Test Results

I have now marked the Test done on Monday 27th May. In order to know how you did, and particularly if you need to re-take the Test, book an appointment in the Choice file Monday Group Interviews for End-of-2nd Semester Test in our section of the page. Given that this is a busy time, if you simply want to know whether you have passed or not, you can come for a quick appointment (although if you have not passed you will need to have a long appointment before you re-take the Test), if you want to look carefully at your Test with me, it will be a longer appointment. This means that the times may not be entirely accurate.

Lesson 9 Monday 20th May

Today was the last formal lesson. The End-of-Semester Test will be next week, during the lesson time, but in a different room:

Monday  May 27th at 1-3pm (13-15) in Aula 5 VC

We marked  the syllable structure analyses of  'splashed' and 'squelch' which you had done for Homework.

We went through the correction of the  Mock exam. (“Daniel”, pp.34-36) which you had done for Homework. 

We talked about the structure of the exam, as well as the practical details of how it will be held. Obviously for the exam. there will be no use of Dispense, notes (except your transcription of the first half of the text), no talking, consulting, copying (marks will be deducted or the exam invalidated should this occur) will be tolerated and I shall confiscate your mobile phones for the duration of the exam.  The real exam will be very similar in form to the Mock exam,, but with a longer sentence or sentences to do for full phonemic transcription and some more short questions on, for example, finding an example of a homonym, finding an example of a word using a high/close front unrounded vowel (the 'Happy Vowel', /i/), finding an example of a word transcribed by only one phoneme, etc. I repeated the importance of not using any word from the text more than once in your answers to the Questions and the need to plan which words to use for which answers carefully in order to avoid using words twice. I reminded you also of the points which I have repeated since the 1st Semester: to use the diagonal lines to show that you are writing in phonemes, to be careful to write the phonemes as they appear on the Chart (and not as letters you write in your personal handwriting style), not to use punctuation in full phonemic transcription. I repeated the rules for the transcription of the 'ed' for regular past tenses and the '-s' for plurals or 3rd person singular present tenses, the fact that syllabic consonants always need to have the 'dot' placed beneath them and are always in the unstressed syllable. schwa, /ə/, is also always in the unstressed syllable. When a question on the text asks you to find examples of words which have schwa, /ə/, in their strong forms, this means /ə/, not diphthongs! The only time you will need to use weak forms of words in the Test is in Questions 1 (Full phonemic transcription). I pointed out some frequent words which have homophones: to, by, so, for, which, some, I, you.

We did a Dictation similar to the End-of-Semester Test one, i.e. only 8 words. We also did another (10-word) Dictation.

We went (rather quickly) through the material on Homographs - words which have the same graphic form but different transcription and semantic meaning - on pages 28-29 of the Dispense.

I shall put up the first half of the exam text in our section of the Moodle page at the end of this week so that you can begin to transcribe it (and think carefully about the words in it!) in order to be partially prepared for the exam when I shall give you the complete text. Please bring your copy of the first half of the text with you to the exam, including your transcription of it. The first page(s) might be blank, but just scroll down and you should find it. If you can't open it or download it, send me a message.

I have put up some Syllable Structure Analysis Practice Exercises for  you to use as Test preparation if you wish. The Answers are included, but try to do the analysis on your own first!

I have put up another End-of-2nd Semester style Test for you to use for exam preparation if you wish: Lost in Translation II Semester Practice Exercise. The Answers are included.

There are 2nd Semester Dictation Practice Exercises in the Sounds of English (includes Practice Exercises) Section of the main page. (Don't click from here, it will take you to Dott.sa Dvorak's material - the ways of Moodle are mysterious! Go via the main page). These would be very useful as preparation for the Test on Monday!

I shall divide you into groups for the Dictation, as I did for the End-of-1st Semester Test, and put up the names at the end of this week. Please let me know before Friday (24th) if you need to be in an early group (because you have a pressing appointment at 2.45 (such as another exam at 3pm) or in a later group because you are busy with another exam until 1 pm.

