Phonetic Symbols

Basic Concept. K. K. phonetic symbols represent American English

pronunciation. There are 41 symbols in the system, including 14 vowels, (11

monophthongs and three diphthongs) and 24 consonants. The purpose of learning K.

K. phonetic symbols is to be able to pronounce and spell English words correctly.

According to Chen (2011), during the period from the 1980s to the year 2000, K. K.

phonetic symbols played a crucial role in the explanation of American English pronunciation to students in Taiwan. Though phonics came to be used in the past decade, and prevailed till about 2005 in Taiwanese classroom instruction, soon teachers and students found that K. K. phonetic symbols were indispensible.

Therefore, a combination of phonics and K. K. phonetic symbols has emerged as the normal means for teaching American English sounds, and teachers and students have tried to find a balance between them. The researcher herself has benefited from learning K. K., and always teaches K. K. to high school freshmen at the beginning of their first term, in keeping with her school’s policy. The reason for this policy is so

that it can be determined to what degree the students have learned the use of K. K. in junior high school and how proficient they are. Can students use K. K. to pronounce

10

the words printed in English textbooks and dictionaries? And can they make good use of the phonetic system to memorize new vocabulary? If not, the teacherwill want to know this from the very beginning of class, so that they can address the gap.

Function. Liu (2009) claims that it is difficult to teach English pronunciation

without the help of phonetic symbols like K. K., which are a convenient tool to convey pronunciations in a clear way. Successful teaching of K. K. can also help students understand vowel–consonant correspondence relationships better, and can enhance their ability to read and spell. Hsu (2000) indicates that instruction in K. K. is meant to help students understand the sounds of English phonemes and letters and to be able to combine them into complete pronunciations of words; conversely, words can be divided into their constituent phonemes. In order to keep a vocabulary item in long-term memory, it is important to be able to associate it with a phonetic sequence.

Thus, in several ways, K. K. symbols provide a definitive solution to the problem of learning pronunciation. In addition, according to Lee (2009), it is necessary to pronounce a word correctly before being able to spell it correctly. Knowledge of phonetic symbols is thus also an effective tool for training students in spelling and writing. Though the direct phonological awareness provided by phonics is

indispensable while learning spelling and pronunciation, the K. K. system plays the key role of connecting the letter to the sound, which is important when dealing with

11

exceptions to phonic rules.

Use. According to Chen (2011), K. K. was the sole dominant approach to

teaching the sounds of English in Taiwan from the 1980s to the year 2000. Thus, for years, K. K. phonetic symbols have been extensively used in English teaching materials in Taiwan. Students usually receive education in K. K. beginning in junior high school, since the national Ministry of Education (MOE; 2001, 2003, 2008) mandates instruction in K. K. phonetic symbols at this stage to support the learning of phonics. Students in Taiwan receive instruction in phonics in elementary school, from the third to the sixth grade, and there are certain aspects of this phonics education that K. K. phonetic symbols can facilitate. One example is that though phonics emphasizes and clearly conveys letter–sound correspondences, it does not reveal changes in stress among syllables. Further, phonics only deals with the easiest pronunciation of a given word. Moreover, according to Dickinson and Smith (1994), the phonics method does not always manage to achieve the effective learning of pronunciations of a large number of words. Taiwanese scholars of English education have encouraged English teachers to teach K. K. partly to compensate for these deficiencies of phonics.

As mentioned above, K.K. has been widely used in Taiwan for decades; this is true in mass media, textbooks, and all kinds of exams. The typical K. K. teaching method is usually implemented during the learning of the alphabet. ―Phonetic symbols

12

are taught in Taiwan for language learning’s sake, not for linguistic study.‖ (Hsu,

2000, p. 21) Teaching English pronunciation through phonetic symbols is a

conventional teaching method through which English sounds and word pronunciation can be effectively symbolized for learners. Learners are asked to memorize all the K.

K. symbols and then to practice spelling words with them under some time limit.

Usually they imitate the teacher’s pronunciation without engaging in effective

practice, partly due to lack of time. This makes K.K. symbols a crucial tool for language learning; as has been shown among adults with an extensive period of English learning and K. K. knowledge behind them, many can independently guess the pronunciation of a new word without a dictionary (Hsu, 2000). Even for younger people who are still learning the system, K. K. symbols have value and can help support learning, as long as the learners are progressing as expected and acquiring K.

