For students of language and linguistics and those training for a certificate in TEFL, this introductory textbook covers English phonetics and phonology. Collins (Leiden U. Centre for Linguistics, UK) and Mees (international language studies and computational linguistics, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark) focus on practice rather than theory, explaining concepts and accent variations, and including readings by those in the field on topics such as pronunciation, phonetics and teaching the deaf, and using phonetics in criminal investigations. This edition has added readings on spelling reform and the social perception of British regional and social varieties, a section on spelling-to-sound relationships, and information on Estuary English. Activities and examples have been revised and updated. The accompanying CD contains speech samples of 25 English accent varieties from the UK, US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, India, Singapore, and West Africa, with new samples of British Estuary English and New York English. Annotation ⓒ2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)