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Pillars of pronunciation: approaching spoken English by

Brita Haycraft
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 30th of December? No, its on the 31st 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.

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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.

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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 3rd syllable from the end: biOLogy, -geOGgraphy, EDucate, ORganise,
persoNALity, while another series of endings has the stress fall on the 2nd 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:

COPYRIGHT 17 SEPTEMBER 2010: Brita Haycraft & IH London.

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~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

TOTAL:

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:

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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:

TOTAL:

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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:

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

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:

TOTAL:

~ End of Test Your Spoken English ~

COPYRIGHT 17 SEPTEMBER 2010: Brita Haycraft & IH London.