PHONOLOGY II - FINAL PROJECT

PHONOLOGY II UNIVERSIDAD MARIANO GALVEZ DE GUATEMALA

2019

STUDENT CHRISTOPHER SSADHID NÚÑEZ 076-19-17440.

TEACHER LIC. JULIO DEL ÁGUILA LICDA. SILVIA RENNEE MADRID CAREER PROFESORADO EN INGLES EN ED. MEDIA

INTRODUCTION Proper English pronunciation can be a big problem for some ESL learners and more difficult for some students than for others. A student’s native language determines, for the most part, the degree of difficulty and the types of difficulties students will have.

This digital portfolio gathers detailed information on various topics in the field of Phonology, from influential and important aspects in the English language to a series of exercises and activities that I will use once I develop them. Each specific topic is carefully developed, from a brief explanation to a series of examples and exercises that can contribute to its development. It should be noted that its consolidation is supported by videos from YouTube and online tests for the evaluation of knowledge and I also introduce some common pronunciation problems. A description of each problem will be followed by tips on correction, certain mistakes are the most common among ESL students all over the world. Here, you will see not only what they are, but also how to help your students overcome them.

THE SHAPE OF ENGLISH WORDS Syllable types Many pronunciation problems result from ESL students’ inability to produce the different syllable types of English. A consideration of these syllable types and how they differ from those of other languages will help in understanding these difficulties.

Let’s see some examples: C: Consonant V: Vowel Word Transcription Syllable type See (Siy) CV Sit (SIt) CVC Spit (SpIt) CCVC Spit (SpIts) CCVCC Sprint (SprIt) CCCVCC

OPEN AND CLOSED SYLLABLES What Is a Closed Syllable?

In its simplest form, a closed syllable is a vowel followed by a consonant.

Examples include cap, sit, and up.

What Is an Open Syllable?

An open syllable has a vowel at the end of the syllable. Nothing comes after the vowel, as in no, my, and we.

In this topic I can check knowledge through a worksheet. Students must read each word at the bottom of the page. Separate each word into syllables by drawing a slash mark (/) between the syllable. Then cut out each word and glue it under the correct heading.

CONSONANT CLUSTERS An important aspect of restrictions on syllable types involves consonant clusters and specifically the limited number of permitted combinations of consonants in initial and final clusters. A famous example which illustrates this limitation involves the distinction between the two nonsense words ‘blick’ and ‘bnick’. While the word ‘blick’ does not exist in English, it does seem to be a possible word of English.

Let’s see some examples: SNAKE

SPOON

PLUG

In English, the only consonant which can precede an /n/ in an initial cluster is /si. We have many words which begin with /sn/, such as ‘snow’, ‘snooze’, and ‘sneer’, but no words beginning with /pn/ or /kn/ (those spelled pn or kn, such as ‘pneumonia’ or ‘knee’ are pronounced without the /p/ or /k/). These clusters do occur in other languages. For example, in French, the word pneu (‘tire’) is pronounced with a /pn/ cluster, and in Russian, kniga (‘book’) is pronounced with a /kn/ cluster.

Initial clusters Initial consonant clusters are the complex sounds that are found at the beginning of English words. They are called clusters because each of the sounds in a cluster can be heard. Initial consonant clusters in English are formed by juxtaposing one or more stop consonants with one of three continuants: -l, -r, or s.

Final clusters Final consonant clusters are a cluster of consonants at the end of a word.

Most speakers pronounce consonant clusters quite well, although some are more difficult, especially when we get three or four together at the end of a word. MPTS: prompts, attempts, tempts, pre-empts. KSTS: texts, contexts.

LFTHS: twelfths.

The activity will consist of giving them a worksheet where they will find a series of drawings on the left, on the right side a blank space per word where they must complete the correct blends. Finally match them.

WORD STRESS AND VOWEL REDUCTION What is stress?

Stress is an intensity given to a syllable of speech by special effort in utterance, resulting in relative loudness. Stress involves making vowels longer and louder. When teaching students about stress in English, it is a good idea to exaggerate both of these properties. This is because in many other languages, stress involves simply making vowels louder or saying them at a higher pitch.

Cabbage

Cotton

Sentence

Canada

Poems are a good way to pull together some of these ideas. Teach a short poem line by line – modelling it and getting students to repeat it. Make sure rhythm and stress are good. When it's really well learnt, hand out the text and ask students to mark where is the stress and the schwa in each of the word.

MAYA ANGELOU “AWAKENING IN NEW YORK” Curtains forcing their will against the wind, children sleep, exchanging dreams with seraphim. The city drags itself awake on subway straps; and I, an alarm, awake as a rumor of war lie stretching into dawn unasked and unheeded.

What is schwa?

Schwa is the name for the most common sound in English. It is a weak, unstressed sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and prepositions. Here's a silly limerick to close what is ‘schwa’: A curvaceous young phoneme called schwa, Said "I never feel strong. It's bizarre!

I'm retiring and meek, And I always sound weak, But in frequency counts – I'm the star!"

To practice 'Schwa Sound' we must provide students with challenges, such as the following worksheet in which they must fill in the blanks with the correct word. Each of the words has a particular sound, so once they have finished placing them correctly we ask them to find in each word the 'Schwa sound' taking into account the pronunciation.

MAJOR AND MINOR STRESS  

Major stress: the loudest syllable in the word. In one-syllable words, that one syllable has the major stress (except for a handful of short function words like the, which might not have any stress at all).

Minor stress: syllables which are not completely unstressed, but are not as loud as the primary stress.

Accident

Elephant

Oxygen

Addition

Completion

Opinion

Calendar

Instrument

Vegetable

Diploma

Proportion

Conclusion

Students have to write 15 bisyllabic words with the major pronunciation in the first syllable and 20 bisyllabic words with the major pronunciation in the second syllable. Sentences should have a red dot for the major stress and a blue dot for the minor stress. For example:

PLACEMENT OF WORD STRESS Given the relationship between stress and the pronunciation of vowels in English, ESL students may want to know if there is any rule for the placement of stress. Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules. Thus, stress patterns must often be learned with each vocabulary item. However, in the sections

that follow, we provide a few generalizations regarding the placement of stress in English.

Two-syllable words The major stress on two-syllable words is more likely to fall on the first syllable if the word is a noun, and on the second syllable if the word is a verb.

