A welcome and valuable addition to the materials available for helping pre-sessional students deal with their pronunciation issues in and out of the classroom. Deborah Stevenson, Brunel University Published as part of the bestselling EAS series, this book is aimed at a quite particular section of the ESL community: those undertaking university study with an IELTS level of between 5.0 and 7.0 or preparing for the Academic IELTS module. Consequently, the examples and exercises throughout incorporate the Academic Word List (AWL) as well as the usual General Service List (GSL): although, as the authors carefully point out in the introduction, not ALL of the 2,000 words in the GSL are included as they are 'not commonly or widely used in academic contexts'. For many students, and teachers, of academic English this will be a welcome change from the heavily illustrated, minimal pairs, conversational focus of more general pronunciation texts. However, its emphasis on phonemic transcription, and the absence of the familiar head diagrams, sliced vertically to show tongue positions, may challenge some and dismay others. The book is divided into eight units, each presenting segmental and suprasegmental features of English pronunciation via a variety of written, spoken and listening exercises, including excerpts from simulated academic lectures. Whilst the usual categories are included, such as weak forms, word and sentence stress, diphthongs, connected speech, consonant clusters and tone units, they are all demonstrated using academic examples. This integration of listening micro-skills with written and spoken forms focusing on essential vocabulary for the target users, aims to improve both productive and receptive skills in a totally relevant context and develop pronunciation to an easily understandable level, aims which it should achieve. Designed for use as a classroom or self-study resource, it could be provided to students with particular pronunciation difficulties for individual remedial work or integrated into existing courses, although a variety of subjects within each unit could prohibit its use in a topic based approach. Once again, the authors go to some pains to encourage the correct use of the book and CDs for maximum improvement and discourage the simple 'listen and remember' approach. The two main speakers on the CDs provide consistent, lightly accented British English, which was obviously the authors' aim, but I can't help feeling an opportunity was missed by not making use of a wider variety of speakers in the lecture sections to avoid the overall impression of monotony in the listening resources. The speakers also present the usual challenges for those attempting to acclimatise to New Zealand vowels and learning to discern acceptable variations in pronunciation from totally incorrect ones. The only other slight criticism I have is that the tracks on the CDs are not numbered with their references in the book exercises, making location of specific tracks a challenge without the written contents lists, which, in my experience, are frequently mislaid. Overall, this is a useful addition to the range of pronunciation resources and is particularly welcome for its academic focus. Jane Clark, Bridging Programmes, University of Canterbury for the TESOLANZ Newsletter, November 2007 The English for academic study: Pronunciation Study Book is part of a set of academic study series, developed by the University of Reading's Centre for Applied Language Studies with Garnet Education. The series offers a range of English language instruction covering the four skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking as well as vocabulary and pronunciation and extended writing and research skills. Two CDs of listening exercises are provided with the book. Clearly focused on the goal of intelligibility the pronunciation study book is aimed at 'students who need to communicate clearly and efficiently in an academic environment in the medium of English'. Website information informs that the book is intended as a 'university preparation course' for Upper Intermediate to Proficiency level second language English speakers with an IELTS proficiency level between 5.5 and 7.5. The book consists of eight chapters colour coded for easy identification and with learning objectives clearly displayed a the beginning of each chapter. The contents page is also coloured correspondingly. Lessons are geared around listening - 'developing a sensitive ear' - at the micro level to develop skills with which to understand at the word level or small groups of words. Organisation aims for balance. Now commonly recognised that students benefit from instruction in both segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation features (Celica Murcia et al. 1996) these are often presented in isolation to some extent. In a rather novel way, however, this book combines both sets of features within each chapter in ways that work well. The sound segments of vowels, consonants, diphthongs, and consonant clusters, are presented alongside suprasegmental word stress, sentence stress, connected speech, tone units and intonation. Combining the two parts adds interest and avoids overload by spreading the learning of new sounds and IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols over several learning sessions. The first three chapters present monophthong vowel and consonant sounds in minimal pair exercises followed by other listening exercises to identify word stress and sentence stress. Chapter 4 concentrates on the learning of notoriously difficult consonant sounds and IPA symbols as well as other aspects of word stress. Chapter 5 starts with diphthongs and problematic sound spelling patterns before moving on to common linking techniques. Chapter 6 begins by focusing on consonant clusters at the beginning of words before going on to ways of simplifying speech, through elision and contraction. It ends by introducing tone units. Chapter 7 again starts with diphthong sounds and includes further work on tone units. A focus on consonant clusters in the middle and end of words begins Chapter 8 which concludes by touching on the functions of intonation. A strength of this book is the academic language used and the choice of topics and themes which are most suited to the target users and beyond. Listenings include extracts from authentic tertiary level lectures and Academic Word List and General Service List words are used in exercises serving a dual purpose of extending useful vocabulary while working on improving pronunciation. The book would be most useful for self study but could also work well as the main text for classroom use provided that lessons were supplemented to include freer speaking exercises. Lack of opportunities for learners to produce pronunciation features in an unstructured way is a weakness of the book, but one that could be easily remedied. Students are encouraged throughout the book to record their own pronunciation and compare it to a model, but ultimately the book is focused strongly on listening to learn pronunciation. Communicative exercises could be added to provide opportunities for freer use of the learned features. Overall this book provides a very useful addition for use in the academic setting. Jan Steiner, ESOL Tutor, University of Auckland, New Zealand for the TESOLANZ Newsletter, April 2008 EAS is an EAP series (English for Academic Study) comprising seven separate course books covering the following areas: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Extended Writing & Research Skills, Pronunciation and Vocabulary. The books reflect the most recent developments in EAP and are based on practical experience of EAP practitioners in the classroom. Each book can be used as a stand-alone course or supported by others within the series, depending on the needs of the students. EAP is taught on all courses that prepare overseas students for study at universities in English speaking countries. Students hoping to study abroad will therefore get a head start by studying such material rather than general English. The EAS series is used on a high proportion of EAP courses in the UK and Australia (and the US version is now being used in North America). It has received widespread praise, and the in the words of a lecturer at a university in the UK: 'There is virtually nothing else that has come on the market in the last ten years that touches it.' The series has been designed for students on pre-sessional and foundation courses within an IELTS range of 5.0 to 7.0. However, they can be used for any group of students who need to improve their English academic skills within this range. The series is based on authentic reading or listening texts within the appropriate range of the students; these have been carefully selected to illustrate the skill area in focus. Free audio material is included where appropriate, featuring authentic transcripts of realistic length with a variety of accents. The Listening course also comes with a DVD. A website features a variety of teacher and student resources including interactive activities for Extended Writing & Research Skills. TESOL Spain Newsletter, Vol 34-2, 2010
