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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Increase awareness of English allophonic processes, February 28, 2003
_English Transcription Course_ is a programmed series of lessons in representing spoken RP English in IPA symbols for phonetics and ESL students and teachers. What distinguishes this book is its emphasis on connected speech processes, rather than just citation forms, which is all that many ESL learners are taught. The book offers two basic methods of giving the student practice: by providing passages written in (1) regular orthography, for transcription into IPA; and (2) IPA transcription, for reading aloud. Each chapter introduces the student to a different type of allophonic variation that speakers tend to be little aware of. The student must learn to 'hear' these processes and then to incorporate them into increasingly narrow transcriptions of the practice passages. The processes are described by the titles of Chapters - or 'Lessons' - Three through Eight: Stress, rhythm and weak forms (concentrates on reduced forms of function words [and, there, can]); Sandhi r (both regular linking r [car of my own] and intrusive r [draw it]); Consonant syllabicity (syllabic n [listen] and l [little]); Elision (alveolar plosive elision [can't think], schwa elision [history]); Assimilation ([is she, red book, don't you]); and Glottaling (replacement of t with a glottal stop [not now]. Lesson One introduces 'Symbols and terminology', Two gives 'Transcription hints', and Nine offers 'Further practice'. There is also an introduction, an appendix with answers to all the exercises, a glossary, and a short bibliography of textbooks, workbooks and pronouncing dictionaries. Anyone who has assembled a book like this knows about the difficulty of finding suitable practice texts, mainly due to copyright laws. The authors solved this by writing all of their own material, a formidable task. Although students can easily find texts on their own for transcription, and the authors encourage this, the key is getting help with transcriptions, which is where these self-produced texts with answer keys come in. The texts include personal anecdotes, descriptions of nature and places, and some surprisingly successful examples of creative writing, e.g. science fiction and household drama. Below follows an excerpt (p. 51) from an anecdote about a group of Italians on a train who were puzzling over the author's IPA transcription work: The man said, 'It's him! He's doing it again! I wonder what that funny lettering is.' They all collected around me, peering over my shoulder.' I couldn't resist the challenge. When I got off the train, I said in Italian, 'I hope you all have a pleasant day.' I wish I had had a camera to take a picture of the expressions on their faces. It is surprising that there apparently is no accompanying cassette tape or CD with this book. This would be of tremendous value particularly for instructors and students outside the UK, including those in English-speaking and in non-English-speaking countries. This is a carefully thought out, well-designed, and meticulously produced volume which will be useful and instructive to teachers and students learning to transcribe any dialect of English, though it is obviously most suited to those working in RP. Phonetics and ESL instructors who are serious about cultivating in their students good pronunciation and clear, solid concepts of what that entails would do well to take a close look at this book.
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