During the last two centuries, many phonetic systems were developed by linguists who wanted to document and compare all the language sounds they encountered in their studies of world languages. They aimed for a comprehensive set that would represent every speech sound possible. This was before the internet, when it took ages to find out what was happening academically in other parts of the world (if linguists were just starting this quest now, we would probably all be seeing the same symbols on the internet). The most prevalent system in use at this time is the IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet.
When I got my masters in TESOL ages ago, there were 8 phonetic systems that were popular. Prator-Robinett was the one we were taught, but others were referenced in our studies.
Here is a chart that compares symbol sets used to represent language sounds. I “xeroxed” it to save it and it’s finally come to use! comparison of phonetic systems, including IPA.pdf
Big educational organizations developed all their teacher and student materials based on the phonetic system established as the “gold standard”, the IPA. Oxford Press led the way, next came American publishers and later, others. Everyone followed the leading phonetic system choice so we could all talk to each other about languages sounds using the same phonetic symbols.
And then…the internet was born. And teachers could talk to each other and share their pronunciation teaching experiences. And we realized that a tool made for linguists might not be a good tool for teachers. In English, for example, the IPA symbol ‘e’ is used to represent the sound in the word say, which is spelled with the letter A. There are other examples, like symbol ‘j’ representing the letter Y sound.
This is a big challenge for beginner students who are just learning the English alphabet. Teachers avoided teaching pronunciation, and were even directed not to teach it until students were at an intermediate skill level, when they would be better able to handle a new set of symbols.
But teacher talk continued and American online dictionaries listened. They began changing their symbols over the last decade. Look at m-w.com, Merriam Webster. They use the symbol ? for the vowel sound in the word say, so that the alphabet letter and the symbol are the same. Say is represented as s?. M-W and other dictionaries have taken advantage of every opportunity to tie English letters to symbols and decrease confusion and frustration for learners.
Oxford’s dictionary, on the other hand, stays committed to the global standard used in their publishing materials. In their IPA, the word say is phonetically spelled: sei. They have a huge global leadership position and investment to protect and will probably never change. And it does make sense to use a system that everyone, in the English speaking world at least, can understand and communicate with.
OK, so much for the history lesson. Now for the second part of your question about which one you should use.
The best choice, in my opinion, is the one your students can understand and use to their advantage in learning English sounds.
If you are teaching beginning level English learners, who are also just learning the English alphabet, I suggest you look to Judy Thompson’s color system. She’s a Canadian teacher who realized that there is a color name in English with each English vowel sound. For example, the word black has the AE sound in it. Red has the short E sound in it. Gray has the long AY sound in it. She uses the alphabet letters to represent the sounds—no weird symbols. If you type ‘Judy Thompson color chart’ until your URL bar, you’ll see images of her color system. With this system, all you have to do is teach your beginners the color names and from then on, you can use a color to help your students know what sound the letter should make. She even made a dictionary with the most frequently used words used in English, arranged in chapters by the color/sound in their stressed syllable. This is especially helpful for teaching prominence in syllable stress. It’s titled How Do You Say? and it’s available online. If you can’t find it, let me know and I’ll connect you with Judy.
- If you are teaching intermediate and higher level students, you have two choices. pick a phonetic system you are comfortable with, use it and teach with it. It’s all about your teaching and student learning.
- Find out what your students are using and use that yourself.
If you are going to be spending a lot of instructional time with your students, you have the luxury of time—you can teach them your own symbol choices and tell them why you have chosen those symbols.
If you have little time to spend with students on pronunciation, choose something that will be easy for all to understand so you can get on with the teaching and learning.
When I use a pronunciation resource, I always check and see what symbols they are using and I ‘run interference’ to make sure my students understand any symbol or sound confusions.
This next part isn’t about symbols, but it is about sounds. Over the decades of teaching pronunciation, I developed a memorable, effective way to teach my students English sounds—a set of gestures that make learning English sounds, especially vowels, much easier to teach and understand. You can see me demonstrate them my Udemy course, where I also talk teachers through the process of deciding on a phonetic symbol system to use. The course is called How to Teach English Vowels for Mastery. You can find it by searching my name, Peggy Tharpe on Udemy. Once your students know the gestures, they understand much more intuitively how the articulation of English sounds differs from their first language sounds and their muscle memories for the sounds are more permanent.