I will start with the definition and some examples of pronunciation. Pronunciation is the ability of using correct stress and intonation of words. Stress is consisting of word syllables in English we have one and more syllable words. Example of the word which has one syllable is ‘cat , one , done , some and etc.. ‘ but we can generally use stress in words which have more than one syllable for example ‘ contemporary , misunderstanding , leader , creator etc ‘ In word stress can be in any syllables for example ‘MO-ney ,
a-Part-ment , etc ‘. The definition of intonation is rhythm of a speech and words. When we talk we can use the intonation in order to better express ourselves and impress the listener . Mostly in meeting or conversation it is important to impress listener for not loosing the interaction to our speech and the best way of doing that is possible with a correct pronunciation. Other areas of communication are sound of vowels consonants, digraphs, dipthongs and blends.
‘Vowels are the
letter a, e, I, o, u and sometimes y
Consonants are all
the other letters
Digraphs are two
or more letters which blend to make one sound,
such as th, sh,
ch, wh, ea in bread.
Diphthongs are
vowel sounds which glide from one sound to
another, such as
the sound of oy in boy, ee in tree, ou in shout.
Blends are two or
more letters that are combined but still keep their
individual characteristics, such as bl in blend,
sch in school
Nowadays English has expanded its usage
in many areas and it is called a global language. To illustrate even in UN (United
Nations) meetings presidents speaking is translated to English. In many
Universities in the world including Turkey (some universities like METU, Middle
East Technical University, etc.) use English in order to their teaching
language. It is an important footstep because of its global language. However,
in some schools the lessons for pronunciation do not exist because some
teachers say that they do not have enough time to teach how to pronounce words
and how to speak fluently. They are just teaching to students the structures of
sentences and grammar. Some other instructors believe that teaching
pronunciation is not important andit is nothing but a
time lost. In my opinion they are wrong, because teaching how to pronounce
words and how to speak English is very important for better and effective
communication. For example, in Turkey, even many teachers and the most of the
TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) students do not know how to speak
English and how to pronounce the words. The wrong pronunciation in speaking may
cause big misunderstandings during a conversation or an argument. With the
wrong pronunciation of the words the people whom you are talking with may think
that you are a rude person and also with the wrong intonation people may judge
you in a bad way. For example, think that you are in a company meeting and your
company is about to make a big agreement with another company and they know
that you were graduated from an English department and they expect you to make
a communication between these two company and therefore you will take all the responsibility
of that conversation. If you fail at
making a conversation by mispronouncing the words that your company says in the
meeting, it will probably lead your company to a very huge incomprehensibility and
nuisance. Nevertheless, you will likely to get fired from
your company. For
preventing the incomprehension or misunderstandings, you have to learn not only
how to write but also how to speak and pronounce well. In addition to that, if
this example does not satisfy your curiosity, there is another example but in
this time it is about to wrong intonation. In speaking we generally speak not
only like robots but also using intonation. For questioning we stress our
question mark for example Do you want to go out today? In this example we stressed the yellow
marked word for emphasizing our question but we use lowering intonation in the
word ‘today‘ for making it polite. In communication we use such an intonations
for being polite and kind to people which is important because of not
understanding wrongly by them. Therefore like many instructors and professors I really understand that the importance of intonation, and stress in
communication and I will not agree with some other instructors in lack of time
issues because teaching or being a teacher is not only just earning money but
also it is for developing enlightened and well-educated students or peoples for
our future but this is not only for our nation but also it is important for
humanity.
To sum up
pronunciation has a great importance in our future business life and our
communication with foreign people. Additionally if we want to hang on the
globalizing world we must develop our pronunciation ,because learning or having
a grammar will help you only written communication on the other hand when you
will be able to speak not only a good speaking but also effective speaking (
with body language ,mimics etc.) you will acquire many achievements . In my
opinion every teacher or teacher candidates should develop themselves in
pronunciation and everybody must not underestimate the power of good
communication. Good communication will acquire you good manners.
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