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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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 Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:01 pm Post subject: Transcription is pure hell... discuss its relevance |
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I am currently taking a linguistics course for my MA.Ed/TESOL, and having to transcribe words into phonetic symbols.
It's sick and wrong that some people enjoy doing this for a living.
Oh gawd, this sucks!
I'm not sure how relevant this is, other than it can help me to identify student speech errors, and could possibly help me figure out ways to correct them.
My MA/TESOL class was easy until we reached this unit! |
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Khyron
Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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Phonetic symbols are a waste of time. In over 3 years of teaching English, I've never once used them. Students have never asked about them unless it was part of a lesson in their textbook, in which case I just told them not to worry about those silly symbols.
The only place they seem to be used is in TESOL courses and the like, which is rather pointless, and by textbook authors who want to justify having wasting so much time memorizing them. |
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hugekebab
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Khyron wrote: |
Phonetic symbols are a waste of time. In over 3 years of teaching English, I've never once used them. Students have never asked about them unless it was part of a lesson in their textbook, in which case I just told them not to worry about those silly symbols.
The only place they seem to be used is in TESOL courses and the like, which is rather pointless, and by textbook authors who want to justify having wasting so much time memorizing them. |
Phonetic symbols are the masturbation fodder of 40 something CELTA trainers who want to demonstrate to the world that they completed a DELTA course and are therefore better at teaching and more advanced than you. |
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wayfarer
Joined: 05 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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| I think the alleged justification is that IPA assists pronunciation because written English gives one no clue how a new word is pronounced, whereas IPA is consistent and students can refer to it if they have difficulty getting the pronunciation right only by listening. I've never used it but I think it could be useful for self-motivated adult students. Wouldn't want to use it all the time, though. |
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Whistleblower
Joined: 03 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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Take some time and look in any advanced learner's dictionary, phonemes are present. Introduce some phonemes to students with flashcards and words and get them to match the correct phonemes for the word. Good game that.
Use the following website to resources about phonetics, flash cards and games that can be used with an interactive whiteboard or powerpoint.
http://www.cambridgeenglishonline.com/ |
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mrsquirrel
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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Does that mean all American MA TESOL courses teach British English?
From my understanding there isn't a stanadard phonemic alphabet in the US (actually two) or has this changed? |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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talika
Joined: 30 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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| mrsquirrel wrote: |
Does that mean all American MA TESOL courses teach British English?
From my understanding there isn't a stanadard phonemic alphabet in the US (actually two) or has this changed? |
I think IPA is the standard. But countries like Britain, Canada, and America uses different phonemes for different pronunciations, for example: 'about', 'water' , etc,.
Transcribing can be "fun" in a twisted way. 
But I'll never study linguistics again. I loath SCHWA. |
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