Realistically Speaking: A Practical Approach to the Basic Sounds and Rhythms of American English

The philosophy behind this book is an attempt to find a band-aid approach to attaining comprehensibility. It is, in effect, First Aid. It is a realistic answer for the majority of foreign speakers who need to be understood in English so that they can get on with their lives. The approach is 100% practical and is geared to the needs and abilities of the average foreign learner. The material will be easily accessible to the intermediate and advanced learner. Beginning level students may need extra guidance from the teacher. The book utilizes only those approaches that have been proven to have actually worked to help the average ESL learner quickly, easily, and successfully achieve clear articulation. Because of that, you will note that the description of the sounds is fairly non-traditional. All technical words are omitted as is the use of diacritical marks and phonetic symbols, including IPA. Omitted as well are several sounds (especially vowel sounds) which are so close that they are too difficult for the average ESL learner to discriminate easily. The teaching of those sounds, before clear speech is attained, only leads to frustration and confusion on the part of both teacher and student. Also, those sounds are not necessary for comprehensibility of speaker or listener. Rather than using traditional phonological classification, you will find that this book categorizes the sounds by muscle use and by how often the average ESL student confuses one with the other. For example, the t, d, and n are classed together; the y, j, and h are together, the sh and ch together, and the w, k, and g are together because to correctly produce those sounds one uses the same muscle groups and the majority of students mix up those sounds.