SOUND‐ARRANGEMENTS AND SOUND‐SEQUENCES

Abstract

Effective foreign language teaching requires a knowledge of the significant sounds in the foreign language as well aS those i n the native language of the students. Such significant sounds ( lTphonemesll) are determined according to rigorous linguistic procedure and can then be presented in tabular fo rm according to the points of articulation and kinds of release. These sounds a r e often fur ther classified into consonants and vowels, r ep re sented as C and TV. Each language has its characterist ic consonant and vowel arrangements: CV, VC, CVC, CCV, VCC, etc. For the foreign language teacher , it is essential to know all the significant sounds and all the sound-arrangements in the foreign language as well as those i n the students' native language. In the o ra l control of a foreign language, a satisfactory production of its significant sounds is imperative. Of no less significance than such production is the mastery of its soundsequences. For language production involves sounds in the s t r eam of speech-not sounds in isolation. Furthermore, in learning a par t icular foreign language, students of different native languages with different sound-sequences have different learning problems.