Pronunciation / Phonetics Helpers

Pronunciation / Phonetics Helpers:

5 Websites to help you out in phonemics class

Have you surfed the Web trying to find suitable sites to help students understand pronunciation concepts, the IPA chart, or the basics for word transcription? If you are like me, you have probably saved those webpages in your bookmarking page or have probably included them on your curated topic to explore its potential and how to integrate it into your teaching or into your out-of-class practices. While venturing myself into cyberspace, I came across several pages to provide students with additional insight or/and practice. To help colleagues with their search, let me share five pages with you.

Website 1 –Prof. Peter Ladefoged’s IPA Sound Chart. For a course on Phonetics at UCLA, Prof. Ladefoged created a sound chart where students are presented with the pulmonic consonants found in languages worldwide. That is, this chart is not language specific, like restricted to English, but language general. This phonemic chart can be used with “linguistics” students, or any other interested in the overall understanding of IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet), since it provides examples of the articulation of pulmonic sounds. It is of great use so students can listen to the differences in terms of point and manner of articulation.

Website 2 –Adrian Underhill’s Interactive Phonemic Chart. Keeping in mind the English variation you are teaching at school, you and your students can benefit from this chart at OneStopEnglish.com. This page provides a great account of British English sounds, but not American. It also provides sample words where the sound is used. Assuming that you are teaching the American English variation, this chart can help students spot major differences to help them cope with differences and increase comprehensibility across major English dialects. Additional, an app for iPods, iPads, or iPhones can be downloaded.

Website 3 –the Cambridge English Online Chart. The Cambridge English Online platform provides teachers and students with a great tool, -an interactive phonemic chart along with several kinds of interactive exercises, such as a phonemic reader, puzzles, hangman, etc. Not only does it include sound presentation but also games and exercises to consolidate or expand students’ learning of the pronunciation subject-matter. But beware! This site is English-variation specific: British English. Yet it can also be used to compare and contrast both major English variations taught worldwide. And don’t forget that this site also allows you to get apps for your mobile devices.

Website 4 –OUP China Phonemic Chart. Oxford University Press in China (Hong Kong) developed this other great tool accessible in English and Chinese. Although you may not have Chinese students in your pronunciation courses, this phonemic chart provides two different sorts of information: Students can work with individual sounds and examples, but they can also read and deepen their understanding of what IPA is and how it is used.

Website 5 -PhoTransEdit. This Webpage provides users three different features to take advantage of: 1) Text to Phonetics: The user types words, phrases or short passages to get an immediate transcription along with some phonological features. Make sure to adjust it to British or American English. 2) Phonemic Keyboard: If you found any incongruence with the IPA variation you use at your teaching location, the site provides you with an editing tool to fix the transcription. Then you can copy/paste it into word if necessary. 3) Phonemic Transcription Library: If you are looking for texts, the page also provides you with some sample texts ready to be used in various types of accents. Additionally, if you needed to work offline, this website gives you the chance to download its freeware, which is highly functional.

One of the best things that PhoTransEdit has is its possibility to embed its transcriber into your blog, wiki, or webpage. Try it below in British English. On the website you can have access to American English trasncriptions as well.

BRITISH ENGLISH

To sum up, you could use these tools with your students to make your phonetics class or blog much more attractive and appealing for your students. Anyhow, make sure that if they use the transcriber, it is to check or compare the transcriptions to what you –the teacher- do in class with them. You will always find incongruence, so let your students know that the use of a transcription checker may fail at times if it is not compared to the subject-matter studied in course books or in class.

ETo fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	American & British differences in pronunciation
2	Why so many Phonetic alphabets
3	Phonetics vs. Phonology
4	IPA
5	Extra sites to work on pronunciation

Professor Jonathan Acuña-Solano

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

Freelance ELT Consultant for OUP in Central America

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/

2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com/

3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/

1.   Cambrigde English Online (2003-2011) Phonetics Focus, published at http://cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/

2.   Ladefoged, Peter (2008) IPA Sound Chart, Material used at UCLA Phonetics Course, and published at http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/flash.html

3.   OUP China. Guide to English Phonetic Symbols. Published at http://www.oupchina.com.hk/dict/phonetic/home.html

4.   PhoTransEdit (2008) Text to Transcription http://www.photransedit.com/

5.   Underhill, Adrian (2000-2012) Interactive Phonemic Chart, Material published at OneStopEnglish http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/pronunciation/phonemic-chart-and-app/interactive-phonemic-chart/#rating_box

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