English Songs and Phonetics Teachin英文歌曲与语音教学

English Songs and Phonetic Teaching

Tweengua Huang

Outline

1. Introduction

2. Applying English Songs in English Phonetic Teaching

2.1 Phonemes

2.1.1 Learning Phonemes with English Songs

2.1.2 Practicing Easily Confused Phonemes with English Songs 2.2 Connected Speech and English Songs

2.2.1 Length of a Sound

2.2.2 Incomplete Plosion

2.2.3 Liaison

2.2.4 Rhythm and Musical Beat

2.2.5 Influence of Musical Quality upon Intonation

3. Choices of Musical Types for Phonetic Teaching

4. Conclusion

英语歌曲与语音教学

Tweengua Huang

摘要:语音是使语言成为有声交流的主要因素。在英语学习过程中，想要把英语说得地道，唯有掌握好全面的语音知识。在语音教学过程中，教师把英文歌曲融入语音教学，甚至以它们作为教学教材，用歌词和曲调来诠释音素，语调，节奏，连读，重读，不完全爆破等语音知识，这使得教学更加有趣更加有效。

关键词:英语歌曲；语音教学；音素；节奏；语调

English Songs and Phonetic Teaching

Tweengua Huang

Abstract: Phonetics is the major factor which makes language heard in communication. In the process of learning English, only when one has mastered comprehensive phonetic knowledge, can he speak excellent authentic English. Introducing English songs into phonetic teaching, and even using English songs as teaching materials, teachers can make it more interesting and more efficient to annotate phonetic knowledge such as phonemes, intonation, rhythm, sound linking, stress, and incomplete plosion with melody and lyrics.

Key words: English songs; phonetic teaching; phonemes; rhythm; intonation

1. Introduction

In China, learning ―mute‖ English is a common phenomenon. Apart from lacking learning motives, students are bored with teachers‘ teaching methods and the changeless textbooks. Traditional phonetic teaching strategies focus on textbook teaching process in which students read phonetic symbols after the teacher, and it is the teacher who plays a major part in class. As the condition lasts for a while, students certainly lose their interests. Moreover, teachers always neglect to teach some important phonetic knowledge such as rhythm and intonation. This is why most of Chinese students can deal with English tests well but they can‘t speak Standard English. In view of this phenomenon, educators commit themselves to textbook reform, gradually modifying

materials and adding English songs to support phonetic teaching. Musical speech is subtle, conveying different feelings by its unique melody and rhythm. A fusion of phonetic knowledge and interesting lyrics unite the abstract concepts and entertainment, which illustrates visible image of phonetic knowledge. Teachers should make good use of these rich resources during the classes, make sure students can find more funs and enjoy the studying process. This paper deeply discusses a connection between English songs and phonetic teaching such as rhythm and intonation, and provides lyrics examples to explain phonetic knowledge (including phones and connected speech). It turns out that combing phonetic teaching with English songs is necessary and feasible.

2. Applying English Songs in English Phonetic Teaching

2.1 Phonemes

2.1.1 Learning Phonemes with English Songs

Phoneme is the smallest pronouncing unit, which is essential and irreplaceable. Speech is based on words, and phonemes make words pronounced and determine the meanings of words. Phonemes study is the foundational phonetic study. In traditional phonetic teaching, teachers used to introduce the phonemes and their classification in a theoretical way, which in turn makes learning phonetics even more complicated and obscure. Since students know nothing about this area, teachers should find an interesting and effective teaching method to make studying phonemes easier. For instance, teachers may choose some simple songs to illustrate letters and phonemes, and the following ―Letters Song‖is rather helpful to demonstrate 26 letters and some phonemes.

Eg. (1) /ei/ /bi:/ /si:/ /di:/ /i:/ /ef/ /?i:/

A B C D E F G

/ei?/ /ai/ /?ei/ /kei/ /el/ /em/ /en/

H I J K L M N

/?u/ /pi：/ /kju:/ /ɑ:(r)/ /es/ /ti:/

O P Q R S T

/ju:/ /vi:/ /`d?b(?)lju:/ /eks/ /wai/ /zei/

U V W X Y Z

/nau/ /ju:/ /si:/ /ai/ /k?n/ /sei/ /mai/

XYZ，Now you see, I can say my ABC.

