Talk a Lot

How to Use

Connected Sentence Cards – Sound Connections Demo Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com
3.7

This pie chart shows the percentages of each kind of connection: cv – 10%
vv – 12%

As they do the activity, students will find the following outcomes:

a) vowel sound to consonant sound (vc)
and
b) consonant sound to vowel sound (cv)If either of these connections occurs, the sounds will flow well together. For example:
LDÇwflåKáDÇÉéL=

vowel sound to consonant sound (vc)
LDïflípK]L=

cc
– 48%
Talk a Lot

How to Use

Connected Sentence Cards – Sound Connections Demo Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com
3.8

This is because in rapid speech the English tongue can’t cope with two vowels flowing
together, so we have to introduce a consonant sound between them, making the connection
just like either (vc) or (cv) (see above). This technique of connected speech, where we add a
new sound, is called intrusion.

a) consonant sound to consonant sound (cc)If you see this kind of connection, you should stop and think about how the sounds go
together. It’s very common in rapid speech for consonant sounds not to flow well together.
Say the words on the cards together and listen to the connecting sounds. It’s likely that a
sound will be missing at the end of the first word, especially if that sound is LíL, or LÇL. This
technique of connected speech, where a sound disappears, is called elision. For example: LDãìëDêÉåíL=
=
LíL at the end of the first word

LDä]rDľ\KÇwf\DÜflKê]L=
=
LíL at the end of the first word is
replaced by a glottal stop L\L to make
the transition between the two words
easier to say (glottal stops)=
LDê~fKífåKa]L=
=
LÏL at the end of the first word
changes to LåL to make the transition
between the two words easier to say
(assimilation)
LflãDîôKä]åKí~fåòL=
=
LåL at the end of the first word
changes to LãL to make the transition
between the two words easier to say
(assimilation)
If two of the same consonant sounds meet, the first sound will become redundant and
disappear, for example:
Talk a Lot

How to Use

Connected Sentence Cards – Sound Connections Demo Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com
3.9


LëL meets LâL and they flow together
smoothly (linking)
LDîôKä]åKí~fåòDÇÉfL=
=
LòL meets LÇL and they flow together
smoothly (linking)
LDÇ]råDä~fâL=
=
LíL meets LäL and they don’t flow
together smoothly, so LíL is
automatically omitted by the speaker
(elision)=
Having said all of this, sometimes there will be no connection between the two sounds
because of the natural break, or pause, provided by a punctuation mark, such as a dash – ,
semi-colon ; , or comma , , for example:

LDÄflâKëÉíKàìWäL=
=

the connecting sounds for (vv) and (cc) connections, using the IPA:

# vowel-consonant (vc)

OK
3

# consonant-vowel (cv)

OK
3

(No elision, intrusion, assimilation, etc. needs to
take place, because the words flow together well)
# vowel-vowel (vv)

Possible techniques of connected
speech:

•
intrusion

# consonant-consonant (cc)

•
elision



LDÇÉfKòáKà]åK]DÄlfKÑêÉåÇK]KÖ]rKïfåKí]DïflípK]

ê]rDãôåKífDâflKã]KÇáKà]\Ka]DëfKå]Kã]KêflãDîôKä]åKí~fåòDÇÉfL=

Talk a Lot

How to Use

Connected Sentence Cards – Sound Connections Demo Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com
3.11

Here is a completed activity template as an example:

Connecting Sounds (Activity Template)1. Choose (or write) a sentence: _____________(see above)___________________
2. Count the no. of words in the sentence: __17__
3. Count the no. of connections between words in the sentence: __16__
4. Count each kind of connection between words, and write down
the connecting sounds for (vv) and (cc) connections, using the IPA:

# vowel-consonant (vc)
5
OK
3

•
assimilation

6

16
“and her” – LÇL to LÜL – LÇL and LÜL both
disappear (elision)
“going to” – LÏL to LíL – LÏL changes to LåL
(assimilation)
“romantic comedy” – LâL to LâL – same sounds:
the first LâL disappears (elision)
“at the” – LíL to LaL – LíL disappears (elision)
“on Valentine’s” – LåL to LîL – LåL changes to
LãL (assimilation)
“Valentine’s Day” – LòL to LÇL – LòL enables a
smooth transition (no elision, etc. takes place) Another helpful technique is to study and learn connections that occur often, in phrases that
are common in spoken English – and particularly in phrases that comprise unstressed

Once students have understood sound connections between words, and how the techniques
of connected speech are employed, they should combine this knowledge with work that they
have done on sentence stress (see from page 12.1) to form natural-sounding English speech,
for example: LDÇÉfKòáKà]åK]DÄlfKÑêÉåÇK]KÖ]rKïfåKí]DïflípK]

ê]rDãôåKífDâflKã]KÇáKà]\Ka]DëfKå]Kã]KêflãDîôKä]åKí~fåòDÇÉfL=

In this picture we have visualised the complete sentence, with all of the sound connections between the words
highlighted by the black and white bars. You can also see the sentence stress, with the content words (Daisy,
boyfriend, watch, romantic, comedy, cinema, Valentine’s, and Day) raised above the function words (and, her, are,
going, to, a, at, the, on). Students could also identify the stressed syllable with its accompanying vowel sound in each of
the content words, and write them on the cards (as we have indicated above). Students should practise saying the
sentence out loud again and again, whilst focusing on three things:

1. The stressed syllables
2. The vowel sounds on the stressed syllables
3. The different connections between the words

Students could also spend time working with the connected speech templates (see page 4.1),
which pull together all of this work into one activity.
=
Towards the end of this activity, students could try putting together cards that make different
sound combinations, to test the outcomes demonstrated above. They shouldn’t worry about
the resultant phrases making sense, but instead focus entirely on how the sounds go together
(see examples below). A good extension would be for students to write and practise saying
two-word phrases that do make sense, and which highlight each of the following categories: