Introduction
This pronunciation textbook supports the American English Phonetics course as taught by the English Department of Radboud University Nijmegen. The theory behind these exercises is described in the Open Textbook An Introduction to American English Phonetics. The exercises allow users to listen to a model native speaker and to record their own versions for comparison. The book offers a choice of male and female models. It does not provide feedback, as RU students receive this in their tutorials. Users can learn from listening to the models and then comparing and contrasting their own pronunciation to that of the model native speakers.
Users are advised to note that the audio files by the male (button on the left) and female (button on the right) model speakers are not always identical; i.e., the realization of the words and sentences can differ slightly. The key to the exercises will reflect these differences. In a few cases, there is only one audio file available (either male or female).
Text and exercises were originally written and edited by Ton Broeders. Recordings were made at The University of California at Berkeley. The course has been taught since the start of the American Studies program in 1988. Former teachers were Susan Davidsmeyer, Emily Embree, Joe Niski, and Victoria Urkewich; current teacher is Nicole Verberkt.
The following people have contributed to this open textbook:
- Robert Slangen – technical support, website development, audio and text editing
- Raymond Zahradnik, Jochem de Jong – studio crew
- Melanie van der Elsen – text formatting
- Peter Slomanson – voice Pronunciation List
- Nicole Verberkt – text editing, transcriptions, voice
- Jeroen Bos, Farah de Koning – technical support
- Monique Schoutsen – process manager
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