Yvon- Pierre NDONGO IBARA

Framing English sound-letter parallelism teaching

Résumé

MoTS-Clés: language learning and teaching, letter, non-English speakers sound

Abstract

This contribution is focused on the elaboration of some strategies that can put forward the teaching of
English sounds as any other English language issues. It results from the discussion that the teaching of
language sounds follows the same pedagogical practice as that of other language issues as grammatical
notions such as tense, determiners or quantifiers. In this perspective, English vocalic and consonant sounds
are going to be taught to learners as other language issues on pedagogical grounds. This will reinforce
learners’ predictability skills on pronunciation.

Keywords: language learning and teaching, letter, non-English speakers sound.

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INTRODUCTION
To develop a strong command of spoken abilities requires a number of particular emphases on the L2
phonic. This paper aims to scrutinize both the national curriculum and syllabus in relation to the teaching and
learning of English phonic driving particular attention from Congolese facts. Putting things differently, we
want to examine whether the Congolese teaching of English phonic contributes to bad or good pronunciation
and hence eases or complicates the English learning. Are the techniques used by teachers suitable to
enhance and motivate students’ desire to learn English? Is there any possibility to attempt searching
possible solutions to that issue? After scrutinizing some facts about teaching and learning English sound
patterns, I’ll focus on some new perspectives in teaching language sound system.

1- Phonetics and language learning and teaching

We are concerned with the relevance of phonetics in the learning and teaching of any natural languages. It
is necessary to acknowledge that the sounds of the language are very essential and central for a better
learning and teaching of the language although the message can be transmitted via other means of
communication like drums, gestures, body, fog-horn, morse-key, writing systems, etc.

In fact, phonetics plays an important role in language learning and teaching. As a science of the sounds
produced by human being, phonetics enables learners and teachers to deal with language with confidence
and certainty. Accordingly, teachers then learners should be well trained in phonetics, not only in the way to
pronounce words but also in order to be able to predict sound pronunciation. To quote O’Connor (1984:16)

Yet by the nature of things most of the meaningful distinctions of the language must be capable
of being given distinctive shape in sound, and it is this close dependence of sound and meaning
which justifies the study of speech sounds, i.e. phonetics.

This means that phonetics is determinant to someone who wants to learn or teach a language because its
mastery can alleviate the task of the language learners or teachers. In this respect, a good pronunciation can
help to avoid confusing ‘then’ and ‘den’, ‘cane’ and ‘can’, ‘taught’ and ‘taut’, ‘bye’ and ‘buy’. Similarly, the
non mastery of a language phonetics is taken as enormous awkwardness that generally blocks learners’
endeavour to speak the language. One of the consequences of the non mastery of the phonetic is to
proceed by sound to letter correspondence what is hazardous. Ingo Plag et al.(2009:2-3) contend that

… we have to strictly distinguish between letters and sounds, since we do not always get the
same sound for the same letter. Even within a single language, there is no one-to one
correspondence or sound and orthographic symbol. […] spelling and pronunciation are two
pairs of shoes and ought to be kept apart.

The above argumentation shows that phonetics should be considered very attentively when learning and
teaching a language. It is worth mentioning that phonetics must be dealt with differently as far as learning
and teaching a language. Language phoneticians should be different from didactic phoneticians in the extent
that the two phoneticians approach language on a different angle. If the former is concerned with describing
language sounds scientifically with the purpose to point out different acoustic, auditory and articulatory
features of the sounds; the latter is chiefly based on finding out procedures to teach and learn language
sound in the objective of speaking the language.

Finally, the relevance of undertaking this didactic investigation on the teaching and learning of English
speech sounds is reinforced by the fact that the sound-letter connection is not apparent. That is the

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reason why Nambiar (2009:1) writes “English does not have a spelling pronunciation, i.e., there is no one-to-
one correspondence between the letters of English alphabet and the sounds that they represent in different
words.” This can explain why many textbooks (Hancock, 2003) rather proceed by a number of exercises
where a list of words is provided with their pronunciation than explaining why such and such a letter is
pronounced like this but not like that. In addition, many teachers select some words that they transcribe as
though transcription is the best way to teach English sounds. I am strongly convinced and persuaded that
transcription is a very poor way of teaching English language sounds because it only illustrates, but it does
not state the whys of the physical appearance of a sound. It shows a combination of letters giving rise to a
combination of sounds when the connection between the two is hazardous and risky. To quote Jones
(1909:27):

Phonetics transcription has often been defined as a kind of alphabetic writing in which each
letter represents one sound and never any other ‘one sound one symbol’. This description is not
strictly accurate. For in phonetics transcription we write k at the beginning of ki:p (keep) and
also at the beginning and the end of kuk (cook), but a little experimenting easily shows us that
these k’s differ each other. […] The use of these different sounds is determined by the other
sounds adjacent to them in the word or sentence.

