Clear Speech Student's Book: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in American English, 3rd Edition

Book Description

A revised and expanded version of the highly successful and innovative pronunciation text for intermediate to high-intermediate students of North American English. The Clear Speech, Third Edition, Student's Book provides learners with visual representations of important pronunciation features, such as voicing and syllable length. It features a reordered table of contents, a greater emphasis on listening recognition, and more coverage of vowel sounds. It also contains a Student Audio CD, so students can practice many of the exercises on their own.

Customer Reviews:

CLEAR SPEECH.......2007-10-01

THIS PROGRAM IS GOOD FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LEARN ENGLISH. IT IS A GOOD WAY TO LEARN A PERFECT ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION. TRY IT.

A great book for non-native speakers.......2007-07-23

The book starts from clear listening tests which made sense. Introduction to syllable(s) and sound(s) by listening to the CD is very useful, plus the pics show how the lips change when the alphabet vowel sounds are being said.

Improved my English. .......2006-07-22

"Clear Speech" is the best. First, I use the text book & CD at a college, and I brought the Class Audio CDS for self-study at home. You need it, because CDs coming with Student's or Teacher's books don't include all listening dialogs.

Clear speech-teacher edition.......2006-03-17

The product contains mainly the answer key for the acutal student exercise book, and if you don't have that to refer to, it's not as useful. The teacher editon should contain the student workbook for easier reference. There is a CD that comes with it but again without being able to see the corresponding exercises in the student workbook, you feel as if you're working blind.

Good for speaking AND understanding.......2005-05-09

Clear Speech is a well-conceived pronunciation text that, in my experience, students have found very pleasant to use. It covers individual sounds, as well as speech rhythm and intonation, in a very fluid way. It can help instructors teach ESL students to pronounce well not only word by word, but also to arrive at more natural-sounding sentence flow. I have found that the exercises in the book benefit students beyond their own pronunciation, and actually help them to understand native English speakers better. The third edition is a vast improvement over the previous one, because it guides students in deciphering English spelling and provides more practice in specific, troublesome sounds. The new edition also includes a practice CD, which is something many students using the second edition often wished for. The graphic simplicity of the book is a huge advantage over other pronunciation texts available. All in all, I think Clear Speech is one of the best - if not THE best - choice for teaching pronunciation.

Active Literacy Across the Curriculum: Strategies for Reading, Writing, Speaking And Listening

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Active Literacy Across the Curriculum: Strategies for Reading, Writing, Speaking And Listening
Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Manufacturer: Eye on Education,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1596670231

NorthStar Intermediate Listening and Speaking, Second Edition (Student Book with Audio CD)

Average customer rating:

excellent!!

NorthStar Intermediate Listening and Speaking, Second Edition (Student Book with Audio CD)
Helen S. Solorzano , and Jennifer P. L. Schmidt
Manufacturer: Pearson ESL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Northstar: Focus on Reading and Writing, Intermediate Second Edition

ASIN: 0131439138

Customer Reviews:

excellent!!.......2006-11-06

Method excellent for making people that are learning english as a second languange, to speak and to unsderstand spoken english

NorthStar High Intermediate Listening and Speaking, Second Edition (Student Book with Audio CD)

Average customer rating:

An excellent up-to-date text

NorthStar High Intermediate Listening and Speaking, Second Edition (Student Book with Audio CD)
Tess Ferree , and Kim Sanabria
Manufacturer: Pearson ESL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Focus on Grammar 4 (3rd Edition)

ASIN: 0131439103

Customer Reviews:

An excellent up-to-date text.......2005-04-02

This book can form the basis for an excellent up-to-date American English speaking and listening course. There are 10 thematic chapters, on topics like natural disasters, American diets, the environment, etc. Each topic is examined through introductory readings, listening and speaking exercises. The accompanying CD is excellent--many of the exercises are authentic radio excerpts, clearly reproduced. Two or three grammar points are addressed in each unit, integrated into the topic. If you're CELTA-trained, you'll recognize many of the techniques. Good accompanying website too with extra material.

NorthStar Listening and Speaking, Advanced Second Edition

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NorthStar Listening and Speaking, Advanced Second Edition
Sherry Preiss
Manufacturer: Pearson ESL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Reader's Choice, 4th Edition

ASIN: 0201755742

Clear Speech from the Start Student's Book with Audio CD: Basic Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in North American English (Clear Speech)

Average customer rating:

Most Innovative Illustrative Technique
It's good book
Now ESL beginners can build clear pronunciation!

