COMPILED BY JAVA

GST 111 MATERIAL BY JAVA

GST 111

STATUS: REQUIRED

CREDIT UNITS: 2

LECTURE DAY: THURSDAY

LECTURE TIME: 12 – 2PM

LECTURER: DR. FLORENCE CHIKA NWOSU

DEPARTMENT: LINGUISTICS AND NIGERIAN LANGUAGES, FACULTY OF ARTS

MODULE 1

LANGUAGE SKILLS FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

This topic on GST 111 compliments the fact that languages of the world to an extent demonstrate
grammar specificity. English language shows some exceptional characteristics which differentiate it
from what we have in Nigerian languages for example. As a result of language specifics existing in the
linguistic backgrounds of English and Nigerian languages, native speakers of any of the Nigerian
languages tend to encounter challenges in speaking skills in English. Therefore, this section of the
course in GST 111 is intended to alleviate the difficulties non native speakers of English may encounter
in mastering and displaying effective speaking skills in the use of the vocabulary and grammar of the
English language. This section concentrates on sound system of English, stress pattern of English,
intonation in English, and guidelines for effective speaking skills.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the teaching and learning, student should be able to:

i. differentiate between English letters of alphabet and the speech sounds;

ii. itemise the major classes of English speech sounds;

iii. pronounce English words with no or with less mother tongue interference;

iv. demonstrate significant English accent in spoken texts with minimal mother tongue interference; and

v. highlight the guidelines to effective speaking skills.

 COMPILED BY JAVA
AIM

This course aimed to:

i. explore the differences that exist between English letters of alphabet and the speech sounds;

ii. identify the major classes of English speech sounds;

iii. determine how English words can be used by the learners of English with no or with less mother
tongue interference; discuss measures to take by learners of English in incorporating English accent in
their spoken English with minimal mother tongue interference.; and examine the guidelines to effective
speaking skills.

JAVA CARES

TITLE

SPEAKING SKILLs

INTRODUCTION

There is no gainsaying that languages of the world share certain similarities such as having letters of
alphabet, speech sounds, word classes, vocabulary and grammar, and that letters of alphabet of any
language is used in the formation of its words while the speech sounds are for the pronunciation of
words. Nonetheless, every language has its phonotactics or the rules of grammar that guide its
vocabulary and grammatical construction. This means that the way features in language are harnessed
differ from language to language. For example, unlike English language, Nigerian languages such as
Yoruba and Igbo are one to one correspondence, that is, the way a word is spelt in Igbo and Yoruba is
the way it is pronounced but the way a word is spelt in English may not be the way it is pronounced.
Igbo has 36 letters of alphabet, so also the number of its speech sounds; Yoruba has 25 letters of
alphabet, so also its speech sounds; but English has 26 letters of Alphabet with 44 speech sounds. Igbo,
Yoruba and many other Nigerian language are tonal languages while English is stress and intonationally
patterned, These identified features made the learning and usage of English a bit complex to the native
Nigerian language speakers. We are going to explore the sounds of English and its classification, stress
and intonation patterns in English, with the aim of lessening the level of difficulty Nigerian learners of
English encounter in the usage of English.

PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF ENGLISH

 COMPILED BY JAVA

The phonological system of English is divided into two broad types. The
include:SegmentalSuprasegmentalThe segmental system encompasses the sound system of English
while the suprasegmental covers the stress and intonation aspects.

SEGMENTAL SYSTEM

All speech sounds result from air being somehow obstructed or modified within the vocal tract. The
obstruction or modification of the air involves three processes working together.These processes are:
The Airstream processThe Phonation processThe Oro-nasal processThe airstream process tells the
sources of the air that is used in producing sounds in language; phonation process tells when a sound is
voiced or voiceless; and oro-nasal process tells if a sound is an oral or nasal sound.

