By Ana P Biazon Rocha

As a core component of this blog, we have constantly addressed the fears and challenges of many teachers towards teaching pronunciation, and tried our best to provide them with continued support via tips, ideas, discussions, reflections, resources, to name a few. Thus, in this post, let’s continue to hold each other’s hands and go on a much feared journey: phonemic symbols and the phonemic chart. To make it less frightening (hopefully!), we will revise them through five questions and answers. Off we go!

1. In the English Language Teaching (ELT) world, do we go phonetic or phonemic?

In English, letters and sounds are different things, for example, the noun draught has 7 letters but 5 sounds, /drɑːft/. This tends to be really confusing for learners, especially those whose first language has a letter-to-sound correspondence, such as Portuguese or Spanish (Kelly, 2000). That is why we normally use a set of symbols to represent the sounds of the language, based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). 

As Hancock (2022) explains, what can make novice and experienced teachers panic is the confusion between phonetic and phonemic (in this previous blog post, we discussed the difference between Phonetics and Phonology). Figure 1 illustrates the main differences using the noun pin as an example:

Figure 1: Differences between phonetic and phonemic transcription

For pedagogical purposes, we usually go phonemic because 

  • phonemic symbols usually represent a phoneme, e.g. the symbol /l/ represents the phoneme /l/ as in ‘gold’, regardless of the way it is pronounced by different people and in different accents. Conversely, the phonetic symbols [l], ‘clear L’ as in ‘light’, and [ɫ], ‘dark L’ as in ‘petal’, represent possible variations of the production of the sound, or allophones. For instance, in standard British English, the two allophones, [l] and [ɫ], are used, whereas in Irish English, ‘there is no such allophonic distinction’ (Marks & Bowen, 2012, p. 19).
  • ‘phonetic symbols may represent one specific accent, but phonemic symbols don’t’ (Hancock, 2022).
  • we are training learners to recognise and produce the sounds of English in order to improve their communicative skills, not to become phoneticians of the language!

2. ‘Phonemic script’, ‘phonemic transcription’, or both?

Both! For example, Kelly (2000) and Marks and Bowen (2012) use phonetic or phonemic ‘transcription’. On the British Council website, there is an entry to ‘phonemic script’. 

Interestingly, in the last PronSIG Book Club event (11 Nov 2023), it was pointed out that teachers often use the expression ‘phonetic transcription’, when they actually mean ‘phonemic transcription’ (see the differences in Figure 1 above). As mentioned previously, we use ‘phonemic transcription’ in the ELT classroom, because if we were to use ‘phonetic transcription’, we would need to use phonetic symbols such as IPA diacritics, something not all of us are knowledgeable about, including myself!

Finally, Kelly (2000, p. 06) suggests that ‘phonemic transcriptions gives both teachers and students a way of accurately recording the pronunciation of words and utterances’.

3. Different symbols in British English and in American English?

Yes, there are differences in academic tradition (Hancock, 2022). For instance, in the classic distinction between the vowel sound in ship and sheep, the long ee sound in sheep, would be written /iː/ in British English, and /iy/ in American English. A clear example of this is to compare British pronunciation books by Hewings (1993) and Marks and Bowen (2012) to American pronunciation books by Baker and Goldstein (2008) or Grant (2017). But remember: the different symbols represent the very same phoneme, sheep!

4. What is the phonemic chart?

The phonemic chart is a way to show and organise the different phonemes of the English language. It is divided into vowel and consonant sounds. The way the phonemic symbols are organised in the chart represents how the system of phonemes in English works, in other words, ‘a system of distinctions’ (Hancock, 2022). Therefore, the vowel sounds are usually distinguished between:

  • short, e.g., /ɪ/ in ship, and long, e.g.,  /iː/ as in sheep. 
  • monophthongs, e.g., /æ/ as in cat, and diphthongs,
    e.g., /ɔɪ/ as in boy. 

The consonant sounds are usually divided into voiceless, e.g., /f/ as in ferry, and voiced, /v/ as in very. 

In terms of teaching, Underhill (2011) claims that ‘the phonemic chart (‘pron chart’) is to pronunciation what the whiteboard is to vocabulary and grammar: it is the essential workbench on which you work things out, experiment, analyse, clarify, check, test, gain insight, understand and create’. 

Examples of the most common phonemic charts in ELT are:

5. Should I teach the phonemic symbols and the phonemic chart to my students? 

This is a heated debate in ELT: for some, it is an extremely useful way to help learners with English pronunciation, for others, it may be too abstract and overwhelming for students. 

With regards to the phonemic symbols, Goodwin (2013) argues that teachers may or may not teach the symbols depending on their learners’ age, level of proficiency and objectives. Likewise, Kelly (2000) highlights that teachers ought not to introduce all the phonemic symbols to students at once, but focus on the sounds that are difficult for learners first, and then, gradually introduce the others. He also emphasises that recognising the phonemic symbols can help learners better use the dictionary, encouraging learner independence. 

