Aulas 1 a 3 Lingua Inglesa Fonética e Fonologia

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Língua Inglesa Fonética e Fonologia
Ao final desta aula, o aluno será capaz de:
1. Conhecer os aspectos e as particularidades do inglês quando oralmente utilizado pelos falantes. (Know the aspects and peculiarities of the English language when orally used by the speakers); 
2. compreender a sistematização e a construção de um arcabouço teórico que permita a investigação minuciosa da manifestação sonora da língua. (Understand the systematizations and the construction of a theoretical understructure that allows a detailed sound manifestation of the language).
Without communicative intent, pronunciation is not true speech; it is not more than the manipulation of linguistic forms. The basic process whereby one learns to pronounce English, or any other language, is by imitating the pronunciation of those who speak the language natively. Direct imitation is most effective, but circumstances often make second-hand, indirect imitation necessary. And the imitation is also most effective if it takes place under conditions that approach as nearly as possible those of normal communication. Analyzing how sounds are produced is helpful but not basic.
Learning to pronounce is a process that is normally achieved in three steps:
Learning to hear and identify a sound or sound contrast when a native speaker produces it.
Learning to produce it when the learner’s attention is focused on pronunciation.
Mastering it to the point of automatic production when attention is focused on meaning.
Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics
Phonetics is the scientific study of speech. It has a long history, going back certainly to well over two thousand years ago. The central concerns in phonetics are the discovery of how speech sounds are produced, how they are used in spoken language, how we can record speech sounds with written symbols and how we hear and recognize different sounds.
Phonology
The most basic activity in phonology is phonemic analysis, in which the objective is to establish what the phonemes are and arrive at the phonemic inventory of the language. For some phonologists, the most important area is the relationships between the different phonemes - how they form groups, the nature of the oppositions between them and how those oppositions may be neutralized.
Phoneme and Grapheme
Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that serves to distinguish two words. 
Virtually all theories of phonology hold that spoken language can be broken down into a string of sound units (phonemes), and that each language has a small, relatively fixed set of these phonemes. 
Most phonemes can be put into groups; for example, in English we can identify a group of plosive phonemes p, t, k, b, d, g, a group of voiceless fricatives f, θ, s, h, and so on.
Graphemes are the smallest units in a writing system capable of causing a contrast in meaning. There are about 40 distinctive phonemes in English, but 70 letters or letter combinations to symbolize phonemes. This makes pronouncing spellings easier than writing correct spellings.
Dialect and Accent
It is usual to distinguish between dialect and accent. Both terms are used to identify different varieties of a particular language, but the word ‘accent’ is used for varieties which differ from each other only in matters of pronunciation while ‘dialect’ also covers differences in such things as vocabulary and grammar.
Accents typically differ in quality of voice, pronunciation of vowels and consonants, stress, and prosody. Although grammar, semantics, vocabulary, and other language characteristics often vary concurrently with accent, the word 'accent' refers specifically to the differences in pronunciation, whereas the word 'dialect' encompasses the broader set of linguistic differences. Often 'accent' is a subset of 'dialect'.
Craig M. Carver shows about two dozen dialect regions in the US, based mainly on vocabulary, in his American Regional Dialects. Peter Trudgill, in his Dialects of England, shows sixteen modern dialect regions in England, based on grammar, vocabulary, and accent (there are more in Wales, Scotland and Ireland). Trudgill, in International English, breaks the US into 8 accent areas, and these coincide well with Carver’s delineations.
The dialects of the United States
British dialects
Carver and Trudgill both stress that dialect regions are merely convenient representations of a language continuum, where language differences grow the farther apart they are, especially across the more distinct boundaries.
Studies show that 99% of American is used in pretty much the same way, the remainder flavoring the different regions. The interregional differences in England run much deeper despite its small size, since it has developed over a period about four times as long, and had significant input from other languages (Latin, Norse with the Viking invasions, French with the Norman invasion, and more Latin and Greek with the industrial and scientific revolutions).
You should be proud of having an accent or not?
We’d like to discuss “foreign accents” in general. Webster’s Dictionary defines accent as “speech habits typical of the natives of a region.” SO – we all have accents!!!
You should be proud of having an accent. In fact, there are advantages to having one. YES, we said advantages! A foreign accent tells listeners that you speak at least TWO languages. That certainly puts you far ahead of a person who can speak only one language. The world would be very dull if we all sounded the same. After all, VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE!!!!!
