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1.

Introduction
The teaching of pronunciation has witnessed remarkable changes
throughout the history of language teaching and learning. As one of the
most neglected aspects of English language teaching, pronunciation has
gained attention only in the past half of the 20th
century with the rise of Audiolingualism and the Direct Method. Throughout
history, teachers and applied linguists have been concerned with the
difficulty of teaching this skill. In this respect, the present essay endeavors
to highlight the importance of phonology in the teaching of the
pronunciation with a special focus on vowels.
2. Key notions: phonetics vs phonology.
Everyone born with the normal capacity to learn acquires the ability to listen
and speak long before the ability to read or write . For this reason, the
notions of phonetics and phonology must not be overlooked in a
comprehensive study of a foreign language. On the one hand, phonology is
concerned with the study of the sound systems of languages and of the
general properties displayed by these systems. Phonetics, on the other
hand, studies all possible sounds that the human vocal apparatus can make.
Thus, in contrast to phonetics, phonology only studies the contrasts in the
sounds which make a difference in meaning within the language. Therefore,
when we talk about the phonological system of English, we are referring to
the number of phonemes which are used in this language, and to how they
are organized.
3. The pure vowel sounds.
It is generally accepted that most accents of English include about 20
vowels which can differ from one variety to another. However, when we deal
with Standard English, we can state that there are 12 pure vowels which
according to the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). These vowels are
represented as follows: i:, I, e, , , a:, , :, , , u:, :, .
All vowels have certain properties in common which distinguish them from
consonants:
1. From a phonetic point of view, they are articulated with a relatively
opened configuration of the vocal tract.
2. From a phonological perspective, vowels are voiced, that is, they involve
the vibration of the vibration of the vocal cords.
One important factor when describing vowels is the length, which is
symbolized in the phonetic alphabet by colon [:]. Regarding this feature, five
of the twelve vowels are long in duration, while seven are relatively short.
However, the contrast between long and short vowels is not just one of
length, since a different place of articulation (the location at which two
speech organs approach or come together in producing a speech sound) is

also involved. Thats why we have different symbols, for example, between
long i: and short I.

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