Computer-assisted Programme for the Teaching of the English

Syllable in RP Allophonic Pronunciation

Rasim Tayeh Jehjooh

M.A.
College of Languages
1. Introduction :
Native speakers of English from different parts of the world have different
accents,but the differences of accents are mainly the result of differences in the
sound of vowels and consonants . The actual use of all these sounds in
combination leads the speaker to produce a number of segments which only appear
on the production level and realized on the perceptual one . RP pronunciation
represents the teachable variety in all Iraqi universities because it is the most
acceptable and understandable accent all over the world and not only in South East
London ..The structure of the English syllable in RP pronunciation is influenced
by the appearance of certain allophones especially aspiration and glottalization
which change the form of CV in RP pronunciation.
This study is a new experiment to show how chapter 8 & 9 ( the English
Syllables )in Roach's book Phonetics & Phonology (2002 ) have been taught to the
second stage ,department of English ,College of Languages through a computer
programme and how certain allophones have changed the form of CV system in
the structure of the English “syllable” in RP through the use of narrow
transcription .
2. Definitions
The term „syllable‟, in its broadest sense, is studied from the phonetic and
phonological point of view since it represents one of the basic components in
phonetics and phonology. However, the syllable theories are based on evidence
taken from different fields of knowledge such as psycholinguistics which involves
the study of child language acquisition and language universals(Fallows ,1980:76).

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 Roach (2002:66) states that the syllable is a fundamentally important unit in
both phonetics and phonology.
Crystal (1989: 164) defines the syllable as " an element of speech that acts as
a unit of rhythm, consisting of a vowel, a syllabic consonant or vowel / +
consonant combination ". On the other hand, Hancock (2003: 50) beliefs that a
syllable is often described as a group of one or more sounds with a peak or
nucleus.
Phonetically speaking, the air pressure is most noticeable in the nucleus. The
hearer may distinguish the central part of a syllable because it has more
prominence than the surrounding sounds, but people often have difficulty in
hearing when one syllable ends and another begins, for example, the word
"bitter"[b'Itə] may be heard as (bi-tter, bit-ter or bitt-er).
Phonologically speaking, a syllable is defined as the way in which vowels
and consonants combine to form various sequences ( the study of the location of
sounds in sequence is called phonotactics) . Vowels can form a syllable on their
own or they can be the " centre or nucleus " of a syllable , e.g. [e] in bed [b |ed],I
[aI].
In addition, some consonants like / m, n, ŋ , 1 / are called syllabic
consonants since they function as syllables in final position and also we have what
is called " minimum syllable ", as in [ |m ] to show agreement and [ |∫ ] to keep
someone quiet and these are consonant sounds, but they have meaning. (Roach,
2002: 76).
Roach (ibid: 66) divides a syllable into two parts onset plus rhyme (hence
nucleus & coda). For example, sit consists onset[s]+nucleus[I]+coda[?t]]; therefore
[ I ] + [?t ] represent the rhyme part of the syllable as in fig ure 1
[ sI?t ]
Onest Rhyme
[s] [I?t]

nucleus coda (termination) Figure ( 1 )

[I] [?t]