—— Letters Song In this song, there are 26 letters in all: 5 vowel letters (a, e, i, u, o) and 21 consonant letters. The pronunciation of each letter is produced with the help of either one phoneme or phonemes. The song includes 32 phonemes. Adding the rest of 12 phonemes to what were illustrated above, the 44 phonemes in English then can be clearly introduced to the students. And it also makes the classification of the phonemes easier. We can classify them into three categories (汪文珍, 1999: 9):

1)Pure V owels

Front V owels: / i: i e ? /

Back V owels: / ɑ：??：u u：/

Central V owels: / ???：/

2)Diphthongs

Closing Diphthongs: / ai ei ?u au ?i /

Centering Diphthongs: / u?i??? /

3)Consonants

Plosive Consonants: / p b t d k g /

Fricative Consonants: / f v s z ??eθ /

Affricate Consonants: / ?? /

Nasal Consonants: / m n ? /

Lateral Consonants: / l /

Semi-V owels: / w j /

2.1.2 Practicing Easily Confused Phonemes with English Songs

Distinguishing similar pronunciations of phonemes is always one of the most important and difficult parts of phonetic teaching. Apart from teaching students the characteristics of pronunciation and how to pronounce, teachers need to choose some pronouncing exercises of comparing similar sounds to strengthen the students‘ speaking and listening abilities. But to make it more interesting, we can select songs to show what position the organs of speech should hold when different sounds are pronounced

and in the meanwhile, analyze different sounds qualities of the similar pairs. Take a look at the following example:

Eg. (2) Your best friend, your baby

Your man or your lady

Put your hand way up high

We will never say bye

No, no, no…Mamas, daddies, sisters, brothers, friends and cousins

—— Bye Bye In the song ―Bye Bye‖, the letters ?a‘and ?e‘produce analogical sounds--/e/ in these three words ―friend, best, never‖and /?/ in ―mamas, man, daddies, hand‖. The differences between /e/ and /?/ lie in the tongue position and opening size of the mouth. Some students cannot distinguish /e/ from /?/. ―When pronouncing them, they should open their mouths wide and keep their tongues lying flat in their mouths almost at the lowest position for front vowels when they make /?/（孟宪忠, 2000: 141)。‖ The teacher is advised to instruct his students to start from /e/, then slightly lower the tongue and lengthen the more open /e/ a little.

It is of great significance for the teacher to help his students to differentiate the English dental slit fricatives /θ, e/ from the English alveolar groove fricatives /s, z/ because these four consonants bear some resemblance. The song ―My Happy Ending‖can be employed to repeatedly practice /θ/ in that this song repeatedly occurs in the words like ―something, everything, thread, thought‖, and another song ―Love Is Color Blind‖ provides very good exercise of the three easily confused sounds /l, r, e/, since in this song, there are words like ―black, yellow, color-blind‖―brown, red‖―that, brother‖.

Eg. (3) Was something I did?

Was something you said?

On such a breakable thread

You were all the things I thought I knew

And I thought we could be

You were everything, everything that I wanted

—— My Happy Ending Eg. (4) It don‘t matter if you‘re black

White or yellow, if you‘re brown or red

Let‘s get down to that, love is color-blind

You‘re my brother, you‘re my sister

—— Bye Bye 2.2 Connected Speech and English Songs

2.2.1 Length of a Sound

The length of a sound refers to the length of time during which a sound is held on continuously in a given word or phrase. The length is relative. Generally speaking, compared with consonants, vowels are longer. Compared with short vowels, long vowels and diphthongs are longer. The length of a sound is determined by where the sound is situated and whether it is stressed or not (孟宪忠, 2000: 237). Because the time taken for phonemes is very short, and it‘s difficult to identify how long each of them takes. We particularize several typical laws as following which the length of a sound observes.

1)The long vowels /i:/, /a:/, /?:/, /u:/, /?:/, and all the diphthongs are longer than the

other vowels in similar phonetic context, when surrounded by the same sounds and pronounced with the same degree of stress. For example:

(5) Seven little girls sitting in the back seat,···, I said why don‘t one of you come up and sit

beside me. — seat /si:t/ & sit /sit/

—— Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat 2)The long and short vowels are shorter when followed by a voiceless consonant than

when followed by a voiced consonant or when final. For example:

(6) Some things will never change, that‘s just the way it is. — it /it/ & is /iz/

—— The Way It Is

(7) I left the code at the coat-check pointed to the word on my neck. That‘s me, all night

stand-by. — code /k?ud/ & coat /k?ut/

—— Don‘t Drink Poison 3)The long and short vowels are shorter in unstressed syllables than in stressed

syllables (孟宪忠,2000: 238). For example:

