Методика формирования социолингвистической компетенции

Length: 1: 47.

Topics: Travelling and Tourism, Sightseeing.

Accents: non-native English speakers’ accents.

Source: The Third Edition New Headway Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book. Soars J. and L. Oxford. Oxford University Press. 2007. P. 121. 159 p.

Rolf: Excuse me. Could you help [l + palatalization] me?

Woman in tourist office: Certainly, if I can [æ:e].

Rolf: We’d like to take a trip on one of those buses that show you all [l + palatalization] the sights. You know, where you can get off and back on where you want…

Woman in the tourist office: Ah, yes. You want a city sightseeing tour. It stops in twenty places [esǝs], and it costs twenty euros [s].

Rolf: How long does the tour take [tʲ]?

Woman in the tourist office: Well, it depends whether you get off or not, but if you stay on and don’t get off, about an hour and a quarter [r].

Jonas: Where can we buy a ticket?

Woman in the tourist office: Here [Ɣ], or at the bus station. But you can’t go on with your backpack [æ:] .

Jonas: Sorry? What did you say?

Woman in the tourist office: Your backpack [æ:] … you know… your bag [k]. It’s too big [k]. You have to leave it somewhere.

Jonas: Ah, OK! No, don’t worry. I’ll leave it at the hostel [l + palatalization]. Thanks. Another [ɒ] thing. I’ve read there’s an exhibition of modern art [Λr] on at the moment. Is that right?

Woman in the tourist office: Yes, that’s right. It’s on at the Studio until [ʊ] the end of next week.

Rolf: How much is it to get in?

Woman in the tourist office: Twelve euros, but [ʊ] it’s best to book a few days in advance.

Rolf: Oh, that’s a shame. We wanted to go tonight [tʲ]. Never mind.

Jonas: Oh, and one more thing [ng]. I need [i] to buy a present for my mother [ɒ]. It’s her birthday soon. Is there a gift shop around here?

Woman in the tourist office: There’s a good one just round the corner, but [ʊ] it’s closed for lunch [ʊ] at the moment. It’ll be open again at 2.00.

Jonas: OK. That’s great. Thanks for all your help.

Rolf: Thanks a lot.

Woman in the tourist office: Pleasure.

2 группа

Текст 1.

British bar chat: talking about art

Length: 1:10.

Topics: Art, Contemporary Art.

Type of pronunciation: informal.

Source: Hot English Magazine №11ю 2005. Eclectic Publishing Ltd. Санкт-Петербург. Pp. 26. (p. 32).

Pete:    Oh, I, I went to [ǝ´wentǝ] this art exhibition yesterday.  It was just a load of [ǝ´lΛdǝ] rubbish   It had sixteen bricks.

Mark:   I read, I read about that [ǝ´bɑɁǝt]. It sounded really good.

Pete:     Just sixteen bricks lain out on [lın´ɑ:tǝn] the floor, and they call that art [ðǝɁ´ɑ:t].

Mark:   No, it makes, it makes you think, doesn't it [´dΛznǝɁ]? It's, like, that's the point of art [ðı´pɔin ǝv ɑ:Ɂ] is, you go there [ðǝ] and you react to what [tʃǝ´wɒtʃ] you see.

Pete:     It was just, it was just meaningless.  What do sixteen bricks on the floor mean? It's just, why? You know [jǝ´ nǝ], and people go there and they're studying it, and looking at it as if it's something wonderful and marvellous.

Mark:   No, but [bǝɁ] all those paintings that [ðǝɁ] are, like, like the tops [ðǝ´tǝz] of chocolate boxes and things like that, they're all very nice but no one ever causes, talks about them [ǝ´bǝɁ ´em]. They never cause anу kind of [´kaınǝ] reaction. You know [jǝ´nǝ], and here [hǝ] it is, sixteen bricks and everyone's talking about it [ın ǝbɑǝt]. It's brilliant.

Pete:     Well, if it's just to [´ız ´dƷΛsɁǝ] cause a reaction then I can go and do something [θın].   Why, why'd they? And they paid this guy fifteen thousand dollars to do it [tʃǝ ´dǝ ıt].

Mark:   Yeah, but that's the [´ðǝɁǝ] thing. He's an artist because he had [hǝ´ǝd] the idea to do it. You didn't have the [´hǝvɁǝ] idea to do it.

Pete:    Well, I'll just go and stick a piece of wood in the [ınǝ] middle of the floor and call that art.  You know, it's ridiculous.  Hey, look, but, I bought this great poster. I got it for my living room. Do you [djʊ] wanna have a look here [´ıǝ]?

Mark: Yeah, yeah let's have a look.

Pete: Here it is [´hıǝ ´ız].

