Overall, English for Primary Teachers oers a wide range of information and ideas for teachers, trainee teachers,

and teacher educators from a broad variety of backgrounds, both native and non-native. The authors have successfully provided the readers with an optimum balance and coverage of theory and practice, and with a clear demonstration of how to apply the former to the latter. I would highly recommend this book for use in many dierent situations, but especially for use by those who wish to add quality to their teaching, and who are particularly eager to use eective English in class, but do not yet feel condent. It can also add considerably to the repertoire of activities, materials, and training strategies of those of us who train and work with primary teachers of English. The reviewer Simonetta Di Prima is a teacher and teacher trainer for the Italian Ministry of Education who has occasionally taught courses for Primary teachers of English at NILE in Norwich, England. She holds a Masters degree in Education and Professional Development-ELT from the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, UK , as well as an Italian degree in English. Her special interests are in pronunciation and teacher development. Email: diprimas@hotmail.com

concerns, since it would clearly be absurd to teach a pronunciation regarded by native speakers as oldfashioned or even comic (Gimson 1981: 255). He therefore found it necessary to continually update the description of RP by incorporating changes such as the shift from /ou/ to /u/ (rst indicated in IPE 1962 and EPD 1967, 13th edn.) and the replacement of // by // in weak syllables such as in blanket and quantity (rst noted in IPE 1980 and EPD 1977). While retaining the traditional term RP , Gimson also made a deliberate eort to widen its application (cf. e.g. EPD 1977: vii). He rejects a denition of RP speakers in the strict social terms used by Daniel Jones, and allows for a number of local variants to be included, which results in a certain dilution of the original concept of RP (EPD 14th edn.: x). RP was not the only EFL teaching model for Gimson. He was one of the rst to promote the idea of an international or nuclear pronunciation of English (cf. Gimson 1978). In his view, such a simplied model could be established by reducing the RP phoneme inventory (of 24 consonants and 20 vowels) to 14 consonants and 15 vowels, which while still producing results intelligible to most native speakers of English, would considerably reduce the learning burden for the EFL student. Accessibility for the EFL learner was also a main concern for Gimsons editions of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD ), which saw a number of notational simplications under his editorship, such as the controversial decision to replace the symbol // in pair by /e/ (in EPD 1977, 14th edn.). The most signicant change in transcription brought about by Gimson, however, was the introduction of new phonemic symbols in the 14th edition of the EPD (1977) (and IPE 1962), viz. //, //, and //. The aim was to make explicit not only the quantitative but also the qualitative dierence in pairs such as bead /bi d/bid /bd/, caught /k t/cot /kt/ and fool /fu l/full /fl/, which before had only been distinguished by length marks (/ : /, /k t kt/, /fu l ful/). Although the retention of the length mark (:) in addition to the qualitative dierence was now strictly speaking redundant, Gimson felt this was justied by the greater explicitness it achieved (cf. Gimson 1981: 257, EPD 1977: xiii). He was clearly not the only one to think so: the EFL world quickly accepted this notational innovation as the new standard practice. Gimsons interest in the teaching of pronunciation is, of course, best documented by his pronunciation practice books, such as A Practical

Gimsons Pronunciation of English (6th edn.) A. Cruttenden Arnold 2001. xix + 339pp. 18.99 isbn 0340759720 In English pronunciation teaching few names can compete in authority and inuence with that of A. C. Gimson. As Professor of Phonetics at University College London from 1966 to 1983, he was well-known throughout the world for his works on English pronunciation, especially his Introduction to the Pronunciation of English (IPE ), and his editorship of the 13th and 14th editions of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD ). Unlike some other phoneticians, Gimson showed a constant interest in the teaching of English pronunciation, which is present in all his research work. His main area of research, the description and changing nature of Received Pronunciation (RP ), is thus largely motivated by pedagogic

