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Phonology involves studying how sounds are organised in a language to create meaning. It differs in every language as sounds are organised to create words, which are then organised in sentences. Phonetics involves understanding how sounds are physically made, what part of the vocal tract is used and how air is used to produce sounds. Understanding both phonology and phonetics is important when teaching language to others. It enables teachers to analyse how sounds are made which helps teachers to assist students in grasping new and or difficult sounds, and help students with the production of these sounds. Specifically when teaching English as a foreign language, a teacher is able to identify and explain differences in sounds. This is particularly useful when a student is mispronouncing a word – a teacher is able to identify what is happening to cause the mispronunciation and what needs to change in order to correct the sound and pronunciation. This ultimately enables students to better understand and speak English. As well as helping to improve speech, or language production, understanding phonology and phonetics is also helpful for teachers to assist students with listening skills, or reception ultimately making sure students are able to hear what different sounds are. The English IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) utilises symbols to represent single sounds. This is a very powerful and helpful chart to utilise as a TEFL teacher. Once students’ recgonise and associate each symbol with a sound it can be used as a very effective tool to demonstrate to students what sound they should produce or hear. As it relates to phonology, understanding the place and manner in which a sound is produced is important for a teacher to be able to identify and explain how and where a student needs to produce a sound. In relation to the place of articulation, this details where a sound is made in the vocal tract. If a teacher is able to identify where a student is making a sound and perhaps subsequently making the wrong sound, they are more effectively able to show to a student where a sound needs to come from in order to correct it (e.g. explaining to a student that their tongue needs to be between both sets of teeth to produce certain sounds). In relation to the manner of articulation, this helps a teacher to understand how air needs to flow through the vocal tract to produce a sound, and again helps to more effectively demonstrate and correct sounds. By utilising their understanding of phonology and phonetics a teacher can use many different teaching ideas in class that focus on listening (reception) or speaking (production) skills or both. Teaching ideas can be in the form of visually showing where and how sounds need to be made in the vocal tract or using the IPA and symbol recognition to receive and/or produce the desired sound. This not only improves pronunciation for students but also ensures a deeper understanding and recognition of the English language. Students undergoing a Business English course will benefit from this in their day to day working environment and confidence of their own language production.
