Abstract:

The present paper intends to explain the role of phonetics in teaching Indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ effectively and making classroom more interesting for learners. Using articles correctly in English is always a difficult task for students and it appears to be an enormous exercise especially for English language learner. Application of Phonetics in teaching the correct use of Indefinite articles is found to be a successful approach which has been adopted in classroom teaching. The strategy was applied to teach Hindi-Gondi bilingual undergraduate students at a university level. The paper outlines the positive test results of successful application of Phonetic knowledge in teaching Indefinite articles and discusses how phonetics can be a practical tool in teaching and learning English language.

Keywords: Phonetics, Indefinite article, Definite article, Teaching, Learning

INTRODUCTION:

English language teaching has a great significance in contemporary time as English has become a major medium of communication globally and paucity in this area may have a major consequence in one’s personal and professional growth. As teachers of English, we adopt various methods and tools to make teaching and learning process interesting and easier. Linguistics, which is defined as a scientific study of language can facilitate in accelerating the process of learning a language specially a foreign language. The various tools of linguistics like Phonetics, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics can facilitate extensively in learning a second and foreign languages. Phonetics, which is a sub-discipline of Linguistics, can be a useful tool of teaching English language or foreign languages. Phonetics basically studies speech sounds of a language. It can help a learner to distinguish sounds and facilitate a learner to produce even those sounds which might not be a part of the learner’s native language. For example, the sounds /s/, /ch/ and /sh/, phonetically /s/, /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ (example in Hindi: /sona/, /chaai/ and /sharmana/ ) can be produced by a native Assamese speaker correctly although /sh/ and /ch/ sounds are phonetically absent in the language. If a teacher explains to the learner who is learning Hindi language, on how to produce these sounds on the basis of place of articulation and manner of articulation, the learner can easily produce these sounds. Due to the absence of /tʃ/ sound, many native speakers of Assamese cannot produce the word /chaai/ correctly and have to face embarrassing situation in many occasions. Phonetics can play a vital role in helping the speaker to pronounce these sounds correctly and accurately, which would enable the speaker to conquer an embarrassing situation confidently. As teachers of English, we face a very common question from students as well as teachers of different disciplines, that is, the appropriate use of the indefinite articles 'a,' 'an,' and the definite article 'the'. This dilemma can easily be resolved by the application of phonetics in explaining the uses of articles especially, “a” and “an”. The use of Phonetics in teaching the correct use of indefinite article is found to be a very successful approach which has been adopted in classroom teaching. Use of Phonetics in teaching English language itself is a very fascinating subject and its practical application shows positive result in learning the language correctly. The present paper illustrates how the use of phonetics has been proven to be effective in teaching using Indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ to Hindi-Gondi Bilingual students. The paper also discusses the test results, conducted on students before and after application of Phonetics in teaching indefinite articles “a” and “an”.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The main aims of the present study are-

1. to examine the role of Phonetics in effective teaching of Indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’.
2. to determine how Phonetics can be an effective tool in English language learning activity.

METHODOLOGY:

The present study is quantitative in nature and has adopted the before-and-after study design to assess the effectiveness of the applied approach in teaching article. Two tests on article were prepared and conducted on Hindi-Gondi Bilingual students who are perusing Bachelor of Arts at Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Madhya Pradesh. The students had their formal education up to 12^th Standard in Hindi medium schools. The setting of the study was real life classroom and the age of the participants ranges from 18-20 year. The tests were conducted before and after imparting knowledge on uses of article through phonetics. The first test was conducted before teaching articles to test their knowledge over indefinite article and the second test was administered after teaching the correct use of indefinite article with the help of phonetics.

The test procedure:

The researcher emphasized on the following points while imparting education on Indefinite articles-

1. Vowel and Consonant sound:

Sounds are heard, Letters are seen. Letters provide means of to symbolizing sounds. (Daniel Jones)

The students were taught that sound plays a key role in using correct indefinite article and not the letter of the alphabet and every letter may not correspondence to a sound. This is taught as a rule of thumb in using correct indefinite article. Students were further presented with the linguistic definitions of vowel and consonant sounds. It was described to the students that the vowel sounds are those sounds which are produced without any obstruction of the airflow in the vocal tract whereas the consonant sounds are those sounds which are produced with obstruction of the airflow in the vocal tract. For better understanding on the concept of vowel, the students were provided with the four criteria of vowel classification. The four criteria with reference to which a vowel sound can be described linguistically are

1. The part of the tongue that is raised, centre and back.

2. The extent to which the tongue rises in the direction of the palate. Normally three or four degrees are recognized. High, mid (often divided into mid high and mid low) and low.

