English sounds

We have to clearly teach, at least to try, our students how each sound is pronounced in this or that situation. Sounds are basic to learning a language, especially English, and those basic skills can help them in self-studying, which is very important. I don't have much experience in teaching, however, while teaching at school I notice that most students can't idendify phonetic sounds looking up a word in a dictionary. For example, I tell them to find the translation of a word and learn both the word, and the translation - the simply learn the translation without troubling themselves to find the right pronunciation because they don't know how to read the transcription, and that's my core goal - to teach them how to teach themselves.

If you are too interested in this topic, you can find some helpful material here:

www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/./pronunciation