Project

Conduct

Persuade

Contrast

Perfect

Pervert

Three-syllable words With words of three syllables, the major stress usually falls on the first or second syllable. In some exercises, major stress falls on the first syllable; in others, major stress falls on the second syllable.

Instrument

Commercial

Calendar

Vanilla

Curious

In pairs the students will place a red dot in the upper part of the syllables that present major stress, and a blue dot in the upper part of the syllable that present minor stress in the next words. This activity requires that at the end you have 5 verbs.

Conflict Perfect Contract Conflict Perfect Conduct Project Contrast

Contract Adequate Amazement Attention Attractive Average Banana Bicycle COMPOUNDS

Compound words are formed when two or more words are put together to form a new word with a new meaning. They can function as different parts of speech, which can dictate what form the compound takes on. For

example, the word ‘carry over’ is an open compound word when it’s used as a verb but it is closed when used as a noun and an adjective.

Examples: Cannot Fireworks Elsewhere Together Crosswalk

Baseball Grandmother Upside Sunflower Become

These compounds are sometimes written as one Word stress and vowel reduction word and sometimes as two separate words. The way in which they are written, however, does not affect their stress pattern:

airplane armchair

bedtime birthplace

eyelid farmhouse

In order to illustrate further the stress patterns of compounds, it is helpful to consider the differences between adjective-noun phrases and adjectivenoun compounds. In the adjective-noun phrases below, major stress falls on the noun and minor stress falls on the adjective.

That’s a black board, (a board that is black) He works in a green house, (a house that is green) I saw a black bird, (a bird that is black) In the adjective-noun compounds below, however, major stress falls on the adjective and minor stress falls on the noun.

That’s a blackboard, (a board for writing on—green or black) He works in a greenhouse, (a place to grow plants) I saw a blackbird, (a kind of bird)

Write five examples of compound words and use them in sentences, also providing both 'noun' and 'adjective' functions. For example: Birthday, anymore, monthly ticket, so on…

SUFFIXES Often, the suffix causes a spelling change to the original word. The -e ending of complicate and create disappears when the -ion suffix is added.

Other examples of spelling changes include:  beauty, duty + -ful → beautiful, dutiful (-y changes to i)

  

heavy, ready + -ness → heaviness, readiness (-y changes to i) able, possible + -ity → ability, possibility (-le changes to il) permit, omit + -ion → permission, omission (-t changes to ss)

Some examples: /-tion/ Major stress is always on the syllable before the suffix -tion: Perspire…… Perspiration

Communicate…… Communication

Administer ……. Administration

Appreciate……. Appreciation

Invite……. Invitation

Explain……. Explanation

0 Populace……. Population 0 0

0 0 0 Participate…….

Participation 0

To practice some suffixes, we can practice them at this URL: https://www.grammar-monster.com/key_stage_tests/suffixes_upper_key_stage_2.htm

CONNECTED SPEECH "The English speak so fast."

The reason, it seems, is that speech is a continuous flow of sounds, with no clear boundaries between each word. In spoken speech, we adapt our pronunciation to our audience and articulate with maximum economy of movement rather than maximum clarity. Connected speech means that when we speak a language, words have some effect on each other. We do not always pronounce words completely separately with a neat pause in between. In fact, many words affect each other when you put them into phrases and sentences. The end sound of one word often affects the beginning of the next word.

THE STRESS-TIMED RHYTHM OF ENGLISH A stress-timed language is a language where the stressed syllables are said at approximately regular intervals, and unstressed syllables shorten to fit this rhythm. Stress-timed languages can be compared with syllable-timed ones, where each syllable takes roughly the same amount of time. Unlike English, many languages of the world are syllable-timed. This means that the amount of time required to say a sentence depends on the number of syllables, not on the number of stresses.

The stress-timed nature of English can be illustrated by the sentences below:

Let’s try with Spanish. Here are some examples to help: 1. What’s his name?

2. What the hell’s his name?

3. ¿Cuál es su nombre?

4. ¿Cómo diablos se llama él?  English is stress timed because it takes approximately the same amount of time to say 1 and 2.  Spanish is syllable-timed because it takes longer to say 4 than 3.

Activity Write one example of stress-timed and syllable-timed stress taking into account the example that was given before and then share it with the whole class.

:

PLACEMENT OF STRESS IN SENTENCES Content versus function words -What are content words?

Content words are those words that express independent meaning.

Included in this group are:  Nouns  Main Verbs  Adverbs  Adjectives  Question Words (e.g. why, when, what)  Demonstratives (this, that, these, those)

-What are function words?

Function words are words that have little or no meaning in themselves, but which express grammatical relationships.

Function words include:  Articles (a, an, the)  Prepositions (e.g. at, to, of)  Auxiliaries (e.g. will, have and forms of the verb be)  Pronouns (e.g. her, him, it, them)  Conjunctions (e.g. and, or, as, that)  Relative pronouns (e.g. that, which, who)

In this activity I will give the students a sentence list where they must identify the Content words and Function words. For this they must highlight the function words and underline the content words.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Mary has lived in England for ten years. (EXAMPLE) He's going to fly to Chicago next week.

I don't understand this chapter of the book.

The children will be swimming in the ocean this time next week.

John had eaten lunch before his colleague arrived.

The best time to study is early in the morning or late in the evening.

The trees along the river are beginning to blossom.

Our friends called us yesterday and asked if we'd like to visit them next month.

9. You'll be happy to know that she's decided to take the position.

CONTRASTIVE STRESS A stress imposed on a word or syllable contrary to its normal accentuation in order to contrast it with an alternative word or syllable or to focus attention on it, as the stress given to the normally unstressed word.    

Speaker A: I hear that Susan bought another second-hand sweater.

Speaker B: No, she bought a NEW sweater.

Speaker A: Did Susan buy a new sweater or a second-hand one?

Speaker B: She bought a NEW sweater.

We might expect the major sentence stress in Speaker B’s responses to fall on ‘sweater’ because it is the final content word of both sentences. However, notice that it is the contrasted information in Speaker B’s responses that receives major sentence stress, i.e., the fact that the sweater is new. This contrastive stress can be even heavier and louder than the normal major sentence stress, particularly in sentences where a contradiction is being made.

Another example:  A: Are you going to the theatre?  B: No, I’m coming from the theatre.

I will give them a series of sentences in which they should underline the contrastive stress according to the emphasize.

INTONATION What is intonation?

Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say, the way the voice rises and falls when speaking, in other words the music of the language. Just as words have stressed syllables, sentences have regular patterns of stressed words.

