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I cannot stress enough how much easier I think students' lives would be if they had good pronunciation and phonological instruction and/or intervention. I could not agree more that English courses overlook the topic of pronunciation, and it's a disservice to students and teachers alike. My argument for using a standardized tool like the IPA rests on exactly the same reasons outlined in this unit: It may be a bit of work at first, but it is a fantastic way to get around the issue of all the different ways English has to spell the same sounds. The odd and varied spelling of English words used to drive my learners to despair when I was a phone and Internet trainer, and the fact that the pronunciation resources from my former employer assumed that the learners were coming from a place of native-speaker spelling conventions for pronunciation was not helping anybody. Again and again I wished I could integrate pronunciation into my instruction. The pacing of the phonology unit in the video was quite good. It methodically brought the students in and essentially sold them on the need for the standardized approach of learning the IPA. They were clearly engaged and by the time they did the activity, they were enthusiastically competing for points and laughing. There's no end to what a teacher can do with a good mix of tongue twisters, a few key IPA symbols, and a mouth diagram on the board.
