Thursday 10 December 2015

Health Care Professionals Speaking


My new book is finally out! (If you wish to look inside it, click on 'sfoglia' on this link.)
 

Here's what famous authors from the world of phonetics and medicine think about it: 


"I heartily welcome this excellent practical grammatical, lexical and phonetic analysis that Alessandro Rotatori has written for Italians intending to work in the health care professions with English-speaking patients."

John Wells, Emeritus Professor of Phonetics, University College London, UK


"This excellently written book will be a valuable resource for Italian-speaking members of the clinical professions. The coverage and organisation of the book is exceptionally good. The author provides some guidance not only on pronunciation, but also on grammar and vocabulary, and points out many of the potential traps for Italian speakers. 
The material is organised around a number of realistic dialogues in clinical settings: admission to hospital, pain, discussion of treatment, patient discharge and the like. The language is up-to-date, colloquial and lively. Both General British and General American varieties of English are used. A thorough survey of the sounds of the two varieties is provided and the audio clips (available on the website linked to the book) are a great bonus. 
The author is to be congratulated on producing an innovative and well-conceived text book. Any Italian native speaker engaged in the health and allied professions who needs to communicate with patients in English would be well-advised to use this book." 

John Maidment, formerly Lecturer in Phonetics, University College London, UK and Chair of the Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference (PTLC)


"I'm absolutely delighted to be able to introduce this brilliant new book by Alessandro Rotatori. It's exactly what I should have recommended any Italian-speaking member of any of the health care professions to search for if they wanted a truly authentic and up-to-date guide to the kinds of expressions that English-speaking doctors and nurses etc use every day in the practice of their profession. Not only do the dialogues ring completely true as examples of the way such professionals express themselves in terms of choice of words and grammatical usages but the author has supplied his realistic spoken texts with invaluable accompanying versions in modern simple phonetic spellings which are colloquial in style so that he shows clearly examples of the variations and adjustments to context that he prepares his readers to find that words may undergo in ordinary daily speech. He even includes, for those who may be interested to observe them, simple indications of the kinds of rhythms and intonations that typically accompany the use of the idiomatic speech that he represents. It seems very difficult to imagine any medical situations that his wide range of excellent typical texts do not supply models for.
And of course I heartily endorse the words of my two famous colleagues John Wells and John Maidment."

Jack Windsor Lewis, formerly Lecturer in Phonetics, University of Leeds, UK


"Questo testo, destinato ai professionisti sanitari e agli studenti sanitari di tutti gli ordini e gradi di studio che si avvicinano o già si sono avvicinati alla lingua inglese, esplora in maniera dettagliata, con acribia sintattica e fonetica, alcuni temi sanitari fondamentali per erogare un'assistenza di qualità sia in contesti franchi che propriamente anglofoni. Il testo, scritto secondo una logica conversazionale, è arricchito da clip sonore scaricabili gratuitamente dal sito dell'editore. Ogni conversazione è trascritta foneticamente utilizzando i simboli dell'Alfabeto Fonetico Internazionale (IPA). Tale arricchimento fonetico rende il testo unico nel panorama mondiale di settore e dimostra la cura e la dovizia di particolari riguardo l'elaborazione fonetica e sintattica dello stesso. In ogni analisi conversazionale presentata nel testo, inoltre, i termini tecnici e le espressioni particolari sono sottolineati ed evidenziati per una loro migliore comprensione.
Questo è un testo di fondamentale utilità per chi vuole assistere l'altro, sempre più cittadino globale, attraverso scambi conversazionali in lingua inglese, e che permette di avere sempre più competenze e, quindi, opportunità di affermazione professionale nell'arena planetaria." 



"Il testo di Alessandro Rotatori rappresenta una innovazione rispetto ai libri 'tradizionali' rivolti agli studenti e professionisti sanitari che si avvicinano alla lingua inglese. Le brillanti capacità didattiche dell'Autore si ritrovano in un testo agile e facilmente fruibile, dove la fonetica gioca un ruolo fondamentale. Rivolta ai discenti di oggi con lo spirito moderno che un docente dovrebbe sempre avere, sono certo che la lettura di questo libro sarà di grande utilità pratica e ricca di stimoli non soltanto per gli studenti."

Prof. Orazio Schillaci, Preside della Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata"

11 comments:

  1. Good luck with the book!

    Martin Ball (now in Sweden)

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  2. WOW! What can I say? Congratulations, Alex!!

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  3. Well done. You've been working hard.
    And welcome back to the world.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sidney, but I haven't finished yet -- I'm going through the proofs at the moment.

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  4. Mmm it seems there's something wrong with that transcription on the cover:
    1) Phonemic transcriptions are to be included between slashes "/".
    2) Bad use of primary stress.
    3) Wrong syllable division ().

    Ok, you may well say that it is just a book cover, but I am pretty sure this book is plenty of blunders like this.

    Kasper K.


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    Replies
    1. Go back to school, my dear, and remember that “there is nothing more discreditable than to dislike those better than ourselves”.

      Delete
  5. Well done, Alex.
    If only I had half your industry!

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