英语语音教案

Teaching Points:

Ⅰ Basic Concepts:

IPA= International Phonetic Alphabet

RP =Received Pronunciation = Standard Pronunciation = The Queen’s English Phonology: the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.

Phoneme:In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest seglental unit of

sound employed to form -meaningful contrasts between ut4erances.

Phonetics:a branch of lin'uistics that comprises the study of the sounds of

human speech..

Ⅱ Constitution:

The pure vowels:the front vowels, the back vowels, the central vowels;

The diphthongs:the closing diphthongs, the centering diphthongs;

The consonants:the plosive consonants, t he frica4ive consonants, t he affricate consonants, the nasal consonants, the lateral consonants, the semi-vowels.

Ⅲ The pure vowels:

Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes

from the larynx to the lips. There are 20 vowels in English, among which 12 are pure

vowels and 8 are diphthongs. The English pure vowels can be classified according to

1)the height of the raised part of the tongue;

2)the part of the tongue raised, and

3)the position of the lips, i.e. whether they are rounded or unrounded.

ⅰ The Front V owels:

There are four front vowels in English. When they are pronounced, the tongue

body is shifted forward, causing the vowels to be produced in the front of the mouth.

In addition, the front vowels may be subdivided into those that are high (or close),

middle and low (or open). For the two vowels in the high front space, the tongue is

close to the hard palate. Likewise, for the low vowel, the tongue is nearly flat and the

lower jaw more open than for the other front vowels.

/i:/ & / i /,

/i:/ is a very common sound in the world's languages. It is made by raising the

body of the tongue from its rest position and shifting it forward. The / i / sound is

made by lowering the tongue slightly from the high-front position for /i:/. Besides,

/i:/ is a much more tense sound than / i /. The fact that English has these two high

front vowels, differentiated by muscle tension in the root of the tongue, sets it apart

from Chinese and many languages of the world. Both /i:/ and / i / can occur in initial, medial, and final position in words.

Very little difficulty should be encountered by the Chinese learners in the pronunciation of /i:/, but / i / is a problem sound. It is easy for the learners to detect

the difference in length. What counts here, however, is the difference in quality. It is therefore important to point out the fact that to pronounce a correct / i /, you need to