A Super-Duper Book on Accents & L1 Dependent Mistakes
I came across this book quite by chance. The title of the book – Learner English by M- Swan & B. Smith – has little to do with the contents at first sight (I did not expect to find detailed analyses of different languages in it as well as pragmatic lists of difficulties that learners tend to have depending on their first language), and yet it is the book to read if you are into teaching pronunciation in a multilingual classroom, and want to know why your students tend to make whatever grammar or vocabulary mistakes that they make. It is an unputdownable read, for it gives you numerous insights into what constitues foreigners’ accents as well as causes them to make grammar, vocabulary, word order and other mistakes. You learn about two dozen different languages so much that it feels you could learn them all:) There is an accompanying CD – you can listen to the different non-native accents described in the book and see for yourself whether what the authors say rings true.
In: Accents, Commonly Made Mistakes, Course Design