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Course of English Pronunciation (1975) and An English Pronunciation Companion to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English (1982, with S. Ramsaran). His approach in these is mainly perceptual, in that they rely heavily on discrimination drills for ear-training as a prerequisite to production. However, it is for his Introduction to the Pronunciation of English (IPE ) that Gimson is best remembered in the EFL community. First published in 1962, IPE was immediately accepted as the standard description of RP (cf. Wells 1992) and saw two further editions in Gimsons lifetime. After Gimsons death in 1985, the book was further revised and updated rst by Susan Ramsaran (4th edn., 1989) and then Alan Cruttenden (5th edn., 1994), which secured its status as a standard reference work on English pronunciation. Gimsons Pronunciation of English, as the book was renamed for the 5th edition, is now available in its 6th edition. It has been extensively revised, and again updated by Alan Cruttenden, who managed to incorporate new ndings and developments while preserving the original spirit of the book. Apart from a general update of all references, major revisions concern the chapters on the syllable (5.5), phonotactics (10.10), word accent (10.3.), and the Advice to Foreigners sections, which are now somewhat less prescriptive in tone. Cruttenden has also added a brief description of Estuary English (7.6.3) and expanded the section on current changes in RP (7.4). The overall structure of the book, however, remains unchanged: Part I gives a general introduction to the production of speech, acoustics, and the classication of sounds, Part II provides a detailed description of the consonants and vowels of RP , and Part III deals with intonation, connected speech, and the teaching of pronunciation. Part I subsumes ve chapters, some of which have survived the dierent editions largely unaltered, owing to their concern with physiological facts, and with other issues of a more general nature: These are Chapter 1, which oers a brief introduction to the nature of communication, Chapter 2, on the speech mechanism, Chapter 3 on the acoustic and auditory aspects of sounds, and Chapter 4 on the description and classication of speech sounds. Signicant changes have already been introduced in the 5th edition, and Chapter 5 on phonemes and the syllable. The same chapter now contains a more detailed description of the syllable as well, especially with regard to its internal structure (onset, peak, coda). In Chapter 3, readers with an
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EFL background will be surprised to learn that the

term stress has been disposed of altogether because this word has been used in dierent and ambiguous ways in phonetics and linguistics (p. 24). Instead, Cruttenden uses prominence as a general term for syllables marked by any of four possible factors (pitch, loudness, quality, and quantity) and accent for syllables specically marked by pitch change only (cf. pp. 24, 222). In transcription, accented syllables are indicated by a falling accent (/ `rav/), rather than the traditional vertical mark (/ |rav/). This attempt at clarifying, and indeed simplifying the terminological confusion in this area, is certainly most welcome, especially since it brings the notation and terminology used for single words (formerly word stress) into line with that of longer utterances the latter being Cruttendens particular area of expertise (cf. Cruttenden 1997). However, such a profound change would have deserved a more detailed discussion, all the more so in view of the fact that this new convention runs counter to the general practice in pronouncing dictionaries (e.g. Jones 1997; Wells 2000) and the EFL literature. Moreover, the notational convention of using a falling accent (`) for word stress may be misleading, in that this symbol is associated with a falling tone, while word accentuation can be achieved by any kind of nuclear tone. This criticism, incidentally, was voiced by Gimson (1981: 258) himself, who emphasizes that [t]he traditional vertical marks have a greater generality of application in the sense that the high vertical | can imply any nuclear tone or pitch change. Part II, which deals more specically with The Sounds of English, constitutes the core of the book. After a brief history of phonetic studies in Britain and an overview of the major sound changes of English in Chapter 6, Chapter 7 focuses on the status of RP and other standards. For the new edition, the section on current changes within RP (7.4) has been completely rewritten, and now distinguishes between changes almost complete, changes well-established, recent innovations, and innovations on the verge of RP. It provides a comprehensive list of ongoing changes, which includes such well-established features as the replacement of // by / / in sure, poor etc., and so-called happy-tensing (i.e. nal /i/ instead of // in happy, city), but also discusses more recent innovations, such as the unrounding and fronting of /, u / in good and soon, and the frequent use of high-rising tones on declaratives taken over, presumably from Australian and New Zealand