There are two basic patterns of intonation in English: falling intonation and rising intonation. In the following examples a downward arrow (➘) indicates a fall in intonation and an upward arrow (➚) indicates a rise in intonation.

Final Intonation (➘) (The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence.) It is commonly found in statements, commands, wh-questions (information questions), confirmatory question tags and exclamations.



Statements o Nice to meet ↘you. o I’ll be back in a ↘minute. o She doesn’t live here ↘anymore. o Dad wants to change his ↘car. o Here is the weather ↘forecast.

 Commands o Write your name ↘here. o Show me what you’ve ↘written. o Leave it on the ↘desk. o Take that picture ↘ down. o Throw that ↘out. 

Wh- questions (requesting information.) (questions beginning with 'who', 'what', 'why', 'where', 'when', 'which', and 'how') o What country do you come ↘from? o Where do you ↘work? o Which of them do you ↘prefer? o When does the shop ↘open? o How many books have you ↘bought?

Questions Tags that are statements requesting confirmation rather than questions. o He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ↘he? o She's such a nuisance, isn't ↘she? o I failed the test because I didn't revise, did ↘ I? o It doesn't seem to bother him much, does ↘ it?  Exclamations o How nice of ↘ you! o That's just what I ↘need! o You don't ↘ say! o What a beautiful ↘ voice! o That's a ↘surprise! 

Rising Intonation (➚) (The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence.) Rising intonation invites the speaker to continue talking. It is normally used with yes/no questions, and question tags that are real questions. 

Yes/no Questions (Questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'.) o Do you like your new ➚ teacher? o Have you finished ➚already?

o May I borrow your ➚dictionary? o Do you have any ➚magazines? o Do you sell ➚stamps? 

Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real questions). o We've met already, ➚haven't we? o You like fish, ➚don't you? o You're a new student ➚aren't you? o The view is beautiful, ➚isn't it?

Students will listen to and watch a video of a normal conversation in English. They should pay attention to how people express themselves according to what they are trying to say, identifying intonation (increasing and decreasing voice). The video relates a conversation of three people, so the class will be divided into three groups for them to interpret the dialogue in the right way.

Non-final intonation (➚➘➚) Complex sentences often have two separate intonation patterns. An example of such a sentence is provided below. o When John left the ➚ house ➘ //it was ➚ raining➘. o The man you say you met ➚ yesterday ➘ // has left ➚ town ➘.

o After we have ➚ dinner ➘ // we’ll go to a ➚ movie ➘.

Continue rising (➚➘) (The intonation rises and then falls.) We use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished thoughts and conditional sentences. 

Choices (alternative questions.) o Are you having ➚soup or ➘salad? o Is John leaving on ➚Thursday or ➘Friday? o Does he speak ➚German or ➘French? o Is your name ➚Ava or ➘Eva?

 Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling) Intonation falls on the last item to show that the list is finished. o We've got ➚apples, ➚pears, ➚bananas and ➘oranges o The sweater comes in ➚blue, ➚white pink and ➘black o I like ➚football, ➚tennis, ➚basketball and ➘volleyball. o I bought ➚a tee-shirt, a ➚skirt and a ➘handbag.  Unfinished thoughts (partial statements) o Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚leather is ➘nice... (but I don't like it.) o What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚fish was ➘good... (but the rest wasn't great).

 Conditional sentences (The tone rises in the first clause and falls gradually in the second clause.) o If he ➚calls, ask him to leave a ➘message. o Unless he ➚insists, I'm not going to ➘go.

Tag questions Tag questions can display either final rising-falling or final rising intonation contours. Their meaning will differ depending on which of these contours is used. Pronounce the following tag questions with the intonation contours indicated: Deanna’s ➘helpful, ➚isn’t she?

Deanna’s ➘helpful, ➘isn’t she?

In a palette we will stick a piece of paper that says: 'Simple sentence' 'Tag questions' 'Conditional sentences' 'Complete sentences 'Choices' 'Lists' 'Unfinished thoughts' ‘Interrogative’. Once all students have them, I will pronounce a series of sentences or statements from different categories, it means that they should pay attention to the way I pronounce/transmit them and choose the correct category to which it belongs, raising their palettes.

The sentences, statements, etc., will be the following: 1. The man you say you met yesterday has left town.

2. Are you having soup or salad?

3. We've got apples, pears, bananas and TAG QUESTIONS oranges 4. Do you like my new handbag? Well the leather is nice... but I don't like it.

5. Deanna’s helpful, isn’t she?

6. Snow is white, isn't it?

7. The moon goes around the earth, doesn't it?

8. I am learning a lot in the college.

9. John left town?

10. Do you want coffee or tea?

THE PRONUNCIATION OF FUNCTION WORDS Strong forms and weak forms When function words are spoken in isolation, they are stressed; that is, they are pronounced in their strong form. In connected speech, where function words are normally unstressed; they are pronounced in their weak form.

The following images can be used as a reference to teach pronunciation to our students, in a way that serves as support material.

This activity will consist in giving a paragraph to our students, where they will have to find or identify the words that present weak and strong forms.

Paragraph with answers: Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. First, the good news. The dive that you just watched in Olympic Diving event was the winning dive. Now the bad news. The swimming pool was empty.

WORDS AND PHRASES Due to the reduction of function words in phrases, some phrases can sound like single words. Consider the following sentences:

When spoken at a normal conversational rate, the phrase ‘all of her’ and the name ‘Oliver’ are pronounced in the same way. In both cases, the first syllable has major stress and the second and third syllables are unstressed.

CONTRACTIONS We use contractions in everyday speech and informal writing.

Contractions, which are sometimes called ‘short forms’, commonly combine a pronoun or noun and a verb, or a verb and not, in a shorter form.

Contractions are usually not appropriate in formal writing.

