Better Spoken English

This book is eminently practical. It sets out to offer students in India an achievable approach to improve their spoken English at the tertiary level. It is original in a number of ways: In the first place, it makes the very important distinction between what is essential (';core') for intelligibility and what is relatively unimportant (';peripheral'). All too often in the past, courses in pronunciation have aimed at an unachievable and illusory ';native speaker' competence. In doing so, students have wasted a great deal of time and effort on inessentials and have all too often experienced unnecessary feelings of inferiority into the bargain. Every variety of English, including the many accents and dialects of the British Isles and North America, ';deviates' from the ';ideal' - which is in fact no more than an ';idea'. What is important to concentrate on the key features and to avoid speech habits which impede understanding. The emphasis of Better Spoken English is effective communication. This book is designed to help you achieve greater fluency in English.