Book Review

The book, An Introduction to Phonetics, represents commendable efforts on the part of the authors to provide a simple material on phonetics for early readers in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programmes, and for teachers, as it may facilitate their business in the teaching of English phonetics. It has by this orientation proved to be a contribution to the more difficult pedagogical goal of guiding EFL learners towards cultivating a near-native English pronunciation, without itself directly targeting practical pronunciation, but theoretical phonetics, relative to the more generalised contents of early courses in phonetics in English language programmes. Among its major contributions to phonetics and pronunciation are the well-illustrated phonetic descriptions—illustrated with vivid diagrams—which make them more explicit. They are also very useful in facilitating the learning of pronunciation.