CU-BA-Sem VI-English VI

["\uf0b7 Lack of attention, interest, distractions, or irrelevance to the receiver. (See our page Barriers to Effective Listening for more information). \uf0b7 Differences in perception and viewpoint. \uf0b7 Physical disabilities such as hearing problems or speech difficulties. \uf0b7 Physical barriers to non-verbal communication. Not being able to see the non-verbal cues, gestures, posture and general body language can make communication less effective. Phone calls, text messages and other communication methods that rely on technology are often less effective than face-to-face communication. \uf0b7 Language differences and the difficulty in understanding unfamiliar accents. \uf0b7 Expectations and prejudices which may lead to false assumptions or stereotyping. People often hear what they expect to hear rather than what is actually said and jump to incorrect conclusions. Our page The Ladder of Inference explains this in more detail. \uf0b7 Cultural differences. The norms of social interaction vary greatly in different cultures, as do the way in which emotions are expressed. For example, the concept of personal space varies between cultures and between different social settings. See our page on Intercultural Awareness for more information. A skilled communicator must be aware of these barriers and try to reduce their impact by continually checking understanding and by offering appropriate feedback. Social Skills Social skills are the skills we use to communicate and interact with each other, both verbally and non-verbally, through gestures, body language and our personal appearance. Human beings are sociable creatures and we have developed many ways to communicate our messages, thoughts and feelings with others. What is said is influenced by both verbal language and the way we use it - tone of voice, volume of speech and the words we choose - as well as by more subtle messages such as body language, gestures and other non-verbal communication methods. The fact that some people are better 'social interactors' than others has led to detailed investigations into the nature and function of interpersonal interaction. Developing social skills is about being aware of how we communicate with others, the messages we send and how methods of communication can be improved to make the way we communicate more efficient and effective. 151","There are distinct advantages to having well developed social skills. 1. More and Better Relationships Identifying well with individuals leads to more relationships and, at times, friendships. By developing your social skills, you become more charismatic, a desirable trait. People are more interested in charismatic people as charismatic people are (or at least appear to be) more interested in them. Most people know you cannot advance far in life without strong interpersonal relationships. Focusing on relationships will help you get a job, get promoted and make new friends. Well- honed social skills can increase your happiness and satisfaction and give you a better outlook on life. More relationships can also help to reduce the negative effects of stress and boost your self- esteem. 2. Better Communication Relating with people and being able to work in large groups naturally develops one's communication skills. After all, you cannot have great social skills without good communication skills and being able to convey one's thoughts and ideas may be the single most important skill that you can develop in life. 3. Greater Efficiency If you are good with people, you can more easily avoid being with the people you do not like as much as others. Some people dread social interactions because they do not wish to spend time with individuals who do not have similar interests and viewpoints. It is a lot easier to attend a meeting at work or a party in your personal life if you know at least some of the people who will be there. If you are in a social situation and do not want to spend time with 'John' because you don't like him or he cannot help you with a particular issue, a good set of social skills will allow you to politely convey that you need to spend time with other people at the get together. See our pages improving self-esteem and building confidence. 4. Advancing Career Prospects Most worthwhile jobs have a 'people component' and the most lucrative positions often involve a large amount of time spent interacting with employees, media and colleagues. It is rare that an individual can remain isolated in their office and still excel in their job. Most organisations are looking for individuals with a particular, tactical, skill set: the ability to work well in a team and to influence and motivate people to get things done. 152","See our pages: Employability Skills and Transferable Skills for more information about the kind of skills that employers are looking for. 5. Increased Overall Happiness Getting along and understanding people will help to open many personal and career-related doors. Having the confidence to start a conversation at a work-related conference may lead to a new job offer with a higher salary. A smile and 'hello' in a social situation may lead to a friendship being formed. Characteristics of Social Skills \uf0b7 Social skills are goal-directed. \uf0b7 Socially skilled behaviours are interrelated in the sense that one person may use more than one kind of behaviour at the same time, for the same goal. \uf0b7 Social skills should be appropriate to the situation of communication. Different social skills will be used for professional and personal communication. \uf0b7 Social skills can be identified as certain types of behaviour whereby an individual can be judged on how socially skilled; they are. \uf0b7 Social skills can be taught, practiced and learned. \uf0b7 Social skills should be under the cognitive control of the individual - learning them involves learning when to use particular behaviours, as well as what behaviours to use, or how to use them. Developing Effective Communication Skills Effective communication skills are fundamental to success in many aspects of life. Many jobs require strong communication skills. People with good communication skills also usually enjoy better interpersonal relationships with friends and family. Effective communication is therefore a key interpersonal skill and learning how to improve your communication has many benefits. However, many people find it difficult to know where to start. This page sets out the most common \u2018problem areas\u2019 and suggests where you might focus your attention. A Two-Way Process Communication is a two-way process. It involves both how we send and receive messages. Receiving includes both how we take in the message (reading or listening, for example), and the \u2018decoding\u2019 of the message. 153","Improving communication may therefore also involve either or both elements. However, many of the most common issues actually lie in receiving rather than sending messages. Identifying Problems Many people appreciate that they have a problem with communication skills, but struggle to know where to start to improve. There are a number of ways that you can identify particular problem areas, including: Ask your friends, family and colleagues to advise you. Most people will be happy to help you with your journey towards self-improvement. They may even have been waiting for just this opportunity for some time. You may find it helpful to use a structure like \u2018Start, Continue, stop\u2019 when seeking feedback. Ask people to tell you one or two things that you need to start doing, one or two to continue, and one or two to stop. This ensures that you get action-focused feedback that is also relatively brief. Use a self-assessment tool like our Interpersonal Skills Self-Assessment. This will help you to identify the most important areas for improvement. You could instead simply work to improve the most common problem areas and see what happens. Four Key Areas for Improvement There are generally four main areas of communication skills that most of us would do well to improve. These are listening, non-verbal communication, emotional awareness and management, and questioning. 1. Learn to Listen One of the most common areas to need improvement is listening. We all tend to forget that communication is a two-way process. We fall into the trap of \u2018broadcasting\u2019, where we just issue a message, and fail to listen to the response. Quite a lot of the time, we are not really listening to others in conversation, but thinking about what we plan to say next. Improving your listening skills is likely to pay off in improvements in your relationships both at work and at home. What, however, is listening? Listening is not the same as hearing. Learning to listen means not only paying attention to the words being spoken but also how they are being spoken and the non-verbal messages sent with them. It means giving your full attention to the person speaking, and genuinely concentrating on what they are saying\u2014and what they are not saying. 154","Good listeners use the techniques of clarification and reflection to confirm what the other person has said and avoid any confusion. These techniques also demonstrate very clearly that you are listening, just like active listening. 2. Studying and Understanding Non-Verbal Communication Much of any message is communicated non-verbally. Some estimates suggest that this may be as much as 80% of communication. It is therefore important to consider and understand non-verbal communication\u2014particularly when it is absent or reduced, such as when you are communicating in writing or by telephone. Non-verbal communication is often thought of as body language, but it actually covers far more. It includes, for example, tone and pitch of the voice, body movement, eye contact, posture, facial expression, and even physiological changes such as sweating. You can therefore understand other people better by paying close attention to their non-verbal communication. You can also ensure that your message is conveyed more clearly by ensuring that your words and body language are consistent. 3. Emotional Awareness and Management The third undersung area of communication is awareness of our own and other people\u2019s emotions, and an ability to manage those emotions. At work it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that everything should be logical, and that emotion has no place. However, we are human and therefore messy and emotional. None of us can leave our emotions at home\u2014and nor should we try to do so. That is not to say that we should \u2018let it all hang out\u2019. However, an awareness of emotions, both positive and negative, can definitely improve communication. This understanding of our own and others\u2019 emotion is known as Emotional Intelligence. There is considerable evidence that it is far more important to success in life than what we might call \u2018intellectual intelligence\u2019. Emotional intelligence covers a wide range of skills, usually divided into personal skills and social skills. The personal skills include self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation. The social skills include empathy and social skills. Each one of these is broken down into more skills. For example: Self-awareness consists of emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment and self- confidence. Empathy is the ability to \u2018feel with\u2019 others: to share their emotions and understanding them. It includes understanding others, developing them, having a service orientation, valuing and leveraging diversity, and political awareness. 155","Fundamentally, the principle behind the different skills that make up emotional intelligence is that you have to be aware of and understand your own emotions, and be able to master them, in order to understand and work well with others. 4. Questioning Skills The fourth area where many people struggle is questioning. Questioning is a crucial skill to ensure that you have understood someone\u2019s message correctly. It is also a very good way of obtaining more information about a particular topic, or simply starting a conversation and keeping it going. Those with good questioning skills are often also seen as very good listeners, because they tend to spend far more time drawing information out from others than broadcasting their own opinions. Effective Speaking Speaking effectively is defined as speaking in such a way that your message is clearly heard and, if possible, acted upon. There are two main elements to speaking effectively: what you say, and how you say it. What you say means your choice of words. The words you might use when chatting to a friend are likely to be quite different from those used in a formal presentation or interview. Similarly, the way that you speak will also vary in different situations. However, there are also likely to be some common factors: for example, whether you naturally talk quietly or loudly, and how you use body language. Aspects of Effective Speaking Effective speaking means being able to say what you want to say in such a way that it is heard and acted upon. Whether you are talking to a major conference about a new scientific discovery, your children about their behaviour, or your boss about a pay rise, you need to be able to speak effectively. This means considering every possible tool and aspect to ensure that nothing distracts or detracts from your message. There are three main elements of effective speaking \uf0b7 The words you use. \uf0b7 Your voice. \uf0b7 Your other non-verbal communication, particularly body language. Choosing Your Words What you say\u2014the words you choose\u2014matters. 