Feoffor thePhonology

Feof for the Phonology (音議学に対する感覚)
107
Feoffor thePhonology
(音韻学に対する感覚)
R.G.Murphy (Departmentof English)
It is advisable for foreign_languageteachers not to downplay thepronunciation package
(phonology).some suggestions are madefor using a practical approach to pronunciation in
order to providea sound foundation for other language areasand to enhanceteaching and
1eamabilityin general.
外国語を教える教師は音韻学を軽く見ないことが望ましい。ここでのいくつかの提案は、他の言
語分野(たとえば、文法、語彙、コミュニケーショ ンのある会話など) のための健全な基礎を提供
し、概して学ぶ能力及び教える能力を高めるために、発音に対する実際的なアブローチを用いるた
めのものである。
Keywords: lexico_grammatical pronunciation; responsibility; suprasegmental;
discovery activities
It is said that teachers tend to downplay pronunciation in an L2 syllabus.Some are ashamed Of thei「Own
pronunciation;others are embarrassed when anative-speaker is present in the classroom(and Japan in 「eCent
years has had more and moreAssistant Language Teachers(ALTS)from overseas in its schools);yet anOthe「
reason could be thetime_factor,thepressure on teachers to get through the grammar and vocabula「y and multiple_choice test training for the prescribed examinations that give relatively less emphasis top「enunciation,
even whentheora1/auralelementisbeing accorded greater importance.Classeshave somanythingstodo in the
few time_slots available each week te L2 work,and the effort demanded in making pupils approach native
pronunciation seemsto be awasteof time and energy when grammar,vocabulary,spelling and p「esc「ibedO「al
repertojresloomlarger.And how ispronunciation to be evaluated?Doexaminers- flawed specimensthatthey
might be in terms of 'pronunciation'_ takeoff marks for each segmental error,or just for certain Ones that
occur regularly?Aretheerrorsaestheticallyodd,or do they alsofoil or impede comprehension?Or Shouldext「a
bonus marks be made availablefor good pronunciation,segmental and suprasegmental?The following Pages
treat the issue of 'pronunciation'as afull package and suggest what teachers andlearne「s might be bette「
advised todo in classto activateit.
sweet(1899)advised thatthe importance of pronunciation does nettle in sounding like anative-SPeake「;it
lies,rather,in mastering the grammatical distinctions and the differentmeaningsthat are signalled by Phonic
features.In referring to this,Stem(1992)gives the following examples from Gilbert(1984:21):
1)count counted
2)mouse mouth
3a)We'veoften gone up to that lookout.
3b)He'sgotto look out when hetalks to hisboss.
In 1)thedistinction isgrammatical,in2)itislexical,whereas in3)the differencein stressbetween lookout and
took、out distinguishes acompound noun from aphrasalverb.Inother words,in order to master the lexicon and
the grammar,the learner needs tofeel at ease with the soundfeaturesof thelanguage.Apossiblefu「the「benefit
might bethe consciousunderstanding of how sound features might operateinthe teacher's andleame「'Snative
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language for grammatical andlexical purposes.
'Pronunciation'hereis taken asencompassing sound features suchasrhythm and intonation.If alearner does
notloam to feel atease with the sound features of a language,then grammar and vocabulary and,more significantly,discourse becomedifficultto loam because they make useof sound differences and differences in stress
or intonation.Stem rejectstheview thatpronunciation learning impedesthelearning of grammar and vocabu1ary,claiming that it is an essentialprerequisite.Whatmattersisnotso much aperfect mastery of pronunciation;
more important is a sense of familiarity with what the language soundslike.This is what Krashen& Terrel1
(1983)called the feoffor thephonologythat isdesirable in almostany type of languagecoursewecanthink of.
(See Stem 1992:107-125.)
This 'feof for thephonology'formsthetitleof thisarticle.Itcould alsobedescribed asaninternal 'dance'that
we perform incur native language but which does not function exactly the same in anotherlanguage.The
phonological dance is asetof motions and shapes articulated in the mouth and proceeding from above and
below the mouth.It might even be ahighly alienating experience to syllable-time when one's native language
'dance'stress-times.Even more alienating could be the ups and downs of pitch and intonation,which might
affrontcultural perceptions of gender or age,and other cultural status markers.Even segmental features such as
gutturals,uttered by the great and the good in one language,might be offensive or aesthetically unpleasing in
anotherlanguage.Yet,a language is apackage.It is,of course,possible to retain familiar or acceptable items
and unpack others we deem less desirable,while still communicating in a satisfactory way.Such afluent,
successful communicator with amarked accentwill have something of what Sweet,Gilbert and Stem referred
to above:masteryof lexico-grammatical distinctions and the different meanings signalled by phonicfeatures.