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 The proposed definitions of the term "syllable" can be divided into three
types: phonetic, phonological and phonotactic.
Phonetically, a syllable is usually described as consisting of a centre which
has little or no obstruction to the flow of air out of the mouth and which sounds
comparatively loud and before and after this centre. (Abrecrombie, 1989:39;
Roach, 2002:67).
Phonologically speaking, a syllable is defined by Laver (1994:39) as “a
complex unit made up of nucleus and marginal elements”. Nucleus elements are
the vowels or syllabic consonants. In the „one word syllable‟ try [tr|aI] the
diphthong /aI/ is the nucleus element; while the initial consonant cluster which
consists of [t] and [r]are the marginal elements.
A number of scholars suggest that the term "syllable "should not be used in
either a phonetic or a phonological sense, but it should refer to a linguistic unit
composed of phonemes that are arranged according to certain phonotactic criteria.
McCarthy (1978:107)
3. Significance of the Syllable
For Crystal (2003:447) “The syllable is important in phonology in relation to
prosody, and cross-linguistic studies of rhythm .In the distinctive features
theory of phonology „syllable‟ is used to replace the syllabic nucleus”.
Likewise, Bolinger (1975:56) emphasizes that the syllable obtains much of
its obviousness because of the role it plays in rhythm, i.e., when people segment
the stream of speech and give it a rhythm of strong and weak beats, as in music. In
addition, the best justification for ending the structure of sound–units at the level of
the syllable is that anything higher is almost necessarily related to the meaning and
the structure of the language.
It is necessary to mention that the significance of syllable has increased
especially in models of non–linear phonology in relation to derivation .In addition,
a syllable plays a role in prosodic morphology as being “a level above the „mora‟
and below the „foot‟- the unit of rhythm in languages” (ibid.).
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 Finch (2000:68); and the Free Encyclopedia (2005:Int.) state that syllables
serve in carrying the stressed patterns of English which are essential to the way in
which speech is organized.
O‟Connor (1973:201) explains the importance of the syllable when he
affirms that “the syllable is useful as the largest unit one needs to consider in
explaining how phonemes are permitted to combine together in a
language”.Moreover, Smith and Wilson (1980:141) also refer to the importance of
the syllable in the need for something larger than a phoneme and smaller than a
word.
4. The Syllable : Various Theories
A number of studies have been made to explain theories of syllable.
Phonetically speaking, one of the most important theories is “the chest pulse
theory” which tackles the syllables in the context of muscular activities and lung
movements in the process of speech. Experiments which have shown that the
number of chest pulses, accompanied by the increase of air pressure, can determine
the number of syllables produced, thus, allowing associate with the number of
chest pulses. (ibid.56)
This theory, however, can not account for cases when two vowels occur one
after another, for example, in words like being [b'i:Iŋ] the second chest pulse must
be almost irrelevant and thus leads erroneously to the conclusion that such English
words consist of one syllable only. (Roach, 2004:1)
Another well-known theory is „the prominence theory‟, which tackles the
syllable from a phonological point of view and depends on auditory judgements,
i.e., the number of syllables in a word is determined by the number of peaks of

prominence. In the word beautiful,[bj'u:?tIfʊl], for example, the peaks of

prominence are represented by the vowel phonemes /u: , I ,ʊ/, respectively.

However, this theory does not help much in the problem of division of the syllable
(Gimson, 1989:52).

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 Another theory is the “Sonority theory” in which “the pulses of pulmonic air
stream in speech correspond to peaks in sonority”. The sonority of speech of a
sound is seen as its relative loudness compared to other sounds. Each syllable
corresponds to a peak in the flow rate of pulmonic air. Thus, the nucleus elements
or syllabic segments are described as intrinsically more sonorant than marginal or
non-syllabic segments.Speech sounds can be ranked in terms of their intrinsic
sonority according to sonority scale as in figure(2) (Rogers,2000:268).

↑ vowels . .
More
Sonorous approximants .

nasals . .

Less fricatives
Sonorous
↓ affricatives

plosives .

t r ei n I ŋ
Figure (2): The Sonority Scale of the Word Training [tr'eInIŋ]
(after Roach 2004:2).
In the above figure two peaks of sonority can be seen in the linear sequence
of phonemes /tr-eI-n-I- ŋ/i.e., the diphthong /eI /and the pure vowel / I /.Thus, the
number of syllables is two (ibid).
5 . English syllable: Nature of Structure of patterns .O‟Connor,
(1973:201) states that the nature of a syllable structure varies from one language to