156","If in doubt about your meaning, your audience will come back to the words that you used and double-check what you might have meant. It is therefore important to choose carefully, especially when you are saying something important. Things to consider include: Your audience. The words you choose will be different if you are talking to 200 people at a conference, a trusted colleague, your boss, or your children. You need to think about your audience\u2019s overall level of understanding of the subject, and also the type of language that you use. Shorter sentences are easier to process and understand. Using shorter sentences also creates urgency. Simpler words are also easier to understand. If you cannot explain something in simple terms, you have probably not understood it yourself. This is particularly important if your audience are not all native speakers of the language. Accents Regional and ethnic accents are part of individual personality and add a unique element to the way that you speak. They may also, however, in some situations, create potential barriers to communication. For example, if you have a very strong accent, people from another area or country may find it harder to understand what you are saying. You may therefore need to slow down your speech to ensure that they have time to process what you are saying. It is worth remembering, however, that words are only a part of your overall communication and message. The tone of voice and your body language also send strong messages. Your Voice Your voice can reveal as much about your personal history as your appearance. The sound of a voice and the content of speech can provide clues to an individual's emotional state. For instance, if self-esteem is low, it may be reflected by hesitancy in the voice. A shy person may speak quietly, but someone who is confident in themselves will be more likely to have command of their voice and clarity of speech. It is worth taking time to improve your command over your voice, especially if you find it hard to speak in public. It can even help to boost your confidence! It is important to get used to the sound of your own voice. Most people are more relaxed in a private situation, particularly at home, where there are no pressures to conform to any other social rules and expectations. This is not the case in public situations when there are all sorts of influences exerted upon the way people speak. An exercise to improve public speaking Try recording your own voice in an informal setting, such as at home. 157","Listen carefully to how you sound. This will help you become accustomed to your own voice. You might also note any aspects of your speech which reduce the overall effectiveness of your message. This might include a tendency to say \u2018um\u2019 or \u2018er\u2019 a lot, to slur one or more letters together, or stammer slightly. Often people don\u2019t like the sound of their own recorded voice - in the same way that some people don't like photographs of themselves - they can feel embarrassed. Most of us are not used to hearing our own voices and these feelings are totally normal. Get past the initial, \u2018Do I really sound like that?\u2019 stage and develop a better understanding of your voice. The more you get used to the sound of your voice functioning in a slightly more formal way, the easier it is when doing it 'for real'. In conversational mode, individuals tend to speak in short phrases, a few at a time. Speaking or reading aloud helps you to become used to the more fluent sound of your voice. An exercise to help develop your effective speaking skills: Find a document to read, something about two pages in length - the first few pages of a book would work well. Read your document through silently first, then read it aloud in your normal speaking voice. Don't worry if you stumble or falter, just pick up and continue to the end. Now read it a third time, recording your voice if possible and remember: Slow down: It is a natural reaction to want to get it over as fast as possible and this often causes people to stumble over their words. Speeding up also occurs when you are nervous and usually makes you more difficult to understand. Keep your head up: Try not to tuck your chin into the book as your voice is then addressing the floor. Hold your book higher and project your voice. Pause occasionally: Let the end of a sentence or the end of a paragraph give you a chance of a small, two or three second rest. Pauses can be useful for emphasis Anyone can improve the sound of their voice and the way they speak in a matter of days through a few simple exercises, like the one above. To improve you will need to maintain a certain commitment and practice regularly for a few minutes. The Effect of Breath on Voice and Speech The voice is responsive to emotions and sometimes gets 'blocked', which can prevent or hinder the expression of a range of feelings. When under stress an individual's breathing pattern will change. When your muscles are tense you cannot use your lungs to their full capacity. When someone is frightened or nervous, a common symptom is tension in the neck and shoulders. This occurs because, when 158","under pressure, we tend to breath faster. This means we inhale plenty of air, but there is not enough time to exhale fully and relax, so we do not get the full benefit. Good breathing is essential for two reasons: By using full lung capacity, the breath will support the voice and the voice will become richer, fuller and stronger. This will benefit individuals who have a small voice and who worry that they cannot be heard when speaking to a group of people. Volume is controlled in the abdomen not in the throat, so breathing to full strength will allow for greater control of the voice. Breathing deeply and rhythmically has a calming and therapeutic effect as it releases tension and promotes relaxation. People who are relaxed are more balanced, receptive and confident. It is no coincidence that many religions use rhythmic breathing techniques such as meditation, yoga and silent contemplation, and vocal release in the form of chants, mantras or hymn singing as aids to their devotions. By easing physical tension, mental stress decreases and the mind is effectively freed to follow creative pursuits. Breathing Exercise Stand in an easy position with your feet one pace apart, with the knees \u2018unlocked\u2019 and not rigidly pushed back. Keep spine straight, head balanced, and face muscles relaxed. Breathe into a slow count of three, then out to a slow count of three. Try not to raise your shoulders as you breathe. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Consciously think of your breath 'filling down' to the bottom of your lungs. Put the palm of your hand flat against your abdomen and feel the movement. Push slightly against your hand as you breathe in and out. Repeat this exercise ten times. Depending on how you feel after several days of doing this exercise, extend the count of the out-going breath from three to four, five and six gradually building up to ten before you need to take another breath. Then count out loud on the out-going breath from one to ten. Repeat five times. By building up your control of out-going breath, you will never sound \u2018breathy\u2019 or feel you are 'running out of breath\u2019 when you speak to a group or a meeting. Vocal Production The following three core elements of vocal production need to be understood for anyone wishing to become an effective speaker: Volume - to be heard. Clarity - to be understood. 159","Variety - to add interest. Volume This is not a question of treating the voice like the volume control on the TV remote. Some people have naturally soft voices and physically cannot bellow. Additionally, if the voice is raised too much, tonal quality is lost. Instead of raising the voice, it should be 'projected out'. Support the voice with lots of breath - the further you want to project the voice out, the more breath you need. It also needs to come from the diaphragm, not the throat. When talking to a group or meeting, it is important not to aim your talk to the front row or just to the people nearest you. Instead, you need to consciously project what you have to say to those furthest away. By developing a strong voice, as opposed to a loud voice, you will be seen as someone positive. Good breathing is essential for two reasons: By using full lung capacity, the breath will support the voice and the voice will become richer, fuller and stronger. This will benefit individuals who have a small voice and who worry that they cannot be heard when speaking to a group of people. Volume is controlled in the abdomen not in the throat, so breathing to full strength will allow for greater control of the voice. Breathing deeply and rhythmically has a calming and therapeutic effect as it releases tension and promotes relaxation. People who are relaxed are more balanced, receptive and confident. It is no coincidence that many religions use rhythmic breathing techniques such as meditation, yoga and silent contemplation, and vocal release in the form of chants, mantras or hymn singing as aids to their devotions. By easing physical tension, mental stress decreases and the mind is effectively freed to follow creative pursuits. Breathing Exercise Stand in an easy position with your feet one pace apart, with the knees \u2018unlocked\u2019 and not rigidly pushed back. Keep spine straight, head balanced, and face muscles relaxed. Breathe into a slow count of three, then out to a slow count of three. Try not to raise your shoulders as you breathe. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Consciously think of your breath 'filling down' to the bottom of your lungs. Put the palm of your hand flat against your abdomen and feel the movement. Push slightly against your hand as you breathe in and out. Depending on how you feel after several days of doing this exercise, extend the count of the out-going breath from three to four, five and six gradually building up to ten before you need to take another breath. Then count out loud on the out-going breath from one to ten. Repeat five times. 160","By building up your control of out-going breath, you will never sound \u2018breathy\u2019 or feel you are 'running out of breath\u2019 when you speak to a group or a meeting. Vocal Production The following three core elements of vocal production need to be understood for anyone wishing to become an effective speaker: Volume - to be heard. Clarity - to be understood. Variety - to add interest. Volume This is not a question of treating the voice like the volume control on the TV remote. Some people have naturally soft voices and physically cannot bellow. Additionally, if the voice is raised too much, tonal quality is lost. Instead of raising the voice, it should be 'projected out'. Support the voice with lots of breath - the further you want to project the voice out, the more breath you need. It also needs to come from the diaphragm, not the throat. When talking to a group or meeting, it is important not to aim your talk to the front row or just to the people nearest you. Instead, you need to consciously project what you have to say to those furthest away. By developing a strong voice, as opposed to a loud voice, you will be seen as someone positive. Clarity Some people tend to speak through clenched teeth and with little movement of their lips. It is this inability to open mouths and failure to make speech sounds with precision that is the root cause of inaudibility. The sound is locked into the mouth and not let out. To have good articulation it is important to unclench the jaw, open the mouth and give full benefit to each sound you make, paying particular attention to the ends of words. This will also help your audience as a certain amount of lip-reading will be possible. There is more about how to use body language to communicate effectively in our page on Body Language. This includes considering how far away you are from your audience, and therefore whether you need to exaggerate your gestures to make them clearer. The importance of congruence Perhaps the most important aspect of effective communication is congruence. For communication to be effective, your non-verbal communication needs to reinforce your words: the two must say the same thing. Non-verbal communication is much harder to disguise than verbal\u2014if you see that someone\u2019s body language is giving a different message from their words, it pays to listen to the non-verbal communication first as it is more likely to reflect their real views. 