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Running head: LEARNING IPA THROUGH WEB PAGES 1
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages
Andrés Felipe Galindo Cardona
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
Bogotá, Colombia
School of Science and Education
B.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language
2016
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 2
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages
Andrés Felipe Galindo Cardona
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
Code: 20081165054
Bogotá, Colombia
A thesis submitted as a requirement to obtain the degree of B.A. in Teaching English as a
Foreign Language
School of Science and Education
B.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language
2016
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 3
Note of acceptance:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Advisor:
_________________________________
Jurors:
__________________________________
__________________________________
“La universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable por las ideas expuestas
en este trabajo”
(Acuerdo 19 de 1988, artículo 177)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 4
Abstract
This paper presents a mixed model research conducted with English students in first and
second semester from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas located in Bogotá. The
goal was to understand the role of technology in the process of learning English phonology
and the meaning that students give to phonetic symbols. The selected participants were three
groups, two of them were composed of second semester students who finished a subject
called “phonetics and phonology” and another group composed of first semester students who
still have not studied this subject. The chosen instruments were surveys, worksheets
(artifacts), students‟ journals and voice recordings. The data analysis showed preferences for
some resources in particular, students‟ positive views about phonetic instruction, similar
pronunciation mistakes and students‟ perceptions about the articulation of phonemes using
their vocal tract.
Keywords: Phonetics, phonology, pronunciation, web pages, phonetic symbols, technology.
Resumen
Este artículo presenta una investigación de modelo mezclado conducido con estudiantes de
inglés de primer y segundo semestre de la Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
localizada en Bogotá. La meta era entender el papel de la tecnología en el proceso de
aprendizaje de la fonología inglesa y el significado que los estudiantes le dan a los símbolos
fonéticos. Los participantes seleccionados fueron tres grupos, dos de ellos estaban
compuestos de estudiantes de segundo semestre que finalizaron una materia llamada “fonética
y fonología” y otro grupo compuesto de estudiantes de primer semestre que aún no han visto
esta materia. Los instrumentos escogidos fueron encuestas, hojas de trabajo (artefactos),
diarios de estudiantes y grabaciones de voz. El análisis de datos mostró preferencias por
algunos recursos en particular, visiones positivas de los estudiantes sobre las instrucción
fonética, errores de pronunciación similares y las perceptiones de los estudiantes sobre la
articulación de fonemas usando su tracto vocal.
Palabras clave: Fonética, fonología, pronunciación, páginas web, símbolos fonéticos,
tecnología.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my advisor Fabio Bonilla for supporting me and giving me his
knowledge throughout this process. I also want to thank all my professors in my career,
especially Alvaro Quintero, Paola Murillo, Eliana Garzón, Jairo Gutierrez, Adriana Cuevas,
Sofia Castañeda, Silvio Puertas, Angélica Saenz, Maura Díaz, Emilena Hernández, Aurora
Cardona, Janeth Velázquez and Rigoberto Castillo; they all shared all their valuable
knowledge with great patience and professionalism. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to
my family who has always supported me unconditionally: my dad, uncles Cristian, Patricia,
Jenny and my grandmothers Angéla and Ana Silvia. I wouldn‟t be here, if it wasn‟t for you. I
can‟t say any more than just thank you so much.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 5
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 …………………………………………………………………………7
Introduction……………………………………………………………………….7
Statement of the problem…………………………………………………………...8
Research questions and sub-questions……………………………………………..10
Justification……………………………………………………………………….10
Chapter 2
Literature review
Phonetic, phonology, transcriptions and pronunciation……………………………12
Research about teaching pronunciation and evolution of materials………………..16
Beliefs and views about teaching and learning pronunciation……………………..22
Chapter 3
Research design……………………………………………………………………25
Research questions and objectives………………………………………………….25
Type of study……………………………………………………………………….26
Setting and participants…………………………………………………………….28
Data collection techniques and instruments………………………………………..29
Role of the researcher………………………………………………………………30
Validity, reliability………………………………………………………………….31
Ethics and consent form……………………………………………………………32
Chapter 4
Instructional Design
Visions of language………………………………………………………………..33
Visions of learning…………………………………………………………………34
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 6
Visions of curriculum………………………………………………………………34
Methodology……………………………………………………………………….35
Role of the materials………………………………………………………………..36
Curriculum platform………………………………………………………………..37
Evaluation criteria…………………………………………………………………..41
Chapter 5
Data Analysis and Findings
Results survey………………………………………………………………………44
Results worksheet classification of sounds…………………………………………49
Pronouncing and transcribing phonetic symbols……………………………………53
Resources most used by students…………………………………………………...58
Definitions and perceptions about the International Phonetic Alphabet……………60
Previous experiences with IPA in secondary school………………………………..62
Students‟ journal……………………………………………………………………63
Chapter 6
Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………67
Limitations and further research…………………………………………………….68
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..69
Annexes…………………………………………………………………………….72
Annex A (consent form)…………………………………………………………….72
Annex B…………………………………………………………………………….73
Annex C…………………………………………………………………………….74
Annex D…………………………………………………………………………….75
Annex E…………………………………………………………………………….76
Annex F……………………………………………………………………………..77
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 7
Chapter 1
Introduction
In the last years many internet web pages have been created, used and adapted for
pedagogical purposes; for instance there are virtual dictionaries, translators, forums, blogs,
video platforms and thousands of mobile phone applications which now can be used for
language teaching and learning. Virtual dictionaries are those accessible via the internet
through a web browser and finding words faster than printed dictionaries is one of their
advantages. Some virtual dictionaries play audios with the pronunciation of words, sentences
and usually include a phonetic transcription.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is the most common system of phonetic
notation and is not new in the field of English language teaching; it can be found in materials
for teaching pronunciation, course books, printed dictionaries and virtual dictionaries.
Phonetic transcriptions have been widely used in language teaching, however not all English
language learners understand these systems well or not even know their existence, especially
most students from public schools .
The objective of this work is to understand the role that technology plays in the process of
learning the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The participants I chose were three
groups from first and second semester in the career of “Licenciatura en Educación Básica con
Énfasis en Inglés” at “Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas” Bogotá, Colombia.
These students must take a subject called “Phonetics and Phonology” which objective is to
teach many concepts inherent in phonetics, phonology, pronunciation, articulation, etc.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 8
Many authors argue that the difficulty of learning how to pronounce a foreign language is
cognitive rather than physical (Gilakjiani & Ahmadi, 2011; Kissling, 2015) although this
represents a greater challenge for students, many of them try to use different learning
strategies; for example searching web pages on the internet, installing applications on their
mobile phones, or checking a printed dictionary. The use of online dictionaries has been
increasing due to the technological advances and easier access to internet in many parts of the
world as well as the inclusion of wireless internet in educational institutions. That is why the
focus of this study was the technological tools used by learners specifically those that include
the system of phonetic notation IPA; nevertheless printed materials received attention too.
This chapter explains how the research problem emerged and why this study is important.
Chapter two will define the main constructs, review the state of the art about pronunciation
teaching during the last decades and describe some innovations made in this field. Chapter
three will explain why mixed research was the chosen paradigm for this research and a
detailed description about the population who participated in this study. Chapter four will
explain the details of the pedagogical intervention and the characteristics of the web pages
used. Finally chapter five will explain the methods used to manage and analyze data.
Problem Statement
Despite the International Phonetic Alphabet is widely known in EFL/ESL classrooms and
it is included in language learning materials as well as dictionaries, not all English learners,
especially those from public secondary school understand the use or nature of phonetic
transcriptions; the collected data shows evidence of this fact. Besides, understanding phonetic
transcriptions requires some knowledge about the sciences of phonetics and phonology
(Odden, 2005).
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 9
The “Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés” (LEBEI) program at
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas added the subject “phonetics and phonology”
inside its new curriculum after the implementation of the credit system but it used to be an
elective subject before year 2011. When this subject was elective instead of a subject in the
curriculum, there were less hours of class. It means that some students may not have studied
this subject before this period and previous generations were not benefited as the new ones. In
addition, technological advances were not the same in that time
However, the IPA was also due to be taught in the subject “English language forms”
which in my personal experience, it only focused on teaching the IPA ignoring other
important concepts about phonetics and phonology. I think that teaching pronunciation should
not be limited to only learning the International Phonetic Alphabet, mainly because it is not
the only system of phonetic transcription and because success in pronunciation does not rely
only on segmental aspects but also on supra-segmental aspects (Gilakijani & Ahmadi, 2011,
Lightbown & Spada, 2006).
Phonetics and phonology play an important role in understanding how sounds are
produced in a foreign language, however the teaching of pronunciation in some EFL/ESL
classrooms has been neglected and tended to be “sidelined” due to the changing views and
beliefs about its importance and how should be taught (Lightbown & Spada, 2006; Gilakjani
& Ahmadi, 2011; Tudor, 2001). Internet has many web pages with online dictionaries which
have the advantages of being fast, include phonetic transcriptions and reproduce sound.
However their usage is still limited or even absent in some EFL contexts. Both teachers and
learners bring to the classroom a complex web of attitudes, experiences, expectations, beliefs
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 10
and learning strategies. As a result, attitudes towards learning, and the perceptions and beliefs
that determine them may have a profound influence on learning behavior and on learning
outcomes (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2011). That is why I formulate the following questions:
Research Question
What is the role of segmental aspects of pronunciation when students learn English?
Sub-questions
What is the importance of technology when students learn phonetic symbols?
What are students‟ favorite resources to improve their English pronunciation?
How do learners improve their knowledge about the International Phonetic
Alphabet?
Justification
This study is important because it contributes to the field of teaching English mediated by
technology (Didáctica del inglés por medio de la tecnología). Language teacher colleagues
could use the results of this study to reflect upon the role of pronunciation in their lessons,
have into account the importance of technology in language instruction and improve their
knowledge about phonology, phonetics and phonetic transcriptions.
Learners will be benefited from this study because they can share their favorite resources
among partners and discover other tools which are unknown for them. This pedagogical
implementation was also a review of what they studied during the career and subjects. Rajab
(2013) found positive effects on learners‟ pronunciation when they understood phonetic
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 11
transcriptions, they also started to use the dictionaries in an autonomous way; I expected the
same from these groups of learners after my implementation.
The research community will be benefited from this study because it gives ideas about the
inclusion of technology in the foreign language classroom. Researchers can explore the same
tools used in this study but they can focus on other aspects of language learning. The
integration of technological tools within printed materials will enable language teacher to
understand their benefits and advantages. The research community can review some beliefs,
views and misconceptions about how to teach pronunciation. Finally, I will be the most
benefited person from this study because I will answer my research questions, learn more
about this topic and deepen in it.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 12
Chapter 2
Literature review
This chapter presents the main constructs for this study and it is organized according to the
following topics: First, a definition of the main constructs for this study; second a review
about how materials to teach pronunciation evolved from printed books into technological
devices and some research studies which looked into the effect of phonetic instruction. The
last part will review some beliefs and views that experts, teachers and students have about
teaching and learning pronunciation.
