ESSAY: Explanation About Applied Languistics

Teaching Practice of English

Have you, on behalf of a teacher of English, ever thought about an effective provision of English knowledge to students? Do you usually apply your teaching observation in the students’ ability as you are a teacher of English, especially while you are teaching? Teaching English, in general, is neither easy nor difficult for a teacher to produce a productive tip to distribute such the essentially useful English product to the students. It will be a hardship for a teacher if he is not well-qualified, however. It is very great if he is a competent and experienced teacher in English proficiency because he is able to draw the students’ attention to be interested in his lecture. It is very crucial to make suitable uses of the sounds of English language, the sound patterns of English language and the words of English language in the teaching practice.

The first concerning portion of English is the sounds of English language. The sounds of English are very vital in teaching in terms of distinguishing them because each sound is variously separated due to different consonants and vowels or diphthongs, and similarly pronounced on account of the similarity of consonants and vowels or diphthongs. Moreover, other sounds are pronounced the same thanks to the case of vowel or diphthong voices with the same sound of the consonants i.e. site /saIt/ and cite /saIt/ > (s and c in both terms are pronounced |s|). So, being a teacher must learn about how to recognize and pronounce each sound of words very well to avoid the blunders of teaching since English is a multi-pronounced language. It is not in the correct patterns as some languages in the world. The teacher must teach the students about how to relatively recognize and pronounce the consonants within the places of articulation and the manners of articulation. Also, he/she must offer them to understand the way to utilize the vowel voices such as tongue position, lib rounding or spreading and nasalization of vowels.                                                                                                                          

 Firstly, of course, the difficulty occurs within recognition the sounds of the consonants and vowels; however, step-by-step training is mainly required learning for the students. The teacher plays a key role to perform acceptably sound voices of the consonants and vowels. After explanation and role-play, the teacher allows the students to repeat him/her. In a case of incorrectness appears, the teacher helps them again and again to aim at suitable pronunciation or articulation. The teacher must explain the students the processes of pronunciation of the words such as airstream, phonation, articulation and oral-nasalization. The teacher must tell the students that the processes of each word’s pronunciation are in a variety of articulating, but only learning to understand them gradually then practice them in the classroom with the presence of the teacher because he/she can facilitate in terms of any error or clumsiness happens since the teacher has eight roles applied in different situations during teaching. Doing like this, not always but depends on situations of environment, enables the students to quickly correct their mistakes. Nevertheless, for some students like saving face, direct correction is not particularly required. Thus, let it be is the ultimate choice, but the teacher does not indulge them. He/she must understand it well and apply his/her teaching in the proper way to give them a productive tip. For the lower level students of English, it is a barrier in teaching because the students cannot easily understand about the ways to recognize the consonants and vowels’ sounds, so the teacher must add up an extra note for the students that the sounds |dƷ| and |Ʒ| are the same if they have hardship to pronounce them. Originally, the both pronounced terms are absolutely similar. But, for the high level students of English, imperatively the teacher must distinguish them clearly and accurately thanks to avoid the next confusing of the students’ points of view to the teacher’s ability.                                                           

 In addition, regarding to voiced and unvoiced consonants is very necessarily useful to understand how to pronounce and how to recognize them. It is also very hard to recognize them, so the teacher plays a very vital role to explain in his/her teaching performance. For sure, the teacher must be well-qualified how to conduct the pronunciation and how to take note the way for the students to experiment i.e. the students can use their fingers to cover the ears and then pronounce. If the sound of any consonant is pronounced by vibrating to their ears, that consonant is voiced. Otherwise, the consonant is voiceless if its sound does not vibrate to the ears. The teacher lets the students to do this to test by their own whether it is effective or not. In this stage, the teacher is still standing out to help the students.

What is more, the tongue position is notably entailed in pronunciations because the practice of usage the tongue is deeply hard to twist. The tongue is involved in six parts: front, central, back, high, mid and low. So, it is not easy for the students to adjust to twisting in terms of reading each words i.e. beet /biːt/> pronounced by using the tongue to the high and front part, boot /buːt/> pronounce by twisting the tongue to the high and back part. The teacher lets the students to experiment in the practice by twisting their tongues by pronouncing one word and saying which parts of the tongue i.e. read the word bait /beɪt/>  and say mid-front, read the word boat /bəʊt/> say mid-back. The teacher gives other words and lets the students practice. He observes and controls especially he corrects them if they are wrong.

