Understanding and Teaching the Pronunciation of English.pdf

Resyllabification A way of making consonant clusters easier to pronounce by splitting up a consonant cluster so that the last co ...

Retroflex A description of a sound that is made with the tongue curled slightly backwards, as in some pronunciations of /r/. Rel ...

Rhotic and nonrhotic dialects If speakers pronounce the phoneme /r/ after a vowel in words like car and butter, the dialect is c ...

Rhythm The characteristic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables when people speak a language, made up of syllables that a ...

Round robin reading A teaching technique in which the teacher calls on students, in seating order or at random, to take turns re ...

Sagittal section diagram A picture of a cross-section of the vocal tract showing the positions of the tongue, teeth, and lips in ...

Sammy diagram A picture of a cross-section of the vocal tract showing the positions of the tongue, teeth, and lips in pronouncin ...

Schwa A mid-central, lax vowel represented by the symbol /ə/. The vowel sounds in many unstressed syllables change to /ə/. Relat ...

Secondary stress In words of four or more syllables, there is often a syllable that receives a little stress, but not as much as ...

Segmental features of pronunciation The individual sounds (phonemes) of a language—the vowels and consonants. Related Glossary T ...

Segmentation Breaking up a stream of sounds so that we can understand the words that are being said. For example, when we hear / ...

Sentence stress, prominence, or focus The word or syllable in each thought group that receives more stress than the others is ca ...

Shadowing and mirroring Pronunciation practice techniques in which students mimic a video or audio recording, trying to speak in ...

Sibilant A type of fricative or a"ricate produced with the tongue near the alveolar ridge or hard palate: /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /ʧ ...

Sight words Words with spellings that do not follow predictable patterns and therefore have to be memorized individually, like e ...

Silent letter A letter that is seen in the spelling of a word, but does not represent a sound, such as k and e in the word knife ...

Simple vowels, glided vowels, and diphthongs Categories of vowels based on whether the tongue moves during the pronunciation of ...

Soft palate The softer part of the roof of the mouth, farther back than the hard palate. It is also called the velum. Related Gl ...

Sonorant A sound that comes out of the mouth smoothly, with no obstruction or friction. Nasals, liquids, glides, and vowels are ...

Squishy Literal meaning: Soft and wet, not holding a de!nite shape, like soft mud or oatmeal. Figurative meaning: Vague, inde!ni ...