CONTRACTIONS WITH ‘WILL’ AND ‘HAVE’ The auxiliary verbs ‘will’ and ‘have’ are contracted to the single consonants /l/ and /v/ if the preceding word ends with a vowel sound, as in the (A) sentences below. If the preceding word ends with a consonant, they are usually pronounced as /al/ and /av/, as in the (B) sentences below.  A They’ll arrive soon. (θeyl ərayv suwn) They’ve finished. (θeyv finiʃt)  B John’11 arrive soon. (dʒanəl ərayv suwn)  The men have finished. (ðe mɛn əv finiʃt) P/Q I you he she it we

WILL I'll - I will you'll -you will he'll - he will she'll - she will it'll - it will we'll - we will

HAVE/HAS I've -I have you've - you have he's - he has she's - she has it's - it has we've - we have

they that who what where when why how

they'll - they will that'll - that will who'll - who will what'll - what will where'll - where will when'll - when will why'll - why will how'll - how will

they've - they have that's - that has who's - who has what's - what has where's - where has when's - when has why's - why has how's - how has

CONTRACTIONS WITH WOULD AND HAD Contractions with ‘would’ and ‘had’ When contracted, the auxiliaries ‘would’ and ‘had’ are both pronounced as /d/ or /ad/ depending on the preceding sound, as was the case with ‘will’ and ‘have’. ‘Would’ and ‘had’ are contracted to the single consonant /d/ if the preceding word ends with a vowel, as in the (A) sentences below.

If the preceding word ends with a consonant, they are usually pronounced as /ad/, as in the (B) sentences below.

 A I’d like to see you.

He’d never seen it before.  B The boss would like to see you.

Bob had never seen it before.

P/Q I you he she it we they that who what where when why how

WOULD I'd - I would you'd - you would he'd - he would she'd - she would it'd - it would we'd - we would they'd - they would that'd - that would who'd - who would what'd - what would where'd - where would when'd - when would why'd - why would how'd - how would

HAD I'd - I had you'd - you had he'd - he had she'd - she had it'd - it had we'd - we had they'd - they had that'd - that had who'd - who had what'd - what had where'd - where had when'd - when had why'd - why had how'd - how had

CONTRACTIONS WITH ‘IS’ ‘HAS’ Contractions with ‘is ’and ‘has’ When ‘is’ and ‘has’ are contracted they are also indistinguishable. The pronunciation of these forms follows the Plural Rule.

P/Q he she it that who what where when why how

IS he's - he is she's - she is it's (or 'tis) - it is that's - that is who's - who is what's/what're - what is/what are where's - where is when's - when is why's - why is how's - how is

HAS he's - he has she's - she has it's - it has that's - that has who's - who has what's - what has where's - where has when's - when has why's - why has how's - how has

CONTRACTIONS WITH NOT Contractions with ‘not’ Contractions are also formed with auxiliary verbs and ‘not’. Because contractions with ‘not’ are stressed, the strong form of the auxiliary is used.

NOT (VERB) is not are not was not were not have not has not had not will not would not do not does not did not cannot could not should not might not must not

CONTRACTION isn't aren't wasn't weren't haven't hasn't hadn't won't wouldn't don't doesn't didn't can't couldn't shouldn't mightn't mustn't

Individually I give them a worksheet where they must choose and write the contraction that corresponds to each exercise. Then practice the correct sound with a video that englobes many of them (have students repeat along with the person in the video clip).

LINKING WORDS At its simplest, linking is the merging of multiple words together until they sound as if they are only one word. Native speakers of English all do this naturally. Linking is an advanced topic for non-native speakers, but learning to correctly link words can result in significantly more fluid and fluent sounding English speech.

Linking consonants to vowels When a word that ends with a consonant is followed by a word that begins with a vowel, the consonant seems to become part of the following word.

This is especially true when the word beginning with a vowel is a function word.

For example, in the phrase: turn off... we write it like this:

turn off

we say it like this:

tur-noff

In the question: Can I have a bit of egg?

We write it like this:

Can I have a bit of egg?

We say it like this:

ca-ni-ha-va-bi-to-vegg?

Linking consonants to consonants When a word that ends with a stop consonant is followed by a word that begins with a consonant, the stop consonant is usually not released. That is, the tongue or lips will move to the place of articulation of the stop consonant and then move immediately to the place of articulation for the next consonant.

 Cancer‿research: They specialize in cancer‿research.  Feel‿like: I feel‿like having pizza for lunch.  Enough‿for: That's enough‿for now.

Linking identical consonants Very often the consonant that ends one word is identical to the consonant that begins the next word. When this happens, the two consonants are usually pronounced as one long consonant. Pronounce the following short phrases to see that this is the case.

Linking Vowel to Vowel When one word ends with a vowel sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound, we link the words with a sort of /y/ or /w/ sound. It depends on the shape of our mouth at the end of the first word.

We write We say /eɪ/ payyall pay all the end /i:/ theyend /aɪ/ lieyon lie on Linking vowels to semi-vowels When a word ends with a tense vowel, such as / iy /, /ey/, /uw/, or /ow/, and the next word begins with the same semi-vowel that ends the tense vowel, these will be linked like identical consonants.

I am going to give them a sheet with the lyrics of the song 'Stressed out' from the band Twenty-One Pilots with words that present ‘linking words’.

Once they have the material, I will ask them to listen to the song, address themselves with the lyrics, and then sing with an emphasis on those parts (underlined words).

Stressed out – Twenty-One Pilots I wish I found some better sounds no one's ever heard I wish I had a better voice that sang some better words I wish I found some chords in an order that is new I wish I didn't have to rhyme every time I sang I was told when I get older all my fears would shrink But now I'm insecure and I care what people think My name's "Blurryface" and I care what you think My name's "Blurryface" and I care what you think [Chorus] Wish we could turn back time to the good old days When our momma sang us to sleep But now we're stressed out (bis)

stressed out Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young How come? I'm never able to identify where it's coming from I'd make a candle out of it if I ever found it Try to sell it? Never sell out of it I'd probably only sell one It'd be to my brother because we have the same nose Same clothes homegrown A stone's throw from a creek we used to roam But it would remind us of when nothing really mattered Out of student loans and treehouse homes We all would take the latter My name's "Blurryface" and I care what you think My name's "Blurryface" and I care what you think [Chorus] Wish we could turn back time to the good old days When our momma sang us to sleep But now we're stressed out (bis) We used to play pretend, give each other different names We would build a rocket ship and then we'd fly it far away Used to dream of outer space, but now they're laughing at our face Saying, "wake up, you need to make money" (bis) [Chorus] Wish we could turn back time to the good old days When our momma sang us to sleep But now we're stressed out (bis) We used to play pretend. We used to play pretend Money We used to play pretend. wake up, you need the money (bis) We used to play pretend, give each other different names We would build a rocket ship and then we'd fly it far away Used to dream of outer space, but now they're laughing at our face Saying, "wake up, you need to make money"

DELETION OF CONSONANTS Consonant deletion occurs whenever a consonant in syllable-initial or syllable-final position is omitted. Consonants may simply be omitted from the beginning or ends of syllables. Whenever consonants in clusters are omitted this is not considered to be consonant deletion but the process of cluster reduction. This often happens when /t/ or /d/ sounds are preceded and followed by other consonant sounds, like /nd/, /stw/, /ld/, etc.