Unfortunately, there is a disadvantage to having a foreign accent. It may hinder affective communication in your non-native language and cause you to be misunderstood.  
You have probably discovered that there is a big difference between the way words are spelled in English and how they are pronounced. For example the letters ch are used to represent three different sounds: machine chain mechanic.
Pretty confusing, right? That’s why we need to study.
Social Class and Accent - Social structure of the united kingdom
The social structure of the United Kingdom has historically been highly influenced by the concept of social class, with the concept still affecting British society in the early-21st century. Although definitions of social class in the United Kingdom vary and are highly controversial, most are influenced by factors of wealth, occupation and education. 
Until recently the Parliament of the United Kingdom was organized on a class basis, with the House of Lords representing the hereditary upper class and the House of Commons representing everyone else, and the British monarch is often viewed as being at the top of the social class structure.
Accents within England
Received Pronunciation (RP)
There seems to be some disagreement as to the origins of the term ‘received’ in the phrase, ‘Received Pronunciation’ but both A.J. Ellis’ on Early English Pronunciation, 1869-1889, as well as John Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language of 1791 are among the possibilities for it’s early appearance. Regardless of its exact origins, the term ‘received’ originally meant ‘that which is generally accepted’ or ‘that accepted by the best society.’
RP has for many years epitomized the ‘top end of the scale’ of British English and it is what English people have traditionally meant when they’ve said that someone ‘hasn’t got an accent.’ It remains that RP is often regarded as a ‘neutral’ and often ‘correct’ accent. It is also referred to under the terms ‘BBC English’, ‘Public School English’ or even ‘Standard English’.
RP is also the accent that Americans and possibly other foreigners would likely refer to as the typical British accent. It should also be noted that there is no single accent whose role and status in the United States correspond to that of RP in England.
A number of distinctions even within RP have, over the years, been proposed by various linguists. These include‘Mainstream’ RP, ‘Upper crust RP’, ‘Adoptive RP’, ‘Near RP’, ‘Conservative RP’, and ‘General RP’. Regardless of the differences within RP, it is an accent commonly recognized and one that has been taught as the standard English in schools for years.
Cockney English
Cockney represents the basilectal end of the London accent and can be considered the broadest form of London local accent. It traditionally refers only to specific regions and speakers within the city. While many Londoners may speak what is referred to as ‘popular London’ they do not necessarily speak Cockney. The popular Londoner accent can be distinguished from Cockney in a number of ways, and can also be found outside of the capital, unlike the true Cockney accent.
Does the term Cockney refer to both the accent as well as to those people who speak it? The etymology of Cockney has long been discussed and disputed. One explanation is that ‘Cockney’ literally means cock's egg, a misshapen egg such as sometimes laid by young hens. It was originally used when referring to a weak townsman, opposed to the tougher countryman and by the 17th century the term, through banter, came to mean a Londoner (Liberman, 1996). Today's natives of London, especially in its East End use the term with respect and pride (‘Cockney Pride’).
Cockney is characterized by its own special vocabulary and usage, and traditionally by its own development of ‘rhyming slang’. Rhyming slang is still part of the true Cockney culture even if it is sometimes used for effect. More information on the way it works can be found under the Cockney English features section.
Estuary English (EE)
‘Estuary English’ is a term coined in 1984 by British linguist David Rosewarne. Defined as a variety of modified regional speech it becomes a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation. The Sunday Times, one of Britain’s most famous newspapers, has described it as a dialect existing between "Cockney and the Queen" and the Tory (Conservative) Minister of Education condemned it as a ‘bastardized version of Cockney dialect’.
The term ‘Estuary’ reflects the starting point for this dialect as being the region along London’s River Thames and its estuaries. Rosewarne’s initial studies were prompted by the lack of discussion surrounding accents that existed between RP and the localizable English forms. He saw what he refers to as a ‘particularly important gap in the descriptions of accents varieties in London and the South East of England’.
Queen’s English
The notion of the ‘Queen’s’ English or ‘King’s English’, depending on who is the ruler of the time, can be traced back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries where the idea that the monarch’s usage of the language should be a model in speech and writing. During these times there was a development of a prestigious speech associated with the court and aristocracy. The phrase ‘The King’s English’ was first used during the reign of James I.
