Gimson's Pronunciation of English (Cruttenden)

Gimson's Pronunciation of English (Cruttenden) is a recommended TEFL/TESOL title from the Global English reading list, available to buy on Amazon.

What it is. A scholarly description of English pronunciation, begun by A. C. Gimson and carried forward through successive revisions by Alan Cruttenden for Routledge. It is effectively a reference grammar of the sound system.

How it is built. It works from the speech mechanism outward: how sounds are made, then the consonant and vowel systems of English described one segment at a time, then the phoneme and its allophones, then everything that happens once words are joined together - assimilation, elision, linking, weak forms, stress and rhythm, and intonation. Later chapters deal with accent variation, including the shift from Received Pronunciation to the broader model Cruttenden calls General British, and with sound changes currently in progress.

Who it suits. Trainees who have met phonemic transcription and want the detailed account behind it, and anyone writing at Level 5 on phonology who needs a source that can be cited. It rewards being used as a reference: look up the segment or the process you are writing about rather than reading it front to back.

What it does not do. This is descriptive linguistics, not a bank of classroom activities. It will tell you precisely what a dark l is and where English speakers produce one; it will not tell you how to get a class of teenagers to produce it. For that side of the work, use the pronunciation modules on your course and add a practical activities book.

Recommended for these courses:

• Level 5 250 Hour TEFL/TESOL Professional Course
• 30 hour Introduction to Phonetics