The book is an excellent introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet. It actually tells you which position your mouth should be in for the correct creation of these sounds. The accents shown in this book are great for the beginner, but lack real authority when going for accuracy. Blunt is just that...blunt. The accompanying tapes are crude to be nice. They should be re-recorded for an actual production value. The source material however is amazingly good in showing the beginner the differences in sounds between English and other accents.Woefully incomplete when dealing with African, Latin American, and regional United States accents.