Clear Speech from the Start Student's Book with Audio CD: Basic Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in North American English (Clear Speech)
Judy B. Gilbert
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Pronunciation Games (Cambridge Copy Collection)
Pronounce It Perfectly in English with Audio CDs (Pronounce It Perfectly CD Packages)

ASIN: 052161905X

Book Description

Basic pronunciation and listening comprehension in North American English. Clear Speech from the Start concentrates on features that will have the most significant impact on a student's ability to understand and communicate with others. These features include rhythm, stress, intonation, and speech sounds that carry specific grammatical meaning, such as the plural “s” and the past tense “ed” endings. The text presents these features through kinesthetic exercises and visual and auditory modeling, thus making them accessible even to beginners. Each Student's Book comes with a student audio CD that contains roughly one third of the exercises included in the class audio program.

Customer Reviews:

Most Innovative Illustrative Technique.......2005-04-30

Now, I've seen some pretty innovative approaches to illustrating pronunciation. But this takes the prize so far.

From the author's letter to teachers:

"For years, teachers have been asking me to write a version of my intermediate level book, Clear Speech, that would be usable for beginners. They said that it would make more sense to help students with pronunciation early, rather than wait until they have developed habits that are hard to overcome. Also, teachers often found that their beginning students became discouraged when people didn't understand what they were saying, and of course, a discouraged student is harder to teach. Teachers who were trying to help their beginning students with pronunciation expressed frustration with the limited results they were getting from traditional methods of drilling minimal pair (e.g., ship/sheep) or asking students to "sound out" the letters in print. [ e.g. "Do you want to go to the store? / Doo yoo wahnt too goh too thuh stor?" ] They were asking for a more effective approach.

All of this made sense to me. But the problems was that I just couldn't think of an approach that would work. For one thing, beginners simply don't have enough vocabulary to understand explanations. And with so much else to learn, there isn't much class time for pronunciation. One thing was clear to me: A really useful book had to be radically different from any other in the field, including my own intermediate level book."

The author has succeeded beyond everyone's expectations.

It's good book.......2002-11-27

If you have some problem of English pronounciation,
You should use it.
Because it is really useful for them, and
it is really helpful.
So, you should use it if you have some problems.

Now ESL beginners can build clear pronunciation!.......2001-04-28

Conventional wisdom in the ESL/EFL world holds that pronunciation should not be taught at the beginning level. It's just too technical, requiring complicated descriptions and explanations for which beginning students don't have the vocabulary.

But if there were a way to make the material accessible? Even beginners need to communicate clearly -- intelligible speech fosters successful academic, work, and social interactions, and that's got to be encouraging for the student! Judy Gilbert's well-planned approach makes clear pronunciation truly accessible to beginners. The book -- rightly so -- limits the pronunciation points to those that are most urgently needed for intelligibility. The principle areas covered are: (1) the alphabet: using letters to spell out loud for clarification, (2) decoding spelling/reading words: using simple spelling rules to predict the pronunciation of a word, (3) syllable number: developing awareness of the number of syllables in words and phrases, being sure not to add unnecessary syllables or to omit necessary ones, (4) syllable stress: lengthening stressed vowels and reducing unstressed ones, (5) word connections: linking words together (this improves both listening comprehension and the smoothness of the student's speech), (6) the music of English: the pitch contours and rhythm of the language, and (7) articulation: t/d, s/z, l/r/n, and th.

There are some very cool things in this book for pronunciation teachers and learners. For example, there are tongue shape drawings looking from the back of the tongue to the front and out the mouth. Can't picture it? You'll have to see it to believe it! Along with the traditional front and side views, this new perspective really helps you visualize what's going on inside your mouth to produce a specific sound. I only wish there were drawings for all the American English vowels and consonants!! (But then it wouldn't be a beginning textbook, would it?)

I also like the vowel pronunciation rules. Example: the letters 'ai' are pronounced like the first letter [a] in the combination. Think: straight, complaint. Then, in the appendix, a percentage is given for how often the rule works, in this case, 95% of the time. This will give the student the confidence to guess how a new word is pronounced, take 'restraint', for example, but not stress out when the rule doesn't work, as in 'plaid'.

There are many helpful graphics in the book. Two of my favorites are the extra-wide bolded letters for stressed vowels (I think you can visualize that) and the diminishing letters for continuant sounds (Thatsssokay. The storezzznearrrMain [the second and third s's, z's, and r's have decreasing font sizes]).

I've been looking for a book like this for a long time. Mostly, I do corporate accent and pronunciation training and executive speech coaching with foreign-born clients who have a high intermediate to advanced command of English. But occasionally, I am asked to train employees who have a lower level of English. This is definitely the book I'll choose for them! Trainees can apply the basic concepts they learn to company-specific vocabulary and technical terms.

