 Assalamu alaikum, welcome to virtual university, I am Surya Yashofi, your tutor for English. Today's lesson, I hope you are fine, had enjoyed your last lesson, lesson two is going to be about using the dictionary to learn the pronunciation of English words. Now students of English are often worried about English pronunciation because they are used to looking at words and the students pronounce words the way they are spelled. And English spelling can be quite confusing as far as pronunciation is concerned. Students have, I am sure you have often had difficulty in correctly pronouncing the words, you pronounce them the way you spell them. Now this lesson is going to be in two parts. In the first part I shall familiarize you with a set of special symbols known as phonemic symbols, that is a technical word phonemic. These are the sounds, symbols used to denote the sounds of the English language. And in the second part of the lesson we shall work out a few exercises so that you are able to read words in the dictionary and you are able to pronounce them. Now if you look at your screens, you will notice that I have written two words for you. The words are chorus and church. Chorus is spelled C-H-O-R-U-S. Church is also spelled C-H-U-R-C-H. In the first word chorus, C-H has a k sound, k sound, k. In the second word church, C-H has a ché sound, ché, ché like we have it in Urdu and Punjabi as we have ché, ché's sound comes out, here in church C-H is called ché, ché, ché. And in the chorus it has a ka, kaaf sound. There is another word, ration, R-A-T-I-O-N, look at the word machine, M-A-C-H-I-N-E. Now in both these words, the sound is the same, it is the ché sound. But in the first word, the letters are T-I-O-N, T-I-O-N is pronounced as ché. While in the second word, C-H is pronounced as ché, right. Now the word chorus begins with the letters C-H, is pronounced as ka, while the word church, in the word church, the letters C-H is pronounced as the Urdu-Panjabi letter sound, ché. And it is the same in ration and machine, both pronounced as ché sound. But they are spelled as T-I-O-N and C-H-I-N-E, right. Now the problem is that students are familiar with the 26 letters of the English alphabet. These 26 letters, they are not sufficient, they are not enough to describe all the sounds of the English language. That is why you have problems when you read a word and you do not know whether it is to be pronounced as ché or to be pronounced as ka. Now phoneticians, people who deal with sounds, they have worked out a list of symbols and you will find that in your dictionary, every word, every word has its pronunciation written in this special script. You open your dictionary and you will see that the word is there and the first thing that comes after the word is the pronunciation of that word. And you will find that the pronunciation, those symbols are written within slash brackets. They are written in a strange script. Today, in today's lecture, in today's lesson, I shall teach you those symbols. Once you become familiar with those symbols, you will not have any problem in pronouncing English words. So these people, these phoneticians as they are called, they have used symbols to represent the sounds of English. Your dictionary will help you learn the pronunciation of any word. And for this, you have to be familiar with the symbols, the symbols which are used to indicate each sound. All dictionaries have a table, a pronunciation table or key either in the inside front or back cover of the dictionary. You make sure that you go through that list. All languages of the world use, regularly use a small number of sounds. These sounds are of two types. One you are familiar with this word, are known as vowel sounds and the other known as consonants. Now in English, there are 44 sounds. Please do not confuse these sounds with the letters of the alphabet. English has 26 letters of the alphabet but 44 speech sounds. Now we will look at the vowels and consonants of English and we will look at their symbols. Some of the symbols that have been used, you are familiar with. You will find that you have come across them in why you were learning your English alphabet. Some have been created. Now remember that your phonemic symbols, let me repeat this again. When you look up the pronunciation of a word, you will find that the symbols are within slash brackets. Now I shall say the vowels of English and you will repeat after me. Look at the shape of my mouth, the lips and the jaw. Sometimes you will find that I will drop my jaw and sometimes it is tense like this. Now English has 20 vowel sounds. Vowel sounds are those sounds that are produced without any obstruction in the mouth. Listen to this word. E, A, in your English lesson sometimes when you were in school, you learned there are 5 vowels in English, A, E, I, O, U, fine but