Phonetics, phonology, transcriptions and pronunciation
McCarthy (1978) defines phonetics as the subject dealing with the phenomena of spoken
language and phonology as the organization and arrangement of the sounds of a spoken
language considered as a system or set of systems. He also considers that both speaking and
pronouncing relate both to the same activity but pronouncing concentrates on how the
speaking is done. Pronunciation is viewed as a sub-skill of speaking. Both phonetics and
phonology involve representation of sound (Odden, 2005). The goal of phonology is to
represent the linguistic important details of an utterance using symbols whose interpretation is
predefined. Katamba (1989) defines phonetics as the inventory of all speech sounds which
humans are capable of producing. With “speech sounds” he means a subset of sounds that
humans can produce with their vocal apparatus but are employed in speech. Couch, hiccup
and snore are not examples of “speech sounds” because there is not any community that uses
those sounds to form words. The domain of phonetics are the details about the physics of
language sounds and those details can be represented in the form of acoustic waveforms (e.g.
frequency, amplitude) (Odden, 2005).
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 13
The tool behind the conversion of the continuous stream of speech sound into units is the
phonetic transcription. A phonetic symbol is a letter of a letter shape used to stand for a sound
or sound feature of a language (McCarthy, 1978). The most common system of phonetic
transcription is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) created by the International
Phonetic Association. This system aims at representing all sounds in all languages using
symbols of the Latin alphabet plus some diacritics. This system can be represented in broad
transcriptions and narrow transcriptions. Narrow transcriptions are written between square
brackets [ ] and are used to include details of the pronunciation that may not be used for
distinguishing words in the language being transcribed, but which the author nonetheless
wishes to document. Slashes / / are used for phonemic notations, which note only features that
are distinctive in the language, without any extraneous detail (Odden, 2005). For example
English “r” is different from French or Spanish “r” but in a broad transcription, it is not
necessary to tell the apart.
As mentioned above, understanding phonetic transcriptions also requires understanding
how vocal tract determines the acoustic output. The production of consonants involves four
parameters (Katamba, 1989):
1. The airstream mechanism: This refers to the way in which the moving body of air that
provides the power for speech production is generated and the direction in which it
moves.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 14
(Katamba,1989. pg. 4. Introduction to phonetics)
2. The state of the glottis: Voiceless sounds are produced when there is a wide open
glottis, with a big space between the vocal cords; voiced sounds are produced when
the vocal cords are close together so that the air has to force its way through them,
making them vibrate in the process.
3. The place of articulation: This refers to the place in the vocal tract where the airstream
is obstructed in the production of a consonant.
Place Articulators Examples
Bilabial Both lips [p] peat [b] beat [m] meat
Labio-Dental Lower lip and upper front teeth [f] fine [v] vine
Dental Tongue tip and upper front teeth [θ] Thigh [ð] thy
Alveolar Tongue tip or blade and the
alveolar ridge
[t] tip [d] dip
[s]sip [z] zip
[l] lip [r] rip [n] nip
Palato-Alveolar Blade of the tongue rising
towards the alveolar ridge and
the front of the hard palate
[ ʃ ] sheep [ʒ] genre
[ tʃ ] cheap [dʒ] jeep
Palatal Front of the tongue and the hard
palate
[j] yes
Velar Back of the tongue and the
velum
[k] cot [g] got
[ŋ] song
Labio-velar Simultaneously using both lips
and raising the back of the
tongue towards the velum
[w] win
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 15
Glottal Vocal cords [h] hot
4. The manner of articulation: This refers to the way in which the airstream is interfered
with in producing a consonant. Below there is a brief survey of manners of
articulation:
Stop: The articulators come together and completely cut off the flow of air
momentarily, then the separate abruptly. [p – b - t – d - k - g]
Affricate: In the production of an affricate, first the articulators come together and
completely cut off the flow of air, just as they do in a stop; then they separate
gradually. E.g. chain, Jane.
Fricative: The articulators are brought very close together leaving only a very narrow
channel through which the air squeezes on its way out, producing turbulence in the
process. E.g. [f – v - s – z - ʃ - ʒ - θ - ð].
Approximant: The articulators are brought near each other but a large enough gap is
left between them for air to escape without causing turbulence. E.g. [r - l - w - j].
Nasal: Nasal sounds are produced with air escaping through the nose; the velum is
lowered to allow access to the nasal tract. E.g. [n – m – ŋ].
Lateral: To produce a lateral, the air is obstructed by the tongue at a point along the
center of the mouth but the sides of the tongue are left low so that air is allowed to
escape over one or both sides of the tongue. E.g. [ l ].
The previous four parameters described the way in which we produce English consonants,
but the production of vowels is more difficult to describe accurately than consonants. This is
largely because there is no noticeable obstruction in the vocal tract during their production
(Katamba, 1989). It is not easy to feel exactly where vowels are made. Vowels are typically
voiced, but they have no place or manner of articulation. Many languages also have
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 16
diphthongs, vowels whose quality changes during their production. E.g. [aʊ], [eɪ], [ɔɪ]. The
phonetic properties of vowels are conventionally represented in this diagram:
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio
Thus, the goal of phonology is not to provide accurate symbolic representations of speech,
rather the goal is to understand the linguistic rules which operate on sounds mentally
represented as symbols, and the transcription is our means of representing the data which we
discuss. A transcription is essentially a measurement of a physical phenomenon, and like all
measurements can be made with greater or less precision (Odden, 2005).
Research about teaching pronunciation and evolution of materials
The International Phonetic Alphabet was devised by the International Phonetic Association
as a standardized representation of the sounds of oral language. This system is based
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 17
primarily on the Latin alphabet. Its goal is to represent human speech with a system of
symbols. Many resources and materials have been designed specifically to teach the (IPA).
For example Dale & Poms (1985) have two books directed to Spanish speakers for learning
English pronunciation, one focuses on vowels and the other in consonants. Dale & Poms
(1985) argue that most of the available American English pronunciation texts are not directed
to the particular problems of Spanish speakers and are too technical and confusing for self-
teaching. They also say that having a foreign accent may hinder effective communication and
as a result be misunderstood. “Ship & sheep” by Ann Baker (2006) is another example. These
kinds of materials are characterized for having pictures showing the position of mouth,
tongue, jaw, lips and usually include a CD ROM with audios. Printed materials focused on
several aspects of pronunciation, such as the facial movement, management of breath, activity
at the larynx and tongue activity.
The challenge of getting a more accurate pronunciation in a foreign language motivated
linguists like Vila & Pearson (1990) to develop a computer program called BABEL which
was an expert system able to animate (graphically) and reproduce (acoustically) a text in any
language which uses the Latin alphabet. This system was developed to aid language learners
and to help instructors leach the fine nuances of phonemes. Each phoneme had a unique
sound and thus required a precise positioning of the vocal organs which were displayed on the
screen in two different projections: a front view and profile cross view of a human face in
synchronization with the output sounds of the speech synthesizer. Teacher could use BABEL
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 18
as an audio-visual aid and students could use it as a tutorial system to help them learn correct
positioning of speech organs. Vila & Pearson (1990) concluded that learners benefited from
realizing what was going on inside of their mouth. The fact that the students can see what they
hear originated in them awareness of the speech process.
A more recent study involving technology was made by Al-Qudah (2012) who
investigated the effect of using computer-assisted programs for teaching English
pronunciation on students' performance in English Language pronunciation in Jordanian
universities. The experimental group was trained on English pronunciation using computer-
assisted program while the control group was trained using printed materials. His rationale
was that computer assisted materials offered minimal pairs, sound animations, tongue
twisters, step-by-step phonetic descriptions, songs and video animations, specific to
segmental (consonant and vowel phonemes of English) and supra-segmental (pitch, loudness,
tempo, and rhythm) aspects of pronunciation. His findings indicated that there were
statistically significant differences in the post-test between the control and the experimental
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 19
groups in favor of the experimental group. Although replacing printed materials for
technological material could have had a positive effect on learners‟ pronunciation, I consider
that positivistic research makes many assumptions since in this study it is unclear if students
improved their pronunciation due to the materials or because of their motivation.
Not only has research been focused on the role of materials but also on phonemic
awareness which is defined as the ability to detect and manipulate the component sounds that
comprise words, at the different psycholinguistic grain sizes of syllable, onset-rime and
phoneme (Goouch & Lambirth, 2008). Koda (1998) carried out a research in which he
explored the effects of disparate L1 alphabetic experience on L2 phonemic awareness and
decoding among ESL readers with alphabetic and non-alphabetic L1 orthographic
backgrounds. He hypothesized that amount of L1 alphabetic experience is causally related to
the development of L2 phonemic awareness and decoding skills. His specific objectives were
threefold: to compare varying aspects of phonemic awareness among Chinese and Korean
ESL learners; to explore the relationship between L2 phonemic awareness and decoding
skills; and to examine the extent to which L2 text comprehension is facilitated by phonemic
awareness and decoding skills. His data demonstrated that the two groups differed neither in
their phonemic awareness nor in decoding; Koda (1998) finally concludes that little difference
exists between the groups either in their perceptual ability to distinguish English phonemes or
skills to conduct phonemic analysis and manipulation providing no empirical support for the
hypotheses that L1 alphabetic experience is directly related to L2 phonemic awareness among
ESL readers.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 20
Finally, the following studies look into the effect of phonetic instruction. Rajab (2013)
investigated the development of speaking and writing skills of L1 Arabic EFL learners based
on their level of perception and understanding of phonetic transcriptions through visualization
of letter-to-symbol representations using the IPA. His participants were 169 University-level
Preparatory Year (PYP) male Saudi EFL students. Students were introduced to the IPA
phonetic codes in gradual increase of difficulty and were encouraged to use the monolingual
dictionary. Two tests and one oral test were conducted and results were analyzed and
interpreted. The results indicated that students reached a high level of understanding of letter-
to-symbol representations and oral test results proved that phonological awareness could help
Saudi students improve their writing and speaking skills (Rajab, 2013). Ho also found that
these learners also developed autonomy using printed dictionaries. Learners benefited from
understanding IPA when they extracted precise information about pronunciation in
monolingual dictionaries that contained IPA.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 21
A similar study was conducted by students from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de
Caldas. Carvajal, Cuellar & Silva (2013) explored the role of phonics based instruction in
students‟ phonological awareness with third graders using printed materials. They used the
Phonics Based Instruction (PBI) as their methodology and concluded that the development of
phonological awareness allowed their students to be conscious of the differences among
sounds in both languages (Spanish and English) in spoken words and understand that words
are made of individual sounds which let them manipulate English sounds with the main
purpose of instill in them pronunciation abilities enhancing their oral production.
