Prosody in Teaching Pronunciation

Communication in spoken English is organized by “musical signals.” There are two aspects to these signals – rhythm and melody – and the combination of these two aspects may be called prosody. Prosody is used to mean rhythm alone, while the term intonation is used to refer specifically to melody (or pitch patterns) the teacher needs to understand that both these aspects of spoken English work together and are vitally linked.

Rhythm and Melody as Road Signs

In English, rhythmic and melodic signals serve as “road signs” to help the listener follow the intentions of the speaker. These signals communicate emphasis and make clear the relationship between ideas so that listeners can readily identify these relationships and understand the speaker’s meaning.

Melody

In English, changes in pitch help listeners follow the speaker’s meaning because these melodic signals provide cohesion and contrast. Not only do they tell listeners what is new information, but they also tell listeners how ideas relate to each other. They help listeners to understand how the speaker intends to make connections with what came before (orientation) and what will follow in the conversation (prediction). Efficient listening comprehension, therefore, depends on the ability to “read” melodic cues in order to sort out these aspects of the incoming language. The orientation aspect helps listeners to clue into what must have been assumed, and the prediction aspect helps listeners to find out quickly if they have misunderstood the point of the conversation.

Example

a. Jane said, “Is that Mister Fogg?”

b. Jane said, “Is that mist or fog?”

Question: What was Jane talking about?

(Gilbert 2005, 136)

In sentence (a), Jane is asking about a person. In sentence (b), she is asking about something altogether different, the weather.

Rhythm

The basic unit of English rhythm is the syllable. A syllable is most simply explained as something with a vowel sound at its center students should be taught to count syllables and thereby notice the rhythmic difference between words in pairs, such as ease and easy, or wait and waited.

Listening comprehension is increased when students learn to notice the rhythmic effect of the number of syllables, including small words such as articles, auxiliaries, and affixes (e.g., the; do; -er; etc.). In easily confused words like this is/this and late/later the number of syllables is different, so the rhythm is different.

Example

1. Yest’day I rent’ ‘car. (Yesterday I rented a car.)

2. Where’ ‘book? (Where is the book?)

3. We’ been here’ long time. (We’ve been here a long time.)

But an understanding of English rhythm involves more than the ability to identify and count syllables. It also involves an ability to hear and produce the word stress patterns of English.

The failure to hear and produce stress patterns accurately could cause confusion between words such as those in the following pairs:

dessert/desert foreign/for rain his story/history

The combination of stress errors with other types of errors can seriously disrupt communication.

Example

Student: Mrs. Stiebel, can you help me with comedy?

Teacher: Comedy?

Student: Yes, comedy is big problem.

Teacher: I don’t quite follow.

Student: (Patiently) Problem – this is worry.

Teacher: Yes, a worry. Um . . . you mean you have a

problem with comedy on TV?

Student: TV? (Trying again) The boss put me on

department comedy. Everybody on comedy, all the

time argue.

Teacher: Oh, you mean committee!

Student: Yes, what I told you, comedy.

Although good will and patient attempts to clarify may often help speakers and listeners overcome this sort of disruption, wrong stress is an added burden for listeners and can, in many cases, lead to conversational breakdown.

Conclusion

Without a sufficient, threshold-level mastery of the English prosodic system, learners’ intelligibility and listening comprehension will not advance, no matter how much effort is made drilling individual sounds. That is why the highest priority must be given to rhythm and melody in whatever time is available for teaching pronunciation.

“Practicing pronunciation without prosody is like teaching ballroom dancing, only the students must stand still, practice without a partner, and without music.”

Reference

Gilbert,  Judy B. 2008. Teaching Pronunciation Using the Prosody Pyramid. Cambridge University Press