Getting A+ for HG2003 Phonetics and Phonology

Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

HG2003 Phonetics and Phonology

Faculty	School of Humanities (SoH)
Semester Taken	AY2024-25 Semester 2
Instructor(s)	Prof. Lai Yunfan Tutor Zhang Shiyu
Credits	3au
Delivery Format	Weekly: 1 lecture (1h 50min) + 1 tutorial (50min)

What is HG2003 Phonetics and Phonology about?

This mod introduces the scientific study of speech sounds – how they are produced, transmitted, and perceived. The module is split into two main halves:

• Phonetics, where you'll learn about:

  • The anatomy and physiology of speech production (vocal tract, airflow, articulators)

  • Different sound types like stops, fricatives, approximants, and nasals

  • The use and interpretation of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

  • Acoustic analysis (e.g. reading spectrograms)

• Phonology, which explores:

  • How speech sounds are organised in the mind and across languages

  • Concepts like phonemes, allophones, and natural classes

  • Phonological rules and processes (e.g. assimilation, deletion, dissimilation)

  • Syllable structure

You’ll work with both English and non-English data to apply theoretical concepts… and by the end of the course you'll be so IPA native that you read [θ] before you think of ‘th’ and catch yourself transcribing everything you hear in your head.

Assessment Breakdown

Component	Weightage
Quiz 1: Phonetics	25%
Assignment 1: Phonetics	20%
Quiz 2: Phonology	25%
Assignment 2: Phonology	20%
Attendance	10%

My Experience

I was caught off guard at first as the IPA was like a foreign alphabet with so many different symbols and sounds to remember. During one of the tutorials we had some sort of mock test where we had to transcribe a list of unfamiliar sounds into IPA... and I scored a humbling 1/17😭 I didn't even know what was going on but it just made me realise how much I didn't know and how work I had to put in.

Certain parts of the mod can get quite technical as we had to interpret spectrograms like this:

You’re essentially asked to “read” a graph of frequency over time, spot formants, and piece together what consonants or vowels might be present. It's like a puzzle and sometimes you just have to put 2 and 2 together and pray for the best.

You also learn some anatomy regarding how the larynx and different articulators e.g. tongue, lips and teeth work together to produce speech sounds.

FYI photos were taken in tutorial class i.e. my mind drew a blank when I saw these slides so I had to take pics to revisit at a later time😭

Anyway getting the 1/17 in class was a huge wake-up call and it lit some sort of fire in me to pull up my socks...

Study Tips

Let’s start with Quiz 1, which covers phonetics. This one’s all about getting super familiar with the IPA chart and knowing your places and manners of articulation inside out. My advice is to try breaking things up. Pick maybe three symbols per place of articulation, learn how they sound, and slowly build on that across the semester. It makes the process much less overwhelming and a lot more effective.

You’ll also need to understand the anatomy behind speech. Learn what the articulators are, what the larynx does, and which muscles are involved in producing different types of sounds. It sounds intense at first, but it really does come together the more you expose yourself to it.

For the quiz, we were allowed to bring an annotated IPA chart and a double-sided A4 cheat sheet. These are lifesavers, but only if you know how to use them well. Make sure you know what every symbol actually sounds like. If not, add little notes to your chart as reminders. YouTube was my absolute best friend for this. There are loads of videos explaining phonetic sounds, articulation, and the IPA in a way that is easy to remember. If you want a head start, you can even begin watching these before the semester starts.

Also, don’t skip the lecture slides. The examples your prof gives are very likely to come up in the quiz. Beyond knowing the theory, you need to be ready for application-based questions too. According to the prof, a lot of people did well for this quiz – I scored 88/100.

Quiz 2 also allows an annotated IPA chart and a double-sided A4 cheat sheet. But don’t get too comfortable as the prof warned us it would be harder than Quiz 1 since so many people did well previously. HE WASN'T KIDDING.

In the mock quizzes, Question 3 was always an open-ended one where we had to do phonological analysis.

Example of q3 from one of the mock quizzes.

When we saw the model answers for his mock quizzes, a lot of us were stunned because they were waaay more structured and detailed than anything we had learnt. I screenshotted them and pasted the whole chunk into my cheat sheet. That way, I had a reference for how to properly structure those open-ended answers during the test. Definitely recommend doing the same. To be frank, half the learning came from making the cheat sheet itself, so don’t just ask your friends to send you theirs. You’ll remember and understand way more by doing it yourself.

Assignment 1 was pretty manageable. We had to transcribe sentences to IPA and also convert IPA back into English. The tricky part came when we were given audio recordings of the professor speaking in a heavy accent. What helped me was transcribing in General American English first, then tweaking each word slowly based on what I heard. This made it easier to narrow down the changes and get closer to the actual transcription. I got 90/100.

Assignment 2 was where things got real. We were given excerpts in Murcian and Madrilenian Spanish dialects and had to describe the phonological processes in each. This part was toughhhh and I have a strong feeling a lot of people used AI. Please don’t. AI might give you a basic summary, but it won’t catch the fine-grained patterns or let you stand out.

Pro-tip: Put everything into a table line by line so you can better analyse the text.

What I did was put each line into a table so I could analyse the text more clearly. It helped me go systematically and notice patterns that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. The devil is really in the details for this one, and generic answers won’t get you very far.

If you need help figuring the assignments out, feel free to reach out! I'd be happy to share in greater detail.

Final tip: One thing I cannot stress enough!! Do not skip class for this mod. HG2003 moves fast. A lot is covered in just one lecture or tutorial, and it’s not the kind of content you can easily catch up on just by reading the slides. The explanations and examples given live really help everything click, especially when it comes to trickier concepts like phonological rules or fine IPA distinctions.

Even when I fell off for a bit mid-semester, I made it a point to keep showing up. Just being in the room helped me stay aware of what was going on, how far behind I was, and what I needed to catch up on. So even if you feel lost, go anyway. It’s better to be confused in class than completely clueless on your own.

Prof: 5/5 Stars

• Extremely passionate and knowledgeable – really knows his stuff.

• Happy to clarify doubts after lectures and will even send mass emails to clarify concepts.

Final grade: A+ YAYYY!