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When teaching foreign learners to speak English, how come we neglect the backbone of a

spoken language: sentence stress?


Initial help with spoken English
Teaching students of different nationalities, we soon note that they have several problems
in common when it comes to speaking, such as a disregard for stress and unstress, flat
intonation, stopping and starting between words. These problems face learners from day
one, as they take part in conversations. Theyd certainly benefit from some initial help
saying the sentence which neednt be too complex.
Sentence stress
Each sentence has one or more main points, as indicated by speakers stress. Other
languages do the same and learners, if asked, soon identify the important word or words in
a sentence, and are able to say the sentence appropriately, when encouraged and praised for
trying to do so even if other pronunciation is imperfect. It doesnt take a minute to
remind them and students enjoy working on speech features while completing grammar
exercises.
The reason for stressing some words, or word, more than others is to signal their
importance in the given context. Why deprive learners of this simple but brilliant speech
tool that they can all use straight away?
There is an underlying logic, noticeable in other languages, too: Thats TWO fifty, not
ONE fifty. Son DOS cincuenta, no UNO cincuenta. ZWEI Euro nicht EIN Euro. It
would be pointless and misleading to stress unimportant words. English excels in the use
of sentence stress, all the more audible due to its drastic reduction of unstress.
Focussing on sentence stress in the language classroom has many bonuses. Any nationality
is able to apply it and no one feels a fool. Learners soon realise the point and are able to
correct each other without the teacher. Theres no debate about it: a word is either stressed,
or not. Marking the important words in sentences can be set as homework, as a clear
context will determine the words to stress. Sentence stress works the same in all varieties of
English. How expressive we could have been in Latin, or with German subordinate clauses,
if we had been taught with a focus on sentence stress! There are other benefits.
Comprehension practice will flourish if the listening students first write down the stressed
word they hear. Grammar practice is given life. All the teacher needs to do is incorporate
stress in the productive language practice.
I have found that an effective way of eliciting stress is to have students contradict a false
question: e.g. Is New Year on the 30
th
of December? No, its on the 31
st
of December.
This goes down well in pair work.
You can practise all sorts of language items disguised as arguments. As well as provoking
the appropriate sentence stress, this protesting exercise works wonders for unstress and
linking words.
Unstress
One of the features of spoken English that hits the language learner is its drastic contraction
of unstressed syllables: its, couldve, neednt etc. French also contracts but only its
unstressed e, not a,o,i and u. English axes mercilessly: Id-v known; if the train-dstopped.
At first, foreign learners think it might be careless speech but a recording will prove that
even the Queen does it. For foreign learners to begin to dare to do likewise, they first need
to plant the stresses in their utterance. Otherwise which words do they contract?
Word-linking
Few if any languages are spoken in separate words but in chunks or flows, always with
stress on main points. But foreign learners hesitate to link words in case they do it the
wrong way or stumble upon a consonant cluster. In my experience, anything to make
learners say the sentence in one go is worth trying. Inserting links between words helps, as
does writing words together phonemically. Practising protesting against false statements
speeds up their speaking. Simply encouraging them to say it again faster also helps.
Intonation
Our stressed word/words convey the meaning and our intonation shows our feelings: the
more interested you are: the more your voice tends to move. The less it moves, the less
interested you seem. Many learners main problem is flat intonation due to being too timid
to speak aloud for fear of making grammar mistakes. This doesnt help them in real life
conversations or when asking for something. In my experience, a teachers praise for
expressive speaking, even with faulty grammar, raises learners confidence and makes
learning much more lively and effective.
English word pronunciation
The pronunciation of words like nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs is fixed and can be
learnt by heart. Fortunately there are patterns to follow.
a) English vowel and consonant sounds
A learners very first problem with the English alphabet is the vowel-sounds. While
Northern and Southern Europeans pronounce radio much the same, in English you say
ray-diow. All the world says ee-phone , while English alone goes ai -phone. Some
consistency can be found in these groups: AHJK, BCDEGPTV, QUW, and I R the rest
being more or less as in other languages.
Comparing international words in different languages can give an idea of speech
peculiarities in those languages. If I was learning Russian, Id practise saying London or
Volga the Russian way just to experience their typical dark l and o, for a start.
If any nationality, especially Italians, can imitate the English way of saying Adagio ma
non troppo, theyve definitely got a clue of some classical English vowel sounds. If
students can speak their own language with an English or American accent, they are more
willing to speak English the English way. Such exercises could make pronunciation
differences and symbols more learner-friendly. I believe any encouragement and
enjoyment is better than intimidating abstract descriptions.
b) Word stress
The only almost predictable English speech feature is word stress. The rules are fairly clear
and not too numerous. Basically, English tends to favour one-syllable words or stress on
the first syllable in longer words. But despite French invading English, altering some of its
old Germanic pronunciation, English has stuck with stressing the beginning of the word.
All Europe says festiVAL but in English its FESTival. There are countless international
long words stressed at the beginning by English speakers and maybe also Slovaks and
Czechs, while the rest of the world stress the end. Eg compliQUER, compliCAR,
komplicIERen, kompliCEra. In English COMplicate. Foreign students can transfer
thousands of their long words into English simply by re-positioning the stress.
To make them truly English, they often need to contract the unstressed syllables to
COMftbl, ORD-nry, STRAWdn-rly, thMOMete(r). Easier than for English speakers to
extend to comforTABL, thermoMEter, with rolling -r!