When starting to teach English or any other non-native language,it is advisable to begin to teach students
right from the start to perceive the rhythmical aspects of the language that determine its differences when
compared to their mother tongue.Given the interaction between pronunciation and grammar and lexis,and
further giventhelong-termnatureof theprocessof trainingone'spronunciation,itis irresponsibleto downplay
itin theL2syllabus.Faced with agroup of (sometimes)eager first-year studentsatuniversity level whoseaural/
oral abilities are not asclear asthey might be,atertiary teacher mightwell be forgiven asigh atthe thought of
lost opportunities in school training,This feeling is compounded when the students mention that they want to
takepart in aspeech contester undertake somedrama work.Keen they are,but comprehensible they are often
not.In thecaseof speech contests or debates.,letus leaveaside the matter of textual substance and command of
thebrief even in the mother tongue.The same old pronunciation problems keep coming up,largely irrespective
of thetextual difficulty:
*studentsfail to use their lips well enough since they do not frontthem
sufficiently in their English,effectively following patterns of their
nativeJapanese;
*even where students have learnt aboutthe differences between
Japanese and English articulation,all too often this has been written
and read about and not transferred and applied to their actual oral/
aural skills,so that the prime roles of /3/and related'weak'soundsin
English are effectively ignored,to the detriment of the students and
their interlocutors;
*/s,z
,ts,tf d3/are often articulated too weakly atpoints of thesyl]able
wherethey need more powerful production to beheard at all,let
alonebe heard as something else,such as/s/comingout as/θ/;
*students seem to have developed no senseof awareness of rhythmor
no respect for the intonation features of English,which inpractical
toms means that they do notunderstand the actual and potential
2
Feof for the Phonology (音韻学に対する感覚)
109
meanings and shades of meaning the language makes possibleand
which are available to all humanbeingswho may use,or be forced to
use it,for worker''play''.
when entering into training for speeches,debates or drama,in their first year at university,studentsoftenfmd
that they have to engage with such basic and crucial factors in making meaningful sounds,requiring male「
effortin aridiculously short period of time.What havethey been doing for the previous six years?
Teachers of foreignlanguages such as JTEs(JapaneseTeachers of English)should startto tacklepronunciatiOn
from Day One,with all therespectduetoit.Itwould undoubtedly aid them if coursescould be moreefficiently
while also more humanly done,and the samegoesfor examinations and other forms of evaluation.It is good to
seethat recent textbooksused in Japaneseschoolsdevotesomemore attention to pronunciation,butene Wishes
for moreon suprasegmentalfeatures.Itdepends on theJTEhow much time and energyis devoted to the matte「
of pronunciation.The presenceof ALTSin schools over asustained period of time(except in thenotorious 'oneshot'situations)is an opportunity notto besquandered,though.,sadly,oftenit is squandered.Itis truethat Some
motjvatedleamers also have anatural talentto absorb pronunciation.Even such gifted learnerscanbenefitf「Om
helpful teaching,however.
TheJTE'srole is primary Being anative speaker isnotenough.ALTs are,more often than not,natives who
areproficient users of their nativelanguagebut not alwaysconsciousof how they sound or of why they Sound
so_ and why other native speakers sound different.Ultimately,the person withfmalresponsibility fo「these
matters in aJapanese classroomis the JTE.That responsibility is legal and pedagogica1.For deeper and me「e
successful,longer_term learning,JTEsneed to deal with pronunciation.
To enable them todo so,institutesof teacher education also need to pull their socks up.Even in Such institutes that have full_time native speakers on the staff thosepeopleare all too often sidelined into theClogged-uP
areas of the sy11abus.Itis up to thoseteacher-training institutes that decide to give due respect and emphasis to
pronunciation_ thus integrating their activities_ to appointnative-speaker staff who are up to thejob,While
avoiding thetendency Io downgradepractical sk加straining.Such practical mattersare also interconnected With
_ and fundamental to- all the deeper-probing theory。
For deeper and more successful long_termlearning,JTEsneed to deal moreadequately with pronunciation.
