Phonemics key to studying English says linguist(24981)-英语教育-(43)-21英语网

　　音素是表示发音的最小的语音单位，在英语语音教学中占据举足轻重的地位。使学生了解英语中的音素能帮助其尽快掌握正确的英语发音方法，并有利于学生形成自主学习的良好习惯。

　　PHONEMIC symbols represent the sounds of the English language. Alan Stanton, a teacher trainer and materials writer in the UK, believes that using phonemic symbols can be a valuable tool to improving students' pronunciation.

　　The letters of the alphabet can be a poor guide to pronunciation. Phonemic symbols, in contrast, are a totally reliable guide. Each symbol represents one sound consistently.

　　Students can become independent learners when they know phonemic symbols. They can find out the pronunciation of a word by themselves without asking the teacher. Phonemic symbols, arranged in a chart, are part of every student's armoury of learning resources. Just as they have a dictionary for vocabulary and a grammar book for grammar, so they need reference materials for pronunciation: the phonemic symbols and simple, key words that show the sound of each symbol.

　　Although speaking a language is a performance skill, knowledge of how the language works is still of great value. Phonemic symbols on the wall in a classroom remind students that there are 44 sounds in (British) English. Even if they have not mastered all of them, they know what the target is and where the problems are. The chart is a map of English sounds.

　　Some ESL teachers may ask: Do I need to have a perfect English accent in order to use phonemic symbols? Not at all. It is true that the 44 phonemes in (British) English are based on the sounds of "Received Pronunciation", an accent known as the Queen's English, which is not frequently heard nowadays. Most native-speaker teachers do not have this accent but still use phonemic symbols. When the symbols are arranged in a chart, each one occupies a box. The real sound that teachers actually hear can vary up to certain limits, depending on the influence of other sounds and on individual ways of speaking. There is not one perfect way to say each sound there is an acceptable range of pronunciations. The point is that words such as "ship" "sheep" "sip" and "seep" should sound different from each other. Learning phonemic symbols will help students to understand the importance of length and voicing.

　　

　　

　　