AMERICAN ENGLISH FOR JAPANESE SPEAKERS, TEACH PRONUNCIATION BETTER, PART 2: Stress, Rhythm, Melodics, and Intonation

“I WISH I HAD LEARNED THIS WHEN I WAS FIRST STUDYING ENGLISH? IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH EASIER!” That’s the reaction I get from my students.

HI, My name is Peggy Tharpe, and I’m a practicing ESL, EFL teacher. Whether you are an ESL or EFL teacher looking for a new perspective on teaching pronunciation to Japanese students...or...you’re a Japanese student or professional wanting to improve your sound in English…you’ll find this pronunciation guide helpful and informative.

My approach, methods and strategies are the result of years of teaching pronunciation, always looking for patterns, systems, frameworks to understand the “why” of pronunciation:

--why it’s so hard to learn
--why it’s so hard to teach
--why students don’t make much permanent progress despite lots of work
--why certain languages seem to interfere with English more than others

And to understand the “how”:
--how to explain to my adult students why they have an “accent”
--how they can successfully improve their sound in English
--how to permanently improve their sound in English

And to understand the “what”:
--what specifically will help them master the sound of English
--what exactly is getting in the way of progress
--what strategies and materials work best for whom

In my approach, we start with the smallest building blocks of sound, teach them as the raw materials of English, and then adjust them to build up the specific ‘code’ of sound used in English. Every language has its own sounds and code--a special way to signal listeners. By looking closely at the English code, and thinking about the Japanese code, we begin to see why English pronunciation is especially challenging for the Japanese.

Part 1 is devoted to vowels and consonants, how they differ in English and Japanese, and what it means for students. We talk about how Japanese sounds interfere with learning English. I show you how to use the senses and muscles to teach new motor skills. We use the brain to analyze, the eyes to visualize, and the ears to recognize and fine-tune. We bypass the brain and communicate directly with the tongue with larger muscles; in doing so, we build and strengthen new neurological paths.

Part 2 examines how native speakers use these building blocks, the vowels and consonants, to create syllable stress, word stress, phrasal rhythms, and intonation. By adjusting the vowels and consonants, we create a ‘code’ of signals unique to English speaking. Every language has a code, and every language adjusts its sounds using some (but not all) of the same strategies, but the biggest difference, and the most important one, is the reason for the changes. What the signals relay is different in Japanese and English.

Part 2 talks about rhythm and prosodic elements and how to teach them. While rhythm and intonation are not on the list of ‘must-haves’ by lingua franca standards, without them English words must be parceled and processed one by one, and from a listener’s standpoint, I assure you that this is not a great way to follow a person’s ideas. Eventually listeners stop attending because the neurological task of organizing so many separate words into predictable thought groups becomes overwhelming.

English speakers package words into thought groups, and set relationships between them acoustically. It’s not like written English, where paragraph indentations and punctuation give readers clear signals about the direction of the message. Spoken English relies on the code of sound to do all this for the listener.

One thing is certain:
Until we learn to do otherwise, we hear with the ears of our first language, speak with the tongue of our first language, and communicate with the code of our first language.

Remember, pronunciation is a verb! Join me and make it easier for your students and easier for you to teach!