TEACHING PRACTICAL PHONETICS AT AN ECONOMIC UNIVERSITY: CHALLENGES OF A NEW PROGRAMME

Abstract

Phonetics is a branch of Linguistics similar to Lexicology and Grammar. It studies ‘the sound system of the language, that is segmental phonemes, word stress, syllabic structure and intonation’ (Sokolova et al. 1996, 6). Practical Phonetics is a subject at the Faculty of Linguistics of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE), which is taught to 1^st year students during one academic year. The article reports on the experience of course design in Practical Phonetics, one-year experience of teaching and assessment of students throughout the academic year. It also gives results of students’ survey in which they were asked to give their opinion about the present course and to suggest amendments to it for future. Surprisingly, the majority of students approved of the course and did not suggest any changes. The author, nevertheless, summarised their ideas about certain modifications to the course in order to help students to better fit in the world linguistic community and look upon the subject of Practical Phonetics as a necessary integral part of the overall discipline – the Practical Course of English.