Nowadays, language teachers probably would not use BABEL for phonetic instruction
because BABEL is not as known books like “ship and sheep” or “English pronunciation for
Spanish speakers” which are more popular. Another reason is that now we can find internet
pages with the same or even more characteristics that BABEL had or search videos with
people pronouncing the different phonemes. Whatever materials we use, the previous studies
show evidence that there has been an increasing interest in phonetic instruction.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 22
Beliefs and views about teaching pronunciation
The previous studies suggest that phonetic instruction can help second language learners to
moderately improve their pronunciation and other skills, but less is known about how
instruction affects learners‟ perception even though there is evidence that perception and
production are related (Kissling, 2015). Second language learners are often concerned about
the “foreign” quality of their accent, and many express a desire to sound more like a native
speaker. Their concerns are not unfounded, because some listeners do indeed judge “foreign
accents” negatively even when those accents are perfectly intelligible (Derwing, 2013 cited in
Kissling, 2015). There is no simple answer to why pronunciation is so difficult to learn but
what is generally accepted among psycholinguists and phonologists, is that the difficulty of
learning to pronounce a foreign language is cognitive rather than physical (Gilajkiani &
Ahmadi, 2011).
Evidence for the critical period hypothesis suggested that native-language pronunciation
was an unrealistic goal for second language learners, particularly older learners; this does not
only affect pronunciation but also other language systems (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). The
difference and distance among L1 and L2 also increases the difficulty of pronunciation, for
example Spanish Speakers can get fluency and better pronunciation in romance languages like
Portuguese, Catalan or Italian but encounter more difficulties in Russian, Japanese, Chinese,
Arabic and other languages which are very different from Spanish.
As Gilakjani & Ahmadi (2011) describe, intelligibility rather than the native-like
competence valued in traditional approaches became the goal of phonological instruction.
Intelligible pronunciation can be achieved through combination of instruction, exposure,
experience and motivation (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). Hence, phonetic transcriptions can
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 23
play an important role in teaching pronunciation, even though some authors claim that
pronunciation teaching has been a neglected field in language teaching and has tended to be
“sidelined” (Tudor, 2001; Lightbown & Spada, 2006; Kissling; 2015; Gilakjiani & Ahmadi,
2011).
Pronunciation was a central component in language teaching during the audio-lingual era.
When communicative language teaching was first introduced in the late l970s, little attention
was given to the teaching of pronunciation. When attention to pronunciation was given, the
focus was on supra-segmentals (rhythm, stress, intonation) areas considered more likely to
affect communication rather than segmentals (distinction between single sounds e.g. /i:/ and
/I/) (Lightbown & Spada, 2006); learners who were instructed in supra-segmental aspects
were judged to sound more intelligible than those who were instructed in segmentals
(Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011). Teaching speech from the perspective of supra-segmentals
seems indispensable within the communicative approach to teaching ESL.
One of the first authors who inquired about learners‟ beliefs regarding pronunciation was
Horwitz, (1987). He created the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) which
was a Likert-scale survey and its objective to assess student opinions on a variety of issues
and controversies related to language learning; learners had to indicate their degree of
agreement or disagreement. The 34 Likert-scale items have both research and training
purposes (Wenden & Rubin, 1987). Beliefs about pronunciation were elicited in statements of
“It is important to speak the language with an excellent accent” and “I should not say
anything in the foreign language until I can say it correctly”. Horwitz‟s results indicated that
90% of the students agreed that “it is important to speak English with an excellent
pronunciation”, and 44% stated that they felt “timid” when speaking English with other
people. This group of students therefore felt positively about speaking English, but their
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 24
shyness and over-concern with accent will probably inhibit their communication attempts
(Wenden & Rubin, 1987).
Bernat & Gvozdenko (2005) classify the approach used by Horwitz as the normative
approach. They state that Horwitz‟s questionnaire has been used in many studies due to its
popularity and its results indicated that learners‟ beliefs about language learning are context-
specific. Vibulphol (2004) reported studies about how learners who are concerned about
correctness in their performance in pronunciation and language learning in general may
present experiences of anxiety. Reported beliefs about correct pronunciation and immediate
correction by pre-service teachers showed concerns about the correctness of pronunciation
and sentence structures when conducting conversational activities (Vibuphol, 2004). Most of
them always monitored their students‟ language production and gave immediate correction.
This evidence confirms their reported beliefs about speaking practice that attends to form.
In brief, some researchers attempted to claim that some beliefs about learning and
communication strategies may undermine learners‟ success in second or foreign language
learning by misleading the learners‟ expectations on their own language learning, inhibiting
their attempts, raising their anxiety, limiting their perceptions about new approaches to
language learning, and reducing their use of the target language. However, little empirical
evidence has been provided to support these claims (Vibuphol, 2004).
Concluding, the teaching of pronunciation has also been influenced by the views and
beliefs about why and how pronunciation should be taught in the EFL/ESL. Despite the
advantages that printed materials might offer, they are still limited in some ways. The
technological advances in the sciences of phonetics and phonology opened a new path of
options for teaching pronunciation. The previous research studies show evidence of the
benefits of technology not only in phonetic instruction but language teaching in general.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 25
Chapter 3
Research Design
This chapter presents my research questions, research objectives, type of study, description
of the context and participants, role of the researcher, techniques and instruments for data
collection and type of data. I will also explain the criteria to select the participants, some
ethical considerations as well as the validity and reliability of data.
Research question
What is the role of segmental aspects of pronunciation when students learn English?
Sub Questions
What is the importance of technology in the process of learning pronunciation?
What are students‟ favorite resources to learn pronunciation?
How do learners improve their knowledge about the International Phonetic Alphabet?
Research Objectives
To identify, describe and explain the learning strategies that students use to understand
English phonetic symbols.
Specific Objectives
To Identify students‟ current knowledge about the IPA
To understand the nature of mistakes students make when they pronounce English.
To describe and explain the interpretations that students give to phonetic symbols.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 26
Type of study
This study follows a mixed research paradigm because combining quantitative and
qualitative paradigms offers complementary strengths and its potential gives a broader scope
to analyze from different angles the impact of a pedagogical implementation (Johnson &
Christensen, 2004; Flick, 2004). Each paradigm has its own advantages, for example typical
objectives of qualitative research are exploration and description; typical objectives of
quantitative research are explanation, prediction and description. The combination of these
paradigms also offers different types of data, numerical and standardized data can be
complemented by words and narratives.
The approach chosen is Mixed Method Research which consists of using the qualitative
paradigm for one phase of a study and the quantitative paradigm for a different phase of the
study (Johnson & Christensen, 2004). The following chart describes the main features of each
paradigm:
Quantitative research Mixed research Qualitative research
Scientific
method
Deductive or “top-down”
The researcher test
hypotheses and theory
with data
Deductive and
inductive
Inductive or “bottom-
up” The researcher
generates new
hypotheses and
grounded theory from
collected data during
fieldwork.
View of
human
behavior
Behavior is regular and
predictable
Behavior is
somewhat
predictable
Behavior is fluid,
dynamic, situational,
social, contextual, and
personal
Most common
research
objectives
Description, explanation,
and prediction
Multiple objectives Description,
exploration, and
discovery
Focus Narrow-angle lens,
testing specific
hypotheses
Multilens focus Wide, angle and “deep-
angle” lens, examining
the breadth and depth of
phenomena to learn
more about them
Nature of
observation
Attempt to study
behavior under
controlled conditions
Study behavior in
more than one
context or condition
Study behavior in
natural environment.
Study the context in
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 27
which behavior occurs
Nature of
reality
Objective (different
observers agree on what
is observed)
Commonsense
realism and
pragmatic view of
the world (what
works is what is
“real” or true)
Subjective, personal,
and socially constructed
Form of data
collected
Collect quantitative data
based on precise
measurement using
structured and validated
data collection
instruments (e.g. closed-
ended items, rating
scales, behavioral
responses)
Multiple forms Collect qualitative data
(e.g. in-depth
interviews, participant
observation, field notes,
and open-ended
questions. The
researcher is the
primary data collection
instrument
Nature of data Variables Mixture of variables,
words, and images
Words, images,
categories
Data analysis Identify statistical
relationships
Quantitative and
qualitative
Search for patterns,
themes and holistic
features
Results Generalizable findings Corroborated
findings may
generalize
Particularistic findings.
Representation of
insider (emic viewpoint)
present multiple
perspectives
Form of final
report
Statistical report (e.g.
with correlations,
comparisons of means,
and reporting of
statistical significance of
findings
Eclectic and
pragmatic
Narrative report with
contextual description
and direct quotations
from research
participants
Johnson & Christensen (2004) Educational research third edition.
Having into account the previous definition, the data in this study will be analyzed in this
way:
Students‟ exercises (artifacts): Quantitative
Students‟ recordings: Quantitative
Survey: Quantitative and qualitative
Students‟ journal: Qualitative
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 28
Setting and participants
The participants were 3 groups of students from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de
Caldas located in Bogotá, Colombia; these students are enrolled in a bachelor degree for
teaching English as a foreign language (Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en
Inglés - LEBEI). Their average ages are 16 to 24 years old. They have class with their regular
professors; hence my role as a researcher was as student practitioner. Three professors gave
me their permission to do a fast pedagogical intervention. One group is composed of first
semester students who take around 10 hours per week of instruction in English language. This
group has not been introduced to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet yet because they
are supposed to study this topic in second semester in which they will take the subject
“Phonetics and phonology”. In other words they are taking regular English lessons.
The other two groups are composed of second semester students who were taking the
subject “phonetics and phonology”; at the moment of this pedagogical intervention, they were
almost finishing this course and both professors were also teaching the International Phonetic
Alphabet with similar exercises and materials used like in pedagogical intervention. The
purpose of selecting students from different groups was to compare the results among the
different groups, and have a significant sample. Therefore, the groups were named in the
following way:
Group A: Second semester (Phonetics and phonology)
First group -17 participants
Group B: Second semester (Phonetics and phonology)
Second group – 19 participants
Group C: First semester (Basic English I). – 17 participants
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 29
Data collection instruments and techniques
Survey: This survey (annex C) is composed by two elements: the first part is a YES/NO
questionnaire whose objective is to save time and will be counted in quantitative way. The
second part is open and let me obtain a free and personal response form the participants; this
part will be analyzed qualitatively. This survey is categorized as a non-observational
technique (Burns, 2009); this type of data has to do with what people think, perceive, believe
and how they explain their personal histories, experiences, and actions. Non-observational
techniques or “introspective” data involves respondents reporting on themselves, their views,
their beliefs and so on.
Exercises (Students’ artifacts): There are two exercises; one consists of transcribing two
lists of words (annexes D and E) into IPA using any available resource (printed dictionary,
internet, or mobile phone application). The other exercise consists of classifying a group of
consonant phonetic symbols into the listed categories (annex F). This data will be analyzed
quantitatively.
Recordings: I will record the students‟ voices to check the level of understanding between
what they transcribe and what they pronounce. This will be analyzed in a quantitative way
using some conventions that will be explained in more detail in the chapter “Data Analysis”.
