Studying Phonetics of the English Language as a compulsory course is a part of the educational process for first-year students of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University who have enrolled in the specialization A4.021 Secondary education (English language and Foreign literature). This subject is important to study, because on the one hand, students for the first time, compared to school, are deeply immersed in the multi-level system of phonetics of English as a second foreign language in order to have enough knowledge and skills to teach it to school students themselves at a higher level, and on the other hand, they simultaneously get to form and/or develop the macro skills of mastering the language as such, namely: speaking, listening, and partly reading.
However, in the process of getting acquainted with the course and within the studying process itself, students may encounter a number of difficulties due to the specificity of the subject and a number of related reasons. In this scientific paper, I offer to consider the main ones, which can prepare lecturers of similar subjects for suchlike challenges together with students.
The first challenge that arises for students and indirectly for the lecturer is the complex professional and scientific vocabulary that permeates the theoretical material. Besides difficult-to-remember names and formulations in English, students are faced with a large amount of terminology in Latin, in particular in the names of speech organs, classifications of sound types, processes that occur during speech, etc. In order to understand and remember the material, students need a sufficient level of English knowledge (B2 is a prerequisite), as well as good attention and concentration in classes to assimilate critical information. After all, in addition to their own understanding of the specifics of speech and the correct transmission of information in English, they have to develop the skills necessary to explain these processes to their future school students in with the references to the Ukrainian language or fully in Ukrainian (depending on their grade/year at school).
The second difficulty is the difference in the sounds themselves, their qualities and the positions of the organs for their formation when comparing English and Ukrainian. Additionally to the frequent mismatch of the sound to the letter or its name in English, future school teachers are faced with sounds that 1) do not exist in the system of their native language at all, 2) are similar to Ukrainian, but do not fully correspond to them, 3) are variations of allophones in one language and different phonemes in another. In the first situation, students do not yet have the muscle memory to form a specific sound, for instance, to pronounce alveolar /d/ or /t/ or nasalized velar /ŋ/, so they must train fruitfully. Surprisingly, with practice, most of them manage to remember such sounds quite quickly and learn how to achieve their correct pronunciation. The second issue is more complicated, because the similarity in the sound of the Ukrainian and English versions can make it difficult for students to distinguish them and lead to incorrect interchangeability, which can be expressed in an audible accent when communicating in English or even led to a serious misunderstanding [1]. Furthermore, if it is impossible to distinguish the sounds of the two language systems, future teachers risk the reliability of their educational material. Besides the difference in the way sounds are formed, Ukrainian and English are relatively distinguished by allophonic variants, that is, one phoneme, which can vary in the way it is pronounced depending on the position in a word in one language, can be represented by two separate phonemes (and phones in speech) in the other language. In order to teach schoolchildren to distinguish them at a practical level, teachers must learn it themselves and have sufficient theoretical training to explain such subtleties in accessible language. Although secondary and high school students learn things deliberately and not subconsciously in the way of a game, like primary school students [2], clear explanations and examples are still necessary.
It is also important to note the difficulties that arise in studying the thematic block dedicated to stress and intonation. Since the type of speech in English is clearly rhythm-timed, students are faced with different ways of pronouncing individual sounds and even words depending on whether they are stressed in a sentence or not. Students must learn to distinguish the rules of pronunciation of individual phonemes and in combinations with other sounds in words, phrases and sentences, so that in the future they will be able to describe and explain the phenomenon of different pronunciation of the same sounds in different situations in English, in addition to their dependence on spelling. Intonation patterns, which are somewhat similar to those in Ukrainian, confuse students, especially in interrogative sentences, the type of which determines whether the intonation rises or falls. Since the latter plays a significant role in communication, particularly for expressing confidence or uncertainty [3], it is extremely important to observe the correct intonation and understand the specifics behind its formation.
Thus, generally speaking, future school teachers should gain in-depth knowledge and develop professional skills in using and teaching English at a high level. Understanding the challenges that await university lecturers in preparing such specialists can help to better tailor the subject to students` needs, prepare a high-quality educational and methodological complex with the possibility of using multimodal means of presenting information for easier perception of complex materials, and better navigate the course.
References
1. Вакуленко А. І. Potential Difficulties in Differentiating Phonemes in the English as a Second Language Learning Process for Ukrainian Speakers. Світ наукових досліджень. Випуск 44: матеріали міжнародної мультидисциплінарної наукової інтернет-конференції. (Тернопіль-Ополе, 23–24 вересня, 2025). С. 65–66.
2. How young children learn English as another language. URL: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/parents/helping-your-child/how-young-children-learn-english-another-language. (Last accessed: 19.02.2026).
3. IMPORTANCE OF INTONATION IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE. URL: https://affluentenglish.com/importance-of-intonation-in-english-language/. (Last accessed: 19.02.2026).
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