37.2753, Reviews: Developing Pronunciation Teaching for International Intelligibility: Jim Y. H. Chan and Margaret M. Lo (2026)

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Subject: 37.2753, Reviews: Developing Pronunciation Teaching for International Intelligibility: Jim Y. H. Chan and Margaret M. Lo (2026)

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Date: 26-Aug-2026
From: Asmaa Shehata [asm.shehata at gmail.com]
Subject: Applied Linguistics: Jim Y. H. Chan and Margaret M. Lo (2026)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/37-614

Title: Developing Pronunciation Teaching for International
Intelligibility
Subtitle: Insights from Hong Kong English
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Multilingual Matters
           http://www.multilingual-matters.com/
Book URL:
https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/?K=9781836682721

Author(s): Jim Y. H. Chan and Margaret M. Lo

Reviewer: Asmaa Shehata

SUMMARY
The book addresses problems in teaching pronunciation in English as a
foreign language. That is, it uses an intelligibility-based approach
to teach pronunciation with reference to Hong Kong English (HKE). This
book is arranged into seven chapters in four different parts along
with an introduction and a conclusion. Furthermore, there are
discussion questions at the end of each chapter that both teachers and
English learners may discuss. The purpose is to help teachers
effectively teach pronunciation in relation to the themes covered in
each chapter. The first chapter of this book comprises an introduction
that provides background on teaching pronunciation, highlights its
problems and aspects, and outlines the book's objective and scope. As
noted by the authors, the book discusses results from two research
studies sponsored by the government in Hong Kong. While the first
research was on the use of English among the people of Hong Kong and
their attitudes toward other dialects of English, the second study
looked at the various English vernaculars used in Hong Kong and the
attitudes of teachers regarding the teaching of English L2
pronunciation.
Part 1, "The global and local sociolinguistic context and Hong Kong
English," includes the key chapters. The first chapter, "World
Englishes and English as a lingua franca research and the
intelligibility-oriented approach," sets the stage for the background
and theoretical orientation of the intelligibility-based approach to
the teaching of English pronunciation that emerges from the review of
the literature on World Englishes (WE), English as a Lingua Franca
(ELF), and Global Englishes (GE). It is therefore in the realm of
these important issues related to the teaching of English that the
study is centered around important concepts that concern the teaching
of English as an international language, norms, standards, models, and
international intelligibility. The survey of the literature sheds
light on the pedagogical implications of WE and ELF in a particular
sociolinguistic setting—Hong Kong English (HKE).
Chapter 2, “Language use, attitudes”, and identity in Hong Kong,
concentrates on issues such as English usage, attitudes, and identity
in Hong Kong, the setting that makes it possible to build an
appropriate and understandable framework. The existing research
regarding HKE and its sociolinguistic background is examined. Although
previous research studies have characterized HKE as a new variety of
WE in earlier studies, more and more scholars discuss the possibility
of using HKE in ELF contexts. Together, the first two chapters
constitute the first step of the planned five-step sequence-based,
intelligibility-focused pedagogic approach towards teaching L2
pronunciation at the local schools, namely, the knowledge of the
global/local sociolinguistic context about English and L2
pronunciation and how this affects identity, language attitudes, and
language use in Hong Kong. Chapter 3, “Hong Kong English and its
variations”, addresses the findings on the major aspects of the
phonology of HKE and its variants within the speech community. It
begins with an example of the major characteristics of HKE
pronunciation, comprising both consonants and monophthongs.
Subsequently, it provides the construction process of the HKE
pronunciation continuum and finally covers the distribution of the HKE
characteristics in the continuum.
Part 2, entitled "Pronunciation teaching in school education",
includes two different chapters analyzing the current situation of L2
pronunciation teaching policy and practice and exploring the possible
ways of incorporating the intelligibility approach into the secondary
education of Hong Kong. It therefore demonstrates the findings from
the research conducted on the perceptions and practices related to L2
pronunciation among the teachers. In Chapter 4, "The role of
pronunciation in Hong Kong’s English language education: Policy,
assessment, textbooks, and teachers’ perspectives", the authors first
introduce the reader to the background of the educational situation
with particular emphasis on the areas of concern in relation to
pronunciation teaching within the English language teaching curriculum
of Hong Kong as well as the assessment criteria and the textbooks. In
this respect, they mentioned the decreasing trend in teaching
phonology in language teaching in the English language textbooks of
Hong Kong. In this way, teachers find themselves unprepared for
teaching pronunciation in their classrooms. They then go on to present
their findings from their research, as revealed through the
questionnaires and interviews undertaken in connection with the
perceptions of teachers regarding pronunciation teaching. Chapter 5,
"Pronunciation teaching practices: Teaching strategies and corrective
feedback", provides information about how teachers conduct their L2