For example, it’s relatively uncommon (even for highly proficient English speakers) to pronounce the consecutive consonants /stw/ between these two words: “Last week” /stw/ In order to avoid this difficult combination, we naturally delete the /t/ sound.

“Last week” → “Last week” → “Las week”

The students will form groups of two where they will read, analyze, mark the letter and highlight in which part of the sentence a consonant is omitted (Deletion).

1. live in the East Village.

2. Can you come to the West Side?

3. Will you hold my bag?

4. It was the best day of my life.

5. I’m a first generation immigrant.

6. Visit the white sand beaches!

7. That must be hard.

8. Just don’t get caught.

9. I need to return Honduras the next month.

10. This is my last offer.

11. Joan called and said she was running late.

12. Please stand back from the yellow line 13. That does sound familiar.

14. We're planning a big weekend project.

15. She moved into an apartment in the city.

ASSIMILATION The linking of consonants to consonants often causes a change in the place of articulation of the first consonant. This is known as assimilation because the first consonant becomes more like (i.e., assimilates to) the second one.

Assimilation of nasals One very striking example of assimilation occurs with the final nasal consonants of function words. In the examples below, the final /n/ sound of a function word assimilates in place of articulation to a following stop consonant. This is particularly true in casual speech.

For example:     

Sentence They got nothing on‿you.

I can‿go.

I can‿believe it.

I can’t‿believe it.

I don’t‿believe it.

Assimilation N→M N→M N→M Nt→Mp Nt→Mp

I will give my students the lyrics of the song Sugar de Maroon 5 on a sheet of paper, which contains several statements representing the assimilation of nasals. They should find each one according to the pronunciation so I will put the background song from YouTube.

Sugar - Maroon 5 I'm hurting ‿ baby, I'm broken ‿ down I need your loving, loving ‿ I need it now When I'm ‿ without you I'm something weak You got me begging Begging, ‿ I'm on my knees I don't ‿ wanna be needing ‿ your love I just wanna be deep in your love And it's killing ‿ me when you're away Ooh, baby, 'Cause I really don't ‿ care where you are I just wanna be there where you are And I gotta get one little taste Your sugar Yes, please Won't ‿ you come and put it down on ‿ me I'm right here, 'cause I need Little love and little sympathy

Yeah you show me good loving ‿ Make it alright Need a little sweetness in my life Your sugar Yes, please Won't ‿ you come and put it down on ‿ me My broken pieces You pick them up Don't ‿ leave me hanging, ‿ hanging Come give me some When I'm ‿ without ya I'm ‿ so insecure You are the one thing The one thing, I'm living ‿ for I don't ‿ wanna be needing ‿ your love I just wanna be deep in your love And it's killing ‿ me when you're away Ooh, baby, 'Cause I really don't ‿ care where you are I just wanna be there where you are And I gotta get one little taste Your sugar Yes, please Won't ‿ you come and put it down on ‿ me I'm right here, 'cause I need Little love and little sympathy Yeah you show me good loving ‿ Make it alright Need a little sweetness in my life Your sugar Yes, please Won't ‿ you come and put it down on ‿ me Yeah I want that red velvet I want that sugar sweet Don't let nobody touch it Unless that somebody's me I gotta be a man There ain't no other way 'Cause girl you're hotter than southern California Bay I don't ‿ wanna play no games I don't ‿ gotta be afraid Don't ‿ give all that shy shit

No make up on, that's my Your sugar Yes, please Won't ‿ you come and put it down on ‿ me I'm right here, 'cause I need Little love and little sympathy Yeah you show me good loving ‿ Make it alright Need a little sweetness in my life Your sugar Yes, please Won't ‿ you come and put it down on ‿ me

PALATALIZATION Palatalization, in phonetics, the production of consonants with the blade, or front, of the tongue drawn up farther toward the roof of the mouth (hard palate) than in their normal pronunciation. It is called palatalization because the tooth ridge sounds /t/ and /d/ are pronounced further back in the mouth, closer to the hard palate, in the same place as the semivowel /y/ is pronounced. Palatalization occurs regularly with words such as ‘did’ and ‘what’ when they occur before words that begin with the semivowel /y/. It is also common for /s/ and /z/ to be pronounced as /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ when they occur before a word beginning with /y/.

Consider the pronunciation of the following sentence: Did you tell him what you saw? [dɪdʒə tɛl əm watjə sa?]

Several things happen in the pronunciation of this sentence: 1. The final /dʒ / of ‘did’ and the initial /y/ of ‘you’ are pronounced as the consonant /d/.

2. The vowel of the word ‘you’ is reduced to schwa. The two words ‘did’ and ‘you’ are often pronounced as a single syllable: /dʒe/ 3. The word ‘him’ is reduced to / am/, the initial consonant being dropped and the vowel being reduced to schwa.

4. The final /t/ of ‘what’ and the initial /y/ of ‘you’ are pronounced as the consonant sound /tʃ/.

5. Again the vowel of the word ‘you’ is reduced to schwa.

COMMON PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS English vowels ESL students generally have difficulty producing English vowel distinctions.

This is because there are more vowels in English than in most other languages.

Therefore, the small differences in tongue positioning between the five front vowels and the five back vowels of English may pose problems for second

language learners who are accustomed to making only two distinctions in tongue height in the front and back of the mouth.

Problem Tense Vs Lax vowels

The distinction between tense and lax vowel pairs of English almost always creates problems. Second language learners often produce the two vowels of each pair identically, using neither the tense nor the lax vowel, but a vowel between the two. Failure to make these distinctions can lead to misunderstandings. Words such as ‘sleep’, ‘taste’, and ‘stewed’ may be heard by English speakers as ‘slip’, ‘test’, and ‘stood’ respectively. Before working on the tense/lax distinction, we recommend that you begin by concentrating on the four tense vowels of English, the vowels /iy/, /ey/, /uw/, and /ow/ as in ‘beat’, ‘bait’, ‘boot’, and ‘boat’. Students generally produce a pure form of the vowel without the following semi-vowel, /y / or / w/. Thus, the vowel they produce is shorter than the equivalent in English and has no tongue movement during its production.