Homework 

(i) Do the Homograph Pairs Exercise on page 30 of the Dispense. I shall put up the Answers in our Section of the page at the end of this week so that you can correct it yourselves;

(ii) Do the Exercise on Homophones on page 25 of the Dispense. I shall put up the Answers in our Section of the page at the end of this week so that you can correct it yourselves;

(iii) Do the Finding Homophones Exercise in our Section of the Moodle page. I shall put up the Answers in our Section of the page at the end of this week so that you can correct it yourselves;

(iv) You know which sections of the Test you are weakest on now, so work on those using all the practice material in our section of the page and in the Practice Exercises Section.

Lesson 8 Monday 13th May

Next week will be the last formal lesson. The week after that (Monday 27th May), there will be the end-of-Semester test during the lesson time (in Aula 5, Via Capponi).

We marked  the syllable structure analysis of 'drifts' and 'striped' and the 'Naming a Child' Exercise which you had done for Homework last week. 

I collected orally some of the Italian homonyms you had found: 'vite', 'sette', 'riso' and gave you two more: 'venti' and 'tasso'. We then went through (English) Homonyms on the slides 

We did two Dictations. Remember that there are 2nd Semester Practice  Dictations in the Sounds of English (includes Practice Exercises) Section on the main page which would be useful to do as exam preparation, particularly for those of you who are still making lots of mistakes in Dictation. N.B. Don't click from here, go via the main page!

Next week, we shall, as well as marking the Mock Exam ‘Daniel’ - on pages 34-36 of the Dispense, to be done as Homework and the syllable structure analyses, go through some points to remember when you do the test, but think of anything you are not sure about and would like clarification of ready to ask me then.

I shall put up the first half of the exam text in our section of the Moodle page  two or three days before the Test so that you can begin to transcribe it in order to be partially prepared for the exam when I shall give you the complete text. I shall also divide the class into four or five groups for the Dictation (as we did for End-of-1st Semester Test), with different times to begin and shall put up the lists in our section of the Moodle page.

I have put up another End-of-2nd Semester style Test for you to use for exam preparation if you wish: Lost in Translation II Semester Practice Exercise. The Answers are included.

Homework for the next lesson (20.05.19)

(i) Do the 'Daniel' Exercise on pages 34-36 of the Dispense Try to do it under exam conditions as a Mock Exam. Don't use any word from the text more than once in your answers. We shall mark it next week in class;

(ii) Make a syllable structure analysis of 'squelch' and 'splashed';

(iii) 

Lesson 7 Monday 6th May

We tried to do as much as possible in the lesson as there is so much material still to cover. We have two more lessons after this one: Lesson 8 next Monday (13th May), then Lesson 9 (Monday 20th May). The week after that, in the usual lesson time (Monday 27th May), we shall do the End-of-II Semester Test. In order to do a Mock Test so that you know what the real one will be like, I shall give you a Test to do as Homework after Lesson 8 and we shall mark it together in Lesson 9.

We marked Sentences 51-60 (p.40) and the syllable Structure Exercise on p.17. We finished marking the Happy Easter Exercise, including the Homophones Exercise, the words with schwa Exercise and the syllable structure analysis of 'sweet'. We also marked the syllable structure analysis of 'stripe' which you had done for Homework. 

We then moved on to Codas. If there is one consonant phoneme in the Coda, it is called a final phoneme and can be any consonant phoneme except /h/, /r/, /w/, or /j/. With two consonant phonemes in the coda it is called a two-consonant cluster and can be of two types: Type 1 which has one of five pre-final consonant phonemes (/m/, /n/, /η/, /s/ or /l/) followed by a final consonant and Type 2 which consists of a final consonant followed by one of 5 post final consonant phonemes (/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/ or /θ/). We looked at 3-consonant cluster Codas which are also of two types: Type 1: pre-final,  final,  post-final and Type 2: final,  post-final 1,   post-final 2 

We then went over 4-consonant clusters which can also be of two types: Type 1 which consists of a pre-final consonant followed by a final consonant followed by 2 post-final consonants and Type 2 which consists of a final consonant followed by 3 post-final consonants. Luckily this type of coda is quite rare as it is very difficult to pronounce! It is essential to remember that Syllable Structure Analysis is performed on phonemes (not letters) and that the word should be transcribed before you begin it!  Notes on Codas are available in a file in our section of the page: Syllable Structure Analysis: Codas and so are the instructions for How to make a syllable structure analysis.

