You can see that there’s a critical difference between what is modeled in the classroom, and what real native speech sounds like. Native speakers use reductions subconsciously – they are not aware that they speak like this. The use of reductions by English speakers confounds the learner of English, and will often complain that they don’t understand English speakers. How can Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages help?
Well, it wouldn’t help much to teach students in an English conversation course. If they learn to use reductions in their speech, other English learners will have the same problem understanding them. What TESOL teachers can do however, is raise students’ awareness of what reductions are, and help them to learn and recognize common reduction forms to help improve their listening comprehension.
This alone is not enough, of course; if students learning English conversation ever hope to develop proficiency in their listening comprehension skills, they must listen to English! Not just in the classroom, but at home, at work, at the park, in the car. The more they listen to native speech, the more acclimatized they will become to native speech, including the use of reductions.
Below is a list of common reductions, adapted from Brown and Hiferty, 1982, 1995:
Greetings | Other Combined Words | Question Forms |
Howarya (How are you?) | c'mon (come on) | Howza (How is the) |
Howdy (How do you do?) | g'won (go on) | How d'ya (How do you) |
| gedouda (get out of) | How'd ja (How did you) |
Farewells | wadda (what a) | How'ja (How would you) |
G'bye (Goodbye) |
| Jawanna (Do you want to) |
'bye (Goodbye) | Shortened Words | Yawanna (Do you want to) |
Seeya (See you) | 'bout (about) | Whaddya (What do you) |
S'long (So long) | 'nother (another) | Whatduzzee (What does he) |
| 'round (around) | Whaja (What did you) |
Modals + TO | 'cause (because) | Whaja (What would you) |
goin'ta (going to) | in' (-ing) | Whad'll (What will) |
gonna (going to) | jus' (just) | Whatser (What is her) |
gotta (got to) | ol' (old) | Whatsiz (What is his) |
hafta (have to) | yu (you) | Wheraya (Where are you) |
otta (ought to) | yer (your) | When d'ya (When do you) |
wanna (want to) |
| Where j'eat (Where did you eat?) |
| Words + OF | J'eat jet (Did you eat yet?) |
Modals + HAVE | kinda (kind of) | J'ev (Did you have) |
coulda (could have) | sorta (sort of) | J'ever (Did you ever) |
mighta (might have) | type-a (type of) | Wouldja (Would you) |
shoulda (should have) | a lotta (a lot of) |
|
| in fruna (in front of) |
|
Negative Modals | ouda (out of) |
|
/wõ/ [nasalized o] (won't) |
|
|
/dõ/ [nasalized o] (don't) | Contractions |
|
duzn (doesn't) | N(or PN) + be(present) |
|
havn (haven't) | N(or PN) + be(future) |
|
| N(or PN) + would |
|
| N(or PN) + will |
|
| N(or PN) + have(present) |
|
| N(or PN) + have(past) |
|
| Let + PN |
|
| there + be |
|
| there + have |
|
| here + be
|
|
Must TESOL courses require students to commit these reductions to memory? Of course not. TESOL classes should focus on presenting students with ‘authentic’ English – that is, the English that students are likely to hear and read in the real world – and to prepare students for encountering this authentic language outside of the classroom. Raising awareness of reductions should be introduced to higher-level students, even though lower-level students may likely be exposed to them as soon as they start listening to English in the classroom.
As TESOL teachers, we should also be aware of how we speak to students in class. Do we use reductions? If so, can we reduce, if not eliminate them? Adjusting our speech (speed, grammar and vocabulary) to accommodate our students’ listening comprehension skills are important in effective communication, and your students will appreciate it. This does not mean we should sound like distorted slow-mo recordings; but we don’t want to sound like we’ve just drunk a dozen espressos before engaging them in conversation.
Michael Bunyak
English Teacher at Canadian Education College, Singapore
