G.

Edwin Bryant Academy School System

Barnesville Road, Opposite Former MSF Hospital
Montserrado County, Liberia

Department of English
Oral English
@ Senior High Division

Student Name: ________________________

Student Class :________________________
Date Received: ________________________
Researched and compiled by: Mr. Dell S. Page
Contacts :
GSM: (+231770-440-251/+231881-156-040)
WhatsApp: (+231881-156-040)
Email: pagedells575@gmail.com
Facebook: Dell Samuel Page
 Introduction to Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that deals with the study of speech
sounds and is focused purely on pronunciation. Linguists who specialize in
studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians – Reference:
https://www.kizphonics.com
Contributors to Phonetics
British Daniel Jones (1881-1967) is often referred to as the person who
invented the cardinal vowel system as an applicable instrument within the
realm of phonetics. His work in phonetics and phonology was primarily
focused on the English language, however he worked on many other
languages too. He is also referred to as the father of phonetics – Reference:
https://cc.au.dk

Modern phonetics began with Alexander Melville Bell (1819–1905), whose

Visible Speech (1867) introduced a system of precise notation for writing
down speech sounds. In the 20th century linguists focused on developing a
classification system that can permit comparison of all human speech
sounds – Reference: https://www.britannica.com

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 Background of Phonics
This principle was first presented by John Hart in 1570. Prior to that learners
learned to read through the ABC method, by which they recited the letters
used in each word, from a familiar piece of text such as Genesis – Reference:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org
What is Phonics?
Phonics is the knowledge of how spoken sounds (phonemes) can be
represented by written letters (graphemes). It connects phonological
awareness – the ability to hear and work with spoken words, word parts,
and individual sounds – to written language – Ref: www.areteachers.com
Why is Phonics Important?
1. Phonics is the basis for decoding, or what’s often called “sounding
out” words. Decoding is what happens when a reader looks at a word
in print and uses the sounds of each letter to figure out what it says –
Reference: www.areteachers.com

2. Phonics is also at the heart of encoding, which is attaching letters to

the sounds in a spoken word in order to write it down – Reference:
www.areteachers.com

3. Phonics is important in the very early stages of reading and writing as

students learn letter names, sounds, and symbols. It stays important
as readers grow; more advanced readers need phonics lessons about
more complex spelling patterns, like vowel patterns, and skills like
using syllable types to read and spell longer words. Reference:
www.areteachers.com
Types of Phonics
There are four major types of phonics which include synthetic phonics,
analogy phonics, analytic phonics and embedded phonics – Reference:
www.twinkl.co.uk/teach

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 1. Synthetic phonics is a method of teaching where words are broken up
into the smallest phonemes. This method of teaching is used as a way
of showing learners how to identify all the phonemes in a word, match
them to a letter and successfully spell the word correctly.

2. Analytical phonics focuses on teaching leaners to analyse letter-sound

relations in words that they have previously learnt to avoid
pronouncing sounds in isolation.

3. Analogy phonics focuses on how learners are taught to use parts of

words they have already learned to read and decode words they don’t
know. This method of phonics helps learners build upon their existing
skills by creating connections to new information.

4. Embedded phonics is about teaching learners phonics skills by using

techniques that rely upon a much more hands-on approach to reading.
There is a more implicit approach that relies on incidental learning.
Graphemes
Graphemes are written symbols that represent sounds (phoneme). This can
be a single letter, or could be a sequence of letters, such as ai, sh, igh, tch
etc. So when a learner says the sound /t/ this is a phoneme, but when they
write the letter ‘t’ this is a grapheme – Reference:
https://www.theschoolrun.com
Phonemes

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Phonemes are the smallest units of sound within a language. They are
represented in writing by symbols known as graphemes, and they help us to
distinguish one word from another. Learners will learn about phonemes
during phonics, the study of sounds. For instance, they might learn how the
word ‘dog’ is made up of three phonemes: /d/, /o/ and /g/. Throughout
phonics, learners will explore how words can be broken up into their
phonemes in a process known as segmenting – Ref: www.twinkl.co.uk

The 26 English Alphabets

Letter Sound of All sounds Examples
Letter Name of letter
A, a ā-ee (long a æ, ā, ah, ā- cat, late, all,
to long e, uh, uh and, around
also spell
"ay")
B, b Bee buh bike
C, c See kuh, suh cake, city
D, d Dee duh did
E, e Ee eh, ee, silent bed, free, late
F, f Ef fuh fed
G, g Jee guh, juh glad, large
H, h ā-ch huh, silent hotel, what
I, i ah-ee ah-ee, ĭ light, sit
J, j Jay juh jump
K, k Kay kuh kite
L, l El luh, ul lot, full
M, m Em muh mother

