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American speech for foreign students
196
BOOK REVIEWS
Then there is a little bit of everything: theoretical papers on group process, on t.he function of the group leader (by Berger), on existential group psychotherapy (by Holt), are followed by research papers concerned with sociometry and on cllinical papers dealing with specific methods, e.g. treatment of alcoholics, delinquents, addicts, psychosoma.tic patients, group therapy in the setting of schools, colleges or universities and with different cultural groups. Any professional interested in group psychotherapy will find something worthwhile in this global survey and will be elated to realize that group methods have an even wider potehtial to be used in manifold ways for the betterment of individuais and groups of people. HELENE PAPANEK
AS&red Adler Institute New Yovk City JOHN
W. BLACK: American speech f;or Joreigit students. Springfield, Charles C Thomas, 1963, I-IX, 258 pages, illustrations, $8.75.
Ill.,
FRED M. CHREIST: Foreign
accent. Englewood CliRs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964, I-XIV, 114 pages, illustrations, $4.95. Only a few texts are available that are designed for teachers and therapists who work with speech problems of those karning English from the background of another language. These two texts are recent and important editions in this area. For the constantly increasing numbers of foreign students spending a brief but intensive time in America, who are faced daily with a torrent of American English, these two texts may help provide an answer to listening and speaking it accurately. Foreign accent is a work that is very carefully prepared in the best scholarly tradition. Bibliograplucal references are extensive, footnotes are itemized and precisely annotated. All of this, of course, is very helpful to the serious use of any book. American speech for foreign srudents, on the other haId, has no documentation at all. It does, however, contain a few indirect references to Black and !lis students many studies of intelligibility and word frequency in speech. While this does present some problems for the reader, there are times, while reading Foreign accent, when one may wonder whether all of its background materials are really necessary. Though Black’s background materials may be limited, what he does say is straightforwardly related to the purpose of the text. This trait is not always to be found in Chreist, however admirable his cc-mand of the literature may be. Both books are written for the adult; and both authors have in mind a type of student whose fluency and general knowledge of English they presume to be well-established. Black’s assumptions here are however more precisely limited. As the jacket of the book says: “This book is designed specifcuh’y for the foreign student who is advanced in his study of English... who, wherever he lives, is using English as a second language.‘* (Italics are Black’s.) Chreist seems to be concerned exclusively with achieving what used to be called a ‘conversational tone’, and the presentation of sounds and voice patterns that will lead to it are the m&tier. Of course Black is also concerned with these areas (although his treatment of voice patterns in speech is not as extensive as Chreist’s), but he is more varied. While his text lacks the analysis of the role of the voice in accent-free speech, his exercise materials make provision for speech situations not treated by Chreist, and his text contains a far more extensive consideration of problems of listening to Ameri’can speech patterns. There are few suggestions to be found for drill and exercise in Foreign accent, whereas American speech for foreign students is very copious and specific in this regard. !Jnfortunately, this latter book has very little to say about languages other than Engliish. Concerning this, Foreign accent is very valuable for it has a good deal to say on this point. Among the languages it discusses are: Arabic, Bantu, Spanish, French, Norwegian, Jalpa-
BOOK REVIEWS
Then there is a little bit of everything: theoretical papers on group process, on t.he function of the group leader (by Berger), on existential group psychotherapy (by Holt), are followed by research papers concerned with sociometry and on cllinical papers dealing with specific methods, e.g. treatment of alcoholics, delinquents, addicts, psychosoma.tic patients, group therapy in the setting of schools, colleges or universities and with different cultural groups. Any professional interested in group psychotherapy will find something worthwhile in this global survey and will be elated to realize that group methods have an even wider potehtial to be used in manifold ways for the betterment of individuais and groups of people. HELENE PAPANEK
AS&red Adler Institute New Yovk City JOHN
W. BLACK: American speech f;or Joreigit students. Springfield, Charles C Thomas, 1963, I-IX, 258 pages, illustrations, $8.75.
Ill.,
FRED M. CHREIST: Foreign
accent. Englewood CliRs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964, I-XIV, 114 pages, illustrations, $4.95. Only a few texts are available that are designed for teachers and therapists who work with speech problems of those karning English from the background of another language. These two texts are recent and important editions in this area. For the constantly increasing numbers of foreign students spending a brief but intensive time in America, who are faced daily with a torrent of American English, these two texts may help provide an answer to listening and speaking it accurately. Foreign accent is a work that is very carefully prepared in the best scholarly tradition. Bibliograplucal references are extensive, footnotes are itemized and precisely annotated. All of this, of course, is very helpful to the serious use of any book. American speech for foreign srudents, on the other haId, has no documentation at all. It does, however, contain a few indirect references to Black and !lis students many studies of intelligibility and word frequency in speech. While this does present some problems for the reader, there are times, while reading Foreign accent, when one may wonder whether all of its background materials are really necessary. Though Black’s background materials may be limited, what he does say is straightforwardly related to the purpose of the text. This trait is not always to be found in Chreist, however admirable his cc-mand of the literature may be. Both books are written for the adult; and both authors have in mind a type of student whose fluency and general knowledge of English they presume to be well-established. Black’s assumptions here are however more precisely limited. As the jacket of the book says: “This book is designed specifcuh’y for the foreign student who is advanced in his study of English... who, wherever he lives, is using English as a second language.‘* (Italics are Black’s.) Chreist seems to be concerned exclusively with achieving what used to be called a ‘conversational tone’, and the presentation of sounds and voice patterns that will lead to it are the m&tier. Of course Black is also concerned with these areas (although his treatment of voice patterns in speech is not as extensive as Chreist’s), but he is more varied. While his text lacks the analysis of the role of the voice in accent-free speech, his exercise materials make provision for speech situations not treated by Chreist, and his text contains a far more extensive consideration of problems of listening to Ameri’can speech patterns. There are few suggestions to be found for drill and exercise in Foreign accent, whereas American speech for foreign students is very copious and specific in this regard. !Jnfortunately, this latter book has very little to say about languages other than Engliish. Concerning this, Foreign accent is very valuable for it has a good deal to say on this point. Among the languages it discusses are: Arabic, Bantu, Spanish, French, Norwegian, Jalpa-