Teaching English in Japan

The Virtual Language Centre's English Pronunciation site covers vowels (simple vowels, complex vowels), consonants (voiced and voiceless sounds), exercises, more. To go to the sound files pages, click on the images of each sound's phonetic symbol.

Information and resources (including sound recordings and fonts) from the IPA, whose aim is to promote the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. (quote from website)

The IPAPhon family is an attractive typeface with the complete set of phonetic symbols as set out in the most recent (1995) revision of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This phonetic font contains the usual upper- and lower-case letters, numerals, and punctuation marks, plus symbols. Font versions include Macintosh TrueType and PostScript, Windows TrueType.

A tutorial-style article guides you through the steps of downloading, installing and using IPA software.

Article. "By viewing English as a tool for international intelligibility, we establish a new perspective on pronunciation goals, with priorities that are both fewer in number and more realistic than those previously set. For monolingual groups the learner’s first language is a vital tool in achieving these new goals, and the bilingual non-native speaker teacher is an ideal instructor." (Originally published in English Teaching Professional, Issue 21, October 2001.)