In general, English students do not like phonetics, as they view it as something theoretical, difficult to grasp, and with little relevance over their grasp of oral performance.
The advent of online dictionaries, many of which offer the actual pronunciation of the word, has made the study of phonetics less relevant these days. Check this entry on this blog to get to know the best two online pronunciation dictionaries, Howjsay and Forvo.
However, the study of phonetics should still occupy a head of the table position in the English class because it is an invaluable tool to make students independent learners, not to mention the extra benefits of speaking practice and vocabulary learning they gain when studying phonetics.
Sephonics is freeware developed by Swedish Marianne Wartoft. This software will allow us to get familiar with the English alphabet, do tons of practice in matching sound with phonetic symbol, do spelling activities, listen to a word and identify its phonetic transcription, get familiar with reading the phonetic script and transcribe words into their phonetic script.
All in all Sephonics is software that can be of interest for students with a priority in improving their pronunciation or for teachers who want to work with their students in the computer laboratory in a systematic way. You can download Sephonics from here.