We did two Dictations, one of invented words and one of 'normal' words.

We  talked briefly  about Homonyms: words which are identical graphically and phonologically but have different semantic meanings, such as  'well' or 'might'. 

Homework for the next lesson (13.05.19):

(i) Find five examples of Homonyms in Italian;

(ii) Make a syllable structure analysis of the word 'drifts';

(iii) Do the 'Naming a Child' Exercise on pages 33 (I forgot to tell you to do this at the lesson, but we need to do it as preparation for the Test!)

Lesson 6 Monday 29th April

We had a lot of Homework to mark this week. We marked the Phonemic Transcription Sentences numbers 36-50, the Consonant  Revision Exercise, including the Homophones in Text 2 and began to mark the Happy Easter Exercise. We didn't have time to finish it so we shall do so next week. We went through Syllabic Consonants (Dispense p.14) as the Sentences had already contained several examples of these, so it was more than time to learn what they are and how to use them!

We then continued to look at Syllable Structure Analysis, going quickly over what we had done last time on the general structure of the syllable (Onset - Centre - Coda) and as far as Type 1 two-consonant clusters in Onsets, and Type 2 two-consonant clusters. We then began to look at  three-consonant clusters for Onsets which always begin with pre-initial /s/ followed by one of 3 initial consonants ( /p/, /t/ /k/) and then by one of the 4 post-initial consonants (/l/,/r/,/w/ or /j/) .  We then moved on to Codas. If there is one consonant phoneme in the Coda, it is called a final phoneme and can be any consonant phoneme except /h/, /r/, /w/, or /j/. With two consonant phonemes in the coda it is called a two-consonant cluster and can be of two types: Type 1 which has one of five pre-final consonant phonemes (/m/, /n/, /η/, /s/ or /l/) followed by a final consonant and Type 2 which consists of a final consonant followed by one of 5 post final consonant phonemes (/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/ or /θ/. We did two Dictations, one of invented words and one of 'normal' words

Homework for the next lesson (06.05.19):

(i) Do numbers 51-60 of the Full Phonemic Transcription Sentences on pages 39-40 of the Dispense;

(ii) Find 10 more Homophones (from your reading, listening or knowledge);

(iii) Make a syllable structure analysis of the word 'sweet' (from the Happy Easter Exercise: if you had already done it, correct it if necessary). Make a syllable structure analysis of  the word 'stripe'. Remember that the first stage in syllable structure analysis is to transcribe the word.

Lesson 5 Monday 8th April

We marked Sentences 26-35 (pp.38-39). We then collected some of the Homophones: 'steel/'steal'; 'carrot'/'carat'/; 'gate/'gait'; ''plain'/'plane'; 'sell'/'cell'. We went over some 5-letter words where the graphic form and the phonemic transcription form seem to be identical- For the 4-letter words of this type we had found, for those ending in 't', or 'p', the plural 's' can be added to form a five-letter word, e.g. belts, nests, tests, rests, rents, vents, helps, steps. It has to be an unvoiced consonant for it to work so that the 's' is pronounced /s/. There are also the 5-letter words 'slept', 'swept' and 'spelt' which seem to be identical.  

We then continued to look at Syllable Structure Analysis: the centre (vowel phoneme), the onset (consonant phoneme[s]) and the coda (consonant phoneme[s]). We began to look at the onset and discovered that if it consists of only one consonant phoneme, that phoneme is described as an initial consonant and that any consonant phoneme can be an initial consonant except for /ʒ/ and /ŋ/.  We then began to look at 2 consonant clusters for onsets, of which there are two types: Type 1, which consists of pre-initial /s/ followed by one of six initial consonants: /t/, /p/. /m/, /n/, /k/ or /f/; Type 2 which consists of (one of) 15 initial consonants (/p/, /b/, /t/ ,/d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /v/, /Θ/, /s/, /∫/, /m/, /n/, /h/, /l/) followed by one of 4 post-initial consonants /l/,/r/,/w/ or /j/.

 Analysis is performed on phonemes (not letters) and the word should be transcribed before you begin it!   

We did two Dictations, one made up from some  words  invented by one of the groups last year.

 Our next lesson will be on Monday 29th April.

