Book Review of English Phonetics and Phonology A Practical Course (2nd edition)文档.doc

Book Review of English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course (2nd edition) Peter Roach. 2000. English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press/ Cambridge University Press By Tsai, X. R. Peter Roach’s English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course is a complete basic course in English phonetics and phonology. This course has established itself as the most practical and comprehensive text in the field and become widely used in many parts of the world in universities and other institutions of higher education, being used by both native and non-native speakers alike, and is suitable for those training to teach English as well as those studying the language at an advanced level. It takes into account recent developments on the teaching of phonology, and a number of improvements have been made, including updated references, fuller coverage of intonation. English Phonetics and Phonology bridges the gap between simple pronunciation handbooks and technical phonetics and phonology textbooks, and presents the basic factual material and crucial theoretical issues in a practical and readable way. This book is a course for the pronunciation of British RP (Received Pronunciation) or “BBC pronunciation”. The twenty chapters are cross-referenced to the recordings which consist of practical written and listening exercises. At the end of each chapter, there are notes giving information on further reading, discussion of the more challenging issues, suggestions, and a full answer key is available at the back of the book. Although designed for helping non-native speakers communicate easily with native speakers, this book is a useful tool for linguists. First, it provides a simple but clear presentation of English phonology with a modest amount of theory included. If there is need to compare the description of some phenomenon in Language “X” with English, this book provides