Sociolinguistic Issues of ‘Queen’s’ English
The accents of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret (the Queen’s sister) reflect the conservative RP as epitomized by the old British films and Pathe newsreels of the first part of the century. The younger members of the royal family such as Prince Edward, Prince Andrew and the in-laws of the family, the Duchess of York (Fergie) as well as the late Princess of Wales (Diana), all speak an RP closer to ‘advanced’ RP than to the conservative, more traditional accent. 
The distance between the Royal Family and the ‘subjects’ of the country was seen to be enhanced by the traditional speech of the royals. As the younger members of the Royal Family attempt to close the gap between the two, their speech reflects the changes.
Features of ‘Queen’s’ English
General pronunciation
The Queen and Older Royals might pronounce the following words as noted.
Examples:
• house = hice
• off = orf
• tower = tar  
• refined = refained
Younger royals might exhibit the following types of pronunciations:
• really = rairly 
• milk = miuk - 
• yes = yah
• St. Paul’s = St. Pauw’s
The ‘Royal ONE’
The pronominal usage of ‘one’ is not only stereotypically associated with the upper classes, and especially the Royal Family, but that is also used frequently in their real life. There are a number of ways that the word ‘one’ used in place of ‘I’ and it has also been seen to be commonly used in those people connected with the Royal Family. Friends of the family as well as household help like the Queen’s dresser or an ex-cook have been heard to use the phrase ‘one’ in place of ‘I’.
Examples:
‘One says to oneself: “Oh God, there’s one’s daughter”’. (Father of the Duchess of York – quoted from The Star, July 1986.)
‘One hesitates to use such a trite word as delighted, but of course one IS delighted’. (The Queen’s dresser – quoted on receiving his knighthood – The Guardian, June 1989.)
Accents within The United States
General American (GA), also known as Standard American English (SAE), is a major accent of American English. The accent is not restricted to the United States. Within American English, General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American English, several Northeastern accents, and other distinct regional accents and social group accents like African American Vernacular English.
General American, like British Received Pronunciation (RP) and most standard language varieties of many other societies, has never been the accent of the entire nation. However, it has become widely spoken in many American films, TV series, national news, commercial ads, and American radio broadcasts.
The General American accent is most closely related to a generalized Midwestern accent and is spoken particularly by many newscasters. This has led the accent to sometimes be referred to as a ‘newscaster accent’ or ‘television English’. General American is sometimes promoted as preferable to other regional accents. In the United States, classes promising ‘accent reduction’, ‘accent modification’ and ‘accent neutralization’ generally attempt to teach speech patterns similar to this accent.
General American is also the accent typically taught to people learning English as a second language in the United States, as well as outside the country to anyone who wishes to learn ‘American English’, although in much of Asia and some other places ESL teachers are strongly encouraged to teach American English no matter their own origins or accents.
Regional home of General American
It is commonly believed that General American English evolved as a result of an aggregation of rural and suburban Midwestern dialects, though the English of the Upper Midwest can deviate quite dramatically from what would be considered a ‘regular’ American Accent. The local accent often gets more distinct the farther north one goes within the Midwest, and the more rural the area, with the Northern Midwest featuring its own dialect North Central American English. The fact that a Midwestern dialect became the basis of what is General American English is often attributed to the mass migration of Midwestern farmers to California and the Pacific Northwest from where it spread.
Eastern Nebraska, southern and central Iowa, and western Illinois (not the Chicago area).
Southern American English
Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma.
Overview of Southern dialects
The Southern dialects collectively known as Southern American English stretch across the southeastern and south-central United States, but exclude the southern most areas of Florida and the extreme western and south-western parts of Texas as well as the Rio Grande Valley (Laredo to Brownsville).
This linguistic region includes Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi,North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Arkansas, as well as most of Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia. It also includes parts of southern and central Missouri, and parts of Florida and Maryland.
Southern dialects originated in large part from immigrants from the British Isles who moved to the South in the 17th and 18th centuries. Settlement also included large numbers of Protestants from Ulster, Ireland, and from Scotland. Upheavals such as the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and World War II caused mass migrations of those and other settlers throughout the United States.
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau. The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The Census Bureau regions are "widely used...for data collection and analysis."
 Língua Inglesa Fonética e Fonologia
Ao final desta aula, o aluno será capaz de:
1. Recognize the particularities and the concepts of speaking and writing; 
2. recognize the use context of formal and informal English.