Mark: But, but, but there's [bǝɁ bǝɁ bǝɁ ız] nothing on it.   It's just, it's just, well, black with a white dot.

Pete: Well, that's it. It's symbolic of life, isn't it [´ıznıɁ]?

3 группа

Language chat: British English vs. American English

Length: 2:21.

Topics: Languages, Variants of English, American English.

Accents: RP and GA. Для американского английского характерно так называемое «эрное» произношение и гласные, следующие за звуком [r], имеют ретрофлексный характер. В данном тексте такие сочетания звуков выделены жирным шрифтом. Для произношения GA, с которям говорит Brad и Interviewer, также характерна чрезмерная назализация, но в данном тексте она графически не показана.

Source: Hot English Magazine №8. 2005. Санкт-Петербург. Eclectic Publishing Ltd. Pp. 6, 32 p.

Interviewer (GA): In today's studio we have American linguist Brad Perrable and British linguistics Professor Brian Wilkins. They'll be discussing the statement "British English is the only true form of English". Brad, how do you see the situation these days?

  Brad (GA):    Well, there are more [´mɔ:r] than a thousand words that have different meanings or usages in British and American English. I think it's time we harmonised the two languages. Take the case of spelling, in many ways American is more logical for example [æ] "enroling" with one "l", "traveling" with one "l", etc.

  Brian (RP):    I completely disagree. I feel if we start to try to regulate, we'll get into all sorts of problems. And which English are we going to choose? Why should it be American English? I completely disagree.

  Brad (GA):     No, I really think it is time for some sort of rationalisation. Look, there are just so many words with different meanings. We can't [æ] even communicate effectively. Just the other day I was talking to a friend and it was like talking to a foreigner. We just didn't understand one another. I was talking about "pants" and he thought I was referring to underwear. Also we can't [æ] watch foreign films. If a film claims to be in English, I want to be able to understand it. I tried watching Trainspotting and it might as well have been in Mongolian. Some American movies need to be subtitled when they are shown.

  Brian (RP):   Well, that's the same for us. Sometimes we don't understand everything you're saying, but that's no reason to impose your form of English on the rest of us, is it?

  Brad (GA):    Yeah, but getting back to that point about which language. I'd say it should be American. After all, more people in the world speak American English than speak British English if you include speakers of English as a second language. All the music comes from America. Canadian English bears a strong resemblance to United States English, but they're not identical.

  Brian (RP):   No, no, I really must disagree with you there. I, I, I'm convinced that British English, after all, we invented the language so I think it should be British English if anything.

  Brad (GA):  As the world's number one superpower [ʊ] I think we should stick to American English. I think it's the obvious [ɑ] choice.

  Interviewer (GA):        All right gentlemen, thank you very much. That was very interesting. I think the conclusion we'll have to come to is that British English is in fact the best. Thank you.

4 группа

In-Depth Britain: The West Of England

Length: 1:25.

Topics: Regional culture and geography of England, national stereotypes.

Accent: regional accent from the West of England.

Source: Cool Enlglish Magazine №27 2006, Eclectic Publishing East Europe LLC Санкт-Петербург. P. 10-11. (32 p.)

Should you happen to mention that you are from "the West County" to any average Joe in Britain, it is quite likely that they will immediately assume you to be an ignorant, cider-swigging yokel, intent on boring people to death with pointless stories told in an incomprehensible accent. Fortunately, not all stereotypes are 100 percent true. As a proud Cornishman, I can honestly say that I despise cider, and despite still having a faint Cornish accent, I do hope I've never bored anyone with tales of the glorious Cornish countryside...

Geography. The West Country has a rich and varied geography, consisting of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset. Its geographical make-up ranges from the hills, caves, gorges and wetlands of Somerset in the North, to Dorset's wide flood plains in the South, and to Devon and Cornwall's rocky cliffs and moors in the South West. The coast in this region was Britain's first World Heritage Site, and is sometimes called the Jurassic Coast - perhaps because Dorset's population is mainly retired old fogeys! For the mild-mannered Englishman, the climate of the South West can be quite a challenge - in the summer the temperature can get up to 32°c (try frying an egg on the patio; sometimes it works!) - and in winter the weather can be so wet you need a dinghy to go and get the morning paper!

5 группа

Home Truths

(a piece of a radio programme about family life)

Length: 1:40.

Topics: Family, Marriage, Habits, Character.

Accents: RP, accents of working class people, Cockney. Элементы кокни в данном тексте были выражены главным образом с помощью интонационного оформления высказываний, нами были графически выделены только элементы сегментного уровня.

Source: Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book New Headway English Course. Soars J. and L. - Oxford. Oxford University Press. 2000. Pp. 118-119. 143 p.

… Presenter (General RP): And now we have another couple, Dave and Alison. Oh, and by the way, Dave’s an electrician.