To my mind, the best advice to learners is to stress the long (international) words according
to their endings. The largest group of international words have word endings which require
stress on the 3
rd
syllable from the end: biOLogy, -geOGgraphy, EDucate, ORganise,
persoNALity, while another series of endings has the stress fall on the 2
nd
syllable from the
end: appendiCItis, converSAtion, gymNAStics, deLIcious, thromBOsis.
Conclusion
If we had exams awarding points for a candidates meaningful sentence stress and
expressive delivery, these easy language features would be practised more often and really
help learners to communicate more effectively. One way of achieving this is by developing
classroom tests that focus on pronunciation. Heres a sample test Ive been using:
~TEST YOUR SPOKEN ENGLISH ~ Part one. Your name
Practise saying each example aloud to yourself before writing as instructed.
1. Test your Sentence Stress :
a. Mark the important words contrasted:
This is one pound fifty, not two pounds fifty!
This is my mother and thats Pennys mother.
Do you want one or two sandwiches?
b. Say the sentences aloud to your examiner.
Score: 3/3 Bonus points for each silent -r and expressive delivery

2. Test your unstress
a. Tick the common pronunciation of unstressed some, is and are , and
cross out -r:
o Some sugar, please. o Some more, please.
o S-m sugar, please. o S-m more, please.
o Oh! There is only one biscuit left. Hint: Dont pronounce -R.
o Oh! Theres only one biscuit left.
o No. there are two! There were two on the table.
o No. therere two!
b. Say your ticked sentences aloud to your examiner.
Score: 4/4 for correct quick pronunciation of unstressed words
Bonus point for each silent -r 7/7: Double score for expressive delivery:
TOTAL:

3. Test your use of Intonation
Exclaim spontaneously to your examiner:
Happy Birthday How awful! Thats wonderful!
Ask this favour aloud with real interest of your examiner.
Could I possibly borrow your camera
Score 4/4 for expressive delivery. 3/3 for silent -r. TOTAL:

4. Test your past tense -ed
a. Cross out e in these -ed past tense endings and draw the links as shown:
I looked_at_it. I opened it. And I showed it to the others.
I remembered it. We discovered it in the cellar.
b. Tell your examiner what happened, without stopping between words.
Score: 5/5 for silent -e and audible -d, 5/5 for word-linking. Bonus points for silent -
r and expressive delivery. TOTAL:

5 Test your plural -s and word-linking

a. Draw the link between the plural -s and the next word:
Please leave your coats, umbrellas and shoes in the entrance and dont put your
cups and glasses on the floor. Thank you.
b. Say this announcement, without stopping between words, to your examiner.
Score: 6/6 for audible -s, 6/6 for linking -s to next vowel . Bonus point for
expressive delivery.


TOTAL:

TEST YOUR SPOKEN ENGLISH part two

6 Test your international words pronounced the English way:
Say these words aloud the English way. Compare with how you say them in your language:
club bar hall bank sport bus solo iphone pause shop park

Score: 11 /11. Bonus point for silent -r and good delivery TOTAL:

7 Test your English word stress
a) Mark the English stress in these words:
o
radio photo music taxi meter theatre climate concert circus union,
fantastic journalist university certificate information, organise,
b) Say the words aloud the English way to your examiner.
Score: 17/17 for correct word stress. Score 1 for each correct unstressed
syllables.
Bonus point for any silent -r and for good delivery. TOTAL:

8 Test your stress in true compound nouns
a. Mark the word that has the main stress
o
birthday present, bus ticket, dining-room, shopping bag,
passport application, post office, laptop, print-out, car park.

b. Say the compound nouns aloud to your examiner.
Score: 9 / 9 for correct compound stress. Bonus point for silent -r and good delivery.
TOTAL:

~ End of Test Your Spoken English ~

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