161","You may therefore need to put some thought into how you want to use body language and other non-verbal cues. This is particularly important if you are trying to get across a difficult or unwelcome message. Verbal Communication Skills The use of material found at skillsyouneed.com is free provided that copyright is acknowledged, and a reference or link is included to the page\/s where the information was found. Material from skillsyouneed.com may not be sold or published for profit in any form without express written permission from skillsyouneed.com. By using full lung capacity, the breath will support the voice and the voice will become richer, fuller and stronger. This will benefit individuals who have a small voice and who worry that they cannot be heard when speaking to a group of people. Volume is controlled in the abdomen not in the throat, so breathing to full strength will allow for greater control of the voice. Breathing deeply and rhythmically has a calming and therapeutic effect as it releases tension and promotes relaxation. People who are relaxed are more balanced, receptive and confident. It is no coincidence that many religions use rhythmic breathing techniques such as meditation, yoga and silent contemplation, and vocal release in the form of chants, mantras or hymn singing as aids to their devotions. By easing physical tension, mental stress decreases and the mind is effectively freed to follow creative pursuits. Clarity Some people tend to speak through clenched teeth and with little movement of their lips. It is this inability to open mouths and failure to make speech sounds with precision that is the root cause of inaudibility. The sound is locked into the mouth and not let out. To have good articulation it is important to unclench the jaw, open the mouth and give full benefit to each sound you make, paying particular attention to the ends of words. This will also help your audience as a certain amount of lip-reading will be possible. Variety To make speech effective and interesting, certain techniques can be applied. However, it is important not to sound false or as if you are giving a performance. Words convey meaning, but the way that they are said reflects feelings and emotions. Vocal variety can be achieved by variations in: Pace: This is the speed at which you talk. If speech is too fast, then listeners will not have time to assimilate what is being said. It is also a good idea to vary the pace - quickening up at times and then slowing down \u2013 because this will help to maintain interest. Volume: By raising or lowering volume occasionally, you can create emphasis. If you drop your voice to almost a whisper (as long as it is projected) for a sentence or two, it will make 162","your audience suddenly alert. Be careful not to overuse this technique, though, or it will lose its impact. Pitch - Inflection - Emphasis: When speaking in public, try to convey the information with as much vocal energy and enthusiasm as possible. This does not mean your voice has to swoop and dive all over the place in an uncontrolled manner. Try to make the talk interesting. Remember that when you are nervous or excited, your vocal cords tense and shorten, causing the voice to get higher. Emphasise certain words and phrases within the talk to convey their importance and help to add variety. Pause: Pauses are powerful. They can be used for effect to highlight the preceding statement or to gain attention before an important message. Pauses mean silence for a few seconds. Listeners interpret meaning during pauses so have the courage to stay silent for up to five seconds \u2013 dramatic pauses like this convey authority and confidence.to Beethoven weed Body Language Warm up your voice Before any important speaking situation, whether it is an appointment, meeting or talk, it is beneficial to have a voice warm-up. The voice is an instrument - no musician arrives at a concert hall and launches into Beethoven without first tuning up. The length of time and frequency of a warm-up is up to you and will depend on how much speaking you need to do. There is more about using your voice effectively on our page non-verbal communication: face and voice. Body Language A considerably amount of communication\u2014some estimates suggest over 50%\u2014is non- verbal. Tone of voice, pace and emphasis are all part of non-verbal communication. However, your body language is also important. This includes how you stand, your facial expressions, the way you use your hands to emphasise your speech, and even whether and with whom you make eye contact. There is more about how to use body language to communicate effectively in our page on Body Language. This includes considering how far away you are from your audience, and therefore whether you need to exaggerate your gestures to make them clearer. The importance of congruence Perhaps the most important aspect of effective communication is congruence. For communication to be effective, your non-verbal communication needs to reinforce your words: the two must say the same thing. Non-verbal communication is much harder to disguise than verbal\u2014if you see that someone\u2019s body language is giving a different message 163","from their words, it pays to listen to the non-verbal communication first as it is more likely to reflect their real views. You may therefore need to put some thought into how you want to use body language and other non-verbal cues. This is particularly important if you are trying to get across a difficult or unwelcome message. Conversational Skills Conversations are supposed to be fun. They involve personal interactions between two or more people about something of interest. But many people worry about having conversations. They are concerned that they won\u2019t be able to keep the conversation going, or about what they will say. Keeping a conversation going to is something of an art, and one which many of us now seem to lack. This page explains how you can learn this \u2018dying art\u2019 and have constructive and enjoyable conversations with others. The Rules of Conversation 1. Conversation is a Two-Way Street The first and most important rule of conversation is that it is not all about you, but it\u2019s not all about the other person either. A monologue, in either direction, is not conversation. Try to achieve a balance between talking and listening in any conversation. This is where social media makes life difficult. We\u2019re used to broadcasting our views, and then responding if others comment. That can feel like the start of a conversation but, when you\u2019re face to face, it\u2019s not polite to start by broadcasting your views. Instead, try asking a question to establish common ground. For example: \u201cWhat do you do?\u201d, or even \u201cIsn\u2019t the weather beautiful?\u201d 2. Be Friendly and Polite Smiling, and being nice, will take you a long way in conversational terms. Everyone would rather chat to someone friendly and pleasant. But what are the practical elements of this? Build rapport. You can build rapport by establishing some common ground and by simply smiling and using positive and reinforcing body language. There is more about this on our page: Non-Verbal Communication. Be nice. Don\u2019t say unpleasant things about anyone. After all, the person you\u2019re talking about could be your new acquaintance\u2019s best friend. And even if they\u2019re not, your new acquaintance may not 164","relish discussion about someone behind their back (and neither should you). See our page on Friendliness for some ideas. Try to avoid contentious topics on first acquaintance. It\u2019s fine to talk politics once you know someone a bit better. When you first meet someone, though, it\u2019s better to stick to neutral ground, which is why so many people talk about the weather. This is where \u2018small talk\u2019 comes in. 3. Respond to What They are Saying To respond genuinely to what someone has just said means that you have to listen. You can\u2019t just switch off and think about what you\u2019re going to say next. However, if we\u2019re honest, most of us would admit that we often do just that. It\u2019s important to focus on the other person, and what they\u2019re saying. You also need to consider their body language. If you find it difficult to think of something to say in response, try using some \u2018filler\u2019 sentences, such as: \u201cThat\u2019s just so interesting, you\u2019re really making me think hard!\u201d or \u201cGoodness, that\u2019s challenging, I need to think about this. I\u2019ve never thought about it that way.\u201d Not only does that give you a bit of time to think about the subject under discussion, but it\u2019s a compliment to the person you\u2019re speaking with, which is always good. Use Signalling to Help the Other Person When a conversation is flowing well, it moves naturally from one person to the other. However, if one or both are finding it more of a struggle to \u2018chat\u2019, you may find it helpful to use \u2018signals\u2019 to show the other person that it is their turn to talk. The most common type of signal is questions. These may be either open or closed. Closed questions invite a yes\/no answer. In conversation, they might include \u201cDon\u2019t you agree?\u201d, and \u201cAre you enjoying the party?\u201d They are not really inviting the other person to do more than nod and agree, rather than to share the conversation. Open questions invite more information. They open up the conversation to the other person and invite them to participate. For this reason, in conversation, they are often called \u2018invitations. Open questions often start \u2018How\u2026?\u2019 or \u2018Why\u2026.?\u2019 There is more about questioning on our pages on Questioning and Types of Questions. 165","5. Create Emotional Connections Of course, it is perfectly possible to conduct a conversation entirely at the level of small talk, with nothing important being said. But conversation is also a way to explore whether you wish to know someone better and build a relationship with them. It can therefore be useful to understand how to use conversation to create and build emotional connections. The key is sharing appropriate information. That means being prepared to be open about what interests you, what makes you into you as a person, and inspiring the other person to share too. Presentation Skills Presenting information clearly and effectively is a key skill in getting your message across. Today, presentation skills are required in almost every field, and most of us are required to give presentations on occasions. While some people take this in their stride, others find it much more challenging. It is, however, possible to improve your presentation skills with a bit of work. Many people feel terrified when asked to talk in public, especially to bigger groups. However, these fears can be reduced by good preparation, which will also lay the groundwork for making an effective presentation. There are Different Types of Presentations, but They\u2019re All Presentations There are any number of occasions when you may be asked to speak in public or to a group of people. They include: \uf0b7 Presenting or making a speech at a conference or event. \uf0b7 Objecting to a planning proposal at a council meeting. \uf0b7 Making a speech at a wedding. \uf0b7 Proposing a vote of thanks to someone at a club or society. \uf0b7 On behalf of a team, saying goodbye and presenting a gift to a colleague who is leaving. \uf0b7 Seeking investment or a loan to help you set up a new business. These can all be considered presentations. They do not, however, all require the same approach. You would not, for example, use PowerPoint to thank a colleague who was leaving. It would be unusual (though it has been 166","done) to use it in a speech at a wedding. However, a conference audience would be somewhat surprised NOT to see slides projected onto a screen. It follows, therefore, that there is no single set of rules that apply to all presentations. There are, however, some things that every presentation opportunity has in common. These include: You will present better if you have prepared effectively. This does NOT necessarily mean that you have written out your speech verbatim and rehearsed it until you know it off by heart\u2014although that might work for some people. It does, however, mean that you have to be confident that you are saying the right thing, in the right way, to the right people. You need to be clear about your audience and your message. Every presentation will be better if you have clearly considered the message that you want or need to convey, and how best to convey it to your audience. These two pieces of information drive your style, structure, content, and use of visual aids. You must never overrun your allocated time. In other words, don\u2019t outstay your welcome. Almost every speech or presentation is better if it is shorter. Nobody minds going for coffee early or finishing before they expected to do so. Everybody minds being held up. Generally speaking, your audience starts on your side. As a rule, your audience is there (more or less) voluntarily. They have chosen to listen to you, and they want to enjoy your presentation. The occasion is yours to lose. An Important Point There is one very important point to remember: if what you\u2019re doing or saying is not working, do something else. One of the worst feelings as a presenter is that you have lost your audience. You know that\u2019s happened, but you continue to stumble through your remaining PowerPoint slides for the next 15 minutes, as your audience checks their phones and wishes it were coffee time. You think you have no choice, but that\u2019s not actually true. When you present, you are in charge of the room. The audience has effectively handed you control and is sitting back waiting for you to do something. You may have prepared a specific talk, but if you see that isn\u2019t working, you can always change it. You are, after all, the expert. You can, for example: Skip through some slides to a section that they may find more interesting. Ask your audience whether there is particular information that they were expecting that you are not providing. Suggest that everyone looks a bit sleepy, and maybe it would be better to start questions early, or have a discussion; or 167","Ask the audience at the start of the presentation what they are expecting and what they want you to cover. That way, you can tailor the presentation to fit their expectations. Just as when you are facilitating, you want to help your audience get the most out of your presentation. The best way to do that is to accept feedback\u2014which may include smiles, nods of interest, or people getting their phones out. Quick Guide to Effective Presentations If you need to improve your presentation skills quickly, then a really good place to start is with our Top Tips for Effective Presentations. This will give you some \u2018quick wins\u2019 that will help you improve your presentations. If you\u2019re already an experienced presenter, this page should be a useful refresher, or even take your skills from good to great. Our tips include general ideas about connecting with your audience, information about the importance of voice and body language, and detailed tips about preparing slideshows.The most important tip of all, however, is to remember that it's all about your audience.Keep that in mind, and your presentation skills will almost instantly improve. A presentation is a means of communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team. Effective presentations usually require careful thought and preparation\u2014although this preparation need not take very long. Preparation is the most important part of making a successful presentation. Our page on Preparing for A Presentation explains what information you need before you can really start to plan your presentation and decide what you are going to say. The most important aspects include the objective of the presentation, the subject, and the audience. Irrespective of whether the occasion is formal or informal, you should always aim to give a clear, well-structured delivery. To do so, you need to organise your presentation material. You can either do this in your head or use a technique like mind-mapping to help you identify links and good flow. By the time you come to write your presentation, you should know exactly what you want to say and the order in which you want to say it. You may want to use one of the standard presentation structures, such as \u2018What, Why, how?