Clear English Pronunciation
A Practical Guide

Clear English Pronunciation provides students with the tools to effectively communicate in English without centring solely on native-speaker pronunciation models. The focus of the book is on individual pronunciation targets rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Divided into four sections, each featuring detailed articulatory explanations, sample sentences, and recordings to help learners improve their pronunciation, this book:

• introduces the phenomenon of pronunciation as part of a broader communicative realm;
• explains and demonstrates the melody and rhythm of understandable and natural English pronunciation;
• supports students in identifying and practicing their own pronunciation issues.

Supported by an interactive companion website which features recordings and expanded explanations of key topics, Clear English Pronunciation is an essential textbook for international learners of English who want to improve their pronunciation skills in diverse social settings.

For more resources on English pronunciation, visit: englishpronunciationcentral.universiteitleiden.nl

Additionally, you can find recordings of a wide range of speakers here: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/clearenglishpronunciation

Preface

Acknowledgements

Your pronunciation before the course

PART A – SECOND-LANGUAGE PRONUNCIATION

2. Improving pronunciation

3. Using the speech tract

4. Using other pronunciation tools

PART B – COMBINING SOUNDS

5. Intonation

6. Vowel reduction

7. Word stress

8. Stressful words

9. Pronunciation variation

10. Sentence stress

11. Silences

12. Fortis and lenis endings

13. Contraction and assimilation

PART C – DIFFICULT CONSONANTS

14. Pronouncing pea, tea, and key [p, t, k]

15. Pronouncing teeth and teethe [θ, ð]

16. Pronouncing veer, beer, and Wear [v, b, w]

17. Pronouncing see and she [s, ʃ]

18. Pronouncing veal and zeal [v, z]

19. Choosing rhotacisation

20. Pronouncing right and light [ɹ, l]

21. Unpronounced consonants

22. Consonant tests

PART D – DIFFICULT VOWELS

23. Pronouncing dark and Dirk [ɑː, ɜː]

24. Pronouncing Dirk and dork [ɜː, ɔː]

25. Pronouncing dork and Doke [ɔ:, oʊ]

26. Pronouncing Doke and dock [oʊ, ɒ]

27. Pronouncing dock and duck [ɒ, ʌ]

28. Pronouncing look and Luke [ʊ, uː]

29. Pronouncing lick and leek [ɪ, iː]

30. Pronouncing marry and merry [æ, ɛ]

31. Pronouncing merry and Mary [ɛ, ɛː]

32. Avoiding vowel rhotacisation

33. Avoiding vowel nasalisation

34. Vowel tests

Your pronunciation after the course

References

Index

Dick Smakman is a Lecturer at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He teaches and researches English language acquisition and sociolinguistics. He has taught English, Dutch, and sociolinguistics at various universities.