First, Macro-Level Objectives:

* The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the sound system of English;

* Students will explore current literature on the teaching of phonology (e.g., the sound system of English) in second language (L2) classroom settings;

* Students will learn articulations of the sounds of speech are part of a complex and dynamic process, not a series of static positions of the organs of speech;

* The overall trajectory of the course lends (gradually increasing) weight to the importance of stress, rhythm, and intonation.  It proposes the utility of emphasizing these broader aspects of pronunciation over work on individual sound segments
 
* Students will engage in concrete examples of phonological problem-solving;

* Students will learn to use agreed upon labels (i.e., conventional specialist terminology) for the classification of both vowel and consonant sounds;

* Students examine consonant articulation according to manner of articulation, place of  articulation and voicing;

* The course highlights the instructional principle that a pronunciation syllabus should begin with the widest possible focus and move gradually in on more specific speech-intelligibility areas;

* Students will become familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as well as two other systems of broad phonetic transcription [e.g., Trager/Smith-Prator/Robinette (T/S-P/R) & an orthographically motivated system (OM)];

* The course provides practice opportunities in using these three systems, so that students can  learn not only separate sets of symbols, but the underlying  rationales and distinctive values of each;

* Students will have an opportunity to design a curriculum plan focused on the teaching of phonology in L2 classroom settings (e.g., ESL or EFL pronunciation)

Some Additional Objectives

To examine contemporary research and theory on the acquisition of L2 phonology.

To help separate our knowledge of writing from our knowledge of the  sound system;

To provide practice in transcribing not just words, but connected   speech, so that students can learn to record common patterns of   word-blending and other phonological processes;

To explore why different people use phonetic/phonemic alphabets in   slightly different ways;

To explore how an understanding of the English sound system relates   to general (as well as pronunciation-specific) L2 classroom   instruction;

To explore ways of incorporating attention to the English sound system  within ESL classrooms;

To discuss dialect, register, standards of correctness, and   grammaticality as related to the English sound system;

To provide practice in transcribing major patterns of variation in    American English, so that students can learn to record not only  the geographical and social dialects they may need to compare,  but a range of stylistic and sociolinguistic registers;

To challenge common myths many people have about the English   orthographic (writing) system and its relationship to the sound   system:

To demonstrate that English spelling is not simply an imperfect   alphabetic system, as commonly assumed, but that it also uses  other principles, such as morphophonemic consistency;

To point out that standard classifications of phonemic units contain   inaccuracies or, at the very least, overgeneralizations;

To discuss common phonological processes such as accommodation, assimilation, voicing, devoicing, palatalization,   resyllabification, deletion, insertion, syllabic consonants, etc.

To define and discuss suprasegmentals: stress, emphasis, intonation,   rate, rhythm, and tone.