Articulatory Phonetics is that branch of Phonetics that studies the production of human sounds made
with the organs of speech.All speech sounds are made within the human organs of speech provided the
human vocal tract is capable of producing it and the human ear is capable of hearing it.English speech
sounds are made by manipulating air as it is exhaled from the lungs. The air that pushes the produced
sounds may or may not encounter certain constrictions or blockage. Vowel sounds of English are
classified as oral sounds because they are produced without any form of constriction of the airstream in
the oral cavity, but with rigorous obstruction mounted around the larynx (i.e. the Adam’s apple), which
causes the vibration of the vocal chords. The vibration of the vocal folds results to the vowel sounds
being voiced.On the other hand, consonant sounds of English are produced with obstructions which can
be complete or partial. The blockage becomes complete, when two articulators come together to
produce sound without any available space for air to escape until the sound is produced as in the case
of stops/plosives. While the obstruction can be partial if air can escape while two organs of speech meet
to produce sounds as in the case of fricatives and affricates and some others.

CLASSIFICATION OF SOUNDS OF ENGLISH

Sounds of English are 44 in number. They are divided into two, which are;

Vowel

Consonant
 COMPILED BY JAVA

Vowel sounds are 20 while consonant sounds are 24 in number. The 20 vowel sounds are divided into
two; monothongs and diphthongs. The monothongs are 12 in number while the diphthongs are eight.
The monothongs are sub-divided into short and long vowels. The short vowels are 7 while the long ones
are 5 in number. All the vowels are voiced.The 24 consonant sounds on the other hand, are classified as
either voiced or voiceless. They are also classified based on their place and manner of articulations.

The Monothongs/i:/, /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /a:/, /ɔ/, /ɔ:/, /ʋ/, /u:/, /ɜ:/, /ə/, /ʌ/

The Shor Vowels /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɔ/, /ʋ/, /ə/, /ʌ/

The Long Vowels/i:/, /a:/, /ɔ:/,/u:/, /ɜ:/

In order for the non natives of English to attain proficiency in the use of the vowels of English, the
vowels of English shall be listed and their pronunciations be exemplified in words.The vowels that
should be pronounced as /i:/when found in English words are:‘ea’ as in team, cheap, stream, lead, read,
leak, please, meal, sea, mean, etc.‘ee’ as in keep, sleep, seed, weed, week, jeep, need, see, meet,
knee, etc.‘ei’ as in conceive, deceive, receive, perceive, etc.‘ie’ as in belief, field etc.‘ua’ quay, etc.‘i’ as in
police, machine, pizza, liter, meter, system, busy, pity, sunny, key, etc.‘e’ as in complete, me, be, eve,
friend, said, etc.

/i/ are found in words like, is, sit, hit, sip, busy, big England, myth, this, with, if, think, kiss, etc
/e/or /ɛ/ in words like head, bed, sect, shed, any, length, leopard, etc./æ/ as in pan, man, lad, slab,
cat, sat, etc. /a:/ as in park, car, hard, arm, heart, hearth, clark, pass, calm, aunt, march, etc /ɒ/ as in
dog, pot, dot, hot, holiday, what, cough, knowledge, etc /ɔ:/ fork, war, warm, law, court, hurt, before,
etc./ʋ/ as in full, look, book, woman, put, foot, would, should, etc. /u:/ as in who, food, music, you,
new, boot, to, too, soup, group, do, move, rule, chew, blue, shoe, juice etc. /ɜ:/ as in girl, birth, heard,
word, world, work, her, earth, bird, church, journey etc. /ə/ as in about, around, Lagos, announce, the,
us, above, famous, colour, doctor, figure, etc. /ʌ/ as in son, sun, cut, fuck, luck, blood, rough, does,
love, etc.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are vowel sounds that are formed by the combination of two vowels in a syllable, in which
the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another. They can also be defined a s gliding vowels,
which are created when a speaker glides from one vowel sound into another.There are eight diphthongs
 COMPILED BY JAVA
in English, which are:/aʋ/ as in shout, loud, cow, town, bow, etc./aɪ/ as in sky, my, lie, nine, side, light,
might, buy, by, rice, like, etc./ɔɪ/ as in soil, coin, loin, toy, joy, boy, oil, voice, etc./əʋ/ as in go, goat,
slow, boat, home, etc./eɪ/ as same, game, play, cain, make, etc./eə/ as in air, hair, there, care, ear,
bear, claire, heir, etc/iə/ as in here, deer, fear/ʋə/ as in poor, tour, sure, pure

