Pronunciation: More than citation form

Hello Guys! How life's treating you?

So, I'm kind of new here... I'm not used to post in every topic but I see every topic and keep the knowledge in silence to me. Ok, don´t be scared! OHASOHEHOOHEASOESAHOAES

So, I'm a student of Letters with specialization in English. I study at Universidade Católica de Brasília and this is my first article that I want to share here, on EE.

I love the podcast and I really enjoy the site, ok, no more talking, here's my article...

1- When I have time to scan the interviewees, I'll put them here so you can see.
2- I'm deeply sorry about my mistakes, I don´t have an English course as well, all the knowledge about English I have it is because I'm a completely lover of the language. Enjoy!



Introduction

This article aims to demonstrate both the efficiency and deficiency of the pronunciation of middle-level public schools system. This article has been demonstrated through interviews with teachers from the area where the accent is in the background because they prioritize the grammar. The topics covered in these interviews was how the teachers deal with the correction of pronunciation, the concern of the teacher about the students’ pronunciation, the method and finally, an idea to solve these problems and how to put them into practice.
I did three interviewees with teachers of middle level (public schools) and I asked about the pronunciation of their students. All the teachers told me that pronunciation is a failure system at public schools nowadays. The X factor are the students. Almost all of them don´t have any interest in even learn grammar or simple things, like answer to the attendance in English. I attached the interviewees in the the end of the article.


Pronunciation: More than citation form

Pronunciation is essential to make yourself understandable. You must improve your way you say the words. A word can be spoken in different ways by various individuals or groups depending on many factors such as the area in which they had grown up, the area in which they now live, if they have a speech or voice disorder, their ethnic group, their social class, or their education.
“Good pronunciation does not just mean saying individual words or even individual sounds correctly. The sounds of words change when they come into contact with each other.” (Marianne Celce-Murcia, 2001, p.263).
The main part of pronunciation is to learn how to say the words respecting the “stress”. Stress means that at least one of the syllables is longer and louder than other syllables.
“Stress is the term we use to describe the point in a word or phrase where pitch changes, vowels lengthen and volume increases. Stress is vitally important in conveying meaning in phrases and sentences.” (Jeremy Harmer, 1991, p. 42-43).
When we have a good articulation on speaking, we see that stress change the meaning of the word or the sentence as well.
Brad wants to marry my daughter?
Meaning: I can´t believe the relationship is that serious.
Brad wants to marry my daughter?
Meaning: I can´t believe it! I knew Steve was keen on her, but Brad?
(Jeremy Harmer, 1991, p. 43).
One great point that teachers agree with me is when the students meet new words in class, the teacher should mark the stress of those words using a symbol above the syllable. Of course that there is always an explanation about the stress, for example;

º o º o
JaPAN – JapanESE.

º o º º
DeMOcracy

º º o º
TeleVIsion

o º
HOSpital

If we, teachers teach the students the correct articulation on speech, they’ll be more interested in improves their pronunciation and also they’ll create a natural habito f correct themselves if they say a word in a wrong way.
As a conclusion of the interviewees I made, on the beginning of the article I thought the worse thing I’ll hear will be something like “They pronounce the words in a wrong way...” or “They keep asking me every class how to pronounce some words...” but was different. After all the interviwees I could see that students don´t care about pronunciation and even worse, they don´t care about English!
The conclusion I had about the pronunciation of middle level in public schools (the ones that I’ve interviewed) is;
-Students who has interest in English do a particular course in their opposite time of school.
-The teachers try to teach them some aspects of pronunciation, but the system method of the public schools don´t allow them to go deeper and they focuses only in grammar.
-Also, the time of teachers have to teach don´t match with the number of students in class. (Something about forty in each class).
While we have students who deny education it will be difficult to us to make them to learn language not as obligation, but with pleasure.


Bibliography

1. The practice of English Language Teaching
Jeremy Harmer
Fourth Edition
Publisher: Pearson Longman

2. Teaching English as a Second or a Foreign Language
Marianne Celce-Murcia
Third Edition
Publisher: Heinle Cengage Learning

3. Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation