AJc207 Phonetics and Phonology B

Faculty of Education
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/0/2. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Světlana Hanušová, Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Jana Popelková
Supplier department: Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Prerequisites
The student should be aware of basic problems s/he has on the segmental level and be working on reducing the frequency of errors as well as on improving the acoustic quality of individual sounds in order to effectively move on to the suprasegmental level.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The aim of the course is to raise the student's awareness of potential problems a Czech student (and teacher) of English can have on the suprasegmental level in the pronunciation of English focusing mainly on the issues of stress, rhythm and intonation. The student will be acquainted with the changes of individual sounds within the context of connected speech (assimilation, elision, linking), the basic rules applying to word stress in English and the role of context (given and new information) in the area of the sentence stress. Further transcription training will be offered in the form of actually transcribing short continuous texts as well as reading transcription exercise. To improve the student's listening comprehension skills - mainly understanding "small" words (i.e., weak forms, functional words, etc.), dictations will be given on a regular basis. An integral part of the course is the student's guided individual home practice (trancriptions, reading handouts, reading transcribed texts, listening to relevant recordings) with the possibility for the student to be given feedback not only corporately in the classroom but also during special consultations on request.
Learning outcomes
Students will be acquainted with the classification of English phonemes, they will be able to produce suprasegmental features of connected speech, i.e. weak forms, word and sentence stress, linking, rhythm, assimilation, elision and intonation. They will be able to identify phonological changes occurring in fast speech, such as elision or assimilation. Students - as future English teachers - will be aware of the set of phonemes and suprasegmental phenomena difficult for Czech users of English as well as of various teaching strategies to help these learners.
Syllabus
  • Face-to-face sessions:
  • 1. Weak forms
  • 2. Word stress
  • 3. Word stress in compounds; contrastive stress
  • 4. Linking and sound changes in connected speech
  • 5. Sentence stress
  • 6. Intonation
  • These are accompanied by students' own "effort hours" spent on practising the given phenomena by means of handouts, recordings, homework assignments, and by keeping their own Personal Progress Sheets.
Literature
    required literature
  • ROACH,P.English Phonetics and Phonology.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2000.ISBN 0-521-78613-4
    recommended literature
  • O'Connor,J.D. Sounds English.Longman,1991.ISBN 0-582-01439-5
  • VAUGHAN-REES, Michael. Test your pronunciation. Essex: Penguin English, 2002, 90 s. ISBN 058246904X. info
Teaching methods
listening, drill, repetition, discussion, transcription
Assessment methods
There is an exam at the end of this course, consisting of an oral part and a written test based on all the topics covered during the semester (pass mark = 70%). To qualify for the exam, the student has to meet the following requirements of the continuous assessment:
- do homework assignments on a weekly basis
- do one written assignment (phonemic analysis) by the date specified
- keep his or her Personal progress sheet on a regular basis
- take part in the mid-term face-to-face consultation
- take the mid-term test (consisting of transcription from a continuous text and dictation - pass mark = 70%)
- take all the interactive quizzes in the moodle course by the date specified
- participate actively in the seminars and attend these regularly.
In general, students must demonstrate good awareness (including self-correction) and good performance in all the areas covered this and last semester.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: in blocks.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 24 hodin.
Teacher's information
http://moodlinka.ics.muni.cz/course/view.php?id=2506
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/spring2025/AJc207