This is the reason why we advise teachers to be tactful, creative and audacious to explain the sound-letter
connection with practical tasks in connection to course teaching based on English language vocalic and
consonantal sounds. In the same way that all grammatical notions are not taught the same year, so would be
the speech sounds.

This paper falls in a linguistic approach to language teaching and learning. In the words of Ronald Carter
(1982,1) ‘Linguistics should be a central element in the pre and in-service education of teachers’. That is to
say, during their training and the practice of their work, language teachers should be required to have a good
background in linguistics. In fact, further to our own experience first as learner, then teacher, finally a linguist,
we have observed that most teachers of language, (English in our case) face many problems that could be
sorted out by considering linguistic knowledge. Under this consideration, language teachers should be
exempted from some levels of linguistic formalism so that they get familiar with the internal functioning of
languages. As Carter (op.cit.,4) admits that languages should be studied as ‘a living entity of which teachers
should seek to give children experience rather than mere techniques of analysis’. This becomes true if we
consider Ronald Carter’s (op.cit.,2) argument ‘There is a presumption that teachers are incapable of doing a
real analysis of language because it is too difficult’. It is not that teachers are going to become linguists, but
they are going to be informed about language complexity so that during their teaching they can make use of
their knowledge to explain language facts easily. To cite one example from many, when a teacher is
teaching English consonants for instance, the information concerning the place of articulation (bilabial, labio-
dental, dentals, alveolars, …), the manner of articulation (stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, …) the
airstream mechanisms (pulmonic airstream, velaric airstream, glottalic airstream, …) the states of the glottis
(voiceless, voiced, narrowing, …) is not important for learners at secondary schools. In this regard we
disagree with Nikolov’s (2011, 11 foreword) assertion in Herry-Bénit book that:

La spécificité de ces difficultés au niveau phonétique de la description linguistique est liée au

fait que l’apprentissage des sons des langues de la langue et de leur organisation dans la
chaine parlée implique non seulement l’acquisition d’un bagage important de connaissances
théoriques, de savoir-faire et de compétences méthodologiques (de méthode et de réflexion),
mais aussi la maîtrise d’un grand nombre d’habitudes nouvelles- motrices (articulatoires) et de
perception (auditives et de traitement mental du signal sonore).

The mastery of articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics is not appropriate to learners from secondary
schools, but rather those who intend to specialise in phonetics. This is the reason why we

strongly believe that what is important for these learners is what affects the pronunciation of a given sound
according to its position in the word as well as its combination with other sounds.
In addition to linguistics, this paper also takes into account Gattegno’s (1962, 1971, 1976) works. What is
strongly stated in his pedagogical approach is that the teaching is centered on the learner. His approached is
apparent to cognitivist view on languages as a learner is biologically endowed with language faculty. Herry-
Bénit (2011, 31) provides the following comment:

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Yvon- Pierre NDONGO IBARA N° 20 Décembre 2015
L’enseignant réalise un premier pointage à travers les différentes structures, qui guide les
apprenants dans leur démarche. Cette activité regroupe plusieurs sens pour l’apprenant qui
voit, entend, pointe, et ainsi augmente ses chances d’apprendre par l’action. Les énoncés sont
soient donnés par l’enseignant soit proposés par les apprenants eux-mêmes.

Herry-Bénit’s assertion presents the method to teaching sounds which is akin to one of the key requirements
for a scientific approach notable explanatory adequacy. Andrew Radford (1981:26) describes explanatory
adequacy in the following terms:

A grammar attains explanatory adequacy just in case it correctly predicts which sentences are
and are not well-formed in the language, correctly describes their internal structure, and also
does so in terms of highly restricted sets of optimally simple, universal, maximally general
principles which represent the psychologically plausible natural principles of mental
computation.

Following Radford, we should assert that lessons on sound aims to help learners predict which letters are
and are not pronounced like that in such environments. It is in this light that teachers help learners discover a
path for themselves through the presentation, practice and production steps regarding the teaching card
layout. The next section explores the practice of learning and teaching the English sound patterns basing our
analysis on Congolese reality.

