Why study Phonetics?

Why study Phonetics?

Obviously it’s a fundamental part of Linguistics, so no-one studying this subject can ignore it. But for students of languages, there are also practical advantages to be gained from knowing some basic Phonetics.
Firstly, you should be able to improve your pronunciation of foreign languages if you have a clearer idea of how the sounds are actually produced. Troublesome sounds like French r, German ü or Spanish j lose their mystery and become less daunting once you know how they relate to other more familiar sounds. And there are various general features of the “British accent” which can be characterized by phonetic analysis: when you know what it is that makes British accents so British, you’ll be well on the way to getting rid of yours (if you have one: most
people do to some extent at least). What’s more, you’ll be able to look up the pronunciation of words in the dictionary once you’re familiar with the phonetic alphabet.

Secondly, many of you will at some stage or other nd yourselves teaching a language to other people: either French, German, Spanish, etc. if you make a career of teaching, or English if you are involved in ESOL (English as a Second Language, also known as EFL: English as a Foreign Language). ESOL is not just a useful source of vac jobs: it is a serious career in itself. And many students spend year 3 of their degree course working abroad as English language teachers.

In all such cases, you are likely to have to help learners to improve their accents. If someone is having difculty with English th, it’s not much help just to tell them “don’t say it like that, say it like I do”. (Unless they’re natural mimics, in which case they won’t need instruction from you anyway.) Much better if you can guide them to make the appropriate tongue movements, on a basis of your knowledge of phonetics.