Abstract

Language teachers are often afraid to teach pronunciation because they lack essential, basic knowledge or training in phonetics and phonology. To correct this situation, this lively, interactive book links all three in a manner that allows future and current language teachers to translate research findings into classroom approaches. The authors focus on practical, pedagogical, and theoretical aspects of phonetics, phonology, and pronunciation. While many books in the area separate phonetics and phonology into different subject areas with limited practical application, and most treat pronunciation independently, this book entails the interaction of all three. This quick introduction helps readers gain the basic knowledge, goals, and techniques they need to add pronunciation to their teaching.

To address the need for language teachers to have access to materials that blend applied linguistics theory and second/foreign language teaching, this book focuses on practical and theoretical aspects of phonetics, phonology, and pronunciation. As language teachers are often asked to teach pronunciation without crucial knowledge or training in phonetics and phonology, this book links all three in a manner that allows future and current language teachers to translate research findings into classroom approaches. While many books in the area separate phonetics and phonology into different subject areas with limited practical application, and most treat pronunciation independently, this book entails the interaction of all three while connecting classroom practice to theory by drawing pedagogical implications from a discussion of applied linguistics research.

“Hall and Hastings have written an extremely practical, useful, and applied textbook for second language teachers of English. This book is exactly what classroom teachers of English as a second or foreign language need to put theory into practice. The Tables, Figures, and examples provide clear and concise input that will prepare every teacher to increase his/her knowledge of how to integrate the explicit teaching of pronunciation into any class session.” – Professor Neil Anderson, Brigham Young University Hawaii, USA

“The authors have taken three key concepts of English language teaching and learning, phonology, phonetics and pronunciation, and made them accessible to the classroom teacher through the use of examples and humor.  A welcome addition to every language teacher’s library!” – Dr Christine Coombe, Dubai Men’s College, United Arab Emirates

Charles Hall specializes in English for Specific Purposes [ESP]. In addition to work on pronunciation, he uses corpus linguistic tools to create courses and materials for groups from American mathematicians to tourism police in developing nations. Dr. Hall worked for 30 years at the University of Memphis. He has led training workshops in over 40 countries from copyright law for computer programmers in the EU to Hospitality English for indigenous peoples. He has authored many articles and several texts, such as American Legal English. He has directed a TEFL training course each summer in the Czech Republic since 1990.

Christopher Hastings has spent the past fifteen years teaching English and training English teachers. For the past 3 years, he has worked as a U.S. State Department English Language Fellow, both at ITMO University in St. Petersburg, Russia and at South China Normal University in Guangzhou, China. In addition to teaching English in Colombia, Brazil, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, he trained teachers in Iraq, was the educational programs coordinator for an immigrant service provider in Texas, and led nonprofit service projects in Panama and Brazil. His main interests include Second Language Motivation, Intercultural Communication, and Food and Cultural Identity.