Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

Focusing questions
phonetic alphabet: a way of transcribing the sounds of speech through a care-
fully designed set of symbols, as in the IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet)
phonology and phonetics: phonology is the branch of linguistics that deals
with the sound systems of language, including phonemes and intonation;
phonetics is the branch that deals with the sheer sounds themselves
Keywords

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Acquiring and teaching pronunciation
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Any language, however, only makes use of a small selection of these sounds for
its sound system, its phonology. So the version of IPA that is normally encoun-
tered in teaching is that used for transcribing a particular language, for instance
the sounds of English, included somewhere in most coursebooks. A transcript that
records sheer phonetic sounds is independent of language and so uses the full IPA
chart; usually this is put in square brackets, for example [
tin]. A transcript of the
significant sounds in the phonological systems of a particular language is usually
given in slant brackets, say, English /
tin/.
Box 4.1 instant accent test for English consonants
Carry out the following test. (Note: it only covers the consonants of English as
the vowels would be more complicated to test and have far more variations
from one native speaker to another.) A version of this test that can be printed
out is available on the website. 
Find a non-native speaker of English and get them to read the following
words aloud rapidly. Point to words at random rather than in sequence. Score
each selected consonant as; (1) native-like accent; (2) comprehensible but not
fully native; (3) non-native pronunciation. Note any peculiarities on the right.
Do not pay attention to vowels.