Please add phonetic transcription in English lesson
I want to English phonetic transcription display in lesson page because I often use lingq where I can’t use a speaker or microphones.
This is a open source English pronouncing dictionary. http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cmudict
it contains over 134,000 entries words, but it doesn’t support part of speech.
It has special phonetic transcription called ‘ARPABET’.
Personally, I don’t think this is a good idea. I don’t think it is fruitful to spend a lot of time visually recognizing a linguistic pronunciation system. In effect, this is an additional “language” and will not help you recognize the spelling of English words which is what you need to do.
When you learn to read in any language that has letters, you learn to recognize common combinations of letters that form words and how they are pronounced. The more you see a given word and hear how it is pronounced, the faster you will connect the spelling and the pronunciation together as a package.
There is no point in practicing “reading” a technical pronunciation system. Since you already know over 7,000 words, I doubt that you need a whole paragraph or even whole sentences written in a phonetic transcription. Instead, you need to learn how new words and phrases are pronounced.
If you can’t use headphones where you regularly do LingQ lessons, then just read the text and learn the meaning of the new words. Later, when you are in a place where you can use headphones, listen to the lesson. I suggest that you print out the lesson and listen to how the person pronounces the words. This time, you are not listening for meaning, but only for pronunciation. Pay attention to the new words that you don’t know. In the printed text, underline the syllable that is accented in any words where you need that reminder. Write above or below any word how it is pronounced in any way that makes sense to you, using your native language if that helps. When you yourself write out how a word is pronounced, you will remember it better than by “reading” a phonetic transcription. The act of writing reinforces what you are doing. Also, you are only doing this for new words so you are more likely to remember them since there are few of them. Read the lesson out loud to practice the pronunciation of the new words and phrases. In this way, you will reinforce the pronunciation of the words as they are in fact written in English. You will do two things at once: visually recognize how the words are spelled and learn how they are pronounced.
I am learning Russian and there are no rules for where the accent falls in words (unlike in Spanish which is very easy). Thus, I have to hear how each new word is pronounced. I do underline where the accent is when I write the word for the first time if it is not obvious. I also underline the accented syllable in words in texts that I print out if I don’t already know it. For me, “reading” a phonetic transcription of the Russian word in the Latin alphabet is HARDER for me than “reading” the Russian letters.
I don’t agree with @TraceyG. I find myself often looking up English words in the dictionary just to check the pronunciation, same thing in Russian, precisely to check where the stress is located. I think it’s useful as a double check. It’s not really like learning a new language at all. I do favor IPA but I also use some respelling systems.
Notice that Merrian Webster site recognizes that many native speakers look up words just to check proper pronuncitation.
In the case of the OP, who can’t hear the TTS output, this feature is especially useful
Notice that I also find more difficult to read Latin-transliterated Russian than Cyrillic but this is not equivalent to what the OP proposes, it’s more similar to a dictionary that includes stress marks on Cyrillic words, which I find extremely useful, especially if it also shows changes of stress for different cases. I almost exclusively use dictionaries (online or othewise) that include that feature
I think the proposed feature would make for a useful addition to Lingq functionality
ftornay, I think you’ve misunderstood what I was saying. Of course it is useful to look up how a word is pronounced initially if one is not sure. (Personally I would recommend hearing how it is pronounced which one can do for example on forvo.com by native speakers if the material on LingQ does not have an auditory feature. ) However, merely finding out how a word is pronounced is not my understanding of what the original poster (OP) was proposing. Instead, I understood that he wanted the entire texts written – transcribed if you will – into the pronunciation aid.
I don’t think this is helpful because I doubt that any learner past the introductory stage needs a whole text transcribed in this fashion. Certainly after a few lessons there will be words that one already knows how to pronounce on the page. I for one would not want to see the pronunciation transcriptions of words that I already know as it would clutter up the page with information I don’t need or want.
Alternatively, if the original poster meant that he wanted the written pronunciation transcription to appear in the lingq, as the definition presently does in a separate window, then this is possible but to me is no substitute for hearing a native speaker pronounce words and phrases which LinggQ already provides. Yes, a written system can indicate which syllable is stressed in a word but for a non-native speaker, the written pronunciation guide does not adequately convey the nuances of how vowels and consonants are pronounced in the target language or the cadence and rhythm of strings of words. To me, the great advantage that the internet affords in language learning over book learning is precisely the ability to HEAR native speakers pronounce words and phrases in myriad contexts. Books could teach grammar rules and vocabulary but did a poor job of guiding learners to correctly pronounce words and phrases and were even worse at preparing their listening skills.
In short, for me no written pronunciation system can compare to listening to how a native speaker pronounces words and phrases. Listening is critical both for developing the learner’s pronunciation as well as comprehension skills. This is true at all stages of language learning but is especially important in the beginning and intermediate stages. Thus, for the original poster, I still would recommend somehow finding a way to listen to the lessons on LingQ.
Yes, I think I missed your point. Thank you for the clarification. Listening to native pronunciation is, of course, superior to phonetic representation but it’s not an absolute replacement. It’s often hard to reproduce exact pronunciation from just audio. If it weren’t, native speakers themselves would never have any doubts about pronunciation, which is hardly the case.
Anyway, now I understand your point. I think you’re right that whole transcription of texts may not be the best idea becauselearners might end up depending too heavily on it for your reading comprehension. As you say, getting a phonetic representation on the dictionary window may be the best solution. I wonder if there are online dictionaries that provide systematic transcriptions and that can appear directly on the dict box (as opposed to a new window). That possibility might strike the best balance plus it would be much easier to implement than adding new code for full-text transcription.