Name : LLEDO, HONEY GRACE B.

Date: NOVEMBER 06, 2022

REFLECTION ON LING 131: PHONETICS AND PHONEMICS

The proper use of sounds in each word is the most important aspect of
communication. When trying to communicate with others, we cannot convey a
clear message if we cannot pronounce the words clearly. In order to make the
language understandable, other factors such as phonemic analysis, acoustic
phonetics, and phonological and phonemic awareness are important.
The phonemic analysis focuses on identifying the phonemes and allophones while
analyzing the language to make words simple to understand. Since
communication occurs everywhere, being able to identify the sounds in a letter can
facilitate having a cohesive conversation. Because of this, Acoustic Phonetics will
be discussed as it covers the physical characteristics and creation of speech
sound. The best technique to comprehend voice organ-based messages is in this
manner. The four acoustic characteristics of speech sounds—frequency, time,
amplitude, and formant—can assist us in understanding how the creation takes
place. As a language teacher, it is beneficial to me because it allows me to
enhance my pronunciation whenever I discuss it in front of my students.
Especially, after the pandemic, students are stagnant in their learning. This is the
reason why it gives me more courage to correct my students’ pronunciation. As
the learning continues with the help of Phonological and Phonemic Awareness,
students will improve their reading skills by recognizing the correct sounds of each
letter. Especially, most of our students cannot be able to read, and the worst thing
is that they cannot recognize letters. This is the most challenging part as a
teacher. However, I learned in Linguistics 131 that I can able to surpass these
difficult times in my professional career by letting the students experience each
stage. The first step in the early stage, I must help my students, isolate and
identify sounds by giving them lots of examples. Little by little it will help them to
remember the sounds of each letter through repetition. After identifying sounds,
the basic stage is all about blending and segmenting the sounds, and the
advanced stage is all about manipulating the sounds. Phonemic awareness has
approximately 44 phonemes in the English language, 24 for consonants, and 20
for vowels.
As a teacher in the twenty-first century, the knowledge I'm gaining from my post-
graduate studies helps me to develop my teaching skills and to clear up any
misconceptions I may have had. I am grateful for this opportunity to learn from the
lessons that we tackled.