Audio or video recordings provide objective records of what occurred which can be re-
examined (Freeman, 1998).
Students’ journal: The last instrument will be students‟ journal (annex B), which will elicit
information about how students perceive their own learning. Freeman (1998) define journals
as dated accounts of teaching/learning plans, activities and classroom occurrences, including
personal philosophies, feelings, reactions, reflections, observations, explanations.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 30
Freeman (1998) differentiates between first and second order data collection
techniques. Second order techniques takes data from students to explore mainly their
thoughts, for that reason I decided to use second order questions in the second part of the
survey and the journal. This is also called emic perspective and refers to what insiders know.
Flick (2004) describes four ways of integrating quantitative and qualitative data collection
methods. This study will follow the fourth way which coincides with Mixed Method Research
Approach (Johnson & Christensen, 2004). It means that the first survey applied will be
complemented by the results found in the quantitative experiment and the students‟ journal.
Role of the researcher
In this pedagogical intervention, I was a student practitioner because the participants were
students in a Bachelor Degree for teaching English at Distrital University. They had their
regular professors teaching the assigned subjects. My tutoring professor suggested me to
apply this pedagogical intervention in my own university instead of a secondary school. These
students already come to the classroom with previous knowledge, ideas and beliefs about the
topics studied. That is why I was more testing students‟ knowledge based on what they
already knew and learnt in their lessons with a researchable purpose.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 31
Validity and reliability
Merriam (1998) discusses some strategies to ensure internal validity, external validity and
reliability. The first aspect deals with the question of how findings match reality, how
congruent are the findings with reality ad if findings capture what is really there. This can be
addressed through triangulation. Triangulation is the process of using multiple methods, data
collection strategies, and data sources to obtain a more complete picture of what is being
studied and to cross-check information (Gay, Mills, Airasian, 2009). I will use data
triangulation using four different instruments to collect data: a survey, students‟ artifacts,
recordings and a journal. This is one of the reasons I decided to choose different groups.
Reliability refers to the extent to which research findings can be replicated (Merriam,
1998). Reliability is problematic in the social sciences simply because human behavior is
never static. This study has both qualitative and qualitative data. If I applied the same
instruments with other populations, some results would be similar and other different. In
Rajab‟s study (2013), he found that his students showed a pattern of mistakes because all they
spoke Arabic as their native language. The same can be said about Spanish Speakers, some
pronunciation mistakes can be predictable and other cannot because the words selected vary
among studies and students have different proficiency. In this context all students speak
Spanish as their native language, and they had just started their career. However the views
and perceptions about the lessons are context-dependent and results may vary, it is difficult to
determine which factors the students consider important to establish their criteria about their
lessons.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 32
Ethics and consent form
In order to preserve the rights of participants, ethical aspects must be considered. Burns
(2009) lists the following guidelines to have into account when considering ethical issues:
Whose permission do I need for my research?
Who will be affected by my research?
Who should be told about my research when it is completed?
Having into account these aspects, the following strategies will be carried out:
1. Having a consent form to ask for voluntary participation, the participants have the
right of withdrawing whenever they want give up research.
2. Telling the participants how their information and confidentiality will be reserved and
who will have access to that information.
3. Not revealing names of the participants or the professors, the participants will be
labeled as A1, A2, A3, A4 and professors as X, Y and Z.
4. Showing the participants a summary of the findings found when the research has
concluded.
All those elements will be addressed in the consent form (appendix H) in which the
students must agree with participating in the study. The professors gave me their oral
permission. Burns (2009) suggests that if learners still do not have the language
proficiency level to understand the consent form, it should be translated into their mother
tongue.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 33
Chapter 4
Instructional Design
This chapter presents the theories and visions about learning, language, classroom and the
role of materials in this pedagogical intervention. The section of methodology explains what
resources are going to be used and what methodologies are going to be applied during the
lessons. The last sections: vision of curriculum and curriculum platform will explain the
criteria in which the lessons are going to be sequenced.
Vision of Language
Tudor (2001) describes language as a complex phenomenon and can be seen as a linguistic
system, a means of achieving functional goals, self-expression and a bearer of cultural values
and of one or more ideologies. This pedagogical proposal will take into account only one of
those visions: “language as linguistic system”. The components of the language system are
grammar, vocabulary, phonology, discourse, style and appropriacy. Tudor (2001) argues that
phonology - which includes the articulation of individual sounds, word stress, sentence stress,
and aspects of intonation – has tended to be “sidelined”. Clear explanation of pronunciation
and intonation can call for the use of phonetic transcription or a more or less complex
metalanguage which can add to the total learning load of students. Nevertheless, the ability to
understand the spoken language and to produce a comprehensible version of the language that
is being learned are certainly very important aspects of “knowing a language and cannot be
ignored (Tudor, 2001).
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 34
Vision of learning
This pedagogical intervention will have into account habit formation as the vision that will
guide the methodology. Habit formation or developing automaticity if often related to
behavioral psychology, which refers to the immediately perceptible aspects of linguistic
behavior -the publicly observable responses- and the world surrounding them (Brown, 1980).
A behaviorist might consider effective language behavior to be the production of correct
responses to stimuli. If a particular response is reinforced, it then becomes habitual, or
conditioned.
A language teaching approach based on habit formation is audio-lingualism. Audio-
lingualism has been often criticized because it has a particular emphasis on repetition and
drilling which were perceived as ardous and stressful (Tudor, 2001). The main critics about
audio-lingualism are that it focuses on accuracy leaving behind fluency and leaners find it
difficult to produce authentic language. This does not, however mean, that the idea of
automatisation or habit formation should be thrown out (Brown, 1980). You must have into
account that this pedagogical intervention is not composed of regular English lessons, but
tasks specifically focused on improving pronunciation.
Vision of curriculum
Although Henderson & Hawthorne (2000) state that curriculum has many definitions, I
will take the most accurate definition for this study: a curriculum is a course of study, it
means a plan for a pedagogical journey toward the good life or students‟ actual classroom
engagements with ideas and ways of knowing. In other words, it refers to distinctive subject
matter content or ways of knowing (Henderson & Hawthorne, 2000). Instructional objectives,
arranged in an assumed hierarchy of tasks, are the keystone of the system, and lesson
materials are built around that arrangement. The objectives are the intended outcomes of
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 35
instruction. Lesson materials are matched with the objectives and allow the pupil to proceed
independently with a minimum of teacher direction. Having into account the previous vision
of curriculum, I will follow the next guidelines:
1. Perceived purpose and advanced organizer. Learners are explained why it is important
to learn a certain objective or at least are given a clear explanation of what they are to
learn.
2. Appropriate practice. Learners have opportunities to practice both the prerequisite
skills not already attained and the behavior specified by the objective.
3. Knowledge of results. Pupils are given feedback indicating whether their responses are
adequate and are helped to make them more appropriate, if necessary.
Methodology
This pedagogical intervention will follow some principles of Phonics Based Instruction
(PBI). This approach aims at learning word recognition, it means, by using the grapheme-
phoneme association method. A grapheme is the written letter (what you see on paper). A
phoneme is the sound that the letter represents (what you hear). Learners are taught the
vowels, consonants and blends. They are then taught to combine the sounds and blend them
into words. In this way the learner can read unfamiliar words by using the association of
speech sounds with certain letters or groups of letters (Goouch & Lambirth, 2008). This
approach is somewhat related to audio-lingualism in the sense that students listen to a model
of the target language and try to mimic this model as accurate as possible based on how it
sounds, but the difference is that audio-lingualism focuses on helping learners respond to
stimuli through shaping and reinforcement (Freeman, 2000). PBI only focuses on getting the
students reproduce the target phonemes.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 36
Phonics based instruction is the way of teaching reading that stresses the acquisition of
letter-sound correspondences and their use in reading and spelling. The primary focus of
instruction is to help beginning readers understand how letters are linked to sounds
(phonemes) to form letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns and to help them learn
how to apply this knowledge in their reading (Carvajal, Cuellar & Silva, 2012).
Role of the materials
Materials refer to anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of
the language. Materials could be videos, CD ROMS, dictionaries, grammar books, workbooks
or photocopied exercises (Tomlinson, 2011). Materials development refers to anything which
is done by writers, teachers or learners to provide sources of language input and to exploit
those sources in ways which maximize the likelihood of intake: in other words the supplying
of information about experience of the language in ways designed to promote language
learning. Tomlinson (2011) advices that what is being taught should be perceived by learners
as relevant and useful. He lists the following criteria so as materials achieve impact:
a) Novelty (unusual topics, illustrations and activities).
b) Variety (breaking up the monotony of a unit routine with an unexpected activity).
c) Attractive presentation (use of attractive colors, lots of white space).
d) Appealing content (topics of interest to the target learners)
Curriculum Platform
Having into account the methodology and the role of materials in this pedagogical
intervention, the following chart will describe how activities were carried out:
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 37
Activity Group Date Didactic Procedure Objective Materials
Survey A 21/04
/2015 The students will
answer a survey.
This survey is
composed by two
items, the first will
be analyzed
quantitatively and
the second will be
analyzed
quantitatively.
This instrument
will search
information about
the most used
learners‟
strategies and
previous
knowledge
described in their
own words
Annex C
B 22/04
/2015
C 23/04
/2015
Drilling
vowels
C 28/04
/2015 First semester
students will be
drilled in the 12
English vowels
using the PDF and a
web page displayed
in a videobeam so as
students can
visualize the
phonemes, listen,
and repeat.
Introduce the
English phonetic
vowels to
students who still
do not know the
IPA.
-Video beam
-Speakers
-Web page:
http://forvo.co
m/
-PDF:
Sheep or ship
Drilling
consonant
C 30/04
/2015 First semester
students will be
drilled in the 12
English consonants
using the PDF and a
web page displayed
in a video beam so
as students can
visualize the
phonemes, listen,
and repeat
Introduce the
English phonetic
consonants to
students who still
do not know the
IPA.
-Video beam
-Speakers
-Web page:
http://forvo.co
m/
-PDF:
Sheep or ship
Transcribing
vowels
C 05/05
/2015 The students will be
given a worksheet in
which they will
choose and use their
favorite resource to
write the phonetic
transcription
Explore the tools
they use to look
up the phonetic
transcription and
the way the write
the phonetic
transcription
Annex D
Transcribing A 12/05
/2015 The students will be
given a worksheet in
Explore the tools
they use to look
Annex E
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 38
consonants C 14/05
/2015 which they will
choose and use their
favorite resource to
write the phonetic
transcription
up the phonetic
transcription and
the way the write
the phonetic
transcription
Recording
vowels
A 19/05
/2015 The students will
pronounce the words
they already
transcribed and I will
record them
Check learners‟
pronunciation and
their level of
understanding of
phonetic symbols
-Mobile phone
recorder
-Annex D C 21/05
/2015
Recording
consonants
A 26/05
/2015 The students will
pronounce the words
they already
transcribed and I will
record them
Check learners‟
pronunciation and
their level of
understanding of
phonetic symbols
-Mobile phone
recorder
-Annex E
C 28/05
/2015
Classification
of consonants
A 02/06
/2015 The students will be
given a worksheet in
which they will
check their
knowledge about
how to classify
English phonetic
consonants. They
will do it without
using internet. I will
show the internet
page used after the
exercise to check
their answers.