Tips for teaching tense vowels 1. Exaggerate your pronunciation of each vowel sound in ‘bee’, ‘bay’, boo’, and ‘bow’. In saying /iy / and /ey/, be sure that you spread your lips. Tell the student to smile when pronouncing these vowels. With /uw/ and /ow/, be sure that your lips are rounded.

2. To emphasize that all these vowels are long, pretend you are stretching an imaginary elastic band.

3. Work on each vowel in isolation. Begin with ley / as this vowel involves more tongue movement than the other tense vowels. Have the students produce a very long ley/: [eeeeyyyy]. Repeat the procedure for the other three vowels.

4. Do linking exercises in which a tense vowel is followed by a word beginning with another vowel. In linking the two vowels, students are more likely to produce the desired semi-vowel, /y / or /w/, as part of the tense vowel.

5. Have students concentrate on lengthening the vowels. It is good to begin with singlesyllable words that end with these vowels: ‘bee’, ‘pay’, ‘boo’, low’.

Tips for teaching lax vowels 1. Illustrate the lax vowels by relaxing your body when producing them. Be sure that your mouth is relaxed. Your lips should not be too spread for /i/ and /e/ or too rounded for /u/.

2. To emphasize that these vowels are short, bring your hands together quickly in a clapping motion.

3. Have the students pronounce words that contain these vowels, concentrating on relaxing the facial muscles.

4. Point out that the lax vowels do not occur at the end of a word in English.

Tips for teaching the tense/lax distinction 1. After you have taught the tense and lax vowels separately, have students distinguish between them in minimal pairs. Be sure that you do both

recognition and production activities. In this way, students can determine which member of the pair gives them the most difficulty

2. Work on the tense/lax distinction should also be done with minimal pair sentences. 

Don’t sleep on the subway platform.

Don’t slip on the subway platform.



They’re going to taste the wine They’re going to test that wine.



I read Luke. (A book of the bible) I read Look. (Magazine)

For this activity I will form groups of 2 people. I will give them the following pairs of strange phrases where it is clearly distinguished whether it is short or long vowels. The challenge is that they must pronounce the words correctly and guess if it is short or long sound. 

The Letter A—Short pronunciation: "My hat sat on the mat."; Long Pronunciation: "He ate the date on my plate."



The Letter E—Short pronunciation: "She let her pet get wet."; Long Pronunciation: "His feet beat a neat retreat."



The Letter I—Short pronunciation: "Spit out that pit and I quit!"; Long Pronunciation: "The site of the bite from the mite was red."



The Letter O—Short pronunciation: "That spot on the pot's got rot."; Long Pronunciation: "I wrote the quote on the note."



The Letter U—Short pronunciation: "He cut the nut with a knife from his hut."; Long Pronunciation: "The mute on his lute was acute."

Problem Aspiration: /p/, /t/, and /k/ Students fail to aspirate the voiceless stops /p/, Itl, and Ikl at the beginning of a word. Therefore, ‘plot’, ‘tot’, and ‘cot’ may sound like ‘blot’, ‘dot’, and got.

Tips: 1. A good way to begin teaching aspiration is to make the students aware that aspiration is the puff of air that accompanies the release of the consonant.

2. Tell the students that the puff of air that accompanies these voiceless stops is much like the /h/ sound in a word such as ‘hot’. Have students practise words beginning with /h/ and then have them place a voiceless stop in front of these words.

Problem Voicing of fricatives Many students are unable to distinguish voiced and voiceless fricatives.

Most commonly, they will be able to produce voiceless fricatives but not voiced ones. v ð z ʒ

as in ‘vote’ or ‘love’ ‘then’ or ‘breathe’ ‘zoo’ or ‘rose’ ‘beige’ or ‘measure’

Tips 1. As vowels are always voiced, they can be useful in teaching students to voice fricatives. Have students place their fingers lightly on their throat while making a prolonged /a/. Point out that they should feel some vibration of the vocal cords when the vowel is pronounced. Next, have them produce /a/ followed by /z/ concentrating on maintaining the voice: [aaazzzaaazzz].

While pronouncing this sequence, students should feel their throats, put a hand on the top of their head, or cover their ears with their hands. If there is sufficient voicing of the consonant, they should feel the vibration.

2. Once students are able to voice the fricatives, provide comprehension and production practice of the voiced/voiceless distinction using minimal pairs.

3. Point out that vowels are longer before voiced fricatives than before their voiceless counterparts. Making the vowel longer before voiced fricatives will help students to distinguish between minimal pairs such as below.

Problem Final consonant clusters Final consonant clusters such as /kt/ as in ‘worked’, /ʃt/ as in ‘washed’, /dʒd/ as in ‘judged’, and /ld/ as in ‘filed’ are often difficult for learners to produce. The addition of grammatical endings produces many word-final clusters, and an inability to produce such clusters is often misinterpreted as a grammatical problem.

Tips 1. Difficult final consonant clusters can be practised using two words. For example, to practise the final cluster /Id/ as in ‘field’, use the phrase ‘feel down’. The students can gradually eliminate more and more of the second word. o feel down→feel dow→feeld→ field 2. Practice consonant clusters created through the addition of grammatical endings. This will help students understand the importance of such clusters in conveying meaning. For example, contrast the following two sentences: o I watch a lot of TV o I watched a lot of TV 3. Have students produce syllables with final consonant clusters of increasing complexity. o bread class car feels tax (/ ks/) o brand clasp card field taxed (/kst/) o brands clasps cards fields texts (ksts/

For this activity I will make small pieces of paper with a digit written for each student. The number to give will be according to the choice of the student, then I will show them on the board a series of words that include ‘consonant clusters’ and I will choose any number given and then ask them to pronounce the word correctly. The words will be: twelfths, tests, wasps, cranberry, crane, taxed, cranefly, swizzle, swollen, whippersnapper, speckle, splurge, spritzer, sprocket and squirrel.

Problem /θ/ and /ð/ as in ‘think’ and ‘this’ Almost without exception, /θ/ and /ð/ are problematic for ESL students.

The particular native language of a student usually determines which sounds will be substituted: /t/, /s/, or /f/ for /θ/; and /d/, /z/, or /v/ for /ð/. In general, a voiceless sound will be substituted for the voiceless /θ/ and a voiced sound for the voiced /ð/.

