Pronunciation: Reductions - Bow Valley College · •to decrease or shorten •a lack of stress, a weaker sound •changed or dropped vowels and/or consonants •example: going to

Pronunciation: Reductions

Presented by:Carol Carr

November 1, 2016

Welcome!

Agenda:• Introductions• Reductions: What are they? Consequences?

Why teach them? Goals?• Typical lesson order• Content vs. function words• Common ones• Practice exercises• Strategies• Questions and discussion

What’s your passion?

What does reduction mean?

• to decrease or shorten• a lack of stress, a weaker sound • changed or dropped vowels and/or consonants• example: going to becomes “gonnƏ”

What is this reduced sound?

o O o

bananaƏ Ə

schwa = /Ə/

Result of reduction?

• quicker• easier• vowels and words sound different: schwa /Ə/• changes the rhythm • can be confusing to learners

Why teach reductions?

• not bad English, most common form• approach a native-speaker-like rhythm• increase ability to be understood by others• increase ability to understand others• improve listening skills and self-awareness

Common Ones

• function words • gonna, wanna, hafta

Strategy: teach smaller units first and then move to larger ones.sounds

↓words

↓phrases

↓short sentences

↓longer sentences

↓dialogues

↓real world tasks

boy ran quickly store get milk bread mother.

Content: nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives, wh-words, not contractionsFunction: articles, small prepositions, small conjunctions, helping (aux.) verbs, to be verbs, pronouns

The to the to some and for his .

Content vs. Function Words

Content words• important content or meaning• stressed• full form

Function words• small, unimportant • hold sentence together• unstressed or reduced form

CONTENT WORDSInstructions: add a few more words to each column.

nouns main verbs adverbs adjectives wh-words Notcontractions

book sing quickly small what can’t

FUNCTION WORDSInstructions: add a few more words to each column.

articles small prepositions

smallconjunctions

helping(aux.) verbs

to beverbs

pronouns

a of and can is she

Full Form Reduced Form Example

a

an

to

and

Ə

Ən

tƏ

Ən or n

made a mistake

an apple

close to home

toast and jam

Phrases

O o O/tƏ/ gone to lunch

wait to seeback to workfive to two

/fƏr/ wait for mestay for dinnercall for yougo for lunch

Sentences

1. It’s five to two.

2. This is your pen.

3. The drink is for you.

4. I love bacon and eggs.

5. Do you want nine or ten?

6. You can come to my house.

tƏ

1. It’s five to two.yƏr

2. This is your pen.fƏr

3. The drink is for you.Ən

4. I love bacon and eggs. Ər

5. Do you want nine or ten?cƏn tƏ

6. You can come to my house.

Listening: Full or reduced form?

____ 1. She’s _______________ have dinner late tonight.

____ 2. He’s________________ the bank after work.

____ 3. My school is close _________ my house.

____ 4. There are _________ schools in my neighbourhood.

____ 5. I’m hungry. I _____________________ eaten more food for breakfast.

____ 6. I ___________________ something to eat.

Dialoguescan = /kƏn/

A: I can play the piano, but I can’t sing.B: Really? I can sing, but I can’t play the piano.A: Can you play soccer?B: No, I can’t. But I can swim pretty well.A: Oh, I can’t. But I can run really fast.B: You know what? You can speak English very well.

Activities

Substitution Exercises

Topic: fruit

A.What__(fruit) do you like? B.I like ______________ and _______________. How about you?

Real World Tasks

Going to: to describe future plansTask: Ls engage in small talk and ask about their weekend plans.Example: So, what are you going to do this weekend?

Thank you!