The author of this popular textbook makes clear from the start that his book addresses the needs of university students of English of various backgrounds and nationalities. He is aware of the fact that, for some of his students, English phonetics and phonology is one of the hurdles they have to overcome in their academic enterprise. For other students, the science of speech sounds is a specialised study to be continued at a higher level. Thus, in writing this textbook the author aims to provide a solid scientific basis for whatever academic starting point and trajectory the students will choose because, as he rightly claims in the preface for teachers to the first edition, ‘students have to learn to walk before they can learn to run; they also have to learn to crawl before they can learn to walk’.

The second edition of Philip Carr's English Phonetics and Phonology textbook (first edition published in 1999) has been carefully and extensively updated and expanded to offer increased usefulness for teachers and augmented support and guidance for students. The improvements of the second edition are the result of the author's careful perusal of feedback from previous and current cohorts of students.

The distinction between phonetics and phonology pervades the whole book, so that students will have it very clear in their minds that phonetics as the study of speech sounds is a different approach to the pronunciation of a language than phonology, which is the study of the patterns of occurrence of these sounds in a language.

The first four chapters are a valuable and useful introduction to articulatory phonetics. The issues concerning the pronunciation of English consonants and vowels are addressed in a gradual, logical sequence. The specific linguistic terminology is gradually and intuitively introduced, both here and in the book as a whole.

Carr proceeds with an elaboration upon the phonological structure of present-day English, followed by carefully constructed presentations of the prosodic features of speech, such as rhythm, stress and intonation, and of the phenomena that constitute their manifestations in speech.

Almost all the chapters from 5 to 10 contain a final ‘Summing up’ section that aims at enhancing the readers’ understanding.

Sets of exercises are provided at the end of each chapter, which test the acquisition of scientific knowledge and aim at familiarizing readers with the International Phonetic Alphabet. They also provide valuable opportunities for practice in phonetic transcription based on sound files available on the accompanying website at www.wiley.com/go/carrphonetics.

Differences between the current edition and the first edition include a completely new chapter on the relationship between English spelling and pronunciation, a more comprehensive coverage of intonation, and extensive revisions of the sections on rhythm, word stress, intonation, and the international varieties of English.

A discussion of distinctive features is not included, nor is acoustic phonetics and its relationship with articulatory phonetics. Such criticism is soon dispelled when one remembers that it is meant to whet the appetite and not quench the thirst for knowledge of English phonetics and phonology.

The second edition of Carr's English Phonetics and Phonology textbook is undoubtedly a very useful and valuable addition to the study of the pronunciation of English and an improvement on the first edition. We consider Carr's book to be especially valuable for students with very solid background knowledge of linguistics, with strong motivation for its study and for those exhibiting a special interest in English phonetics and phonology. Other students, with limited knowledge and temporary interest in the subject, will have to work hard to overcome the challenges posed. The author of this review has used Carr's English Phonetics and Phonology in class as supplementary material and found it extremely useful for the way in which the theoretical aspects are presented and for the many valuable examples provided both in the textbook and in the sound files organized by chapter that can be accessed on the companion site for the textbook.