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

Ian guages.

Phoneme: In a Ianguage or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest seglental unit of sound employed to form -mea nin gful con trasts betwee n ut4era nces.

Phonetics: a branch of lin'uistics that comprises the study of the sounds of huma n speech..

n Constitution:

The pure vowels:the front vowels, the back vowels, the cen tral vowels;

The diphthongs:the clos ing diphth on gs, the cen teri ng diphth on gs;

The consonants:the plosive consonants,the frica4ive consonants,the affricate consonan ts, the n asal consonan ts, the lateral consonan ts, the semi-vowels.

川The pure vowels:

Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstructio n 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 diphth on gs. The En glish pure vowels can be classified accordi ng 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 Vowels:

There are four front vowels in En glish. Whe n they are pronoun ced, the ton gue body is shifted forward, caus ing 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 ope n). For the two vowels in the high front space, the ton gue is close to the hard palate. Likewise, for the low vowel, the tongue is nearly flat and the lower jaw more ope n tha n for the other front vowels.

/i:/ & / i /,

/i:/ is a very com mon sound in the world's Ian guages. It is made by rais ing 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 Ianguages 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

1) lower you tongue a little bit from the position for /i:/, and

2) make it a lax sound in stead of a tense sound like /i:/.

The importanee of correct pronunciation of / i / lies in the fact that it is the second most