That goes for universities,loo,even more so when they are turning out future JTEs and running in-So「Vice
courses pronunciation needsto beimplementedfromtheneck downaswell asinthe head.Itis abodily activity
in large measure,requiring process,training and practice.If we are looking for one description of the Whole
pronunciation gamut,weneed to be awarethat descriptionsof intonation differ according to how they account
for meaning.0ne descriptiondealswith attitude,another with grammar,and another with discourse.Apractical
approach would be to take from each description whatever can facilitate learning.In general,an approach
linking pronunciation to discourse offers more(but isnot the whole story).
Y
N
L
_by incorporating drama techniques into the teaching of pronunciation,we can
stimulate incur students deeper awareness and understanding of what goes into
the production of those sounds on the cassette,and this will make theprocess of
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individual pronunciation practice moremeaningful and productive.
(Wessels,1987:64)
One area of an actor's training which has been incorporated to some extent in language teaching is that of
articulatory exercises or vocal wam-ups.They are designed to enable learners to distinguish between related
sounds by chanting tongue-twisters or minimal pairs(pa-pa-pa,ba-ba-ba,pa-pa-ba,ba-ba-pa,etc.)or snatches
of poetry thatare difficultto particular groupsof leamers.ForOrientalstudents,Wesselssuggests extractssuch
asthefollowing from Masefield'sReynard theFox:(Wessels,op.& p_cit.):
Like arocket toaship ashore
The lean red bolt of his body tore
Like aripple of wind running swift on grass
Like ashadow on wheat when awindblows past.
Sherecommends thatstudentsstart by chanting together,then in pairs,and finally,whenthey areready,on their
own.Someteachers mightfeel this isdaunting,butothers set such stretchesof poetryas material for recitation
contests at elementary leve1.Whatever the material chosen,it is a sound idea to use stretches of language
packaged in lines of echoed regularity.
Other examples can be found for dealing with the/1/-/r/difficulty in isolation from context and also in
context,.such as these:
4)You're going thelong way.
5)You're going the wrong way.
While/l/-/r/mightostensibly bethe main focus of pronunciationpractice,both4)and5)deal with a lot more
than/l/v./r/.In fact,it isquitepossiblefor thedifferencebetweenthe2soundsto be irrelevantin either of these
utterances for them to be communicated successfu11y.Imagine a speaker confusing the2 sounds,so that they
comeout as
4a)You're goingthe*rong way.(Intended:“long'')
5a)You're goingthe*long way.(Intended:“wrong”)
The/1/-/r/problem for this speaker may actually be irrelevant if lexico-grammatical factorsarecorrect in his
utterance.Intonation and stress will overridetheimportanceof thesegmentals if weparaphraseboth versions of
4)and5)as:
4b)That way is correct but thereis a shorter route.
5b)That way is wrong.Corr・cot your mistake.
We could try to indicate thestresses and intonationcontours visually,showing the signals that anative speaker
would encodeor decode in correct usage:
GO
4c) You're
ing the
LONG
way.
4
Feof for the Phonology (音韻学に対する感覚)
GO
5c)You're
ing the wrong
111
WA
Y.
Se lf is possible for a non_native_speaker to have good pronunciation(i.e.sense of intonation and st「eSSin
communicativeexchanges)while still imperfect in thearticulation of certain segmental featureS.It Would be
wiseto investtime and energy in informinglearnersof thebasicfacts of phonological life,such asthe nature Of
astandard toneunitin English,which usually exhibits binarystresses.Itis notnecessarytoassaultleame「SWith
so much formine]ogy,of course.These basic principles are setout in practical and theoretical detail in Braz
il
(1985)and exemplified for advanced learners(such asJTEs1)in Bradford(1988).
One of thebestsourcesfor training''living phonology''andbuilding sound-foundationsand foundations that
are sound is Underbill (l994).Underbill's book setsout thebasicideas of this articlemore explicitly and With
a large rangeof effectiveexercises and commentaries.Weoweitto learners at evenbasiclevels toletthem inOn
thetruthinwaysthat theycanhandle,butalwaysencouraging and oftenrequiringthemtoplaywith(or dramatise)
these communicative features by the use of themselves as''actors”,and notjust as cloth-eared,swaddled Spectaters.