2. The teaching of English speech sounds

It is generally observed that teachers consider the alphabet as the key practice in teaching the sound
patterns of English. This practice has proven obsolete as it blocks learners’ capability of becoming fluent
speakers as well as demotivate learners. This alphabet teaching tendency tends to expose learners to risky
behavior of pronouncing words as they should be spelt.

(1)

Another wrong step followed by teachers is the fact of teaching English vocalic system through a non-
context based teaching. What I mean is teaching sounds as though they were isolated segments. In other
words, teaching vocalic sounds as though they were mechanic spare parts for fixed solutions. This teaching
totally highlights the ignorance of one of the language features, that is, creativity. That is to say, language
must not be compared to spare parts which are set according to mechanic dimensions; but language should
be compared with adjustable spanner as it can adapt to any situation. Language is something dynamic,
changing and irregular. In this respect, we can wonder whether the use of the following teaching process of
vocalic sounds is helpful or not.
(2)

Short vowel Examples long vowels examples

[ɪ], Hit, beverage, delete [i:] Feat, been, receive
[e], Admit, pen, pet [a:] Car, glass, heart
[ə], Defarge, about, acquire [u:] Hoof, loo, lute
[æ], Act, bad, adequacy [ɔ:] Ball, hoarse, morn
[ʌ], Son, sun, couple [ɜ:] Hurl, bird, murk
[ʊ], Look, good, hook
[ɒ] Hot, dog, body

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Diphthongs Examples triphthongs Examples

[ɪə] beard, fear, near [eɪə]: player, layer
[eə] scare, aired, cairn [əʊə]: mower, lower
[ʊə] poor, tour [aɪə]: tyre, liar
[eɪ] pay, face, make [aʊə]: power, hour
[aɪ] tide, mine, buy [ɔɪə]: royal, loyal
[ɔɪ] boy, coin, loin
[əʊ] load, go, home
[aʊ] house, loud, how

When these details are given to learners, they are provided in such a way that the students cannot guess
any possibility to predict some sound letter links. In addition, teachers seldom elaborate some classwork
exercises on checking students’ mastery of the English language sound system. This is simply limited to an
oral exercise with no particular attention on arousing students’ attention nor their awareness regarding this
neglected competence, listening and pairing sounds with their different spellings.

3- New perspective in teaching English phonic

The aim of this section is to suggest a didactic perspective regarding the teaching of English sounds
following teaching card requirements based on presentation, practice and production of the taught item.

3.1 The teaching of consonants

Since almost all languages have consonants despite their spellings in different languages, when teaching
English consonants, the teacher has to deal with individual consonants gradually. This part is based on the
consonant sound [k].

When introducing the consonant sound [k], the teacher will state that this consonant can be written
as: c, ch, k, and q. As this paper is didactic based, we are going to deal with one spelling namely ch so that
the reader can follow our argumentation easily as illustrated below:

Written as c Conditions Examples

c+a Call

c+o Code

[k] c+h Most words with French accent Choral

c+l Clinic

c+u Cup

What is important to signal out here is the fact that the consonant cluster c+h is the only one which can
have different pronunciations. Of interest is that this cluster is generally pronounced [k] with many words
with French letter similarities such as chameleon, cholera, choreography, character, chaos, archive,
chemotherapy, chiropody, etc.

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After introducing this first step in teaching the consonant sound [k], the teacher asks learners to
provide some more examples with each spelling of [k] so as to enlarge and enrich the list provided in the
above chart. The next step will be exercises as below:

a- Multiple choice
Choose among the letters a, b, and c which contains the sound representing the bold letter(s)
1- Chalcedony, 2- machine 3- Celt 4-chios
a- [k] a- [k] a- [k] a-[k]
b- [ʧ] b- [ʧ] b- [ʧ] b-[ʧ]
c- [ʃ] c- [ʃ] c-[ʃ] c-[ʃ]

b- Matching up
Match the words in A up with their corresponding transcriptions in B. Consider numbers (A) and letters
and letters (B) only.
A B
1-cant a- [kaimərik]
2- Charon b- [ka:nt]
3-chemeric c- [kærəkæl]
4- can’t d- [keərən]
5-caracal e- [kænt]

c- [k] or another consonant

Say whether the underlined letters sound [k] or another consonant in the following list of words: achieve,
Achish, ache, chorus, Caesar, chemist, Eucharist, chiromancy, charisma.
It is worth stating that it is forbidden to deal with all the different spellings of a sound the same day
because this practice will increase learners’ hardships as well as raise confusion. In addition, the best
time to focus on sound teaching is the beginning of the course as learners are still fresh and motivated.
Finally, this course must not exceed twenty minutes.