Asses what
students learnt in
their “Phonetic
and phonology”
class about
manners and
places of
articulation
-Annex F
-Web page:
http://soundsof
speech.uiowa.
edu/english/en
glish.html
B 03/06
/2015
Journal A 04/06
/2015 The students will
write their
reflections about the
lessons and the
knowledge acquired
in the subject
“phonetics and
phonology”
Explore learners‟
perceptions and
views about this
subject (phonetics
and phonology),
its contents and
activities.
Annex B
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 39
These are the web pages and the book mentioned before in the curriculum platform. Forvo
is a web page in which native speakers of each language can record their voices depending on
their nationality and accent. Users can ask the web page for new words in case they are not in
the data base yet. This web page includes a phonetic transcription in most words. I decided to
use this web page with first semester and not second semester because these students has not
studied the IPA yet and drilling seemed a good idea unlike second semester students who
already received drilling and instruction on minimal pair in the class “phonetic and
phonology”. This web page was combined with the projection of the PDF book “sheep or
ship” (Baker, 2006) shown in the second picture.
The third picture shows the web page UIOWA – phonetics. This web page shows all the
manner, places of articulation of vowels and consonants. I applied this web page with second
semester students only because they already studied the places and manners of articulation in
their phonetics and phonology class. I showed the page after the students completed the
worksheet because I wanted to check what they learnt in their lessons. I also explained them
that this would not affect their grades so as they would not cheat or worry about making
mistakes. In this sense, this can assure more internal validity to my study.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 40
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 41
Evaluation criteria
In this section I will explain the criteria I used to analyze and assess students‟ exercises. As
I mentioned, I had to explain students that they were not going to a qualification that could
affect their grades in their subject since my purposes were only researchable. This made
them feel calm and answer without cheating or feeling stressed. They could also use this
pedagogical intervention as an assessment of what they learnt in class or already knew. In
the exercise of transcribing and pronouncing I used the following conventions:
Green: Well transcribed /well pronounced . In the case of vowels, I will not require
exact pronunciation of the phoneme but the most accurate. For example:
Cut /kʌt/= Perfect
Cut /kɑt/= Good
Cut /kʊt/= Wrong
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 42
Yellow: Well transcribed / wrong pronounced
Fuchsia: Wrong transcribed / well pronounced
Orange: Wrong transcribed / wrong pronounced
I will qualify as “wrong” those words which have a drastic change like additions, substitution
or elimination of phonemes.
In the exercise of classifying consonants, I will use two colors: green if the phoneme is
correctly classified and orange if the phoneme is classified wrong.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 43
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 44
Chapter 5
Data Analysis
In this chapter I give an account of the procedures I followed in order to organize and
manage the collected data. I added my own interpretation, graphic organizers, an explanatory
charts. Finally, I present how triangulation was applied to ensure validity to the study. The
quantitative data will be presented first and then the qualitative data. I presented first the
results of the survey, then the results of the exercises and finally the transcriptions of the
journal.
Results survey
The following graphics show statistically the answers that students gave in the survey.
Percentages were approximated only having into account the first figure after the point. Some
items show a pattern but it is difficult to make generalizations since each student chooses
his/her own learning strategies. These results should be taken only as a reference but not as an
empiric proof to build a theory.
Item 1A: Look up in a printed dictionary
Group
A
17
participants
Group
B
19 p. Group
C
17 p. Total 53 p.
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
9
(52%)
8
(47%)
16
(84%)
3
(16%)
4
(24%)
13
(76%)
29
(54.7%)
24
(45.2%)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 45
In this first question, group C showed less preference for printed dictionaries than the other
groups unlike group B which still have a considerable number of people who still use printed
dictionaries. In general terms, preference for printed dictionaries are divided.
Item 1B: Look up in internet web pages
Group
A
17 p. Group B 19 p. Group
C
17 p. Total 53 p.
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
16
(94.1%)
1
(5.8%)
15
(78.9%)
4
(26.3%)
15
(88.2%)
4
(23.5%)
46
(86.7%)
9
(16.9%)
52%
47%
Group A
Yes
No
84%
16%
Group B
Yes
No
24%
76%
Group C
Yes
No55%
45%
Total
Yes
No
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 46
Compared to the previous item, there is a high preference for using the internet among the
three groups. People who answered “NO” might use internet as a resource but not necessarily
as their first option. Anyway, most people agree that searching on the internet the words they
can‟t pronounce is a good option.
Item 1C: Ask the English teacher
Group
A
17 p. Group B 19 p. Group
C
17 p. Total 53 p.
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
16
(94.1%)
1
(5.8%)
18
(94.75)
1
(5.2%)
17
(100%)
0
(0%)
51
(96.2%)
2
(3.7%)
94%
6%
Group A
Yes
No79%
26%
Group B
Yes
No
88%
23%
Group C
Yes
No86%
16%
Total
Yes
No
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 47
This result shows a positive tendency, the fact that they ask their teacher when they do not
know the pronunciation of a word, shows confidence in the knowledge their teacher have.
Surprisingly, all first semesters trust their teacher and often ask her for help.
Item 1D: Ask a classmate
Group
A
17 p. Group
B
19 p. Group
C
17 p. Total 53 p.
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No
answer
13
(76.4%)
4
(23.5%)
14
(73.6)
4
(21%)
12
(71%)
5
(29%)
39
(73.5.2%)
13
(24.5%)
1
(1.8%)
94%
6%
Group A
Yes
No
95%
5%
Group B
Yes
No
100%
0%
Group C
Yes
No
96%
4%
Total
Yes
No
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 48
These results, however, show a lesser confidence in their own partners than in their teachers,
but most of them would even ask their partners just in case they know. If they do not know,
they just use another resource. One person did not answer this item, but I never knew the
reasons.
Item 1E: Guess its pronunciation
Group
A
17 p. Group B 19 p. Group
C
17 p. Total 53 p.
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No
answer
7
(41.1%)
10
(58.8%)
13
(68.4%)
4
(21%)
14
(73.6%)
3
(17.6%)
34
(64.1%)
17
(32%)
2
(3.7%)
76%
24%
Group A
Yes
No73%
21%
5%
Group B
Yes
No
No answer
71%
29%
Group C
Yes
No 74%
24%
2%
Total
Yes
No
No answer
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 49
These graphics show a less clear pattern, since group A do not tend to guess the pronunciation
of words; on the contrary groups B and C most people do not mind guessing the
pronunciation and trusting in their decoding skills.
Results worksheet classification of sounds
The following charts show the results of the exercise which consisted in classifying
consonants according to three categories (annex F): manner, place, and voice. Only groups A
and B participated and they were not allowed to use any resource but they had to try to
remember what they learnt in “Phonetics and phonology” class.
Classification of consonants according to manner:
41%
59%
Group A
Yes
No68%
21%
11%
Group B
Yes
No
No answer
82% 18%
Group C
Yes
No64% 32%
4%
Total
Yes
No
No answer
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 50
Classification Symbol Correctly
classified
Group A
(17 participants)
Correctly
classified
Group B
(19 participants)
Total
(36 participants)
Nasal /m/ 15 times 19 times 34 (94.4%)
Nasal /n/ 15 19 34 (94.4%)
Nasal /ŋ/ 14 19 33 (91.6%)
Fricative /f/ 15 15 30 (83%)
Fricative /θ/ 11 9 20 (55.5%)
Fricative /s/ 3 11 14 (38%)
Fricative /ʃ/ 3 9 12 (33.3%)
Fricative /h/ 8 1 9 (25%)
Fricative /v/ 10 13 23 (63.8%)
Fricative /ð/ 11 9 20 (55.5%)
Fricative /z/ 3 11 14 (38%)
Fricative /ʒ/ 1 7 8 (22.2%)
Glide /w/ 5 8 13 (36.1%)
Glide /j/ 2 3 5 (13.8%)
Affricate /tʃ/ 2 12 14 (38%)
Affricate /dʒ/ 4 9 13 (36.1%)
Liquid /l/ 11 16 27 (75%)
Liquid /r/ 10 13 23 (63.8%)
Stop /p/ 13 14 27 (75%)
Stop /t/ 12 12 24 (66.6%)
Stop /k/ 11 13 25 (64.4%)
Stop /b/ 11 12 23 (63.8%)
Stop /d/ 10 10 20 (55.5%)
Stop /g/ 11 10 21 (58.3%)
Classification of consonants according to place:
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 51
Classification Symbol Correctly
classified
Group A
Correctly
classified
Group B
Total
Glottal /h/ 2 9 11 (30.5%)
Bilabial /p/ 14 17 31 (86%)
Bilabial /p/ 14 19 33 (91.6%)
Bilabial /m/ 6 12 18 (50%)
Bilabial /w/ 0 1 1 (2.7%)
Lingua-Velar /k/ 4 13 17 (47.7%)
Lingua-Velar /g/ 3 14 17 (47.7%)
Lingua-Velar /ŋ/ 1 7 8 (22.2%)
Labio-Dental /f/ 7 16 23 (63.8%)
Labio-Dental /v/ 4 17 21 (58.3%)
Lingua-Palatal /ʃ/ 1 4 5 (13.8%)
Lingua-Palatal /ʒ/ 2 5 7 (19.4%)
Lingua-Palatal /r/ 2 2 4 (11.1%)
Lingua-Palatal /j/ 1 8 9 (25%)
Lingua-Dental /θ/ 9 9 18 (50%)
Lingua-Dental /ð/ 4 11 15 (41.6%)
Lingua-Alveolar /t/ 4 11 15 (41.6%)
Lingua-Alveolar /d/ 2 9 11 (30.5%)
Lingua-Alveolar /s/ 4 12 16 (44.4%)
Lingua-Alveolar /z/ 2 12 14 (38.8%)
Lingua-Alveolar /tʃ/ 0 1 1 (2.7%)
Lingua-Alveolar /dʒ/ 0 1 1 (2.7%)
Lingua-Alveolar /n/ 2 9 11 (30.5%)
Lingua-Alveolar /l/ 3 5 8 (2.22%)
Classification of consonants according to voice:
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 52
Classification Symbol Correctly
classified
Group A
Correctly
classified
Group B
Total
Voiced /b/ 8 12 20 (55.5%)
Voiced /g/ 9 17 26 (72.2%)
Voiced /v/ 7 14 21 (58.3%)
Voiced /z/ 12 17 29 (80.5%)
Voiced /dʒ/ 7 15 22 (61.1%)
Voiced /m/ 13 16 29 (80.5%)
Voiced /l/ 11 15 26 (72.2%)
Voiced /w/ 10 10 20 (55.5%)
Voiced /d/ 11 11 22 (61.1%)
Voiced /ð/ 9 15 24 (66.6%)
Voiced /ʒ/ 9 13 22 (61.1%)
Voiced /r/ 11 16 27 (75%)
Voiced /j/ 8 7 15 (41.6%)
Voiced /n/ 12 16 28 (77.7%)
Voiced /ŋ/ 11 14 25 (69.4%)
Voiceless /p/ 12 16 28 (77.7%)
Voiceless /t/ 13 16 29 (80.5%)
Voiceless /k/ 13 14 27 (75%)
Voiceless /f/ 8 17 25 (69.4%)
Voiceless /θ/ 12 14 26 (72.2%)
Voiceless /s/ 10 16 26 (72.2%)
Voiceless /ʃ/ 10 18 28 (77.7%)
Voiceless /h/ 12 15 27 (75%)
Voiceless /tʃ/ 9 10 19 (52.7%)
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 53
In the first chart, the students classified the phonetic consonants according to manner. The
most prominent percentages appeared when they classified /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ into the category
“nasals”. All students in group B were able to classify these phonemes correctly. One of the
possible reasons for their success is that they can clearly feel these sounds in their nasal tract
when they pronounce them. On the contrary, most of them were successful when they
classified /h/ and /ʒ/ fricatives, /j/ and /w/ as glides. Fricative means a partial obstruction of air
stream, but in these phonemes it is difficult to recognize how air is being obstructed. In the
case of /j/ and /w/, the term “glide” may sound confusing, but refers to semi-consonants.