Humans use language to communicate. This is an obvious statement, but what is language and how do we use it? Language is basically a set of symbols with associated meanings. These symbols are delivered using a set of rules for stringing the symbols together to generate additional meaning
Humans use mostly sounds to represent these symbols, although as an Italian I can communicate common meanings by only using a range of hand gestures! We string together phonetic sounds to make words, and we string together words to make sentences. The set of rules we have created to structure our delivery of words is our grammar. For example, a basic rule is that every sentence should contain a verb (a word conveying action) and a subject (a word conveying who or what is doing the action or on whom or what the action is having an impact).
There are more than 5 million distinct words in the English language: The Oxford Dictionary of English (2005) lists more than 300,000 entries; William Shakespeare used about 15,000; the average person whose first language is English knows about 4,300 words, although they understand the exact meaning of only 70 per cent or so of these.
We string together these words into sentences to answer a basic set of questions: Who? How? What? Why? When? And where? But, the use of words to answer these questions through oral communication or written communication has significant constraints.
If you look at the last few paragraphs, you may notice that what I am trying to communicate is severely limited by the fact that I can only deliver one basic concept at a time. In other words, my communication process is linear. As a result, I have to be very careful that my concepts follow a logical sequence: concept A helps to explain concept B, which in turn helps to explain concept C. In many cases I have no choice but to tackle a subject in increasing detail. If I want to show the relationship between concept A and concept C, I have to start all over again with a new sentence. Any change in my sequential approach – for example if I want to go back to a higher level of detail – has to be usually associated with a visible break, such as a new paragraph.
So the use of the written or oral form of communication favours a specific subset of mental models: those that require a logical interpretation and which follow a sequence of increasing detail. A precise sequence is followed and the model revealed goes into greater and greater detail (linear sequential thinking). Of course, written and oral communication can be used in many other ways too, but most people get quickly turned off when subject to forms of written and oral communication that “do not get to the point”.
SPEAKING VERSUS WRITING
THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE Spoken WORD. OR IS IT?
There are always at least two people in any communication. To communicate, one person must put something "out" and another person must take something "in". We call this "output" and "input". 
I speak to you (OUTPUT: my thoughts go OUT of my head).
You listen to me (INPUT: my thoughts go INto your head)
You write to me (OUTPUT: your thoughts go OUT of your head).
I read your words (INPUT: your thoughts go INto my head).
So language consists of four "skills": two for output (speaking and writing); and two for input (listening and reading). We can say this another way - two of the skills are for "spoken" communication and two of the skills are for "written" communication.
What are the differences between Spoken and Written English? Are there advantages and disadvantages for each form of communication?
Status - When we learn our own (native) language, learning to speak comes before learning to write. In fact, we learn to speak almost automatically. It is natural. But somebody must teach us to write. It is not natural. In one sense, speaking is the "real" language and writing is only a representation of speaking. However, for centuries, people have regarded writing as superior to speaking. It has a higher "status". This is perhaps because in the past almost everybody could speak but only a few people could write. But as we shall see, modern influences are changing the relative status of speaking and writing.
Differences in Structure and Style - We usually write with correct grammar and in a structured way. We organize what we write into sentences and paragraphs. We do not usually use contractions in writing (though if we want to appear very friendly, then we do sometimes use contractions in writing because this is more like speaking.) We use more formal vocabulary in writing (for example, we might write "the car exploded" but say "the car blew up") and we do not usually use slang. In writing, we must use punctuation marks like commas and question marks (as a symbolic way of representing things like pauses or tone of voice in speaking).
We usually speak in a much less formal, less structured way. We do not always use full sentences and correct grammar. The vocabulary that we use is more familiar and may include slang. We usually speak in a spontaneous way, without preparation, so we have to make up what we say as we go. This means that we often repeat ourselves or go off the subject. However, when we speak, other aspects are present that are not present in writing, such as facial expression or tone of voice. This means that we can communicate at several levels, not only with words.
Durability - One important difference between speaking and writing is that writing is usually more durable or permanent. When we speak, our words live for a few moments. When we write, our words may live for years or even centuries. This is why writing is usually used to provide a record of events, for example a business agreement or transaction.
Speaker & Listener / Writer & Reader - When we speak, we usually need to be in the same place and time as the other person. Despite this restriction, speaking does have the advantage that the speaker receives instant feedback from the listener. The speaker can probably see immediately if the listener is bored or does not understand something, and can then modify what he or she is saying. 