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English. Interestingly, the lowering of / / to [a] is not included in the list, although mentioned by Ramsaran in the 4th edition (p. 89), and by Cruttenden himself in his description of the vowel / / (p. 111). Cruttendens classication of the monophthongal realization of /e/ (as / /) in fare and tear as change almost complete (p. 82), i.e. typical of the large majority of speakers of General RP , may also come as something of a surprise.
RR has changed not only phonetically, but also in terms of its status. While it is still the standard pronunciation model for many learners, other accents have clearly gained in prestige. This is reected in the book by the inclusion of brief but systematic treatments of other standards, viz. General American, Scottish English, London English, Northern English, and Australian Englisha major innovation of the 5th edition. In the new edition, this section has been partly rewritten, and now includes a brief discussion of Estuary English (as part of the section on London English, 7.6.3), which highlights its hybrid status between Cockney and General RP .

frequently occurring compounds as |apple cake, orange juice, |mineral water is not accounted for by the rules given. As man-made items (p. 229) they would have to be interpreted as taking the main accent on the second element, while this is clearly not the case. Junk food (p. 230), on the other hand, is listed with the main accent on the second element, although most native speakers place the accent on the rst element (cf. Wells 2000: 413). It is also interesting to note that the most common accent pattern for hospitable is given as /|hsptbl/, while Wells (2000: 369) still gives /h|sptbl/ as most frequent (with a ratio of 81%). Similarly, the main variant of Caribbean is, according to Cruttenden (p. 232) /k |rbn/, in contrast to Wells (2000: 120), who quotes a 91% preference for / k r|bi n/.
|

Chapters 8 and 9 are probably the ones teachers of English are most familiar with. They contain detailed descriptions of the RP vowel (Chapter 8) and consonant phonemes (Chapter 9). The treatment of the vowels follows a clear and systematic pattern, which considerably enhances its accessibility: (1) illustrations of spellings and main allophones, (2) articulatory description, (3) chief variants in RP and regionally, (4) principal historical sources, and (5) advice to foreign learners. For the 6th edition Cruttenden has added spectrograms of the RP vowels (p. 1001) and recent data on the formant frequencies for RP pure vowels (p. 102). The description of the consonants (Chapter 9) now also contains spectrograms to illustrate obstruents (p. 157) and sonorants (p. 194), in addition to the highly useful palatograms (indicating tongue contact with the palate) which were already introduced in the 5th edition. Part III, Words and Connected Speech, focuses on suprasegmentals. Chapter 10 elaborates the complex question of word accent as well as phonotactics, i.e. possible combinations of phonemes in a word or syllable. Especially in the discussion of word accentual patterns (10.3), which was substantially revised for the 5th and 6th editions, Cruttenden succeeds in presenting an inherently dicult area in an accessible and systematic way. However, in the subsection on compounds (10.3.5) the accent pattern for such

Chapter 11, on Connected Speech discusses the concepts of accent, rhythm, weak forms, and intonation. The section on intonation (11.6), which was almost completely rewritten for the 5th edition, follows the notational system of OConnor and Arnold (1973) and provides a clear introduction to the forms of intonation (11.6.1) as well as its function (11.6.2). The latter is largely restricted to a discussion of nucleus placement as well as grammatical and attitudinal meanings of nuclear tones. It does not cover the discourse function of intonation (as discussed by Brazil 1997), but this would probably be asking too much from a general introduction to English phonetics. Chapter 12, nally, deals with Words in Connected Speech, giving a comprehensive and very detailed overview of such phenomena as assimilation, elision, liaison, and allophonic variations. The last chapter of the book (Chapter 13) homes in on Teaching the Pronunciation of English. Although it seems at rst that this topic would have merited a separate fourth part, instead of being added on somewhat incoherently to Part III on connected speech, a closer look makes it clear why this should be the case: originally conceived of by Gimson as an appendix to the 3rd edition (only 20 pages in length), it lacks sucient substance to make up an entire fourth part of the book. This is not to say that it does not include useful information. It discusses issues such as the choice of a pronunciation model (13.2), levels of performance to be aimed at (13.313.6) and general principles underlying the teaching of pronunciation (13.7). For the new edition Cruttenden has added a short subsection on pronouncing dictionaries