There are many ways of saying 4)and5),but those ways are more marked and will come to appeal to
learners'uncloggedears,and thustheir whole selves,as marked,showing accusation(YOUaregoing the W「eng
way,i.e.itis your mistake,notmincer anyoneelse's),and soon.This need notall be covered in school lessons,
given theconstraintsontime,butdealing with perception of the suprasegmental fundamentalsoutlined aboveiS
of greater long_tom benefitto learners,who will have a greater potential for future learning by themselves if
they so choose,having been empowered to tackle suchlearning by their early classesin English pronunciation,
Of course,there is no guarantee of success in any education system,but it will bebetter than largely ignO「ing
and sidelining the matter.Truly,alittle could go along way.
Of many suggestions in Wessels'book that apply drama to small utterances in English,an exercise in the
perception and production of rising and falling pitch and intonation mightbeadapted(cf.Fig.1opposite).FO「
our purposes atelementary and secondary levels,thisexercisein extendedbreathing andrising/fa11ingtonescan
also be done with individual vowels,diphthongs,and consonants that differ substantially from the student'S
native tongue,such as the bilabia1/m/thelabiodenta1/v/,and even the latter's unvoiced equivalent.,/ff,and the
alveolar/n/.The English_language versionof /w/alsolends itself to beneficial practicein this way,splitinto3
steps:
1.extreme forward.rounded positioning of the lips,before any voicing;
2_the onset of voicing as the lips are held in position;
3.the retraction of the lips.
This isexaggerated practice,butthe body needs timeand lots of practice beforeimproved pronunciation(and
breathing)habits aredeve1oped.Theyare improved because they aredifferentandforeign to the learner,attainablete agreater degree,and they empower thelearner by resulting in greater comprehensibility when used in
cross_cultural exchangesfor both businessand'pleasure'.Learnershave agreater window on theoutsideWO「ld,
and seemore light enter upon their own world.Is this notoneof the aims of education?
The rising/falling example from Wessels quoted above is also suitable for practice with piano or other instrumental accompaniment.She cautions,however,that such exercisesare perhaps better done in small rather than
large groups_Since our language classes are often so large,and also of such mixed ability and motivation,
teachers mightneed to bear this caution in mind,butnot to forget that“Where there's awill,there'sa way.''
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福島大学教育実践研究紀要第35号
Fig.1 (Wessels,1987 64)
Asecond musical example,however,Candie in theWind is familiar tomany leamers.Thisfamiliarity aids
us.In its translation into Japanese,it provides auseful contrastive example of rhythm in Japanese.,as it is
encapsulated in katakana,and rhythm in English,in which features of the syllablecan be essentially different.
What should wehear(and correspondingly produce in speech or song)in the following?
6)candle in the wind
7)kya-n-doru-i-n-z
a-wi-n-do
Learners can beinvolvedwithother partsof the body than their voices andears.Theycanalso loam to listen and
passon the rhythms of an utterance with theirfingers.Imagineagame in which alearner had to imaginebeing
held captive,while sending out signals of a secret message in rhythm beaten out on the floor,the pipes,or
whatever.Jaz
z
chanting.,.too,ishighly suitable for helping learnersto sensitise their L2 learning,to get literally
in touch with pronunciation as an active,dynamic means of communication.It is essential that they do notjust
hearer readaboutsuprasegmentalpronunciation,but that they activate their own speechfaculties,resonators,
and soon.In6)and7),quite economically,the rhythmcould be tapped out on the desk with broad attention to
longs and shorts,as:
6a)0-o-0-o-0
7a)o-(o)-o-o-o-(o)-o-o-(o)-o
6
Feof for the Phonology (音韻学に対する感覚)
113
For singingin English,6a)is thebetter model_Aspoken model would probably form asingletoneunit,0-o-00_0 Therhythm of the songcould also be relied on to encourage learners to end-stop the-nd OfWind and not
add another syllable inline with therequirements of Japanese.There is a potential lexical Confusion「eSulting
from this mixture of Japanese and English pronunciation and sy11abication.Anon-JapaneSeliStene「to7a),
unfamiliar with the song.couldthink another thing isbeing said.,namely,candle mthewindow.SuChiStheStuff
of lesshumorous,potentially more significant lexical confusions arisingfrompronunciation misdemeanOu「Sot
this 11k such“obvious”things are a11toooftenonlyobvious after they havebeen pointed Out tOuS.He「e iS
whereaJTEcan checkin advancewith anAlTinformantif necessary,and both can beready to guideStudents'
aural/oral work.