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another since there is no universal phonological syllable. The phonological view of
the syllable requires a separate definition for each language. However, Malmberg
(1963:1), among other phoneticians, believes that a syllable consisting of a
consonant plus a vowel is the only one which is general for all languages.
There are two types of English syllable structures which can be classified
into two types: a phonetic syllable structure and a phonological one.
5.1 Phonetic Syllable Structure :
The phonetic syllable structure consists of three phonetic parts: the onset, the
peak and the coda (Hyman, 1975:188). Sequences of segments within a phonetic
syllable depend upon an inherent hierarchical scale of sonority. The most sonorous
segment occupies the nucleus and farther from the nucleus on either margin the
least sonorous, the sounds will be optional consonants (Hawkins, 1984:66). On the
other hand, the phonological syllable structure displays the following pattern of
arrangements: 0, 1, 2, 3 consonants +V + 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 consonants. This pattern
means that a syllable consists of a vowel(V)which is preceded by zero, one, two,
three, consonants and followed by zero, one, two, three, four consonants as in[ |aI ]
[th |i:],[tr |aI],[str |i:t ],[ In], [i:?t],[ g |a:dn] ….etc. (O‟Connor, 1973:229).
5.2 Phonological Syllable Structure :
Moreover, as for phonological theories of syllable, they are mostly
concerned with the internal structure of syllables .In this respect, phonologists
have adduced every possible configuration for the internal structure of syllables.
For instance, the main concern of CVC syllables is whether the vowel is
grouped with the prior consonant (called the onset) or with the posterior
consonant (called the Coda) or with neither.
More recently, some phonologists have claimed that the components of the
syllable are units of weight called „Moras‟ (Hyman, 1982:9) .
Two parts can be found in the internal structure of the syllable. These parts
are onset and rhyme; with the rhyme, nucleus and coda are found .It is important to
point out that not all syllables have these parts; the smallest possible syllable

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contains a nucleus only .Simply, onset means the beginning sound(s)of the syllable
which precede the nucleus and coda means the sounds at the end of the syllable
which follow the nucleus. These are always consonants in English (Roca and
Johnson, 2000:239). Vowels and consonants do not act alone, but there are very
few words-like which consist of only one sound, for instance, (I, eye, oh, m (to
show agreement), or, are….etc.)(ibid.)
Accordingly, there are four patterns of syllables.They are: (ØVØ), (CVØ),
(ØVC) and (CVC). In this case, a syllable may be a vowel only, viz. the pattern
(ØVØ), as in or ['ɔ:], this kind of syllable is known as a „minimum syllable‟. The
syllable which is not closed by consonant, viz. the pattern (CVØ) as in be [b'i:] is
called an “open syllable”.
Phonetically speaking, syllables consist of a centre, which has little or no
obstruction to air flow and before and after this centre, there may be greater
obstruction as in eye ['aI], in ['In]. more [m'ɔ:]. But phonologically, consonants
always occupy the margins of the syllable structure, and it happens that a
consonant occupies the nucleus of the syllable as in syllabic consonant‟ (Gimson,
1989: 54).
6. English Syllables: Major Types
6.1 Simple Vs Complex Syllables
English syllables are classified into simple and complex according to their
structure.. The simple syllable consists of a nucleus only or a nucleus with one
consonant preceding it and /or another consonant following it. Consequently, the
simple syllable has the structures: V, CV, VC and CVC as in “I” ['aI] , „knee‟ [n'i:] ,

„if‟['If] and dog[d'ɒg]. Other types of syllables are complex, i.e., they have cluster(s)
of consonants before and /or after the vowel (ibid.).
Concerning the longest complex monosyllable English words, the following
is a list of some of the nine- letter English words which have (7) sounds that each
consists of a single complex syllable:

