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Ask for help > How important is phonetics for you?
How important is phonetics for you?
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Yolandaprieto
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How important is phonetics for you?
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Today my colleagues and I have been arguing because they think we shouldn �t teach phonetics because because there are some words which can be pronounced in different ways depending on the country or region where you are.
What do you think about this?
Yolanda
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20 Jan 2011
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chiaa2004
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They say "your English is judged by your accent, and it is true" So we like it or not, the best way to pronounce words the way we are supposed to is by learning and teaching Phonetics. |
20 Jan 2011
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suhakhader
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Hi Yolanda,
Phonetics is a very important part of the language especially the spoken one. Unless we use the correct pronunciation, we will be misunderstood and , of course, it won �t be accepted! Language is our path to communication, but in different methods.
It �s quite good to teach young or upper level students phonetics. It is not necessary to have a special book for that! Having examples and exercises on phonetics from the same lesson or unit given would be a great emphasis on how to pronounse the words in their different parts of speech, such as verbs, nouns...etc.
Thanks for sharing us Yolanda!
Have a great weekend for all members  |
20 Jan 2011
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edrodmedina
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Hello Yolanda. I agree with you. What �s the alternative?? No matter what language you �ll always have variations in pronunciation even within the same country,sometimes within a city. Learning those variations comes with time and experience. |
20 Jan 2011
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Yolandaprieto
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I forgot to tell you that it is very important for me. We have to teach standard English so that they can be understood by everybody, then they can learn other accents.
Yolanda
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20 Jan 2011
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suhakhader
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I entirely agree with you Yolanda. Standard English is first, then other accents can be learnt with time and experience as Ed said. |
20 Jan 2011
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ditku
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The best argument to teach phonetics is probably the ability to distinguish between �thesis � and �faeces � or �sheet � and... or ship and sheep. :)
It �s important not to make mistakes like this just because you are too lazy to learn or teach phonetics. Varieties of English is not a good argument in a dispute, since we don �t want to teach somebody to speak like Hugh Grant or enunciate like Beyonce. What we want is for them to be able to hear and produce the accurate sounds, to be understood accurately. See an example with sheet. ;)
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20 Jan 2011
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Zora
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Phonetics as in "teaching the symbols and expecting the kids, who have never seen them before, to learn them and know how to understand them," is quite unnecessary and counterproductive.
If you want to get kids to pronounce a word in an "English way" - do as many dictionaries (like Berlitz) do. Write the sounds in "your own language."
For example:
Beach - bich / Time - taim / yellow - llelo - etc... THIS is a more natural way, people like to relate to sounds they are familiar with, not symbols they have never seen and look alien to them... (Besides, expecting kids to learn phonetics is crazy. They are learning a language, not how to build a dictionary.)
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20 Jan 2011
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Flora1
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I love studying phonetic and also teach because my students learn the way of speaking the standard use ,but I always say that there are variants between American and Britsh English and also around the world. English is the language of the world we can�t control the new accents and eveb uses. |
20 Jan 2011
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Samantha.esl
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Hello Yolanda!
I think that teaching phonetics to students is unnecessary at one point. I mean while they are learning essential or basic english but when they are a little more advanced they should learn how to read phonetics. (teaching in private institutions NOt at schools is different of course)
I do believe that students should be taught the symbols so that whenever they are in doubt about the pronunciation of a word, they can look for it and know exactly how it should be pronounced. Students need to learn how to use dictionaries too! I have seen in many books for children (8-10 +++) that phonetics has a small part in each unit and I think it �s great! We used to sing rhymes and classify vocabulary in a very funny way. I �m not saying students then end up being experts in phonetics... I �m not myself but if you are teaching standard english they should learn how to interpret phonetics.
I think some teachers avoid this part because they do not like it.. or because it�s difficult or because they only focus on the belief that students are learning a language..=learning only to speak it?? I don�t know... I think phonetics is important, of course not to the point of turning a class into a phonetics class.. but a little each class makes the difference.
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20 Jan 2011
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Yolandaprieto
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That �s exactly what I think, Samantha. Why not learning the symbols and being able to read all the words they can look up in a dictionary? Using your own language is not the way it should be done because in many cases it is imposible to even get an approximate idea of the real pronunciation. There are not so many symbols and it is not so difficult if you practise enough.
Yolanda |
20 Jan 2011
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