\u2019. You will also find it helpful to consider how to tell your story most effectively, and to use stories in your presentation to illustrate points. There is more about this in our page on writing your presentation. You also need to decide on your presentation method. Presentations range from the formal to the informal. Your choice of presentation method will depend on many factors, including the audience, the venue, the facilities, and your own preferences. 168","Visual aids can add another dimension to your presentation, helping to hold your audience\u2019s attention, and also act as a reminder of what you wanted to say. However, they need handling with care. Only use visual aids if they are necessary to maintain interest and assist comprehension. If visual aids are not used well, they can ruin a presentation. See Working with Visual Aids to avoid falling into the trap of the dreaded \u2018Death by PowerPoint\u2019. A particular case of visual aids is the use of data in a presentation. There are times when using data in a presentation can really help you to tell the story better. It is, however, important not to blind your audience with statistics. You also need to remember that many people find numbers difficult to understand. Our page on Presenting Data gives some hints and tips about using data effectively in a presentation situation. On the Day of the Presentation There are a number of aspects to delivering your presentation on the day. The practicalities of how you manage your presentation can make a significant difference to its success, and to your nerves! For example, turning up early means that you have will have a chance to see the room, and ensure that you can operate all the necessary equipment. There is more about how to cope, including managing sound systems, audio-visual equipment and lecterns in our page on Managing the Presentation Event. Many people also feel very nervous before and during a presentation. This is entirely normal and can even be helpful if you can channel it in the right way. There are some tried and tested strategies and techniques to manage your nerves so that you can concentrate on delivering an effective and engaging presentation. See Coping with Presentation Nerves for some ideas that will help. How you present yourself can also affect how your audience responds to your presentation. You need to fit with your audience's expectations if they are not going to spend quite a large chunk of your presentation dealing with the differences between expectations and reality. For more about aspects of self-presentation, see our page on Self-Presentation in Presentations. You also need to consider how to manage your presentation notes. Few people are able to give a presentation without notes. You will need to know your own abilities and decide how best to make the presentation. You might manage your talk by using full text, notes on cue cards, keywords on cue cards, or mind maps. There is more about this in our page on Managing your Presentation Notes. After the presentation, you may be faced with a question-and-answer session. For many people, this is the worst part of the event. 169","Decide in advance how and when you wish to handle questions. Some speakers prefer questions to be raised as they arise during the presentation whilst others prefer to deal with questions at the end. At the start of your presentation, you should make clear your preferences to the audience. See our page on Dealing with Questions for more ideas about how to make the question session pleasant and productive, rather than something to dread. Presenting Under Particular Circumstances You may find that you need to give a presentation under certain circumstances, where your previous experience is less helpful. Circumstances that may be new to you include: \uf0b7 Presentations in Interviews \uf0b7 Presenting to Large Groups and Conferences \uf0b7 Giving Lectures and Seminars \uf0b7 Giving a Speech, for example, at a wedding. \uf0b7 One special case is attending public consultation meetings. You may also find yourself required to organise or manage a press conference. Although this may not strictly be what you would describe as a \u2018presentation\u2019, it is nonetheless an event at which you are required to present your organisation in a particular light. Emotional Intelligence Many of us are aware of IQ (Intelligence Quotient). Designed to measure intellectual intelligence, it gives a score from a series of tests. Higher IQs indicate better cognitive abilities, or the ability to learn and understand. People with higher IQs are more likely to do well academically without exerting the same amount of mental effort as those with lower IQ scores. A logical assumption, therefore, is that people with higher IQs will be more successful at work and through life. Benefits of Higher Emotional Intelligence People with higher emotional intelligence find it easier to form and maintain interpersonal relationships and to \u2018fit in\u2019 to group situations. People with higher emotional intelligence are also better at understanding their own psychological state, which can include managing stress effectively and being less likely to suffer from depression. 170","Ultimately emotional intelligence can only be measured by how an individual progresses through life - developing meaningful relationships with others, their interpersonal skills and understanding, their ability to manage their own emotions, and their personal skills. There are three areas of personal skills or competences in emotional intelligence. 1. Self-awareness Self-awareness encompasses: Emotional awareness Accurate self-assessment Self-confidence Self-awareness is the skill of being aware of and understanding your emotions as they occur and as they evolve. It is wrong to think of emotions as either positive or negative. Instead, you should think of them as appropriate or inappropriate. For example, anger is usually associated with being a negative emotion. However, it can be a completely reasonable and appropriate emotion in certain circumstances \u2013 emotional intelligence allows us to recognise our anger and understand why this emotion has occurred. Effective self-assessment of feelings and emotions will help to improve your confidence and self-esteem. 2. Self-regulation or Self-management Self-regulation includes: Self-control Trustworthiness Conscientiousness Adaptability Innovation Having learned to be aware of your emotions, the skill of self-regulation relates to managing them appropriately and proportionately. 3. Self-management skills Self-management skills relate to the emotions you are feeling at any given time or in any given circumstance and how well you manage them. Self-control is a fundamental part of this, but other aspects relate to what you then do: whether you behave in a way which is recognised as \u2018good\u2019 or \u2018virtuous\u2019 or not. Motivation The final personal skills aspect of emotional intelligence is Motivation. 171","Self-motivation includes our personal drive to improve and achieve, commitment to our goals, initiative, or readiness to act on opportunities, and optimism and resilience. Self-motivation and personal time management are key skills in this area. Do not make unreasonable demands on yourself, learn to be assertive rather than just saying, \u2018Yes\u2019 to the demands of others. Social or Interpersonal Skills or Competences Interpersonal skills are the skills we use to interact with other people. They enable us to communicate appropriately and build stronger, more meaningful relationships. Emotional intelligence includes how we understand others and their emotions, and our actions and behaviours towards them. There are two key aspects. Empathy Empathy is an awareness of the needs and feelings of others both individually and in groups and being able to see things from the point of view of others. Empathy helps us to develop a stronger understanding of other people\u2019s situations. It includes understanding others, developing others, having a service orientation, leveraging diversity, and political awareness. Empathy can often be difficult to achieve. Learn to listen effectively to both the verbal and non-verbal messages of others, including body movements, gestures and physical signs of emotion. Use questions to find out more about other people and what they are feeling, and feedback to clarify that you have correctly understood their feelings. Acknowledge and respect the feelings of others even if you disagree, and avoid making comments or statements that are judgemental, belittling, rejecting or undermining. Social Skills Social skills encompass a wide range of relationship and interpersonal skills. These range from leadership through to influencing and persuading, and managing conflict, as well as working in a team. The term \u2018social skills\u2019 covers a wide variety of skills and competencies, many of which are rooted in self-esteem and personal confidence. By developing your social skills, being easy to talk to, being a good listener, being sharing and trustworthy, you also become more charismatic and attractive to others. This in turn improves self-esteem and confidence which makes it easier for positive personal dialogue and a greater understanding and acceptance of your own emotions. Confidence 172","Confidence is not something that can be learned like a set of rules; confidence is a state of mind. Positive thinking, practice, training, knowledge and talking to other people are all useful ways to help improve or boost your confidence levels. Confidence comes from feelings of well-being, acceptance of your body and mind (your self- esteem) and belief in your own ability, skills and experience. Confidence is an attribute that most people would like to possess. Although self-confidence can mean different things to different people, in reality it simply means having faith in yourself. Confidence is, in part, a result of how we have been brought up and how we've been taught. We learn from others how to think about ourselves and how to behave - these lessons affect what we believe about ourselves and other people. Confidence is also a result of our experiences and how we've learned to react to different situations. Self-confidence is not a static measure. Our confidence to perform roles and tasks and deal with situations can increase and decrease, and some days we may feel more confident than others. Low-confidence can be a result of many factors including: fear of the unknown, criticism, being unhappy with personal appearance (self-esteem), feeling unprepared, poor time- management, lack of knowledge and previous failures. Often when we lack confidence in ourselves it is because of what we believe others will think of us. Perhaps others will laugh at us or complain or make fun if we make a mistake. Thinking like this can prevent us from doing things we want or need to do because we believe that the consequences are too painful or embarrassing. Over-confidence can be a problem if it makes you believe that you can do anything - even if you don't have the necessary skills, abilities and knowledge to do it well. In such situation\u2019s over-confidence can lead to failure. Being overly confident also means you are more likely to come across to other people as arrogant or egotistical. People are much more likely to take pleasure in your failure if you are perceived as arrogant. Confidence and self-esteem are not the same thing, although they are often linked. Confidence is the term we use to describe how we feel about our ability to perform roles, functions and tasks. Self-esteem is how we feel about ourselves, the way we look, the way we think - whether or not we feel worthy or valued. People with low self-esteem often also suffer from generally low confidence, but people with good self-esteem can also have low confidence. It is also perfectly possible for people with low self-esteem to be very confident in some areas. Performing a role or completing a task confidently is not about making mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable, especially when doing something new. Confidence includes knowing what to 173","do when mistakes come to light and therefore is also about problem solving and decision making. Ways to Improve Confidence There are two sides to improving confidence. Although the ultimate aim is to feel more confident in yourself and your abilities it is also worth considering how you can appear more confident to other people. The following list has lots of ideas on how to achieve this. Planning and Preparation People often feel less confident about new or potentially difficult situations. Perhaps the most important factor in developing confidence is planning and preparing for the unknown. If you are applying for a new job, for example, it would be a good idea to prepare for the interview. Plan what you would want to say and think about some of the questions that you may be asked. Practice your answers with friends or colleagues and gain their feedback. There are many other examples of planning for an interview. Perhaps you should visit the hairdresser before you go. How are you going to travel to the interview and how long will the journey take? What should you wear? Take control of unknown situations the best you can, break down tasks into smaller sub-tasks and plan as many as you can. In some situations, it may be necessary to also have contingency plans - backup plans if your main plan fails. If you had planned to travel to your interview by car but on the morning the car wouldn't start, how would you get there? Being able to react calmly to the unexpected is a sign of confidence. Learning, Knowledge and Training Learning and research can help us to feel more confident about our ability to handle situations, roles and tasks. Knowing what to expect and how and why things are done will add to your awareness and usually make you feel more prepared and ultimately more confident. However, learning and gaining knowledge can sometimes make us feel less confident about our abilities to perform roles and tasks, and when this happens, we need to combine our knowledge with experience. By doing something we have learned a lot about we put theory to practice which develops confidence and adds to the learning and comprehension. First-time parents to-be may well feel nervous and less than confident about having a baby. They are likely to buy books or visit websites which can offer advice and dispel some of the mysteries. They are also likely to talk to other parents to gain knowledge and understanding. Positive Thought Positive thought can be a very powerful way of improving confidence. 