Adrian Buck’s Reviews > Sound Foundations > Status Update

Consciously emphasising and disguising the particular phenomenon under scrutiny... represents the fundamental difference between mechanical exercises... and awareness exercises...

Since what the mouth can say and what the ear can hear exert a reciprocal influence on each other, it follows that there cannot be a purely listening or a purely speaking lesson. pg 172

"where a mother tongue consonant interferes, I would include it as an intentional part of the practice. You can do this by assigning a symbol... and writing that symbol in it's own box beside the chart." pg 131, why not use a more complete IPA chart?

A treasury of good ideas, but using gesture implies teaching students to understand what the gestures mean. Under what circumstances is the investment worthwhile?

"The often inarticulated assumption that learners' problems with intonation stem largely from mother tongue interference needs to be questioned. " - in my case, the assumption has been articulated, loudly and often!

Is syllable a useful level of analysis in English pronunciation?

Basing the book on the phonemic chart is a good idea, but one should be provided as an cut-out or an insert to save constantly having to flip backward and forward.

I can probably work out why semi-vowels never have a final position, but would like some idiot-proof explanimation. And why do we spell with them in final position i.e. 'few' and 'day'?

Why is 'zs' not used in initial and final positions in English? Does this cause a problem for English speakers of Hungarian?