Mastering the American Accent

出版者:Barron's Educational Series

作者:Lisa Mojsin M.A.

页数:210

出版时间:2016-9-15

价格:$24.99

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9781438008103

具体描述

This combination book and audio instructional program is designed to diminish the accents of men and women who speak English as their second language. It will help them speak standard American English with clarity, confidence, and accuracy. Specific exercises concentrate on vowel sounds, problematic consonants such as V, W, TH, the American R, and the often confusing American T sound. It teaches them to employ correct syllable stress, emphasize the correct words in a sentence for native sounding rhythm, speak with American intonation, link words for smoother speech flow, use common word contractions, and more. Additional topics that often confuse ESL students are also discussed and explained. They include distinguishing between casual and formal speech, homophones (for instance, they're and there), recognizing words with silent letters (comb, receipt, and others), and avoiding embarrassing pronunciation mistakes, such as mixing up "beach" and "bitch." Students are familiarized with many irregular English spelling rules and exceptions, and are shown how such irregularities can contribute to pronunciation errors. A native language guide references problematic accent issues of 13 different language backgrounds. Correct lip and tongue positions for all sounds are discussed in detail. There is also a link to downloadable audio that uses male and female voices to coach correct American-style pronunciation.

作者简介

Lisa Mojsin teaches accent reduction in Los Angeles. She is director of Accurate English, an accent reduction training company. (accurateenglish.com) She specializes in working with actors in Hollywood, TV announcers, and business professionals for whom correct pronunciation is a must. She is passionate about helping non-native speakers of English communicate confidence, clarity and accuracy.

Her typical non-entertainment industry clients are foreign born physicians, lawyers, software engineers and corporate professionals.

She has a master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. She taught at Santa Monica College, West Los Angeles College and UCLA-Extension. She also taught in China, Germany and New Zealand and has worked as an interpreter in France and for the Olympic Games.

She developed a passion for accents and correct pronunciation when she was getting her bachelor's degree in French and German from UCLA.

目录信息

Introduction vi
Chapter 1: The Vowel Sounds 1
Production of Vowels 1
Main Vowel Sounds of American English 3
/i/ as in meet 4
/I/ as in sit 4
/eɪ/ as in take 6
/ɛ/ as in get 7
/æ/ as in fat 8
/ɑ/ as in father 9
/ə/ as in fun 10
/ɔ/as in saw 11
/oʊ/ as in boat 13
/ʊ/ as in good 14
/u/ as in too 14
/ər/ as in bird 16
/aɪ/ as in time 16
/aʊ/ as in house 17
/ɔɪ/ as in boy 18
Chapter 2: Vowels in Detail 19
Review of /I/ and /i/ Sounds 19
Review of /ɛ/ and /æ/ Sounds 20
Review of /ə/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, and /ou/ Sounds 21
The Problematic o 22
Three Different Ways to Pronounce the o 25
Review of /æ/ versus /ə/ 25
The American /ɔ/ Sound 26
Review of /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, /ə/, and /oʊ/ 28
The Problematic /ʊ/ Sound 29
Review of /ʊ/ and /u/ Sounds 30
Comparing /u/ and /yu/ 30
Review of the /ər/ Sound 31
Vowels Followed by the /r/ Sound 32
Chapter 3: Consonants 33
Forming American Consonants 33
Voiceless and Voiced Consonants 34
Vowel Length and Voiced and Voiceless Consonants 35
Stops and Continuants 37
Chapter 4: Problematic Consonants 39
The Various t Sounds of American English 39
The “Fast d” Sound 43
The /tʃr/ Sound: tr 44
The /dʒr/ Sound: dr 44
The /dʒ/ Sound: du and d + y 45
The /tʃ/ Sound: tu and t + y 45
Words Ending in -ed 46
The th Sound 49
The American /r/ 53
The American /l/ 56
Understanding /l/ Versus /r/ 58
The /v/ Sound 61
Understanding /b/ Versus /v/ 62
The /w/ Sound 63
Understanding /v/ Versus /w/ 64
The /s/ and /z/ Sounds 65
The /ŋ/ Sound: Pronouncing ng 68
Consonant Clusters 70
Chapter 5: Syllable Stress 73
Stressed and Reduced Vowels 73
Comparing Stressed and Reduced Vowels 76
Dangers of Stressing the Wrong Syllable 78
General Rules for Stress Placement 79
Two-Syllable Words 79
Noun and Verb Pairs 80
Words Ending in -tion and -ate 81
-ate Endings of Verbs and Nouns 81
More Stressed Suffixes 82
Rules for Prefixes 82
Syllable Stress Changes 84
Reduced Vowels for Review 86
Chapter 6: Word Stress 89
Compound Nouns 89
Proper Stress with Adjectives 91
Phrasal Verbs 93
Noun Forms of Phrasal Verbs 94
Abbreviations and Numbers 95
Names of Places and People 96
Word Stress Within a Sentence 96
Lengthening the Main Vowel in Stressed Words 96
Which Words Should I Stress? 98
Content Words 98
Content Words in Detail: Verbs 99
Stress Nouns but Not Pronouns 99
Content Words in Detail: Adjectives 100
Reducing Vowels in Unstressed Words 101
Weak Forms 101
Reducing Pronouns 104
Strong Forms 105
Thought Groups and Focus Words 106
Contrastive Stress 107
Chapter 7: Intonation 109
Falling Intonation 109
Statements 109
Questions 109
Rising Intonation 110
Non-final Intonation 111
Unfinished Thoughts 111
Introductory Words 112
Series of Words 112
Expressing Choices 112
Wavering Intonation 113
Chapter 8: Sound Like a True Native Speaker 115
Linking Words for Smoother Speech Flow 115
Rules for Linking 116
Linking Consonant to Vowel 116
Linking Consonant to Same Consonant 119
Linking Two Consonants 120
Linking Vowel to Vowel 122
Linking Vowels Within a Word 123
Contractions 125
Commonly Contracted Words 126
Conditional Tense and Contractions 130
Casual Versus Formal Speech 132
Rules and Patterns of Casual Speech 133
Chapter 9: Memorizing the Exceptions 135
Same Spelling, Different Pronunciation 136
Two Correct Pronunciations 137
Words with Dropped Syllables 137
Words with Silent Letters 138
Homophones 139
Native Language Guide 141
Chinese 141
Farsi 149
Filipino Languages 152
French 155
German 160
Indian Languages 164
Indonesian 168
Japanese 172
Korean 176
Portuguese 180
Russian 184
Spanish 188
Vietnamese 193
Index 199
· · · · · · (收起)

