Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Bc. Kristýna Zemková Segmental versus Suprasegmental Mistakes in English Pronunciation Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Kateřina Tomková, Ph.D. 2018 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, PhDr. Kateřina Tomková, Ph.D., for her help with the recordings that I could not have done without, as well as for her guidance throughout the writing process. Table of Contents Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................. 4 List of Figures .................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 7 1. The History of Teaching Pronunciation .................................................................................... 9 2. Contrasting Theories................................................................................................................... 10 3. Segmental Pronunciation Features ........................................................................................... 15 3. 1 Vowels ................................................................................................................................... 15 3. 2 Consonants ........................................................................................................................... 21 4. Suprasegmentals .......................................................................................................................... 25 4. 1 Stress ...................................................................................................................................... 25 4. 2 Assimilation .......................................................................................................................... 27 4. 3 Elision .................................................................................................................................... 29 4. 4 Linking ................................................................................................................................... 29 4. 5 Rhythm .................................................................................................................................. 30 4. 6 Sentence Stress ..................................................................................................................... 31 4. 7 Intonation ............................................................................................................................. 31 5. Greater Importance for Intelligibility: Segmentals or Suprasegmentals? ............................ 32 6. The Current Status of Pronunciation in Schools .................................................................... 34 7. The Theory of Teaching Pronunciation .................................................................................. 37 7. 1 Teaching Segmentals ........................................................................................................... 37 7. 2 Teaching Suprasegmentals .................................................................................................. 39 7. 3 Error Correction .................................................................................................................. 40 7. 4 Testing Pronunciation ......................................................................................................... 41 8. Research methodology ............................................................................................................... 42 9. Questionnaires analysis ............................................................................................................... 50 9. 1 Characteristics of the Research Participants .................................................................... 50 9. 2 Recording A .......................................................................................................................... 50 9. 2. 1 Native speakers ............................................................................................................ 50 9. 2. 2 Speakers of Asian languages ...................................................................................... 51 9. 2. 3 Speakers of Romance native languages .................................................................... 52 9. 2. 4 Speakers of Slavic languages ...................................................................................... 52 9. 3 Recording B .......................................................................................................................... 53 9. 3. 1 Native speakers ............................................................................................................ 53 9. 3. 2 Speakers of Asian languages ...................................................................................... 54 4 9. 3. 3 Speakers of Romance languages ................................................................................ 55 9. 3. 4 Speakers of Slavic languages ...................................................................................... 55 9. 4 Recording C .......................................................................................................................... 56 9. 4. 1 Native speakers ............................................................................................................ 56 9. 4. 2 Speakers of Asian languages ...................................................................................... 56 9. 4. 3 Speakers of Romance languages ................................................................................ 56 9. 4. 4 Speakers of Slavic languages ...................................................................................... 57 9. 5 English as Lingua Franca .................................................................................................... 57 10. Overall Results Analysis ........................................................................................................... 58 10. 1 Suprasegmental Mistakes .................................................................................................. 59 10. 2 Segmental Mistakes ............................................................................................................ 60 10. 3 The Differences Between Language Groups ................................................................ 61 10. 4 Implications on Teaching Pronunciation ....................................................................... 63 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 65 References ......................................................................................................................................... 67 Other sources ................................................................................................................................... 68 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 70 Summary in Czech ........................................................................................................................... 71 Appendices on CD .......................................................................................................................... 73 5 List of Figures Figure 1 - Types of interaction (Levis, 2005) .............................................................................. 12 Figure 2 - Primary cardinal vowels by Daniel Jones (Ladefoged, 1975) .................................. 16 Figure 3 - Differences in English and Czech vowels (Ondráček, 2014) ................................. 17 Figure 4 - Questionnaire ................................................................................................................. 47 Figure 5 - Intelligibility chart .......................................................................................................... 58 Figure 6 - Perceived level of English chart .................................................................................. 58 Figure 7 - The most native-like recording .................................................................................... 59 Figure 8 - The recording the most pleasant to listen to ............................................................. 59 Figure 9 - The recording with the most mistakes ....................................................................... 59 6 SEGMENTAL VERSUS SUPRASEGMENTAL MISTAKES IN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION Introduction The methods of teaching pronunciation have been discussed in the community of ESL teachers for the past hundred years; more so with the development of various English language teaching methods in the second half of the twentieth century. In some methods, pronunciation plays a crucial role; in others (mostly obsolete), it is entirely disregarded. Even after having established that pronunciation is an element of language acquisition