Congratulations, Marco Sciascia

Marco Sciascia

Please join me in congratulating Associate Editor Marco Sciascia, who has just passed his International Phonetic Association examination for the certificate of proficiency in the phonetics of English, traveling to London to sit this very difficult exam.

I earned my own certificate of proficiency a very long time ago so was glad for Marco to remind me of the different parts of the exam:

Written:
(a) phonetic transcription of a passage of English
(b) three theoretical questions concerned with the phonetic description of English
Dictation:
(a) dictation of colloquial English to be transcribed phonetically
(b) dictation of nonsense words or of a language unknown to the candidate(s), to be transcribed phonetically
Oral:
(a) articulation of sounds and performance of intonation patterns; description of vowel and consonant articulations and intonation patterns presented by the examiner
(b) reading from a phonetic transcription of English

Read more about the exam and how to sit for it yourself at this link.

— Paul Meier