Welcome to week 3!
Review of week 2
What a wonderful and successful week this has been! Thank you for being such vibrant, enthusiastic and observant learners.
We enjoyed reading all your messages and appreciated the feedback we received. Many of you have expressed your appreciation for the video in our step 2.1 Introduction to Week 2: Vowels. We are glad to know that this was useful to you. It is quite technical material! In step 2.3 English vowels: intelligibility, credibility and identity, learners shared their knowledge comparing the pronunciation of English vowels to their native languages: Czech, Brazilian Portuguese, Farsi, French, Spanish, Indonesian, Japanese, Ga, amongst several others, for which we are very grateful. Your input helps improve the MOOC.
As we delved into vowel length and vowel sounds, learners contributed with their personal experiences, as seen in for example step 2.10 Different pronunciations of the TRAP-vowel analysed and step 2.13 Different pronunciations of the NURSE-vowel analysed. For some learners, the differences were evident, for others they were subtle. The diverse exchange between the learners displayed a tight-knit community helping and growing together. There’s always the possibility of going back to vowel exercises and do them again, for example step 2.12 Listen and repeat: 55 words with the NURSE-vowel.
We contemplated about the past week in step 2.22 Reflection and it became clear that learners were focusing on specifics in their pronunciation. The awareness of this is essential; indeed challenging, but practice, patience, and perseverance goes a long way in mastering our learning goals.
What’s happening this week
As we proceed further, in the coming week you will continue to work on your learning goals for English pronunciation. Week 3 addresses consonant sounds in English. You will learn about the way in which consonant sounds are pronounced, using the International Phonetic Alphabet again. We will discuss research findings on the intelligibility of different pronunciations of English consonants. You will analyze and practise the pronunciation of English consonants in a number of exercises. This includes, in steps 3.5-3.7, consonant clusters like ‘sp’ in Spain, which are difficult for some speakers of English (think of Spain vs España), and word endings in steps 3.15-3.16, which are equally difficult for other speakers of English (for example, Vietnamese). We will also discuss special features of consonants, such as Yod-dropping in step 3.1; think about it for yourself– do you pronounce YouTube with or without a ‘j’? And why are some consonants not pronounced, like ‘b’ in ‘debt’? This is addressed in steps 3.12-3.14 on silent letters. Is it important to be able to pronounce the notorious English ‘th’-sound? Read about it in step 3.17 and practise pronouncing the ‘th’-sound, if you like, in step 3.18. You have the opportunity to do a test on the consonants in the words of the word list that you recorded in step 3.30.
For those of you who have not yet completed the steps of Week 2, please finish them quickly so that you can start with this week’s material. We’ll guide you and your fellow learners through Week 3 again together so that you can support each other. We will be initiating discussions with you and your fellow learners and we hope that they will be productive. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we’ll attempt to respond to common problems and questions. We have created a little spot for you to interact with us in step 3.28. If you think you can help with questions from other learners, we encourage you to reply to them in the comment box. We noted that some of you already voluntarily helped others out by answering their comments, which we really appreciate a lot, thank you!
Thank you so much for your support and encouragement, which we find heartening to read in your comments. We hope you’ll enjoy the week and look forward to reading more from you!
Good luck and best wishes,
Laura Rupp
Sophie Schagen
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Please follow us on FutureLearn! #FLengpron
We acknowledge VUvereninging for their support.