When we write, our words are usually read by another person in a different place and at a different time. Indeed, they can be read by many other people, anywhere and at any time. And the people reading our words, can do so at their leisure, slowly or fast. They can re-read what we write, too. But the writer cannot receive immediate feedback and cannot (easily) change what has been written.
How Speaking and Writing Influence Each Other - In the past, only a small number of people could write, but almost everybody could speak. Because their words were not widely recorded, therewere many variations in the way they spoke, with different vocabulary and dialects in different regions. Today, almost everybody can speak and write. Because writing is recorded and more permanent, this has influenced the way that people speak, so that many regional dialects and words have disappeared. (It may seem that there are already too many differences that have to be learned, but without writing there would be far more differences, even between, for example, British and American English.) So writing has had an important influence on speaking. But speaking can also influence writing. For example, most new words enter a language through speaking. Some of them do not live long. If you begin to see these words in writing it usually means that they have become "real words" within the language and have a certain amount of permanence.
Influence of New Technology - Modern inventions such as sound recording, telephone, radio, television, fax or email have made or are making an important impact on both speaking and writing. To some extent, the divisions between speaking and writing are becoming blurred. Emails are often written in a much less formal way than is usual in writing. With voice recording, for example, it has for a long time been possible to speak to somebody who is not in the same place or time as you (even though this is a one-way communication: we can speak or listen, but not interact).
With the telephone and radiotelephone, however, it became possible for two people to carry on a conversation while not being in the same place. Today, the distinctions are increasingly vague, so that we may have, for example, a live television broadcast with a mixture of recordings, telephone calls, incoming faxes and emails and so on. One effect of this new technology and the modern universality of writing has been to raise the status of speaking. Politicians who cannot organize their thoughts and speak well on television win very few votes.
WRITTEN ENGLISH
Because of a writing system that incorporates etymology, spelling cues not present in oral discourse can give readers additional clues to the relationship between words through a vague awareness of different morphological classes.
Anglo-Saxon words are usually characterised by a cloudy morphology (early \ ere), wildly unphonemic spelling, and the presence of silent letters and digraphs. Common affixes are “un-”, “-ful”, and “-ness”. These are the most common words used to describe everyday, informal and interpersonal matters.
Romance words are also common and bear closer resemblance to French morphemes and words (very \ vrais). There is often more regularity in their spelling.
Latin and Greek words are set apart from Romance words by very methodical morphology, Classical Latin and Greek morphemes, and consistent spelling. They usually have rigid definitions and are used more frequently in formal and scientific writing as well as in constructing technical, philosophical, and legal jargon.
Hybrids (e.g. kay, Byte, Prisoner) have the relative formality and familiarity of Romance words.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SPPECH AND WRITING
There are many differences between the processes of speaking and writing. Writing is not simply speech written down on paper. Learning to write is not a natural extension of learning to speak. Unlike speech, writing requires systematic instruction and practice.
Here are some of the differences between speaking and writing that may clarify things for you and help you in your efforts as a writer and speaker.
Consider the fact that…
Virtually nobody speaks Standard Written English. This is the form of English that is appropriate for professional, business, and academic writing. For example, no one always speaks in complete sentences or pronounces the final letter of every word. However, many people learn to translate their spoken dialect into Standard Written English when they write. 
Both spoken and written dialects are linked to the social background, age, race, and gender of the writer, speaker and audience. Depending upon whom we are addressing, and what we are discussing, we can switch between formal and informal ways of communicating.
FORMAL AND INFORMAL ENGLISH
Consider these two examples:
Example 1: This is to inform you that your book has been rejected by our publishing company as it was not up to the required standard. In case you would like us to reconsider it, we would suggest that you go over it and make some necessary changes.
Example 2: You know that book I wrote? Well, the publishing company rejected it. They thought it was awful. But hey, I did the best I could, and I think it was great. I'm not gonna redo it the way they said I should.
The difference between the two is obvious. The first one is formal, and the second is informal. But what is it that makes them formal and informal?
It is the style of writing, or the way we use words to say what we want to say. Different situations call for different ways of putting words together. The way we write in academic and scientific settings differs greatly from the way we write to a friend or close one. The tone, vocabulary, and syntax, all change as the occasion changes. This difference in the styles of writing is the difference between formality and informality, or the difference between formal and informal writing. There are three main language styles: 1. Formal; 2. Semi-Formal; 3. Informal.
RULES OF LANGUAGE STYLE
The following rules apply to both written and spoken English.
Different Styles between Informal & Formal English
The follow examples illustrate the main differences between informal and formal English.
