Language Proficiency Speaking and Pronunciation 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which term describes the rising and falling pattern of pitch across a sentence?
- Intonation (Correct answer)
- Articulation
- Resonance
- Phonation
Correct answer: Intonation
Intonation refers to the melodic pitch movement across an utterance, conveying meaning, emotion, and sentence type.
Question 2: In American English, the word 'butter' is often pronounced with a flapped /t/. This sound is called a:
- Glottal stop
- Alveolar tap (Correct answer)
- Dental fricative
- Lateral approximant
Correct answer: Alveolar tap
The American English flap (alveolar tap /ɾ/) replaces /t/ or /d/ between vowels when the second syllable is unstressed.
Question 3: What does it mean when a speaker uses 'connected speech'?
- Speaking on a phone call
- Linking sounds across word boundaries in natural speech (Correct answer)
- Using formal vocabulary
- Pausing between every word for clarity
Correct answer: Linking sounds across word boundaries in natural speech
Connected speech refers to natural modifications like linking, elision, and assimilation that occur when words flow together in fluent speech.
Question 4: The word 'photograph' has stress on which syllable?
- pho-TO-graph
- PHO-to-graph (Correct answer)
- pho-to-GRAPH
- All syllables are equally stressed
Correct answer: PHO-to-graph
'Photograph' carries primary stress on the first syllable: PHO-to-graph.
Question 5: Which minimal pair demonstrates the contrast between /p/ and /b/ in English?
- cat / bat
- pin / bin (Correct answer)
- fan / van
- thin / sin
Correct answer: pin / bin
'Pin' and 'bin' differ only in voicing (/p/ is voiceless, /b/ is voiced), making them a minimal pair for that contrast.
Question 6: What is 'elision' in spoken English?
- Adding an extra vowel sound between consonants
- The omission of a sound or syllable in speech (Correct answer)
- Stressing the last word in a sentence
- Pronouncing silent letters
Correct answer: The omission of a sound or syllable in speech
Elision is the dropping of sounds, such as when 'next day' is pronounced more like 'nex' day' in fast speech.
Question 7: A speaker who frequently uses filler words like 'um,' 'uh,' and 'like' is most likely experiencing:
- Strong register awareness
- Hesitation or planning pauses in speech (Correct answer)
- Excellent prosodic control
- Hypercorrection
Correct answer: Hesitation or planning pauses in speech
Fillers typically occur when a speaker needs time to plan the next part of their utterance.
Language Proficiency Speaking and Pronunciation 4
Which term describes the rising and falling pattern of pitch across a sentence?