This paper discusses the genealogy of London School of Phonetics using the framework and theory of Donald Stokes’ Pasteur’s Quadrant (1997). The first quadrant (top-right and called Pasteur’s Quadrant) is characterized as ‘use-inspired basic research’ where Daniel Jones is located. The second quadrant (top-left and called Bohr’s Quadrant) is characterized as ‘pure basic research’ where Peter Ladefoged is located. The fourth quadrant (bottom-right and called Edison’s Quadrant) is characterized as ‘pure applied research’ where Harold Palmer is located. By describing in detail these three Quadrants as academic lineage, we try to clarify why the research in London School of Phonetics has flourished in the past 100 years.

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Is there a relationship between the perception of English speech and musical ability? Among forty-one native speakers of English, the correlation coefficient between the ability to perceive pitch variations in English speech and musical ability (pitch discrimination) was 0.08, while length perception of English speech and pitch discrimination in music was -0.17, indicating no significant correlations (Sasaki, 2023). This study aims to examine whether a similar tendency is observed among Japanese learners of English. Among seventy-seven Japanese learners of English, a weak correlation was found (correlation coefficient of 0.37) between the ability to perceive pitch variations in English speech and pitch discrimination in music, at a significance level of 0.05. A moderate correlation (correlation coefficient of 0.45) was observed between length perception in English speech and pitch discrimination in music. The results suggest that Japanese learners of English with greater abilities to distinguish musical pitch levels tend to be better at distinguishing pitch and length variations in English speech.

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This study explored the effectiveness and reception of phonics-based pronunciation instruction among elementary school students. Results indicated that students both enjoyed and found value in these exercises. Through open-ended responses, it was evident that students were making comparisons between Japanese and English sounds, verbalizing articulation methods, and applying phonics knowledge to other areas of English, such as reading and speaking. This suggests that proper pronunciation instruction can enhance students’ overall English learning experience. However, three points of caution emerged: the need for age-appropriate instruction without excessive technical jargon, the importance of recognizing individual developmental differences even within the same grade, and the crucial role of a teacher’s proficiency and awareness of English pronunciation. The study underscores the importance of training elementary school teachers to provide effective pronunciation instruction. Future research should examine student learning in varied contexts and emphasize the development of teacher training programs.

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The purpose of this study is to acoustically examine the frequency with which native speakers of Australian English place stress on the first syllable of numbers in utterances where "teen numbers" and "ty numbers" are followed by a noun. The analysis was conducted on two hundred and eighty utterances from thirty native speakers of Australian English. The fundamental frequency (F0) and intensity of the first syllable of the numbers were compared with those of the syllables, "teen" and "ty". The result showed that the percentages of the first syllables of "teen numbers" uttered with high F0 (57%) and strong intensity (52%) were higher than the percentages of syllables "teen" uttered with high F0 (39%) and strong intensity (27%).　It also showed that the percentages of the first syllables of "ty numbers" uttered with high F0 (67%) and strong intensity (73%) were higher than the percentages of syllables "ty" uttered with high F0 (32%) and strong intensity (19%).

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There is no consensus on the phonemic symbols for closing diphthongs, the FLEECE and the GOOSE vowels. There is some disagreement about whether a vowel symbol or a consonant symbol should be used for the second element of a diphthong to indicate its glide (the direction of the off-glide). There is also disagreement about whether the vowel phonemes of FLEECE and GOOSE should be considered monophthongs or light closing diphthongs. This paper reviews the development of the previous representative studies and considers the significance of these studies on the basis of phonetic and phonological theories. The most recent, Lindsey (2019), is a theoretically groundbreaking interpretation and can be considered the most convincing both phonetically and phonologically. However, for applications in English language teaching, it is preferable to continue to use the phonemic symbols of the widely used English pronunciation dictionaries of Jones et al. (2011) and Wells (2008).

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