When classifying consonants according to their place, they were most successful with /p/
and /b/ as bilabials. You can feel your lips joining when these phonemes are pronounced,
however this was not the case with /w/ which being bilabial might seem strange, but in fact
we join slightly our lips when we pronounce it. /The students also failed when classifying /tʃ/
and /dʒ/ as lingua-alveolar since this term does not say too much about what part of our vocal
tract should be used in order to articulate these sounds. The other results were average and
some students did better than others. These terms might be confusing, that is why students did
not as well as the previous chart because place is more difficult to identify; anyway I did not
expect them to do it perfectly, these terms are actually confusing.
In the last chart, the results were more similar. These students understand that vibration is
one important factor to determine if a consonant is voiced or unvoiced. In average 20 students
answered right this point. Phoneme /j/ was the least perceived sound as “voiced”. Concluding,
I would say that students usually remember more the terminology that describes more
accurately a concrete part of their vocal tract and is closely related to how they perceive a
sound when they pronounce it. I would even find difficulties myself classifying these sounds
and probably would have got similar results.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 54
Pronouncing and transcribing vowels
Vowels
Due to the fact that I had more time with first semester students than second semester
students, I only was able to record the pronunciation of vowels with group C and I was only
able to check with group B their pronunciation of consonants. I selected 28 words randomly
(annex D), some of them were contrastive and others not. Results may vary depending on
what words are chosen, this could affect the transferability and generalization of the results
into another study. The students were asked to write the resource they used to transcribe the
words. The conventions are the same described in the evaluation criteria of the instructional
design.
Participant Green (well
transcribed /
well
pronounced)
Yellow (Well
transcribed /
wrong
pronounced)
Fuchsia (Wrong
transcribed /
well
pronounced)
Orange (Wrong
transcribed /
wrong
pronounced)
Resource used
C1 12 2 9 5 Phonetics.net
C2 14 10 2 2 Dictionary English
offline (mobile app)
C3 3 0 21 4 I didn‟t use anything,
just how I thought it
was
C4 17 4 3 4 I searched in google:
phonetic transcription
C5 16 3 4 5 Dictionary English
offline (mobile app)
C6 23 3 1 1 www.upodn.com/
C7 22 2 4 0 Phoneticchart.com
C8 22 2 1 3 www.upodn.com/
C9 23 4 0 1 www.upodn.com/
C10 27 1 0 0 www.upodn.com/
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 55
C11 25 2 1 0 Thefreedictionary.com
C12 22 0 3 3 Dictionary English
offline (mobile app)
C13 27 0 1 0 Thefreedictionary.com
wiktionary.com
C14 25 1 2 0 Wiktionary.com
C15 24 1 2 1 Dictionary English
offline (mobile app)
C16 17 0 10 1 Phonetics.net
The codification of is data may be subjective because I will base my own criteria of what it
acceptably pronounced or wrong pronounced. I considered “wrong pronounced” those words
which had a drastic change in their target phoneme. The words that represented most
difficulties were: Bird, fur, cut, camera and cheek. Bird was usually pronounced as /bi:(r)d/
and /be(r)d/ but not as /bɜː(r)d. Fur was usually pronounced /fʊ(r)/ or /fe(r)/ instead of /fɜː(r)/.
Camera was often pronounced /‟keimerə/ or /kəmara/. Cheek was sometimes pronounced as
/tʃi:k/. My criteria for transcriptions was that students wrote the correct IPA symbols and no
other kind of symbols (figurative pronunciation), however participant C3 decided not to use
any resource. Of course he was the students who had most mistakes transcribing. There are
cases in which a word can be wrong transcribed but well pronounced; it is because the word
selected was not difficult to pronounce. Here are some examples:
Wrong transcribed
Well transcribed
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 56
Wrong transcribed
Well transcribed
A particular thing about the web page www.upodn.com/ was that it changed slightly some
symbols, but I still considered correct the transcription because it used authentic IPA symbols.
Dictionary English offline UPODN
Consonants
In this exercise I recorded the voices of 7 participants or group A and 10 participants of
group C who accepted to be recorded. I also selected few participants from group A due to
time issues. There was a little change of plans, so Group A transcribed the words using their
favorite resource then they pronounce. In Group C instead, I gave the students words with the
phonetic transcription included and they had to record these words twice. These are the
results:
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 57
Participant Green (well
transcribed /
well
pronounced)
Yellow (Well
transcribed /
wrong
pronounced)
Fuchsia (Wrong
transcribed / well
pronounced)
Orange (Wrong
transcribed /
wrong
pronounced)
Resource used
A14 25 9 1 6 Phonetics.net
A19 26 15 0 0 Wordreference
(mobile app)
A20 29 10 1 1 Wordreference
A5 25 8 1 7 Wordreference
A7 13 13 3 12 Wordreference
A1 15 0 15 11 My own
knowledge
A3 18 23 0 0 -Wordreference
-Tophonetics
Participant Duration recording #1 Duration recording #2 Sex
C1 01:00 00:49 Female
C2 1:47 00:57 Male
C3 00:58 00:55 Male
C4 00:56 01:03 Female
C5 00:47 01:55 Male
C6 00:40 00:48 Female
C7 00:55 01:14 Male
C8 01:09 01:27 Female
C9 00:43 01:32 Male
C10 01:10 01:37 Female
In group A there was also a student who decided to transcribe the words using his own
knowledge. Again, this student was the least successful transcribing words. It means that
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 58
second semesters still made mistakes either transcribing or pronouncing. The most common
mistakes in both groups were found in the following words:
-Determine /dɪˈtɝmɪn/ was often pronounced as /ˈdetɝmɑɪn/, /dɪtɝˈmɑɪn/
-Throughout /θɹuːˈaʊt/ pronounced as /truːˈgaʊt/ /troʊˈaʊt/, /θɹɔːˈgaʊt/
-Though /ðəʊ/ as /θəʊ/, /təʊf/, /θəʊg/
-Retired /ɹɪˈtʌɪəd/ as /ɹeti:ɹeɪt/, /ɹɪˈtʌɪred/
-Island /ˈaɪ lənd/ as /ˈaɪ slənd/
-Television /ˈtɛləˌvɪʒən/ as /tɛləˈvɪtʃən/, /teleˈvɪʃɔːn/
-Mountain /ˈmaʊntɪn/ as /ˈmaʊnteɪn/, /ˈmoʊntaɪn/
-Impatient /ɪɪmˈpeɪʃənt/ as /ˈɪɪmpeʃənt/, /ˈɪɪmpaʃɪent/
-Equipment /ɪˈkwɪpmənt/ as /ˈekɪpmənt/, /eˈkwaɪpmənt/
-Breathing /ˈbɹiːðɪŋ/ as /ˈbɹeːθɪŋ/, /ˈbɹiːθɪŋ/, /ˈbɹeːdɪŋ/
There were other mistakes but the previous mentioned were the most frequent. The first
mistake “detemine” pronounced as /ˈdetɝmɑɪn/ proves what Gilajkiani and Ahmadi (2011)
claimed; difficulties in pronunciation are cognitive rather than physical. This word is not
difficult to pronounce but student pronounce it wrong because they get used to patterns in
other words such as “mine”, “lime”, “vine” and this makes them confuse its pronunciation.
There were also mistakes regarding stress, one aspect of supra-segmentals (/ˈtɛləˌvɪʒən/ →
/teleˈvɪʃɔːn/). Mistakes were also found in first semesters as well as second semesters, which
means that students benefit from phonetic instruction in long term based on their language
proficiency and not after the phonetic instruction was applied.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 59
Qualitative data
1- Resources most used by students:
This data will be analyzed quantitatively. I reported the exact words used by students
without making any corrections and highlighting the key words and relevant text. I will use
the strategies described by Strauss & Corbin (1990) to code my qualitative data. They define
open coding as the process of breaking down data, examining, conceptualizing and putting it
together in new ways. The strategies followed will be: naming, labeling phenomena, revising
connections, provide explanations, and group codes into categories. Shagoury & Miller,
(2012) recommend using visual markers and developing a list, tally commonalities, describe
trends and curiosities that may develop from data.
B1: I look in Chicago dictionary.
B2: Google translate, Larousse, any
dictionary.
B3: Larousse, translate google any
dictionary.
B8: Cambridge dictionary and web pages.
B12: Translate google and wordreference.
B4: I use in internet the web page google,
youtube and any dictionary.
B7: The university of Chicago dictionary,
google translate, wordreference.
B17: Cambridge, Oxford, different web
translators.
B9: Traductor de google, wordreference,
Cambridge dictionary (pocket).
B18: Cambridge, wordreference, norma
dictionary (bilingüe plus).
B6: I use a norma bilingual pocket dictionary
and on web pages. I use Cambridge traductor
and sometimes google traductor.
B16: Cambridge dictionary, wordreference.
B10: Wordreference, google translate, any
dictionary.
B11: I use the Cambridge dictionary or my
own printed dictionary, I use google but only
for words because the translation is so bad
and no more, that‟s all.
B13: Larousse, Chicago, wordreference,
C1: Sometimes traductor in google or other
kind of the same pages.
C2: I use “bing translate” or “google
translate”
C3: I search in google translate but just for
words never for sentences.
C4: Google translator, wordreference.
