This is a comprehensive introduction to teaching the pronunciation of North American English. It includes an illustrated description of the sound system of English, ideas for overcoming pronunciation problems specific to fifteen different languages, and a variety of approaches and techniques for use in the classroom.

Preface Introduction: Preliminary considerations in the teaching of pronunciation - Biological factors - Socio-cultural factors - Personality factors - The role of the native language - Setting realistic goals PART ONE: The sound system of English 1. Spelling and pronunciation - The English spelling system - Sound-spelling correspondences - Spelling in other languages - The phonetic alphabet - Exercises 2. Individual sounds of English - How speech sounds are made - Consonants and vowels The description of English consonants - Place of articulation - Manner of articulation - Voicing - Summary The description of English vowels - Tongue height - Frontness/backness of tongue - Tenseness/laxness - Lip rounding - Phonetic symbols for vowels - Complex vowels (dipthongs) - The vowel /ar/ - The consonant /h/ - Semi-vowels (glides) - Exercises 3. English sounds in context Positional variation - Contrastive sounds of English - Non-contrastive sounds of English - Implications for teaching - Conclusion Grammatical endings - The regular past tense - The plural, possessive, and third person singular - Grammatical endings in the pronunciation classroom - Exercises 4. The shape of English words - Syllable types - Consonant clusters - Exercises 5. Word stress and vowel reduction - What is stress? - Schwa - Major and minor stress - Placement of word stress - Exercises 6. Connected Speech Rhythm, sentence stress, and intonation - The stress-timed rhythm of English - Placement of stress in sentences - Intonation Modifications of sounds in connected speech - The pronunciation of function words - Linking - Deletion of consonants - Assimilation - Summary - Exercises PART TWO: The identification and correction of specific pronunciation problems Introduction 7. Common pronunciation problems - English vowels - English consonants - Stress, rhythm, and intonation 8. Problems of selected language groups - Arabic - Chinese - Farsi - French - German - Greek - Hindi and Punjabi - Italian - Japanese - Korean - Polish - Portuguese - Spanish - Vietnamese PART THREE: Classroom activities Introduction 9. A communicative approach to pronunciation teaching - Introduction - Consonants and vowels - Connected speech - Suprasegmentals - Monitoring - Conclusion 10. Pronunciation syllabus design: a question of focus - The zoom principle - Assessing learner variables - Collection of speech samples - Diagnosis of speech samples - From diagnosis to syllabus design - Monitoring progress - Appendix: Student diagnostic profile 11. Suprasegmentals in the pronunciation class: setting priorities - Introduction - Stress/unstress - Stress and rhythm - Major sentence stress - Intonation - Linking and pausing - Palatalization - Conclusion 12. Pronunciation-based listening exercises for the multi-level class - Introduction - Minimal pairs - Stress assignment - Function words - Intonation - Conclusion 13. Teaching pronunciation: an inventory of techniques - Introduction Individual sounds - Minimal pairs - Visual aids - Stress, rhythm, and intonation - Developing fluency - Conclusion 14. Developing self-correcting and self-monitoring strategies - Introduction - Self-correction - Self-monitoring - Conclusion 15. Developing natural and confident speech: - Drama techniques in the pronunciation class - Introduction - Articulation - Pitch, volume, and rate - Variety - Conclusion 16. Unintelligibility and the ESL learner - Introduction - The receiver - The sender - Conclusionbr / Glossary Further reading Bibliography Contributors Index

'This is a handy reference book for the bookshelves of any language teacher with international students.' - EL Gazette