Phonetic

Teaching
Pronunciation
Using the Prosody Pyramid
Judy B. Gilbert

c ambridge u niversity p ress

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
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© Cambridge University Press 2008
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
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no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2008
Printed in the United States of America
isbn-13

978-0-521-98927-5 paperback

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Table of Contents

Introduction

1

1

The Functions of Prosody

2

TheProsody Pyramid

3

The Prosody Pyramid and Individual Sounds 21

4

Ideas for Implementing the Prosody Pyramid 31

2

10

Appendix 1: Pronunciation FAQ

42

Appendix 2: Focus Rules and Thought Group Rules 45
Appendix 3: How Often Do the Vowel Rules Work? 47
Appendix 4: Table of Figures

References

49

48

Introduction
Teaching pronunciation involves a variety ofchallenges. To begin with, teachers
often find that they do not have enough time in class to give proper attention
to this aspect of English instruction. When they do find the time to address pronunciation, the instruction often amounts to the presentation and practice of a
series of tedious and seemingly unrelated topics. Drilling sounds over and over
again (e.g., minimal pair work) often leads todiscouraging results, and discouraged students and teachers end up wanting to avoid pronunciation altogether.
There are also psychological factors that affect the learning of pronunciation in ways that are not so true of studying grammar or vocabulary. For one
thing, the most basic elements of speaking are deeply personal. Our sense of
self and community are bound up in the speech-rhythms of ourfirst language
(L1). These rhythms were learned in the first year of life and are deeply rooted
in the minds of students. Therefore, it is common for students to feel uneasy
when they hear themselves speak with the rhythm of a second language (L2).
They find that they “sound foreign” to themselves, and this is troubling for
them. Although the uneasiness is usually unconscious, it can be amajor barrier
to improved intelligibility in the L2.
A teacher can help overcome this psychological barrier and other
challenges by thinking of the goal of pronunciation instruction not as helping
students to sound like native speakers but as helping them to learn the core
elements of spoken English so that they can be easily understood by others. In
other words, teachers and students canovercome the frustrations, difficulties,
and boredom often associated with pronunciation by focusing their attention on
the development of pronunciation that is “listener friendly.” After all, English
pronunciation does not amount to mastery of a list of sounds or isolated words.
Instead, it amounts to learning and practicing the specifically English way of
making a speaker’s thoughts easy tofollow.
This booklet presents an approach to pronunciation that highlights the
interrelatedness of various aspects of English speech. The approach addresses
the individual elements of pronunciation but always within the framework of a
larger system that uses all these individual elements to make speakers’ ideas clear
and understandable to their listeners.

Introduction

1

1

TheFunctions of Prosody

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. Often, the term prosody is used to mean
rhythm alone, while the term intonation is used to refer specifically to melody
(or pitch patterns). However, in this booklet, prosody will refer...