About TOEIC Pronunciation in American
English
TOEIC Pronunciation in American English has over 68 interactive lessons
& practices that will help you improve your pronunciation skills in
English. Using the program you should be able to quickly apply your new
skills and be able to communicate more effectively in English.
The format of the series allows the busy professional student to work
at his or her own speed to cover the more than 30 hours of instructional
content.
There is also a network option for TOEIC Pronunciation
in American English. It is available as a single location network installation.
TOEIC Pronunciation in American English CD-ROM may be the tool
for you if...
- ...people ask you to repeat yourself in conversations
- ...people misunderstand you on the telephone
- ...you find group presentations difficult
TOEIC Pronunciation in American English Features:
- Video Presentations: to introduce the concepts.
- Audio Lessons: to model the pronunciation.
- Written Activities: to reinforce the practices.
- Record and Playback: to encourage practice/self correction.
- Workbook: printable versions of all lessons and practices.
- Pre and Post assessment: audio files saved for comparison.
TOEIC Pronunciation in American English is ideal for several
learning environments:
- Language Lab Settings: individualized self/paced
learning.
- Self Study: at home or at work
- Pronunication course: integrated for self-practice
with instructor guidance.
- Distance Learning: saved sound files can be submitted
for review and feedback.
Translations into ten languages
TOEIC Pronunciation in American English has translations into
ten languages. At the Table of Contents, users can choose to proceed
in English only, or pair English with any of the ten languages. The
instructions and all the lectures will be available in the chosen language.
Languages available are: Chinese-Simplified, Chinese-Traditional, French,
German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Continental), Portuguese (Brazilian),
and Spanish.
Review
What do the professionals say about TOEIC Pronunciation CD-ROM? Gema
E. Klein, M.A. TESL, of the University of Tennessee English Department,
thinks it is an effective tool the non-native English speaker can use
to learn to sound more like a native speaker. Read her review below:
"Pronunciation of American English" by Kathy L. Hans is an
innovative, practical and learner engaging interactive program. This program
makes pedagogically correct American English pronunciation available to
a great variety of ESL learners who might not otherwise have the time,
or opportunity to develop the pronunciation skills they desire and need
through traditional academic site pronunciation classes.
Teaching screens give clear, concise information with examples taken
from everyday conversations and situations learners encounter. Indeed,
one of the many strengths of the program is the multiple opportunities
for learners to incorporate their own focus vocabulary and sentences into
the practice exercises.
New skill areas are introduced by video segments with accompanying text
for learners to read as they watch and listen. With a click on an arrow
or a scroll up or down, they can repeat each lesson or application activity
as needed. Thus, learners control the pace of their own learning. Moreover,
lessons are sequenced to build on previously practiced skills, with application
activities for each new skill.
In every component of the program there are continual opportunities for
the student to listen to native speaker modeling and to repeat, record
and listen to his own production. This readily accessible means of monitoring
of his/her own speech aids not only the learner's pronunciation skills
but also improves listening skills needed in interaction with native speakers.
Learners not only learn how to pronounce American English, they also learn
how to listen and what to listen for.
Pronunciation of American English is an effective tool the non-native
English speaker can use to learn to sound more like a native speaker.
Better communication in speech is a vital step to better understanding
and cooperation, whether in the workplace, in school or in the community.
 |
| Kathy
Lee Hans, author of the TOEIC Pronunciation CD. |
The Author
Kathy Lee Hans has over 15 years of hands-on experience teaching ESL
for adults in the greater Silicon Valley area at the Adult School and
Community College level. Chosen as a Mentor Teacher by the Hayward Unified
School District, she has always demonstrated a keen desire to achieve
the highest levels of results for her students. She has trained ESL teachers
throughout California for the State Department of Education and authored
"Teaching Pronunciation in Context", a training text with videotape
for teachers and "Pronunciation in American English", a CD-ROM
interactive learning system.
Currently, Kathy offers teacher training through UCSC in addition to
implementing creative workplace ESL instruction at innovative companies
such as Apple Computer, Ascend Communications, 3COM, N.E.T. and Sun Microsystems.
Kathy earned her degree in English with Honors at the University of California,
Riverside.
Interview with the Author
In this interview, Kathy Lee Hans herself answers some questions about
TOEIC Pronunciation in American English. Read what she has to say about
the program below.
Q: What do you mean by the "music of English"?
English is stressed timed, which means that there's a regular beat to
the language, just like there's a beat in a rock and roll song. This regular
beat or stress falls on important words in the sentence and unimportant
words don't get stressed. They get squeezed between the important ones
to keep the rhythm. For example, in the sentence "The report is due
on Friday," the words, "report," "due," and "Friday"
are stressed. That means that the speaker says them louder, and holds
them longer. The speaker also has higher pitch or intonation on the most
important word in that phrase, "Friday," and the intonation
drops after that word to show that he's finished with the thought. The
little words, "the," "is," and "on" get
squeezed between the stressed words.