174","If you believe that you can achieve something then you are likely to work hard to make sure you do if, however, you don't believe that you can accomplish a task then you are more likely to approach it half-heartedly and therefore be more likely to fail. The trick is convincing yourself that you can do something - with the right help, support, preparedness and knowledge. Experience As we successfully complete tasks and goals, our confidence that we can complete the same and similar tasks again increases. A simple example of this is driving a car. Most people who have been driving for some times do so almost automatically - they don't have to think about which peddle to push or how to handle a junction in the road, they just do it. This contrasts to a learner driver who will probably feel nervous and have to concentrate hard. The learner lacks experience and therefore confidence in their ability to drive. Gaining experience and taking the first step can, however, be very difficult. Often the thought of starting something new is worse than actually doing it. This is where preparation, learning and thinking positively can help. Break roles and tasks down into small achievable goals. Make each one of your goals fit SMART criteria. That is to make goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timed. Be Assertive Being assertive means standing up for what you believe in and sticking to your principles. Being assertive also means that you can change your mind if you believe it is the right thing to do, not because you are under pressure from somebody else. Assertiveness, confidence and self-esteem are all very closely linked - usually people become naturally more assertive as they develop their confidence. Keep Calm There is usually a correlation between confidence and calmness. If you feel confident about a task, then you will likely feel calm about doing it. When you feel less confident you are more likely to be stressed or nervous. Trying to remain calm, even when you're under stress and pressure, will tend to make you feel more confident. Developing Your Self-Confidence Skills Self-confidence can diminish over time if you don't practise your skills or if you hit setbacks. As you become more self-confident you should continue to practise your skills to maintain and boost your confidence further. 175","Set yourself 'confidence targets' that require you to step out of your comfort zone and do things that make you feel a degree of nervousness or apprehension. Potential confidence targets may include: Start a task or project that you've been putting off for a long time. Often, we put off starting important tasks because they seem overwhelming, difficult or awkward to complete. Simply making a start on such a task can boost confidence and make you more inclined to complete it. Make a complaint in a restaurant if there is a problem with your order. If you would not usually complain about a problem, then doing so is a good way to improve your confidence and assertiveness skills. Our page How to Complain, Effectively can help with this. Stand up and ask a question at a public meeting or in a group. By doing this you are making yourself the centre of attention for a few minutes. Volunteer to give a presentation or make a speech. For many people speaking to a group of people is a particularly scary prospect. The best way to overcome this fear and gain confidence is with experience. Introduce yourself to somebody new. This could be somewhere where people have something in common - like at a party or a conference, making it potentially easier to have a conversation. Or you could talk to a complete stranger in a lift\/elevator. Wear something that will draw attention - such as a garish colour. Personal appearance is an important factor in self-esteem and people with lower self-esteem tend to try not to be noticed. Make a statement and stand out in a crowd! Join a group or class in your community. You will potentially benefit in lots of different ways by meeting new local people and learning new things while improving your confidence. Take an unfamiliar journey on public transport. Travelling to a new place using an unfamiliar route and with random people will make most people feel at least slightly uncomfortable. 6.3 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS Albeit the investigation of language traces all the way back to many years before the Common Era, certain parts of language stay a secret. But talking and listening are the most normal errands that people participate in all through their lives. We start this complicated errand as darlings, scarcely ready to take care of ourselves, with no comprehension of why we express out loud whatever we do\u2081 paying little mind to social, ethnic, or geological foundation. The vast majority don't really think about how they communicate in their language. Semantics is an innate science which investigates regular language. Etymologists explore language by noticing, assembling, and examining how people use language similarly that a 176","researcher utilizes logical technique to assemble and investigate discernible information. The investigation of language is numerous faceted in this way there are a few phonetic sub-fields. An enormous group of etymological examination is dedicated to hypothesis like phonetics (the investigation of sounds), phonology (the investigation of how sounds are hung together), morphology (the development of words), punctuation (the design of expressions), and semantics (the build of importance). Different fields of semantic review are language obtaining (how one teaches her local language as well as unknown dialects), authentic etymology (tracking down the foundations of an association between dialects), socio- phonetics which is centered around language in the public eye, language change, language arranging, and how friendly builds impact language. Mental phonetics is the investigation of the connection between the brain and language. Psycholinguistics is the investigation of how people perform language. The Nature of Language What number of dialects are spoken in this present reality? This question isn't as simple to reply as you might naturally suspect. Assuming 100 unique individuals are questioned, they will probably give 100 distinct reactions. In the mid-20th century the count was informally at 1,000. Toward the finish of that very century, the number rose to above and beyond 2,000. Did new dialects foster that quickly? All things considered, not actually. One justification for the number multiplying is that language specialists accessed more social classes who had recently been too separated geologically to reach. Authorities on the matter agree, there are right now somewhere in the range of 5,000 and 6,000 dialects spoken all over the planet. They are as unique in relation to one another as the human finger impression. No two are indistinguishable. Truth be told, no two vernaculars of some random language are precisely indistinguishable. But all normal dialects share specific properties, or qualities which have furnished etymologists with a strong small bunch of standards which apply to all dialects in this manner making the ways for our grasping the idea of language itself. The idea of language is numerous faceted. This is because of the way that it saturates each part of our lives. In extremely broad terms one could portray language as an arrangement of correspondence used to associate people to one another. Language is impacted by topography, training, accepted practices, and the advancement of innovation and is utilized by each person on the essence of the earth somehow or another or another. How does language occur? It is to a great extent settled upon that all people have a natural arrangement of language similarly as every individual comes into this world completely furnished with a circulatory framework. Nobody shows her baby how to breathe in through the nostrils or mouth, close the throat, open up the windpipe, fill the lungs, keep the stomach plunged, and gradually discharge it to allow air gradually to get away from through the windpipe and out of the mouth or potentially nose. This natural framework expects that every part executes its liability in the appropriate way and brilliantly so the capability of breathing can happen. Moreover, it occurs without a lot, if any thought with respect to the breather. 177","What's more, in the event that there is a breakdown in any one part, breathing is restrained. Also, hence is the natural arrangement of language. Every one of the parts of the language framework should combine efforts for an individual to phonetically impart. The mind, the lungs, the lips, teeth, and tongue, to give some examples individuals, should be generally in synchronize to deliver language. Furthermore, what number of us thoroughly consider the cycle each time we open our mouths? The interaction is such a lot of a piece of our organic and neurological make-up that the vast majority would struggle with portraying precisely exact thing occurs during verbal correspondence. This cycle is alluded to as the Speech Chain which is contained the accompanying advances: 1. A thought is imagined in the cerebrum. 2. The words expected to offer the viewpoint are extricated from the vocabulary. 3. Sounds are planned to words. 4. The words are organized in a satisfactory word request. 5. The articulatory lot conveys the sounds. 6. They arrive at the audience. 7. The audience deciphers the sounds and guides them on to implications which are tracked down in his vocabulary. 8. The audience figures out the idea. At the point when any part of this cycle is hindered, the message can become questionable or misjudged. At the point when this cycle goes without a hitch, we have great correspondence. This natural language framework recognizes people from creatures. Creatures do impart, yet for the most part through signs like sounds and signals. What's more, Polly can perceive you she needs a wafer however can't remind you to spread it with peanut butter and welcome a soda as an afterthought. Researchers have not yet had the option to show that creatures have the ability to explain upon what befalls them after death, or their opinion on the nature of their water. They don't have the capacity to speak with an action word emphasis expressing what has occurred before or what will occur from now on, other than signal risk in the short term. A German shepherd might flag his lord with a particular bark which cautions of famous risk, yet he can't make sense of what that peril is or how to get away from it. 6.4 USES OF LINGUISTICS LANGUAGE TEACHING Etymology is the investigation of dialects, and in that capacity, is vital to language educators. Etymology assists instructors with conveying the starting points of words and dialects, their authentic applications, and their advanced pertinence. Consolidated, this way to deal with showing language assists understudies with acquiring a superior, more inside and out comprehension of their tasks and work item assumptions. 