3.2 The teaching of vowels

As vowels are the most challenging sounds to teach, teachers are advised to be more tactful, technical
than normative. In the words of Nambiar (2009: v) “the first letter of the alphabet a can represent up to
ten different sounds or phonemes, by itself or in combination with other letter of alphabet.” In this
respect, vowels should be divided into three classes namely short, long and diphthongs.

3.2. a The teaching of short vowels

To begin with, the teachers have to list all the simple short vowels then select one of them. The course
will last as long as possible regarding the different spellings of the vowel. The English short vowels are:
ɪ, e, ə, æ, ʌ, ʊ, ɒ. As a starting point, let us consider the vowel [ɪ].

Written as c Conditions Examples

I Tit

[ɪ] -a cabbage

E elect

-y heavy

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Regarding vowels and specifically short ones, it should be emphasized that when a letter vowel is
followed by a combination of two distinct letter consonants, it is generally realized, i.e. pronounced as a
short vowel. Then the teacher asks some more examples from learners. The following examples are
worthy of attention.

A- Multiple choice
Choose among the letters a, b, and c which contains the sound representing the bold letter(s)

1- [ɪ], 2- [ɪ] 3- [ɪ] 4-[ɪ]

a- collage a- carnage a-cry a- equip
b- college b-carbonade b-ego b-epenthesis
c- colleague c-indict c-linkage c-effect

B- Provide the phonetic transcription of the bold letter only.

1- Emit;
2- Couplet
3- Cattegat
4- Cartage
5- Cozy

C- [ɪ] or another vowel

Say whether the bold letter sounds [i] or another vowel in the following list of words: breadalbane,
bricolage, belligerent, bisect, bison, beta, brokerage, benefactive.

3.2. b The teaching of long vowels

The introduction of this section starts with the distinction between a short and a long vowel. As the vowel
[ɪ] has been taken as an illustration above, the best choice for the long vowel will be [i:]. English long
vowels are: [i:], [a:], [u:], [ɔ:], and [ɜ:]. When presenting the long vowels in English,
the teacher must insist on the fact that lengthening is related to the combinations of vowels with some
consonant letters or double vowel letters.
Written as c Conditions Examples
-ae aesthetic
-ee deed
[i:] -i Afrit
-ea aheap
-ie achieve
-eo people
-ei albeit

It comes out from the above chart that the long vowel [i:] is the result of the combination of two identical
vowel (ee) or two distinct vowel letters (ea, ei, eo, or ie). When these combinations of vowels are
followed by the consonant ‘r’, their pronunciations will be automatically affected so as some will be
realized as diphthongs or long vowels as in George, theory, engineer, heir, dear, heart, pier, fierce, dirk,
etc.

Teachers give learners the opportunity to provide further examples to complete the list of words given in
the chart above.

A- Multiple choice
Choose among the letters a, b, and c which contains the sound representing the bold letter(s)

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1- [i:], 2- [i:] 3- [i:] 4-[i:]

a- height a- toffee a- women a-feat
b- eight b- coffee b-secret b- lead (n)
c- either c- fee c- men c- death

B- Matching up
Match the words in A up with their corresponding transcriptions in B. Consider numbers (A) and letters
and letters (B) only
1- Egypt a-[i:ʤipt]
b-[eʤipt]

2- Scene a- [si:n]
b-[sen]

3- Featly a-[fi:tli]
b- [fitli]

4- Topee a-[təʊpi:]
b-[təʊpɪ]

5- Friel a- [fri:l]
b-[fril]
C- [ɪ] or another vowel
Say whether the bold letters sound [i:] or another vowel in the following list of words: Geoff, Geode,
coulee, Leavitt, Beaven, height, foreign, dead, egret, friend, ceiling, Beal, toupee.

3.2.c The teaching of diphthongs

The first step in teaching diphthongs is to draw the distinction between two written vowels and a
diphthong. That is to say, the teacher draws a chart to show if the combination of two vowels is always
pronounced as a diphthongs. Consider the following:

(3) Two vowel combination Diphthongs

ai: [eɪ]tail, [e]said, [aɪ]aisle, [æ] plait [aɪ] : -i ‘bite’, -y ‘by’, uy ‘buy’, -igh ‘light’, ie ‘die’…
au : [ɔ:]audio, [ɑ:] laugh, [ɔ]because [aƱ]:-ou ‘pout’, -ow ‘row’
ea: [e]bread, [i:]bead,[ei]break [eɪ]: -a case ; -ai ‘vain’ ; -ay ‘day’; -ea ‘break’; ei ‘eight’…
[ɪə]idea, [ɪ.eɪ] create

The scrutiny of the examples above shows that there are very few words with two letters –ai pronounced [aɪ].
Another support of this controversy is highlighted by the collocation of two vowels made of –au opposed to
[au]. In short, it should be pointed out that the combination of two vowel letters must not be an input to the
production of a diphthong.

