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This unit talks about the basics of pronunciation and phonology in order to prepare teachers to teach a side of English that most teachers do not venture to address because of its more complicated nature. Phonology studies the physical properties of sound, meaning how that sound is produced and articulated. For students learning a new language, this is an important aspect to cover in order to enable maximum comprehension in their speech. One of the hardest aspects of English in relation to both spelling and pronunciation is that English is not a phonetic language. The same sounds are represented by a multitude of letter combinations that can be crippling for a learner venturing across a word new to them. The International Phonetic Alphabet can help students with this endeavor by providing them with symbols that mean one designated sound, no matter what dialect of English they speak. It is important for English teachers to at least be familiar with this system in order to help students with their pronunciation. Having lessons on intonation, stress, and articulation will also help further students' speech capabilities. With intonation, we can teach them the differences a speaker implies by using a rise/fall tone, a fall/rise tone, and a flat tone and so help students understand the implicit meanings behind speech. With stress, we teach the standard way of pronouncing a word, which usually does not change except in some cases between accents. With articulation, we stress how to form and execute the various sounds needed to form words. Building up from articulation to stress to intonation, we provide students with an overall view on how to pronounce their sentences with the sounds and meanings they intend.