(8) I‘m in the phone booth, it‘s the one across the hall,···, Don‘t leave me, hanging on the

telephone. — phone /f?un/ & telephone /`telif?un/

—— Hanging On The Telephone 2.2.2 Incomplete Plosion

When a plosive sound is not actually pronounced but only the speech organs are put to the position for it and the closure is held for the usual time of pronouncing it, it is known as incomplete plosion. It takes place in a word when a plosive is followed immediately by another plosive, or a fricative, or an affricate. It may also take place at the junction of words (unless they are separated by a pause) (孟宪忠, 2000: 218).

For example:

1)Incomplete plosion at the junction of words:

Eg. (9) I walk the floor and watch the door and in between, I drink black coffee /bl?(k) `k?:fi/.

—— Black Coffee

(10) The sky‘s as deep as it can be, bend down /ben(d) daun/ the branches, close your

eyes and you will see.

—— Bend Down The Branches 2)Plosive + plosive:

Eg. (11) But never forgets what I lost, wake me up when September /s?(p)`temb?/ ends.

— Wake Me Up When September ends

(12) You will be my world (be my world), and I‘ll be there if you take good care /tei(k)

gu(d) ke?/ forever.

—— Take Good Care 3)Plosive + fricative:

Eg. (13) Here comes success /s?(k)`ses/, oh hurry success!

—— Success

(14) I‘m just trying to get through /ge(t) θru:/, we have words but sometimes

words say to much.

—— Trying To Get Through 4)Plosive + affricate:

Eg. (15) Pictures /`pi(k)??z/ of the friends you used to know, where did they go?

—— Picture

(16) It‘s your big chance /bi(g) ?ɑ:ns/, to take it baby. It‘s your big chance, you can

make it.

—— Big Chance

(17) This is the last chance /lɑ:s(t) ?ɑ:ns/,your time is up and now you are free.

—— Last Chance 5)Plosive + lateral:

Eg. (18) Good luck /gu(d) l?k/ Beijing all our hopes are with you. Good luck Beijing, you‘ll be fine‖

—— Good Luck, Beijing!

6)Plosive + nasal:

Eg. (19) Good morning /gu(d) `m?:ni?/ to you, good morning to you, good morning dear father, good morning to you.‖

—— Good Morning To You 2.2.3 Liaison

Liaison means the linking of sounds or words. This is a term used in phonology to refer to one type of transition between sounds, where a sound is inserted at the end of a word, if particularly, the following word begins with a vowel, and liaison always appears in a sense group.

The main types of liaison (sound-linking) are:

1)Consonant (except r) + vowel;

The final consonant of the preceding word is united to the initial vowel of the next word in the same sense group.

Eg. (20) One storm could come and blow it all away

?

built it anyway

??

You can chase a dream

?

That seems so out of reach

?

And you know it might not ever come your way

Dream it anyway

??

—— Anyway 2)-r or –re + vowel;

When a word ending with the letter ―-r‖ or ―-re‖ is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, a sound of /r/ is usually inserted in the pronunciation (孟宪忠, 2000: 221).

Eg. (21) Cause it‘s all in my head

I think about it over and over again

??

I replay it over and over again

??

And I can‘t take it

I can‘t shake it, no.

—— Over And Over

(22) Far across the distance

?

and spaces between us

You have come to show you go on

—— My Heart Will Go On 3)Linking /j, w/

The native English speakers employ two other ways of linking in vocalic junctures: linking [j] and linking [w].

In junctures where the preceding word ends with /i:/, /i/, /ei/, /ai/ or /?i /, a slight linking [?] may be heard between the two vowels.

Eg. (23) At the end / ?t e?`?end / of the day,

am I what you waited for

How can I say that I need you

more and more and more and more

Years go by and it‘s just the same old war

—— At The End Of The Day In junctures where the preceding word ends with /u:/, /?u/ or /au/ a slight linking

[?] may be heard between the two vowels (张凤彤, 2002: 309).

