The International Phonetic Alphabet

  There are two issues that need to be stressed when working with the international phonemic alphabet. First is the fact that we are no longer concerned with how a word is traditionally spelled. Additionally we need to stress that we are only concerned with the sounds needed to correctly produce a word. So rather than numerous spellings, which can often be pronounced in different ways, we have one symbol representing one sound. Once we can isolate a sound, rather than juggling various spellings, we can work with our students on how to say that sound. Doing that successfully is related to manner and place of articulation, which will be covered shortly. To get a better understanding of the phonemic alphabet, let's take a look at our chart. In the bottom half of our chart we have our...  [Read more]

  A better way to go about imparting how to make sounds or what sounds are utilized in a word, is this international phonemic alphabet. Now we have as mentioned one symbol being used in all the words which share that same sound. Now once we get a little bit more familiar with our phonemic alphabet we can also show how different our different sounds can be as in this symbol for ?ooh?, this symbol for ?ow? and this symbol for ?uh?. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the...  [Read more]

  In this video we'll be looking at the international phonemic alphabet and how it's used in the classroom. There are other phonemic alphabets but this is the most popular and the system, which is most widely used. You may have seen some of these symbols before as any good dictionary will supplement standard English spellings with the phonemic spellings to aid in pronunciation practice. Here we have a situation where we have what are called phonemes and each phoneme represents a sound within the English language. How is this helpful? Well, what it does is help students understand how to say words rather than simply relying on the often archaic English spellings. To illustrate this point let's for a moment put ourselves in the shoes of our students when trying to understand how to...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Beiye Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Luoyang Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. This unit covered the different aspects of pronunciation: intonation, stress, and the phonemic alphabet. It taught the three basic intonation patterns of English, rise/fall, fall/rise, and flat. It also covered some basic rules for knowing which syllable to stress in a word or which word to stress in a sentence. Although I naturally follow these patterns every day and...  [Read more]

Phonetics and its Uses in Foreign Language InstructionPhonetics is the study of the physical aspects of speech. It is broken down into three categories: articulatory phonetics deals with the way in which speech sounds are produced, concerning itself with the actual organs involved in speech (vocal tract, tongue, lips, etc.); acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds, such as the properties of sound waves and the acoustics of speech; and auditory phonetics analyses the way in which humans perceive sounds, and involves the anatomy and physiology of the human ear and brain (Nicole Dehe, 'Phonology and Phonetics,' 1-2). Phonetics looks only at sounds themselves, rather their meanings or the context in which they are used, while the study of sound systems or...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Liangjiazi Nongchang? Are you interested in teaching English in Tieling Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. This unit explains the definition of phonology: the science and classification of the physical properties of sound. This unit also explains how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet to help students learn the correct pronunciation of English. This unit further explains the difference between intonation and stress. For example, I learned that intonation...  [Read more]

Phonetics and its Uses in Foreign Language Instruction Phonetics is the study of the physical aspects of speech. It is broken down into three categories: articulatory phonetics deals with the way in which speech sounds are produced, concerning itself with the actual organs involved in speech (vocal tract, tongue, lips, etc.); acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds, such as the properties of sound waves and the acoustics of speech; and auditory phonetics analyses the way in which humans perceive sounds, and involves the anatomy and physiology of the human ear and brain (Nicole Dehe, ?Phonology and Phonetics,? 1-2). Phonetics looks only at sounds themselves, rather their meanings or the context in which they are used, while the study of sound systems or...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Huretunaoer Sumu? Are you interested in teaching English in Xilinguole Meng — Xilin Gol? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Let us first distinguish the difference between phonetics and phonology. According to the research work of Frankfurt International School, Phonetic is the term for the description and classification of speech sounds, particularly how sounds are produced, transmitted and received. Whilst Phonology is the term used for the study of the speech...  [Read more]

  Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. This topic deals with areas of STRESS, RYTHM, INTONATION and the International Phonetic Alphabet. This unit has provide much insights on the linguistics aspect that we have taken for granted or learnt subconsciously from our environment. I know them but I would not be able to teach nor explain them to a non-native speaker. Every part of this unit is difficult and much time has been needed to digest the content. Not...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Dazhang Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Zhuzhou Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. It seems that the teaching of phonology to students of all levels is still typically centered on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The ITTT online material and Vantage offline classes are no exceptions. Despite seeing such introductions many times prior, it was still remarkable when the video narrator began mentioned “Alveolar, Retro­flex, Palatal,...  [Read more]

  This diary entry was completed after Chantelle finished unit 15. Unit 15 looks at different ways of evaluating and testing your students and the importance of doing so. Types of test covered include placement tests, progress tests, diagnostic tests, and practice tests. The unit also looks at the different external examinations students are likely to take such as TOEFL and IELTS. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. This chapter that with teaching...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Dongyang Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Changsha Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Japan is a nation that has tried to increase its citizens’ English ability, especially with the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games being held in their country. However, progress has been slow and not fruitful. There are various reasons for this slow stagnation of the nation’s English abilities such as the larger academic system and access to proper education in rural...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Huagong Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Jiaozuo Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Pronunciation skills, as important it is in communication, is apparently the most overlooked feature when teaching the English language. One reason that makes it difficult to teach is that it varies extensively based on the mood of the speaker, the situation and context, and it essentially seems impossible to standardize. However, there exists general guidelines and...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Kequ Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Guoluo Zangzu Zizhizhou — Golog? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. This lesson covered pronunciation and phonology. It covered the international phonetic alphabet, different kinds of sounds and how they are produced, stress and intonation in language, as well as teaching techniques for pronunciation. I found this lesson very interesting because of my background as an actor. As an actor I have used the...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Huangqizhai ManzuZhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Tieling Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. This unit discussed teaching pronunciation and phonology. It gave techniques for teaching intonation and stress and discussed the 4 major ways that sounds are joined together in English. The main thrust of the unit was on learning and being able to successfully teach the International Phonemic Alphabet. I have been teaching phonics, but not the phonemic...  [Read more]