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 Table 1
Nine – letter Monosyllabic words in English
The word narrow Trans. syllable structure
scratched [skr'æ?ʧ t] CCCVCCC

straights [str'eI?ts] CCCVCCC

stretched [str'e?ʧt] CCCVCCC

scrounged [ skr'aυndʒd] CCCVCCC

scrunched [ skr'ʌn ʧt] CCCVCCC

strengths [str'eŋθs] CCCVCCC

6.2 Open vs. Closed Syllables

Syllables are divided into open and closed according to the ending of the
syllable. Open (free) syllables are those that end with a vowel or diphthong, i.e.,
they end with „nuclei‟. Closed syllables (also called complete or blocked) are those
that have at least one consonant following the vowel, i.e., they end with 'coda'.
(Hartman and Stork, 1976:228)
Thus, closed syllables are those that have a branching rhyme while open
syllables have a non-branching rhyme (Roach et al., 2004:Int.).The most common
closed syllable has the structure CVC as in „died‟ [d'aId]. This type of syllables,
that has the CVC structure, is thought to be a subsequent innovation of the open
syllable CV (Brosnahan and Malmberg, 1970:210). On the other hand, the most
common open syllable has the structure CV, as in „we‟ [w'i:] , the CV (a consonant
followed by a vowel) structure, which is not closed by another consonant, is
regarded as a basic phonological unit in all languages since relatively all languages

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have it in their structures and may be the first systematic utterances of children are
expected to be of this form (Hogg and McCully, 1989:36).
Cox et al., (2004:Int.) show the different structures of each type in English
monosyllabic words as illustrated below:
Table (2)
Open and closed Syllables
(A). Closed syllables
VC is ['iz]
VCC end ['end]
VCCC ants ['ænts]
CCVCCCC prompts [ prompts ]
CVC moon [m'u:n]
CVCC jump [ʤ ʌ mp]
CVCCC hands [h'ændz]
CVCCCC sixths [s'Iksθs]
CCVCCC plants [ pl'ænts]
CCVCCC twelfths [twelf θ]
CCCVC strong [ str'ɒŋ]
CCCVCC springs [spr'Iŋz]
CCCVCCC splints [spl'Ints]
(B.) Open syllables
V or ['ɔ:]
CV sea [s'i:]
CCV through [θr'u:]
CCCV screw [skr'u:]

6.3 Strong Vs Weak Syllables

Phoneticians have found that it is useful to make a distinction between
syllables that have more prominent nucleus and less prominent nucleus .In this
respect they divided syllables into strong and weak syllables.

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 Smith (1982:10) refers to strong syllables using the terms “heavy” and
“long”, and to weak syllables using the terms “light” and „short”. These two types
of syllables can be described in part in terms of stress since they are closely
associated with this aspect. Also, in a polysyllabic word there is always a syllable
with primary stress; this syllable is called a “strong syllable”. Syllables that have
no stress are known as “weak syllables” (Singh and Singh 1979:170).
Crystal (2003:493) states that syllables can be metrically “heavy” or
“light”:- a light syllable is one whose rhyme comprises a short vowel nucleus alone
or followed by a coda of no more than one short consonant, thus it has the structure
CV or CVC.
In fact, English puts certain restrictions on the structures of strong syllables
.They can be open only if they contain a long vowel or a diphthong and only a
closed strong syllable may have a short vowel. In other words, long vowels and
diphthongs can occur in both open as in „sue‟ [s'u:], „bay‟[b'eI] and closed as in
„bean‟[b'i:n]and „eight‟['eI?t]which constitute strong syllables, whereas short
vowels occur only in closed ones as in „cat‟ [kh'æ?t] and „ill‟ ['Il](Roach et al.,
2004:Int).
Generally, strong syllables can have in its centre any long vowel, like the

first syllable of the word „father‟ [f'a:ðǝ] or diphthong as the first syllable of the

word „daily‟ [d'eIlI] except the vowel [ǝ], whereas weak syllables can only have
the following types of nucleus (Roach, 1999:76):
A. Short Schwa
Schwa is symbolized as /ǝ/, which is the most common unstressed vowel in

English. This vowel occurs initially e.g. „alive‟ [ǝl'aIv], medially e.g. „forget‟

[fǝg'e?t] and finally as in „cinema‟ [s'Inǝmǝ]. Many English words have one

stressed vowel and a schwa in their unstressed syllables as in „purpose [p'ǝ:pǝs],

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„elephant‟ ['elIfǝnt] and „tremendous‟ [trǝm'endǝs] (Kreidler, 2003:80). Actually
in English, there are words that have two forms in pronunciation: one with short

schwa (the weak form) and the other with some other vowels like / I /, / æ / and / ɒ/

instead of this schwa. For example, „of‟ has the weak form [ǝv] and the strong

form ['ɒv] (Wells and Colson, 1981:24).