CONSONANT SOUNDS OF ENGLISH

Unlike vowels, consonant sounds are produced with either complete or partial constriction of air in the
oral and in the nasal cavities. Consonant sounds are either voiced or voiceless. The consonant sounds
that are voiced are fifteen (15) in number while the voiceless consonants are nine (9) in number.The
voiced consonants are:/b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, /ʤ/, /l/, /r/, /w/, /j/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/.

The voiceless ones are:/p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/, /ʧ/.

JAVA CARES

The following are the adjectival description of the consonant sounds and their examples in words:/p/
voiceless bilabial stop/plosive paul, pink, pan/b/ voiced bilabial stop/plosive back, burn, ball/t/
voiceless alveolar stop/plosive tin, truck, tap/d/ voiced alveolar stop/plosive dog, dine, day/k/
voiceless velar stop/plosive king, sack, care

/g/ voiced velar stop/plosive gun, guy, group/ʧ/ voiceless palato-alveolar affricate chin, chalk, /ʤ/
voiced palato-alveolar affricate joy, George/f/ voiceless alveolar fricative fan, five, fun/v/ voiced s
alveolar fricative vow, van, volvo/θ/ voiceless dental fricative thing, think /ð/ voiced dental fricative
mother, father/s/ voiceless alveolar fricative sin, sake, socks/z/ voiced alveolar fricative zinc, zion,
songs/ʃ/ voiceless palato-alveolar fricative sure, should, chalet, champagne/ʒ/ voiced palato-
alveolar fricative pleasure, measure, genre, vision, garage

/h/ voiceless glottal fricative hope, rehearsal/m/ voiced bilabial nasal might, make, must/n/ voiced
alveolar nasal noise, name, snake/ŋ/ voiced velar nasal sing, king, crying/l/ voice alveolar lateral long,
last, like/r/ voiced post-alveolar continuant rice, grace/w/ voiced bilabial approximant work, week/j/
voiced palatal you, university urine

AUTOSEGMENTAL SYSTEM

The autosegmental aspects to consider include:

 COMPILED BY JAVA

Stress

Intonation

STRESS

When producing a word, a part of the word is usually heard to be louder than the other and a part is
spoken with greater energy than the rest. It is the loudness and greater force applied to a part of a word
that is called STRESS.Application of stress at the right place is very important in spoken English because,
stress determines the meaning of what one says. A good knowledge of Syllable also, is prerequisite to a
good understanding and mastery of Stress in spoken English.A syllable can be defined as a unit of
pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or a
part of a word.Stress usually coincides with chest pulse when an utterance is made.

Every stressed part has a vowel segment as its nucleus.

TYPES OF STRESS IN ENGLISH

They are three, namely

Primary stress

Secondary stress

Weak stress/unstressed syllable

Primary stress is the syllable with the most emphasis in a word. Its pitch is usually louder, longer and
higher.
 COMPILED BY JAVA

Secondary stress is the syllable with lesser emphasis than primary stress. It is usually quiet and short.

Weak/Unstressed syllable is usually shorter and lower than primary and secondary stress syllables. It is
marked by the absence of any type of prominence.

Examples:

One word syllables: ˈcome, ˈman, ˈsick, go, ˈdance, ˈland.Two syllable words: ˈleader, ˈstudent,
ˈpower, ˈ ˈ ˈjourney, ˈmadam, aˈbout, ˈtable, aˈcross.Three word syllable: inˈfection,
aˈttention, ˈlimited, ˈ ˈhappily, ˈcelebrate, ˈsilentlyFour syllable words: examiˈnation, inauguˈration,
acaˈdemy, aˈgility, achieˈvableFive word syllable: elecˈtricity, globaliˈzation

When more than one syllable is stressed in one word, then it means that one is primary stress and the
other secondary stress.