Homework for the next lesson (29.04.19):

Lots of time until the next lesson, so lots of Homework

(i) Do numbers 36-50 of the Full Phonemic Transcription Sentences on pages 39-40 of the 'Dispense';

(ii) Find 10 more Homophones (from your reading, listening or knowledge)

(iii) Finish the Consonant Revision Exercise on page 21  and also look for Homophones in the second text;

(iv)  Read through the notes on Syllable Structure Analysis on page 17-18 and do the Exercise on Syllable Structure Analysis (a first taste!) on p.17  ;

(v) Do the Happy Easter Exercise on pages 30 and 31 of the Dispense;

(vi) Do the Extra Dictations which I shall put in our section of the page.

I told you that we would have Lesson 5 next week on Monday 8th April and that then we would miss two lessons as there would be no lesson on Monday 15th April and no lesson on Monday 22nd April. Lesson 6 will therefore be on Monday 29th April (don't worry, I'll give you lots of Homework to do to prevent you being bored!).

We marked Sentences 16-25 and then went over the Points to Remember for Strong and Weak Forms on page 11. We  collected five of the homophones you had found: right/write, week/weak, weather/whether/wether, vain/vein/vane and in/inn.

We marked Numbers 6-10 of the Continuants Exercise on page 13. We went over some of the words from one of the Inter-semester Break Work exercises, words which seem to be identical between graphic and phonemic transcription forms, such as 'bed' - /bed/. We found lots of 3-letter words (net, let, set, pet, get, pen, ten, end, rent) and some 4-letter words (tent, send, sent, wend, went, lent). The element they all have in common is the vowel 'e' pronounced with the phoneme /e/, as none of the other vowel phonemes have the same form as the vowel letters.

We began to look at the other major area of work for the II Semester: Syllable Structure Analysis. We went through the notes on page 15 and on  page 16 up to "The sections of the syllable"

We did two Dictations, one featuring nasals and one featuring fish!

I have made available some II Semester Dictation Practice Exercises in the Sounds of English (includes Practice Exercises) Section on the main page. The first Exercises are by one of my colleagues and the Answer files include the graphic version of the words. This, as you know, is not the method I use, so don't get too used to it! The later Exercises are by me again (with no graphic versions!). In the first Exercises syllablc consonants do not have the dot under them marked, so provide it yourselves! Don't forget to do the Dictations in Louise William's section, following the Instructions given in last week's Lesson Summary.

Homework for next week's lesson (08.04.19)

(i) Find 5 more Homophones from your reading, listening, etc., not from the Dispense and not from Google!

(ii) Do Writing Full Transcription Sentences nos. 26-35 on pages 38-9 of the Dispense;

(iii) Find five examples of 5-letter words which seem to be identical between graphic form and transcription;

(iv) Read carefully through the material we did today on Syllable Structure Analysis (p.15 and first half of p.16).

Lesson 3 Monday 25th March

We marked the Homework, i.e. numbers 6-15 of the Writing Full Transcription Sentences on page 37, numbers 1-5 of the Continuants Exercise on page 13 as well as collecting some of the Homophones you had found, discussing their spelling, transcription and semantic meaning (by, bye, buy; rain, rein, reign; sees, seas, seize). When looking for your Homophones for homework, use your existing knowledge of words you know or words you meet when reading. Don't simply Google 'Homophones' and copy down five words! 

We did a dictation at the beginning of the lesson and another one at the end. 

We looked at some slides on Continuants as we needed to spend a bit more time on them as we went through them rather quickly last lesson. We saw that the continuant to use (/r/, /w/, or /j/) depends on the final phoneme of the first word of the pair and we discovered with vowel phonemes require which continuant.

We continued looking at the notes on Weak Forms on pages 9-10.  It is important not just to be able to recognise weak forms in transcription and be able to use them correctly in transcription, but also to incorporate them appropriately into your pronunciation in order to sound more natural. 

I have discovered that my colleague Louise Williams has recorded versions of Dictations which she used with her Sounds group in the 1st Semester and she has given us permission to use them for practice.

