TeachingEnglish
Phonetic sounds
Submitted by avanthi on 17 April, 2010 - 14:59
How to learn the language 'English' Phonetically? Suggestions and comments, please.
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Hello
Sorry, but to me your question is a bit unclear. Could you be a bit more specific, then there might be more response to the discussion. Also, perhaps this topic belongs in the phonology forum?
CF
Phonetics is the study of speech sounds.
When you listen to native speakers, you hear several clusters of sounds that you can not decipher, which means, you’re not able to make out what words these sound clusters represent. Although they actually stand for everyday words that you know very well, these sound clusters don’t sound like anything you know.
A word is pronounced in one way when it’s uttered in individually (that’s its ideal pronunciation); however it’s often pronounced in a slightly different way when it’s spoken in combination with other words.
A non-native English speaking learner finds spoken word groups like these difficult to understand. This is mainly because of two reasons:
1. The non native speaker has learnt the language predominantly in its written form and even though we have spoken the language, it has been done so with the interferences of our native languages. Thus the non native speaker has accustomed himself to hear a certain pronunciation of these words and word groups that are different from the way a native speaker would say them.
2. When it comes to pronunciation training, non native learners, have been trained to pronounce words individually and not as part of word combinations. These pronunciations are also often incorrect and to make things worse, we are not aware or conscious of the intonation, syllable stress, word stress vital to accurate pronunciation.
Your question can be called an open-ended question>It has several implications.First,Phonics.Young learners are itroduced to phonics,to stdy sounds,as in C/ k/,not 'see".In case of b the sound will be as we pronounce the word as in book,not bee;as in case of m ,not eim but as we pronounce as in the word monkey.YL get the sounds of letters.Orthography is not what we teach.Many are still unsure of the success of this kind of approach.I have found this has resulted in anumber of problems.But tis is not place to talk abut it.
I assume(though unsure of my assumption)that you mean the study of three term level description of 44 phonemes such as plosive,fricatives ,voiced or voiceless,alveolar or dentalet.al.
Ths is an altogather different study,theoretical as well as technical,contributing not in an intended manner of developing one's English.A great phonetic Reader is helpful.Languages change with times so much so that acronyms such as TMI IMHO(TOO MUCH INFORMATION,INMY HUMBLE OPINION)HAVE SLOWLY BEEN CREEPING INTO OED.They are getting into corporate lingo.Similarly, h no longer aspirated wity young generation of England.So pronunciations too ,are chnging.So it is better to focus on standartized communication format and listen constantly and start speaking in one's own natural way.
With a little push in Phonetics, and a glib tongue one can communicate effectively.
I don't know if this satisfies you.Let's hear from experts.BFN.