IPA, Pt1.

International Phonetic Alphabet and Phonetic Transcriptions

When you start learning English as a Second or Foreign Language and realize words are not pronounced as they are spelled, you may go crazy😜! I never get tired of watching the following clip and play it for my students whenever I can, we definitely relate to Ricky Ricardo at some point of our teaching-learning process😂!


How many times have you mispronounced words which you considered knowing the way they were pronounced? I will never forget the first time that happened to me; I was in an EFL class with my cousin and there was a dialogue which had the word "priest". I read it as /praɪst/, my cousin looked at me and said, "It's /prɪest/." When we asked our teacher he said both of us were wrong and told us it was /pri:st/. Both of us got embarrassed (I was a teen then!) and I promised myself to study "the way words were pronounced in English". Said and done, I found out about IPA and that helped me a lot. 

Getting familiar and used to using it will help you pronounce words a little more accurately; keep in mind all of us have a different accent and that is totally fine. The main purpose of knowing how to read PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTIONS is to avoid mispronouncing words and send the wrong message. Another anecdote: I was in Costa Rica in a trip to Sarapiquí River with other tourists, a British family among them. Everyone spoke English to communicate (English is THE Lingua Franca, like or not!) Well, I won't make the story long, I said to them we had been to a wonderful resort in our previous trip and that there was an amazing tour to some waterfalls called Peace... Their faces were disgusted😵😵😵 ahahahahahaha Oh my! Another embarrassing moment and at that time I was not a teen but an ENGLISH TEACHER! I just remember them saying "That does not sound fun!" I immediately discovered what my error had been and did the peace sign with my hand✌.. I had said PISS due to my short i sound. Notice the difference PEACE /pi:s/ and PISS /pɪs/ 

Enough with anecdotes, let's get to our main point today: IPA and PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTIONS. This session will be divided in 3 different posts, today we will go over Pt 1. only.

First, let's study the parts of a phonetic transcription:

Second, learn each sound within the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet):
Phonemic chart
Image source: https://blog.lingoda.com/en/how-the-phonetic-alphabet-can-help-you
 
It is hard if you try just reading it; therefore, I suggest you to watch the following videos:

1. Start with consonants which are easier than vowels or diphthongs

2. Continue learning vowel sounds

3. Finally, go over diphthongs
Learning tip:
Check carefully her mouth positions and try to IMITATE every single movement and sound.

IPA international phonetic alphabet explained. Good graphic ...

Get familiar with each phonetic symbol and its sound to get ready for IPA, Pt. 2👌




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