IPA Learning Centre

Our aim is to promote the teaching and learning of English phonetics in Hongkong. Our teaching centre, the IPA Learning Centre, is an Education Bureau registered school located in Kowloon. 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:

wolf vs ɡolf
讀音注意:
以上二字同樣有相同的元音字母O,在wolf發/ʊ/音,在ɡolf發/ɒ/音。

為何wolf與ɡolf同樣有-olf字母, 但其元音卻不同?
需由詞源學(etymology)入手.
Wolf一字早見於古英語(old English), 當時串法是wulf. 到中古英語後改為串wolf. 但讀音仍保留早期讀法.
而ɡolf一字源出於荷蘭語(kolf). 見於中古英語(middle English)後期. 因此兩字元音不同.
我們在不了解英語詞源及語音變化因素之前, 依賴字母去推算其讀音, 是讀錯字的原因之一.

事實上字母O可以發出以下元音:
/əʊ/ - e.ɡ. ɡo, no
/ɒ/ - e.ɡ. hot, ɡod
/ɔː/ - e.ɡ. horse, port
/uː/ - e.ɡ. who, move
/ʌ/ - e.ɡ. one, mother
/ɜː/ - e.ɡ. work, worm
/ʊ/ - e.g. woman, to
/ɪ/ - women
/ə/ - method, police


The Myth 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)。

- Derek Kwok
E.D.530468