K. effectively.

Related Studies onthe Use of K. K. Phonetic Symbols in Taiwan. Most

studies on K. K. phonetic symbols consider them in combination with phonics. It seems that the scholarly consensus is that to use K. K. alone is not the best way to teach vocabulary. The following studies show the close relationship between phonics and K. K. in Taiwan.

Hsu (2000) investigated the application and functions of phonics and phonetic

13

symbols in English learning and teaching. She observed several classrooms to see how phonics and phonetic symbols help English learners in Taiwan, and presented the following findings. First, the relationship between phonics and phonetic symbols should be cooperative. Letter–sound relationships introduced by phonics can be reinforced by the teaching of phonetic symbols. Phonics and phonetic symbols are two assisting tools and methods in pronunciation teaching in her study. Second, both phonics and phonetic symbols should not be introduced until after students have

acquired some basic words, and then the presentation of phonics should be prior to that of phonetic symbols. More specifically, in Hsu’s (2000) study, fifth-graders in

Taipei were inferred to be ready to learn to manipulate the logical and systematic K. K.

symbols because they had learned phonics for more than four years.

Lin (2001) aimed to examine which teaching method—namely, phonics with or without K. K.—is more effective in teaching pronunciation to adult Chinese-speaking EFL learners, an investigation that yielded several findings. First, both the pure phonics approach and the combination of phonics with the K. K. phonetic method have significant positive effects on the learning of pronunciation by adult EFL learners. Second, high-proficiency subjects perform significantly better than

lower-proficiency subjects do on an oral posttest. Third, on the oral test, the phonics plus K. K. group performs significantly better than the pure phonics group on the

14

vowel digraph sound pattern. Finally, higher-proficiency subjects perform significantly better than lower-proficiency subjects on diphthongs and single consonant letters.

Hsu (2003) aimed to find an effective way to improve the attitude of elementary students to learning English, and also to develop their phonemic awareness

(specifically, awareness of phoneme segmentation and blending), word recognition, and spelling. Her participants the 70 fifth-graders were not attending after-hours cram school during the experiment (where they might receive additional instruction that would complicate the results). The participants were divided into three groups, one that was offered phonics instruction alone, another that was offered phonics plus K. K.

instruction, and still another that was offered K. K. instruction only. The results showed no statistically significant differences among the three groups, but the group that only accepted K. K. instruction performed better than the other groups on tests of both English ability and learning attitude. This study suggests that if fifth-graders are interested in learning English, it may be helpful to teach them the symbols. In contrast, a combination of phonics and K. K. instruction might not be appropriate for EFL learners at the elementary level.

Though most of these previous studies have been investigating which way is better for teaching pronunciation, it is interesting to know that outside of Taiwan,

15

there is no notable argument for or research or pedagogical tradition that investigates K. K. phonetic symbols. According to Chen’s (2011) recent work, no country in the

world uses the K. K. system except for Taiwan, where it is used alongside phonics as an official tool for pedagogical instruction in pronunciation. The policy of using K. K.

may in a sense limit English learning, because dictionaries printed in western countries do not use K. K. symbols. However, considering that helping

underachieving students and providing them with a reliable tool to learn English pronunciation is the top priority of the present study, the researcher felt that teaching

them the current system, which has been shown to be effective, would be desirable.

After all, it is not the students’ call to change government policy. For the time being,

K. K. is still the mainstream, accepted system in Taiwan, and it is used here accordingly.

Vocabulary Learning

As an English teacher in an EFL class, the researcher has to admit that

vocabulary learning and development have been largely ignored in EFL education and have been simply viewed as a natural byproduct of teaching and learning. Many students regard studying vocabulary to be simply a matter of studying the forms and translated meanings of words.