B. The [ i, u ] vowels
Roach (1999: 77-8) illustrates that the weak syllable can have one of two
other vowels as its centre. The first is a vowel that occurs in the general area
between /i:/ and /I/ while the second one lies in the region between /u:/ and /u/.
Here, unlike the case with strong syllables, there is no clear borderline between
the long and short forms of each vowel in weak syllables, i.e., no one can tell
which vowel one realizes in words like „easy‟ or „busy‟. Wells and Colson
(1981:22) argue that these vowels are more like the long forms when they come
before another vowel and they tend to be shorter when they precede a consonant or
pause. Thus, a different (or a third) vowel is introduced symbolized as [i] in the
first example and [u] in the second one. As a result, the words „busy‟,„easy‟ and

influence are transcribed as [b'Izi] ,['i:zi] and ['Influǝns] respectively. Some other
examples are the [i] in „happy‟ /hæpi/; „valley‟ [væli] and [u] thank you [θæŋkju]

and „coffee‟ [kɒfi] (ibid.).

C. Syllabic Consonants:
Laver,( 1994:114 ) pointed out that “the syllable must have a compulsory
constituent in its structure, i.e., the nucleus, which consists of a vowel (pure or
diphthong” ). The exception to this rule is syllabic consonants. Those are the lateral
sound [ l| ] and the nasals [ m| ], [ n| ], [ ] in which each consonant can form a
|

syllable. The English syllabic consonants in RP symbolized by vertical dash[ l ],

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written under the sound as in „bottle‟ [b'ɒt l ]; „bottom‟ [b'ɒt m ];
| |

„garden‟/g'a:d n /and „thicken', [θ'Ik ]but /θ'Ik n /, is also possible)( Jones,1984:55) .

| | |

7.1 Syllabication
Pulgram (1970:40) defines syllabication as a phonotactic operation which is
performed in conformity with the distributional criteria of the language under
analysis (CF.Hans, 1981:257). Although it is possible that one can specify the
number of syllables in words, it is very difficult to determine syllable boundary
placement. (Ladefoged, 1975:218).
Some phonotactic criteria for syllable boundary placement are suggested by
a number of phoneticians.
Pulgram (1970:47-51) proposes the following principles:
1. A principle of maximal open syllabicity.
2. A principle of minimal coda and maximal onset.
3. A principle of irregular coda.
As far as the first principle is concerned, a syllable boundary is inserted after
every vowel of a word. Thus, words such as rooster and master are syllabified as
[r|υ.stə] and [m|æ.stə] so as to make the first syllable open. A problem arises;
however, in the form (mæ . stə) since the principle of maximal open syllabicity
creates a sequence which violates a sequential constraint in English by which the

short vowel /I, e, æ, ɒ, υ / are disallowed in word-final position. Since [m| æ. stə]
contains the vowel / æ/, which doesn‟t occur in word finally, it must be
resyllabified by the next principle to yield [m|æs.tə]. A similar motivated
readjustment must occur in a second set of circumstances.
Pulgram (1970:40) explains this by stating that:
If the syllable can not be kept open because the consonant or consonants that
would form the onset of the next syllable do not occur in word- initial position,
then many consonants, as necessary –but not more –to reduce the onset to a

