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Professional Reference Computers Posters Movies |
PRONUNCIATION / PHONICS
CLEAR SPEECH FROM THE START Judy Gilbert Now, I've seen some pretty innovative approaches to illustrating pronunciation. But this takes the prize so far. From the author's letter to teachers: "For years, teachers have been asking me to write a version of my intermediate level book, Clear Speech, that would be usable for beginners. They said that it would make more sense to help students with pronunciation early, rather than wait until they have developed habits that are hard to overcome. Also, teachers often found that their beginning students became discouraged when people didn't understand what they were saying, and of course, a discouraged student is harder to teach. Teachers who were trying to help their beginning students with pronunciation expressed frustration with the limited results they were getting from traditional methods of drilling minimal pair (e.g., ship/sheep) or asking students to "sound out" the letters in print. [ e.g. "Do you want to go to the store? / Doo yoo wahnt too goh too thuh stor?" ] They were asking for a more effective approach. All of this made sense to me. But the problems was that I just couldn't think of an approach that would work. For one thing, beginners simply don't have enough vocabulary to understand explanations. And with so much else to learn, there isn't much class time for pronunciation. One thing was clear to me: A really useful book had to be radically different from any other in the field, including my own intermediate level book." The author has succeeded beyond everyone's expectations.
SPEAKING CLEARLY Pamela Rogerson, Judy Gilbert A systematic and pretty thorough presentation of spoken English. Nuts-n-bolts, yet fairly non-technical: syllables, stress, stress patterns, pitch change, syllable length, syllable structure, vowel quality, word stress, content words, structure words, rhythm, sentence structure, reductions, contractions, verb auxiliaries, disappearing syllables, consonant clusters, linking - consonant-to-vowel, linking - vowel to vowel, sentence focus, correcting information, checking information, asking for repetition, thought groups, pitch range, pitch curves, voicing, voicing and syllable length, stops and continuants, aspiration (puff of air - p,t,k.) consonant sound contrasts, vowel sound contrasts listening difficulties, listening accuracy, comprehension, getting key information, taking notes, following structure, keeping track From the introduction: "It is not necessary to pronounce every sound perfectly to be understood - only a few parts of each sentence are really important, but these parts are essential. The native speaker depends on hearing these parts clearly, therefore you need to know which parts of a sentence must be clear and how to make them clear." PRONUNCIATION FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS OF ENGLISH David Brazil From the introduction: "It is emphasized that the speakers you will hear will be participants involved in some communicative event, that is to say, they will be saying something that they think is of interest or importance to someone else. They will not be providing model sentences or lists of words for you to imitate. And your own aim will be to take part as effectively as you can in similar events in which you have your own ideas to communicate. You will not be satisfied with simply demonstrating that you have mastered an awkward vowel sound or a difficult sequence of consonant sounds. If the course is to be useful, at your level of competence, the emphasis must necessarily be upon communicative use rather than upon demonstration. It is for this last reason that the course differs in the way it is organized from most others that are concerned with pronunciation. It makes its first objective an increased awareness of how the intonation system of English is used. This can only be done if we assume that language is being used to communicate, for intonation is the means whereby we organize our language into patterns that fit the present communicative need. Part 1 of the first unit is concerned, therefore, with how speech is presented by the speaker, not as separate words, but as tone units. Tone units are the building blocks out of which all spoken communication is constructed. Thereafter, work in intonation is introduced unit by unit alongside work on individual on individual 'sounds' (the vowel and consonant 'segments' of traditional pronunciation practice). There is one very straightforward reason for doing this: in the speech of advanced learners, departures from what we regard as desirable are said to be more often matters of intonation than matters of how particular sounds are made. There is more to it than this, however. If we want to focus upon the individual 'sounds' of a language, and to do so usefully, we must take account of what happens to them when the language is used to communicate. This really means being aware of how such sounds are affected by the intonational shape of the stretch of speech they occur in. And this in turn means focusing on the tone units that we find in any sample of used language. Intonation is not, on the whole, popular among language teachers or learners. By giving it so central a place in the course, we may seem to making things harder rather than easier. Intonation has a reputation for being difficult and 'slippery.' It is true that people tend easily to lose confidence in their ability to get to grips with it. The truth may well be, however, that this is precisely because it has not been given a very prominent place in most teaching procedures. Through being left out, it