Eg. (24) Will all of his licks and his R&B blow away / `bl?u ??`wei /

blow away, blow away

Our engineer had a different idea

From people who nearly died, but survived

Feeling no fear

—— Blow Away 2.2.4 Rhythm and Musical Beat

Rhythm is the internal law of language. It is the regular occurrence of phonetic in a given time. In brief, it is the pattern of regular arrangement and alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. In music, rhythm is basically regular recurrence of grouped strong and weak beats, or heavily and lightly accented tones in alternation. The arrangement of successive tones, in measures, is according to their relative accentuation and duration. The relationship of music and language structure is like connections of fingers and toes, though researched for different purposes, they still have similar formation, and they share the common developing basis.

Rhythm and beats are important parts, accompanying with each other in music. A rhythm group in phonetics is equal to a chapter of beats. There is only one stressed syllable, secondarily stressed syllable and unstressed syllables in a rhythm group, while in a chapter of beats, there are similarly strong beat, secondary strong beat and weak beats. Each chapter has equal numbers of beats. In a chapter, the first stressed syllable falls on a unit beat, which is called strong beat. The other stressed beat is secondary strong beat, and unstressed beats are weak beats. There are several common types of musical beats: 2/4 beats, 3/4 beats, 4/4 beats. In order to illustrate the strong-weak relations of beats in a simple way, we use symbols ―s, ss, w‖ to replace ―strong beat, secondary strong beat, weak beat‖ respectively.

II 2/4 XX I XX II 3/4 X X X II 4/4 X X X X II

s w s w w s w ss w

A monosyllable is just like a note, according to its part of speech, it‘s able to fall on

weak beat, strong beat or secondary strong beat. Generally speaking, content words (such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, numerals, interjections, interrogative pronouns, the absolute form of the possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns) fall on strong beat, they are stressed, and form or structural words (such as articles, monosyllabic prepositions, monosyllabic conjunction, personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, model verbs and verb to BE) fall on weak beat, they are unstressed. Whether a word stressed or not is subject to the meaning that the speaker wishes to convey. So it may go against the rules. Sometimes some monosyllabic content words (such as verb and noun) fall on weak beat, and some form words or unstressed syllables fall on strong beat (廖建平,2003: 52).

As following, we illustrate a part of the song ―Edelweiss‖ to analyze the stressed syllables and the unstressed syllables.

(25) 1= C 3/4

I 3 - 3 I 3 4 5 I 6 - - I 5 - - I

Ev- ery mor -ning you greet me,

I 3 - 5 I 2 - - I 1 - 5 I 4 - - I

Small and white, clean and bright,

I 3 - 5 I 5 6 7 I 1 - - I 1 - - I

You look ha- ppy to meet me.

—— Edelweiss In this song, the content words ―greet, small, white, clean, bright, meet‖and syllables ―ev- [every /`evri/], mor- [morning /`m?:ni?/], ha- [happy /`h?pi/]‖fall on strong beats, so they are accented. The form words ―and, to‖ and the first ―you‖ fall on weak beats, so they are unstressed in weak form of ―/?n/, /t?/, /ju/‖. In the last melody, according to the principles, ―you‖ and ―me‖ are unstressed, but they fall on strong beat in this song. So we may infer that it is ―me‖ that ―you‖ want to greet, not anyone else, therefore ―you‖ and ―me‖ are in strong form of /ju:/ and /mi:/.

Take a look at another song ―My Heart Will Go On‖:

(26) 1= C 4/4

I 1. 1 1 1 I 7 1 - 1 1 I 7 1 - 2 I

Eve- ry night in my dream I see you I

I3 - 2 - I 1. 1 1 1 I 7 1 - 1 I

feel you. That is how I know you go

I 5 - - - I

on.

—— My Heart Will Go On From most of the words in this song, the arrangement of strong and weak beats follows the rules. The syllable ―ev- [every /`evri/]‖and the word that fall on strong beat are all stressed, but ―ev-‖ is primarily stressed and ―night‖ is secondarily stressed. According to the laws, the verbs ―see, know, feel‖ and demonstrative pronoun ―that‖should be accented, and they fall on strong beats indeed. With reference to grammar, the verb ―go‖should be stressed, and the monosyllabic preposition ―on‖should be unstressed, but they fall on weak beat and strong beat respectively. But according to phonetic knowledge, when a verb phrase is situated at the end of a sentence, logically the verb is unstressed, and the preposition is stressed with intonation. So in the tone group ―that is how I know you go on‖, the last stressed syllable gets falling tone.

2.2.5 Influence of Musical Quality upon Intonation

Briefly speaking, intonation means the rise and fall of the pitch of the voice during speech. In music, it is the production of musical tones (by voice or instrument), especially the exactitude of the pitch relations. It is also the quality of singing or playing tones in or out of tune with the regard to a given standard of pitch.

