IPA 

Our aim is to promote the teaching and learning of English phonetics in Hongkong. We provide high quality English phonetics (IPA) and pronunciation courses for people at all levels of spoken English.

The course "Practical English Phonetics and Phonology" is one of our most popular choices. We are very proud to say that the quality and popularity of this course has been key to establishing the good reputation of IPA (HK). Mr Derek Kwok, the Course Lecturer, is an experienced phonetics educator with over 10 years teaching experience in English phonetics. His innovative teaching techniques and moderate sense of humour make the complex phonetics principles all the easier to understand.

The courses "English Phonetics Classes for Students" and "Practical English Phonetics and Phonology for Teachers" have provided students and teachers of English in HK with a better channel through which to understand the most important theories and key skills in pronunciation and many other features of spoken English.

As this Web Site comes into existence, we can now offer our students of phonetics with continuous learning and practice support. The pages under our "Club News" section are especially dedicated towards this goal. We believe that through this Web Site, the students of IPA (HK) will be able to further enrich their knowledge of English phonetics and pronunciation even after they have completed our courses.

 

Today's selected word:

decide, decibel
decide v. 決定,決斷,確定
decibel n. 分貝(衡量聲音強度的單位)

讀音注意:
decide與decible二字前四個字母同為deci-, 由於二字重音位置不同, 相對的兩個音節內的元音亦不一樣. 另外留意decibel最後音節( 參考IPA及聆聽讀音示範), 讀音不等同label的bel! .
憑熟識字母組合的讀音, 去"推理"另一生字的讀音, 是我們讀錯字的主要原因. 學習phonics, 導致學生發音錯誤! 不信的話, 可以找一些學習了數年phonics的小學生, 看他又能否正確"拼出"decibel的讀音. 結果肯定會令所有家長失望.

The Problem of Phonics系列
本系列所選出的字例,有助大家認清英語字母及發音的不規律性;我們傾向憑熟悉的字或字母讀音組合,去推算另一生字的讀法而很容易出錯。因此我們不應依賴字母拼音或Phonics作為語音教學。要避免發音錯誤,除了聆聽可靠的示範外,是參考其國際音標(IPA)。
很多人對Phonics存有誤解,要了解清楚,可收看「英語發音網上講座

Derek Kwok


E.D.530468