has acquired the kind of mystery that so often surrounds things that we think are beyond our understanding. And mystification about something so fundamental to spoken communication as intonation is clearly not a good thing! Being aware that there is a whole area of the language you know next to nothing about hardly makes for self-confidence. This is particularly true when your told - as you probably have been told at some time - that intonation is immensely important! And building self-confidence is central to the aims of this cour." Also from the introduction: "The course is intended to be worked through one unit at a time and in the given order. This is because each unit provides information that you will need in later units.'' The conversations sound realistic and unrehearsed. At first glance, the illustrative technique makes the illustrations look cluttered. But the system doesn't take long to learn and is easy to use. ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN USE Mark Hancock Southern British accent. I don't know why so many bookstores carry Grammar in Use and Vocabulary in Use but not Pronunciation in Use, since it's just as good or better. And I would consider pronunciation more important than grammar or vocabulary. There's a lot of fun included with the instruction. Try this: "Where are the pears?" "Bears?!!! Did you say bears?" "No, pears. You know, fruit!" "Oh, I see. Pears with a P! They're in the pack." "What? In the back of the truck?" "No, in the pack. You know, with a P" "Oh, I see. Pack with a P! Would you like one?" "No, I'll have a peach, please." "A beach?" Or this: "There was a young waiter named Dwight, Who didn't like being polite. If you asked him for food, He was terrible rude, and invited you out for a fight." From the author about minimum pairs: "The units in Section A are not presented as minimal pairs. Vowels are paired according to their spelling, not their potential for being confused with one another. Consonants are paired mainly where they share the same place of articulation. The units were not organized as minimal pairs for two reasons: - Any sound can form a minimal pair with a number of other sounds, not just one. Organising units according to minimal pairs would therefore lead to a huge number of units and a lot of duplication. - Many minimal pairs will be redundant for any given learner, so learners need to be selective. Potentially confusing minimal pairs are gathered together in Section D4, Sound Pairs. Learners are encouraged to select from these according to their own needs." For extensive minimum pair work, see Pronunciation Contrasts in English, by Don and Alleen Nilsen, Waveland Press.
ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION MADE SIMPLE Paulette Dale and Lillian Poms Longman hope to review soon
PRONUNCIATION CONTRASTS IN ENGLISH Don Nilsen, Alleen Pace Nilsen Waveland Press Pronunciation Contrasts in English outclasses everything on the shelf. 32 vowel contrasts, 42 consonant contrasts, and far more examples than any book I've seen. A page is devoted to each contrast. Each contrast is explained with IPA, a sound production chart, mouth diagrams, five contextual sentences, five semantic sentences, dozens of initial, medial, and final examples, and a list of languages. The minimal pairs section is followed by a multiple contrasts section. Includes a glossary, a language index, and various vowel and consonant charts. Vowel contrasts: beat/bit beat/bait beat/bet bit/bait bit/bet bit/bat bit/but bait/bet bait/bat bait/but bait/boat bet/bat bet/but pet/pot bat/but cat/cot bat/bite cut/cot buck/book but/boat but/bought pot/put cot/coat cot/caught dot/doubt ball/boil pull/pool could/code bowl/boil bout/bite bough/boy boy/buy Consonant contrasts: Mac/Wac ham/hang pack/back pat/fat bad/dad whack/hack Wac/whack west/vest Wac/rack wag/gag fat/vat fane/thane fame/shame fat/sat fat/hat vat/bat vat/that veal/zeal thank/tank thank/shank thank/sank thy/thigh than/Dan then/Zen knack/lack fan/fang tack/pack tab/dab tap/chap dash/rash dipper/zipper dab/jab lack/rack sack/shack seal/zeal chatter/shatter jack/shack jest/zest jest/chest jam/yam bag/bang gap/cap Vowel sound production chart: sound vertical position horizontal position lip rounding diphthongization tenseness Consonant sound production chart: sound voicing duration passage articulator point of articulation Sample contextual sentence: "The PILL made her PALE." - page 4 Sample semantic sentence: "Take the PILL/PAIL with water." - page 4 Sample multiple contrasts: front vowels: bead bid bayed bed bad; bean bin bane Ben ban back vowels: stewed stood stud stowed diphthongs: bead bade booed bode bide bowed buoyed lax vowels: tick tech tack tuck tock took talk clusters with [ l ] and [ r ]: bead bleed breed; bed bled bread [ w ] contrasted with [ kw ] and [ kl ]: wick quick click; wean queen clean [ st ] contrasted with [ zd ]: raced raised; priced prized; ceased seized; cost caused; east eased Other clusters: ending with [ d ], beginning with [ l ], beginning with [ s ], ending with [ s ], ending with [ t ], beginning with [ m ] or [ n ], ending with [ z ] Sample sound production chart - page 17: bat - low front unrounded not diphthongized lax bite - low, becoming high central, becoming front unrounded greatly diphthongized tense From the introduction: "It is the hope of the authors that, through this book, teachers of English to speakers of other languages can at last find freedom from the drudgery of locating, codifying, and recording lists of minimal pairs, and that they may expect instead to be able to devote more of their future efforts to their main endeavor: the teaching of English." The authors have succeeded beyond their expectations.
