Customer Reviews

Pronunciation Contrasts in English

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
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This book has all you need for teaching segmental pronunciation - Phonetic descriptions, lists of predicted problems based on first languages, and minimal pairs. It's in this last category where the book is the most definitive - just about all the minimal pairs you could ever wish for are here. It also has a few sentences with contextual clues and some without contextual clues for quizzing. If these are not enough, it's easy and fun for the teacher to create more from the lists.

In the appendix are some multiple contrasts, back vowel, lax vowel and diphthong contrasts, clusters with /l/ and /r/ and consonant clusters, as well as a basic glossary.

The book doesn't even mention suprasegmental aspects such as stress, intonation, and multi-syllable linkings. Books like Sound Advantage or Clear Speech cover these aspects fairly well, but no book does segmentals any better.

Pronunciation teachers will be able to make good use of this book as it gives you just about everything you need to teach segmental aspects. It's cheap, no-nonsense, and straightforward. With no cassettes and technical language, it might not be as useful to students as to teachers.

Sudlow's Exercises in American English Pronunciation (Excellence in Education, Monmouth, OR) is the same kind of book. It has more and better practice exercises, but less extensive phonemic descriptions, fewer minimal pairs, and a less extensive L1 problem list. Every pronunciation teacher should have it as well.

Don't go for the fancy new books, these old ones have all you'll ever need for segmental practice.

Pronunciation Contrasts in English outclasses everything on the shelf. 32 vowel contrasts, 42 consonant contrasts, and far more examples than any book I've seen. A page is devoted to each contrast. Each contrast is explained with IPA, a sound production chart, mouth diagrams, five contextual sentences, five semantic sentences, dozens of initial, medial, and final examples, and a list of languages. The minimal pairs section is followed by a multiple contrasts section. Includes a glossary, a language index, and various vowel and consonant charts.

"Box? What are you talking about?" I had just left an Internet café with a student, so I thought, "Maybe he's trying to say Windows, but isn't familiar with computer terminology." But this was a vocabulary student, and we had covered basic computer terminology the previous semester, including programs. When I heard him say "textbooks," I understood.

No, he wasn't saying 'books.' He was TRYING to say 'books.' What he was saying was 'box.' The vocabulary was correct, the pronunciation was wrong. What good is correct vocabulary without correct pronunciation?

So I pulled out Pronunciation Contrasts and turned to page 22: "knock/nook rock/rook crock/crook tock/took pot/put sot/soot BOXS / BOOKS" Then I said, "When you're in my speaking class, we're going to use this book." I guess I should have said, "This is one of the BOOKS we'll use."

For those who aren't convinced, try the worst case scenario: You're visiting one of your friends in America. He's distracted helping you with your English and explaining American culture. So he doesn't realize he's speeding. A policeman stops him. After giving your friend a ticket, the policeman looks through the window and says, "Who are you?" You try to say, "I'm a tourist." But your pronunciation is bad, so he hears...

It's funny, but it's not funny. Buy the book. Master the distinctions.

This book is actually a re-release of a very old book, and when I say re-release, I mean that it appears that the publisher photocopied the old version and bound it into a book. This book is a great reference of contrasts in English, nothing more, nothing less. A must-have in my pronunciation classroom and my lab. But if you are looking for pronunciation help or a book on how to teach pronunciation, look elsewhere. This is a reference of words and sentences that demonstrate different sounds in English.

I've had this book since 1994 and in all those years of teaching English pronunciation, it is the one book I must have with me and refer to over and over. The fact that I can easily find the pronunciation challenges specific to particular language backgrounds means I don't waste a lot time focusing on the wrong problems. Students find it hilarious, at times, when I use the minimal pairs to check their understanding as well as to work on their production. Not every difficulty is as easy to discern as the one that becomes apparent when a Spanish speaker says, "I'm having trouble with my vowels." - and he's also having trouble with the b/v pair!

Although there is a need for pronunciation aids and this book gives the most thorough presentation of the issue, it still is difficult to get one's point across just by looking at the pictures of how the mouth should be formed for each sound.

While I loved the lists, I would like to see the addition of the IPA in addition to the authors system. I would also like to see a way to add additional languages.

"Pronunciation Contrasts is designed to assist teachers of English to speakers of other languages in dealing with pronunciation difficulties.
It has been planned to SERVE AS A TIME-SAVING AID FOR BOTH THE BEGINNING AND THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER in preparing materials for classroom use geared to the individual needs of each student....."
[from the book of the introduction]

This book is an excellent aid for students of English speech to practice the differences between similar sounds.

In addition to diagrams of the positions of the tongue, lips, and teeth for making each sound, the book gives lists of words that differ only by the sound pair under consideration (dead:dud) and also sentences using such words; for instance, Our PUP has no PEP.

The only issue of concern is its use of its own custom phonetic transcription rather than the International Phonetic Alphabet or other system.