Tips on Oral Section of UTME English Paper

Akeem Lasisi

Last week, we discussed correlative conjunctions and how they manifest in a major exam like the UTME – the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. As the crucial test starts on Friday, we will today look at factors to watch in the oral aspect of the English paper.

Two processes

At this point, let me regard every reader as a candidate. You have to almost simultaneously undergo two processes when you get to the oral aspect of the paper. By this, I mean you have to READ and cautiously PRONOUNCE the given elements/options before picking your answers. This is peculiar to this section because sounds matter a lot in the phonetics and phonology test. Don’t be deceived by what your eyes see. Focus on the sound. For instance, ‘the pronunciation of letter ‘a’ is different in each of the following words: sat, save, and said. So, if you are asked to identify the item with the sound represented by the underlined letters in ‘say’, if you don’t first pronounce the given terms, you may mistakenly go for ‘sat’ or ‘said’, whereas it is ‘save’ you should.

Consonant challenge

It is sure that there will be questions on speech sounds, especially consonants and vowels. A particular consonant (letter) can be underlined, and you are asked to identify the word with the sound it bears among the given options. Firstly, again, don’t forget that it is not just about what your eyes see, but also what the mouth pronounces. So, articulate both the given sound and the one you are looking for. Secondly, remember that there is a good number of silent consonants in English. These include W in how, show and wrinkle; T in hasten, wrestle and listen; B in womb, comb and debt; and K in knight, knotty and knowledge. So, the way the given expressions are said greatly matters.

Also, beware of consonants with similar appearances but different pronunciations. These include words with TC (watch, hatch, match); CH (chance, charm, church); SH (show, shout, wash); S (strong, astute, assign) and Z (zoom, puzzle and was). The inclusion of ‘was’ under the Z words should not surprise you. By now, you should know that in many words in which vowel sounds precede S, the letter is articulated as Z. Examples are was, is, house, mouse etc., which should be pronounced as waZ, iZ, houZ and mouZ.

Similarly, D can become T in pronunciation. This happens usually when the past tense marker D is preceded by a voiceless consonant. It, however, maintains its D sound if preceded by the voiced. Remember that the voiced consonants include /d/, /b/ and /g/ while the voiceless include: /p/, /t/, /k/ etc. So, in ‘stopped’ and ‘barked’, D is pronounced as T. Now, if you are asked to pick the word with T in mouth, those, rough and picked, what will be your answer? The correct option is PICKED because, when pronounced, there is no T in ‘mouth’ and ‘those’ – let alone ‘rough’.

Vowel sounds

In handling questions that may be testing your knowledge of vowel sounds, never forget the clash we usually have between long and short vowels. For instance, in had, bit and pot we have short vowels but in hard, beat and port the vowels are long. So, where you should look for the short, don’t hug the long.

Relatedly, don’t mix pure vowels with diphthongs. Here, you should remember that while a pure vowel contains just one vowel sound, a diphthong is a sound that combines two vowels. Pure vowels include those you have in spot, but and hit while the ones in spoil, buy and high are diphthongs. Therefore, open your eyes well and engage your mouth before you choose any option.

Stress and rhyme

These two important concepts are also tested in the oral part. For the first, emphatic stress is recurrent. One thing you should understand here is that a bit of common sense and logic is required alongside your knowledge of stress and intonation.

In the rhyme sub-section, no part of the given word is underlined. Your focus is actually the last syllable/sound of the term.  You have to identify the option whose last syllable sounds as that of the given one. In this case, don’t be deceived by words with similar letters/spellings because they may not end with the same sounds. For instance, assuming the given word is ‘time’, and term, timely, dime and team are the options. Although term, timely and team have similar spellings as ‘time’, the only word that rhymes with it is ‘dime’. So, you must pronounce all of them to be sure.

April 17, 2024