English intonation is just like a ribbon or a section of a song, words tightly connecting with words in a sense group. Without intonation training, one can hardly hear the unstressed words, but only get the stressed words. A person with high musical quality has sensitive listening skills that can help him easily distinguish the tiny differences. They use the ability to make speech full of rising and falling pitch, so that the expression can be more elegant and decent. Moreover, they know how to imitate tones and pronunciations while they‘re studying singing materials. As we known, some famous singers can sing standard English even they do not have too much phonetic knowledge. Every single English song is a short story, and the singers are story tellers, they should pour all their feeling into it and make it as live as possible with different types of intonation.

English intonation is an important means in conveying one‘s feelings and meanings. The most commonly used tunes in English are Falling tune, Rising tune and Falling-rising tune. These three types of tunes, often used in the declarative sentence, interrogative sentence, imperative sentence and exclamatory sentence, respectively express different feelings. For example, in the chant ―Happy Birthday to you‖, there is only one sentence. But the tunes of the repeated line are different, conveying the singer‘s different feeling.

Eg. (27) Happy birthday to ˋyou. (Falling tune helps express the singer‘ sincere bless to

the listener.)

Happy birthday to y ou. (Rising tune indicates the singer‘s intimate terms with

the listener.)

Happy birthday to ?you. (Rising tune changing to falling-rising tune suggests

the atmosphere here is at ease, and it also impresses

on the listener the singer‘s loveliness.)

Happy birthday to `you. (Falling tune again shows the singer‘s best wishes.)

—— Happy Birthday To You

3. Choices of Musical Types for Phonetic Teaching

English songs resources are huge, and there are so many forms of music: classical music, pop music, jazz, country music, rock, folk music, hip-hop, R&B, rap, black music, etc. But not all of them are fit for phonetic teaching. So it is important for teachers to select the suitable types to guide students to the right way to study phonetic knowledge. And lyric seems to be the best choice. Good lyrics can inspire students, because some lyrics writers always record their own struggling stories in their songs. Using them as phonetic teaching materials can not only assist students to acquire phonetic knowledge, but also help teachers encourage their students with the spirit contained in the lyrics. Meanwhile, simple and delightful melody can stimulate them to study phonetic actively, because they want to sing the songs perfectly, and the motives of being perfect make them keep the interest from fading away.

Nowadays, lyrics writing is less restricted by conventional rules. Consequently, in some lyrics, there are some words or sentences whose usage does not strictly obey

grammatical regulations. And slangs and even rude words may also appear in lyrics. Of course, these types of songs are not suitable for phonetic teaching. Besides, most of rock music, rap, black music and hip-hop should be avoided being chosen from simply because of their fast beat and melody, and it is not easy for students to catch the tunes. Fast tune makes every single word difficultly identified. And sometimes, having more or less local accent when they sing, the singer‘s pronunciation then sounds not so standardized. Therefore, compared with other types, country music, classical music, folk music and pop music are wise choices for phonetic teaching. Of these songs, children‘s songs and chants are suitable for English beginners, partly because of the simple vocabularies, such as ―The Little Indian Boys‖, ―Happy Birthday‖, ―Edelweiss‖and ―Row Your Boat‖. Pop ballad and country music are better choices for the students who have some learning experiences and certain amounts of vocabularies, such as ―You Raise Me Up‖, ―Country Road‖ and ―Anyway‖.

4. Conclusion

Most students think phonetics is a mechanical and boring subject, and they are often puzzled by its complex branches. And because they can hardly remember and fully understand what they have learnt about phonetic knowledge, they soon lose their interest. Introducing English song to phonetic teaching, undoubtedly will get teachers interact with students more often, which in turn lubricates the tense relationship between teachers and students.

Good singing depends on clear and correct pronunciation. In view of similar qualities of English songs and phonetics, in the process of phonetic teaching, teachers can carefully choose some appropriate songs to practise students‘pronunciation. Students can then learn not only phonetic knowledge, but also songs. They will find more fun and enjoyment from the course. And integrate fun with the study, their interests won‘t fade away. It turns out that English songs are good voiced materials for English phonetic teaching. Because of the similar qualities between English phonetics and English songs, it‘s necessary and feasible to combine them together. This will be a great progress in phonetic teaching process.

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