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N, n En nuh nest
O, o ō (oh) ah, ō, uh, oo, hot, slow,
ů computer,
fool, good
P, p Pee puh put
Q, q Kyoo (kyū) kwuh quick
R, r Ah-r ruh, ur race, stir
S, s Es suh, zuh stick, is
T, t Tee tuh, duh, N, table, better,
silent, mountain,
stopped tuh interview, hot
U, u Yoo (yū) uh, yoo, up, use, flute,
oo,  ů full
V, v Vee vuh very
W, w Dubōyoo wuh, silent well, slow
X, x Eks ks, zuh box,
xylophone
Y, y Wah-ee yuh, ee, ah- yes, happy,
ee (i), ĭ try, cylinder
Z, z Zee zuh zebra

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Reference: https://www.speakmethod.com
The 44 Phonetics Sounds

Despite there being just 26 letters in the English language, there are 44
unique sounds, also known as phonemes. The 44 sounds help distinguish
one word or meaning from another. Various letters and letter combinations
known as graphemes are used to represent the sounds.
The 44 English sounds are divided into two categories: consonants and
vowels. Below is a list of the 44 phonemes along with their International
Phonetics Symbols
This article takes you through a detailed understanding of the Sounds of
English. As mentioned in the first paragraph, the 26 letters represent 44
sounds in English.
The 44 sounds include – 12 Vowel Sounds, 8 Diphthongs, and 24 Consonants
Sounds.

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12 Vowel Sounds:

Symbol
s Initial Medial Final

/I:/, /i:/ eat beneath tree

/I/, /i/ it, in, inn bid me, he, she

dress, bed,
/e/ egg, elephant head, many --

/æ/ act bad, mat --

/a:/ art, arm start, father car, bar

/ɒ/ odd lot, cot --

/ɔ:/ all tall, ball four, more, door

/ʊ/ -- foot, good, put

two, boo, who,

/u:/ Ooze goose loo, too, to

under, udder,
/ʌ/ utter but, cut, nut --

/3:/, /ə:/ urn, earn curl, furl, bird fur, cur

colour, mother,
/ə/ about, again police, standard sister, butter

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8 Diphthongs:

Symbols Keywords

/eɪ/ say /seɪ/, hate /heɪt/, rate /reɪt/, pain /peɪn/

/aɪ/ high /haɪ/, tie /taɪ/, die /daɪ/, lie /laɪ/

/ɔɪ/ boy /bɔɪ/, toy /tɔɪ/, coy /kɔɪ/

/əʊ/ no /nəʊ/, go /gəʊ/, row /rəʊ/, bow /bəʊ/

/aʊ/ cow /kaʊ/ now /naʊ/, how /haʊ/, bow /baʊ/

/ɪə/ beer /bɪə/, near /nɪə/, dear /dɪə/

/ʊə/ fewer /fjʊə/, cure /kjʊə/, tour /tʊə/, sure /∫ʊə/

/eə/ bear /beə/, care /keə/, hair /heə,/ mare /meə/

24 Consonant Sounds:

Symbols Keywords Voiced/Voiceless

/p/ pen, copy, happen, cap, map voiceless

/b/ back, baby, job voiced

/t/ tea, tight, button voiceless

/d/ day, ladder, odd voiced

/tʃ/ church, match, nature voiceless

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/dʒ/ judge, age, soldier voiced

/k/ key, clock, school voiceless

/g/ get, giggle, ghost voiced

/f/ fat, coffee, rough, photo voiceless

/v/ view, heavy, move voiced

/Ɵ/ thing, author, path voiceless

/ð/ this, other, smooth voiced

/s/ soon, cease, sister voiceless

/z/ zero, music, roses, buzz voiced

/ʃ/ ship, sure, national voiceless

/ʒ/ pleasure, vision voiced

/h/ hot, whole, ahead voiceless

/m/ more, hammer, sum voiced

/n/ nice, know, funny, sun voiced

/ŋ/ ring, anger, sung, bank voiced

/l/ light, valley, feel voiced

/r/ right, wrong, sorry, arrange voiced

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/ј/ yet, use, yell, pupil voiced

/w/ wet, when, between voiced

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