PREFACE
OBJECT OF THE BOOK
It is now generally recognized that no adult foreigner is likely to acquire a really good pronunciation of the English language unless he makes a scientific study of the English speech-sounds and their distribution in connected speech. The present book has been prepared with a view to giving the foreigner all the information of this nature that he is likely to require for learning “educated Southern English” as described in § 24.
The greater part of the book is devoted to a discussion of the mistakes which are commonly made by foreigners in the pronunciation of English, and methods are indicated for correcting these errors. These methods are all based on personal experience; many of them are of my own devising, and none have been included without personal knowledge of their utility in practical teaching.[1]
HOW TO USE THE BOOK
It is not, of course, suggested that this or any other book can form a substitute for oral training, The idea that correct pronunciation can be learned by theory alone is even more absurd than the idea that it can be learned by. imitation alone. Rare instances may be found of persons possessing extraordinary powers of imitation, who are able to learn the correct pronunciation of any foreign language simply by imitation. But it is certain that no foreigner could ever hope to pronounce such sounds as the vowels in the English words up or bird from written deseriptions only. Imitation is necessarily a most important part of training in the pronunciation of a foreign language, and it may be remarked in passing, that in this connexion the advantage of a naturally good ear cannot be overestimated. The importance of phonetics lies in the fact that it helps the student to imitate better than he could without the aid of phonetics. In the words of H. E. Palmer[2], “without a phonetic training the bad pronouncer will never become a good pronouncer, and with a phonetic training he probably will”; to which we might add that with phonetic training the naturally good pronouncer will probably become a perfect pronouncer
It is hoped then that by combining the study of this book with careful observation and imitation of the pronunciation of English speakers, foreigners may find the task of learning the pronunciation of the English language appreciably lightened.
Practice of sounds by the methods indicated in this book should of
- ↑ Students must not be surprised to find that some of these methods are not quite what might be expected on theoretical grounds. Thus with most foreigners it turns out in practice that the beat way of teaching the diphthong ou is to make the student practise a diphthong of the type œu (with the front vowel œ, althoug o is defined as a back vowel, see §§ 453, 454).
- ↑ What is Phonetics?, p.10 (published by the International Phonetic Association).
