An intelligibility-based approach to teaching that presents pronunciation as critical, yet neglected, in communicative language teaching.

John M. Levis is Professor of TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) and Applied Linguistics at Iowa State University. He is co-editor of Social Dynamics in Second Language Accent (2014), The Handbook of English Pronunciation (2015), and Pronunciation: Critical Concepts in Linguistics (2017), and is the founding editor of the Journal of Second Language Pronunciation.

Part I. A Framework for the Teaching of Spoken Language: 1. Intelligibility, comprehensibility and spoken language; 2. Setting priorities: what teachers and researchers say; Part II. Word-Based Errors and Intelligibility: 3. Segmentals and intelligibility; 4. Consonant clusters and intelligibility; 5. Word stress and intelligibility; Part III. Discourse-Based Errors and Intelligibility: 6. Rhythm and intelligibility; 7. Intonation and intelligibility: the roles of prominence and tune; Part IV. Teaching and Research Approaches to Intelligibility: 8. Teaching for intelligibility: guidelines for setting priorities; 9. The intelligibility-based classroom; 10. What should and should not be taught - an intelligibility-based approach.