Yoshida Marla Tritch. Understanding and Teaching the Pronunciation of English

There are many good books about teaching pronunciation. So why does the world need another one? First, all the existing books are books. They are written on paper, representing sounds primarily through written symbols and descriptions. They may come with a CD with recordings of examples and exercises, but sound is not an integral part of the “story.”
Pronunciation is a unique topic that really needs sound as part of the presentation. With recent innovations in multimedia electronic book formats, we can now provide explanations that combine words and sounds. Second, books and articles about teaching pronunciation have almost always been written with an audience of native speakers of English in mind. Besides assuming that readers have an instinctive knowledge of the sounds and “music” of English, most books don’t touch on many issues that teachers who have learned English as a second language want and need to know about — questions that may not occur to native speaker teachers.
This book is written with special consideration of the needs and interests of nonnative speakers of English, who are, after all, the majority of English teachers worldwide. I assume that most of these teachers are working in EFL situations, that is,
in countries where English is not a commonly spoken language and students have few chances to hear English in everyday life. But native speakers also need the same types of information and can bene!t from an introduction to the system behind the sounds, the problems their students might
have, and ideas about how to help students overcome these problems. After all, the details of pronunciation are an aspect of language that most native speakers are not consciously aware of.
What’s in this book?
I’ve tried to choose topics related to pronunciation, phonology, and pedagogy that are most necessary for EFL or ESL teachers and to explain them simply and clearly. In this book, you will read and hear about:
The pronunciation of American English: Both individual sounds and the musical aspects of pronunciation, like intonation, rhythm, and word stress.
Typical problems that students may have in learning the pronunciation of English.
Some ways to teach pronunciation to your students in an interesting and meaningful way, including suggestions for teaching tools and types of activities.
Issues of Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) and Native English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs) in teaching pronunciation.
The explanations and examples in this book are based on the pronunciation of standard American English. This is because it’s the variety of English that I speak and the kind I’ve always taught, not because I think it has any superiority to other varieties of English. When it seems helpful, we’ll also look at differences between standard American English and other varieties.