today you are going to look at the symbols that represent these sounds. Now English has 7 short vowels. Repeat after me, E, as in pit, E, as in pit, A, as in hat, A, not A, A, as in putt, putt, why is that a sound, putt, A, as in pot, A, pot, A, in the word hot, this sound that A sound that comes in the word hot, pot, pot. Then you have this OO sound which you get in putt, right? Put the kettle on the fire, putt and then you have another sound. The symbol is like E but upside down. This is known as the schwa and it is the most common sound in the English language. This sound occurs in words like upper, about, right? Let me repeat again pit, pit, that, about, upper. Notice that all these 7 vowels were short. You will notice the difference when I say the long vowels. On your screen you will see the long vowels. Look at the symbols. They are the same symbols. The long vowels have 2 little dots in front of them, tiny little dots and those dots are a symbol that the sound is lengthened. The sound becomes longer. Like ki, in English we say ki and it is the same E sound but longa. Ki, when you said this sound in pit, the sound was short, pit, but when you say pit, the sound E sound is lengthened or symbol is small i and it has 2 dots in front of it. Ki, fi, si, ti. The next long vowel is a, as in the word ka, fa, o, as in ko, the ko, po, u, as in ku, 2 and a, the a sound as in ka, po, the kat, po,s, po. These were the long vowels. So in English you have 7 short vowels and 5 long vowels. And together they make 7 and 5, 12 vowels. The difference is that the long sounds, the long vowels have little dots in front of them while the short ones are without. Now I will introduce you to another feature of English sounds and that is diphthongs. These are sounds made of two sounds which are produced by combining two vowel sounds. You have one vowel sound and then another and while you pronounce them, you move from one vowel sound to another. There is a movement, a glide, you move from one sound to another. And in English there are 8 diphthongs, 8 diphthongs. Now the first diphthong is a, notice it is a, a, as in se, he, re. It is not one sound, it is not ra, it is re, there is a movement, re. I, as in by, by, by this. And an English person would not say by, it would be by, right? Oy, that is another diphthong, oy, as in boy, toy, joy. Notice it is a combination of two sound, oy. It is like this, oy, be, by, boy. The next is ear, as in pier, when you look at something like this, you are peering at something, pier, pier, ear, pier, air, like in pear, the pears that we eat, naashpati ji se kete, pear. Typical English sound, pear, pua. Notice the sound in pua, it is pua, pua, right? And the last two, as in go, it is not go, go, it is go, aau, as in kaau. If you look at your screen, you will see the symbols and you will notice that when you pronounce them, you move, the sound moves, glides from one vowel sound to another. It is a combination of two vowels put together. Let me repeat again, a, as in be, or re, i, as in by, oy, as in toy, joy, ear, as in pier, pe, you have the word ear, ay, as in pe, or he, ua, as in pua, oy, as in go, aau, as in kaau. A lot of our students say soap, now in English they say soap, in English they say soap. There is a glide from the first vowel to the other, soap, it is not soap, it is soap, hope, right? So, we looked at eight diphthongs which are double sounds, we looked at seven short vowels sounds and five long vowel sounds and you should become familiar with the symbols. Now we will look at the consonants sounds of English. Now what are consonants? Consonants are those sounds which are produced, when you produce that sound, there is some sort of obstruction in the mouth, in the oral cavity. Now in English there are twenty four consonant sounds, remember, in the alphabet you came across twenty six letters, actually the sounds of English are more than the letters of the alphabet. If you become familiar with these symbols you will not have any problem learning the pronunciation of English words. Now look at the consonants, there are twenty four consonant sounds in English and these are produced by a complete or a partial stoppage of breath. Now you repeat after me, pa as in p, p is that we eat, pa as in p, pa as in b, the honey bee, ta as in toe, anguta, pehrkanguta, toe, d as in doe, hirni, doe, k as in cap, g as in gap, ph as in fat, v as in vat, ph notice the shape of my lips, ph notice that I stuck my tongue out a little, ph, it's not th, it's ph, ph as in thing, the as in this, sir as in zip and zeh as in zip, sure, look at the shape of this symbol, it's just like a, like an earthworm, gandhoye, gandhoye, a as in ship and yeh, yeh, it is like the sound in measure, measure when you measure something, yeh, yeh sound and then ha as in hat. Now we've got three nasal sounds, sounds