2.1 Phonology
Phonology is the study of the sound and structure of a language. Essentially, phonology concerns itself with the mental representation of a sound, so understanding phonology means that you understand how to break down a word into its smaller sounds and pronounce it. This can help students tremendously in learning English for the first time because it gives them a great tool for breaking down new words and pronouncing words that they have not necessarily seen before. Let’s take a look at some of the basic concepts within phonology.
2.1.1 Basics of phonology
You can’t study phonology without discussing phonetics, but for the purposes of this course, phonology is more important. Phonology deals with how we mentally break down the pronunciation of words, while phonetics deals with producing the sounds; therefore, phonology is more relevant for people who are learning a new language, not learning spoken language for the first time.
In phonology, words are broken down into smaller units that represent sounds to make it easier for new learners to understand how to pronounce new words. If students understand the common sound units in the English language, they will be able to sound out most words, making language acquisition much more comfortable. Here is a breakdown of some of those units of sound:
Phonemes: A phoneme is a unit of sound that when replaced changes the sound of a word in a particular language. English is a complicated language for people to learn because even though there are twenty-six letters, there are forty-four phonemes. These phonemes represent all iterations of sounds that a letter can make. For example, a “c” can sound like a “k” or an “s,” depending on its position in a word. If an individual understands phonemes, he or she will understand all the different sounds in the English language. Phonemes are broken down into two categories: vowels and consonants.
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