Tips 1. As these sounds are fricatives, make sure that students produce them without stopping the airstream. It is helpful to have students place their tongue between their teeth.

2. Most of the ordinal numbers contain the /θ/ sound: ‘third’, ‘fourth’, ‘fifth’, etc. Therefore, practising the date or birth dates provides useful practice with the /θ/ sound.

I will make a poster with different tongue twisters using the sounds /θ/ and /ð/. The class will be divided into two groups, each of which must practice their tongue twisters and then share them in the class.

Problem English / r/ ESL students generally require work in learning to produce the English /r/.

Most languages have an /r/ sound, but the particular way in which /r/ sounds are pronounced varies greatly from language to language. Learners commonly produce the English Irl as a trill, a sound made when the tip of the tongue touches the tooth ridge repeatedly. Alternatively, learners may produce the English /r/ as a uvular sound, a sound made when the back of the tongue approaches the uvula.

Tips 1. Have students pronounce a prolonged [aaaaaa], gradually curling the tip of the tongue back. Make sure that they do not touch the tooth ridge with the tip of the tongue and that their lips become slightly rounded. Then have them uncurl the tongue and unround the lips so that the sequence [aaarrraaa] is produced.

2. Point out that the / r / sound is made with the tip of the tongue curled back and not touching the tooth ridge. This is useful information for those students who are producing a trill.

3. Contrast /r/ with the flap sound /D/ in words such as ‘putting’ and ‘pudding’. Point out that the tongue touches the tooth ridge momentarily in pronouncing a flap, but does not touch the tooth ridge at all in pronouncing /r/.

In the next activity I will form two groups. One of them will have a dialogue and the other will have an oral reading. These two texts have in particular the variation of the letter r, reason why it will work as improvement of the correct pronunciation.

Dialog: Q. What’s wrong?

A. Nothing. Just rehearsing my lines.

Q. What for? Are you performing in a play?

A. It’s called “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Q. Never heard of it.

A. Really? It’s the most popular play around.

Q. Are you memorizing or just trying to remember?

A. I’m trying to concentrate.

A. Sorry.

Oral Reading: Dear Laura: You’re probably wondering why I’m writing this letter so hurriedly. My trip to Europe has been a real treasure. Yesterday, I boarded a train for the southern area of Germany. Ever since we crossed the Rhine River, it’s been a series of rolling hills and breath-taking views. The Bavarian Forest is right out of a fairy tale. Tomorrow we head for Switzerland. Can’t wait for the roller coaster journey across the Alps. Well, I’d better get this card in the mail. See you in Ireland!

Sincerely yours, Roland

STRESS, RHYTHM, AND INTONATION All students will need practice in English stress, rhythm, and intonation.

These are key elements of English pronunciation and, if mastered, can greatly increase the comprehensibility of learners’ speech. In all contextualized pronunciation practice, the teacher should be sure that students are producing appropriate English stress and intonation patterns.

Problem Stress A stressed or accented syllable is one that is more prominent than the surrounding syllables. It is generally agreed that stress (or prominence) may be marked by three variables: length, pitch, and loudness. Each of these variables may be present or absent to different degrees in different languages.

Tips 1. Develop mnemonic devices for indicating stress. For example, the teacher could indicate stressed syllables with a quick downward hand motion.

2. Use exaggeration of both length and loudness in order to focus students’ attention on stressed syllables. Remember that if students speak a language that indicates stress differently from American English, they may have difficulty hearing stressed syllables.

Problem Word stress Stress in English can fall on almost any syllable of a word. In many other languages, word stress regularly falls on the same syllable. Students who speak such languages may have difficulty in changing the location of the stress for different vocabulary items.

Tips 1. When teaching new vocabulary items, always ensure that the students know how to stress the item properly.

2. Give students related sets of words that display different stress patterns and have them practise shifting the major stress, e.g.: photograph photography photographic 3. A variation on the above tip involves using nonsense words and having students shift the stress. When nonsense words are used they should resemble

English words which show the pattern in question, e.g.: cortoplate, cortoplaty, cortoplatic.

Problem Rhythm The characteristic rhythm of English is closely bound up with the correct pronunciation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Vowels in unstressed syllables are reduced and vowels in stressed syllables are longer and spoken with greater volume.

Tips 1. A very good technique for teaching rhythm involves the recitation of rotelearned lists: numbers, the days of the week, the months of the year, the alphabet, etc. The teacher can vary the rhythm of the recitation task by having students group the members of the list in different ways. For example, students can group the numbers in fours or fives or tens.

2. Nursery rhymes are also excellent for practising rhythm. Nursery rhymes such as ‘Mary had a little lamb’ and ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill’ are very useful in practising rhythm.

Problem Intonation Students should practise all the characteristic intonation patterns of English: final rising as used in yes-no questions; final rising-falling as used in statements, commands and wh questions; non-final rising-falling as used in complex sentences; and non-final rising as used in lists.

Tip Always include intonation practice in the pronunciation class. Any dialogues or sentences can be used for this work.

To practice intonation, stress and rhythm I will use this reading called Vanka by Anton Chekhov. Students should give the correct emphasis to each word in the story in order to put into practice what has been taught.

VANKA ZHUKOV, a boy of nine, who had been for three months apprenticed to Alyahin the shoemaker, was sitting up on Christmas Eve. Waiting till his master and mistress and their workmen had gone to the midnight service, he took out of his master's cupboard a bottle of ink and a pen with a rusty nib, and, spreading out a crumpled sheet of paper in front of him, began writing.

Before forming the first letter he several times looked round fearfully at the door and the windows, stole a glance at the dark ikon, on both sides of which stretched shelves full of lasts, and heaved a broken sigh. The paper lay on the bench while he knelt before it.

"Dear grandfather, Konstantin Makaritch," he wrote, "I am writing you a letter. I wish you a happy Christmas, and all blessings from God Almighty. I have neither father nor mother, you are the only one left me."

Vanka raised his eyes to the dark ikon on which the light of his candle was reflected, and vividly recalled his grandfather, Konstantin Makaritch, who was night watchman to a family called Zhivarev. He was a thin but extraordinarily nimble and lively little old man of sixty-five, with an everlastingly laughing face and drunken eyes. By day he slept in the servants' kitchen, or made jokes with the cooks; at night, wrapped in an ample sheepskin, he walked round the grounds and tapped with his little mallet. Old Kashtanka and Eel, so-called on account of his dark colour and his long body like a weasel's, followed him with hanging heads. This Eel was exceptionally polite and affectionate, and looked with equal kindness on strangers and his own masters, but had not a very good reputation. Under his politeness and meekness was hidden the most Jesuitical cunning. No one knew better how to creep up on occasion and snap at one's legs, to slip into the store-room, or steal a hen from a peasant. His hind legs had been nearly pulled off more than once, twice he had been hanged, every week he was thrashed till he was half dead, but he always revived.