1. Active & Passive Voice
Informal: Our technician repaired the fault on 12th June. Now it’s your turn to pay us.
Formal: Although the fault was repaired on 12th June, payment for this intervention has still not been received.
2. Verb Form: Phrasal Verbs & Latin
Informal: The company laid him off because he didn't work much.
Formal: His insufficient production conducted to his dismissal.
3. Language: Direct & Formulaic
Informal: I’m sorry but … / I’m happy to say that …
Formal: We regret to inform you that … / We have pleasure in announcing that …
4. Use of Slang
Informal: He had to get some money out of a hole in the wall …
Formal: He withdrew the amount from an ATM.
 
5. Personal Form & Nominators
Informal: If you lose it, then please contact us as soon as possible.
Formal: Any loss of this document should be reported immediately …
 
6. Linking Words
Informal: The bank can’t find the payment you say you’ve made.
Formal: Notwithstanding that the payment has been sent the bank fails to acknowledge it.
7. Revitalized Sentences
Informal: Anybody or any company.
Formal: … any natural person who, and any legal entity which …
 
8. Modal Usage
Informal: If you need any help, give us a call.
Formal: Should you require any assistance, please feel free to contact us …
 
9. Singular & Plural Person
Informal: I can help you to solve this problem. Call me!
Formal: We can assist in the resolution of this matter. Contact us on our toll-free number.
Different Styles between Informal & Formal English
Also, to make a sentence more formal you can: 
Use ‘There’ as a subject; e.g. ‘There is a serious risk of...’ 
Use 'It' as a subject; e.g. 'It is impossible to...' 
Use ‘One’ as a subject; e.g. ‘One may ask whether...’ (‘One’ is a formal version of ‘You’ [plural] in general) 
Use the passive voice; e.g. ‘Many things can be done in order to...’
The main thing to remember is that both are correct, it is just a matter of tone and setting. Formal English is used mainly in academic writing and business communications, whereas Informal English is casual and is appropriate when communicating with friends and other close ones. Choose the style of writing keeping in mind what you are writing and to whom. But whichever style you write in - formal or informal - be sure to keep it consistent, do not mix the two.
Alwaysuse formal English when writing a business letter, an essay, or other papers for work, school or publication. You can use informal English when writing a letter to a close friend or a relative, when quoting informal usage, or in a novel or script, etc. Otherwise it is much less risky to use the formal form, especially if you have any doubts about the acceptability of the informal form, or if you need to be very clear or specific. Remember that you will never look or sound foolish by using proper grammar.
Social and Academic English
Social English is the language of everyday communication in oral and written forms. Examples include:
• when your students are talking to their friends on the playground or in the school bus;
• when you and your students are having an informal face-to-face conversation;
• when your students go to the grocery store and read the shopping list.
Academic English and social English are not two separate languages. Academic English is more demanding and complex than social English. Academic English is the language necessary for success in school. It is related to a standards-based curriculum, including the content areas of Math, Science, Social Studies, and English language arts.
 Língua Inglesa Fonética e Fonologia
Ao final desta aula, o aluno será capaz de:
1. Conhecer o alfabeto da língua inglesa, com quadros descritivos e analíticos das consoantes e das vogais. (Know the English alphabet, with descriptive and analytical charts of consonants and vowels); 
2. compreender os dígrafos e os encontros vocálicos e consonantais. (Understand the digraphs and the vocalic and consonantal clusters).
Without a universal transcription system for phonetics and phonology, writing down the unfamiliar sounds of other languages presents an almost insuperable challenge. Take, for example, a sound which is used only paralinguistically in English (that is, for some purpose outside the language system itself), but which is a perfectly ordinary consonant in other languages, just as [b] in but or [l] in list are in English, namely the ‘tut-tut’ sound made to signal disapproval. When we see this, we do not think of a whole word, but of a repeated clicking. This description is hopelessly inadequate, however, for anyone else trying to recognize the sound in question, or learn how to make it.
Hearing a native speaker use the ‘tut-tut’ click in a language where it is an ordinary consonant does not help us understand how the sound is made or how it compares with others. Likewise, adopting the usual spelling from that language (assuming it is not one of the many without an orthography) might let us write the ‘tut-tut’ sound down; but this technique would not produce a universal system for writing sounds of the world’s languages, since linguists would tend to use their own spelling systems as far as possible, and opt for representations from the languages they happened to know for other sounds. There would be little consistency, and generalization of such a system would be difficult.
