Hi Dennis,

 

You wrote:

 

>I want to demonstrate to a learner what is nearly visibly involved in
> the production of vowel phonemes. 

 

I think Jonathan is quite right in pointing out this, in his reply:

 

>but what about vowel sounds, where they might have to raise
their tongue slightly towards the top or back of their mouth? It
requires quite a bit of self-awareness.

I too am persuaded that vocal tract self-awareness is necessary in order to produce vowels or consonants which have no visible cues. I wrote an introductory linguistics book whose chapter on phonetics is dedicated to precisely this, giving the reader a 'guided tour' of their vocal tract, both anatomy and physiology, as it were. The book is:

Cruz-Ferreira, M. and S.A. Abraham (2006). The language of language. Core concepts in linguistic analysis. Singapore, Prentice Hall/Pearson Education Asia.

Do contact me off-list, if you would like to discuss this further.

All best

Madalena
________________________
Madalena Cruz-Ferreira
mcf636@...
________________________

---

> To: iatefl_pronsig@...
> From: jonathanmarks@...
> Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:09:43 +0100
> Subject: Re: [iatefl_pronsig] Diagrams of tongue positions for English vowel phonemes?
>
> Welcome, Dennis.
>
> There are (at least?) two types of vowel diagrams -
> 1 positions of the highest/frontmost part of the tongue for each vowel
> mapped onto an abstract quadrilateral - e.g. the widely-circulated
> diagrams of cardinal vowels that you refer to
> 2 sort-of-approximately realistic, x-ray-type pictures showing the shape
> of the tongue, mouth etc. for particular vowels (and consonants, too)
>
> For type 1, for all RP vowels together, see for example Adrian
> Underhill: Sound Foundations (Heinemann 1994) page 10, fig. 9a. Or for
> each vowel separately, with variants, see A. C. Gimson: An introduction
> to the pronunciation of English (Arnold 1980).
>
> For type 2, see for example - only for example! - Jonathan Marks:
> English Pronunciation in Use Elementary (CUP 2007). I try to show lip
> position as well as tongue position.
>
> I'm less than 100% convinced about how much these diagrams can help
> learners. If they see that they have to put their top teeth against the
> inside of their bottom lip for /f/ and /v/, that's just about doable,
> perhaps, but what about vowel sounds, where they might have to raise
> their tongue slightly towards the top or back of their mouth? It
> requires quite a bit of self-awareness.
>
> You write: "I'm on lots of lists and have just rented an office in
> Second Life. Does anyone know how to build furniture?"
> Do you mean virtual furniture, or real furniture made of solid tangible
> stuff like wood?
> - not that I can help you with either, I'm afraid.
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
>
>
> Dennis Newson pisze:
> >
> >
> > Dear members of Pronsig,
> >
> > I've been looking for clear diagrams of the tongue positions of Engish
> > vowels - RP, I suppose, or have PC values been mapped (politically
> > correct). :-) Or perhaps there is something on the Internet. Why? I
> > want to demonstrate to a learner what is nearly visibly involved in
> > the production of vowel phonemes. I've looked through the classics,
> > but they all seem to go for Cardinal Vowels, better than nothing, but
> > there must be representations of English vowel sounds.
> >
> > -----
> >
> > I've rather rudely barged in on this list without introducing myself -
> > simply, I think, because I've always known about the SIG and was a
> > member of it for a y ear or two, but stopped being so when I could not
> > afford to be a member of all SIGs. So, with apologies:
> >
> > Dennis Newson, first a member of (I)ATEFL in the year it was founded
> > by Bill Lee, and a member on and off over the years. Taught EFL in
> > Africa, Arabia and Norway, and ended up at the University of
> > Osnabrueck in Germany. Taught there until I retired in 2000. I'm on
> > lots of lists and have just rented an office in Second Life. Does
> > anyone know how to build furniture?
> >
> > Dennis
> > --
> > Dennis Newson (retired)
> > University of Osnabrück
> > GERMANY
> > Webhead,
> > Discussion Moderator IATEFL YL SIG
> > Moderator of a number of other TEFL e-lists
> > Discussion Moderator ELTA-OWL
> >
> >
>
>
>
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