that are produced through the nose, m as in map, n as in nap and ng as in hang. Now this is a sound which most students have problems with, apne vulafs dekai sing, likata sing, kartaar sing, hum jisko ng karke bolte ha na, ng sing, it's that sound, but not ng, yasai ki angrezi ka ik lafs hai, sing, apne usme gh ka ki avaz nahi nikal nahi, sing, sing karke chhod dek, gh nahi bolna, sing, sing, sing. That symbol, enwala, enki ek tang lambi ki viye, that symbol is for the sound, right. Now we've got la as in lead, a lead pencil, lead, la, la as in lolly, ra as in red, yeh as in yet, yeh, yeh, yeh and yeh can be very confusing. Jo pehle apne sunata wo tha meh yeh, yeh, mehya wala, it is like a z, symbol jo hai, small chota z nahi banate jasai, jasai hai, yeh jo sound meh, jisko jay ki shakal mein, jasai jay nahi banate alphabet ka jay, yeh vasai likhawa, likin avaz hai yeh, yeh, yeh, yet, yet and then wa as in wet, wa, wa, I want you to pay attention, notice there is a difference between the way wa as in bat, bat, violet, violin, wa and wah sound mein bada farak, humare bachhe aksar inko confuse kar dete, jaha wah kena hota wah kena hota wah kena hota wah kena hota wah ek nishani hai ki wah sound jo hai, it is always pronounced with the underlip being bitten by your apateeth, hoto ko daant ka saath dabana hai, sorry, violin, bat, violet, phool ka naam violet, violin, he plays the violin, violin, wah aur wah mein, wet, when, where, here the lips are rounded, wah, wah mein, ap apne hond ko daant se dabata hai, avaz mein phark bada and then at the end we have got the cha sound, cha as in chin, if you look at the symbols one is a T and the other is the cha sound, chin, these two sounds cha and ja are made by combining two symbols, for chin, for cha, the cha sound is symbolized with a T and a long shah, chin, cha, church, chin, choose, cha and ja as in gin, ginning mill, kya taini aki ji un ke paas ek ginning mill hai, wo mill jo haan ruiko gin ki aajata hai, gin and the symbols are a D and a ja, gin, right, so you repeat after me, pa, ba, tha, daa, ka, ga, sa, wa, fa, daa, yeh daa aise jese ke maara dal hai, dal wali sound hai, daa, daa, daa, wo hai faa jese te he ki bani saa, zor nahi tha, nahi ka naa, faa, faa, faa, daa, saa, za, sha, ya, ha as in hat, ha, ha, ha sound, ma naa, ma naa, then la, ra, ya, ya, ya, ya, then wa, cha and ja and we have gone through the 24 consonant sounds of English, you notice that when these sounds, these consonant sounds when I was going through them, there was some blockage, some obstruction in the mouth when I was saying these sounds, do not be frightened by the symbols, they look frightening at the beginning, but once you go over them again and again, you go over them and you will find that some of them are, you are already familiar with and there are a number of exercises given in the package and when you go through them, you will find that it is no problem, you will not have problems with pronouncing English words. Now, that was one area, the other area that is related with English pronunciation and is a problem, that is the area of stress. Now, what is stress? Stress is the extra force used in pronouncing or speaking on a particular word and you will find that your dictionary is very helpful because English is a stress timed language. And foreign learners of English like you and me, when we speak English, we do not know which part of the word is to be stressed and your dictionary comes in very handy, it is very helpful, your dictionary will tell you, there is a little signal, there is a little symbol used in the dictionary and once you become familiar with it, you will have no problem in knowing where to place the stress. The dictionary will indicate this stress by a tiny mark on top of the word, you open your dictionary, look at any word and you will find that where the pronunciation is given in slash brackets, you will find a tiny mark at the top, you will also see a tiny mark at the bottom, but we are not looking at the marks at the bottom, we are only going to look at the marks that are at the top of the word. If you open your dictionary, take the word mother, you will notice that when you say the word, it is not mother, it is mother and the stress falls on the first part of the word, mother, you open your dictionary and you will see that where the word mother is written in phonemic script, there is a tiny mark above M, above the M phoneme, mother, take the word table, it is not table, it is table, the stress is on the first part, table and open the dictionary and you will notice a tiny mark above the T phoneme, table, in the same way look at the word after, you will find the symbol above the letter A, after, now in all these three words that I, it is the first part that is stress. Now in English stress varies, sometimes you will find that the first part