We all have strengths… and we all have weaknesses. Some of us rock out whipping out fabulous IEPs and others of us can create a cute craftivity using little to no brain power.
Well, I confess… I have a weakness. I know, I know, I can hear all of you gasping at the thought. A speech lady who is not perfect in every area of life? It cannot be! Well I hate to burst your bubble but the nasty rumor is true. (I hope you can all hear the sarcasm in this! ;)
I am not so good at phonetics. I never really liked the class in undergrad of grad school. This is not a reflection of the professor, but rather my instinct to not love something that I am not naturally good at. I used to poor over pages of homework for hours and hours saying words over and over and over and over and over. Then I would get someone else to say the words over and over and over and over. As time went on in my school career I got better at phonetics and transcribing. I had to practice constantly so I wouldn't forget what I had learned.
Then I got a job in the real world and was not required to test my own students. I only had to transcribe on rare occasions. Therefore, I was out of the habit of transcribing and it was a nightmare all over again!
Incase any of you can relate to not being a super star in the land of phonetics I wanted to share a little treasure that made my life and phonetics class much easier!
Behold, Merriam-Webseter’s A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English. This little treasure is a guide to using the International Phonetic Alphabet. It lists words and variations of the phonetic spelling. It was a great way to double check myself!
I hope that some of you find it useful too!
