Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11591 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-19
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• 140 pages

Synopsis
Features an English Received Pronunciation and speech training, practical course.

Customer Reviews

Good, but maybe not for self-study
The stated purpose of this book is to help people develop a Received Pronunciation (RP, popularly known as BBC English or the Queen's English). There has been a shift in recent years towards more tolerance in variation and RP is no longer held to be a golden standard, but those who really want to master this accent could do worse than this little book.

The substantive part of the book consists of 42 two-page chapters, each focusing on one particular sound or cluster of vowels. Each chapter begins with an illustration of how speech organs should be positioned, which I found quite helpful. After that there is a progression of examples supported by good-quality recordings: first the sound in isolation, then the sound in individual words, next in sentences and finally in small poems. According to the introductory notes, readers are expected to first listen to the sounds, then listen and repeat, and then record themselves, although it is not clear how these activities correspond to the examples in the book.

Language teachers will probably recognise the principles of the audiolingual method (ALM) which underpin the book. Despite the negative reflexes that this realisation might trigger, in my opinion this approach is not inappropriate to the limited task of developing a native-like accent: after all, the one area where the ALM seemed to work most effectively was in pronunciation training. On the negative side, such practice is better suited to the most dedicated learners, as others might lose interest fast.

A second, perhaps more valid, objection to the book is that is focuses too much on individual sounds, at the expense of longer stretches of sound. It seems that this book could be usefully supplemented by sections dealing with supra-segmental elements of pronunciation, such as stress, intonation (the rising and falling of pitch), connected speech, rate of delivery etc. This limitation is partially addressed by the provision for sentences and verses which the reader will probably have to repeat carefully, but I suspect that many users will need more help than that in order to sound natural.

In summary, I believe that this is a useful book and it is obvious that it was carefully written. As a self-study resource, it might prove very useful to experienced language learners, or well-motivated native speakers who want to address specific problems in their pronunciation. In all other cases, it would probably function better as a textbook in a pronunciation course, where an experienced teacher would be available to address some of its limitations.

The Stage magazine and TES like it
I love this book and was puzzled by the reviews below; now I'm really confused.

I've been told that Get Rid of your Accent is the number one book for foreigners learning British English and is also very popular with actors. Now The Stage magazine just reviewed the book and said: "Imaginative word and sentence examples put RP through its paces, while longer verse and prose extracts reinforce that all-important X factor - intonation," contradicting what's said below. And this is from a reviewer for The Stage, Nick Awde, who is always on the alert for pronunciation and dialect issues.

I think the comments below represent a viewpoint held by some, including, yes, "specialists" that only very simple examples work. Whereas actually, as The Stage says, it's real examples like the Gilbert and Sullivan verses quoted in this book and read out on the CDs that not only teach pronunciation but intonation as well.

The comments about price being high confuse me too. Get Rid of your Accent has two CDs with all the examples spoken by two RADA-trained actors. £19.95 seems a more than fair price.

There are people out there who like the more simplistic approach as represented by titles like "Ship or Sheep", "Tree or Three" etc. - but some of us find it a bit demeaning. There's room for both approaches, but The Stage review, Times Educational Supplement and other reviews on the BATCS Web site show that the Get Rid of your Accent approach is getting a lot of respect.

No longer the kebab woman
This is a fabulous book! I'm a management accountant, but because of my strong Polish accent, I sometimes felt that people were treating me like the kebab woman. Now, I listen to the CDs and practice and can see my progress; the method and exercises in the book are really working for me.