Personal reflection of the course

Well, in my opinion, the study of phonology is super relevant in terms of learning a

new language. Why? Because phonology is a science that studies the sounds in any language.

This area of language teaches how words sound, how they are produced, and even

pronounced. Every single language has its own way of “speaking” or “pronouncing” words.

However, phonology is not always about pronouncing English correctly, it also involves

stress, pitch, and intonation. Stress means that English speakers make some syllables louder,

longer, and higher, which means that some words have more emphasis than others. On the

other hand, intonation is related to how loud or low we speak, like to say the tone of our

voice. It is important in order to express the correct meaning of what we want to say. Those

aspects imply the production of different positions inside your throat and mouth that will help

you sound more natural and fluent while you are speaking.

For me, the most interesting aspect is that now I can recognize easily how each

English word is pronounced. I can think better about how to say a word before saying it.

Also, the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), lets us know that there is just one symbol

that means one sound for each letter, vowel, or syllable. We cannot change the pronunciation

of words because English speakers would not understand.

In conclusion, the use of phonetics while learning a foreign language allows us to

understand the differences between the sounds, improve our pronunciation, and develop a

better intonation.

Thank you, professor Xinia Nagygeller, for all the knowledge you transmitted to us in this
course.