The second concerning focus is the sound patterns of English language. The sound patterns consist of parts of recognition because they are specifically categorized such as of the explanation in the textbook (prepared by Kea Leaph., p. 79-85). Phnom Penh International University. The phonology and phonemes are very different. The phonology is the description of systems and patterns of speech sounds in English and the phonemes are meaning-distinguishing sounds of words. For instance, in the phonology of English, the words tar, star, and citer are pronounced with the |t| sound.  The |t| sound in the three words is represented in the same way. But in the phonemes of English, the |t| sound is actually very different. So, the teacher must explain the reason why the |t| sound is the same in the phonology and very different in the phonemes of English. The teacher may explain that the phonology is the main sound pattern of English but the phonemes are the small ones must be detailed-explained. The teacher should tell the students about the |t| sound further. The |t| sound is concerned with the phones of the phonemes and allophones of the phonemes. The teacher must tell the students the phones and allophones are very confusing because the allophones come from the phones by prefixing “allo”. One phone is a smallest phonetic unit but one allophone is a variation of original sound. For example, the word tar [t^h] is one phone, the word star [t] is one phone, but it is aspirated, and the word eighth (/eɪtθ/) [D] is one phone. But the variations of the |t| sound: [t^h], [t] and [D] are the allophones of the phonemes /t/. The teacher must explain the students that the |t| sounds are used in the different words—different phones, so the |t| sounds in the three words are referred to as allophones of the phonemes. It means that the |t| sound can be pronounced differently based on the words aiming at different meanings as well.

The teacher may raise other words i.e. keep /kiːp/  and keen /kiːn/ let’s say /kĩn/ because nasal consonant [n] make the [i] nasalized, so the [iː] and [ĩ] are the allophones of |i|. Perhaps, the distinguishing between phones and allophones are very complicated to understand for the students, but the teacher must try to explain the differences between the [iː] and [ĩ] that the [iː] is the original sound—the smallest phonetic unit of the word keep and the [ĩ] is the variation from the original sound made by the nasal consonant [n] in the word keen, so the [ĩ] varied from the [iː]. The aspirated version is the physical evidence of aspiration when the students read the word tar by putting the back of hand in front of the mouth. So, the puff of air comes out to the hand called aspiration. When the students fell that, it means it.                                                                        

The teacher can further explain about the minimal pairs and sets. The teacher may feel easier to explain because it just focuses on using the same vowel phonemes and using the same consonant phonemes in order to make different words with different meanings. Because of the minimal sound contrast, it can help the students to develop the ability to understand the contrast in the meaning quickly since they feel more comfortable with the words such as site-side, fan-van and boot-foot. These minimal pairs show the same vowels in spelling, so it is easy to remember. The teacher must give them the pairs like this very often so that they can drill those words by themselves at home or outside the class. Another is the minimal set. For instance, it could entail sin, seen, son, sun, soon. This minimal set is based on the vowel phonemes, the vowel sounds (i, ee, o, u and oo) change each meaning of the words. Also, it could include been, seen, keen, teen. This minimal set is based on the consonant phonemes for the consonant sounds (b, s, k, and t) change the words’ meanings. The teacher must explain the students clearly about how to recognize the minimal pairs and sets.  It is that, almost the same pronunciation of the pair-words in the minimal pairs as site-side. Basing on the vowel and consonant phonemes is the minimal set. Let’s see the above examples more detailed. Thus, the students can examine the differences between the minimal pairs and sets by understanding from the teacher’s explanation and by practicing and testing those in the class alone or in pairs or groups.                   

Relating to syllables, it is very simple to explain that one word consists of one syllable, two syllables, three syllables, or more than three syllables. The elements of the syllable are onset—which contains one or more consonants, followed by the rhyme—which contains nucleus—vowel and coda—one or more consonants. The students can take a close look on next page to make sure for more understanding the syllable of speak /spiːk/ so that they can understand other syllables in other words. The teacher must teach them the phonetic symbols by raising the example like that; they really understand. The teacher must test the students many times so that they feel familiar with it. It is well-done now.                                                  

Regarding the consonant clusters and coarticulations—two effects—assimilation and elision, the consonant cluster is easier to understand i.e. street, throne, blue, true, grin, and free. 

Syllable

1. Onset: Consonant(s)> /sp/

2. Rhyme

a. Nucleus: Vowel> /iː/

b. Coda: Consonant(s) > /k/

          The /str/, /thr/, bl//, /tr/, /gr/ and /fr/ are the consonant clusters. However, some consonants cannot be allowed to stand together because the combination of such different sounds of the consonants causes difficulty in pronunciation, so the cancellation of one sound must be required i.e. psychology > the |p| sound is not pronounced.  More than this, splrash > /splr/ cannot be allowed to stand together but splash > /spl/ can be put together. The students must try to understand and remember the places and manners of articulation explained earlier. (Further read, textbook, prepared by Kea Leaph., p. 41-77). The assimilation is the occupying of one sound segment by one another example in the phase: have to come home early. /həftə/ or /həvtə/. The f—voiceless or v—voiced can allow the |t| sound to follow it. The teacher must further explain the nasal sound mentioned above also is the part of assimilation. Talking about the elision is the silent letters i.e. dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃən.ri/ and camera /ˈkæm.rə/. The teacher must try to explain them how to understand the words by reading the phonetic symbols and remember them. The teacher must keep in mind he/she is teaching the students not learning himself/herself, so he/she must be flexible in understanding and following them in case they less understand what he/she is performing, he/she must properly adjust it to the right track of the students straightaway. 