C5: I don‟t remember the page because I
don‟t have a page fixed.
C7: Wordreference, Oxford dictionary
online).
C8: Chicago dictionary,
www.politraductor.com, google translate,
youtube videos, smartphone programs.
C9: I listen the words in google translator.
C12: Larousse dictionary, google translator.
C16: Google translator.
C11: I use google translate just for look up
for unknown words, not for sentences. Also,
I use freedictionary.com.
C13: I utilice normally google translate for
single words „cause it pronunciation system
is very acerted.
C10: I use the google translater to get the
pronunciation of an English word.
C14: I use google translate the most of time.
C17: Dictionary: is good Larousse,
latinoamerican. Internet: traductor, youtube,
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 60
traductor google.
B14: A dictionary with American phonetic
transcription in translate pages that offer the
option of listening.
B15: I use the Cambridge and Chicago
dictionary, I use traductor google because
here I can listen the “native” sound of a
word. I try to search the word‟s transcription.
B19: Traductor google, wordreference and
special cellphone‟s apps.
etc.
The previous data can be triangulated with the survey about leaners‟ strategies. I forgot to ask
group A this question, but with groups B and C will be enough. Here, students show evidence
that they use any dictionary available but they always have a preference for a brand of printed
dictionary or web page. Some of them also download applications for their mobile phones in
case they do not have internet. Tophonetics and English dictionary offline are examples of
these applications. Some of these students also prefer listening to the pronunciation of words
instead of reading the phonetic transcription. Google translate is a well-known page which
plays the sound of words and even sentences but does not include a phonetic transcription.
Participant B11 thinks that google translate may make mistakes, and he is right, translators are
not perfect because they do not always have the context of the sentence.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 61
2-A. Definitions and perceptions about the International Phonetic Alphabet:
A1: It‟s the system used in almost all languages that have similar pronunciation and
vocals/consonants.
A2: I know that it‟s an alphabet of sounds that can be used in all languages and it is very
useful to learn English pronunciation.
A16: Is the way that exist for know the correct pronunciation of the words in anyone
language.
A17: Basically it works to know the correctly pronunciation of words and it‟s used for every
language.
A14: It is the instrument for everybody that want to have a good pronunciation in another
language.
A4: It‟s like a kind of tool who allows you to learn pronunciation in a good way.
A13: The types of pronunciations (diferent pronunciation) of each phoneme.
A9: Is more or less the rules of the pronunciation of the word.
A12: Just I know that is the International Phonetic Alphabet and is used to maintain the same
pronunciation on all the world.
A7: I just know some uses about it, that the teacher has gave to us in class. Something related
with the vowels, consonants and diptongs, the way to write them, and how to pronounce the
according the context and the words.
A11: I know some spellings, the diphthongs, the vowels and some consonants.
A3: Is a rules‟ group that generalizes the international use of the letters and the equivalence
in each or several languages.
A15: It‟s the standard for sounds in English. Every sounds in English are there.
A6: I think it‟s the group of all vowels‟ consonants and dypthongs that we can use as a lead
for learning and for improving our English.
A5: I only know what is but in Spanish.
A10: It has to see with the rules we use to transcribe, but I don‟t know anything else.
A8: The IPA is a norm which we can find every kind of phonem which are used in some
language and this alphabet classify those phonemes in voice, voiceless manner and place.
B1: Is the system of phonetic based primarily on the latin alphabet.
B17: Is the system used to identify the correct pronunciation of words, and the characteristics
of vowels and consonants.
B9: Is an international system that describe the correct pronunciation of the letters and their
symbols.
B6: It‟s a compilation about all of the phonemes of the different languages and show where
is the place of articulation and mode artic.
B10: The major part of singns and pronunciation.
B11: The IPA is the symbols that we use to know the way to pronounce a word in different
language.
B13: I know that is an alphabet that it use for the pronunciation of the words in all languages.
B12: It is an alphabet created to join all sounds of languages and represent them by symbols.
B4: This is a alphabet that can use to form any word in the world.
B15: The IPA is a standar sound is transcription that someone can understand even if this
person talk chinesse, French Italian, etc.
B8: The sounds and the use.
B14: It‟s a useful way to learn a language and the correct speak, it help us to communicate us
in a language with no born language person so it‟s easier.
B16: It‟s an usual and good tool for the language.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 62
B18: I know some of the letters pronunciation so it‟s very useful for speaking English and
other lenguages.
B3: Yes, a little.
B2: Yes, a bit.
B7: I don‟t know about IPA.
B19: No, I don‟t.
C9: I think IPA are the phonetic rules of a language and the way how you pronounce it.
C11: I know that IPA has rules for correctly pronunciation or vowels, consonants and more.
C12: Is the way to produce sounds in English in the right form.
C13: The IPA shows the sound of the consonants and vowels in any language.
C14: I think the IPA is the Alphabet with the phonemes necessary to speak English.
C7: We studied it at linguistics class but only the phonemes used in Spanish. I studied some
of the phonemes used in English when I was applying to a job in a call-center and at an
English institute, where I studied.
C6: I believe the IPA is the way which we speak correctly.
C15: I have no idea about the international phonetic alphabet.
C1: I don‟t know nothing.
C10: I don‟t know anything about the IPA.
C2: I don‟t know nothing about the international phonetic alphabet,
C5: I don‟t have idea about the international phonetic alphabet.
C4: I don‟t know anything about the international phonetic alphabet.
C17: I have no idea.
C8: I don‟t know.
C16: Nothing.
C3: Nothing.
In this data, all second semester students already have a definition of the IPA, they often
relate it to “correct pronunciation” and consider it a tool and a system. In group C, half of
them answered that they did not know the IPA, the reason is because they have not started the
subject “phonetics and phonology” yet; however half of them already had an idea of it. They
know it is composed by rules for pronouncing vowels and consonants.
2-B. Previous experiences with IPA at secondary school:
A7: Never, at the school the
teacher just explained us the
way to write something, but
the lessons were not in
practice. This is one of the
biggest problems at school.
A2: No, I didn‟t use it
because my secondary school
teacher never taught me
B15: No, never. I just knew
the IPA when I started my
career here at university.
B14: No, the secondary
school was very basic and
yet in the last year the topics
weren‟t advanced.
B12: No, I never used IPA in
my English lesson at
C15: No, for this reason I
don‟t know about it.
C10: No, I didn‟t . I never
have seen anything about it.
C9: I have never used in a
formal way.
C1: I don‟t know if I used
that in any time.
C2: No, on my English
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 63
about it.
A10: In school? No, I didn‟t
use them.
A8: No, I didn‟t, I knew the
IPA at the university.
A12: Actually no, never
learned the IPA until the
university.
A15: No, I didn‟t. I heard
about it at the university.
A11: No, we just asked the
teacher how to say
something.
A14: No, I didn‟t. I repeated
that the teacher said me.
A13: No, I‟ve just repeat the
word according to the
pronunciation.
A5: Never, in the school it
was not important because
the level is high.
A17: I never used the IPA at
school.
A3: No, never.
A4: Never.
A16: No, never.
A9: I don‟t know all today.
A1: Yes, but we didn‟t work
on it too much so the theme
was practically incomplete.
A6: I have a dictionary on
my phone which can allow
listening and reading of the
words using the IPA.
secondary school, I haven‟t
knew it before to study at the
university.
B11: No, my school teachers
didn‟t teach us the IPA and I
think it‟s very important. If
you don‟t know how to
pronounce a word you don‟t
know that word.
B6: When I was at secondary
school I didn‟t know about
IPA so I didn‟t use it.
B16: No, my teachers never
teached me the IPA.
B2: No, I don‟t used than in
school.
B18: No, they never taught
me that.
B3: No, I don‟t believe.
B17: No, I never did.
B19: No, I didn‟t.
B9: No, I didn‟t.
B10: No, I didn‟t.
B13: No
B1: No
B4: Yes, because so I know
as pronounce, when I have a
dude.
lessons I never used the IPA.
C5: No, I don‟t use the IPA.
C3: I don‟t know because I
don‟t know what is the IPA.
C8: No, I didn‟t.
C6: No, I didn‟t.
C13: No, I didn‟t.
C7: No, we did not.
C17: No, I didn‟t
C4: No, I didn‟t.
C11: Not at all.
C14: No, I don‟t.
C16: No.
C12: Yes I did, with the
letter s and u.
This is the most surprising set of data and most interesting in my point of view, because three
groups had negative views about what they learnt at school. The vast majority considered that
this topic was never studied before entering the university and when it was, it was incomplete.
What is more, some students agree that this topic is important. In my personal case, I was not
taught this topic in six years on English instruction during my secondary school. I had the
same story than my participants, I only knew the IPA when I started my career but had a
fainted idea about phonetic transcriptions because I used a printed dictionary at that time.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 64
Students’ journal
Perceptions and views about the materials used in phonetics and phonology class.
A19: I think the materials helped me to have a better pronunciation and knew more words or
vocabulary. The materials used in class are modern and useful so you can learn the modern
English.
A7: It helps so much to learn about the correct way to pronunciate and in this way we can
improve our level in speaking. And also the activities make us practice so much. Also to
repeat the way to say the words is a good method to do it.
A6: There were good material which helped me to improve my knowledge about phonetic.
For example now I can recognize the IPA symbols and also use them for transcribing words.
I think this is a important tool for my future just because it will help to know the right
pronunciation of any word.
A22: The material used in phonetics class was useful because I could learn phonetic
transcription, some new words and remember other are with their respective pronunciation.
A16: I think that the electronic materials are the best at time to improve the skills: writing,
reading, listening and speaking, because we can be in contact with people that have the
English like mother language, and know the really pronunciation and manners that have the
other countries. Too, with the application “sounds” was easier know and learn the IPA.
A9: The materials are a good instrument for the class with that instruments I can practice in
another places.
A1: It helped me to identify more things and sounds and to get more vocabulary and fluency,
although I already knew the phonemes it was good to see them again and learn some words
on which I had doubts about their pronunciation.
A18: Good materials and the technology helps to play the sounds high.
A20: The materials in the lessons were photocopies and application for the cellphone. The
practice with these materials is very modern and it lets me to got knowledge more easily.
A21: We learned how to use the IPA correctly and we used to memorize a lot of words in
phonetic transcription.
A13: It helped me to memorize the phonetics of a lot of words.
A10: The materials are not perfect but they helped me to mechanize the transcription
process.
A5: I think that the materials are dinamics and this help for the pronunciation, I think that we
learn better about the differents ways for speak most better.
A3: I think that the materials is suitable and a way to know the IPA, further the teacher
indicated some applications that are helpful to develop knowledge and practice.
A15: We used some papers and books from England. But they weren‟t so good. Moreover,
simbols weren‟t so clear, so I don‟t know if they used IPA.
Perceptions and views about the activities done in phonetics and phonology class.
A12: This activities just generate the memory, but don‟t improve the capacity to create or
understand the topic.
