phonetics in class

phonetics in class

This paper discusses the use of phonetic transcription in the teaching of English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL), using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). English is the most widely taught language in the world, and the IPA is the most widely used alphabet for phonetic transcription. However, most of the concepts and techniques described in this paper apply equally to the teaching of other languages and the use of other systems of phonetic transcription.

Phonetic transcription is nothing more than a written record of the sounds of a spoken language. The relationship between phonetic transcription and spoken language is very similar to that between a printed musical score and a musical performance. Transcription separates pronunciation from actual audio recording, and while this might at first seem to be counterproductive, in reality it has many advantages for teaching spoken language and pronunciation.

One might well ask what purpose phonetic transcription serves in English when the written form of English already represents the way the language is spoken (more or less). The advantages of phonetic transcription are several:

• As any student of English can attest, written English is only an approximate representation of the spoken language. Phonetic transcription, in contrast, is an exact representation, without any ambiguity, redundancy, or omission. In a phonetic transcription, every symbol stands for one sound, and one sound only. There are no “silent letters,” nor are there any spoken sounds that are not represented in the transcription.

• A phonetic transcription can be used prescriptively, to show students how a given word

or phrase should be pronounced. The transcription can represent a precise, standard

pronunciation, independent of the individual or regional accent of any teacher or audio

recording. It thus allows students to see the correct pronunciation of an English word

of phrase without the confusing influence of any anomalies in an instructor’s speech,

and provides a reliable, ideal model towards which students can work in their pronunciation,

independently of the speech of any human instructor. Dictionaries use phonetic

transcription in this way to indicate the “standard” pronunciation of words.

• A phonetic transcription can be used diagnostically, to record and analyze the speech of

students. A student can often better understand his errors in pronunciation if he sees

them laid out in static visual form. One might say that a picture is worth a thousand

words, with transcription being the picture, and words being the spoken language.

Students can compare transcriptions of their own speech to that of “model” speech and

see and correct their mistakes.

• Phonetic transcription is useful for showing the significant differences between the pronunciation of isolated words in a dictionary and the actual pronunciation of those same

words when they are grouped together in connected speech. Students can see why connected speech is more difficult to understand when they are shown the modifications in

pronunciation that occur in such speech, and they can learn what modifications to

expect and how to recognize them. They can also adopt a more natural-sounding speech

themselves by noting the “standard” changes that occur in connected speech and emulating

these themselves.

•  Much time can be saved in many small ways by using transcription instead of audio
recordings or “repeat after me” techniques. The correct pronunciation of a word can be
indicated by simply writing its phonetic transcription on the whiteboard, instead of
playing it over and over on a fuzzy-sounding cassette or repeating it over and over out
loud for students. Features of pronunciation (stress, intonation, division into syllables,
etc.) can be explained by showing them in transcriptions rather than trying to explain verbally 

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