180 Part III: Teaching Skills Classes
Typically, native speakers pronounce consonants and vowels as though they
were joined together. So if a word ends with a consonant and the next begins
with a vowel, you pronounce them together. Try this for example:
teacher and student
vets and animals
Whereas the /r/ at the end of teacher is usually silent, you can pronounce it
before ‘and’ as it begins with a vowel. Similarly, in the second example you
allow the ‘s’ of ‘vets’ to connect with ‘and’. Then you connect ‘d’ of ‘and’ with
‘animals’.
Sometimes sounds disappear or change.
✓ Good game: At the end of ‘good’ we can’t pronounce the ‘d’ unless we
speak extremely slowly and carefully. At the most we say ‘goog’ because
of the influence of the following ‘g’ in ‘game’.
✓ What do you do?: Many native speakers would pronounce /wɒʔdiə/
instead of ‘what do you’. The /ʔ/ represents the glottal stop which is the
rather unattractive sound most people make when they stop the air at
the back of the throat instead of pronouncing ‘t’ at the end of a word.
These examples highlight the value of sometimes repeating whole sentences
at normal speed. Realistic features of the language become evident as long
you speak normally and clearly. Use your natural accent to do this and point
out alternatives if any obvious ones come up.
Watch Your Tone! – Intonation
Intonation is the method for indicating whether you’re uttering a sentence or
question, or whether you’re in a good mood or bad mood without relying on
grammar and vocabulary. When you ask a question your tone tends to rise at
the end but when you say a sentence your tone falls at the end to show that
you’ve finished it. In addition, far more rises and falls occur when emotions
are running high. Happy intonation sounds a little closer to singing. It’s very
varied and animated, whereas depressive intonation is very flat. Indeed you
can tell a lot about someone’s mood and intention from a single word.
Take a fairly versatile word such as ‘nice’. Different intonation can change the
meaning according to the situation.
Take an innocuous question and response:
How about cream tea with the neighbours today?
Nice!