Book Description

This comprehensive pronunciation text encourages students to set their own learning agenda and practice in and outside the classroom. The text uses a communicative approach and clear explanations to build pronunciation awareness and provides extensive practice for all aspects of pronunciation.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2007-09-06

I purchased this book for my brother-in-law and he loves 'cause it's so easy to use.

This a great step-by-step approach to pronunciation.......2003-03-15

I am a workplace English instructor and find Targeting Pronunciation and the audiocassette package of to be very useful in business settings as well as the classroom as a tool for teaching more effective presentation skills.
It has a fun and clear approach to covering all the essential pronunciation features such as word stress, rhythm patterns, and thought groups, as well as consonant and vowel sounds.

Students enjoy using this book and tapes because of the engaging and varied activities. Whether you are experienced or inexperienced at teaching pronunciation, Targeting Pronunciation a great book to teach from. I recommend the book and audiocassette package: ISBN 0-395-94540-2. It's the best deal and each student has a set of tapes for home practice.

Caution!.......2002-09-25

This is a really good book, but be careful. Don't buy the $33 version of this book (ISBN 0-395-90331-9). It ONLY includes the Book. Buy the $42 version of this book (ISBN 0-395-94540-2). That is the Package Edition, and includes both the Book and the Audiocassettes.

Sue Miller is specifc and detailed.......2002-06-20

We've been working on a lot of material on voice and accent for Indian Call Centers dealing with the American market.

This appears to be the best book I have come across.

It is very detailed and easy to understand and beats the current book and CD offerings like American Accent training.

A definite must buy if you are into accent reduction for individuals or training.

Ian Stern
Holistic Enterprise

Sue Miller is specifc and detailed.......2002-06-20

We've been working on a lot of material on voice and accent for Indian Call Centers dealing with the American market.

This appears to be the best book I have come across.

It is very detailed and easy to understand and beats the current book and CD offerings like American Accent training.

A definite must buy if you are into accent reduction for individuals or training.

Book Description

Colloquial Lithuanian is a practical course in everyday written and spoken Lithuanian requiring no prior knowledge of the language. This book is ideal for study independently or with a teacher. Cassettes recorded by native Lithuanian speakers are also available.

This paperback in the Colloquial Language Learning Series is available individually here or as part of a cassette pack. To purchase the book and the cassettes, please refer to the cassette pack listing for this language.

Customer Reviews:

Colloguial Lithuanian: The Complete Course for Beginners.......2005-10-23

Owned and tried to use this book to learn enough Lithuanian to "get by" when we visted this fall. It certainly is NOT a Berlitz type program and is not a good book or tape to use alone. It is almost impossible to learn to say, Hello, my name is.... using this program.

My husband speaks "child" Lithuanian learned at his Grandmothers knee and he could not use this program.

I did not find basic get-you-by Lithuanian that hard once I got in the country. Travelers can get by with basic language skills and most Lithuanians under 40 speak decent English. We got by but not thanks to this course.

Not for travelers. May be helpful addition for language students who already speak fairly fluent conversational Lithuanian and want to dig deeper.

A well written course!.......2005-06-11

This book is an excellent course. The book and audio guide are inseparable! However, be warned that the lithuanian language is not for the inexperienced in the world of linguistics.

Not ideal, but then it's a difficult language.......2003-02-03

I would be lying if I were to say that this book will make learning Lithuanian very easy. It cannot possibly do that.

Lithuanian language is very archaic, very peculiar and very complex. What's more, there are too few paralels with modern European languages: unless you have some kind of linguistic background, the task will probably seem overwhelming. It is not like learning French or Spanish if you are an English-speaker.

The book comes in Colloquial series (this is your first clue for not expecting too much); it has been reasonably well written and edited, especially considering relatively undeveloped tradition of Western-quality textbook writing in the Baltics.

Frankly, one can do much worse than buying this.

A nice way to learn Lithuanian.......2002-01-23

This book gives a fairly deep introduction to the oldest living Indo-European language, Lithuanian. Spoken in the Baltic state of Lithuania it has remained almost unaffected by the changes that have occured in other Indo-European languagea over the last 3.000 years. For a linguist, this makes Lithuanian a very interesting language indeed and this book is a good introduction to it. At times the grammar explanations could be somewhat more far-reaching, but most aspects of grammar are dealt with in a constructive way and the book gives a quite extensice vocabulary.

Not for the beginner, not for self-study........2001-03-20

I have been studying Lithuanian twice a week with a professional instructor now for 3 months. I own this text, as well as the Beginner's Lithuanian text by Dambriunas. The Colloquial Lithuanian has very useful exercises, and emphasizes the conversational forms and expressions over the tradional academic style employed in Beginner's Lithuanian. However, be forewarned. This Colloquial Lithuanian text is absolutely inaccessable for beginners -- it does not lay out the fundamentals, but instead stresses memorization and modelling. This is good in a way, but not at all useful unless you know some fundamentals already. Similarly, the audio tapes of C.L. move at an advanced speed. As my professor says, C.L. is a "second-year" coursebook. We use it sometimes for exercises, but the B.L. text is much better.

