˈ
ˈhappily, ˈcelebrate, ˈsilently
Four syllable words: examiˈnation, inauguˈration,
acaˈdemy, aˈgility, achieˈvable
Five word syllable: elecˈtricity, globaliˈzation
When more than one syllable is stressed in one word,
then it means that one is primary stress and the other
secondary stress.

Examples:
ˌindeˈpendence
ˌeduˈcation
Stress is also used to differentiate words with the
same spelling but different grammatical functions.
For instance, stress placement at a particular part of
the word determines the correct pronunciation of the
word as well as the intended meaning of the word.
For example:
Noun Verb
ˈconvert conˈvert
ˈimport imˈport
ˈexport exˈport
ˈextract exˈtract
ˈincrease inˈcrease
 INTONATION

Intonation is used to describe the fall and rise of pitch in

speech. It can also be referred to as variation in speech.

There are tow basic tunes in English. These tunes include

Falling tune [↘]
Rising tune [↗]
Wale (2001, p. 221) says that “intonation is used to convey
attitudinal meaning, illocutionary force, grammatical
structure and information value”. This means that intonation
conveys the mood of the speaker to his audience.
 USES OF THE BASIC TUNES IN ENGLISH

Falling Tune:

Falling tune is used to mark declaratives/statement.

For instance,
 We will have lecture in the morning↘
 They are dancing↘

Falling tune also accompanies imperative and exclamation.

Example,
Come out!↘
Eat your food now!↘
 RISING TUNE
Among the functions of rising tune include:

Rising tune is used to make polite requests

Examples:
Give me that cup please.↗
Could you stand in in class for me today please?↗

Rising tune is also used to ask questions that demand Yes/No

responses.
Examples:
Is that your house?↗
Are you going to school tomorrow?↗
You don’t like beans. Do you?↗
 Guidelines to Effective Speaking Skills

In view of the subject matters discussed above, there is need

to inculcate the following but not the least habits for
effective performance in English usage:

appropriate use of the English past tense marker ‘–ed’;

appropriate use of the English plural maker ‘s’;
avoidance of mother-tongue interference in the use of
sound /h/. For instance, the omission of ‘h’ in words
like hospital, hope, happy, hot, etc;
appropriate use of article ‘a’ and ‘an’. For instance, we
should focus on the sound the letter represents
instead of on the initial letter of the word. Example, ‘a
European’ instead of ‘an European’
er/or are pronounced as an unstressed or weak
vowel /ə/ in words like sister, doctor, designer,
player, sailor, etc.;
 the comparative and superlative markers ‘er’ and est’
are pronounced as /ə/ and ‘ist’ respectively and not as
‘a’ and ‘ɛst’;
 some consonants are silent in certain environments.
These sounds are not pronounced in words where they
exist. For instance, the underlined sounds are not
pronounced in the following words:
debt, subtle, doubt, lamb, bomb, womb, plumber, knee,
knight, gnash, gnaw, gnat, half, should, palm, folk, yolk,
almond, walk, fasten, apostle, wrestle, listen, challet,
whistle, Christmas, hasten, handsome, wrist, wrestle,
pneumonia, cupboard, receipt; etc.;
 the pronunciation of ‘p’ is optional in words kike:
symptom, presumption, jumped, tempt, empty;
etc.;
Sound ‘Th’ is pronounced as ‘T’ in words like:
Thomas, Thames, Thyme; etc;
 ‘c’ is pronounced as ‘s’ in ceiling, Celine; and is
pronounced as ‘k’ in comb, come, chemist,
accord, stomach, antique, cake, council, etc.