178","Utilizations of Linguistics in Teaching The utilization of phonetics in training is proceeding to develop, and is many times cross- disciplinary in nature. In addition to the fact that it is used by language teachers, it is likewise utilized in youth advancement, brain science and human studies training, also. Phonetics isn't just the investigation of language, yet in addition incorporates the advancement and authentic setting of language, discourse and memory improvement. It incorporates the construction and importance of discourse, and of composed dialects as well as a comprehension of the setting in which certain words are utilized. Unknown dialects While showing an unknown dialect, etymology means a lot to a language educator in that giving verifiable setting to word beginnings can assist students with better grasping the language. This is particularly significant with regards to understanding the distinctions among conversational discourse, formal discourse, and conceptual principles about word utilization in various societies. This can really cover into territorial tongues inside a similar country. English Language Etymology is similarly essential to language educators who give guidance on the English language. Etymology assists understudies with figuring out local vernaculars and idioms. It likewise assists understudies with recognizing the starting points of adages and expressions that have advanced after some time, yet maxims that might not have a similar importance or significance in contemporary society. Etymology can likewise help guard against self-shame, utilizing words that are normal, yet have authentic setting that might make them unseemly or offending amongst more polite circles. Etymology in Writing At the point when a language educator gives guidance on composition and organization, understanding etymology is significant in assisting understudies with making material that makes its planned difference. For instance, semantics assumes a part in making a contentious exposition convincing, in the event that the essayist can saddle their insight into word use to more readily set and present a position. Similarly, a comprehension of etymology can assist an experimental writing understudy with creating exposition that addresses the peruser's faculties and transports them to an alternate condition of the real world. In a general public in which individuals impart like never before through electronic means, structure, importance and, surprisingly, genuine trade of thoughts through the composed word can need. Instructing and concentrating on etymology gives the apparatuses important to save and propel the specialty of perusing, composing and correspondence. This is fundamental in the instructive field, the working environment and in the public eye. Language educators have long discussed the effect that different phonetic hypotheses have on showing dialects; some have denied any impact, others dismissed a few speculations for other 179","people. Phonetics is the logical investigation of the language; language educators could utilize semantics to track down better ways of instructing dialects. Nonetheless, since the two disciplines have various points, thinking about semantic hypotheses while considering other factors is better. Design Recognition in Learning a Language One method for showing a subsequent language, particularly jargon, is to bring up similitudes and contrasts between the objective language - - the new dialect being educated - - and one more language natural to the understudies, ideally their native language. This technique will assist the understudies with obtaining a fundamental comprehension of the new dialect. To recognize such examples, nonetheless, educators ought to apply the kind of etymological hypothesis generally fitting to the circumstance. Mistake Analysis: Identifying a Language's \\\"Bogus Friends\\\" Speakers of two dialects at times use \\\"misleading companions\\\" - - words with a similar structure as in their local language, yet with an alternate significance in the new dialect. For example, English speakers wrongly decipher the French word \\\"coin\\\" as \\\"cash,\\\" when as a matter of fact, it signifies \\\"corner.\\\" Teachers with great psycholinguistic foundations commit understudies mindful of such errors and the purposes for them, in this manner assisting them with revising themselves. This strategy is called mistake examination. Near\/Historical Linguistics as Background Educators can likewise involve near etymology to make sense of likenesses in jargon or linguistic structure between the two dialects. This strategy works best when dialects have a typical beginning - - for instance, instructing Spanish to locals of a Romance language or English to speakers of a Germanic language. Likewise, by finding out about the verifiable foundation of these dialects, understudies can see better that a language continually develops, very much like a living creature. The Communicative Approach and Social Context Sociolinguists understood that to have the option to dominate a language, students ought to know something other than syntax; they ought to likewise know how to involve the new dialect in various social settings. Educators have additionally fostered the thought by tracking down strategies to assist understudies with accomplishing the capacity to involve the new dialect in these social settings - - for instance, when to utilize formal and when to utilize casual discourse. These strategies lay out the open methodology. 6.5 PHONETICS Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that focuses on the production and classification of the world\u2019s speech sounds. The production of speech looks at the interaction of different vocal organs, for example the lips, tongue and teeth, to produce particular sounds. By classification 180","of speech, we focus on the sorting of speech sounds into categories which can be seen in what is called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA is a framework that uses a single symbol to describe each distinct sound in the language and can be found in dictionaries and in textbooks worldwide. For example, the noun \u2018fish\u2019 has four letters, but the IPA presents this as three sounds: f i \u0283, where \u2018\u0283\u2019 stands for the \u2018sh\u2019 sound. Phonetics as an interdisciplinary science has many applications. This includes its use in forensic investigations when trying to work out whose voice is behind a recording. Another use is its role in language teaching and learning, either when learning a first language or when trying to learn a foreign language. This section of the website will look at some of the branches of phonetics as well as the transcription of speech and some history behind phonetics. Phonetics looks at the physical production of sounds, focusing on which vocal organs are interacting with each other and how close these vocal organs are in relation to one another. Phonetics also looks at the concept of voicing, occurring at the pair of muscles found in your voice box, also known as the Adam\u2019s apple. If the vocal folds are vibrating, this creates voicing and any sound made in this way are called voiced sounds, for example \u201cz\u201d. If the vocal folds are not vibrating, this does not lead to voicing and creates a voiceless sound e.g., \u201cs\u201d. You can observe this yourself by placing two fingers upon your voice box and saying \u201cz\u201d and \u201cs\u201d repeatedly. You should feel vibrations against your finger when saying \u201cz\u201d but no vibrations when saying \u201cs\u201d. Phonology however is associated more with the abstract properties of sounds, as it is about how these categories are stored in the mind. Phonetics also describes certain properties as being gradient such as voicing where we can compare the length of voicing between two sounds. For example, in French, [b] is voiced for longer than English [b]. In Phonology, these segments are simply defined categorically as being voiced or voiceless, regardless of these subtle differences. Sound Segments Knowing a language includes knowing the sounds of that Language. Phonetics is the study of speech sounds. We are able to segment a continuous stream of speech into distinct parts and recognize the parts in other words. Everyone who knows a language knows how to segment sentences into words and words into sounds. Identity Speech Sounds It is quite amazing, given the continuity of the speech signal, that we are able to understand what words are put together to form an utterance. This ability is even more surprising because no two speakers ever say the 'same thing' identically. The speech signal produced when one 181","speaker says cat will not be identical to the signal produced when another says cat or even when the first speaker repeats the word. George Bernard Shaw pointed to the impossibility of constructing any set of symbols that will specify all the minute differences between sounds, in his statement: By infinitesimal movements of the tongue countless different vowels can be produced, all of them in use among speakers of English who utter the same vowels not oftener than they make the same fingerprints. Yet speakers understand each other because they know the same language. Our knowledge of a language determines when we judge physically different sounds to be the same; we know which aspects or properties of the signal are important and which are not. For example, if someone coughs in the middle of saying 'How (cough) are you? a listener will interpret this signal simply as 'How are you?' Men's voices are usually lower in overall pitch than women's; some speakers speak more slowly than others; some people speak with a 'nasal twang'. Such pitch or tempo differences or personal styles of speaking are not linguistically significant. Our linguistic knowledge, our mental grammar, makes it possible to ignore non-linguistic differences in speech. Furthermore, we are capable of making many sounds that we know intuitively are not speech sounds in our language. Many English speakers can make a clicking sound, which writers sometimes represent as tsk tsk tsk, but these sounds are not part of the English sound system. They never occur as part of the words of the sentences we produce. It is, in fact, difficult for many English speakers to combine this clicking sound with other sounds; yet clicks are speech sounds in Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, and Khoikhoi languages spoken in southern Africa just like k or t in English. Speakers of those languages have no difficulty producing them as part of words. Xhosa, the language name, begins with one of these clicks. Thus, tsk is a speech sound in Xhosa but not in English; th is a speech sound in English but not in French. The sound produced with a closed mouth when we are trying to clear a tickle in our throats is not a speech sound in any language, nor is the sound produced when we sneeze. The science of phonetics attempts to describe all the sounds used in human language sound that constitute an important subset of the totality of sounds that humans are capable of producing. The process by which we use our linguistic knowledge to produce a meaningful utterance is complicated. It can be viewed as a chain of events starting with an idea or message in the brain or mind of the speaker and ending with a similar message in the brain of the hearer. The message is put into a form that is dictated by the language we are speaking. It must then be transmitted by nerve signals to the organs of speech articulation, which produce different physical sounds. Speech sounds can be described at any stage in this chain of events. The study of the physical properties of the sounds themselves is called acoustic phonetics, and the study of the way 182","listeners perceive these sounds is called auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics the study of how the vocal tract produces the sounds of language. Our linguistic knowledge allows us to ignore non-linguistic differences in speech (such as individual pitch levels, rates of speed, coughs). We are capable of making sounds that are not speech sounds in English but are in other languages. The click tsk that signals disapproval in English is a speech sound in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu where it is combined with other sounds just like t or k is in English. The science of phonetics aims to describe all the sounds of all the world\u2019s languages. Acoustic phonetics: focuses on the physical properties of the sounds of language. Auditory phonetics: focuses on how listeners perceive the sounds of language. Articulatory phonetics: focuses on how the vocal tract produces the sounds of language. Spelling, or orthography, does not consistently represent the sounds of language Some problems with ordinary spelling: 1. The same sound may be represented by many letters or combination of letters: he people key believe seize machine Caesar seas see amoeba 2. The same letter may represent a variety of sounds: father village badly made many 3. A combination of letters may represent a single sound shoot character Thomas either physic rough coat deal 4. A single letter may represent a combination of sounds xerox The Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system where each symbol is associated with a particular English sound. By using IPA, you can know exactly how to pronounce a certain word in English. This helps in improving English pronunciation and feeling more confident 183","speaking in English, whether you learn English on you own or with a specialist teacher in an individual English Accent Training class. We also run online English courses in virtual groups, and immersion courses in London. Here are examples of IPA use in common English words. You can practice various vowel and consonant sounds by pronouncing the words. This is one way how you can improve English pronunciation. IPA Symbol Word examples E Went, intend, send, letter. \u00c6 Cat, hand, nap, flat, have. \u028c Fun, love, money, one, London, come. \u028a Put, look, should, cook, book, look. \u0252 Rob, top, watch, squat, sausage. \u0259 Alive, again, mother. Long Vowels IPA Symbol Word examples i: Need, beat, team. 184","\u025c: Nurse, heard, third, turn. \u0254: Talk, law, bored, yawn, jaw. u: Few, boot, lose, gloomy, fruit, chew. \u0251: Fast, car, hard, bath. In 1888 the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was invented in order to have a system in which there was a one to-one correspondence between each sound in language and each phonetic symbol. Someone who knows the IPA knows how to pronounce any word in any language. Articulatory Phonetics The traditional method of describing speech sounds is in terms of the movements of the vocal organs that produce them. The main structures that are important in the production of speech are the lungs and the respiratory system, together with the vocal organs shown in Figure 1. The airstream from the lungs passes between the vocal cords, which are two small muscular folds