Book Review
Perspectives on Teaching Connected
Speech to Second Language Learners
James Dean Brown & Kimi Kondo-Brown, Eds. (2006)
Honolulu: National Foreign Language Resource Center.
Pp. viii + 291.
ISBN: 978-0-8248-3136-3 (paper)£26.49 GBP: $38.00 USD: 5,325 JPY

Reviewed by Tim Newfields
Toyo University
This volume contains 14 papers about connected speech, alsofrequently known as reduced speech. Its basic aim is to summarize
what is known about connected speech and describe how it can betaught and tested.
The book starts off by highlighting the research over the last three
decades on connected speech. An interesting point suggested by Ito (p.
23) is that traditional ways of teaching connected speech seem to have
limited effectiveness since they lack “meaningful communication”.
The classic debate between focus on form vs. content is raised, and Itosuggests skillful teachers need to do both.
After this a rationale for connected speech instruction is offered. A
study of 32 Chinese graduate EFL students by Brown and Hilfery (pp.
56-57) suggests the value of explicit connected speech instruction.
An experimental group of 16 students who received mini-lessons on
reduced forms for four weeks on an intensive basis performed betteron a dictation and grammar exercise than a control group receiving
traditional instruction. However, a pre-test/post-test study of 20
Japanese business persons that got just seven 30-minute lessons on69

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reduced forms for one month revealed no significant improvement interms of TOEIC listening scores (p. 63).
This book then moves on to consider how to teach connectedspeech in EFL/ESL contexts. A study by Rogerson (pp. 87-91) explores
the attitudes of 45 ESL instructors towards reduced form instruction.
Over half the respondents considered reduced forms “very important”
and most reported explicitly teaching them in mini-lessons. Cahill (pp.
108 – 110) then describes one way to teach reduced forms throughchoral response, cloze dialogs, and dictations. Varden (pp. 129-165)
next outlines a phonetic software package which visually displays
speech patterns. Unfortunately, no empirical evidence of how thismight help students monitor their speech is offered.
The book then turns to connected speech instruction in Japanese.
A 1979 study by Hasegawa (pp. 173-187) shows how casual speechdiffers from fast speech. Toda (pp. 189-190) then debunks the myththat Japanese speakers always speak formally or politely. She also
challenges the notion that listening skills invariably precede production
skills, asserting that, “. . . from a pedagogical point of view, perceptual
acquisition does not have to strictly precede acquisition of speech
production” (p. 201). After this Hirata (pp. 234-243) argues for teachingwords with subtle vowel/consonant contrasts in connected sentences
rather than in isolation.
The final chapter ponders the issue of assessment. Brown andKondo-Brown (pp. 248-264) mention over a dozen ways to construct
tests that focus on reduced forms and concludes by recommending
how to make tests more communicative. Emphasizing that testing
reduced forms is really no different from testing any other language
construct, they state, “. . . most of the various sorts of tests that teachers
have been using for years to test other forms can also be used, or atleast adapted with a little imagination, to test the various aspects ofreduced forms. . .” (p. 264).

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Newfields, OnCUE Journal, 2(1), pages 69-71

The Final LineFew persons will want to tackle this book from cover to cover, butvarious parts will interest diverse groups. ESL/EFL teachers mightfind Chapters 4 and 8 useful. JSL/JSL teachers who actually preferto read in English rather than Japanese should find some material inChapters 11 and 13 valuable. Chapters 1, 3, and 10 are primarily forlinguists. At times I wondered whether this book would not be moresuccessful as several smaller, more tightly focused volumes. Perhaps
the best way to think of this work is as a collection of pioneeringstudies. Though many of the studies are rough and about a quarter
have been previously published, on the whole this volume contributes
to the field of connected speech research. Since there are few books
about this topic in print, it is a welcome addition.

Original Source Readings Available Online
Brown, J. D. (2006). Authentic communication: Whyzit
importan’ ta teach reduced forms? In T. Newfields, et al.
(Eds.), Authentic Communication: Proceedings of the 5th
Annual JALT Pan-SIG Conference, 13-24. Retrieved June 6,2007 from http://www.jalt.org/pansig/2006/HTML/Brown.
htm
Ito, Y. (2001). Effect of reduced forms on ESL learners’ inputintake process. Second Language Studies, 20(1), 99-124.
Retrieved June 6, 2007 from http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/
uhwpesl/20(1)/Ito.pdf
Rosa, M. (2002). Don’cha know? A survey of ESL teachers’
perspectives on reduced form instruction. Second Language
Studies, 21(1), 49-78. Retrieved June 6, 2007 from http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/uhwpesl/21(1)/Rosa.pdf

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