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permissible word-initial shape, must be detached from it and transferred to the
preceding syllable as coda, to close the syllable.
Hence, while employ [Impl'oI] would be syllabified [I .mpl'oI] by the
principle of maximal open syllabicity, this would create a syllable- initial /mpl/
sequence which can not occur in word initially. Hence, the/m/ must be sent back to
the first syllable to yield [Im.pl'oI] where each syllable now meets the syllable
structure constraints of English. Pulgram‟s final principle is stated as follows:
If the necessary transfer from syllable- initial to syllable-final position leads
to a group of consonants, then the burden of irregularity must be borne by the coda
rather than the following onset.
Pulgram‟s principle is further expanded by Fallows (1980:78) who suggests
two principles of syllabication: stress and ambisyllabicity. The first principle
means that a stressed syllable will attract the maximum number of consonants in
both initial and final position. The next principle shows the sharing of an inter-
vocalic consonant by the neighbouring syllables. So, a word like begin [bIg'In] is
syllabified as [bI.gIn] or [bIg.In). It seems that the second division of the word
begin [bIg-In] is more acceptable since it is familiar to find English beg and in
through the dictionary.
7.2 Rules of syllabification

1- Recognition of certain prefixes and suffixes un-,mis-,dom-,in-.

2- If the first syllable in disyllabic words is a long or a diphthong vowel, it ends
the syllable. And the next sound goes to the following syllable.

Example. Writer [r'aI . ?tə] o [r'aI?t . ə]

3- The syllable division is marked before the schwa /ə/ in triphthongs.

Example.
chaos khh'eI.əs ]

Note: Division of disyllabic and polysyllabic words should not produce unacceptable consonant
cluster in both the onset and coda in English language.
4- In VCV if one consonant occurs between two vowels and the second vowel
is long (stressed or unstressed), the consonant becomes part of the second syllable.

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 Example.
Return [rI ?t 'ə: n ] VCV
|

V C V [ rI?t'ɜː n ]
|

| |
Short long

Vacation [v ə.?k 'eIʃ. n ]

|

| | |
V C V
| |
short long
Delay [ dIl'eI ] VCV [ dI.l'eI ]

Example
Windy [ w'In.dI ]
[ w'Ind.I ]
But not
[ wI . ndI ] English words can not begin with (nd-)

5- In (VCV) if one consonant occurs between two short vowels, and the first
vowel is stressed the consonant goes with the preceiding vowel.

Example.
[ l 'I m I? t ] [ l'Im.I?t ]
| |
short short
| |
Stressed unstressed

6- In the intervocalic consonants as in [ b ] in [ h'æbI?t ] here, the

consonant sound [ b ] is treated as ambisyllabic ,i.e. ,

[ b ] can be

To the first syllable coda and onset To the second syllable

Therefore , [ b ] has dual function.

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8- The Manipulation of Computer Techniques in Monitoring
English Syllables
Studying the English Syllable at the University level practically represents
the task of the researcher who does his best to design a comprehensive programme
to be used by teachers at the college on one hand and the students themselves on
the other hand.

4.3 Procedures for Presenting the Programme

To design the CD programme of this study two steps have followed.
The First step is to select the data which is taught by using computer and the
second step is to design the actual CD programme to be a ready-made software for
studying the English syllable. As far as the first step is concerned, the data of the
present study have taken from chapters "Eight" and "Nine" included in the text-
book which is taught at the second year in departments of English under the title
Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course by Peter Roach: 2002. Some relevant
topics have been added to the programme from other books to achieve a
comprehensive programme for studying syllables at the university level.
The researcher designed an actual CD programme which presents the
content in slides through selective programmes such as Microsoft Word 2003/2007
for writing and power point for making slides and visual Basic 2003 for testing
items. Multimedia is also used in this study.
The programme has been designed in three stages which can be summarized
as follows:
1- Presentation
After loading the programme into the computer, the content of the
programme will appear on the monitor in form of slides. The content is arranged