Go the Courses with Louise Williams on the main section of the page; scroll down past Study and Production of Tests material to Sounds of English material; Click on Sounds of English Semester 1 audio material practice book; from the bar menu on the right hand side, scroll down until you come to the link Dictation Lesson 2, Dictation Lesson 3, etc. Click on the link. The transcription of the words will appear, but try to ignore this and click on the sound icon and you will hear the words being dictated (only once and very quickly! I spoil you!). Write down the transcription and then check. 

Homework for next lesson:

(i) Do numbers 16-25 of the Writing Full Phonemic Transcription Sentences on page 38 of the Dispense;

(ii) Do numbers 6-10 of the Continuants Exercise on page 13;

(iii) Find 5 more Homophones and write them in the Homophones Chart at the end of the Dispense, together with the transcription; 

(iv) Read through all the material we did today on Weak Forms;

(v) Do at least one of the Dictations in Louise Williams' I Semester Audio book, as outlined above.

Lesson 2 Monday 18th March

I apologised for having had to cancel the lesson last week through illness. I gave back 

copies of the Inter-semester Break Work handed in last lesson for me to check that you had done it. Please remember that this was a compulsory piece of work and that anyone who has still not handed it in must do so as soon as possible.

We marked the Homework, i.e. the Exercise on p.2 and numbers 1-5 of the Writing full Transcription Sentences on page 37, and the rest of the Word Stress Exercise on page 3. We also looked at the notes on page 4.

We looked at the notes on Sentence Stress on pages 5-7 and learnt that even monosyllables can have the stress sign when they appear in continuous discourse and are "Content Words", that is, they are essential to the meaning of the sentence or clause (nouns or verbs, possibly adjectives or adverbs). "Function or Structure Words", those forms of words essential to grammatical structure but not essential to the message of a sentence  (pronouns, prepositions, articles, quantifiers, conjunctions as well as auxiliary verbs and modals) never have the stress sign in continuous discourse transcription (unless they are polysyllabic in which case they will have the stress sign according to which syllable is stressed). We then began to look at Weak Forms (p.8).

We talked about Homophones and I showed you the Homophone Chart at the end of the Dispense on which to write the homophones we find during lessons as well as the ones you will be finding each week for Homework. We added 'for', 'four' and 'fore' /fɔ:/ to the chart. 

We went (perhaps too quickly) through Continuants (pp.12-13) which you have already been used to seeing in full phonemic transcription but which you will now need to begin using actively when writing in full phonemic transcription.

We did two Dictations. 

Homework for next week's lesson:

(i) Find five more pairs (or triplets) or Homophones (not those we did in the lesson or those that you had found as part of the Inter-semester Break homework) and write out the two (or three, or even four) words and their transcription on the chart on Page 41 of the Dispense.

(ii)  Do numbers 6-15 of the Writing Full Phonemic Transcription Sentences on page 37 of the Dispense

(iii) Do nos 1-5 of the Exercise on Coninuants on page 13.

(iv) Read through all the material we did today on Stress and Weak Forms (up to and including p.8)

Lesson 1  Monday 4th March

After spending a lot of time checking who was here, who had signed up, why people hadn't signed up, etc., etc., we managed to start the lesson! There is a big problem with the number of places available in the Aula.

We began by brushing up our Reading Full Transcription skills and by doing so found out what will be the material for the 2nd Semester (by reading the cover page of the II Sem. Dispense); we then marked the Inter-semester Break Work together. I collected it in to check that it had been done! Those students who have not yet done this work, or had not brought a copy of it to the lesson, must do it and bring it to hand in to me at next week's lesson (or leave it for me in my pigeon-hole on the ground floor of VSR, number 23 of the set facing you as you go into the pigeon-holes room).  We shall deal with the Homophones part of this at the next lesson.

We did two Dictations.

We then looked at the Two New Phonemes /i/ and /u/ on pages 1-2 of the 'Dispense' and then began to look at Word Stress, reading the notes on page 4 and beginning to do the Exercise on page 3 together (finish for Homework)

Homework for next week's lesson:

 (i) Do the Exercise on page 2 of the 'Dispense'

(ii) Do numbers 1-5 of the "Full Phonemic Transcription Sentences" on page 37 of the 'Dispense'.

(iii) Do the rest of the Exercise on Word Stress on page 3

(iv) Have a look at the 'HappY Vowel' video in the Practice Section.