I kept saying to my Saudi students, "Why would I be angry?" until I finally understood they meant, "Are you hungry?" I said to a beautiful young woman in "Box? What are you talking about?" I had just left an Internet caf?with this student, so I thought, "Maybe he's trying to say Windows, but isn't familiar with computer terminology." But this was a vocabulary student, and we had covered basic computer terminology the previous semester. When I heard him say "textbooks," I understood. No, he wasn't saying 'books.' He was TRYING to say 'books.' What he was saying was 'box.' The vocabulary was correct, the pronunciation was wrong. What good is correct vocabulary without correct pronunciation? So I pulled out Pronunciation Contrasts and turned to page 22: "knock/nook rock/rook crock/crook tock/took pot/put sot/soot BOXS / BOOKS" Then I said, "When you're in my speaking class, we're going to use this book." I guess I should have said, "This is one of the BOOKS we'll use." For those who aren't convinced, try the worst case scenario: You're visiting one of your friends in It's funny, but it's not funny. Buy the book. Master the distinctions.
ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION ILLUSTRATED John Trim, drawings by Peter Kneebone Cambridge
Imagine reading this story: Ken quite likes Kate. Kate doesn019t care for Ken. Ken catches Kate and kisses her quickly. Kate cries, kicks and screams. Ken cowers in the corner. Ken cures Kate with a quick cup of coffee and a cream cake. Imagine looking at a cartoon accompanying this story. Imagine English and IPA spellings. Imagine listening to a tape. Imagine British pronunciation. Multiply this strategy hundreds of times and you have English Pronunciation Illustrated. But there019s more. Each chapter is progressive, starting with simple nouns, graduating to complete sentences, and ending with complete stories. So the story about Ken and Kate is preceded by these 4 words: crown, cake, crumpet, crockery. Then these 2 sentences: The cake is like a rock, The cook who baked the cake. When we get to the Ken and Kate story, we find pause indicators: Ken quite likes Kate. | Kate doesn019t care | for Ken. Ken catches Kate | and kisses her | quickly. Kate cries, | kicks and screams. | Ken cowers | in the corner. Ken cures Kate | with a quick cup | of coffee | and a cream cake. | If 1500 words in alliteration format, vividly and often hilariously illustrated with cartoons, aren019t enough, the appendix has some 3000 words listed, again in alliteration format. First with sounds at the beginning of the word: able, eight, age, ace, Asia; then with sounds at the end of the word: day, bray, tray, gray, lay, play, way. But wait, there019s more. Alliteration is followed by some 1000 minimum pairs: see say, feel fail; ace ice, pain pine. Now flip back several pages and notice 2 pages of illustrated word divisions: Joy sleeps, Joyce leaps; John said that all men could come, Joan said the tall men could come. Top all this off with instructions for students, teachers, and speech therapists. English Pronunciation Illustrated is one of the most thorough, enjoyable, and beneficial workouts you019ll ever have. PRONUNCATION PLUS Martin Hewings, Sharon Goldstein PRONUNCIATION TASKS Martin Hewings
Plus is American accent, Tasks is British. Essentially the same material. BETTER ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION
J.D. O'Conner Cambridge SHEEP OR SHIP?
Ann Baker Cambridge You will find these two books in many classrooms. And for good reason. They systematically and vividly present sound distinctions. INTENSIVE CONSONANT PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE
Joan Morley University of Michigan Press Intensive Consonant Pronunciation Practice is more than worth the money. The material is extensive, systematic, well categorized, and fairly easy to understand, and includes lots of exercise and practice. This is a thick book and a lot of work went into it. There's enough content here for many, many lessons.
BASICS IN PRONUNCIATION
Linda Lane Addison Wesley
HEADWAY PRONUNCIATION SERIES
Sarah Cunningham and Peter Moor Oxford UP AND AWAY IN PHONICS SERIES
Terence Crowther Oxford These two series introduce pronunciation, progressively present the most important English sound distinctions, and address pronunciation problems. WORKING WITH SOUNDSZehra Shervani Neer Taneja
Sterling Press Private Limited
Uses a branch strategy: lines go from root words to conjugation.
WORD BY WORD PRIMARY PHONICS PICTURE DICTIONARY
Steven Molinsky and Bill Bliss Longman, Pearson Education This is one of the most amazing English language learning books ever published. Molinsky and Bliss are authors of another book on my highly recommended list: The Word by Word Picture Dictionary, a close second to the Oxford Picture Dictionary. The artists are even more talented than the authors. The illustrations are vivid, easy to understand, and closely match the words. When I was in Korea, I spent a lot of time in the Kim & Johnson bookstore. I saw a lot of good phonics books on the shelf, but Word by Word Primary Phonics Picture Dictionary is in a class by itself.
