English Phonetics and Phonology: the contributions of the website BBC Learning English to the teaching of pronunciation

Abstract

This article aims at presenting an analysis of the website BBC Learning English, especially, a section of the page, called Pronunciation tips, whose focus is on the teaching of pronunciation. This analysis was carried out through observations and analyses of the activities as well as transcription of some videos, in order to describe both aesthetic and visualization aspects of the website and the content related to the English phonetics and phonology. The main studies used to ground this research were Roach (2009), Nunan (1991), Ur (1991), and Kartal and Uzun (2010). Our study leads us to consider that although there is phonological content related to the supra-segmental aspects, there is a larger focus on English phonetics, prioritizing the segmental features of the language.