Syllabus Information

5.1. Methodological overview

See "Learning activities " and "Syllabus".

More information will be provided on the first day of class.

5.2. Learning tasks

• Theoretical lectures.
• Practical lectures.
• Individual work.
• Personal study.
• Assessment activities.

5.3. Syllabus

(27821) English Phonetics and Phonology II

PART I: INTRODUCTION (actividades formativas de Tipo 1: clase magistral).

  1. Language and speech: the units of speech (discourse/connected speech, utterance, tone unit, syllable, segment, articulatory feature).

  2. Defining allophony: an examination of the main phonetic and phonological features that characterise English consonants and vowels; graphic representation in allophonic transcription (notation).

  3. Defining prosody: prosody vs. suprasegmentals, dimensions of prosody.

  4. Defining the syllable: physical definitions (the sonority hierarchy), phonological definitions; syllable structure; syllabification; phonotactic possibilities.

  5. Defining stress (word stress). Placement of stress. Stress patterns.

  6. Defining accent (nuclear sentence stress). Placement of accent (accentuation). Beat adjustment, classes of beat adjustment. The nuclear stress rule (NSR): broad focus. Exceptions to the NSR: broad focus with fronted accent, narrow focus with fronted and delayed accent.

  7. Describing rhythm in speech: the foot.

  8. Describing intonation: the intonation unit (tone unit/group/intonation group), structure of intonation (tonality, tonicity, tone), meaning of the tones/tunes/contours, functions of intonation (attitudinal, grammatical, accentual, discourse).

PART II: APPLICATION AND PRACTICE (actividades formativas de Tipo 2: resolución de problemas y casos, transcripción fonética)

  A. Writing detailed allophonic transcriptions.

  B. Syllable structure and division in practice.

  C. Practice of stress in words and phrases.

  D. Practice of pronunciation in conversation: organising information in conversation, intonation in telling, asking and answering, intonation in managing conversation.

  E. Practice of pronunciation in formal settings: dividing prepared speech into units; inserts, step-ups and step-downs; tones in a series of similar items; level tone in quoting and building suspense.

  F. A confrontation between the English and Spanish consonant and vowel systems. Teaching problems and the Spanish-speaking learner.

5.4. Course planning and calendar

See the academic calendar of the University of Zaragoza (http://academico.unizar.es/calendario-academico/calendario) and the website of the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts (Schedule of classes: https://fyl.unizar.es/horario-de-clases#overlay-context=horario-de-clases; Examination schedule: https://fyl.unizar.es/calendario-de-examenes#overlay-context=)

More information will be provided on the first day of class.

5.5. Bibliography and recommended resources