Phonology



The study of sound systems and sound change.  It is the organization of sounds and their relationship to one another. 

Phonemes: 
The continuous stream of sounds that we hear and our brains label as speech/language is broken down into specific sound units or segments called a phoneme. 

Phonetics

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Phonetics is the study of speech sounds more generally....

1.  How they are produced
2.  How the are perceived.  
 

Phonetics is broken down into these three subfields

Articulatory Phonetics

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Articulatory Phonetics focuses on how speech sounds are produced.  It's focus is on what ariculators (tongue, teeth, lips, hard and soft palate) are used to produce sounds.  Good luck reading a chapter on this, you'll find yourself thinking about the way you speak as you manipulate your mouth in ways never thought of! 

Acoustic Phonetics    

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Accoustic phonetics focuses on how speech sounds are transmitted.  The image above shows how the sound waves are created and interpreted as the spoken word. 

Auditory Phonetics

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Auditory Phonetics focuses on how the ear translates sound waves into elctrical impulses to the brain and how the brain percieves them as speech sounds. 

Appication in the Social Studies Classroom

The Virgina PALS website is a great link to provide activities for all English Language Learners as they attempt to achieve phonological awareness. 

Suggestions for the Classroom:

Enunciate words with clarity:                                                                                                                                                                                               Model the language that we teach.  Take time to let your students acquiring the language how it should actually sound  

Use Poetry and Song:                                                                                                                                                                                                            We have amazing resources in the Social Studies content that allow us to use the natural flow of these arts to help our students learn while also focusing on language aquisition in a uniqe format. 

Frontload Difficult Vocabulary:                                                                                                                                                                                            By taking the time to focus on vocabulary, specifically academic language, you will allow for your students to access, aqire and strive