By the same token, Underhill (2011) comments that the phonemic chart should be introduced in the classroom to familiarise learners with it. Teachers can teach some sounds separately, emphasising minimal pair distinctions, for instance, or on an ad hoc basis, when

  • teaching new vocabulary.
  • it is hard for students to produce a certain sound or hear the distinction between pairs of sounds.
  • showing students that the sound they think they are producing and the target sound, or what the teacher hears, are different.

Thus, it is not advisable to spend a whole lesson teaching all the sounds of the phonemic chart (please have mercy on your learners!) Similarly, teaching the phonemic symbols and/or the phonemic chart does not necessarily mean that you are teaching pronunciation. They are crucial tools, undoubtedly, but teaching pronunciation should be more than teaching sounds in isolation or words as they are pronounced in the dictionary. How about suprasegmental or prosodic features? Do your learners need to master phonemic transcription or be able to communicate successfully in English? (check our previous post about the importance of English prosody)

A few suggestions of activities to have learners (and teachers!) practise phonemic symbols and the phonemic chart are:

  • Phonetic Guessing (board game) (Kay et al., 2009, p. 173).
  • Introduction – Pronunciation: Terminology and phonetic symbols (Rimmer, Foster & Oakley, 2016, p. 251). 
  • Introducing the phonemic chart and the phonetic symbols (Marks & Bowen, 2012, p. 40-1).

Overall, we should not let our fears impede our pronunciation teaching. Being a good pronunciation teacher does not necessarily mean knowing all phonemic symbols and the phonemic chart back to front, but knowing how to use them effectively to raise learners’ awareness of the sounds of English, and how they should pronounce them more intelligibly. Additionally, there is no harm in teaching them meticulously if this is required in your teaching context or if it meets your students’ needs. 

In case you are still feeling defeated by phonemic symbols and the phonemic chart, I highly recommend reading Hancock’s articles (2020, 2021). Power is knowledge and you should be in control of phonemic symbols and the phonemic chart in your lessons, not the other way round! 

And that is a wrap! Many thanks for supporting our blog in 2023, we really appreciate it, and please spread the word. We’ll be back in 2024 with much more, so stay tuned!

I am also glad to let you know that I will be leading the last PronSIG’s webinar this year on Saturday, 09 Dec, at 12 pm (UK time): Are we pronunciation ignorers, entertainers, enthusiasts and/or teachers? Don’t forget to register and spread the word once again. I hope to see you there!   

Last but not least, don’t forget to follow PronSIG on social media and leave your comments below.

References

Baker, A. & Goldstein, S. (2008). Pronunciation Pairs. An Introduction to the Sounds of English. Student’s Book. Cambridge University Press.

Kelly, G. (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Pearson Education Limited.

Goodwin, J. (2013). Pronunciation Teaching Methods and Techniques. In Chapelle, C. (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. P. 5144-5153.

Grant, L. (2017). Well Said. Pronunciation for Clear Communication. Fourth Edition. National Geographic Learning.

Hancock , M. (2017). PronPack Volumes 1-4. Hancock McDonald ELT.

Hancock, M. (2020). ‘IPA: symbols of power?’, Modern English Teacher, 29(3), p. 49-51. Also available at http://hancockmcdonald.com/ideas/ipa-symbols-power .

Hancock, M. (2021) The chocolate box: thoughts on the use and abuse of the phonemic chart. Cambridge World of Better Learning Blog. Available at https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2021/06/08/the-chocolate-box-thoughts-on-the-use-and-abuse-of-the-phonemic-chart/ .

Hancock, M. (2022). Developing a Positive Attitude Towards Phonemic Symbols. TEIS Newsletter. Available at http://hancockmcdonald.com/ideas/developing-positive-attitude-towards-phonemic-symbols. Accessed on 21 Nov 2022.

Hewings, M. (1993). Pronunciation Tasks. A Course for Pre-Intermediate Students. Student’s Book. Cambridge University Press.

Kay, S., Jones, V., Gomm, H., Maggs, P. & Dawson, C. (2009). New Inside Out Upper-Intermediate Teacher’s Book. Macmillan Publisher Limited.

Marks, J. & Bowen, T. (2012). The Book of Pronunciation. Proposals for a practical pedagogy. DeltaPublishing. 

Rimmer, W., Foster, T. & Oakley, J. (2016). Cambridge English Empower C1 Teacher’s Book. Cambridge University Press.

Underhill, A. (2005). Sound Foundations. Learning and Teaching Pronunciation. Macmillan Education.

Underhill, A. (2011). How to introduce the pronunciation chart to your class. Available at https://adrianunderhill.com/2011/01/31/how-to-introduce-the-pronunciation-chart-to-your-class/. Accessed on 21 Nov 2022.