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into presentation, application or practice and testing. A learner can click on the
button "introduction" to read the main aims and advantages of the programme. On
the presentation stage, the learner can click on any topic from the main menu to
study it in all its details. In each slide, a number of buttons appeared to give the
learner the freedom to choose whatever he likes to do the next. On the left hand, in
the bottom, there is a button of reading the material in the selective slide, whereas
on the right hand,there is a button of music which he can use while reading the
slide silently.
To attract the learner's attention and make the process of learning more
interesting, different pictures and colours are used with soft music which
accompanied all the stages of programme.
A learner can repeat the material endlessly until he/she is satisfied with the
results.
2- Application
After presenting and explaining the contents in words, the learner can click
on an icon of application which transfers what has been written in words to a
simple tree diagram to combine between theory and practice on the same screen.
3- Testing
The last stage of the programme is a test for the learner to check
himself/herself whether she /he understands the material of each item in the main
menu or not. Questions have been designed or prepared according to the nature of
each item in the topic and its weight in the text-book itself.
4.4 Programme Mechanism

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Our programme entitled "the English syllables" has been designed through the use
of VB 2005 which has wide spread capacities on educational and productive
scientific levels.At first, the mechanism will be explained, illustrated by some
electronic windows with its own demonstration, and then a simplified explanation

about the programming language (VB 2005) will be given. (See Figure.3)

Figure 3: The Main Frame of the Programme

The above (Compiled Window) represents the main frame of the programme
which has been designed according to Visual Basic Programme 2005, where two
buttons (Introduction, the End) activate either to introduce the programme or end
it.
The effective use of colours, pictures and orthography has been done
according to the productive programme entitled (Adobe PhotoShop CSME).

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 The following designed1 window shows the aim of our study and a letter to
the users to know why this programme has been designed and its effect on the
scientific level of the university students in this branch of knowledge (phonetics
and phonology). In this window, there will be a button entitled (Main Menu) by
which one can see and choose the item he / she wants to study of the English
Syllables.

Figure 4: Introduction to the Programme

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 Figure 5: The Main Menu

The above compiled window (Figure5) represents (the main menu) where
the eight topics that are included in this study (The English syllable) will be shown.
Only one example has been taken, that is the First button (Definition: The English
Syllable) with its windows represented in the following pages.

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 Figure 6: The Electronic Slide of the Definition of the English
Syllable
The above frame (Figure 6) represents the electronic slide of the first topic in
the main menu where one can see a number of buttons to control sound or another
to show the next electronic window that leads to presenting questions about the
topic itself.

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 Figure 7: Exercise on Definition: The English Syllable
This window represents as in its full form the first two questions of the first
topic where it contains some important buttons repeated in other windows of other
topics as follows:
1- (Main Menu): This button leads us to the eight – button window.
2- (More): This button shows us successive choices of the same question.
3- (Next Exercise): This button transfers to the window of the following question
of the same topic.
4- (Results): This button examines the results of responses of all the choices of the
present question where the green colour shows the correct responses and the red
color states the wrong answer

151
9. Conclusions:
In the light of the empirical evidence revealed in this study and according to
the researcher's own observation, the following conclusions are drawn on the
theoretical and practical level of this study :
1- Some allophones in RP pronunciation change the form of CV system of the
English syllable by using narrow transcription as in put [ phʊ?t ] becomes
CCVCC but not CVC; text [thè?kst] becomes CCVCCCC but not CVCCC
(Roach, 2009) in a letter to the researcher on Thursday, April 16, 2009, 5: 36
P.M.
Roach says: "It would be true to say those counting phonetic segments in
narrow transcription would result in a different number of segments from the
number resulting from counting phonemes".
2- Whenever we deal with a particular accent, for example (BBC/RP) narrow
transcription must be used to distinguish this accent from other varieties of
EngliAccording to the sonority theory of the English syllable, the place of stress
must be put above the peak and not on the preceding consonant in the stressed
syllables.
whereas, on the practical level, this study shows that: First, the achievement
of the experimental group is higher than that of the control group and that is
attributed to the application of computer techniques. Secondly, there is an
improvement in the level of knowledge of the experimental group between pre-
and post test.

152
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