English Pronunciation Practice [antikvár]

This booklet is a complementary volume to An Outline of Present-day English Structure" Volume I dealing with phonetics and phonology. Its aim is to supply the student of English with exercises for the pronunciation of English sounds in combination with other sounds. Special attention has been paid to the weak forms of function words and to accent and rhythm, which are prerequisites to the acquisition of correct intonation. For lack of space only those sounds are presented which are in somé way problematic for Hungárián learners. For the same reason the drills and reading exercises are concerned only with the main types of intonation appropriate to various attitudes. These patterns will serve as a basis which should enable the learner himself, through careful listening, to acquire facility in the expression of finer shades of meaning. Most of the exercises are meant for class-room work, but we have alsó tried to provide the students with homework. The latter may serve as models for the theacher for further assignments. The exercises have largely been taken from various excellent English text-books, and have been adapted to our own special needs. I am specially indebted to G. F. Arnold, G. Barnard, V. J. Cook, A. C. Gimson, L. Guierre, R. Kingdon, M. D. Munro Mackenzie, J. D. O'Connor, H. E. Palmer, J. T. Pring, and J. Windsor Lewis, whose works are given in full in the bibliography. This booklet does not pretend to be complete in any respect, it can only touch upon the problems any learner of English has to face. Many excellent books (including those by the above-mentioned authors) are available for each of the problems (the pronunciation of sound segments, stress, rhythm, intonation), which should be consulted for further information (see selected bibliography). It is, however, to be hoped that this volume will contribute to making the teaching and learning of spoken English somewhat easier. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my colleague in the English Department, Mr. László András, for his criticism and suggestions, and to both him and Mr. George Horlai from the Foreign Language Teaching Centre for their careful reading of the manuscript. Budapest, April, 1973.