Chapter 3
Wow, there are so many names to remember when describing sounds. :) I learned them all in a class with Dr. Peterson in Spring 2005, but couldn't remember even one full sound description before reading this chapter. I actually think that transcribing sounds into IPA is fun... it's like learning a second language. Well, it IS learning a language. A graphophonemic language!
The hardest IPA symbols for me to remember are the vowel sounds. English has SO many vowel sounds. Vowels are hard on kids who are learning to read, too. Many native English-speaking kids do okay, but those who have difficulty applying more strategies than just "sounding out" words really struggle to learn vowel sounds. And it's their native language - the problems are compounded for English language learners!
I am totally fascinated by the concept of tonal languages. I got to learn a tiny bit of Chinese in my FLES class when I lived in Mankato, and I wanted to keep learning more and more! I wonder if I would be able to perceive the tones or if I would have a difficult time learning them. All I can remember from that class is "Ni hao!". I am curious about whether native speakers of Chinese think that English sounds strange because it's not a tonal language... or if they find patterns of English intonation confusing because they seem like tones. Does anybody know if this happens? Or am I misunderstanding tonal languages?
Chapter 4
Rules, rules, rules. They are important to read and understand as an ESL teacher, but it is hard for me to keep track of them later. I just know how things are "supposed to sound" in English. :) It is good to revisit the rules once in a while; it gives me a justification for using correct spelling/pronunciation/forms, instead of saying "I just know", and helps me better explain English language features. Also, it helps iron out any mistakes I may use (I guess I'm thinking more of grammar rules here than of phonology rules). But since morphology and phonology interact, the phonology rules are definitely useful.
I found it interesting that English has an unusually large variety of different kinds of syllables. I never knew that before. Beginning Spanish reading is commonly taught in CV syllables, based on traditional teaching methods from Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries. There are fewer syllable types than in English, but I didn't realize English was unique in this respect when compared to the world's languages. I guess it makes sense, though!
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yes, English has large variety of different syllable structures, and especially the clusters of two and three consonants bother me sometimes. For example: thwart. There are three consonants at the beginning and two consonants at the end. At first time, I even couldn't take a guess how it sounded like.
ReplyDeleteHi Carly, I totally agree with you that there are so many new names popping out in these two chapters. I also have big trouble to remember those names, let alone their pronunciation or spelling. But I am pretty sure that I understand the concept and the meaning of it. Do you think we need to memorize all those names?
ReplyDeleteI don't think we need to memorize them. Well, I guess we do for the quizzes, probably. :) But in real life teaching, it's not crucial. I forgot the terms after the first class I took on phonetics, but the concept of where each sound is made stuck with me, and has been helpful... particularly the voiceless and voiced sound pairs (like /p/ and /b/).
ReplyDeleteMost dialectal differences occur in the vowels, so I’m not surprised that it’s more difficult than consonants.
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