EFL PHONICS Eun Hai E Future
Very effectively combines, reenforces, and recycles words from chapter to chapter and from book to book with sentences, stories, and color illustrations. Attacks phonics from every direction with a variety of challenging exercises.
The stories are especially useful. Each story is a two page spread. Vivid color illustrations use 2/3 of the story pages. The stories are especially useful for question and answer. The stories also introduce new words with the same sounds covered in previous chapters, and recycle words used in previous books. Students at this age are not familiar with paragraphs, so each line is one long sentence or two short sentences. Try this story from the double letter vowel book: "Ray makes a train and a rail with clay. They are his toys. He likes to play with them. But his dad wants to go fishing. Ray and his dad go out to the sea in their green boat. Ray helps his dad and Dad says, 'Good boy!' There is a gray cloud in the sky. Suddenly it starts to rain. Dad puts his coat on Ray. Ray is in his bed. He has a cold. Dad gives him a nice pillow and points to the window. Ray looks out of the window. The white snow is on the tree. And their dog wags its tail under the tree. Mom comes in with a tray. There is some hot tea and toast on the tray. Mom and Dad pray for Ray by his bed." Train, rail, rain, tail, clay, play, gray, tray, pray; sea, green, tree, tea; pillow, window, snow, boat, coat, toast; toy, boy, point; look; and cloud are all used in previous chapters. Red, bed, dog, hot, and cup are used in the single letter vowel book. Ray, make, they, go, cold, out, good, start, and put rhyme with words used in the previous chapters. Make, they, and put introduce different spellings. Yellow is not used in the story but is covered in a previous chapter. In the first illustration, the dad's raincoat and hat are vivid yellow. In the second illustration, the wall and floor are yellow, as is Ray's shirt. In the first illustration, a green mountain is on the horizon. Raincoat is a combination of two words used in the story and both words are covered in a previous chapter. In the second illustration, the dad's pants and shirt are vivid green. In the second illustration, large curtains are vivid red. In the first illustration, the dad's fishing pole is red. In the second illustration, the window seal is red. Blue is not used in the story but rhymes with words used in previous chapters and has a different double letter vowel spelling. Blue also contains a double letter consonant, bl, used in a previous book. Half of the first illustration is a blue sea. A vivid blue and red checkered quilt is prominent in the second illustration. In the first illustration, the boat is solid green. Brown is not used in the story but is used in a previous chapter. In the second illustration, the dog is brown and Ray's hair is brown, as is part of the tree. Arm is used in a previous chapter. In the second illustration, the dad's arm is stretched to the window. The dad is pointing outside. The tree, the snow, the dog, and the dog's tail are outside. Out rhymes with words used in a previous chapter and has the same vowel spelling. Outside combines a new word with a word used in the story. In the first illustration, a large gray cloud is on the horizon. In the second illustration, part of the tree is gray. White is used in the double letter consonant book. Whisker is used in the double letter consonant book. In the second illustration, the dad has whiskers. Several items in both illustrations are pink. Pink is used in the double letter consonant book. Fish is used in the double letter consonant book. In the story, a suffix is added to fish. Drink and slice are used in the double letter consonant book. Ray is going to drink the tea and eat a slice of toast. Eat rhymes with meat. Meat is used in a previous chapter. Ray's name is used 7 times in this story. Tree, tray, window, and out are used twice. The ir sound is covered in a previous chapter. Circus is not used in that chapter, but in one of the other stories, circus is used 3 times. LADYBIRD PHONICS SERIES
An audio series using fun and funny stories, phonemics, rhyme, and alliteration to teach sounds, with an emphasis on verbs. The accompanying books use illustrations to tell the stories, and colors to highlight the sounds.
LET'S GO PHONICS Jeffrey Lehman Oxford hope to review soon
JUNIOR RHYMING DICTIONARY John Foster Oxford
A unique and useful book. 225 ryhming sounds are explored with 4500 words. Under common words, different spellings are explored. Many entrees are accompanied humorous poems. Every page has illustrations. Included a section on limericks, counting rhymes, rhyming riddles, epitaphs, rapping, rhyming couplets, chants, homophones, and rhyme patterns. See a sample below, minus the book's graphics:
tie: die lie pie untie
-ie rhymes with -y: by cry deny dry fly fry [ect]
-ie also rhymes wit -igh: high sigh thigh
Other words that rhyme with tie: buy eye goodbye I guy
Georgie Porgie shouted "Hi!" To a girl as she passed by. "Give me a kiss. Don't be shy." "Give you a kiss! I'd rather die."
BARRON'S RHYMING DICTIONARY
Sue Graves and Brian Moses Collins In addition to a good selection of words and a good layout, this book offers a lot of fun.
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