Alison (Accent of a working class person with elements of Cockney): What drives me absolutely mad [æ:e] is that he starts a job and never finishes it. At work he’s so professional [w], but at home [bǝɁǝ], if I want a light in the bedroom changed, it takes him months. And he’s so untidy. He just drops things on the floor [lɜ: ͬ]. I keep saying that I don’t want to be his mother as well [w] as his wife. When we go out [´au], he looks so scruffy, even when I’m all [w] dressed up. His clothes are so old-fashioned. He never throws anything away.

Presenter (General RP): Oh, dear. Now what does Dave have to say about Alison?

Dave (Accent of a working class person with elements of Cockney): Well, she’s never ready on time. She always finds something to do that means we’re always late [Ɂ], wherever we go. She’s usually doing her hair or her make-up while I’m saying ‘Come on love, it’s time to go.’ And she loses things. She forgets where she parked the car, she leaves the car keys in the most stupid places. But what is most annoying about Alison is that she’s always right!

Presenter (Gerneral RP): And their final opinions about each other?

Alison (Accent of a working class person with elements of Cockney): He’s great [r + palatalization]. He’s good fun, and he’s one in a million.

Dave (Accent of a working class person with elements of Cockney): See? As I said [e], she’s always right [t ͪ]!

Presenter (General RP): So, there we are. My thanks to Carol and Mike, and Dave

and Alison.
Приложение 2

Текст вступительной беседы. Тексты некоторых мини-лекций и бесед.

Introduction to sociolinguistic variation of English

Hello, everybody. Today we are going to speak about variants of the English language. English, as you know, is spoken in many different countries. Moreover, it is spoken by non-native speakers as lingua franca. The language used in different countries and cultures cannot be homogeneous. So, it is highly important to learn to understand what culture each speaker of English belongs to.

Let us take the Scots, for example. Most people in Scotland can speak English, but they speak with a certain accent. If you can tell the Scottish accent from all the other accents of English, you will be able to identify Scots from all the other nationals. This skill is essential for effective communication in English, because a Scotsman would feel humiliated if referred to as an English person. This skill is not only necessary for direct communication with English speaking individuals, but also indispensible for being able to understand authentic films and radio programmes made for native speakers of English who can easily tell one accent from another.

1. Received Pronunciation

In all countries, speakers with a higher level of education and higher-paid jobs speak in a manner that is closer to the standard language than do other people. Usually, the written word is held up as a type of benchmark, or ‘standard’, against which good and bad language is measured.  For historical reasons the standard accent RP still serves as a model of pronunciation for foreign students.

The population of England consists of people who speak Standard English, and those who do not speak Standard English. And those who speak Standard English can themselves be divided into people who speak it with an accent, and people who speak it without an accent. First, let us clarify the term Standard English. It means that kind of English which is “the official language of the entire English-speaking world, and is also the language of all educated English-speaking people. Standard English is a language, not an accent, and it is as easily recognizable as Standard English as when it is written down as when it is spoken. According to Abercrombie, in England there are numerous ways of pronouncing Standard English, but here the position is peculiar; there is one type of accent which is distinctively an accent of England, but is not identified with any particular part of the country. In other words, it is a regional accent when the whole English-speaking world is taken into account; but within England itself it is non-regional. This is what we meant by saying that in England some people speak Standard English with an accent, and some without it. Some speakers, in other words, show which part of the country they come from when they talk, and some do not. This “accentless” pronunciation is really as much an accent as any other, and it would be convenient if it had an accented name by which we could call it. But it has no popularly understood name, and so we shall refer to it by the initials of the phrase “Received Pronunciation” – by the letters RP.

“Received” here is to be understood in its nineteenth century sense of “accepted in the best society”. The phenomenon of RP is considered to be unique, as the public schools are themselves unique.

This RP stands in strong contrast to all the other ways of pronouncing Standard English put together. In fact English people are divided by the way they talk into three groups; first, RP speakers of Standard English – those without an accent; second, non-RP speakers of Standard English – those with an accent; and third, dialect speakers. Speakers of RP are at the top of the social scale, and their speech gives no clue to their regional origin. People at the bottom of the social scale speak with the most obvious, the ‘broadest’ regional accents.

Between these two extremes, in general the higher a person is on the social scale, the less regionally marked will be his accent, and the less it will differ from R.P.                                                            

2. Regional variation

RP is the accepted language of the Establishment – the public schools and universities, the Church of England, the financial and the commercial center of London. In a very real sense, if you want to be socially and economically upwardly mobile, you need a high level of literacy and a good command of a form of the spoken language which is close to written, literate norms.

