Clear English Pronunciation provides students with the tools to effectively communicate in English without centering solely on native-speaker pronunciation models. The focus of the book is on individual pronunciation targets rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Divided into four sections, each featuring detailed articulatory explanations, sample sentences and recordings to help learners improve their pronunciation, this book:
introduces the phenomenon of pronunciation as part of a broader communicative realm;
explains and demonstrates the melody and rhythm of understandable and natural English pronunciation;
supports students in identifying and practicing their own pronunciation issues.
Supported by an interactive companion website which features recordings and expanded explanations of key topics, Clear English Pronunciation is an essential textbook for international learners of English who want to improve their pronunciation skills in diverse social settings.
Author(s): Dick Smakman
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: xiv+194
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Preface
Pronunciation
Approach to pronunciation in this book
1 Non-articulatorypronunciation skills
2 Prosody
3 Consonants and vowels
4 Phoneme contrasts
5 Knowing the skills of interlocutors
Audience and objectives
Practicalities
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Your pronunciation before the course
Part A: Second-language pronunciation
Chapter 2: Improving pronunciation
The learnability of pronunciation
Eight pronunciation-learningtips
Tip 1: Slow down
Tip 2: Speak consistently loudly
Tip 3: Overarticulate rather than underarticulate
Tip 4: Focus on the music of your English
Tip 5: Find your L2 persona
Tip 6: Adjust your general linguistic level to your pronunciation level
Tip 7: Read your audience
Tip 8: Find a learning routine
Chapter 3: Using the speech tract
The voice
Voice control
Breathing technique
Writing down speech sounds
Consonants types
1 Place
2 Manner
3 Voice
Vowel types
1 Length
2 Diphthongs/monophthongs
3 Front/back, open/close
Chapter 4: Using other pronunciation tools
Good pronunciation
A Perception
B Communicative adjustment
C Reading signs
D The body
E Confidence
Part B: Combining sounds
Chapter 5: Intonation
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Three common intonation patterns
1 Falling intonation
2 Rising intonation
3 Level intonation pattern
Key
Chapter 6: Vowel reduction
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Reduction in function words
Emphatic ‘the’
Reduction in content words
Reduction as a way to distinguish words
Chapter 7: Word stress
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Issue 1: The stress in nouns and adjectives is different from that in related verbs
Issue 2: Certain word-finalsyllables are likely to be unstressed
Issue 3: Teens and tens get a different stress
Issue 4: Stress shifts in running speech
Chapter 8: Stressful words
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Category 1: Relatively common words
Category 2: Less common words
Category 3: Professional and academic words
Key
Chapter 9: Pronunciation variation
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
1 Vowel variation: [æ] versus [ɑː]
2 Vowel variation: [ɔ:, ɒ] versus [ɑː]
3 Other vowel differences
4 Tapping of [t]
5 Consonant variation: pronouncing [n] or [ŋ] at the ends of words
6 Consonant variation: adding [h] after [w]
7 Consonant variation: inserting [j]
8 Stress variation
Key
Chapter 10: Sentence stress
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Syllable-timedversus stress-timed
Chapter 11: Silences
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Function 1: Make pronunciation easy to listen to
Function 2: Add meaning to utterances
Function 3: Forefront information
Key
Chapter 12: Fortis and lenis endings
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 13: Contraction and assimilation
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
1 Contraction
2 Assimilation
Key
Part C: Difficult consonants
Chapter 14: Pronouncing pea, tea, and key [p, t, k]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 15: Pronouncing teeth and teethe [θ, ð]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Lenis th [ð]
Fortis th [θ]
Two final ‘th’ comments
Key
Chapter 16: Pronouncing veer, beer, and Wear [v, b, w]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 17: Pronouncing see and she [s, ʃ ]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 18: Pronouncing veal and zeal [v, z]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 19: Choosing rhotacisation
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 20: Pronouncing right and light [ɹ, l]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 21: Unpronounced consonants
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 22: Consonant tests
Test 1
Test 2
Sounds
Part D: Difficult vowels
Chapter 23: Pronouncing dark and Dirk [ɑː, ɜː]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 24: Pronouncing Dirk and dork [ɜː, ɔː]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 25: Pronouncing dork and Doke [ɔ:, oʊ]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 26: Pronouncing Doke and dock [oʊ, ɒ]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 27: Pronouncing dock and duck [ɒ, ʌ]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 28: Pronouncing look and Luke [ʊ, uː]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 29: Pronouncinglick and leek [ɪ, iː]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 30: Pronouncing marry and merry [æ, ɛ]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 31: Pronouncing merry and Mary [ɛ, ɛː]
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 32: Avoiding vowel rhotacisation
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Chapter 33: Avoiding vowel nasalisation
What could go wrong?
Is this your problem?
Explanation and practice
Key
Chapter 34: Vowel tests
Test 1
Test 2
Sounds
Chapter 35: Your pronunciation after the course
References
Appendix
Index