The International Phonetic Alphabet was proposed in 1888; it has been under constant review ever since by the International Phonetic Association, and the latest revision dates from 1996. Although a universal system of description and transcription might be desirable in principle, and even in practice when dealing with unfamiliar languages and sounds, readers of a book both in and on English might question the necessity of learning the IPA.
First, there is considerable ambiguity in the English spelling system, and it works in both directions: many sounds to one spelling, and many spellings to one sound. The former situation results in ‘eye-rhymes’, or forms which look as if they ought to have the same pronunciation, but don’t. There are various doggerel poems about this sort of ambiguity (often written by non-native speakers who have struggled with the system): one begins by pointing out a set of eye-rhymes – ‘I gather you already know, Of plough and cough and through and dough’. Those four words, which we might expect to rhyme on the basis of the spelling, in fact end in four quite different vowels, and cough has a final consonant too. On the other hand, see, sea, people, amoeba and fiend have the same long [i:] vowel, but five different spellings.
Despite these multiple ambiguities, attempts are regularly made to indicate pronunciations using the spelling system. Nevertheless, none are wholly successful, for a variety of different reasons.
The Phonetic Alphabet
Let’s analyze the English sounds through the charts below.
 - Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet
Pronunciation
- The Sounds of English
(VER ANEXO 1 AULA 3 – IMPORTANTE)
PHONETIC CONCEPTS
Consonant 
A consonant is a speech sound made by partially or completely blocking the flow of air through the mouth (using the lips, teeth, tongue, and palate).
Consonant X Contoid
Since the word ‘consonant’ is used in describing the phonology of a language that can include sounds which could be classed phonetically as vowels (Y, W), so we ought also to have a different word which covers just those sounds which are phonetically of the type that produces a significant obstruction to the flow of air through the vocal tract: the term proposed is CONTOID.
VOWEL
A vowel is a speech sound made by allowing breath to flow out of the mouth, without closing any part of the mouth or throat.
Also, attention to these two sounds, which are very similar:
DIGRAPH
A digraph is a combination of letters or characters used to represent a single speech sound.
TYPES OF DIGRAPHS:
“Exocentric” digraphs, where the sound of the digraph is different from that of either of its constituent letters. These are rarely considered "silent". There are examples where the phoneme has no standard single-letter representation, as with consonants ‹ng› for /ŋ/ as in sing, ‹th› for /θ/ as in thin or /ð/ as in then, and diphthongs ‹ou› in out or ‹oi› in point and where standard single-letter representation uses another letter, as with ‹gh› in enough or ‹ph› in physical instead of ‹f›.
“Endocentric" digraphs, where the sound of the digraph is the same as that of one of its constituent letters. These include  most double consonants, as ‹bb› in clubbed; though not geminate consonants, as ‹ss› in misspell, the discontiguous digraphs whose second element is "magic e", e.g. ‹a_e› in rate (cf. rat), ‹i_e› in fine (cf. fin) and others such as ‹ck› (which is in effect the "doubled" form of ‹k›), ‹gu› as in guard, vogue; ‹ea› as in bread, heavy, etc. These are difficult for writers and sometimes for readers.
VOWEL DIGRAPHS
A vowel digraph is two letters with the first letter making a long sound and the second letter is silent. We call this:
"first one does the talking, the second keeps on walking."
In English include EA (teach), EE (free), EY (key), IE (piece),), OO (book), OA (road) and UE (true), AU (audience), EO (people), IO (region), AI (main), OU (soul). 
The digraph oo has two sounds. One is the sound heard in hook. The other sound is the sound heard in tooth.
BLEND OR CLUSTER
It is a combination of two or more letters, where all of the sounds can be distinguished.
CONSONANT BLEND OR CLUSTER
Two or three consonants are blended together, each consonant sound may be heard in the blend. Some examples of consonant blends are: 
bl–black, cl–clap, fl–flip, gl–glass, pl–play, sl–slip, br–brick, cr–crab, dr–drop, fr–from, gr–grab, pr–press, tr–trap, sc–scale, sk–skip, sm–smell, sn–snail, sp–spill, rl–world, st–stop, sw–swell, str–stray (in which there are two clusters: s+t and t+r), xth–sixth (in which the cluster is x + th).