It is impossible to tell where an RP speaker comes from. It is usually possible to tell which broad region of the country middle-class speakers come from. And working-class speakers can usually be pinpointed even more accurately as to their geographical origins. Thus, an unskilled manual worker might be recognizable by anybody having the appropriate sort of linguistic knowledge as coming from Bristol, a non-manual worker as coming from the West Country, a middle-class professional person as coming from somewhere in the south of England, and an upper-middle class RP speaker as coming simply from England, even if all of them had their origins in Bristol. Equally, a typical middle-class person from Birmingham will obviously have an accent which is phonetically and phonologically different from that of middle-class person from Bristol, but the differences between the accents of two working-class speakers from the same places will be even greater.

3. Prestigious accents

Now, we all pass judgements on other people based on the way they speak. This is true all over the world, and tiny differences in the sound of speech often provide the basis for these judgements. In fact all human beings with normal hearing have, in this sense a good ear for language – surprising as that seems. We infer, from how people talk, where they come from, what their personalities and characters are like, etc. Similarly of accent creates immediate sympathy; difference of accent is grounds for suspicion, or at least wariness. These judgements are made unconsciously. The existence of RP gives accent judgements a peculiar importance in England, and perhaps makes the English more sensitive than most people to accent differences. In England, Standard English speakers are divided by an ‘accent bar’, on one side of which is RP, and on the other side all the other accents.

There is no doubt that RP is a privileged accent; your social life, or your career, or both, may be affected by whether you possess it or not. “It has been estimated that only 3% of the English population speak RP.

Outside England it seems not to have special prestige, and it appears just as regional to an American as any other way of pronouncing English. Conversely, there are other accents which rank socially equal, in England, with RP – but these are never accents of England. Most forms of Irish, Scots, American, Canadian, or any foreign accent, are acceptable. The following example illustrates the extent to which judgments concerning the purity of linguistic varieties and features are social rather than linguistic.

All accents of English have an /r/ sound in words such as rat and rich and most have an /r/ in carry, sorry. On the other hand there are a number of accents which have no /r/ in words like cart and car. These words formerly had an /r/ sound, as the spelling shows, but in these accents /r/ has been lost except where it occurs before a vowel. The /r/ in other contexts – at the end of a word (car) or before a consonant (cart) – can be referred to as non-prevocalic /r/. Accents which lack non-prevocalic /r/ include a number in the United States and West Indies, many in England, Wales and New Zealand, and all in Australia and South America. In these accents pairs of words like ma and mar are pronounced in exactly the same way.

Now, if we compare the accents of England and America with respect to this feature, one striking fact emerges. In England, other things being equal, accents without non-prevocalic /r/ have more status and are considered more ‘correct’ than accents with.

RP does not have this /r/, and non-prevocalic /r/ is often used in radio, TV and theatre to indicate that a character is rural, uneducated or both – one frequently hears it employed for comic effect in radio comedy series. On the other hand, although the situation in the United States is more complex, there are parts of the country where the exact reverse is true. In English towns, where both types of pronunciation can be heard, such as Bristol and Reading, this pattern is completely reversed.

Many people react to an absence of RP as if it necessarily accompanied an absence of other things also – of those accomplishments which are nowadays the common property of everyone in England who speaks Standard English.

4. Differences within RP

This time we shall give an outline of some of the differences currently to be found, largely as a result of age-group differences, within RP.

The development of the Public School system of the 19th Century (Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and so on) and the ancient universities (Oxford and Cambridge) played a part in establishing the RP accent as the 'standard' voice of the English Gentleman. The result was the marked (and today somewhat ridiculed) accent sometimes called 'ultra-RP', now most often associated with the upper classes and the Public School system. This 'marked' RP can be identified as the strictly standardised pronunciation used by the BBC radio announcers during the 1930s and 40s, becoming known as 'BBC English'.

Social aspect of the origins of RP is still nominally acknowledged when RP is called the 'prestige' accent of British English. It can be said, however, that the social distinctions and privileges formerly associated with the accent of 'The Establishment' are becoming less closely tied to 'modern' RP. In fact, RP as it is understood today is less marked than the RP of the early 19th Century.

The changes in time can be seen reflected to some degree in the pronunciation of speakers of different ages. “Young people, most particularly those of the highest social class and educated at the most prestigious public schools, will tend to say

•              /tɑ:/ = tyre (advanced RP) Some more examples:

really = [rεǝlı]; milk = [mıwk]; yes = [jɑ:]; Paul’s = [pɔ:wz] 

•              those somewhat older will tend to say /´tɑǝ / = tyre (general RP); and there will be others, older still,

•              who will say /´tɑıǝ/ = tyre (conservative RP).

•              The language of the upper classes is known by language experts as URP, upper received pronunciation. It is characterized by the use of lengthened vowels: e.g. /ın mæ:ej/ = in may.