At this moment grandfather was, no doubt, standing at the gate, screwing up his eyes at the red windows of the church, stamping with his high felt boots, and joking with the servants. His little mallet was hanging on his belt.

He was clasping his hands, shrugging with the cold, and, with an aged chuckle, pinching first the housemaid, then the cook.

"How about a pinch of snuff?" he was saying, offering the women his snuffbox. The women would take a sniff and sneeze. Grandfather would be indescribably delighted, go off into a merry chuckle, and cry: "Tear it off, it has frozen on!"

They give the dogs a sniff of snuff too. Kashtanka sneezes, wriggles her head, and walks away offended. Eel does not sneeze, from politeness, but wags his tail. And the weather is glorious. The air is still, fresh, and transparent.

The night is dark, but one can see the whole village with its white roofs and coils of smoke coming from the chimneys, the trees silvered with hoar frost, the snowdrifts. The whole sky spangled with gay twinkling stars, and the Milky Way is as distinct as though it had been washed and rubbed with snow for a holiday. . . .

Vanka sighed, dipped his pen, and went on writing: "And yesterday I had a wigging. The master pulled me out into the yard by my hair, and whacked me with a boot-stretcher because I accidentally fell asleep while I was rocking their brat in the cradle. And a week ago the mistress told me to clean a herring, and I began from the tail end, and she took the herring and thrust its head in my face. The workmen laugh at me and send me to the tavern for vodka, and tell me to steal the master's cucumbers for them, and the master beats me with anything that comes to hand. And there is nothing to eat. In the morning they give me bread, for dinner, porridge, and in the evening, bread again; but as for tea, or soup, the master and mistress gobble it all up themselves. And I am put to sleep in the passage, and when their wretched brat cries I get no sleep at all, but have to rock the cradle. Dear grandfather, show the divine mercy, take me away from here, home to the village. It's more than I can bear. I bow down to your feet, and will pray to God for you for ever, take me away from here or I shall die."

Vanka's mouth worked, he rubbed his eyes with his black fist, and gave a sob.

"I will powder your snuff for you," he went on. "I will pray for you, and if I do anything you can thrash me like Sidor's goat. And if you think I've no job, then I will beg the steward for Christ's sake to let me clean his boots, or I'll go for a shepherd-boy instead of Fedka. Dear grandfather, it is more than I can bear, it's simply no life at all. I wanted to run away to the village, but I have no

boots, and I am afraid of the frost. When I grow up big I will take care of you for this, and not let anyone annoy you, and when you die I will pray for the rest of your soul, just as for my mammy's.

Moscow is a big town. It's all gentlemen's houses, and there are lots of horses, but there are no sheep, and the dogs are not spiteful. The lads here don't go out with the star, and they don't let anyone go into the choir, and once I saw in a shop window fishing-hooks for sale, fitted ready with the line and for all sorts of fish, awfully good ones, there was even one hook that would hold a forty-pound sheat-fish. And I have seen shops where there are guns of all sorts, after the pattern of the master's guns at home, so that I shouldn't wonder if they are a hundred roubles each. . . . And in the butchers' shops there are grouse and woodcocks and fish and hares, but the shopmen don't say where they shoot them.

"Dear grandfather, when they have the Christmas tree at the big house, get me a gilt walnut, and put it away in the green trunk. Ask the young lady Olga Ignatyevna, say it's for Vanka."

Vanka gave a tremulous sigh, and again stared at the window. He remembered how his grandfather always went into the forest to get the Christmas tree for his master's family, and took his grandson with him. It was a merry time! Grandfather made a noise in his throat, the forest crackled with the frost, and looking at them Vanka chortled too. Before chopping down the Christmas tree, grandfather would smoke a pipe, slowly take a pinch of snuff, and laugh at frozen Vanka. . . . The young fir trees, covered with hoar frost, stood motionless, waiting to see which of them was to die. Wherever one looked, a hare flew like an arrow over the snowdrifts. . . . Grandfather could not refrain from shouting: "Hold him, hold him . . . hold him! Ah, the bobtailed devil!"

When he had cut down the Christmas tree, grandfather used to drag it to the big house, and there set to work to decorate it. . . . The young lady, who was Vanka's favourite, Olga Ignatyevna, was the busiest of all. When Vanka's mother Pelageya was alive, and a servant in the big house, Olga Ignatyevna used to give him goodies, and having nothing better to do, taught him to read and write, to count up to a hundred, and even to dance a quadrille.

When Pelageya died, Vanka had been transferred to the servants' kitchen to be with his grandfather, and from the kitchen to the shoemaker's in Moscow.

"Do come, dear grandfather," Vanka went on with his letter. "For Christ's sake, I beg you, take me away. Have pity on an unhappy orphan like me; here everyone knocks me about, and I am fearfully hungry; I can't tell you what misery it is, I am always crying. And the other day the master hit me on

the head with a last, so that I fell down. My life is wretched, worse than any dog's. . . . I send greetings to Alyona, one-eyed Yegorka, and the coachman, and don't give my concertina to anyone. I remain, your grandson, Ivan Zhukov. Dear grandfather, do come."

Vanka folded the sheet of writing-paper twice, and put it into an envelope he had bought the day before for a kopeck. . . . After thinking a little, he dipped the pen and wrote the address: To grandfather in the village.

Then he scratched his head, thought a little, and added: Konstantin Makaritch. Glad that he had not been prevented from writing, he put on his cap and, without putting on his little greatcoat, ran out into the street as he was in his shirt. . . .

The shopmen at the butcher's, whom he had questioned the day before, told him that letters were put in post-boxes, and from the boxes were carried about all over the earth in mailcarts with drunken drivers and ringing bells.

Vanka ran to the nearest post-box, and thrust the precious letter in the slit. . .

An hour later, lulled by sweet hopes, he was sound asleep. . . . He dreamed of the stove. On the stove was sitting his grandfather, swinging his bare legs, and reading the letter to the cooks. . . .

By the stove was Eel, wagging his tail.