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Applied English Phonology
Applied English Phonology
Applied English Phonology
SUMMARY
The aim of this book is ''to provide material on the sound patterns of
American English that is usable by students and professionals in the
field of phonological remediation'' (Preface), in particular to instructors
and students of English as a second/foreign language. And this
explains why each of the nine chapters is followed by exercises.
EVALUATION
Let me start from the bottom line: This textbook is, in addition to being
an excellent introduction to both the phonology and pronunciation of
English, is a source of inspiration for those who lack much of language
awareness, and for prospective researchers who whish to follow up
and/ or verify some of the interesting claims made on English sound
patterning and behavior. The comments that shall follow are meant to
improve the book in preparation for the second edition; for over the
last three decades of teaching English phonology, my students have
kept asking me questions for which I still have no conclusive answers.
Before I go any further, two remarks need to be made: first, the
audience to which this book is addressed. At the very start of the
book, there is a note to the 'instructor', which no doubt, is the mediator
between L1 and L2 and hence the remediator. On the other hand,
one is almost puzzled to read Roy Major's words on the back cover,
which positively evaluate the book as: '' A detailed description of
English phonetics and phonology that can be easily understood by
those with no prior training in linguistics.'' I think the last two lines in
the book are quite sufficient to bewilder even those who had an
introductory training in linguistics. Building on the first remark, the
second has to do with users and countries/institutions that will use it
as a textbook. Although the author has already given freedom of
chapter selection, he takes it for granted that the instructor is already
familiar, or must familiarize themselves, with the American accent. The
book, after all, is not accompanied by CD-ROM which could have
facilitated the pronunciation of not only English sounds, but the
sounds of ten languages whose speakers are supposed to be
learning some variety of English, mainly American or British as is the
case in the Middle East
Throughout the text, the author has used the term 'remediation'( one
which we expect to be brought down to earth, as the title suggests) in
two senses, viz. remedying L2 learners' difficulties by the instructor,
and remedying language disorders by the therapist. Unexpectedly,
Yavas addresses the issue of communication disorders in the United
States only. Why comparing AE ''with some other major varieties
spoken outside the US'' (p.76), then? Remedy of either sort, however,
is unfortunately not found anywhere in the book. The only lucky
person is perhaps the learner of English as a second/foreign
language who, with or without the help of the instructor, is supposed
to draw on language mismatches and insightful contrastive results
and, consequently, overcome their difficulties. Regretfully, there is not
even one single exercise in this direction. I think that the author would
agree with me that it is not enough to say that a particular sound, or
its variant, is found in x or y language. What use can a learner/an
instructor/a therapist make of the differences that exist between an
aspirated English stop, for example, and a non-aspirated Arabic
equivalent as long as aspiration in English is non-phonemic?
This does not mean that phonology instructors do not have answers
to these and the like questions, but learners would like to have
conclusive answers in print.
REFERENCES
Labov, W., S. Ash, and C. Boberg, eds. (2005). The Atlas of North
American English: phonetics, phonology and sound change. A
Multimedia Reference Tool. Mouton de Gruyter.