AJapanese nativespeaker insufficiently primed in thepronunciationfeaturesof thetwo languagesmight also
be susceptible to hearing a native English speaker's wind as win,or it (when the-t iS Sounded)as it'S,o「
smoking as smorkjng (the _r_not being articulated,but contributed as an equalisation of the Slightly g「cafe「
length of the original diphthong/30 /,perhaps).
In Japan we are surrounded by examples of Japanese in English garb,such as ma ku-do-na-ru dOA1oCal
pachjnkopar1our blastsout into the street an interesting daily example of how segmental P「enunciation e「「O「S
may not bedevil a message as much as a speaker's odd rhythm.In this case it is odd because it Chunks the
message wrongly.It isspeedy andfluent,butitgoes to show thatspeed and fluency alonearenotenOugh.I hea「:
8)Deese progran has been brotchubye Pahrah Neesh'ki!
The intended message is:
8a)This programme hasbeen broughtto you by Parlour Nishiki1
segmental imperfectionsdonotmatter so much here.Theimperfectproductionof This(which Sounds Close「to
deese)or the more weakly articulated consonants,or thekatakanaisedpah-rah fieesh(i)-kee actually do not
mask the intended words,and in context they pass the communication test.It must also be Conceded that the
message isnot so much intendedfor passing nativespeakersof English as for passing nativeSPeake「Sot Japanese,so thattheEnglish actually matters little,except as a bitot decoration on a Japanese message,.Which iSto
proclaim the name of thepachjnkopar1our and show that it has a senseof humour and Can indulge in Pa「Ody・
ThenameisdeliveredinfaultlessJapanese,ashasalready beenobserved.Thepartthat strikesmeasunintendedly
odd (because jntendedly correct)is the tone unit.brought to you by.The young lady in the 「coO「ding has
chunked8a)as follows:
8b)This programme/has been/brought to you by/Parlour Nishiki!
I would chunk themessagein accordancewiththeinformativesequenceSUBJECT+VERBPHRASE+AGENT
(thelatter being the most importantitem),delivered accordingly more as tot]oWS:
8c)This programme/hasbeen brought toyou/by Parlour Nishiki1
we could thus satisfy ageneral requirement of conventional tone units,namely abina「y St「eSS:
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福島大学教育実践研究紀要第35号
8d)THIS PRO-/-BEEN BROUGHT- /-PAR-NISH(-)-1
Alternative analyses arepossible.,and it ispossible to get by in the middlechunk with oneprominent stress on
brougfit.It is also possible to dramatise or ham up the fmal part dividing it into2 units,with an upwardly
gliding delivery of bybreaking off to form a unit of its own,separated by a pause(wither without a roll of
drums1).
The main pointhere is,nottheparticular utterance,butthat JTEs should be helped to understand something
moreof thegeneralchunkingand stressing of utterances.Perhaps then we might getayounguniversity student
doing such part-time work for pachinkopar1ours and getting itperfect.
Still,I haveto concede that this message was a good try compared to what it might have been.Emp1oying
assimilation andreduction,shecameouton the rightside of syllabic delivery,even if shetook thingsa little too
far.Perhaps native-speaker advisers should be consulted moreoften.Thereason for teaching such aspects of
pronunciation from school right through college is that learnerscould then stand a better chance of receiving
and sending near-native models even with less-than-perfect accents.
FTH FAMILIAR
D
lt isa good ideain foreign-languagework to placewords andphrasesfrom the native language intotheforeign
language and adaptthem to their new segmental and suprasegmental environments.Though disturbing,even
jarring,at times,it provides useful training.Try to pronounce the following words in Japanese and then in
English and see whathappensto them:
9)karaoke
10)Sogo
i i)Nagoya
12)Wakanohana
Of course,checkhow native speakers hear and say them in their own countries.Japanesepronunciationswould
probably beas in9-12a),and probableEnglish pronunciations as in9b)-12c),with suggested syllableand stress
patterns following in brackets:
9a)ka-ra-o-ke (o-o-o-o)
9b)ka-rry-0H-key (o-o-0-o)
tea)so-go (o-o)
lOb)SEW-gob (0-o)
Ila)na-go-ya (o-o-o)
li b)nah-GOY-uh (o-0-o)
12a)wa-ka-no-ha_na (o-o-o-o-o)
12b)WA-kuh-nuh-HAH-nuh (0-o-o-0-o),or even possibly
12c)WA-kuh-N0-huh-nuh (0-o-0-o-o).