Alternatively height of the tongue can be described as close, mid –close, mid open and open.

3. The position of the soft palate raised for oral vowels, and lowered for vowels which have been nasalized.

4. The kind of opening made at the lips various degrees of lip rounding and unrounding or spreading.

These definitions were given in order to help the learners to understand the articulation differences of these two types of sounds.

2. Cardinal Vowels and Vowel Grid:

After providing linguistic definitions of vowel and consonant sounds, the next important point that was discussed by the researcher was primary vowel grid of English with extreme points of articulation. In this stage, students were presented with English cardinal vowel symbols with a few secondary vowel symbols. The researcher also explained the point of articulation of all these vowel sounds and encouraged the students to do practice in the classroom.

Figure: 1 Vowel Grid (Look at the bottom of page)

The researcher also explained to the students how vowel sounds are classified on the basis of horizontal axis and vertical axis. On the basis of horizontal axis vowels are classified as -

1. Front Vowel: Front vowel is produced when front part of the tongue is raised towards the alveolar ridge. Sit, seat, set, sat

2. Back vowel: Back vowel is produced when back part of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate. Book, caught, cot, cart.

3. Central Vowel: Front vowel is produced when central part of the tongue is raised. e.g. about, earth.

On the other hand on the basis of vertical axis, vowels are classified as High, High Mid, Low Mid and Low. Such explanations benefit the students to have a comprehensive understanding of English Vowel system. The researcher demonstrates how all these vowel sounds are produced by using tongue, teeth, soft and hard palate and lip etc. The researcher also demonstrates how the air flow got obstructed in oral tract and the active articular touches the passive articulator to produce consonant sounds like /p/, /b/, /t/ etc.

1. Application of IPA or Phonetic Transcription:

It was explained to the students that the Indefinite articles “a” and “an” are used before a countable noun to mean one. According to grammatical rule if the first/initial sound of a word/noun is a consonant sound than we use “a” and if the first/initial sound of a word/noun is a Vowel sound than we use “an”. The rule is that when a word begins with a consonant sound, we use “a” and the word begins with a Vowel sound, we use article “an”. Examples were provided with phonetic transcriptions.

Examples:

Word -Phonetic Transcription

boy - / bɔɪ/ ---- the initial sound is a consonant sound - /b/

girl - /gɜ:l/ - the initial sound is a consonant sound- /g/

school -/skul/ - the initial sound is a consonant sound - /s/

Explanation provided: In above words, the initial sounds are consonant sounds so as per the rule these words will take indefinite article “a”. The phonetic transcriptions of the words like –application, old, intelligent begin with a vowel sound. As per the rule article “an” is the correct use for such words.

Word -Phonetic Transcription-

Application- /æplɪkeɪʃən/ ---- the initial sound is a vowel sound -/æ/

Old------- /əuld/----------------- the initial sound is a vowel sound - /əu/ (diphthong)

Intelligent- /ɪntelɪʒənt/----------- the initial sound is a vowel sound /ɪ/

Example –an application

She is writing an application.

An old

I saw an old man in the house.

An intelligent

Rishav is an intelligent student etc.

1. Confusing words:

For confusing words, the researcher elaborated to the students that there are some words in English, which begin with a consonant letter but the actual pronunciation includes vowel sound. Examples presented were honest, hour, one, uniform, university etc. Illustration were presented that Phonetics plays an important role here to define why we use an before honest or a before university to mean one. Phonetic transcription of each example was also provided to the students to determine the actual pronunciation of the words in a way to help them to differentiate whether the initial sounds of the above words are consonant or vowel sounds.

For example:

One ---------- / w˄n/ the initial sound is a consonant sound -/w/

Uniform -----------/ju:nɪfɔ:m/ the initial sound is a consonant sound -/j/

University--------- /junɪvɜ:sɪtɪ/ the initial sound is a consonant sound -/j/

Illustrations were made that although in the presented words, the first letter is a vowel letter but their initial sound is a consonant sound. It becomes more evident when we transcribe the actual pronunciation of the word phonetically.

Examples:

Honest -/ɒnɪst/ the initial sound is a vowel sound /ɒ/

Hour- /auər/ the initial sound is a vowel sound /a/

The rule says that if a word begins with a vowel sound then we use the indefinite article “an”. Thus, although in the above words, orthographically first letter is a consonant letter ‘h’, it remains silent and the first sound is actually the following sound which is a vowel sound. Learners get confused whether one should use ‘a’ or ‘an’ before the words like one rupee note, uniform or university. But if we transcribe it phonetically or put emphasis on sound rather than on the letter, the confusion gets clear. Many students try to learn these confusing words by heart but the phonetic explanation of such uses can remove confusion among students and provide a more valid reason. This approach of using phonetic symbols or phonetics transcription is proved as an effective strategy in teaching article Hindi – Gondi bilingual students.

