Beyond Repeat After Me

Teaching pronunciation to English learners

M a r i a t r i tc h yo s h i da

TESOL Press, 2016

Reviewed by Arizio Sweeting

If you are looking for an easy-to-read and practical guide to teaching pronunciation,
Beyond Repeat After Me: Teaching Pronunciation to English Learners, by Maria Tritch
Yoshida, might be of interest to you. Overall, the book is 188 pages in length and has
15 main chapters and five supplementary ones. The book looks at the theory and
classroom practice of teaching segmental (individual sounds) and suprasegmental
(affecting more than one sound segment) features of English. It focuses primarily
on the pronunciation of American English (AE) but does not exclude other varieties.
The preface is enthusiastic about what makes this book different from other
pronunciation titles. In the author’s own words, ‘existing books are simply books’
(italics in the original) (p. v), meaning that even if a CD with recordings is available,
sounds tend to be mainly represented through symbols and descriptions. This book,
however, makes sounds an integral part of its content on the accompanying website,
www.tesol.org/beyondrepeatafterme, which is a useful audio-visual resource
for teachers wishing to improve their own knowledge of pronunciation. Another
important note in the preface is about the book’s audience as ‘[it] has been written
with special consideration of the needs and interests of nonnative speakers of English’
(p. v), and is thus relevant to both English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English
as a Second Language (ESL) teachers.
Chapter 1 gives an overview of important concepts that teachers need to know
about effective pronunciation teaching, with Chapter 2 following up by looking at
basic concepts from phonology. A positive feature of the latter is its focus on the
phonemic alphabet, which is a problem area for many teachers. Chapter 3 is about
the articulatory approach to pronunciation teaching. It deals with the articulatory

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system and ideally should be the first chapter teachers read as it elucidates what
happens inside our mouth when we talk, using both descriptions and drawings. This
chapter also includes ideas about how to teach articulation. For instance, alluding
to children’s experience, teachers are shown how to produce the /θ/ sound by
positioning the tongue as if licking a lollipop.
Consonants and vowels appear in Chapters 4 and 5. Although these chapters contain
a lot of terminology which may discourage readers, the terms are presented in bold to
indicate their inclusion in the book’s glossary.
Chapter 4 presents tips on how to demonstrate
manner of articulation using mental images,
such as a stop /p/ or /b/ working like a toy pop
gun and a fricative /s/ like pushing air out of a
balloon pump. In Chapter 5, a useful table of
lip positions for AmE vowels is found. Chapter
6 is short and deals with the pronunciation of
word endings, which may interest teachers
working with learners whose first language
omits or changes such sounds. It would also
be beneficial to trainees on courses like CELTA,
where knowledge of learners’ pronunciation
difficulties is required.
Chapter 7 presents activities informed by
a communicative framework for teaching
pronunciation, which suggests that new sounds or sound contrasts be taught in
different ways, such as using description and analysis, listening discrimination,
controlled practice, guided practice and communicative practice. This chapter is
packed with valuable ideas for classroom activities, including the use of gestures and
movements, such as mimicking the tongue position for the /r/ sound by holding up
one’s hand with the fingers curled up. Another highlight is the attention to students’
needs and the call for an eclectic (auditory, visual and kinaesthetic) teaching approach,
using what the author calls ‘the pronunciation toolbox’ of mirrors or mobile phones,
dental models, listening tubes made from folded paper, rubber bands, drinking straws
and feathers or thin tissue paper (for working with individual sounds).
The subsequent chapters (8–12) are dedicated to aspects of pronunciation that
create the musicality of English: stress, rhythm, thought groups and prominence,
intonation, and connected speech. My recommendation is to approach these chapters
in sequence to gain a solid understanding of syllables and stress before entering the
complex realms of prominence and intonation. From a practical perspective, Chapter

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13 suggests techniques for teaching these suprasegmental features, such as focusing
students on stress using Cuisenaire rods. One good idea is the placing of the rods
horizontally on the desk to show syllable lengthening. Other great ideas include the
use of red and yellow cards for practising thought groups (meaningful chunks of
language) during reading aloud activities, where a red card means a complete stop
and a yellow card, a partial one, and the use of pipe cleaners for marking intonation
patterns.
The two remaining chapters are dedicated to topics which are often absent in
pronunciation resources: learner experience and the relationship between spelling
and sound. Chapter 14 reminds teachers of the importance of planning pronunciation
lessons by being mindful of learners’ age, level, language background and goals;
while Chapter 15 discusses the sometimes neglected area of phonics (the study
of the relationship between written letters and spoken sounds). The author warns
teachers about the danger of overwhelming students with too much information
on spelling patterns and reminds them of the challenges caused by the spelling of
students’ first languages.
As for drawbacks, I have only very small quibbles with the book. One of them
is perhaps due to my misunderstanding of the title. I was expecting a critical
stance against ‘listen and repeat’. However, the idea behind the book is that of
supplementation. Another minor criticism is a logistic one. It would possibly have
been more advantageous for teachers if the resource templates (e.g., the listening
tube shapes) had been printed on a single page for easy photocopying.
In conclusion, this book really has something for everyone, from novice teachers to
teacher trainers, although academics would probably find it less useful. I strongly
recommend it to trainees on CELTA or DELTA courses as its balance of theory and
practice would be of great help for their practicum. Finally, I truly encourage you to
acquire Beyond Repeat After Me and make pronunciation a regular feature of your
language lessons.

Arizio Sweeing is a teacher and teacher trainer at the Insitute of

Coninuing and TESOL Educaion at the University of Queensland. He is
undertaking his PhD studies on teacher educaion and pronunciaion
instrucion at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

arizio.sweeing@mail.com

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