读后感

打印的电子版，听的16版的录音，16版内容小有增加。这套书把所有的美音规律都讲了，让我对托福听力的疑惑点都得到了解决。而且难度比那套神书American Accent Training容易得多，略懂国际音标就可以直接上手这本LISA编写的书了，不过建议做一个音标对比。我真地爱死这本书了，...

打印的电子版，听的16版的录音，16版内容小有增加。这套书把所有的美音规律都讲了，让我对托福听力的疑惑点都得到了解决。而且难度比那套神书American Accent Training容易得多，略懂国际音标就可以直接上手这本LISA编写的书了，不过建议做一个音标对比。我真地爱死这本书了，...

市面上比较著名的美式英语发音书籍我都有涉猎，包括大名鼎鼎的Ann Cook和Pronunciation Workshop，不一而足。无疑它们都是相当不错的发音教程，各有千秋，比如Ann Cook就非常擅长结心理战术教授你连读的技巧，甚至还设计了一套新的发音音标。但你如果让我只推荐一本，我还是...  

用户评价

这本书的包装设计就让人眼前一亮，那种低调的奢华感，厚实的纸张拿在手里沉甸甸的，一看就是精心制作的。我本来是抱着试试看的心态买的，毕竟市面上关于口音纠正的书籍浩如烟海，真正能让人眼前一亮的凤毛麟角。这本书的排版清晰度简直是教科书级别的，每一个音标、每一个例句都安排得井井有条，即便是初学者也能迅速找到重点。我特别喜欢它在介绍基础元音和辅音时那种细致入微的讲解，它不仅仅告诉你“应该怎么发”，更深入地剖析了发音器官的位置、气流的控制方式，甚至连口腔内部的微小动作都描述得淋漓尽致。我过去一直困扰于某些特定音素的发音位置总是拿捏不准，这本书里那些详尽的图解和对比练习，简直像给我请了一位私人语言教练，实时纠正我的舌位。我已经坚持使用其中的前三章练习了一个星期，感觉我的口腔肌肉群似乎都在进行一次全新的塑形训练，那种长期积累的错误发音习惯正在被逐步瓦解，那种成就感，真的很难用言语来形容。这本书的深度和广度，远超我预期的“入门指南”，更像是一部系统的、可以长期参考的音韵学实操手册。

