Running head: A PRONUNCIATION TEXTBOOK REVIEW
A Pronunciation Textbook Review
Letitia Liao
University of Southern California
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Running head: A PRONUNCIATION TEXTBOOK REVIEW
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A Pronunciation Textbook Review
Name of the textbook: Sound Concepts: An Integrated Pronunciation Course
Authors: Marnie Reed and Christina Michaud
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
This textbook, Sound Concepts: An Integrated Pronunciation Course, is intended for
advanced pronunciation learners. It is well organized with detailed explanations and the targeted
learners are adults or college students because the information is difficult and complex.
The authors assure the teachers that “teaching pronunciation can successfully be combined
with a communicative approach” and that this book will help the teachers “put the theories of
pronunciation into practice in a wide variety of classrooms” (Reed & Michaud, 2005, p.vii). Some
educators might think that teaching pronunciation will take away instructional time such as
grammar, vocabulary, and writing, but the truth is “pronunciation is an integral component of
language instruction, and work on pronunciation complements core instruction instead of taking
time away from it” (Reed & Michaud, 2005, p.vii). The reason that teaching and correcting
students’ pronunciation is so important is that sometimes, the mistakes students make – “such as not
using past tense endings may appear to be grammatical, but may, at root, be pronunciation
problems” (Reed & Michaud, 2005, p.vii).
There are many different activities in this book, such as speaking activities, listening to the
CD, filling in blanks of the given paragraph, and reading case studies where students read a
paragraph and discuss some questions with a partner. The activities and lessons in the book are well
organized because it starts with the very basic skill, like the alphabet and how to pronounce the
alphabet sounds correctly. After the students have perfect the basic skills, they can move on to
concepts such as syllables, linked sounds, stress patterns, deleted sounds, intonation, and etc.
Similar to Correcting Errors in Pronunciation, by Dr. Julietta Shakhbagova, this book talks about
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sounds that are linked, deleted, reduced, altered, and contracted. It provides a brief definition and
examples for each category on page 7.
In the back of the front cover, there is “[the] Fast Track to Pronunciation: A QuickReference Guide.” It includes three categories: language strategies, checklists, and teacher-student
partnership. The “teacher-student partnership” section is beneficial because working on
pronunciation is not only the teacher’s job or the student’s job; they both have to work together to
achieve the best pronunciation the student can achieve. With this reference guide, the student or
teacher can look over the content and immediately find the page number of the specific skill that
he/she wants to work on.
In the book, the students have the opportunity to learn about all the components of
pronunciation. In each chapter, the students always start with speaking activities before listening
activities. For each of the sound the students need to practice, the book teaches the students how to
form the sound, such as the place, manner, and voicing and it also provides examples of words that
has the sound in them. The book uses the communicative approach instead of drills. The students
are encouraged to talk to their partners so they can work on their pronunciation.
This book promotes self-correction, and to do this, students must become aware of what
their errors are and learn how to correct them. It would be best to keep a journal for reflections and
observations, checklists for self-monitoring and self-correction, and a logbook for logging
individual student errors.
The definitions of the speech sounds, stress, rhythm, and intonation are very detailed but
some of the definitions include vocabulary that the average student might not be able to understand.
In each chapter, the book provides many activities that will help the students have a better
understanding of each topic/vocabulary but does not always provide the definition of the vocabulary
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within the chapter. In the section that introduces stress, the book talks about rhythm, syllables, and
stresses all at once. The book first relates music to rhythm and explains that “like music, English
speech has a rhythm” and that “rhythm starts with the syllable” (Reed & Michaud, 2005, p. 58). It
goes on to explain that “every syllable has a beat […] some are strong and some are weak” (Reed &
Michaud, 2005, p. 58). “Strong syllables are stressed syllables, and weak syllables are unstressed
syllables” (Reed & Michaud, 2005, p. 58). Even though, the explanation is very detailed, it still may
be confusing for English learners because there are too many new and unfamiliar vocabulary
involved. There are too many concepts all introduced at once which can be very puzzling for
English learners. The first time, the word, intonation, is introduced in the book, it is also explained
with other concepts. “With different intonation or stress, the same words can mean different things.
In these sentences, intonation (the changing music or melody) and stress carry meaning” (Reed &
Michaud, 2005, p. 11). I believe that it would be more beneficial for students if the book focused on
one vocabulary/concept at a time.
There are some techniques and tips for correcting pronunciation errors in the book such as
using a logbook. In chapter 2, the students will take a diagnostics test focused on three sections:
listening, speaking, and thinking about listening and speaking. After the diagnostics, the teacher and
students will work together to figure out the students’ errors, then the teacher will show the students
how to use a logbook. Each student’s logbook is individualized and he/she will make a list of 5
items: “word or phrase,” “how to say it,” “how did I say it,” “what was my mistake,” “and other
examples” (Reed & Michaud, 2005, p. 27). There are also some case studies for students to read and
discussion questions for students to figure out what the characters’ errors are and how to fix the
mispronunciations. For example, “what was the pilot’s mistake? What part of pronunciation is
important to understand this mistake?” (Reed & Michaud, 2005, p. 29)
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I would use this textbook in my pronunciation class, but I would use it as a supplement and
not as a core course book. I like the strategies that the book provides, such as the “Three Kinds of
Information” (Reed & Michaud, 2005, p. 7) to help with understanding. The information includes:
background information, language information, and sound information. The book also includes
many activities that would help my students, for example, in the chapter about stress patterns and
deleted sounds, there are numerous short, different exercises that focus on each topic. At the end of
the chapter, there are exercises that sum up the chapter, such as a fill-in the blanks activity that
focuses on third-person singular present tense endings, and recycle linking, deleted /h/, stressed
content words.
This book also emphasizes the importance of both speaking and listening skills when it
comes to pronunciation, like what we have learned in EDHP 518. The book uses both methods at
the same time to teach pronunciation. It divides listening and speaking into two components. The
first component of listening is to understand the words, “the actual utterances” and the second
component is what the speaker meant. A student can understand every single word the speaker said,
but has no actual understanding of what was said because “communicative intent includes stress,
intonation, and timing, as well as body language and facial expressions” (Reed & Michaud, 2005, p.
viii). The two speaking components are grammar sounds and consonant & vowel sounds, which we
also learned about in EDHP 518.
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References
Reed, M., & Michaud, C. (2005) Sound concepts: An integrated pronunciation course, New York,
NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Shakhbagova, J. (2008). Correcting errors in pronunciation: A resource manual for ESL/EFL
teachers, Los Angeles, CA: USC Rossier School of Education & Figueroa Press.