The Phonetic Alphabet

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javier1

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Hello,

I am reading here that the phonetic alphabet is very useful in teaching pronunciation to beginners, however I can't seem to get my head around it, I just don't understand it, what is the general consensus on this, is it being taught or not?
Thanks in advance!
 

5jj

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I don't think there is any consensus. It seems to me that not many native speaking teachers use it. That's a pity in many ways, in my opinion, because it's a very useful tool. It takes the average native speaker less than an hour to be able to recognise the English phonemes , and not a great deal longer to be able to use them with a reasonable degree of confidence.

I don't think that many of those of us who use it actually teach the phonetic alphabet. We use it. Those learners who are not already familiar with it soon pick up the ability to read it, and they recognise its value. Learners don't normally have to write it from memory. They may copy it if they keep lists of new words and phraases.
 

Tdol

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But there are plenty who don't teach/use it.
 

Esredux

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Some believe this could be fun to have for vocabulary activities, like grouping and organising.
 

konungursvia

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I think it's very useful, especially when teaching people who aren't familiar with the sounds of English. The trick is to learn/teach them no more than 3 symbols/ sounds per day.
 

5jj

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Some teachers I have observed, particularly non-native speakers, have used the IPA most creatively in activities, and the learners have benefited.

Personal opinion only:

Whilst I have used IPA in most of the lessons in which I have had occasion to write on the board, I am wary about placing too much emphasis on 'teaching' it to students who use the Roman alphabet in their own language. I see my job as a teacher as enabling students to use the language (sorry about the platitude) for the purpose for which they need/wish to use it. I see no value at all in burdening learners with grammar rules, mastery of the IPA, labels for grammatical structures or parts of speech as ends in themselves, though acquaintance with some of these may help some students learn to use the language effectively.

I have asked learners to "listen to this recording, and underline the schwa sounds in the italicised words in this written version of the passage." I have devised activities for , for example /p/ - /b/ discrimination for English learners of Czech and Czech learners of English, for /l/ - /n/ - /r/ discrimination for Chinese learners of English, and for /y/ - /u/ discrimination for English learners of French. I have done this only to help the learners hear the different sounds and produce them accurately, not to help them learn the IPA symbols. I have never asked learners to transcribe words phonemically or to read phonemic transcription, though I have with trainee teachers.

When I have taught learners who have used either Arabic or Chinese script (my only two experiences of teaching learners whose written language does not use the Roman alphabet), I have taught them to read and use the English phonemic symbols. The benefits they appear to gain from this outweigh, for me, the disadvantages of an additional learning burden.


ps. I use different techniques depending on the learning styles of the learners I am working with. One thing is sure, however: every learner I have worked with since my return to ELT nearly fifteen years ago knows the word 'schwa' and the symbol /ə/
 

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I don't entirely agree. For me the first job of the language teacher is to propel the students into a world of speaking and listening; but people raised in a different language which doesn't share the sounds of English are actually quite deaf to the subtleties of English; it's like choosing to teach over the phone (with bad audio quality) when the person is in the next room and can be approached by opening a door.

They can't hear what they don't expect to hear, in other words. An effort to become aware of the phonology of the language is the a priori condition that opens the door to the study of that language (except in children, who can hear strange and unfamiliar phonemes).

If it will take your students 3 years to notice that "sat" and "set" are not the same, it's worth taking 2 to 3 weeks to study the phonetics, through games in my view.
 

5jj

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If it will take your students 3 years to notice that "sat" and "set" are not the same, it's worth taking 2 to 3 weeks to study the phonetics, through games in my view.
:up:

I over-simplified in my post(s).
 

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I don't think there is any consensus. It seems to me that not many native speaking teachers use it. That's a pity in many ways, in my opinion, because it's a very useful tool. ...
:up: I'm afraid many native speaker teachers feel that all they have to do is speak, and 'what they say goes'.

b
 

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I believe it is important for learners be able to identify and create the individual sounds of English (among other things)
I used to teach IPA but the students found it too confusing so I developed a simple new phonetic alphabet called the English Phonetic Alphabet (EPA). It uses only keyboard symbols and the best part is the vowels. By happy coincidence the names of the colors in English contain one vowel sound. Students remember vocabulary by color:
/Ay/ is Gray - made, great, eight, rain, hey...
/a/ is Black - mad, calf, laugh, plaid...
/Ey is Green - we, feet, meat, piece, people, ski...
/e/ is Red - bed, head, said, guess, friend...

It's magic. ("sat" is Black and "set" is Red)

Students dont have to rely on crazy English spelling to figure out and remember how every word in English is supposed to sound. Their confidence goes way up. EPA works for all levels of students and it takes teachers about 10 minutes to learn.
 

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... I developed a simple new phonetic alphabet called the English Phonetic Alphabet (EPA). It uses only keyboard symbols and the best part is the vowels. By happy coincidence the names of the colors in English contain one vowel sound. Students remember vocabulary by color:
/Ay/ is Gray - made, great, eight, rain, hey...
/a/ is Black - mad, calf, laugh, plaid...
/Ey is Green - we, feet, meat, piece, people, ski...
/e/ is Red - bed, head, said, guess, friend...

