PronPack: Word Recognition for Listeners

Word Recognition for Listeners, alongside Connected Speech for Listeners, is part of the Pronunciation for Listening series. These two books provide background tips plus a wealth of teaching ideas and materials for dealing in class with the pronunciation of natural spoken English. The main objective is to help learners improve their listening skills. These pocketbook-style volumes are user-friendly, with short well signposted chapters providing maximum accessibility for the busy teacher.

The main body of Word Recognition for Listeners consists of three sections. Section A is background reading. Sections B and C contain practical teaching ideas and materials. Section A contains 12 practical tips with advice and suggestions about how to teach spoken word recognition. Reading this section straight through provides a complete overview of the issues involved. On the other hand, the tips are independent and self-contained so readers can dip into them in a different order, as and when they feel the need.

Section B contains materials for 12 lessons each focusing on one of the main features of spoken word recognition. These are suitable for introducing the general concepts, which are then revisited in context in the lessons in Section C. They may be used in a section of a lesson especially set aside for work on pronunciation. Many teachers will also find them useful for self-study, to learn about or remind themselves of the fundamentals of word recognition.

Section C contains the main body of teaching materials and ideas in this book. They consist of 18 lessons exploring pronunciation for listening, organised lexically, by common prefixes and suffixes. Vocabulary provides a natural organising principle for the lessons because spoken word recognition is closely aligned to word formation. However, the main reason for using lexis is practical: it imposes a logical ordering on a subject matter which can often appear random and confusing. Perhaps most important of all, it suggests ways in which pronunciation for listening can be integrated with the vocabulary covered in a teaching syllabus.