However, many studies have made the point that one needs to acquire many

16

types of vocabulary knowledge in order to properly use a word. For example, Nation (1990) claims that knowing a word means studying its written and spoken forms, its

meanings, its grammatical patterns, its collocations, associations, and frequency, as well as its register. Laufer (1997) reviewed several researchers’ definitions of ―a word‖

and developed a list of features involved in a word’s form and the learning of a new word, including pronunciation and spelling; word structure (for instance, the word root); derivations and inflections;syntactic patterns;multiple meanings; metaphorical, affective and pragmatic meanings; relations with other words (e.g., synonymy,

antonymy, hyponymy); and common collocations. Gairns and Redman (1986) provide several perspectives on ―knowing‖ a word—conceptual meaning; homonymy;

affective meanings; style, register, and dialectal considerations; sense relations such as synonymy and antonymy; meanings; L1 translation-equivalents; verb phrases; idioms and collocations; semantic relations; and grammar and pronunciation. From the above arguments, we can see that learning a word is a complex process. Therefore, it is reasonable that vocabulary learning would be a difficult task for EFL learners.

Though most EFL students in Taiwan agree that vocabulary learning is a very important part of learning English (Chen, 1998), they still have difficulty learning and memorizing new words. Retention of vocabulary lasts for a short time only,thus causing fluctuations instudents’ performance on reading comprehension, writing,

17

listening, speaking,and other L2 activities. Undoubtedly, vocabulary is a necessary part of the foundation of every other aspect of English learning.

The researcher has noticed that the first difficult situation students face in an English class is often the pronunciation of vocabulary. Students can usually imitate the words they hear after they are demonstrated by the teacher, but most of the time they cannot pronounce a word on their own, even though its K. K. representation is given in the textbook. When the students are asked why they cannot read the word,

the most commonly received reply is that they do not recognize the K. K. phonetic symbols. They do not have any idea about any aspect of the word’s pronunciation, be

it vowels, diphthongs, consonants, stress, or syllables. It is no wonder that they always perform poorly on quizzes and tests.

However, the students still keep certain vocabulary in mind in somewhat mysterious ways. Thesecan be considered their ―vocabulary learning strategies,‖

andwill be discussed in the following section.

Vocabulary Learning Strategies. Compared to general foreign-language

learning strategies, there has been little research conducted on L2 vocabulary learning strategies. Schmitt (1997) investigated EFL learners’ vocabulary learning strategies

among 600 Japanese EFL students: 150 junior high school students, 150 high school students, 150 university students, and 150 adult learners. The participants were given

18

a survey containing 40 vocabulary learning strategies and asked to describe their usage and perceptions of the helpfulness of these strategies. The results showed that there were the six most commonly used and most helpful strategies, namely that they involved saying new words aloud, written repetition, verbal repetition, use of a bilingual dictionary, studying spelling, and taking notes in class. The three least used

strategies were using cognates, using semantic maps, and using physical action.

Additionally,the three least helpful strategies were using cognates, imaging words’

meaning, and using the keyword method. The results also show that shallow strategies like the ones described above are preferred by the subjects to deeper strategies such as the keyword method and semantic maps (Schmitt, 2000). Schmitt further pointed out that learners from different cultures are very likely to use and prefer different

vocabulary learning strategies. Take Chinese learners as an example. The strategy of using cognates to learn English does not exist in Chinese. Similarly, the

appropriateness of Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL)

questionnaire items has also been questioned when the items are administered to learners from different cultural contexts, as noted by Huang (2000), who also points out that learners may not be able to access some strategies, such as using rhymes or linking the sound of a new word to an image or picture. Further, learners may respond to the introduction of vague or ill-conceived strategies with different interpretations,

19

implementing them in inconsistent and perhaps ineffective ways.

Chen (1998) investigated Taiwanese EFL students’ vocabulary learning strategies. Among 275 participants in Chen’s study, there were 81 senior high school

students and 194 college freshmen. The same instrument used by Schmitt (1997) was applied. The results showed that bilingual dictionaries and verbal repetition were the two most helpful strategies, results that correspond to those of Schmitt (1997). In the two studies, both Taiwanese and Japanese learners of English have thus been shown to prefer shallow strategies. Moreover, comparing the two studies, Chen found that both Taiwanese and Japanese learners used more memory strategies than other strategies. This is consistent with a popular belief that Asian students prefer using memory strategies (Oxford, 1990).

