PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION IN TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TO FIRST YEAR EFL STUDENTS OF TEXTILE ENGINEERING

Phonemic transcription by using IPA is the most traditional as well as the most widely used technique for teaching pronunciation to learners of English as a foreign or second language. Although the effectiveness of IPA and phonemic transcription has been an issue of debate among language teachers and researchers alike, it has still been supported by a number of researchers and language practitioners. The present study is conducted on a group of students of Bangladesh University of Textiles with a view to measuring the effectiveness of teaching IPA and phonemic transcription to improve pronunciation. The methodology includes focused-group experimentation. The paper aims to assess the efficacy of teaching IPA and phonemic transcription in improving the pronunciation of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) on the basis of the pronunciation achievements by learners of the focused-group experimentation.  It also evaluates the merits of some useful techniques and activities for teaching IPA and phonemic transcription to the EFL students in improving their pronunciation in focused-group training sessions. Finally, the paper concludes by giving some recommendations for effective teaching of pronunciation to EFL students in the light of the experimental study and recent researches on pronunciation teaching.