我是一名高校的英语教师，一直在寻找一套既严谨又不失趣味性的教材来推荐给我的学生。在试用了几周后，我可以毫不犹豫地说，这本书达到了我的所有预期，甚至超出了许多。它最大的价值在于其“系统性”和“可操作性”。很多学习材料只是点到为止，但这本书的每一课都建立在前一课的基础上，形成了一个稳固的学习阶梯。尤其值得称赞的是，书中穿插了大量的文化背景知识，解释了某些发音习惯形成的历史或文化原因，这让学习过程变得更加有深度和趣味性，避免了死记硬背的枯燥。例如，书中对于“r”音在不同词汇中的细微变化，解释得透彻入微，并且配有大量的听力材料进行反复强化。我们都知道，听力理解和口语输出是相辅相成的，这本书在提供清晰发音指导的同时，也在潜移默化地提升学习者的听辨能力。学生们反馈，自从开始使用这本书的练习方法后，他们不仅在口语考试中得分提高，更重要的是，他们开始能更清晰地捕捉到美剧中那些快速的对话细节了。

这本书的排版和印刷质量绝对是同类书籍中的顶尖水准，无论是用于个人学习还是作为课堂辅助材料，都显得非常专业和体面。我尤其欣赏作者在处理“连读”（Liaison）和“吞音”（Elision）这些进阶技巧时的处理方式。这些往往是学习者跨越初级阶段后最容易感到挫败的部分，因为它们涉及到语速的自然流动。这本书没有用晦涩的语言去定义它们，而是通过大量的、标注清晰的慢速和常速对比音频，让学习者直接“听进去”，然后“模仿出来”。配套的在线资源（如果配备）是其巨大的加分项，我发现我可以随时随地进行跟读练习，甚至在通勤的路上也能有效利用碎片时间。更让我感到惊喜的是，书中对美式俚语和非正式表达中的发音变化也有所涉猎，这确保了我们学习到的口音是“活的”，是与当代美国人日常交流接轨的。对于任何追求完美发音的学习者而言，这本书无疑是一项物超所值、值得长期投资的学习工具，它提供的不仅仅是一套技巧，更是一种全新的发音思维模式。

我是一名资深的英语学习者，但口音一直是我的“心头大患”，尤其是在需要进行正式演讲或商务谈判时，那种不自然的停顿和生硬的语调总会让我自信心受挫。我购买这本书是抱着“死马当活马医”的心态，没想到它真正触及了我问题的核心。这本书的精妙之处在于，它没有将“美式口音”作为一个单一的、抽象的概念来讲解，而是将其拆解成了无数个可以量化、可以模仿的微小片段。它对语调（Intonation）和重音（Stress）的阐述尤其独到，这一点是很多注重单纯发音的教材里常常忽略的。作者似乎非常懂得非母语学习者在实际交流中遇到的尴尬场景，针对性地设计了大量的“语流情境模仿”练习。我发现，当我开始关注句子中词语的连读、弱读以及节奏的起伏后，我听起来就不再是生硬的单词堆砌，而是真正有了“音乐感”。我尝试着模仿书中的对话录音，录下自己的声音对比，那种提升是立竿见影的。这本书不仅仅是关于“怎么发音”，更是关于“怎么自然地说话”，它教会我如何融入美国人的对话脉络，这对于提升我的实际交流能力是质的飞跃。

说实话，市面上的口音教材往往过于学术化，动辄引用复杂的语音学名词，让人望而却步。但这本书的作者显然非常懂得如何与大众沟通。它的叙事风格极其亲切，几乎就像是一位经验丰富的朋友在手把手地教你。我最欣赏的是它对“地域差异”的探讨，它承认了“美式口音”本身也存在地域差异，并明确指出了目前教材主要参考的标准口音是哪一种，这让我在选择模仿对象时有了明确的方向，避免了盲目跟风。在具体的练习环节，作者还非常贴心地设置了“常见错误诊断区”，详细列举了我们亚洲学习者最容易犯的十大错误，并提供了针对性的矫正方案。我看了看那些错误列表，简直是把我内心深处那些自己都没察觉到的毛病全都精准地揪了出来。这种高度的针对性和自我诊断工具的植入，极大地提高了我的学习效率。这本书不是简单地罗列知识点，而是提供了一套完整的自我纠错系统，我感觉自己正在从一个被动接受者，转变为一个主动的口音工程师。

很棒的一本口语发音书，很多非常有用的tips

非常好的一本发音类教程，适合反复的学习，有相关的视频和对照的音频教程。

非常好的一本发音类教程，适合反复的学习，有相关的视频和对照的音频教程。

读了一半，我觉得跟三年前用的American Accent Training差不多。。因为美亚评价很高就拿来看看。。本来觉得自己的口语已经够格唬别人了，其实看了一半发现还有很多可以继续练习。

非常好的一本发音类教程，适合反复的学习，有相关的视频和对照的音频教程。