Judy B. Gilbert

Clear Speech possesses authority for its content that few textbooks do. Most textbooks teach the subject. This textbook is the subject. Students easily buy into the idea that this textbook is special, and they expect to learn from it. One change that Judy Gilbert makes is that long vowel sounds are alphabet vowel sounds and short vowel sounds are relative vowel sounds. This renaming of terms is the basis for the first third of the book, provides for greater clarity and gives a good foundation for the rest of the book. There are appendices that take the students further into some of the concepts. The Teacher's Resource Book is necessary for teaching this course.

This text is designed for intermediate levels. Lower levels get stuck on vocabulary problems.… (plus d'informations)

If you teach from Clear Speech, the accompanying Teacher's Resource Book is essential to have. Usually teacher's books are a convenience so that the teacher doesn't have to figure out the answer. This book does that and much more. Clear Speech is more than a book to teach a course; it is the course. So the resource book gives the instructor the mind of the maker, and gives the instructor the ability to teach the book the way that it is meant to be taught. Judy Gilbert gives the theory behind the material for each chapter. Once the teacher has taught the book, he has also been taught a course in teaching pronunciation.

The book also contains valuable teaching tips, which makes the teacher seem quite wise. Some of the tips help the teacher expand the exercises. I wish that there were more of these, the students are always wanting more practice, and coming up with those exercises was by far the most difficult part of teaching the class. Each unit comes with a quiz that is also a valuable teaching tool, provided that the teacher has immersed himself in the explanations that the book provides him with.… (plus d'informations)