Customer Reviews

English Pronunciation Exercises for Japanese Students

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are lots of pronunciation workbooks a would-be English teacher might take to Japan. For those who aren't entirely clear on the Japanese sound system and its differences from English, or don't want to have to repeatedly think about WHICH sounds to target in teaching, this book is definitely the most important reference you could bring. It contains minimal pair contrasts for all the problem sounds, from l/r to si/shi to v/b to vowels. It also contains lots of tongue twisters, ample information on stress, intonation, and reduction, and plenty of mouth diagrams and descriptions of how particular sounds are made. What it DOESN'T have are suggestions for how to USE this material, so unless you have experience or training as an ESL/EFL teacher, I'd supplement it with a good "ideas book" like CLEAR SPEECH, so you'll have some hints at how you might USE the information provided here. Pronunciation is a definite problem area in Japanese schools, where English is mostly a written-and-understood phenomenon, as opposed to a spoken-and-heard one; you probably won't see this text on the shelf in the school you're teaching at, and while it is available at some bookstores in Japan, you don't want to be paying import prices for it. It's worth getting while you can...

The text focuses on a large number of error types, and, in fact, at most ten pages will be useful for the vast majority of Japanese learners of English. But the book is great because it can be used for quick little focused lessons for pronunciation error types common in learners from many backgrounds.

This in an invaluable resource for instructors or tutors of pronunciation with students from ANY language background, not just Japanese. In fact, there isn't anything in it that makes it specifically relevant to Japanese speakers. The diagnostic test in the beginning of the book lets you know the problem areas of the individual student, and you proceed to the appropriate chapters to work on them. There are 111 "chapters" based on initial, medial,and ending sounds. It has very useful minimal pairs exercises and lists of tongue twisters that you can assign as homework. Each chapter has a diagram of the position of the lips and tongue in the mouth to make that specific sound/phoneme, which is VERY useful for showing students how to make a sound that isn't in their native language. Because of the diagrams I had a breakthrough with an Indian lady who couldn't pronounce /s/ as it always came out as /sh/. My explanations were useless, but she was able to see on the diagrams where her tongue was supposed to be to make that sound, and she did it. The chapters on reduced forms in the back are instructional and can be fun, too; they help students get the swing of how English speakers can slur their syllables together (Whaddya mean?).

Unfortunately, this is yet another example of a truly great teaching tool that has been allowed to go out of print in a market that is glutted with useless entertainment magazines and novels. The title should be changed so readers understand it's good for all ESL students, not just the Japanese, and then reissued.

As an Accent Reduction & Pronunciation Specialist, I find this book to be indispensible!! The title is somewhat misleading, however, because, although it DOES contain some great exercises for the Japanese pronunciation problem areas, it is ALSO great for English Language Learners from every country. You can start at the beginning when working with Japanese and other Asians, and begin in the middle with Spanish, Italian and French speakers. For German and Russian speakers, you can begin with the pages for their problem areas. THIS IS A FABULOUS BOOK!! Why is it out of print???

Though created specifically for Japanese students learning English as a Foreign or Second Language, this is an outstanding resource for teachers or tutors of English learners. Not exactly student "friendly", but a reference covering most all of the phonemes that students of English from over the world struggle with, this is a large collection of minimal pairs with attention to those vowels and consonants not found in many languages. May be quite suitable for the serious student, especially one working on accent reduction and can already "hear" their pronunciation. It's unfortunate this book is no longer published.