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The English language is already the most popular international business language, and is currently spoken by a shade under a billion people, of whom only about 300 million are native speakers. Over the next decade the number of non-native English speakers is projected to increase to over 2 billion, about 30% of the world’s population.

This means that already the majority of all English communication in the world is between non-native speakers. With this in mind, it’s really important that English teachers and their students truly understand correct pronunciation. This is where a phonemic chart is so valuable.

Many English words aren’t spoken the way they are written for example ‘rough’ which many non-native speakers might be tempted to spell ‘ruf’. Spell checkers would probably detect this misspelling, but other examples might be more subtle.

In spoken communication, many non-native speakers already struggle with English sounds that might not appear in their language. But what happens when words with similar spellings have different sounds, such as ‘rough’ and ‘through’. Imagine saying ‘thruf’. This is where the phonemic alphabet comes to the rescue.

Students learn better when teachers spell words phonemically. It allows them to see the obvious differences in sounds using an alphabet that is consistent. All words that sound the same, will be spelled the same. Of course the phonemic alphabet can be a challenge to learn, so why not print out a copy of one of the free versions available online, try the English Skool phonemic chart.