pronunciation lessons using teaching approaches and foci of corrective
feedback. The results obtained with respect to policies and practices
in L2 pronunciation teaching offer some insight into the possibility
of improving existing practice, with particular regard to
international intelligibility.
Part 3, "Developing the contextualized, intelligibility-oriented
approach", focuses on the emergence of the intelligibility-oriented
approach and some essential pedagogical recommendations for including
pronunciation in the curriculum. Chapter 6, "Prioritisation of
features and the intelligibility-oriented approach", describes the
principles underlying such development and offers some concrete
suggestions for an intelligibility-focused approach to learning
pronunciation based on the results of the research done by the authors
as well as other research on L2 pronunciation from an intelligibility
standpoint. It describes how selected aspects of pronunciation can be
implemented in English language instruction while considering the
sociolinguistic and educational reality in specific contexts. It also
describes how selected aspects of pronunciation can be implemented in
English language instruction while considering the sociolinguistic and
educational reality in specific contexts. Similarly, Chapter 7,
"Intelligibility-oriented pronunciation teaching in English language
lessons", expands and introduces a pedagogical model to allow English
teachers to adopt an intelligibility-based pronunciation approach in
the classroom. It entails the study of one unit from a textbook that
is used extensively in the schools of Hong Kong and is concerned with
the process of pronunciation learning. In essence, it refers to the
methods and activities that could be employed for making learning of
pronunciation possible through the course of main English lesson
activities. The chapter also illustrates the way teachers make their
intelligibility priorities within a lesson using gender-neutral
language (they, their, them).
The Conclusion chapter provides a concise summary of all the key
points covered in the book. It begins by mentioning the
intelligibility-oriented approach to pronunciation instruction in the
local schooling environment, which was presented in the book and
consists of five steps, pointing to the objective of the book, which
is to inspire English language teachers to reflect on these notions in
the light of their own experience and teaching of the English language
and the varieties of English that they use. It also stressed that it
is necessary to include phonology in the teacher training program for
the English language. The chapter concludes with the authors’
aspiration for their book to prompt English language teachers in
schools to explore, analyze, and refine their own local variety-based
approach to teaching pronunciation since it takes into consideration
the complex and evolving nature of the meaning of the English language
in the contemporary world.
EVALUATION
This book is an excellent combination of theory and empirical data and
serves as a useful resource for researchers, teacher trainers,
language teachers, and postgraduate students who want to learn more
about pronunciation teaching. The key strength of the book is that it
has systematically documented the research findings obtained in
practical classroom settings. The readers get to know how
pronunciation can be taught, learned, and evaluated in real-world
settings rather than artificial ones. Another merit of this book is
that it contains a detailed study of findings from two different
research projects in a well-organized manner. Moreover, the authors
included some discussion questions at the end of each chapter, which
can assist English language teachers and their students in critically
assessing their sociolinguistic and educational contexts according to
the intelligibility theories rather than using the pronunciation
activities available in other books.
One more strength of the book is that the authors focus on the teacher
perspective. Through interviews and surveys, teachers express not only
the positive aspects but also the challenges of pronunciation
teaching. These results reveal the importance of continuous
professional development and practical ways to improve teacher
education programs, especially in pronunciation training.
Nevertheless, despite all of the strengths, there are some
shortcomings of the book as well. For instance, all the experiments
are carried out in one certain educational setting—Hong Kong’s
secondary education, which makes the results less generalized for
other settings in other countries. A further limitation is connected
to the length of the investigations. It would be helpful to conduct
longitudinal studies that will track learners through extended periods
of time to gain a better insight into the process of developing
pronunciation skills and their retention.
Overall, the book is a great contribution to the field of applied
linguistics and pronunciation research and teaching. The empirical
results reported in the book from the real-life school setting provide
an effective evidence base to improve pronunciation teaching. The book
is equally significant for both teachers and researchers. As a
teacher, one can try to critically assess his or her sociolinguistic
and educational environments in terms of intelligibility. As a
researcher, you can identify the latest trend(s) of pronunciation
research from the contents of the book, and you don't need to have any
prior knowledge before being able to understand it.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Asmaa Shehata is a faculty member at the University of Mississippi,
Department of Modern Languages. Her research interests include second
language phonology with a particular focus on cross-language speech
perception and production.



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