IPA 

Our aim is to promote the teaching and learning of English phonetics in Hongkong. We provide high quality English phonetics (IPA) and pronunciation courses for people at all levels of spoken English.

The course "Practical English Phonetics and Phonology" is one of our most popular choices. We are very proud to say that the quality and popularity of this course has been key to establishing the good reputation of IPA (HK). Mr Derek Kwok, the Course Lecturer, is an experienced phonetics educator with over 10 years teaching experience in English phonetics. His innovative teaching techniques and moderate sense of humour make the complex phonetics principles all the easier to understand.

The courses "English Phonetics Classes for Students" and "Practical English Phonetics and Phonology for Teachers" have provided students and teachers of English in HK with a better channel through which to understand the most important theories and key skills in pronunciation and many other features of spoken English.

As this Web Site comes into existence, we can now offer our students of phonetics with continuous learning and practice support. The pages under our "Club News" section are especially dedicated towards this goal. We believe that through this Web Site, the students of IPA (HK) will be able to further enrich their knowledge of English phonetics and pronunciation even after they have completed our courses.

 

Today's selected word:

Leo, minster, Leominster
Leo n. 獅子座
minster n. 大教堂
Leominster 地方名(位於英國赫里福德郡Herefordshire的一個市填)

解讀:
1. Leominster的第一音節"Leo-"的元音/e/與Leo一字的元音/iːəʊ/讀音不同.
2. Leominster的字母min不發音.
依賴phonics(字母拼音)的人, 把Leo拼上minster, 自然會讀錯Leominster了.

The Problem of Phonics系列
本系列所選出的字例,有助大家認清英語字母及發音的不規律性;我們傾向憑熟悉的字或字母讀音組合,去推算另一生字的讀法而很容易出錯。因此我們不應依賴字母拼音或Phonics作為語音教學。要避免發音錯誤,除了聆聽可靠的示範外,是參考其國際音標(IPA)。
很多人對Phonics存有誤解,要了解清楚,可收看「英語發音網上講座

Derek Kwok
E.D.530468