Clear Speech Teacher's Resource Book: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in American English [TEACHER'S EDITION] (Paperback)

by Judy B. Gilbert (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
'I would like to take this opportunity to express my excitement over the book "Clear Speech." Rarely, do I find a book that deals expressly with aural and oral skills. This little book is huge in its delivery of those skills. I am truly impressed!' Irene K. Tron, Marion City Schools USA --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in North American English The Clear Speech, Third Edition, Teacher's Resource Book provides unit overviews, teaching suggestions, audio scripts, and answer keys for each unit in the Student's Book. It also includes diagnostic tests, 15 unit quizzes on photocopiable pages, and an audio CD that contains the listening material for the unit quizzes.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 3 edition (May 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052154355X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521543552
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #277,878 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #29 in	Books > Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > English as a Foreign Language > Listening Comprehension
  #67 in	Books > Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > English as a Foreign Language > Pronunciation & Conversational English

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent speech resource for advanced students., April 29, 2000

By	Rusty Keele (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Clear Speech: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in North American English (Second Edition) (Student's Book) (Paperback)

I got this book to help one of my advanced level students with her pronunciation. I was surprised at what the book really focuses on, and I have found it to be quite helpful. THE GOOD: 1) This book is different from other pronunciation books in that it only spends part of the time focusing on the sounds of English letters. Rather, it is organized into chapters based on other features of English, such as rhythm, linking, syllable length, stress, intonation and reduction. This is a wonderful "next step" for students who have had adequate practice with the sounds of English letters, but still have an accent. 2) It provides practice exercises that allow the student to practice more than one thing at a time. For example, one exercise allows the student to practice linking words while practicing the "sh" sound. 3) I think that the most valuable part of this book is the Clear Listening and Clear Speaking test at the beginning of the book. These allow teachers to get very specific responses from students, and then focus on the problem areas. THE BAD: While the book is great at helping students practice consonant sounds, it doesn't give much practice or help with vowel sounds. This is really my only complaint with this otherwise wonderful book. OVERALL: A great book that will help students fine tune their English speech. I recommend it for high-intermediate or advanced students. If students are looking for a good way to reduce their accents, or make themselves more understood by Americans, or even understand North American English better themselves then I highly recommend this book.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Text for Trainers and Advanced Students, September 9, 1999

By	Vera Parr "vparr1" ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clear Speech: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in North American English (Second Edition) (Student's Book) (Paperback)

Although I find the second edition useable with students, in my opinion, it was written for the trainers. I used the first edition with far more student successes because each chapter was built on the preceeding ones and stuck to the basics. In contrast, the second edition is TOO full of the many intonation elements all jammed and crammed into each chapter. Frankly, I was hoping that the second edition would give us more practice examples to solidify the the basic intonation elements people need and most can absorb. Instead,by comparison to the first edition, the book is overfilled with way too much "stuff". Still, it's the best book on the market in it's class and I would highly recommend it to the trainers. I believe most students will have difficulty sorting out and dealing with the "details" in each chapter on their own. On the other hand, because of this jammed text, it is easily used for both intermediate to advanced level students ... you can get more bang for the buck.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good for speaking AND understanding, May 8, 2005

By	lingvistika (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clear Speech Student's Book: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in American English, 3rd Edition (Paperback)

Clear Speech is a well-conceived pronunciation text that, in my experience, students have found very pleasant to use. It covers individual sounds, as well as speech rhythm and intonation, in a very fluid way. It can help instructors teach ESL students to pronounce well not only word by word, but also to arrive at more natural-sounding sentence flow. I have found that the exercises in the book benefit students beyond their own pronunciation, and actually help them to understand native English speakers better. The third edition is a vast improvement over the previous one, because it guides students in deciphering English spelling and provides more practice in specific, troublesome sounds. The new edition also includes a practice CD, which is something many students using the second edition often wished for. The graphic simplicity of the book is a huge advantage over other pronunciation texts available. All in all, I think Clear Speech is one of the best - if not THE best - choice for teaching pronunciation.