Humans speak with each other by creating sounds. That is how we communicate with each other. Over the centuries the different languages have created systems of grammar to explain how the words in their languages work. Sometime after that, they began to create systems to explain how the sounds, or phonemes, of the different words work. Two disciplines arose out of this: phonetics and phonology.Phonetics is the study of the sounds themselves. In the world there are a limited number of possible sounds which the human vocal tract can produce. Of these sounds, the distinctive pronunciations of the different languages are produced. But how are theses sounds produced and represented' The answer to this question is the area of study of Phonetics. Generally, Phonetics is subdivided into three...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Yaoshi Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Huaihua Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Background – Why I Chose this Topic I chose this topic for my essay because it is not something I had ever given much thought to. As a native speaker, I don’t recall studying correct pronunciation in school along with other aspects of language learning such as grammar and vocabulary. Correct, or at least acceptable and understandable, pronunciation was something...  [Read more]

Humans speak with each other by creating sounds. That is how we communicate with each other. Over the centuries the different languages have created systems of grammar to explain how the words in their languages work. Sometime after that, they began to create systems to explain how the sounds, or phonemes, of the different words work. Two disciplines arose out of this: phonetics and phonology. Phonetics is the study of the sounds themselves. In the world there are a limited number of possible sounds which the human vocal tract can produce. Of these sounds, the distinctive pronunciations of the different languages are produced. But how are theses sounds produced and represented? The answer to this question is the area of study of Phonetics. Generally, Phonetics is subdivided into three...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Linhe Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Yinchuan Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. How to teach pronunciation? Phonology is the system of contrastive relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of a language. Intonation is variation in spoken pitch when used, not for distinguishing words as sememes (a concept known as tone), but, rather, for a range of other functions such as indicating the attitudes and...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Shouche Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Xiangxi Tujiazu Miaozu Zizhizho? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. In my experience teaching elementary and junior high school level English in Japan, several different pronunciation problems appear frequently. The Japanese phonemic inventory is smaller than English’s phonemic inventory, and the sounds present in each language differ from each other quite dramatically. Because of this, it can be difficult for...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Zhichanghe Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Jingzhou Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. 37. Pronunciation problems in a country of your choice. Each student faces their own difficulties when it comes to English pronunciation depending on their country of origin. This essay will focus on the pronunciation difficulties facing ESL students in France and will also propose some solutions to help students overcome these difficulties. The number of...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Zhaoji Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Huai'an Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. In my time teaching English to beginner-level students in Japan, teaching pronunciation has presented a number of challenges. One reason for this is the difference in size between the Japanese and English phonemic inventories, with the former being significantly smaller. Another significant issue deals with students’ preconceptions of what English ought to sound...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word variety. This word is used as a noun and describes a state of being different or diverse. The words diversity and variation can be used as synonyms for variety. The word comes from the Latin word varietas. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Unit 13 covered the teaching of pronunciation and phonology. I was unfamiliar with many of the concepts in this unit such as; applied phonetics, phonetic...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Dawang Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Sanmenxia Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. I feel that I have gained a lot from this course. Although I have previously taught english to 9 and 10 year olds ( monolingual students ) and have been provided with some material by the school, I now know how to plan each phase of the lesson and what the teacher should get his or her students to do during each phase. I have learned to plan different types of...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Chentun Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Yingkou Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. When teaching students the importance of pronunciation in English, it is a good idea to make use of different techniques such as mouth diagrams, tongue twisters, peer dictation, over-emphasising individual parts of a word, and phonemes. Also bear in mind that if you're using phonemes, your students should have access to the International Phonetic Alphabet chart to...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Haidong Shi? Are you interested in teaching English in Haidong Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Check out which city/town you may be more interested in and start your journey| In language classroom, it is likely that pronunciation is overlooked and neglected, but in communication intonation and stress are necessary The difficulty in teaching proper pronunciation is in the highest level especially for foreign learners I am quite certain that I will definitely...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Taiyangshan Kaifaqu? Are you interested in teaching English in Wuzhong Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. In unit thirteen, it showed us how to teach pronunciation and phonology during teaching, this a a part that may be easily neglected during. This unit shows the International Phonetic Alphabet and the ways that can be used to help teachers and students. It also covers related subjects such as how we use the mouth to produce different sounds, the importance of...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Jinsuo Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Suqian Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. English is very different from Chinese language, it even has another alphabet. So, first of all, if we teach in a university in China we have to make our students become familiar with the English alphabet and give them clear instructions on how to write in an accurate way. They need to practise a lot before knowing well how to write properly, therefore we ought to...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in BanbishAn Nongchang? Are you interested in teaching English in Huangshi Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Music is a common human foundation. Music can be found in almost every culture, religion and on all continents with human inhabitants. It is truly a universal phenomenon. Humans are the only creature on Earth that have manipulated Earth’s resources to create instruments. While it is true that other animals, including whales and birds often sing, and...  [Read more]

  Shem is from the USA and is currently living in Japan having previously taught English in Africa. In this TEFL review Shem tells how he really enjoyed taking the online TEFL course with ITTT and recommends the course with tutor support and videos as he found the videos to be really helpful in preparing him for what to expect in the English teaching world. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. This lesson on phonology and pronunciation discusses the...  [Read more]