Learners could also pronouncetheir own namesin a more English way,becomingawareof how odd wemay
sound if we dress foreign items in the garb of our mother tongue.The schwa and other weak forms,evident in
lOb)_12c)above,might well fit either side or both sides of the stressed syllable in English(for there will be
one),and theAlT will find iteasy to suggest how students'names might be re-shaped.Note how frequently
Japanese vowelsbecome diphthongs in the stressed English syllable and how this causes that syllable to take
longer to utter,with reductions possible on either sideof the stress.
8
Feel for the Phonology (音韻学に対する感覚)
115
In unmarked speech,Japanese nouns would be further odd if pronounced to this foreign rhythm and stress
sincethey would also featurean intonational step down after the stresses.Namesandthingsfamiliarto uSin Ou「
own language(romoko,McDonald's/Makudonarudo,Svdney/Shidoni,etc.)couldprovidefurther sensitisation
and practice in meaningful communication if used like the word Sorry in declarative situations(usually Stepping down in intonation)and in questioning situations or when referring to what the speaker assumes iSCommon knowledge between speaker and listener(stepping up in intonation).The words have become utte「anCeS,
dependent for their effective communication on being sent and received in therightpronunciation package:
Me
13)To ko.
It mightbepossibleto retain some features of one's name,such asapositionof relative stress,while conceding
the intonational shape:
13a)TO
moke_
Longer items and speeches might well betime-consuming(yetrewarding if donewell),but these shorter and
yet highly meaningful practice_utterances providepractice in pronunciation contours and articulation that can
serve in later courses for moreextended utterances inextended contours,following the same broad shapes for
the same communicativereasons.
As hasbeen mentioned earlier,learning such features in aforeign language can be highly instructive about
one's own language,especially as it might be perceived(or not perceived)by aforeign learner,say,a native
English_speaker used to more prominent stresses and intonation movements.Even agoodlanguage-1eame「
may need the sort of visual hints of the location of word stress in examples of Japanese as is provided by
Mjz
utanj& Mjz
utani (1977).The presenceof their stress markersdoesnotmean that learnerscan dispense with
ateacher'shelper sheer hard work.Itmightrequirethe type of humilitythat an adult mightneed to loam how
to ride abicycle with thehotpot2 steadying wheels on either side of the back whee1.It is aprice well we「th it
to develop sufficienthabitual pronunciation balance;itis better latethan never but even better earlier than late「.
'Foreign'pronunciation isnot necessarily to be disparaged,especially whenlearnersand teachers havemade an
honesteffortto approximatetheir pronunciation closelyto thatof anative-speaker model_Many times,1iStene「S
are able tore_apportion 'foreign'aspects of aspeaker's pronunciation and style to more native or nee-native
models (as,indeed,English,Welsh,Scottish,Irish and North American and Australasian native-speakers Of
English do among themselves).Where'foreign'pronunciationis lessdesirableisin connected speech/listening,
on occasions when communicationis significantly impaired by intonational,rhythmical or morenarrowly Segmental shortcomings,the intended meaningsof which are noteven apprehended bythelistene「,letaloneComprehended.
Onerecent example of this happened between myself and aJapanese co11eague.Wewere speaking Go「man,
a language foreign to us both,and he mentioned that he would be going te a shop called 710-l-ZA-「as.He
obviously assumed itwasfamiliar tome,butI failed torecognise whathemeant.I realised later thathehadbeen
referringtoT(oysRUs,which I would have stressed asTOYSarcus,with the main stress on us.Mentioning it
later teaJapanese lady,I furtherrealised whatI should haveknown already,athingwhich takestheMcDonald S/
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福島大学教育実践研究紀要第35号
ma-ku do-na-ru-doaspect grammatically further:I1oysRUsmeantnothing to her but ajumbleof sounds asso-
ciated with achain store that sells toys;tome,however,itwas an exampleof commercial-speak,playing with
thegrammar of WeAreT(ovs,to which anative-speaker would apply sentence stress and the paradigm of Itsme
which hastriumphed over theformerlyprescribed ltis 1.Thecommercial]ogleprobably feelsthatT,ovsArcus
beats WeAre T,oys・in terms of appeal in native English-speaking communities today,and the logo with its
co1ourf、
ulletters and inverted capital R will exert sufficient appeal to the memory and desiresof consumersin
countries where English is aforeign language,just as McDonald's golden arches,forming an M,appeal to the
visual memory of children and adults the world over,triggering a lessimportant sound patternthat differsthe
world over when set into everyday speech.As a result,ma-ku-do-na-ru do or to-i-z
a-ra-su are thought todo a
betterjob amongconsumers of thosecountries,butthey also reveal thepotential phonological topography that
teachers and learners of foreign languages would dowe11toknow about - and follow when building bridges
and highways of understanding.
