METHODOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY OF ENGLISH CONSONANT PHONEMES AS A BASIS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH PHONETICS AT SCHOOL
The article deals with elaborating a methodological classification of the English consonants as the main tool in teaching English phonetics to Russian schoolchildren. The comparison of typological characteristics relevant for the consonant systems of the English and Russian languages allowed to identify two groups of features proposed as criteria for phoneme classification: phoneme articulatory characteristics and phonological oppositions while functioning in speech. Consonant phoneme articulatory characteristics include the place of articulation according to the passive and active organ of speech and the manner of articulation. The author names three phonological oppositions which are essential for the English consonant system and must be the focus of a Russian speaker’s attention: absence of voicing/devoicing, aspiration of the voiced plosives, absence of palatalization. On the basis of the two groups of typological features the multifactor classification of the English consonants is built.