By the way, the first reviewer should say "Vilniaus Universitetas" in the nominative, or "Vilniaus Universitete" in the locative. "Vilno Univeriteto" is simply wrong -- Beginner's Lithuanian can cure that mistake, Colloquial Lithuanian cannot.

Average customer rating:

This book is an absolute gem!

This Book Delivers

Call to Peaceful Interactions

Non-Adversarial Communication: Speaking and Listening from the Heart

Non-Adversarial Communication: Speaking and Listening from the Heart
Arlene Brownell , and Thomas Bache-Wiig
Manufacturer: Velvet Spring Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0977123219

Book Description

This guide brings the language of mind, heart and spirit to conflict resolution and personal or professional relationships. It includes clear explanations, many real-world examples and activities to deepen understanding and foster skills. Includes month-by-month daily practices.

Customer Reviews:

This book is an absolute gem!.......2007-05-15

Using the four steps of NAC, the reader will transform relationships and connect with others with compassion, clarity and integrity. The activities throughout the text and the 12-month daily practice guides reinforce the concepts in a delightful way, allowing the reader to begin using NAC right away.

This Book Delivers.......2007-03-31

Non-Adversarial Communication: Speaking and Listening from the Heart is an excellent book--clear, concise, well laid-out, and practical. It deals with how each of us can communicate in ways that: prevent exchanges from becoming conflicts, help us better understand ourselves, and help us meet our needs. It presents the concepts and methods we need to incorporate this approach into our everyday lives. That's a lot to ask from one book, and this one delivers.

Conflict is a perennial aspect of life, and in today's world it seems to be an accepted part of discourse. The American public seems drawn to watching or listening to "talk" in the form of who can yell the loudest and longest without yielding an inch from their initial position. Talk radio hosts set up straw men and women or straw causes, yell at them and make fun of them ad nauseum, and no one yells back. The theme here is that respectful two-way conversation about political, economic and social issues is becoming an endangered species.

In reaction to the proliferation of polarized rhetoric and adversarial dispute resolution, a movement developed to bring balance and honest-to-goodness give and take back into communication. The first efforts were made in the form of "alternative dispute resolution," which sought to structure mediation of disputes in such a way that each party has a chance to be heard and resolution rests in real agreement about solutions rather than domination of one party by the other.

Non-Adversarial Communication reflects a second, more ambitious strategy based on changing the way individuals think and behave even before conflict might occur. By learning to reflect on their own needs, motives and emotions, individuals can dramatically improve their capacity to see what is needed, both by themselves and by others, and to ask for what they need without ignoring the needs of others. Extending the early work of Marshall Rosenberg, authors Brownell and Bach-Wiig spent several years developing a workshop program aimed at teaching the philosophy and skills needed to neutralize adversarial habits of perception and communication. The book closely follows the concepts and methods used in their workshops.

The value of being able to communicate without becoming adversaries is obvious and few people would disagree with the idea. What is not so obvious is how it can happen. Non-Adversarial Communication: Speaking and Listening from the Heart invites readers first to look inward to find their intention to see their own needs in a context that respects the needs of others. From this intention, they can then focus on what they observe in a situation and what they feel in that situation, which can then lead them to understand what they need in that situation, and ultimately to be able to articulate what actions they could request from others that would genuinely address their concerns. This process can also be used to listen compassionately to what others say.

The authors recognize that although a philosophical shift is a prerequisite, real change requires a commitment to incorporate the non-adversarial communication process into everyday life. The book is filled with dozens of exercises and suggestions for keeping the intention toward non-adversarial communication fresh and alive.

This book is highly recommended, especially for those who regularly encounter people with views that differ from their own. I guess that means everybody.

Call to Peaceful Interactions.......2007-03-28

Great turn on! Besides supporting everyting I believe in, "Non-Adversarial Communication" pushed me into thinking more systematically about 'Intentions' and 'Needs' for sure. Additionally, the discussion of feedback and the danger of slipping thoughts and judegments into the 'I feel...' clause of the 'When you. . .I feel. . .' re-sensitized me to this critical issue. A must read if we are going to make a better world.

Non-Adversarial Communication: Speaking and Listening from the Heart.......2007-03-26

The book is easy to use in many different ways--as a quick reference (the learning points at the end of each chapter), as a deep reference (the thorough explanations), and as a work book and practice guide (the examples and exercises). All in all, this book is very useful and usable. L.W., Communications Specialist

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