Posted by
Burgundy
20 yrs ago
Ed,
Someone asked where their kids could learn phonics, and I suggested they learn phonetics instead.
I got a warning saying this recommendation was unacceptable.
Please explain. Thank you.
Please support our advertisers:
I don't mind any rules or censorship - it's Ed's server etc - but of all the things one might censor, few people would put linguistics at the top of the list. Or maybe Ed thinks we're touting for business (you as a hairdresser and me teaching in Cantonese about English phonetics).
Please support our advertisers:
Ed
20 yrs ago
If we see a company or web site being posted on multiple questions the assumption is that this is spam... and in most cases we find that it is a company representative recommending themselves which is generally a no no particularly if they do not indicate they are from the company...
Please support our advertisers:
Imagine you are a 5 year old kid. You're struggling to learn a new language that's directly opposite to your own native language, in terms of graphemic and phonemic representation, as well as syntax. You are then told you will learn a third alphabet consisting of greek characters, which you won't see in everyday life, just when you are learning how to pronounce sounds. How do you think you will manage?
The IPA is not recommended for younger learners because of this and also because it does not teach children to recognise spelling patterns for each phoneme.
Please support our advertisers:
singsing,
You can teach 3 year old kids the sounds of the IPA without teaching them the IPA symbols... you do it through play, mimicking cetain animal sounds, etc.
For example, English kids (unlike the Scots and the Germans) have no natural "ch" sound as in "loch". But give a group of 3 yo kids licence to hawk out their phlegm coolee style into a bowl, and they learn that "ch" really fast.
But the teacher - as distinct from the kid - still needs to know the IPA symbols, to keep things on course: the problem in HK is that the teachers don't know the IPA so they don't know exactly what sounds to aim at. For example, if you asked most local teachers of English whether or not the vowel and consonant sounds in "don't you" and "don't chew" were identical, few would be confident in their answer.
You teach kids the IPA symbols later, at 8 or 9, which will help them with all foreign language learning.
Please support our advertisers:
Ed
20 yrs ago
My recollection was seeing that web site recommended on a bunch of threads then if I recall correctly a thread was started recommending that web site - this is not allowed.
Matilda is cc'ed all questions on the medical forums so that where appropriate they can get answers from their specialists to medical questions and post generaly recommendations... it is after all the medical forum so it makes sense to have medical professionals involved (we have some doctors participating too)
Please support our advertisers:
Ed
20 yrs ago
If we find that someone is recommending themselves - and indicating they are not associated with the company, we will delete their posting and consider banning them if they continue to do so.
This system is not perfect and mistakes will be made but at the end of the day its all about trying to keep the credibility and usefullness of the forums.
Please support our advertisers:
You must be logged in to be able to reply.
Login now
Copy Link
Facebook
Gmail
Mail