The Importance of Phonetics in ELT

Abstract

Teaching English Phonetics is now basic. Not only the ESL teachers are into teaching phonetics, but for young learners, phonetics is essential to language learning. Among the importance of communication skills, Reading, Writing, and Speaking come in a bundle. And to develop effective communication skills it is integral to be robust in all of these three areas. Phonetics is the study of human speech. Phonetics includes the study of how sounds are physically produced (by positioning the mouth, lips and tongue), and how sounds are perceived by a listener. Phonetics can be compared to phonology, which is the study of the particular sound units (phonemes) of language.