Advanced_English_Pronunciation_in_Use

Contents

English Pronunciation in Use (Advanced)

English Pronunciation in Use (Advanced)

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Frances Amrani for guiding the project, and Roslyn Henderson and Alyson Maskell for their invaluable suggestions and their attention to detail in editing the material.

I also wish to thank the following reviewers for their suggestions in the early stages of writing: Barbara Bradford, Kent, UK

lan Chitty, Melbourn, UK David Deterding, Singapore Amanda Lloyd, Cambridge, UK

Andrea Paul, Melbourne, Australia Dolores Ramirez Verdugo, Madrid, Spain

A number of people have provided inspiration and information, and also specific advice on the pronunciation of non-native English speakers. Thanks in particular to Richard Cauldwell, Frances Hotimsky, Philip King, Gerard O'Grady and Dorota Pacek. I have drawn extensively for information and ideas on a wide variety of teaching materials and reference works, and I acknowledge the part they have played in shaping the book. In particular, I wish to acknowledge Hahn, L. D. & Dickerson,

W. B. ( 1 999) Speechcraft: Workbook for academic discourse. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press (Units 40 & 4 1 ) for the analysis of stress adapted for Unit 12.

At home, thanks to Ann, Suzanne, and David for their support and willingness to listen. Martin Hewings 2007

The author and publishers are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyrighted material in English Pronunciation in Use Advanced.

Jones, D. (2006) Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 1 7th edn. Edited by P. Roach, J. Setter and J. Hartman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2005), 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Development of this publication has made use of the Cambridge International Corpus (CIC).

The CIC is a computerized database of contemporary spoken and written English, which currently stands at 1 billion words. It includes British English, American English and other varieties of English. It also includes the Cambridge Learner Corpus, developed in collaboration with the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations. Cambridge University Press has built up the CIC to provide evidence about language use that helps to produce better language teaching materials.

Audio recording by James Richardson, AVP studios, London.

Illustrations by Jo Blake, Mark Draisey, Julian Mosedale and David Shenton. Cover design by Dale Tomlinson.

Designed and typeset by Kamae Design, Oxford.

About this book

English Pronunciation in Use Advanced gives students of English practice in pronunciation to help improve both speaking and listening. Although it has been written so that it can be used for self-study, it will work equally well in a class situation with a teacher.

It will be particularly useful for students whose English is adequate for most social, professional or educational purposes, but who want to work further on pronunciation to improve their understanding and ensure that they are easily understood both by native and non-native English speakers. The focus is primarily on improving pronunciation in communication rather than practising individual sounds' or words.

Organ isation

There are 60 units in the book. Each unit looks at a different .point of pronunciation. Each unit has two pages. The page on the left has explanations and examples, and the page on the right has exercises. The 60 units are divided into four sections.

•Section A introduces accents in different varieties of English, resources for independent study of pronunciation and differences between pronunciation in slow and fast speech.

•Section B is about pronunciation in words and phrases, including consonant clusters and stressed and unstressed syllables, and pronunciation of foreign words.

•Section C is about pronunciation in conversation, including how intonation contributes to meanmg.

•Section D is about pronunciation in formal settings, including professional contexts such as giving business or conference presentations.

After the 60 units there is a fifth section, Section E, which contains the following:

•Exercises to practise the phonemic alphabet

•Further practice of consonant clusters

•Further practice of word stress

•Glossary

•Further reading

At the end of the book there is a Key with answers.

To accompany the book, there is a set of five CDs, available separately or as part of a pack.

A CD-ROM is also available for use on a computer. On the CD-ROM additional practice exercises are provided on all of the units (different from those in the book). The CD-ROM can be bought separately or as part of a pack.

Additional equipment needed

A CD player is needed to listen to the recorded material that goes with this book. It will also be useful for students to have equipment to record their o wn voices.

The symbol . At indicates the CD track number for recorded material, i.e. CD A, track 1 .

English Pronunciation in Use Intermediate and

English Pronunciation in Use Advanced

It is not necessary to have worked on English Pronunciation in Use Intermediate (see Section E5 Further reading) before using this book. However, to practise pronunciation of particular letters and sounds, it is recommended that students use English Pronunciation in Use Intermediate, where additional practice of stress and intonation can also be found. Both books have the same format of explanations and examples on the left page and exercises on the right page in each unit

English Pronunciation in Use (Advanced)

Accents (1): Varieties of English

Although we commonly talk about 'English pronunciation' (including in the title of this book), obviously not all speakers of English pronounce it in the same way. Even between countries where English is the first language of the majority of the population there are considerable differences, and we can distinguish between the pronunciation of 'British English', 'American English', 'Australia n English', 'South African English', and so on.

Section E5 Further reading gives suggestions on where you can find more information about pronunciation in national and regional varieties of English.

Section A Getting started

Exercises

1 . 1 Listen. You will hear speakers from Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa talking about A4 what they enjoy doing in their spare time.

Which of these accents are you most familiar with? Is there one you find easier to understand than the others?

1 .2 Here is a text read aloud first by a British English speaker and then an American English speaker. AS Listen as many times as you need and note differences in pronunciation that you observe, focusing

on the underlined words. A few are done for you. (It is not necessary to use phonemic symbols in this exercise, but a list can be found on page 1 92 if you want to refer to it.)

1.3 You will hear four more people talking about what they enjoy doing in their spare time. They are from northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Listen as many times as you need and write brief notes about what they say.

northern England: .................................................................................... ...........................

Scotland:

Wales: ......................................................................... ....................... .......................

Northern Ireland: .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Now read the transcripts in the Key. Are there particular features of their pronunciation that you had problems understanding? In what ways is their pronunciation different from BBC English - that is, British English spoken without a regional accent (see Unit 2)?

Follow up: Record yourself reading one of the extracts in exercise 1.1. (These are written down in the Key.) Compare your reading and the version on the recording. What are the main differences in pronunciation that you notice?

Accents (2): English as an international language

In this book...

... you will use British English as a model for pronunciation.

... you will hear a wide variety of English accents.

and Russia, have recognised the importance of English as an international language of communication,

and encouraged its teaching in schools and colleges. In each country, the English spoken is influenced by other languages widely used there, and each variety is different in features ofits grammar, vocabulary

and pronunciation.

The widespread use of English as an international language means that much of the interaction in English that now goes on around the world is between· speakers who don't have English as a first language. For example, when German and Spanish politicians meet to discuss policies of the European Union, their chosen language of communication might well be English. The same might apply when Saudi Arabian and Japanese people meet to do business.

It would be impossible, however, to learn to 'switch' your pronunciation each time you w"ere talking to a speaker with a variety of English different from your own - to use an Australian English pronunciation with an Australian, or Chinese English pronunciation with a Chinese person. Consequently, it is useful to 'model' your pronunciation on one variety - but also recognise that this is just one of many equally acceptable varieties.

2 .3 Are there any accents of English that are of particular interest or importance to you? Practise listening to people with these accents as much as possible. If you have access to the

internet, you could regularly listen to English language broadcasts where you will hear these accents. For example, for New Zealand accents, try http://www.radionz.co.nz/; for Swedish accents of English, Radio Stockholm has a weekly English news broadcast (at http://www.sr.se/rs/red/ind_eng.html) where many of the speakers are Swedish. (For more information, see Unit 4.)

Follow up: Record yourself reading the text in exercise 2.2. Practise a few times before recording. Then write out the text again, and make notes on it, highlighting differences between your pronunciation and that of the speaker of BBC English. (Alternatively, you could get a friend or teacher to make notes for you.)