This introduction to the pronunciation of American English describes the sound system, suggests ways of tackling pronunciation problems, and provides a variety of techniques and exercises 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
- Conclusion

Glossary
Further reading
Bibliography
Contributors
Index

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