The final concerning factor is the words of English language. A word of English is very difficult to recognize as it stands alone without the combinations with others i.e. drink, it is a noun, a verb, or an adjective. It impossible to know, but it can be a noun or verb it depends on the meaning in the context i.e. I drink a coke. It is a verb because it is used with subject ‘I’. ‘Coke’ is a drink. It is a noun because it is a subjective complement. It modifies and complements the subject ‘Coke’. So, the teacher must firmly explain it to avoid any mistakes if he/she just defines it (Drink) directly without mentioning that “noun (n) or verb (v)” next to it. The teacher must explain the students about the morphemes of the words of English since it is complicated to understand. A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function. A word must have one or more morphemes i.e. girl, happy—one morpheme; girlish, unhappy—two morphemes; girlishness, unhappily—three morphemes; undesirably, immorality—four morphemes. The morphemes consist of two parts: free and bound morphemes. The teacher must verify the free morphemes—functional and lexical—can stand freely as independent words. The functional free morpheme is a close class grammatical function of words such as conjunctions—and, but, both…and, neither…nor, after, since, as long as, just as, and because; propositions—in, on, up, down, and out; articles—a/an and the; pronouns—I, we, you, he, she, it, and they; auxiliary verbs—is, am, are, do, and have and modal verbs—can, should, must and will. These free functional morphemes are not changed so the students must try to learn by heart to remember. One another, the lexical free morpheme is an open class grammatical function of words such as nouns—girl, school; adjectives—happy, decisive; verbs—go, read and adverbs—away, well. This kind of free morphemes is very tricky to understand so the teacher must explain that gradual learning is a good process. There is no royal road to learning. So, learning to understand and to remember goes hand in hand, so the students must be aware of it and keep it in their minds clearly. The teacher plays as a key role to explain clearly and as a resource.                                                                                                    The teacher must compare the bound free morphemes to the free morphemes after explanation of the both terms. Look out! The distinguishing between the both morphemes is very useful for the students. The bound free morphemes—derivational and inflectional—cannot stand alone and are typically attached to other forms. The derivational bound morpheme is used to make new words, to make words of a different grammatical from the stems or roots. It makes the changes of meaning and the parts of speech of the words i.e. agree>disagree, like>dislike, important>unimportant, etc…are in prefix examples. Other examples are happy>happily, art>artist, govern>government, etc…are in suffix examples. The teacher must raise many examples for the students and tell them to remember at all costs. It is essential that this kind of bound morphemes be required to learn to form every day. He never forgets the rule of telling them. The inflectional bound morpheme is used to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. The aspects refer to numbers—one, two, three—, genders—masculine, feminine or neutral—, tenses—present simple and past simple and processions—affixation, abbreviation, acronym, coinage, clipping, conversion, back formation, compound, blending, and borrowing. The teacher must know his/her students’ abilities of English especially the knowledge level of tenses and processions. Regarding such much more important parts of the inflectional morphemes, the teacher must explain clearly that what present simple or past simple is with the clear definitions including the examples to fit into the each definition, and how to form and how to recognize the words in the processions because these are very difficult for the students.  The teacher welcomes all the questions from the students and makes any correctness for them to avoid the serious confusion. He/she must play as a main role in the class in this case because it is very complicated to understand and recognize the morphemes. The teacher must usually encourage and remind them to be aware of learning. Understanding is much better than remembering.

As we have seen, study of the sounds of English language, the sound patterns of English language and the words of English language is required time spending and deep knowledge to understand the key points in their physical and mental/abstractive meaning like deep and surface analysis.  Thus, the teacher must be well-qualified and high-experienced of his/her English skill. The more importantly, he/she must know how to play the eight roles of being a teacher such as a controller, an assessor, an organizer, a prompter, a participant, a resource, a tutor, and an investigator. However, the best role of those is a controller because the controller is recognized as the leader or manager. The manager must involve with planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. The last one, controlling, is the last evaluation and makes any change if some particular problems or blunders are being meet. Hence, the teacher must be clear how to assess or evaluate after his/her teaching in the class to prepare next time to teach the students effectively.   

Written by Muong Rithea (Writing based on the textbook reference)