1st Edition

Shaping Learners’ Pronunciation Teaching the Connected Speech of North American English

By James Dean Brown, Dustin Crowther Copyright 2023
    240 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    240 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    A straightforward entry to understanding crucial components of phonological literacy, this essential text explains the theoretical and practical rationale for teaching connected speech (CS) and offers useful pedagogical applications. Brown and Crowther describe the basic phonemes (including consonants, vowels, and diphthongs) of spoken North American English and examine word stress, utterance stress, and timing, as they are related to CS. With accessible, non-technical language, the authors show how phoneme variations, simple transitions, dropping sounds, inserting sounds, and changing sounds operate, and how CS is integral to English language teaching, especially for developing non-native users’ oral English communicative ability.

    Each chapter features explicit discussions of pedagogical ideas targeting L2 learners, further resources, and CS-oriented exercises that are accessible and easy to implement for L2 teachers. These exercises are accompanied when relevant with recorded audio examples of CS production at www.routledge.com/9780367697570.

    PART A IN THE BEGINNING

    Chapter 1 Where Connected Speech Fits into English Language Learning

    Chapter 2 Transcribing Speech Sounds

    Chapter 3 Word Stress

    Chapter 4 Utterance Stress and Timing

    PART B AS A RULE

    Chapter 5 Phoneme Variations

    Chapter 6 Simple Transitions

    Chapter 7 Dropping Sounds

    Chapter 8 Inserting Sounds

    Chapter 9 Changing Sounds

    Chapter 10 Connected Speech Combines Multiple Processes

    Biography

    James Dean Brown is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA.

    Dustin Crowther is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Second Language Studies at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, USA.