DIPHTHONGS OR  TWIN-VOWELS OR GLIDING VOWELS
Vowel diphthong refers to the blending of two vowels sounds, both vowel sounds are usually heard and they make a gliding sound.:
HIATUS - In phonology, hiatus or diaeresis refers to two vowel sounds occurring in adjacent syllables, with no intervening consonant. When two adjacentvowel sounds occur in the same syllable, the result is instead described as a diphthong.
The English words hiatus and diaeresis themselves contain a hiatus between the first and second syllables.
So: Hi – a – tus  / di·aer·e·sis
SEMIVOWEL OR GLIDE - A semivowel (or glide) is a sound, such as English /w/ or /j/ (‘y’), that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.
TRIPHONES - Triphones is union of a diphthong plus one vowel. The first sound is always that of a diphthong. If a vowel comes after a diphthong, a small tick is attached to that diphthong in the opposite direction. This tick will indicate that there is a vowel after diphthong but will not indicate which is that vowel.
e.g. diary -  loyal – genuine - renewal – denial.
THE LETTERS Y AND W
1 - THE LETTER ‘Y’ - Sometimes, the letter y is a consonant, and other times it is a vowel. The rule for telling the two apart is simple: The letter ‘y’ is a consonant if it is at the beginning of a syllable. If ‘y’ is anywhere else in the syllable, it is a vowel.
In general, the ‘Y’ is a consonant when the syllable already has a vowel. Also, the ‘Y’ is considered a consonant when it is used in place of the soft J sound, such as in the name ‘Yolanda’ or ‘Yoda’.In the names ‘Bryan’ and ‘Wyatt’, the ‘Y’ is a vowel, because it provides the only vowel sound for the first syllable of both names. For both of these names, the letter ‘A’ is part of the second syllable, and therefore does not influence the nature of the ‘Y’.
Examples of ‘Y’ as a Consonant: yes - yam - yell - yellow - yogurt – yacht.
Examples of ‘Y’ as a Vowel: gym - my - cycle - baby  - hairy  - sky – valley – fairy.
1. THE LETTER ‘W’ - The ‘w’ came late to the Roman alphabet. Emperor Claudius tried to give this letter its start during the alphabet reforms, but the early version was dropped after his death in 54 CE due to spiteful rumors that the ‘w’ only served the emperor’s whim and not the common good. Anglo-Saxon writing of the seventh century revived the forgotten ‘w’, this time in the runic script that took precedence in Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire. 
‘W’ becomes a semi-vowel when it becomes part of a diphthong. You hear it most commonly in combination with ‘a’, ‘e’, and ‘o’. For example, we have the ‘aw’ in ‘claw’, the ‘ew’ in ‘few’, and the ‘ow’ in ‘show’. Sound out the word where it's used to make the final determination for ‘w’. If it glides, it’s a vowel. If not, it’s a consonant.
Examples of ‘W’ as a Consonant: winged – wren – why.
Examples of ‘W’ as a Vowel: awe – bow – dew – ewe – jaw – known – lawn.
Finally, is there a case where the ‘w’ is a vowel on its own? Yes and no. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, this happens in the word spelled ‘cwm’, pronounced ‘koom’ and meaning ‘a steep hollow at the upper end of a mountain valley’. The word is originally from the Welsh, a Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages, and a language in which ‘w’ is a standard vowel, not just a semi-vowel. English comes from the Anglo-Saxon and has clashed with the Celtic for centuries. ‘Cwm’ is great to use in Scrabble games and for stumping your friends, but as an example of using ‘w’ as a single vowel, forget it. Although it is sometimes used as an example of a word in which ‘w’ is a vowel, it is more often used as an example of a rare English word without a vowel.
COUNTING PHONEMES
Let's try counting a couple of words. How many phonemes are there in:
a) rich? 3 /r/ /i/ /ch/(digraph)
b) pitch?  3 /p/ /i/ /tch/(digraph)
c) bring?– 4 /b/ /r/ /i/ /ng/(digraph)
d) shoot? 3 /sh/ (digraph) /o/ (digraph) /t/
e) shy? 2 /sh/ (digraph) /y/
f) six?  4 /s / /i / / k / /s/ as the "x" has two distinct speech sounds.
g) brought? 4 /b/ /r/ /ou/ /ght/
h) through? 3 /th/ /r/ /ough/
i) thorough?4  /th/ /o/ /r/ /ough/
j) cane? 3 /c/  /a/ /n/
k) Bible? 5 /b/ /i/ /b/ /l/ /e/