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(13.8). However, the advice for teaching is of a very general nature, emphasizing the use of discrimination drills for ear training, and giving tips for approaching individual sounds. With regard to the pronunciation model, the book recommends General RP as the most regionally neutral standard, albeit allowing for considerable dilution of the original concept (p. 298). It is somewhat regrettable in this context that no mention is made of the recent discussion of English as a Lingua Franca (e.g. Jenkins 2000), especially in view of Gimsons own interest in this matter (see above). All in all, this latest edition of Gimsons Pronunciation of English does an excellent job in bringing this classic up to date. Given the amount of revision and rewriting that has gone into the latest two editions it is, however, very surprising that this should have left untouched the dated practice of using male pronouns to refer to both male and female referents throughout the book, such as the learner ... he etc. (pp. 297, 313, etc.). Such usage is clearly inappropriate for a modern standard reference text, and can certainly not be justied by the overall aim of preserving the spirit of the original edition. The book also contains a considerable number of errors. Most of these are minor ones, such as the addition of length marks in [ d] for good (on p. 83), typographically inconsistent headings for the sections in Chapter 5, or missing references in the bibliography (e.g. Lecumberri and Maidment 2000 on p. 309). Others are somewhat more confusing: e.g. the description of a recent RP innovation, [ ], as realisation of /r/ without a tongue tip contact (p. 83), when normally no tongue tip contact is involved in the production of /r/, the misaligned third row of Table 9 ( p. 151), which suggests that bigger has a medial /k/ and bitter a medial /b/, as well as the assertion in one place (p. 82) that suit is nowadays pronounced as /su t/ when elsewhere (p. 190) it is still transcribed as /sju t/. Although errors are perhaps inevitable in a book of this scope, what is surprising is that many of them should only have been introduced in the most recent edition. Despite these minor shortcomings, Cruttendens new edition will ensure that Gimsons Pronunciation of English will maintain its position as the most comprehensive and authoritative introduction to English phonetics for years to come. It thus remains an indispensable reference book for anyone involved in studying or teaching the pronunciation of English.
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References Brazil, D. 1997. The Communicative Value of Intonation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cruttenden, A. 1997. Intonation (2nd edn.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gimson, A. C. 1975. A Practical Course of English Pronunciation: a perceptual approach. London: Edward Arnold. Gimson, A. C. 1978. Towards an international pronunciation of English in P. Strevens (ed.). In honour of A. S. Hornby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4553. Gimson, A. C. 1981. Pronunciation in EFL dictionaries. Applied Linguistics 2: 25062. Gimson, A. C. 1984. The RP accent in P. Trudgill (ed.). Language in the British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 4554. Gimson, A. C. and S. M. Ramsaran 1982. An English Pronunciation Companion to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jenkins, J. 2000. The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jones, D. 1997. English Pronouncing Dictionary (15th edn., edited by P. Roach and J. Hartman). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OConnor, J. D, and G. F. Arnold 1973. Intonation of Colloquial English (2nd edn.). London: Longman. Wells, J. C. 1992. Alfred Charles Gimson: an obituary. http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/gim-obit.htm Wells, J. C. 2000. Longman Pronouncing Dictionary (2nd edn.) Harlow: Longman. The reviewer Gunther Kaltenbck is a lecturer at the English Department of the University of Vienna. He has been involved in ELT for over 10 years in Austria and Britain, and holds an MA in Modern English Language from the University of London and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Vienna. His main research interests are phonetics, syntax, and language teaching. Email: gunther.kaltenboeck@univie.ac.at

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