If the speaker doesn't use stress, intonation, and rhythm in English,
there is no music behind the language and the listener won't get cues
about what words are important and when the thought is finished. If the
speaker makes a stress mistake within a word, the listener may not be
able to understand the word, even if all the individual sounds are pronounced
correctly. For example, if the speaker says , "TRANscend " instead
of "tranSCEND," the listener may hear the word "TRANsit."
Many other languages do not have differences in stress, so these stress
differences have to be learned and practiced.
Q: Why is stress, intonation and rhythm so important?
There's research that indicates that people organize English by stress
patterns in their brains to process the sounds they hear. That means that
the correct stress, on the right syllable and the important word is essential
to comprehension. If the stress, intonation and rhythm is "off"
the listener may not understand the word or phrase or will spend a second
trying to figure it out and miss the rest of your sentence.
Q: Who is this CD designed for?
This CD-ROM is designed for students and working professionals who speak
English as a second or a foreign language. Individuals at a low intermediate
level and above will benefit most from the program.
Q: What is special or different about this pronunciation program?
There are a couple of things. First it is designed to guide people in
applying the skills they learn in the program. Most programs present a
skill and have practice exercises for that skill. This program goes further
by helping to guide the learner to apply the skill to work situations
in very specific ways. This program also includes a special section devoted
to 'fossilized stress.' Some learners may have been saying words incorrectly
for many years. This program gives very specific steps to help correct
these fossilized errors.
Q: Why don't you spend more time on individual sounds?
It's very difficult for adults to change their pronunciation of individual
sounds, like "l" or "r." It takes a good deal of time
and practice and it does not always make a big difference in terms of
comprehension. Correct stress, intonation, and rhythm in English are more
critical to comprehension. It is more effective to focus on these aspects.
The Clients
TOEIC Pronunciation CD-ROM has been adopted by over 350 schools and colleges.
TOEIC Pronunciation clients include:
- Bunker Hill Community College
- Centro Universitario La Salle, Brazil
- Colorado Mountain College
- Long Beach City College
- Los Angeles City College
- Malmö University, Sweden
- MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Mission College - Workplace Learning Resource Center
- Monterey Institute for International Studies
- Monterey Peninsula College
- Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey
- Pasadena City College
- Ohlone College
- Santa Monica City College
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- Santa Rosa Junior College
- San Francisco City College
- San Jose City College
- San Jose State University - Studies in American Language
- Suffolk County Community College
- Syracuse University
- Texas A & M
- University of California, Santa Cruz - Extension
- University of Maryland at Baltimore County
- University of South Carolina
- Wheaton College
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What the Clients Say
"The best program, in any skill, I've seen."
Nancy Hilty, South Seattle Community College
"This CD-ROM has helped me improve my pronunciation. I think it
is much better than only a book or a tape. I can listen, read and record
from the CD-ROM, and I can hear any word at any time."
Doris Wong, Software Build Engineer, 3COM
"This course has definitely given me the ability to recognize my
pronunciation defects when I interact with my colleagues at work. What
I have learned in this class is a step by step method to achieve my goal
of speaking English like a native speaker. The ´science´ behind
it was made much clearer. It is a superb multimedia software with a good
flow of the subject. I would recommend all non-native speakers to undertake
this course and feel the difference for yourself."
Sunil Chitnis, Software Engineer
"The audio guide for intonation and stress is very helpful, I
especially like the Intonation and Rhythm chapters on the CD-ROM. I
would absolutely recommend this to my friends."
PhiDien Nguyen, Software Engineer
View Demonstration
If you would like to see a demonstration of TOEIC Pronunciation in
American English, please go to our demo page.
The demo is a brief introduction of the program with samples from each
chapter.
System Requirements
- Intel Pentium processor at 100MHz or faster
- Windows 95/98/ME/NT 4/2000/XP/; 32MB of RAM
- 800x600 resolution at 16-bit (thousands) of colors
- 4x CD-ROM drive or faster
- High quality microphone and speakers
- 15MB available disk space.
Pricing
Title |
ISBN |
Media Type |
Part # |
Price |
Purchase Online |
| Pronunciation in American English |
9780967837901 |
CD-ROM PC |
#6655 |
$29.95 |
|
Network Option
There is also a network option for TOEIC Pronunciation in American
English. It is available as a single location network installation.
The minimum number of site licenses you can purchase is five.
TOEIC Pronunciation in American English Network Option
$30 annual fee per workstation (first year)
$20 annual fee per workstation. (second year on)
To purchase any number of TOEIC Pronunciation in American English licenses,
please contact us and we will be happy to
assist you..
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