The Importance of Vocabulary in Reading and Writing. It is widely

acknowledged that vocabulary plays a vital role in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The reason why the present researcher puts a particular emphasis on reading is that students need to read their English textbooks every day, and if they cannot recognize the vocabulary in the readings, they certainly will not comprehend the content. According to studies focusing on vocabulary and reading comprehension, there is a strong relationship between these capacities (Laufer, 1997; Nation, 1990;

Nation & Coady, 1988). Coady (1993) also found that vocabulary not only has a

20

positive effect on reading comprehension but also leads to reading proficiency. Even when they are aware of the importance of vocabularyreading comprehension, however, in the researcher's classes, senior high school students still think of learning

vocabulary as an obstacle in the learning of English, in that not being able to

recognize new words when reading is a serious problem for them. Through Laufer’s

(1997) discussion of the minimum vocabulary needed for reading comprehension, we can find out a little bit more about how much vocabulary is necessary for EFL

students to be able to comprehend English texts with ease. She suggests that the

―turning point‖ in vocabulary size for reading comprehension is about 3,000 word

families or 5,000 lexical items. That is, this is the size of vocabulary that ESL/EFL readers have to possess to comprehend an average English text. Laufer further claims that vocabulary size is related to reading comprehension assessment score and that when reaching this vocabulary threshold (3,000 word families or 5,000 lexical items), good L1 readers are more likely to begin to transfer their L1 reading strategies to their L2(Huang, 2000). However, if the competence of a reader does not reach the level, difficulties in reading and comprehending a text will persist.

It is somewhat surprising that most of thestudents considered in the above studies, even at the university level, had not yet reached the vocabulary threshold mentioned, since in theory they should know about 3,850 words when graduating

21

from high school (Wang, 2004). Their lack of adequate vocabulary thus prevents them from comprehending authentic English texts, and so they usually do not have time to apply their L1 reading strategies when reading an English text because they are instead busy decoding unknown words due to insufficient knowledge (Laufer, 1997).

As for writing, it is a complex activity that requires a large quantity of vocabulary to proceed successfully. In order to express their opinions or feelings in writing, students should be equipped with broad, deep vocabulary knowledge.

However, in this study, the underachiever participants were not expected to write an

article or passage in English, because they hardly knew the basic rules of English spelling, let alone writing. The researcher hoped to ―go back to the beginning‖ of

English learning to help them develop the ability to study English on their own and make it possible for them to write in the future.

Memorization of Vocabulary. There are many ways to memorize vocabulary.

Schmitt’s (1997) vocabulary learning system presents two memory strategies that the

present researcher takes up: one involves studying the spelling of words, and the other, their sounds. The reason for adopting these strategies is that students can always take the initiative under these methods by studying on their own using K. K. Macaro (2006) mentions that if a learner applies a suitable memory strategy to vocabulary learning, it will be possible to keep the new word in his or her long-term memory. Therefore, in

22

this study, the researcher tried to emphasize the importance of connecting K. K. to memorization of vocabulary and pronunciation.

Common Pronunciation Mistakes of EFL Students

It is undeniable that correct pronunciation helps English users be

understood. Being a native-like English speaker makes a person more persuasive in English. As a result, for English learners, gaining correct pronunciation of

vocabulary items from the very beginning of study becomes a crucial job. In the present researcher’s teaching experience, she has found that good pronunciation

depends on good listening ability: students should pay very close attention to what they hearand do shadow reading or shadow speaking immediately, in class.

The best medium to close any gap between the teacher’s speech and students’

listening skills is phonetic symbols.

Based on the researcher’s observations, many Taiwanese students cannot pronounce the sounds [ð] or [θ ] well. The [ð] sound is usually replaced by [d] or [l], while [θ ] turns into the [s] sound. The durations of long vs. short vowels are usually ignored, too, and differences between [e], [ε ], and [æ ] are problematic. If learners cannot tell the pronunciation differences between new words using these sounds by reference to a textbook presenting K. K. symbols for them, it may lead to mistakes in either spelling or pronunciation.

23

Underachievers

Underachievers are defined in this study as the bottom 25% of students in English learning assessment results. According to Kuo (2004), underachievers usually have some commonalities in academic performance and daily behavior. For example,

underachievers tend to get low grades and to fail to complete tests without leaving

underachievers tend to get low grades and to fail to complete tests without leaving