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:

Thames
( 倫 敦 ) 泰 晤 士 河

讀 音 注 意:
Thames一字的發音, 有三點值得注意:
1) 在英國,加拿大及新西蘭作為河流名,母音(vowel)讀/e/;在美國康乃狄克州(Connecticut)的Thames River,母音則讀/eɪ/, /teɪmz/。
2) Thames最後的字母S讀濁音(voiced)/z/,而非清音(voiceless)/s/。
3) 字母th在此字不讀舌齒音摩擦音(Dental fricative) /θ/,而是發/t/音。

英文字母th,有五種讀法可能:
1. /θ/ e.ɡ. thank /θæŋk/
2. /ð/ e.g. that /ðæt/
3. /t/ e.ɡ. Thomas /tɒməs/
4. /th/ e.ɡ. carthorse /ˈkɑːthɔːs/
5. 不發音 e.ɡ. asthma /ˈæsmə/

以上字例正好示範以 "看字母, 估讀音" 的問題。
英文字母與讀音存在“不規律性”,因此以字母拼音(phonics) 當作語音教學,無法改善香港學生發音錯誤。我們要認識英語生字的讀音,最準確的方法是參考其國際音標(IPA) 。

- Derek Kwok
 
E.D.530468