located in the larynx at the top of the windpipe. The space between the vocal cords is known as the glottis. If the vocal cords are apart, as they are normally when breathing out, the air from the lungs will have a relatively free passage into the pharynx (see Figure 1) and the mouth. But if the vocal cords are adjusted so that there is a narrow passage between them, the airstream will cause them to be sucked together. As soon as they are together there will be no flow of air, and the pressure below them will be built up until they are blown apart again. The flow of air between them will then cause them to be sucked together again, and the vibratory cycle will continue. Sounds produced when the vocal cords are vibrating are said to be voiced, as opposed to those in which the vocal cords are apart, which are said to be voiceless. The air passages above the vocal cords are known collectively as the vocal tract. For phonetic purposes they may be divided into the oral tract within the mouth and the pharynx, and the nasal tract within the nose. Many speech sounds are characterized by movements of the lower articulators\u2014i.e., the tongue or the lower lip\u2014toward the upper articulators within the oral tract. The upper surface includes several important structures from the point of view of speech production, such as the upper lip and the upper teeth; Figure 1 illustrates most of the terms that are commonly used. The alveolar ridge is a small protuberance just behind the 185","upper front teeth that can easily be felt with the tongue. A major part of the roof of the mouth is formed by the hard palate in the front, and the soft palate or velum at the back. The soft palate is a muscular flap that can be raised so as to shut off the nasal tract and prevent air from going out through the nose. When it is raised so that the soft palate is pressed against the back wall of the pharynx there is said to be a velic closure. At the lower end of the soft palate is a small hanging appendage known as the uvula. As may be seen from Figure 1, there are also specific names for different parts of the tongue. The tip and blade are the most mobile parts. Behind the blade is the so-called front of the tongue; it is actually the forward part of the body of the tongue and lies underneath the hard palate when the tongue is at rest. The remainder of the body of the tongue may be divided into the centre, which is partly beneath the hard palate and partly beneath the soft palate; the back, which is beneath the soft palate; and the root, which is opposite the back wall of the pharynx. The major division in speech sounds is that between vowels and consonants. Phoneticians have found it difficult to give a precise definition of the articulatory distinction between these two classes of sounds. Most authorities would agree that a vowel is a sound that is produced without any major constrictions in the vocal tract, so that there is a relatively free passage for the air. It is also syllabic. This description is unsatisfactory in that no adequate definition of the notion syllabic has yet been formulated. Most speech sounds are produced by pushing air through the vocal cords, Glottis = the opening between the vocal cords. Larynx = \u2018voice box\u2019. Pharynx = tubular part of the throat above the larynx. Oral cavity = mouth. Nasal cavity = nose and the passages connecting it to the throat and sinuses. 6.6 SUMMARY \uf0b7 Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place, person or group to another. \uf0b7 Every communication involves (at least) one sender, a message and a recipient. This may sound simple, but communication is actually a very complex subject. \uf0b7 The process of interpersonal communication cannot be regarded as a phenomenon which simply 'happens'. Instead, it must be seen as a process that involves participants who negotiate their roles with each other, whether consciously or unconsciously. 186","\uf0b7 Effective communication involves minimising potential misunderstanding and overcoming any barriers to communication at each stage in the communication process. \uf0b7 Diphthong\u201d comes from the Greek word diphthongs. It literally means \u201chaving two sounds.\u201d \uf0b7 More specifically, diphthongs deal with vowels. Every vowel has its own short sound and long vowel sound. However, diphthongs come into play whenever a vowel makes a new and different sound, usually because it\u2019s working in conjunction with another vowel. \uf0b7 A vowel is classified as \\\"a speech sound produced by a comparatively open configuration of the vocal tract, with vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction\\\". \uf0b7 Well, using this definition, the letter Y in words like hymn and shy is also a vowel. However, in words like beyond and yes, Y is a consonant because the breath is partly obstructed. \uf0b7 A consonant is a letter of the alphabet that represents a basic speech sound produced by obstructing the breath in the vocal tract. \uf0b7 All the letters in the alphabet apart from A, E, I, O, and U (called vowels) are known as consonants. \uf0b7 Phonetics, the study of speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic qualities. \uf0b7 It deals with the configurations of the vocal tract used to produce speech sounds (articulatory phonetics), the acoustic properties of speech sounds (acoustic phonetics), and the manner of combining sounds so as to make syllables, words, and sentences (linguistic phonetics). 6.7 KEYWORDS \uf0b7 Linguistic: Of or relating to language or linguistics linguistic scholars\u2019 linguistic changes. 187","\uf0b7 Analogous: comparable in certain respects, typically in a way which makes clearer the nature of the things compared. \uf0b7 Tendency: An inclination towards a particular characteristic or type of behaviour. \uf0b7 Acoustic: Relating to sound or the sense of hearing. \uf0b7 Intuitively: Without conscious reasoning; instinctively. \uf0b7 Abstemious: Indulging only very moderately in something, especially food and drink \uf0b7 Facetious: Treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humour; flippant. \uf0b7 Infinitesimal: An infinitesimal or infinitesimal number is a quantity that is closer to zero than any standard real number, but that is not zero. \uf0b7 Countless: Too numerous to be counted, myriad, many. \uf0b7 Articulatory: Relating to the formation of speech sounds. 6.8 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Describe Phonetics and its role in Spoken Communication. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. Illustrate Vowels and Consonants. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 6.9 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. What is Phonetics? 2. What Is Phoneme Noun? 3. What Is Semi-Vowel Noun? 4. What Is Syllabic Consonant Noun? 5. What is Intonation? Long Questions 188","1. What is spoken communication? Explain in detail. 2. How does Phonology help in Communication? 3. What is the function of diaphragm? 4. What is the role of consonants in speech? 5. What is the role of vowels in speech? B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. What is a consonant called when it is placed at the end of a syllable? a. Releasing consonant b. Arresting consonant c. Dental consonant d. Alveolar consonant 2. Which of the following is a voiceless sound component? a. b b. d c. c d. g 3. According to the place of articulation, which of these is not a type of consonant? a. Bilabial b. Dental c. Velar d. Public 4. According to the placement of the tongue, which of these is not a type of vowel? a. Cross vowels b. Front vowels c. Back vowels d. Central vowels 189","5. Which of the following vowels is an example of back vowel? a. i b. e c. u d. a Answers: 1. b, 2. c, 3. d, 4. a, 5. c 6.10 REFERENCES Reference Books \uf0b7 Fleming, A, Carol (2013) It's the Way You Say It Becoming Articulate, Well-Spoken, and Clear, USA, Berrett-Koehler Publishers. \uf0b7 Catford, J.C (2001) A Practical Introduction to Phonetics, Oxford, OUP Oxford. \uf0b7 Association, International Phonetic, Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet'(1999), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Textbooks \uf0b7 Small, H. Larry (2019) Fundamentals of Phonetics, UK, Pearson Publications. \uf0b7 Collins, Beverly; Mees, Inger (2003) The Phonetics of English and Dutch, Leiden, Brill Publications. \uf0b7 Mark Goulston, Just Listen, Harper Collin Publishers. Websites \uf0b7 https:\/\/examples.yourdictionary.com\/diphthong-examples.html \uf0b7 https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/phonetics \uf0b7 https:\/\/www.managementstudyguide.com\/phonetics-and-homophones-in- communication.htm \uf0b7 https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/phonetics\/Secondary-articulations 190","191","UNIT-7 ALPHABETS: PHONETIC ALPHABETS,TRANSCRIPTION: PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION Structure 7.0 Learning Objective 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Phonetic Alphabets 7.3 Phonetic Transcriptions 7.3.1 Phonetic vs. Phonemic Transcription 7.3.2 Need of Phonetic Transcription 7.4 Summary 7.5 Keywords 7.6 Learning Activity 7.7 Unit End Questions 7.8 References 7.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit,students will be able to: \uf0b7 Comprehend Phonetics \uf0b7 Understand Phonetic alphabets \uf0b7 Comprehend difference between phonetic and phonemic transcription \uf0b7 Understand need of Phonetic Transcription 7.1 INTRODUCTION Phonetics, the study of speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic qualities. It deals with the configurations of the vocal tract used to produce speech sounds (articulatory phonetics), the acoustic properties of speech sounds (acoustic phonetics), and the manner of combining sounds so as to make syllables, words, and sentences (linguistic phonetics). In the formation of consonants, the airstream through the vocal tract is obstructed in some way. Consonants can be classified according to the place and manner of this obstruction. 192","Some of the possible places of articulation are indicated by the arrows going from one of the lower articulators to one of the upper articulators in Figure 1. The principal terms that are required in the description of English articulation, and the structures of the vocal tract that they involve are: bilabial, the two lips; dental, tongue tip or blade and the upper front teeth; alveolar, tongue tip or blade and the teeth ridge; retroflex, tongue tip and the back part of the teeth ridge; palato-alveolar, tongue blade and the back part of the teeth ridge; palatal, front of tongue and hard palate; and velar, back of tongue and soft palate. The additional places of articulation shown in Figure 1 are required in the description of other languages. Note that the terms for the various places of articulation denote both the portion of the lower articulators (i.e., lower lip and tongue) and the portion of the upper articulatory structures that are involved. Thus, velar denotes a sound in which the back of the tongue and the soft palate are involved, and retroflex implies a sound involving the tip of the tongue and the back part of the alveolar ridge. If it is necessary to distinguish between sounds made with the tip of the tongue and those made with the blade, the terms apical (tip) and laminal (blade) may be used. Vowels traditionally have been specified in terms of the position of the highest point of the tongue and the position of the lips. Figure 2 shows these positions for eight different vowels. The highest point of the tongue is in the front of the mouth for the vowels in heed, hid, head, and had. Accordingly, these vowels are classified as front vowels, whereas the vowels in hod, hawed, hood, and who\u2019d are classified as back vowels. The tongue is highest in the vowels in heed and who\u2019d, which are therefore called high, or close, vowels, and lowest in the vowels in hand and hod, which are called low, or open, vowels. The height of the tongue for the vowels in the other words is between these two extremes, and they are therefore called mid vowels. Lip positions may be described as being rounded, as in who\u2019d, or unrounded or spread, as in heed. The word \\\"diphthong\\\" comes from the Greek and means \\\"two voices\\\" or \\\"two sounds.\\\" In phonetics, a diphthong is a vowel in which there is a noticeable sound change within the same syllable. (A single or simple vowel is known as a monophthong.) The process of moving from one vowel sound to another is called gliding, which is why another name for a diphthong is a gliding vowel, but they are also known as compound vowels, complex vowels, or moving vowels. The sound change that turns a single vowel into a diphthong is called diphthongization. Diphthongs are sometimes referred to as \\\"long vowels\u201d, but this is misleading. While vowel sounds do change in a diphthong, they do not necessarily take more time to say than a monophthong. 7.2 PHONETIC ALPHABETS The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system where each symbol is associated with a particular English sound. By using IPA, you can know exactly how to pronounce a certain word in English. This helps in improving English pronunciation and feeling more confident speaking in English, whether you learn English on you own or with a specialist teacher in an 193","individual English Accent Training class. We also run online English courses in virtual groups, and immersion courses in London. Here are examples of IPA use in common English words. You can practice various vowel and consonant sounds by pronouncing the words. This is one way how you can improve English pronunciation. IPA Symbol Word examples E Went, intend, send, letter. \u00c6 Cat, hand, nap, flat, have. \u028c Fun, love, money, one, London, come. \u028a Put, look, should, cook, book, look. \u0252 Rob, top, watch, squat, sausage. \u0259 Alive, again, mother. Long Vowels IPA Symbol Word examples i: Need, beat, team. \u025c: Nurse, heard, third, turn. 194","\u0254: Talk, law, bored, yawn, jaw. u: Few, boot, lose, gloomy, fruit, chew. \u0251: Fast, car, hard, bath. In 1888 the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was invented in order to have a system in which there was a one to-one correspondence between each sound in language and each phonetic symbol. Someone who knows the IPA knows how to pronounce any word in any language. 