Page:An outline of English phonetics ... with 131 illustrations (IA cu31924027389505).pdf/10

IV course be supplemented by ear-training exercises (such as those given in Appendix C) and by continual reading of phonetic texts (such as those in my Phonetic Readings in English or the other books mentioned in Appendix E (i) and (ii)).

For the benefit of those who are accustomed to instrumental methods or who wish to study these methods, a certain amount of information regarding experimental phonetics has been included. The part of the book dealing with this branch of the subject may be entirely omitted by students who do not desire to take up experimental work, or have no opportunity of doing so. All paragraphs which may be so omitted are marked with an asterisk *. Experimental phonetics is a highly interesting study in itself, but it must not be regarded as an indispensable study for those who wish to learn to pronounce a foreign language correctly. Some experiments may be of use in this connection in the case of the students who have by nature a special difficulty in hearing the differences between similar sounds. In most cases, however, the experiments should be regarded merely as corroborative of the results obtainable by the ordinary methods of practical phonetics—that is, by direct observations made by a trained ear—and as a means of helping to fix them in the student’s memory. Experiments which go further than this can hardly be considered as of practical value to language students.

It is satisfactory to find that the subject of intonation, to which considerable space is devoted in this book, is receiving more and more attention at the present time. Teachers are now beginning to realize that a study of intonation is often required to give the final touches to a good pronunciation, and that students who by nature have but little aptitude for learning vowels and consonants may sometimes compensate to some extent for their defective sounds by acquiring a good intonation.

It is however desirable to warn students against starting this subject too soon. It should not be begun until considerable facility in the use of the vowels and consonants has been attained.

Some teachers have cast doubt on the utility of intonation curves in practical teaching. I can assure them from experience that most learners find such curves a considerable help. I have even known a foreigner acquire a perfectly accurate intonation of a passage of English by this means, without ever having heard the words read aloud.

The chapter on intonation in this hook was unfortunately in print before the appearance of the excellent article on the subject by ; his discoveries have suggested to me various ways in which this chapter might be improved. I therefore strongly recommend all readers of this book to supplement their perusal of the chapter on intonation by a careful study of ’s article.