The second step in teaching diphthongs will be to lay emphasis on the fact that a diphthong can
derive from a one vowel letter or a two vowel letter combination. As a result of one vowel letter, the
diphthong is possible thanks to the combination of any of the following vowel (a, e, i, a, and o). To make
things more obvious, we should divide diphthongs according to their last vocalic sounds.

(4)

a) [-ə]

b) [-ɪ]

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c) [-Ʊ]

The [-ə] diphthong presupposes that in the combination of vowels there is the letter ‘r’ followed by another
vowel or a consonant as illustrated in the following list of words:

(5)

[ɪə] sphere, clear, weird, copier, ear, sepia, theory

[Ʊə] boor, secure, during, hewer, dour

[eə] scare, pair, tear

There are some remarks worth of attention. Firstly, it should be noticed that the combinations of the
vowel letters (e, o, a) + r + (Vowel or consonant) will be pronounced as a diphthong if only we find them at
word mid or final position because elsewhere and mainly in word initial position, they are pronounced as
short vowels. Secondly, this phenomenon is mainly attested when we consider the Received Pronunciation
(henceforth RP). Gimson, when explaining the relevance of Received Pronunciation writes:

Such a definition of RP I hardly tenable today, […] If I had retained the traditional, though
imprecise, term ‘received pronunciation’, it is because the label has such wide currency in
books on present –day English and because it is a convenient name for an accent which
remains generally acceptable and intelligible within Britain,
Quoted by Roach et al. (2003: v)

Finally, when teaching these diphthongs, depending on the level, the teachers can signal out some
exceptions based on the American English. This is to show the English language variety and dynamism.
The [-ɪ] diphthong supposes that in the combination of vowel letters there is the vowel ‘i’ or its variant
‘y’. The following examples are good illustrations.

(6)

[aɪ] whine, by, light, tie, dye

[eɪ] aim, hay, veil, prey, steak

[ɔɪ] poise, coy, coin,

Finally the [-Ʊ] diphthong mainly depends on the vowel letter ‘u’ or its variant ‘w’ which can be illustrated
through the following examples.

(7)

[aƱ] hound, cow

[ǝƱ] poke, soak, hoe, bough, bow
[oƱ]

After presenting the different diphthongs as being generated by single vowel letters followed by
either another vowel or a consonant, the time is now to deal with diphthongs as an output of two vowels. The
following chart summarises all diphthongs resulting as a combination of two vowels.

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(8)
[aɪ] pie, buy, dye
[aƱ] hound, row
[ǝƱ] or [oƱ] soak, hoe, though,
[eɪ] May, mail, veil, prey, great
[ɔɪ] loin, coy
[ɪǝ] sepia, theological, dear, copier, weird
[eǝ] chair, bear, heir
[uǝ] dour, boor, brewer

It appears that diphthongs can represent the pronunciation of two vowel letters or the pronunciation of one
vowel letter followed by a semi vowel letter ‘y’ or ‘w’. Generally speaking, when there are two vowels, they
are rarely identical.

CONCLUSION

The paper has been concerned with the issue whether language sounds can be compared with other
language issues in connection to language learning and teaching. With regard to the battery of arguments, it
comes out that language sounds can be taught in the same way we teach grammar lessons. In the same
way teachers teach grammar lessons like passive voice, so can we proceed with vowels or consonants.

Furthermore, repetition, story-telling or drills used to teach language sounds without a descriptive
and explanatory grounds are pointless as they are worthy for sound identification, but not for sound
understanding. What this means is that if teachers only use drills and repetition without explaining learners
the whys and the hows, this will not alleviate the hardship that goes with English sounds which are irregular
in their connection with letters.

Finally, the fact that teachers did not evaluate language sounds because they did not know how to
proceed leads learners to consider language sound learning as obsolete and otiose. This contribution stands
as an example, an illustration regarding pedagogical techniques for teaching English language sounds to
learners.

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Hancock, M.(2003) English Pronunciation in Use. London: CUP.
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