Examples:

ˌindeˈpendence

ˌeduˈcation

Stress is also used to differentiate words with the same spelling but different grammatical functions.

For instance, stress placement at a particular part of the word determines the correct pronunciation of
the word as well as the intended meaning of the word.

For example:

Noun Verb
 COMPILED BY JAVA
ˈconvert conˈvert

ˈimport imˈport

ˈexport exˈport

ˈextract exˈtract

ˈincrease inˈcrease

JAVA CARES

INTONATION

Intonation is used to describe the fall and rise of pitch in speech. It can also be referred to as variation in
speech.

There are tow basic tunes in English.

These tunes include:

Falling tune [↘]

Rising tune [↗]

Wale (2001, p. 221) says that “intonation is used to convey attitudinal meaning, illocutionary force,
grammatical structure and information value”. This means that intonation conveys the mood of the
speaker to his audience.

USES OF THE BASIC TUNES IN ENGLISH

Falling Tune:Falling tune is used to mark declaratives/statement.

For instance,
 COMPILED BY JAVA

We will have lecture in the morning↘

They are dancing↘

Falling tune also accompanies imperative and exclamation.

Example,Come out!↘Eat your food now!↘

RISING TUNE

Among the functions of rising tune include:

Rising tune is used to make polite requests

Examples:

Give me that cup please.↗

Could you stand in in class for me today please?↗

Rising tune is also used to ask questions that demand Yes/No responses.

Examples:

Is that your house?

Are you going to school tomorrow?↗

 COMPILED BY JAVA
You don’t like beans. Do you?↗

Guidelines to Effective Speaking Skills

In view of the subject matters discussed above, there is need to inculcate the following but not the least
habits for effective performance in English usage:

appropriate use of the English past tense marker ‘–ed’;

appropriate use of the English plural maker ‘s’;avoidance of mother-tongue interference in the use of
sound /h/. For instance, the omission of ‘h’ in words like hospital, hope, happy, hot, etc;

appropriate use of article ‘a’ and ‘an’. For instance, we should focus on the sound the letter represents
instead of on the initial letter of the word. Example, ‘a European’ instead of ‘an European’

er/or are pronounced as an unstressed or weak vowel /ə/ in words like sister, doctor, designer, player,
sailor, etc.;

the comparative and superlative markers ‘er’ and est’ are pronounced as /ə/ and ‘ist’ respectively and
not as ‘a’ and ‘ɛst’;

some consonants are silent in certain environments. These sounds are not pronounced in words where
they exist. For instance, the underlined sounds are not pronounced in the following words:debt, subtle,
doubt, lamb, bomb, womb, plumber, knee, knight, gnash, gnaw, gnat, half, should, palm, folk, yolk,
almond, walk, fasten, apostle, wrestle, listen, challet, whistle, Christmas, hasten, handsome, wrist,
wrestle, pneumonia, cupboard, receipt; etc.;

the pronunciation of ‘p’ is optional in words kike: symptom, presumption, jumped, tempt, empty; etc.;

Sound ‘Th’ is pronounced as ‘T’ in words like: Thomas, Thames, Thyme; etc;
 COMPILED BY JAVA

‘c’ is pronounced as ‘s’ in ceiling, Celine; and is pronounced as ‘k’ in comb, come, chemist, accord,
stomach, antique, cake, council, etc.

JAVA CARES

LISTENING SKILLS

Listening Skills is one of the vibrant topics in GST 111. It is designed to help the learner develop the
communication skills of listening. It critically analyse listening skills as aspects of grammatical acquisition
in language learning especially in the second language (L2) learning situation. It highlights how best a
learner can comprehend aspects of grammar through the use of appropriate listening skills. Among the
areas of concentration of this topic are: definition of listening skill, listening communication processes,
principles of effective listening, barriers to effective listening, process of listening, listening types, and
purpose and role of listening.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the teaching and learning, student should be able to:

i. itemise the principles of effective listening skill;

ii. identify the types and levels of listening; enumerate the various listening communication processes;
and list factors that inhibit effective listening skill;