of the word, of a word is stressed and sometimes it is the second, some dictionaries will also give you the rules for stress, where the stress falls, you do not have to worry about that, all you have to know is that when you look up a word, it is pronunciation, you must also at the same time look at where the stress mark is, the top mark on that word and that will help you to place the stress correctly. There are three more words given in your, on your screen, the word H-O-T-E-L, most of us pronounce it as hotel, hotel, hotel, in English it is not that, it is hotel, the stress falls on the second part, hotel, the word B-A-M-B-O-O, it is not, it is not bamboo, it is bamboo and you will notice in the dictionary the stress is above the letter B, the phoneme B-B-Bam-Boo and in the same way the word banana, it is not B-Nana, it is banana, the stress is on na, banana, so do not be upset, this will help you in pronouncing English words correctly, if you are learning a language you must learn to pronounce the words in the correct way. Now there are some words in English which have the same spelling but they belong to different parts of speech because they are stressed differently, you have seen the word R-E-B-E-L, rebel and there are other words, many words, same spelling but different meanings, how do people know? It is from the way they are stressed, when the word is stressed, when the stress falls on the first part, rebel, the rebels laid down their arms, here the word is a noun, the rebels, the stress is on the first part of the word, rebels, when you put the stress on the second part of the word, it changes its form, it is no longer a noun, it becomes a verb, children rebel against their parents, the word is the same, it spells the same way but it is pronounced differently and because the stress falls on the second half, it is a different word, children rebel against their parents, notice the stress is on the second half, the word present, B-R-E-S-E-N-T, she gave me a lovely present, present, the stress is on the first half, on pa, the present was lovely, she gave me a lovely present, right, but if you say, the teacher says to you, please present your work, it is the same word but the stress is on the second half, present, it becomes a verb and the same word becomes an adjective, were you present at the party, let me recap for you, let us go over what we have done in this half of the lesson, you have looked at the sounds of English and how those sounds are converted into symbols, these symbols are known as phonemic or phonetic symbols, all dictionaries, all language dictionaries will carry a page, a list of these symbols, if you want to learn the language you must learn how to pronounce the words, you have learnt the vowels of English, the symbols for those vowels, you have learnt the symbols for the consonant vowels and you have learnt the symbols for the diphthongs, so all in all you have learnt 44 sounds of the English language and with that we come to the end of the first part of our lesson, you will now listen to a very interesting passage on computers, computers in our daily lives and after that you will have a comprehension test of what you have heard, computers in our daily lives, computers are now an integral part of our lives, many things that we do during the course of the day, public or private is affected by them, visit any public organization or office, from hospitals to schools, from the meteorological bureau to the stock exchange and you are sure to come across people working at computers, gone other days when entries were made manually in registers and ledgers at the bank, now all monetary transactions are conducted by the computer, most films and TV advertisements use graphics or pictures produced with the help of a computer, there is hardly a severe of life that does not involve the use of a computer, even when you go out on personal errands to the travel agent to buy an airline ticket or to book a seat on the intercity bus to the shopping plaza or a grocery store, the man behind the computer often uses a computer equipped with laser and barcode technology to scan the price of each item you put before him and then he uses it to add up the price to present you with the total, all within minutes, a barcode is a pattern of thick and thin lines and spaces that represent characters that can be read by a scanner, the barcode identifies the item to which it is affixed, the scanner transfers the signal to a computer that matches the code to a price or inventory unit, computers are no longer things only encountered outside the home, they are very much a part of household items, one cannot imagine a world without computers, good comprehension is recognizing the main idea, now when you read or hear any passage, ask yourself the basic question, what is the main point the author is trying