What is a phoneme, and why are they important?
A phoneme is defined as ‘the smallest unit of sound in a language system’. This could be illustrated by the sounds of /p/, /b/, /d/, and /t/ in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat. For a student to consistently produce these sounds, they must train themselves to hear them. So the path to proper English pronunciation starts with listening and identifying, NOT speaking! Once they can accurately differentiate between phonemes, and pick out matching ones from tapes and videos, they can progress to forming the sounds themselves. Think of this type of learning as a accelerated version of an infant’s language learning experience! Babies start by imitating distinct sounds, then moving up to sound combinations, and finally distinct words. Different languages use the tongue, mouth and cheeks differently, so diagrams of how to hold these facial muscles to properly produce the desired sound are extremely helpful. Videos can also be instructive, as the students can mimic the speakers on the sc
