TKT Tutoring Class

Phonology

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Unit 3 Phonology

I. What is phonology?
-definition
II. Key concepts
-phoneme/phonemic symbol/phonemic script
-individual sounds: consonants/vowels
-connected speech: stress/intonation
-sounds/spelling
III. Classroom implications-

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Definition
 Phonology is the study of the way speech
sounds are structured and how these are
combined to create meaning in words,
phrases and sentences. Phonology can be
considered an aspect of grammar and, just as
there are grammar 'rules' that apply to the
syntax of a sentence and the morphology of
words, there are phonological rules, too.
I. What is phonology?

 Phonology 音韻學 is the study of the sound

features used in a language to communicate
meaning (p.13)
 There are many different varieties of spoken
English in the world, but all spoken English
has the features as individual sounds, word
stress, sentence stress, connected speech
and intonation. (Hadfield, p.58)

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II. Key concepts:
a. Phoneme 音素

 A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that has

meaning in a language. (e.g. books [s] to show plurals)
 English has 44 phonemes, which can be represented
by phonemic symbols as on Page 187 and written in a
phonemic script.
 A phonemic symbol ( 音標 ) represents only one
phoneme; it helps us know what the correct
pronunciation is. E.g. cat [kæt] ; made [meɪd]

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II. Key concepts:
b. individual sounds

Segmental Features
(phonemes)

Consonants Vowels

Single vowels
voiced unvoiced (monophthongs)
diphthongs

short

long

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References

1. Hadfield.J. & Hardfield, C. (2008).

Introduction to Teaching English. Oxford
University Press.
2. Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). The Practice of
English Language Teaching. Pearson
Education Limited.
3. Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). How to Teach
English. Pearson Education Limited.