Phonology And Phonetics

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3. Phonology and Phonetics, the Distinction.
Phonology and phonetics are linguistic disciplines that are commonly studied together because of the features they share as they both deal with the study of any language sounds. Yet, although some authors insists on using these terms indifferently there are so many differences between these two linguistic categories.
As has already been stated, phonology is that field of linguistics concerned with the study of how sounds differ and behave in different speeches, speakers and even, in particular contexts. In contrast and as Omolara (2011:1) asserts, phonetics is frequently defined as the “scientific description of what speech sounds exist in a language and how they are both produced and perceived, …show more content…

The Importance of Focusing on Phonology in the Process of SL Teaching
Unfortunately, the last methods used for the process of second language teaching and learning, especially in Secondary Education, were exclusively focus on teaching students how to write English; that is, on teaching grammar and vocabulary rather than teaching how to communicate or use this language properly. Luckily, these sorts of archaic methods seem to have disappeared and are being replaced by different approaches whose main aim is to prepare the student for facing real life situations. Consequently, it is possible to say that “teaching English phonology has become one of the most interesting and difficult subjects” (Jarrah, 2012:1) within the process of teaching English as second language. Actually, recent research has shown that a great number of experts on the issue have ceased considering pronunciation, intonation, etc. as isolated linguistic items and have even begun to work on the development of new teaching strategies and techniques dealing with phonology; especially, putting emphasis on the opportunities that the new technological resources may offer in the classroom for the purpose of teaching it in the best possible way (Jarrah, …show more content…

Likewise, it has been assured that teaching phonology accelerates the process of second language acquisition (Moats & Tolman, 2009) as, thanks to the methods frequently used to teach it, new grammar and vocabulary items are also brought in. Yet, it noteworthy to say that those new grammatical and lexical items are introduced in an inductive way; that is, teachers do not provide explanations; rather, students point them out by themselves what, undoubtedly, it is believed to make them remember the new acquired knowledge for a longer period of

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