It's magic. ("sat" is Black and "set" is Red)
....
So was it you who won the ELTon for Local Innovation last week? (The nominations are here; that page hasn't been updated, but The Colour of Words won.


b
 

I'm With Stupid

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Watch all of this.


And then do it in class. It can be extremely useful. The key is to make pronunciation a physical activity, so that when the student makes a mistake, you can point to the sound they made on the chart, and they can see the sound they're aiming for, and know exactly what to do to their mouth to alter it (since it is so logically laid out). If you have a chart in your class at all times, you can refer to it at any point to fix a pronunciation error on the spot, and work pronunciation practice into other activities. My school has one in the corner of every white board, and I'd now hate to teach without it.
 
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I think it's best to introduce it gradually. But I do find it very useful, especially as English spelling is so ridiculous at times. Adrian Underhill's "Sound Foundations" is a brilliant book that helps to really get into phonetics and teaching pronunciation in general (it's only useful for native speakers though).
 

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Curious to know why. Macmillan doesn't mark it 'for internal use only', quite the reverse, IMO.
Probably to sell more copies? The whole foundation of the book is the reader's own built-in perfect native pronunciation. The book explores this with many useful exercises to help you understand what your mouth is doing when it speaks sounds, words and sentences. This book helped me a lot and I'd highly recommend it (to native teachers). I think pronunciation is too often neglected, and yet it is so important in communication. Also, the study of pronunciation develops the ear, which will in turn greatly improve listening skills.
 

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Probably to sell more copies?

Oh, really? Another attempt to swindle hapless non-native teachers?
You must be joking, in general people are not that stupid when it comes to money.

The whole foundation of the book is the reader's own built-in perfect native pronunciation. The book explores this with many useful exercises to help you understand what your mouth is doing when it speaks sounds, words and sentences.

Interestingly, the author presents the course as a number of activities for learners to understand how they could master their pronunciation. I assume, it might work for native teachers as well.
What pronunciation should be considered 'perfect' is actually beside the point with so many varieties even within one country let alone certain personal characteristics, that is speaking about BrE solely.

This book helped me a lot and I'd highly recommend it (to native teachers). I think pronunciation is too often neglected, and yet it is so important in communication. Also, the study of pronunciation develops the ear, which will in turn greatly improve listening skills.

Absolutely. Broad generalisation hardly ever helps to get the real picture, still I'd rather go along with you on that - it could be fairly challenging, if ever possible, to teach what you have never been taught yourself.

Undeniably, the course is helpful for native teachers. What I am curious to know is why only for native teachers.
IMO, regardless of anything, while speaking everyone is doing something with his mouth, lips, teeth or whatever he has to pronounce something meaningful. Why not use these activities to polish one's sounds?
On the other hand, if these activities can help learners start speaking English more naturally, why do you think non-native teachers cannot benefit from them as well?

Incidentally, A. Underhill is addressing a group of non-native teachers at the seminar and actually shows how a Spanish-speaking teacher gets her /ae/ right at last. Or, are we talking about different books?
 
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...if these activities can help learners start speaking English more naturally, why do you think non-native teachers cannot benefit from them as well?

Incidentally, A. Underhill is addressing a group of non-native teachers at the seminar and actually shows how a Spanish-speaking teacher gets her /ae/ right at last. Or, are we talking about different books?

I was talking about the book "Sound Foundations". Yes, I'm sure anyone with reasonable pronunciation could benefit from this book, but I still think native speakers would benefit the most. IMO the Cambridge 'Pronunciation in Use' series would be a much better choice for non-native speakers.

It would be interesting to hear what any non-native speakers who have tried Sound Foundations think about it.
 

BobK

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...
Undeniably, the course is helpful for native teachers. What I am curious to know is why only for native teachers.
IMO, regardless of anything, while speaking everyone is doing something with his mouth, lips, teeth or whatever he has to pronounce something meaningful. Why not use these activities to polish one's sounds?
On the other hand, if these activities can help learners start speaking English more naturally, why do you think non-native teachers cannot benefit from them as well?

Incidentally, A. Underhill is addressing a group of non-native teachers at the seminar and actually shows how a Spanish-speaking teacher gets her /ae/ right at last. Or, are we talking about different books?

:up: I think this whole native-speaker/nonNS teacher thing is a red herring. The only (arguable) thing to be said for a NS advantage is that phonemic script lets a teacher commit his/her intuitions to paper.

But Underhill makes it very clear at the outset that he's not teaching 'the phonemes of English' but investigating the mechanisms of sound production as a number of continuums (e.g. [i:] to [u:]) stopping off along the way at points that reflected English phonemes. As a teacher, I've always used the symbols just as a way of committing sounds to paper. But this video has made me think more about the mechanisms in ways that should make me a better teacher (if I ever get another job;-)).


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