Customer Reviews

Perfecting the Sounds of American English: Includes a Complete Guide to the International Phonetic Alphabet

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From a phonetic and speech pathology point of view, this tiny booklet is great and can be used as a beginning supplemental text for word drills employing the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), but it does not include phrases or sentences, which are crucial in developing intelligible American English. Moreover, for those beginning students of American English who are visual-kinesthetic-tactile learners, this book offers no pictures, word definitions, or articulation techniques. For those who want to practice intermediate and advanced conversational skills, choose another book. In addition, this text does not include the important suprasegmentals of speech such as intonation, rhythm and stress. Most importantly, this concise guide is a wire bound paperback which only measures 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.19 inches and is nestled within a plastic cassette holder holding the one cassette.

The main problem is with the use of the cassettes -- with modern technology, can't it be released on CDs, which are much more convenient?

I am latin american born physician trying to improve my english intonation. The book content is very helpful, but the format can be improved. I believe that it will be more enjoyable to read with few changes (ex: if there the table & table explanation are in the same page).