symbols. Some people have a more analytical mindset than
others, and learning to use phonemic symbols will feel
natural and comfortable for them. Others might feel
threatened by the prospect of having to master a new and
unfamiliar system.
Expectations: Even among adults, individuals react to a
phonemic alphabet in di"erent ways. Many !nd the symbols
reassuring. They seem comfortingly academic and familiar,
since many people have seen them before in dictionaries or
textbooks. The student thinks, “Ah, good. This is what
pronunciation lessons are supposed to look like!” Others who
have never used a phonemic alphabet might feel confused or
frustrated.
Learning styles: People learn new things in di"erent ways
—through seeing, through hearing, and through doing. (They
use visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning
modalities.) Written symbols are especially valuable for
learners whose strength is visual learning. They need to see
something to really understand it. People whose strength is
auditory learning may not need this visual reinforcement as
much. Learners who favor kinesthetic learning might respond
better to gestures, hand signals, or other movements than to
phonemic symbols for representing sounds.
Requirements: In some teaching situations, you might be
required or expected to use phonemic symbols. If so, of
course you’ll need to follow your school’s expectations, but
introduce the symbols gradually. Explain why the symbols
are useful, and let students see and use them often enough so
that they’ll be comfortable using them.Is the phonemic alphabet outdated? We might wonder
if it’s still necessary to use a phonemic alphabet in these days
of electronic dictionaries, cell phones, tablets, and other
devices that can pronounce words for us. Has the phonemic
alphabet become obsolete?I think that there is still great value in using written symbols
to represent sounds. Recorded words are helpful, but they
slip by quickly and their sounds can be hard to catch,
especially if the sound quality from tiny speakers is not clear,
if there’s background noise, or if the user of the device must
keep the volume turned low to avoid disturbing others.Written symbols are more permanent than sounds. We can
take our time to look at them, think about them, and try to
say them to ourselves. Phonemic symbols also help learners
to pin down the sounds and connect them to a particular
phoneme that they’ve learned. If we only hear a new word,
we might think, “What were those sounds? Did I hear this200