Sound Foundations: Learning and Teaching Pronunciation

The Teacher Development Series

by Adrian Underhill

Dealing with phonology, this is one of a series for teachers, trainers and academic managers which aims to promote development by dealing with professional topics in a personal way, in order to deepen understanding, raise self-awareness, and encourage self-direction and choice.

Genres: Teaching, Nonfiction, Linguistics, Reference, Education, Language

Paperback

First published August 11, 1994

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly useful for language teachers trying to get their heads around the use of that pesky Phonemic Chart! Lots of good ideas (just bear with it though, the start is a little confusing - all those mouth positions!)

[Aliah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A practical and theoretical guide which discusses different aspects of pronunciation: sounds in isolation (vowels and consonants), words in a sentence flow (vowel reduction, intrusive sounds, assimilation, elision and juncture), connected speech (rhythm, intonation, prominence). The last unit focuses on various methods and techniques of teaching pronunciation.

[Dominic Neesam · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get through this as a cover-to-cover as the layout is quite repetitive in its approach. I'm not sure it was necessary to repeat very similar models again and again with minimal variation.
As for the content, then yes, it is priceless and Underhill is a master of instruction as to the IPA chart and how to produce the morphemes, words and finally connected speech.
There is a treasure chest of knowledge and ideas in this book.

[Meredith Spielman · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I gained a wealth of knowledge and technical strategies from this book that I know will help me to teach accent, this book becomes very repetitive and difficult to read as it goes on. The information contained therein is very valuable, but I'm certain that the valuable parts could be condensed into a volume that's much shorter than 200 pages.
It's ultimately worth the read, but I think the time investment to payoff value ratio is out of balance.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely detailed, so not a quick and easy read like Gerald Kelly's 'How to teach pronunciation'. It is, however, filled to the brim with accessible explanations and classroom activities and techniques to help make the experience of teaching pron easier and more enjoyable!

[Jaroslav Komberec]

I've found liaison and the related terms there. I might definitely be useful for me.