AIM

This course aimed to:

i. demonstrate the principles of effective listening skill;

 COMPILED BY JAVA
ii. examine the types and levels of listening;

highlight the various listening communication processes; and

identify the factors that inhibit effective listening skill;

INTRODUCTION

Listening is taken for granted mainly because people fail to differentiate between the two concepts of
hearing and listening. They also forget the fact that listening requires more than the hearing of speech
sounds. Hearing does not require much effort since the auditory organs are not impaired for the sound
waves to pass through. Hearing is the mere process by which sound wave are received and relayed
along the nervous system of the ear. Hearing covers picking out all forms of sound around us
irrespective of the source of the sound. Listening on the other hand, is the process of directing
attention to the sound contrasts produced by the human organs of speech and their sequences. Beyond
sounds, listening is the ability to differentiate between the dictionary meaning of words and the
meaning words acquire when used in connected speech.

DEFINITION OF LISTENING SKILLS

Listening skills is the ability to pay undivided attention to utterances and effectively interpret what was
said. Listening skills encompasses receiving sounds, understanding the message conveyed in the sounds
that is heard, evaluating the message, and responding to it.

TYPES OF LISTENING

ACTIVE LISTENING
 COMPILED BY JAVA
PASSIVE LISTENING

LISTENING COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Information source ----- Transmitter --------- Noise source -------- Receiver -------- Destination

ACTIVE LISTENING VERSUS PASSIVE LISTENING

Active Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication
process.

Passive listening is tantamount to hearing because it does not require concentration unlike active
listening.

Principles of Effective Listening

Things to do to enhance your listening ability include the following:

Stop talking

Prepare Yourself to Listen by Relaxing

Put the Speaker at Ease

Ignore Distractions
 COMPILED BY JAVA

Empathise: Try to understand the other person’s point of view

Be patient

Listen to the tone, pitch and volume for emphasized parts

Barriers to Effective Listening

Listening to more than one conversation at a time

Lack of interest in the topic of discussion

Lack of interest in the speaker.

JAVA CARES

Meaning, Nature and Characteristics of Listening

Listening is one of the four communicative skills of language, used most often in our daily lives than the
other three skills of speaking, reading and writing.

PROCESS OF LISTENING

Predicting what the talk is about.

 COMPILED BY JAVA
Guessing the contextual meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases.

Identifying and retaining relevant points.

Recognizing discourse markers and cohesive devices.

Understanding the speaker’s inferred meaning and attitude to what he is saying.

Separating facts from opinions, and

Understanding the speaker’s pattern of thinking and presentation

Types of Listening

Attitudinal Listening: The listener must be able to develop positive attitude toward the subject matter of
the speech.

Appreciative Listening: The listener here goes ahead to infer the mood of the speaker and see how the
speaker makes his words have effect on his intended meaning. Here you watch out for the
tune/intonation of the speaker for that is what will inform you the mood of the speaker.

Analytical/Critical Listening: This involves listening to explicitly stated points and using the point and
their contents to arrive at other points in other discourse situations.

Purpose and Role of Listening in Verbal Communication

Listening for information Processing

Listening to Conversations

Listening for Taking Directions

Listening for Inferences

Listening to Narrations

Listening to an Arguments
 COMPILED BY JAVA
Listening to an Advertisement

Listening for Note Taking

Listening in the ESL (English as Second Language) Classroom Situation

The listener needs to be trained to enhance his listening ability especially in the English for Secondary
Language user’s (ESL) case. The major reason being that some sounds in the foreign language are not
present in our languages, using Nigeria learners as example. A learner in this case tends to mistake the
foreign sound he hears for the familiar sound in his own native language.

Conclusion

Listeners must first and foremost develop auditory discrimination among sounds, tones, stress,
intonation, words and sentences. Auditory discrimination is an important aspect of listening. This is for
the fact that it aids general comprehension of listening types, purposes, processes and aims. Listening is
not only hearing. It goes beyond hearing to paying attention to cogent message, information, argument
directions, instructions, etc.