A13: With the repetition and using mechanism was good learn, the IPA is not difficult for , I
understand fast and I liked, so I learnt motivated.
A20: The activities in the lessons were transcription from many words and to repeat the
words with my voice.
A21: A good exercise to learn something is repeating, we repeated a lot the whole sounds of
the IPA.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 65
A18: Is more or less to learn and memorize the sounds of the English.
A6: At first I didn‟t even know that there were some specific symbols for representing words
in phonetic. Now I know that the IPA is a well-known way for learning the pronunciation of
the words. This is something that many people who‟s learning English don‟t know.
A22: We focused only on transcription in workshops, it helped me only with pronunciation.
A19: The activities like the transcription got better my pronunciation and understanding of
the language.
A5: The activities are very important because in this type the class have to do very dynamics
and the teacher have good use the this activities.
A10: Somehow in these lessons have helped me to improve my pronunciation by reading the
word‟s phonetics.
A9: The activities are good. I can practice a lot in class. But I would like to know more about
some exceptions.
A3: Specially I think that the practice is the most important to understand and learn to IPA‟s
rules.
A7: This activities develop our knowledge because it explains us exactly about consonants,
vowels, the contrast between them, etc.
A1: I already knew the IPA so it wasn‟t so hard for me to understand those things.
A15: May recognizing different simbols, but they weren‟t clear, so I don‟t believe they really
help me to understand IPA.
Perceptions and views about what students learnt in class.
A7: I learned about phonemes. I learned the correct way to talk. I learned the contrast
between American and British pronunciation.
A3: I did learn which do the phonetic transcription the correct pronunciation.
A1: I learn more vocabulary and his correct pronunciation.
A5: I learn a correct pronunciation. I learn the correct way to talk. I learn about the IPA.
A18: The correct AFI.
A16: I learn about the phonetics of the vowels, consonants, diphtongues and more. How to
use and transcript correctly. About the phonology and the body of the human for the
production of sounds.
A6: I‟ve learned so much about the pronunciation and sounds in English too. And I think this
is one of the important things that show how good we are at talking in English.
A19: I learned a lot of things but the more importants are: more vocabulary, better
pronunciation and more flow talking English.
A21: How to use the IPA and understand the meaning of it.
A12: From the memoristic strength, we learned to recognized some words and phrases.
A10: In summary, I have learnt how to read the phonetics he showed us a useful list of
connectors.
A15: Not much, really. But at least, I can transcribe things that I couldn‟t.
A9: I learned more differences between british English and American English and I learned
to transcribe the words.
A13: International Phonetic Alphabet. Poor pronunciation (confused with British and
American pronunciation).
A12: Again, only few pronunciation and some new words, I didn‟t like the way that the
teacher imposed us sometimes the British English.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 66
These were written reflections by students in group A about the “phonetics and
phonology” class, materials and activities. Unfortunately I could not apply this journal with
groups B and C due to time issues. I did not want either to make students reflect about my
intervention because it was short compared to the number of lessons thee had with their
regular professors. That is why I decided that group A filled in a journal about their lessons. I
must admit that the local professor did a good job because not only did he use printed
materials but also interesting applications. These students in general have a positive view
about the “phonetics and phonology” class. Most of them consider improvements in their
pronunciation and contrasts between American and British English.
Some students had concerns about the methodology used by the professor. Memorization
is a repeated idea in these reflections. The reason is that the local professor also used phonics
based instruction as his main methodology as well as I did with group C. This methodology is
often based on repetition, memorization, practice and feedback. Other students argue that
symbols were not clear and it is true because understanding phonetic symbols may take more
time than expected. Participant A12 says that the local professor imposed the British
pronunciation. I think the main reason is because most dictionaries use the British variation as
a standard when using broad transcriptions. Another reason is that the local professor lived
many years in the United Kingdom and probably he felt more confident with the British
pronunciation.
Categories. These sentences are the names chosen for the general categories found in my
data:
1. Students‟ favorite learning strategies
2. Nature of students‟ mistakes
3. The role of phonetic instruction
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 67
Chapter 6
Conclusions
Students have positive views about the phonetic instruction they receive at university.
Students have negative views about the knowledge they acquired at school about the
International Phonetic Alphabet.
Students‟ mistakes in pronunciation can be predictable depending on their mother
tongue but mistakes can also be result of their language proficiency.
Terminology about manner, place and voice of articulation may sound confusing to
students and improvements in their pronunciation rely more on repetition and practice.
Students do not discard any resource which helps them improve their pronunciation or
solve any doubt, but they still have preferences for some particular printed materials
and technological resources.
Although focus on supra-segmentals is important for improving learners‟
pronunciation and intelligibility, the focus on segmentals must also be examined and
can play an important role.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 68
Limitations and further research
Time was one of the main limitations. I needed more time to explore more things and
collect more relevant data. Each local professor only gave a limited amount of time to develop
my activities and some plans did not turn out as planned. Another limitation was that not all
students accepted to be recorded and my sample was less than expected. I could not check
how students in group C transcribed consonants but it does not matter because they had not
learnt the IPA yet. Fortunately, students could use internet to develop the tasks but my
intervention was more like a surprise at the beginning since it was not announced in
advanced.
For further research, I suggest exploring the supra-segmental aspects of pronunciation and
using participants from different levels of proficiency and contexts. Some ideas I have in
mind is to record them pronouncing complete paragraphs from a reading and record them
speaking freely about a topic of interest. When I say other contexts, I refer to primary schools,
secondary schools, institutes, autonomous learners and groups of students with different
native languages.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 69
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Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 72
Annexes
Annex A
Consent form
Institución: Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas.
Bogotá, Colombia.
Consentimiento informado del proyecto de investigación
Título del proyecto: Aprendiendo el alfabeto internacional fonético a través de páginas web.
El estudiante investigador Andrés Felipe Galindo Cardona estudiante de la Universidad
Distrital Francisco José de Caldas está conduciendo una investigación sobre el tema
mencionado arriba.
Si está de acuerdo en participar en esta investigación, se le pedirá que complete una serie de
encuestas, grabaciones y ejercicios. Las grabaciones solo serán usadas por el estudiante
investigador y no se rebelarán nombres de los participantes ni afectará las notas de la materia
que esté cursando.
Su participación en esta investigación es voluntaria y puede retirarse en cualquier momento.
Puede decidir si quiere que su voz sea grabada o no en uno de los ejercicios que se harán
durante la intervención pedagógica. En caso de que no quiera participar en la investigación o
en las actividades, no tendrá que explicar las razones ni tampoco tendrá consecuencias
negativas. Antes de que el proyecto final esté preparado, se le enviará un resumen de los
resultados preliminares de esta investigación y le podrá hacer comentarios sobre las
descripciones e interpretaciones que crea incorrectas o poco precisas.
Cuando reporte la investigación, aseguraré de que no sea identificado. No se usarán referencias
de nombres personales. Soy la única persona que tendrá acceso a los datos recolectados para el
proyecto. Cualquier dato que use en reportes o publicaciones serás únicamente para
ilustración. Si desea que le envíe una copia del reporte final, puede enviarme un correo
electrónico a [email protected].
Consentimiento del participante:
Al participante se le ha dado una copia de este formato para que lo conserve.
Estoy de acuerdo en participar en esta investigación:
Firma del participante: _______________________ Fecha: __________
Firma del profesor titular: _____________________
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 73
Annex B
Participant: ___________________________ Date: _________
Students’ journal
At the end of the lessons reflect on:
A. How do you think the materials used in these lessons helped you strengthen your
knowledge about the International Phonetic Alphabet:
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
B. How do you think the activities in these lessons helped you strengthen your
understanding of the International Phonetic Alphabet?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
C. What do you think you learnt in these lessons?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 74
Annex C
Name: ____________________________ Date: _____________
Survey
Item 1: Tick the answer
If you do not know the pronunciation of an English word, you:
Yes No
A. Look up in a printed dictionary
B. Look up in internet web pages
C. Ask the English teacher
D. Ask a classmate
E. Guess the pronunciation
F. Other resource:
_________________________________________
If you answered “YES” A. and B., please mention the web pages and dictionaries you use the
most:
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Item 2: Answer the following questions:
A. What do you know about the International Phonetic Alphabet?
B. Did you study the IPA in your English lessons at secondary school?
A.
B.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 75
Annex D
Name: ____________________________ Date: _____________
Worksheet #1: Vowels
1. Look up the phonetic transcription for the following words in a printed
dictionary or in internet web pages:
Example: Sheep= /ʃiːp/
Lick: _________________ Pill: _________________ Cheek: _________________ Bin: _________________ Ben: _________________ Pen: _________________ Pan: _________________ Four: _________________ Bed: _________________ Camera: _________________ America: _________________ Wait: _________________ Boil: _________________
Cat: _________________ Cart: _________________ Cut: _________________ Bug: _________________ Hot: _________________ Hat: _________________ Spot: _________________ Sport: _________________ Pull: _________________ Pool: _________________ Fur: _________________ Bird: _________________ Buy: _________________ Cow: _________________
2. When you have finished, please write down the dictionary or web page you used
to do this exercise.
I used: ______________________________________________
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 76
Annex E
Name: ____________________________ Date: _____________
Worksheet #2: Consonants
1. Look up the phonetic transcription for the following words in a printed
dictionary or in internet web pages:
Example: Bread: /bred/
Dutch: _________________ Determine: _________________ Phone: _________________ Bought: _________________ Throughout: _________________ Tough: _________________ Though: _________________ Curl: _________________ Goat: _________________ Massage: _________________ Message: _________________ Insurance: _________________ Cash: _________________ Catch: _________________ Joke: _________________ Choke: _________________ Whale: _________________ Juice: _________________ Use: _________________ Retired: _________________
Island: _________________ Jealous: _________________ Honest: _________________ Thumb: _________________ Thirst: _________________ There: _________________ Dare: _________________ Breathe: _________________ Breathing: _________________ Win: _________________ Wing: _________________ Stink: _________________ Sting: _________________ Cough: _________________ Television: _________________ Disappointed: _________________ Mountain: _________________ Package: _________________ Impatient: _________________ Equipment: _________________ Buzz: _________________
2. When you have finished, please write down the dictionary or web page you used
to do this exercise.
I used: ______________________________________________
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet through Web Pages 77
Annex F
Name: ____________________________ Date: _____________
Worksheet #3: Classification of sounds
1. Classify the following consonant sounds into the listed categories:
/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/ /f/ /v/ /ð/ /θ/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /dʒ/ /h/ /ʒ/ /tʃ/ /m/ /n/ /ŋ/ /l/ /r/ /w/ /j/
MANNER Nasal Fricative Glide (Ligadura)
Affricate Liquid Stop (Oclusiva)
PLACE Glottal Bilabial Lingua-Velar
Labio-dental
Lingua-Palatal
Lingua-dental
Lingua-alveolar
Voiced
(Sonora)
Voiceless
(Sorda)