Reviews 2013
Jenny Jenkins, Professor of Global Englishes, University of Southampton
Whatever teachers need in order to improve their students’ listening, they will find it in this astonishingly comprehensive book … This is a great leap forward that really brings listening into the 21st Century.
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Winnie Cheng, Professor of English, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
This is a book for students and teachers worldwide. Highly recommended.
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Lucy Pickering, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Texas A&M-Commerce
Phonology for Listening can be enjoyed by the gadget-lover or low-tech learner alike, and brings us in to the 21st century with its incorporation of both local and global contexts of English language use.
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Ron Carter, Research Professor of Modern English Language University of Nottingham
Three decades of research and teacher training come together in this key book. Thoroughly recommended.
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John Levis, Associate Professor and Chair, Interdisciplinary Program in Linguistics, Iowa State University
Listening teaching has long needed a book like this.
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Mike McCarthy, Emeritus Professor University of Nottingham
A timely investigation of real, spontaneous speech and the challenges it poses to English language learners.
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Martin Hewings, co-author of Cambridge Academic English
This innovative publication should be on every EFL teacher’s bookshelf.
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Mark Hancock, author of English Pronunciation in Use Intermediate
This is just the book I’ve been waiting for – an original, inventive and above all useful approach to this neglected topic.
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Jonathan Marks, author of English Pronunciation in Use Elementary and The Book of Pronunciation
For many learners listening is akin to stumbling through a dense fog in which only isolated features of the landscape stand out clearly Phonology for Listening gives teachers a detailed description of the landscape, and practical activities to lift the fog.
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Richard Stibbard, Phonetics scholar and consultant
This will be recognised as a ground-breaking piece of work and become the major force in ELT it deserves to be.
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Jenny Jenkins, Professor of Global Englishes University of Southampton
With the publication of Richard Cauldwell’s book, the teaching of listening has finally come of age. Whatever teachers need in order to improve their students’ listening, they will find it in this astonishingly comprehensive book: and not only the usual ‘standard’ accents normally found in listening materials with, perhaps, a token non-native English accent or two for the sake of political correctness. In this respect, it is particularly pleasing to find a chapter on global English that focuses on the kinds of (non-native) English accents learners are most likely to hear in their English-using lives. This is a great leap forward that really brings listening into the 21st Century.
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Mike McCarthy, Emeritus Professor University of Nottingham
Cauldwell’s book is a timely investigation of real, spontaneous speech and the challenges it poses to English language learners. In a teaching and learning context where speaking skills get much attention in research and are blessed with plenty of good materials for the teacher and learner, listening often lags behind. This book makes up for that, combining solid research with practical outcomes that teachers will find invaluable. The book situates itself in a global English perspective and offers both low- and high-tech solutions.
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Martin Hewings, co-author of Cambridge Academic English
TIn Phonology for Listening Richard Cauldwell builds on David Brazil’s work on discourse intonation to provide a practical approach to teaching listening based within a sound theory. It covers a wide range of relevant topics from the multitude of changes to word shapes that take place in spontaneous speech, to the relationship between intonation and grammar, and attitudes to regional accents. Applying the suggestion in Phonology for Listening will help teachers develop their students’ ability to make sense of the complexities of English spoken at a conversational speed. This innovative publication should be on every EFL teacher’s bookshelf.
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Jonathan Marks, author of English Pronunciation in Use Elementary and The Book of Pronunciation
For many learners of English, the experience of listening to the language is akin to stumbling through a dense fog in which only isolated features of the landscape stand out clearly. Classroom listening work tends to rely on sending them on more and more journeys through the fog, in the hope that they will eventually be able to discern more and more of the landscape – but without actually giving them much guidance as to how to negotiate the terrain. Phonology for Listening takes a new approach which gives teachers a detailed description of that landscape, and practical activities to lift the fog.
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Winnie Cheng, Professor of English, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
This is a book for students and teachers worldwide who aspire to working with “the realities of the stream of speech” and appreciating “accents identity and emotion in speech”. Highly recommended.
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John Levis, Associate Professor and Chair, Interdisciplinary Program in Linguistics, Iowa State University
Everyone agrees that being intelligible is essential FOR learners of English when they pronounce. But few textbooks have tried to establish what may be more important for learners — how to make native speech, in all its varieties and registers, intelligible TO learners when they listen. This book promises to provide guidance for teachers and learners about how to listen to native speakers and how to decode the rapid, often mystifying stream of normal speech. Not only does Richard Cauldwell describe the patterns of conversational speech, he provides a critical and rare resource: sound files of authentic speech from varied speakers of English. Listening teaching has long needed a book like this.
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Lucy Pickering, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Texas A&M-Commerce
Since the award winning 2002 CD-ROM Streaming Speech Richard Cauldwell has led the way in truly innovative approaches to tackling the speaking and listening quandaries in which English language learners find themselves in everyday situations. Phonology for Listening can be enjoyed by the gadget-lover or low-tech learner alike, and brings us in to the 21st century with its incorporation of both local and global contexts of English language use.
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Richard Stibbard, Phonetics scholar and consultant
This is a very valuable book, describing and exemplifying with real data what happens in fast connected speech, phenomena which native speakers, including teachers, are unaware of, and which are a particular feature of English. In the electronic format with built-in sound this will be recognised as a ground-breaking piece of work and become the major force in ELT it deserves to be.
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