to make, the answer to answer this question you will first have to determine what the topic is being discussed, in the passage that you heard the topic was computers and the main idea about the topic was the role of computers in our daily lives, now we will do two exercises, one to test your listening comprehension and the other to practice stress, computers in our daily lives, computers are now an integral part of our lives, many things that we do during the course of the day, public or private is affected by them, visit any of public organization or office from hospitals to schools from the meteorological bureau to the stock exchange and you are sure to come across people working at computers, gone are the days when entries were made manually in registers and ledgers at the bank, now all monetary transactions are conducted by the computer, most films and TV advertisements use graphics or pictures produced with the help of a computer, there is hardly a sphere of life that does not involve the use of a computer, even when you go on personal errands to the travel agent to buy an airline ticket or to book a seat on the intercity bus to the shopping plaza or a grocery store, the man behind the counter often uses a computer which is equipped with laser and barcode technology to scan the price of each item that you put before him and then uses it to add up the price you present and then he presents you with a total all within minutes, a barcode is a pattern of thick and thin lines and spaces that represent characters that can be read by a scanner, the barcode identifies the item to which it is affixed, the scanner transfers the signal to a computer that matches the code to a price or inventory unit, computers are no longer things only encountered outside the home, they are very much a part of household items, one cannot imagine a world without computers, now which words did you hear, did you hear the word integral, yes, did you hear the word games, no, machines, yes or no, ledgers, yes, flight, flight, no, involved, yes, maintain, yes, no, errands, yes, grocery, yes, libraries, no, bookkeeping, no, encountered, yes, scanner, yes, art, all right, next, exercise time, yes, yes, yes, too, in this exercise we shall, you repeat after me and we shall practice stress, placement of stress in these words, students often find the words that we are going to do go through now, find problems, they have problems placing the stress, some of these words if you look up, look them up in your, in your dictionary you will find, will have two sets of pronunciation given you, one will be the American, the other will be the British, both are correct, you just be consistent whichever one you prefer keep using that, now listen and repeat after me, advertisement, advertisement, affected, affected, affect, affect, bureau, bureau, character, character, the word is not character, it is character, computer, computer, exchange, exchange, inventory, manually, manually, meteorological, meteorological, technology, technology, thick, thick transactions, transactions, well I would like to give you a short, you can do this exercise at home write down three words, photo, photograph, photography, photographic, look up these words and notice where the stress falls, you will notice that the stress keeps changing, you should not make any mistakes in placing the correct stress after this lesson, now before we end today's lesson I would just like to go over what we have done, you have learnt the sounds of English, the vowels and the consonant sounds, you have learnt their symbols and you have learnt where to place the stress, you are going to use your dictionary to learn the pronunciation and stress of English words, now before we end this lesson I would just like to talk about what we will be doing in our next lesson and we will be talking about comprehension, good comprehension is recognizing the main idea, now whether you hear or read a passage, you ask yourself the basic question, what is the main point the author is trying to make, whether it is a passage that you hear or a passage that you read always ask yourself this question, what is the main point, what is the main thing the author is trying to say and to answer this question before you can answer this question you have to find out what the topic or the subject is being discussed, in the passage that you heard today the topic was computers and the main idea about the topic was the role of computers in our daily lives, so till next time just think about this, next time our lesson will be about the topic, about how to find the topic and the main idea about a reading passage, till then I have given you homework just go through those three words four words photo, photograph, go through them see where the stress falls and spend your time practicing stress, thank you, Allah Hafiz.