7.3 PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTIONS It is quite amazing, given the continuity of the speech signal, that we are able to understand what words are put together to form an utterance. This ability is even more surprising because no two speakers ever say the 'same thing' identically. The speech signal produced when one speaker says cat will not be identical to the signal produced when another says cat or even when the first speaker repeats the word. George Bernard Shaw pointed to the impossibility of constructing any set of symbols that will specify all the minute differences between sounds, in his statement: By infinitesimal movements of the tongue countless different vowels can be produced, all of them in use among speakers of English who utter the same vowels not oftener than they make the same fingerprints. Yet speakers understand each other because they know the same language. Our knowledge of a language determines when we judge physically different sounds to be the same; we know which aspects or properties of the signal are important and which are not. For example, if someone coughs in the middle of saying 'How (cough) are you? a listener will interpret this signal simply as 'How are you?' Men's voices are usually lower in overall pitch than women's; some speakers speak more slowly than others; some people speak with a 'nasal twang'. Such pitch or tempo differences or personal styles of speaking are not linguistically significant. Our linguistic knowledge, our mental grammar, makes it possible to ignore non-linguistic differences in speech. Furthermore, we are capable of making many sounds that we know intuitively are not speech sounds in our language. Many English speakers can make a clicking sound, which writers sometimes represent as tsk tsk tsk, but these sounds are not part of the English sound system. They never occur as part of the words of the sentences we 195","produce. It is, in fact, difficult for many English speakers to combine this clicking sound with other sounds; yet clicks are speech sounds in Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, and Khoikhoi languages spoken in southern Africa just like k or t in English. Speakers of those languages have no difficulty producing them as part of words. Xhosa, the language name, begins with one of these clicks. Thus, tsk is a speech sound in Xhosa but not in English; th is a speech sound in English but not in French. The sound produced with a closed mouth when we are trying to clear a tickle in our throats is not a speech sound in any language, nor is the sound produced when we sneeze. The science of phonetics attempts to describe all the sounds used in human language sound that constitute an important subset of the totality of sounds that humans are capable of producing. The process by which we use our linguistic knowledge to produce a meaningful utterance is complicated. It can be viewed as a chain of events starting with an idea or message in the brain or mind of the speaker and ending with a similar message in the brain of the hearer. The message is put into a form that is dictated by the language we are speaking. It must then be transmitted by nerve signals to the organs of speech articulation, which produce different physical sounds. Speech sounds can be described at any stage in this chain of events. The study of the physical properties of the sounds themselves is called acoustic phonetics, and the study of the way listeners perceive these sounds is called auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics the study of how the vocal tract produces the sounds of language. Our linguistic knowledge allows us to ignore non-linguistic differences in speech (such as individual pitch levels, rates of speed, coughs). We are capable of making sounds that are not speech sounds in English but are in other languages. The click tsk that signals disapproval in English is a speech sound in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu where it is combined with other sounds just like t or k is in English. The science of phonetics aims to describe all the sounds of all the world\u2019s languages. Acoustic phonetics: focuses on the physical properties of the sounds of language. Auditory phonetics: focuses on how listeners perceive the sounds of language. Articulatory phonetics: focuses on how the vocal tract produces the sounds of language. Spelling, or orthography, does not consistently represent thesounds of language Some problems with ordinary spelling: 1. The same sound may be represented by many letters or combinationof letters: he people key believe seize machine 196","Caesar seas see amoeba 2. The same letter may represent a variety of sounds: father village badly made many 3. A combination of letters may represent a single sound shoot character Thomas either physic rough coat deal 4. A single letter may represent a combinationof sounds xerox 7.3.1 Phonetic vs. Phonemic Transcription There are two manners by which we can translate discourse. Phonemic record, likewise some of the time known as 'expansive' record, includes addressing discourse involving only a novel image for every phoneme of the language. Utilizing the Mitchell and Delbridge images, we could interpret the accompanying three words phonemically like this: 'strewn' \/strun\/ 'tenth' \/t\u025bn\u03b8\/ 'clean' \/klin\/ Here you can see that 'tossed' has 5 sounds and 'tenth' and 'clean' have 4 sounds, and each sound is addressed extraordinarily. Note that phonemic record is set between\/forward slice sections\/. At the point when we translate phonemically, we are addressing not real sounds, but rather dynamic mental builds. These are the classifications of sound that speakers comprehend to be 'hints of their language'. On account of Australian English, phonemic record requires utilizing 44 phoneme images. The alternate way we can decipher discourse is utilizing phonetic record, likewise some of the time known as 'thin' record. This includes addressing extra insights concerning the relevant varieties in elocution that happen in ordinary discourse. Once more, utilizing the Mitchell and Delbridge images, we could interpret similar three words phonetically this way: 'strewn' [stru:n] 'tenth' [t\u02b0\u025b\u0303n\u032a \u03b8] 197","'clean' [kl\u0325 i:n] Here you can see that: 'tossed' has a long vowel, addressed by the colon diacritic [:]. '10th' has a suctioned starting [t\u02b0] shown by the superscript [\u02b0]; and the vowel is nasalised, addressed by the tilde diacritic over the vowel [\u025b]\u0303 , in light of the fact that it promptly goes before a nasal; and the nasal is really expressed at the interdental spot of enunciation, addressed by the diacritic [n\u032a ], on the grounds that it quickly goes before an interdental fricative. 'clean' has a long vowel, addressed by the diacritic [:]; and a voiceless [l\u0325 ], addressed by the little addendum circle diacritic, in light of the fact that the ordinary voiced nature of [l] is smothered by the yearning of the [k] before it. Phonetic record is set between [square brackets]. At the point when we decipher phonetically, we are addressing not unique mental develops, yet rather the real sounds regarding their acoustic and articulatory properties. Note that speakers of a language are hard of hearing to these sorts of logical varieties in elocution. For instance from these phonetic records you can see that the 't' sounds are phonetically unique - the 't' in 'flung' isn't suctioned, while the 't' in '10th' is suctioned. In like manner the 'n' in 'thronw' is alveolar, while the 'n' in '10th' is interdental. Speakers of English hear both [t\u02b0] and [t] as cases of the phoneme\/t\/, and they hear both [n\u032a ] and [n] as occurrences of the phoneme\/n\/. Phonemic and phonetic record both have their motivations. The objective of a phonemic record is to record the 'phonemes as mental classifications' that a speaker utilizes, as opposed to the genuine spoken variations of those phonemes that are created with regards to a specific word. An English speaker has assimilated a standard that says 'seems like\/t\/are constantly suctioned when word-starting', so they'll naturally make the\/t\/in '10th' suctioned. Phonetic record then again indicates the better subtleties of how sounds are really made. So a non-English speaker prepared in the IPA could take a gander at a phonetic record like [t\u02b0\u025bn\u0303 \u032a \u03b8], and know how to articulate it precisely without knowing the standards about English phonemes. So phonemes are conceptual mental classifications to individuals, and these\/classifications\/are acknowledged as [actual sounds] from individuals' mouths. The verbally expressed variations of every phoneme are known as its allophones. Presently we can make statements like: The phoneme\/t\/has two allophones [t] and [t\u02b0]. 7.3.2 Need of Phonetic Transcription The chief justification for utilizing phonetic record is effortlessly expressed. At the point when we translate a word or an expression, we give an immediate detail of its elocution. Assuming that standard spelling dependably showed real elocution, phonetic record may be pointless; however frequently it doesn't. 198","This is clear when we consider a language, for example, English, whose spelling is unmitigatedly unpredictable; or a language like Chinese, with a non-alphabetic orthography, whose composed structure by and large gives no immediate data about elocution (and obviously this applies additionally to Chinese characters utilized recorded as a hard copy Japanese or Korean). Yet, even in dialects with purported phonetic orthography, for example, Swahili, Finnish or Korean han'g\u016dl, there might be irregular bungles between the sound and the spelling of words, while there are quite often phonetic attributes of constant discourse that are not reflected in the orthography. For the language student, a latent colleague with phonetic record empowers that person to remove exact and express data on elocution from a word reference, bilingual or monolingual. Without this data, a student chances being deluded either by a deficiently prepared ear or by the stunning impact of the standard spelling. These days students of unknown dialects should have sufficient chances of hearing the language verbally expressed, and not simply by their instructor and their individual understudies. TV, video tapes, tapes and CDs give the present students a benefit which prior ages didn't have. Be that as it may, simple openness to genuine language material, while it will surely further develop a student's cognizance capacity, isn't adequate to guarantee a decent useful order of the language or a decent elocution. Nearly everybody can profit from express elocution educating, in which the utilization of phonetic record plays a significant part. In what follows I will focus on the educating and learning of English; yet a considerable lot of the focuses apply to different dialects as well. 7.4 SUMMARY \uf0b7 Phonetics, the study of speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic qualities. \uf0b7 It deals with the configurations of the vocal tract used to produce speech sounds (articulatory phonetics), the acoustic properties of speech sounds (acoustic phonetics), and the manner of combining sounds so as to make syllables, words, and sentences (linguistic phonetics). \uf0b7 The term 'pitch' has been characterized in somewhere around two unique routes in the writing. \uf0b7 Anarrow definition compares sound with 'discourse song', confining it to the \\\"outfit of pitchvariations throughout an expression\\\". 199","\uf0b7 The essential part of pitch variationsfor the understanding of expressions can be found in the German model expressions (1) and (2), inwhich the pitch shape is addressed as a line over the words expressed. \uf0b7 Intonation falls on explanations: \\\"I need to make a trip to the Ocean.\\\" \uf0b7 Pitch ascends on yes\/no inquiries: \\\"Would you like to go with him?\\\" \uf0b7 Pitch rises then, at that point falls on wh-questions: \\\"Where would you like to go?\\\" \uf0b7 There's continually something more to learn for communicating in English, however recall: the objective is correspondence. You don't have to lose your articulation to dominate genuine American English \u2013 you \\\"just\\\" need to be seen plainly. 7.5 KEYWORDS \uf0b7 Intonation: intonation is the use of changing (rising and falling) vocal pitch to convey grammatical information or personal attitude. \uf0b7 Sentence stress is the pattern of stressed and unstressed words across a sentence. Normally this emphasis is on words that carry important information, although this can change significantly, depending on the specific meaning the speaker wants to communicate. \uf0b7 Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of a phrase or a group of words. \uf0b7 Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence. \uf0b7 Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect or simply the way a particular individual speaks a word or language. \uf0b7 a speech sound which is produced by comparatively open configuration of the vocal tract, with vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction, and which is a unit of the sound system of a language that forms the nucleus of a syllable. 7.6 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Discuss the role of phonetics in English. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. Discuss the objective of Phonetic Alphabets. 200"]