EN
Underbill (1994)is of use to teachers and teacher-trainers interested in practical applications supported by
discoursestudies.Awareof both form and meaning inpronunciation work,Underbill dealswith3levels:sounds,
words and connected speech.Rhythm and intonation are dealt with clearly,accompanied by frequent helpful
commentaries.
From starttofmishof a stretch of speech,rhythm requiresustoexecuteoperationsof length,brevity and of
power of utteranceonthe syllables in toneunits.This also means something veryimportantfor Japanese learners:the need to be awareof and practice''unstress'(mediatedby theschwaand other reduced forms)as well as
stress.It is accompanied by the upsand downs of intonation.In isolated,uncontextualised words,therelative
stresses canbelearnt as citation forms,detennined bythe language,as Underbill puts lt.In connected speech,
however,stressis not so easily predictable because it is no longer a given of thelanguagebut achoiceof the
speaker.Itis as if word stress were aspredictable(or retrievablefrom the dictionary)as the shape of abody at
rest,whereas the stressof sentences or other contextualisedutterances is as open to choiceas themovements of
abody set loosein a freedance.Thisveryunpredictabilityorlackof infalliblecontrol by teachers and learners
is whatcauses concern,and yetthere arepositive waysto cope with it whilefulfilling the duty of teaching and
learning pronunciation more fully。The stress of citation toms is often given in textbooks,as are occasional
examples sentenceswith stressand intonationcontoursmarked- butonly caseby case,sinceno system canbe
captured to cope with a seemingly unlimited rangeof free choices dependenton the speaker's intended meaning.However,learners can be equipped with the study skill et noting citation form stresses and occasional
examples of how the stresses might shift in connected speech.Why not use simple,memorable and usable
examplesto illustrate thepoint that citation tomsare useful but not the whole story?Take thewordJapanese.
Put itin acollocation such asJapaflesefood,and thecitation stress on the third syllable will tend to shiftto the
first syllable:
14)Japanese (o-o-0)
15)Japanesefood (0-o_o_0)
All wecaninsistonwith our learners isthat they are apprised of basic foundations,evenif it takesthem]onger
to makesenseor useful applicationof thisknowledge.They may well think itdoesnotmatter to them since they
arenotgoing to become JTEsor use English after graduation.Howlittledid certain businesspeople realisethat
they would be called upon to deal with non-Japanese-speaking clients for their companies!Others have gone
into publicadministration,unaware that,someten yearsafter graduation.they will begiven the task of administering partof theJETProgrammefor2or3years,having to deal with huge numbers of ALTS.,most of whom
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Feof for the Phonology (音韻学に対する感覚)
117
speak little or no Japanese when they come_What Underbill calls “discovery activities''can be applied to
segmentalsor suprasegmentals.0ne example,Discovery activity86,exemplifies and involves learners in citation and discoursalapplicationof the falling tone:
1 Recite all theselettersfirstwith each letter as a separate tone unit,like this:
、
A
T
F
G
S
W
R
and now with all ot theletters makingjustone tonegroup,with the tonic
on thelast one,.likethis:
、
A
T
F
G
S
W
R
2 Say thissentence as aquotation,as thefirstlineof the rhyme:
Humpty Dumpty sat on awall
and now say it as if it were a piece of important communication.What is
the difference?
(Underbill,l994:89-90)
As for Underbill's second exercise,he draws our attention te a difference between recitation andordina「y
communication_The recited rhyme has4 prominences(stresses)and one tonic syllable,wall,who「e the tonic
unit falls.
HUMPty DUMPty SATon aWALL
As he explains,acharacteristic of recitation is that ithas an increased number of prominences in a toneunit.