Analysis of Result:

A test was conducted on 15 students with an objective to assess their knowledge on correct uses of article. The students were Hindi-Gondi Bilingual undergraduate students. Students were given 7 sentences and asked to fill up the blanks with appropriate article. The test was conducted before teaching Indefinite article. The test contains 7 sentences where the students were asked to fill in the blanks with correct articles -a or an.

The sentences were-

1. I am …………..student.

2. My grandfather is …….old man

3. Shivani is ……….intelligent girl.

4. He is……….B.A

5. He is ………..M.A

6. Give me …….one rupee note.

7. My parents are buying……uniform for me.

A second test was conducted on the same group of students after conducting a class on Indefinite article through Phonetics. The test contained 17 sentences (7 new sentences) and the students were instructed to fill up the blanks with appropriate article. This test was administered after application of Phonetics in teaching articles “a” and “an”. The table below shows the test performances of the students:

Table No 01 (Look at the bottom of page)

The above result shows that the performance of the students has improved significantly after application of phonetics in correct use of article. The performance was quite satisfactory in case of confusing words like- old, intelligent, one, uniform etc. whereas the percentage has increased from below 35% to 80% or above in most of the cases. The result shows that phonetics can provide significant help in teaching and learning indefinite article effectively and in a much easier way. Looking at the test result, it can be concluded that application of phonetics helps the learners to understand how a sound can play an important role in language learning process and also at the same time helps in presenting lucid explanation of phonetic regularity in English word morphology.

Conclusion:

Phonetics can be an effective tool in teaching and learning English language and it can provide benefit to second language learners in learning a target language more efficiently. There are various rules in grammar which explain where to use article ‘the’ and where to omit it. A learner tries to learn or remember all these rules, including exceptional conditions to use article correctly. But, using indefinite article is not that simple and effortless for the learners, especially for those, who are learning English as a second language. The learner sometimes finds difficulty in the appropriate use of indefinite articles in some cases and are often perplexed with doubts like- ‘Why do we use ‘a’ and not ‘an’ before the word university, uniform union and one?’ and ‘Why do we use ‘an’ not ‘a’ before honest or hour?’. Similarly, ‘Why do we use an M.A and a B.A ?’. A lucid explanation of such questions can be given if we use the knowledge of phonetics. Such types of doubts can be removed easily with the help of phonetics. Using Phonetics in teaching Indefinite article ascertain desired result in a faster and systematic way. The knowledge of phonetics helps in explaining the uses of indefinite article in a better way, which is found to be a useful approach in teaching and learning article.

References:

Das, Pradeep Kumar. (2010). Some practical Linguistic Tools for Foreign Language Education. In the journal Indian Linguistics, Journal of Linguistic Society of India.

Jones, Daniel. (1998). The Pronunciation of English. Cambridge University Press

Lyons, John. (1981). Language and Linguistics: Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

Wren P.C & Martin H. (2009). High School English Grammar and Composition. S. Chand and Company Ltd.

Yule, G. (1996). The study of language. London. Cambridge University Press.

Appendix:

Test 1

Name:

Class: Semester

Age: Gender: Mother tongue

Languages Known:

Question: Fill in the blanks with the appropriate article- a, or an

(1) I am......student.

(2) My grandfather is ..................old man.

(3) Shivani is ....................intelligent girl

(4) He is ..............B.A.

(5) He is …..M.A.

(6) The boy gave me ..........one rupee note.

(7) He wants to buy...........uniform.

Test 2

Name:

Class: Semester

Age: Gender: Mother tongue

Languages Known:

Question: Fill in the blanks with the appropriate article- a, or an

(1) I am......student.

(2) He is .......author.

(3) She is..........poet.

(4) My grandfather is ..................old man.

(5) Shivani is ....................intelligent girl

(6) This is ......huge animal.

(7) This is.......apple.

(8) She is writing.........application.

(9) He is..............professor.

(10) He is ..............B.A.

(11) He is …..M.A.

(12) The boy gave me ..........one rupee note.

(13) He wants to buy...........uniform.

(14) It is ..........useful book.

(15) He is …..honest man.

(16) He is …one-eyed man.

(17) My father is .............honest police officer.

(18) My mother bought .......computer for me.

(19) ...........hour is made of sixty minutes.

(20) This is ........university.