Thisispossible because“it isnotpartof adiscourse thatrelatesto thecommon ground.''As apieceOfCommunication,on theother hand,if the speaker chose to usea single tone unit,itwould have no more than2P「eminences(stresses)and a single tonic,as,perhaps:
Humpty DUMPTY sat on aWALL
If jt jsdifficult toresistthe pull et the recitation rhythmof thefamiliar nursery rhyme,Underbill Suggestsusing
another sentence.Using an example of Japanese in an English mould.wecould try to adapthisexample:
Mrs Suz
uki sat on the FLOOR (i.e.therewasnowhere elseto sit)
If learners cannot differentiate between the stresses,perhaps they could beencouraged to tap thedesk o「to Cut
the air with the hand at each prominence.Speedof utterance can be increased to the fastest 「ealiStiCleVel Of
capability.(References to Underbill 1994:90)
Underhjlrs book ismainly for teachers,teacher trainers and academicmanagers,so that teaChe「Sa「e given
useful guides to principles but can adapttheimplementation totheirownleamers and situatiOnS.Why notuse
pronunciation to reinforce or test grammar and lexis already taught - o「ViceVe「Sa?
11
u8
1998- 12
福島大学教育実践研究紀要第35号
Pronunciation is not a dispensable drudge,but acornerstone of successful language study.It is also a highly
vital areaof study,withmuch for psychology and even medicine to work on.“You arewhat youeat'goesthe
old adage,and we could also assert that“weare what we speak,we arehow we speak''(Rodenburg,1992:156).
In years of speech and voice therapy with actors,Rodenburg has found how the state of the voice,based on the
state of the breathing,the foundation of lifeand pronunciation,can diagnose health or sicknessboth physical
and mental,and work to restore“thevoice''can restorehealth and permitmorefreedom todeve1op.Thesolving
of speech problems is potentially life_enhancing,she has found,because,in theprocess of releasing physical
blockagesin thejaw,the throat,the arms and other partsof the body.,she also oftendiscoversthatthese releases
onlyfollow the releaseof painful memoriesor bad physical experiences.,sometimes wayback intheindividual's
past.As so often,onething in education is tied to another and continually discovers more tostudy.Thus it is
withpronunciation,workon which could well show our very breathing tobefaulty and in need of improvement.
Asense of pronunciation is also of immensebenefit in higher-level studies,say,of literature,or reading in
genera1.Ricks'sessayon thepoetryof Philip Larkin shows how necessary it isto beable to hear the stressesand
intonations that go to prove thatLarkin's is“apoetry in which things both great and small shine substantially
expressed”(Ricks,1995:274-284),also showing theimportanceof being able to speak sottovoce whilereading,and of being ableto“hear”morethan one version of apoem.
To those who arguethatpronunciationtraining isadrudgethat learnerswill resist,thereisno absoluteanswer
except:itis ateacher'scalling to encouragelearners to develop their full potential,preferably now,butat least
in the future.on furrowsalreadylaid.Pronunciation isno more than use madeof the breath thatshould power
our beingfrombirth to the lastmomentof life.In aspiring to effectiveeveryday“performance'',thatis,speaking
aforeignlanguage in thereal world,we need notfeel ashamed of pronunciationpractice and repetition,regarding them asartificial or divorced from therealitiesof ''free''discourse.Theaim isfor the knowledgeto become
second nature,if not sooner,then later_In mostcases,this will notcomeif there has been no practice,no hard
s1og.And,in the case of the latter,itis up to the teacher to chart acourse and use appropriategears.
References:
Bradford,B.(1988)。Intonation inContext。Cambridge,Cambridge University Press
Braz
il,D.(1985).TheCommunicativeValueof lntotlation inEnglish.Birmingham,ELR/Universityof Birmingham
Gilbert,J_B_(1984).Clear Speech.Pronunciation and ListeningComprehensioninAmerican English.Cambridge,
Cambridge UniversityPress
Krashen,S.D.& Terre11,T.(1983).TheNatural Approach_ LanguageAcquisitionintheClassroom_Oxford,Pergamon
Miz
utani,0_& Miz
utani,N.(1977).AnIntroductiontoModern Japanese.Tokyo,TheJapanTimes
Ricks,C.(1995).TheForceof Poetry Oxford,Clarendon
Rodenburg,P_(1992).The RighttoSpeak.London,Methuen
Stem,H.H.(1992).Issuesand Options inLanguageTeaching.0xford,OxfordUniversity Press.(eds_P.A11en& B_
Harley)
Sweet,H。(1899).The Practical Study of Languages.London,Dent_(Also London,Longman,1964)
Underbill,A.(1994).Sound Foundations.0xford,Heinemann
Wessels.C.(1987).Drama.0xford,Oxford University Press
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