Tips for teaching pronunciation a practical 2

Comrnon Pronunciation Problems The following chart shows pronunciation topics that are useftll for most Vowel length in stressed and unstressed syllables See pages 2L-27Vowel :eduction i

!-irlrla !-arrtE il" gti*gfl*t; iJri,r'*xrr

5*riv* I*i:*r:

say, break

rest, head

map, laughshut, ago

hot, fatherboot, shoe

book, could

bought, Iawbuy, side

lpltblttltdl

tkl

lsl lelt6ltfllvl

tll

Id

trl

tyllwl

box, numbertime, most

Contents

About the Series

prnctical classroonl approaches that are firmlv grouncled in current peclagogical r.escarcl.r.

Tips for:Ie.ching is a responsc to this demancl in the form of a series of books on a varicty

of topics of pmctical classroom-centcred interest

secondarl' schools, colreges, and aclult education courses with students at var).ing levels

of prolicicncy Each book in the series is a pftrctical m:rnual that provicles teachers with

better accomplish their pedagogical goals tlsers may be novice teachers seeking pr;ctical

guidelines for instfuction in a specilled area, or cxperiencetl teachers in need of

relicshing new ideas.

Each book in the series is committed to offering soundli conceived, realisric

principles of language learning and teaching in clearr), comprehensible terms.These

on communicative ancl/or task-based language teaching foundations Sftrclent centered,

interactive classroom activities fecciye primary fbcus, but not at the expense of appro_priate tercher-cente|ed approaches or tasks fbr indi\-idual in class or homework :rctivit\r

nunciatiur.In Tips for Teaching pronu.ncicttion .nuthor Lincla Lanc

l.ras provicled rcaders

$'ith the best of cuttin€i edgc r.escarch on tlte acquisition of phonology, along with prac_

tical teclx qucs for inproving rearners' pronunciation c)nc of the first things y'ti will

notice is that the sequencing of chapters does n ot begin witl] the more traditionxl

phonology As thc author notes in hcr text, most misunderstendings of learners speech

production stem from $ord stress, rlr{hln, and intonation

Anothcr imporrant feature of rips for Tbaclsing pronunciation is its focus on

intel-ligibilit\', comprelicnsibiliq', acccnt, and voice quality Recognizing that achieving a ffue

"nativelike" accent is an unrealistic goal for adult students, Lanc offers a common-scnse

Vi AboLt! the Se es

approach that encoumges teachers to work $'ith their students on the many aspects of

pronunciation that inpede a listener's clear understanding of the learner's speech

A third refreshing perspective provicled by thc author is her recognition of a myriad

pre-clictxble ways It is now well known that age, personaliq', motivation, learning style,

amount of exposure, native language background, and other factors can all affect a

learner's success in clifferent r.a_vs ancl therefore eech inclividual may present a uniqucset of circumstances for the teacher to address The author provides readers with an

Finalll', teachers will be pleased to see in Tips for Teqcbing Pronunciation an

der-elop-ment, so that they can eYentually wean themselves from the teacher and classroom'

char-acteristics of speech in a context of natural discourse And, recognizing that teachers

options for self- and peef-corre(:lion

Teachers who use this volume not only gain acccss to a multitude of pfactic:rl

tech-niques for teaching pronunciation, but also acquire awarencss of the rationale behindsuch techniques This unclerlying knowledge enables teachers to adapt techniques to

their own cofltexts Teachers will also find Tips.for TeaclJing Pronunciation to be aninvaluable hamlbook of information that is easily accessed through chaptef headings, an

Best wishes as )'ou usc the tips in this book to help -vour learners achieve their goals'

Professor Elneritus, San Francisco State Uniuersity

Series Edilor

I NTRO D U CTIO N

TEACHING

NUNCIATION

clement of effccti!,.e contml'llticati(nt and that proltunciation teachhg belor]gs in

irst^rction in pronunciation At the sarlc time EsL tcacbcrs'rav fecl urcasv ab'ut

teaching pronunciation becausc the) lack training in phoncti!^s or linguistics orcxperiencc in texching pronunciatiou As a rcsult, in spitc of its rccognizccl importance

to comrrunication pronunciation is still a natginalized skill in manr ESL progruls

inllucncing an<l influenced b\'listcning co',prchension a'd fl.e'cr, Gilbcrt describcs

loop betrveen spcaker and listcncr" (1987 -lJ): instruction in onc intpro\espcdbrmancc in thc olher for c\amplc the reductjons that nativc speakers use in both

comparc thc pronllltciation of czl promruncecl alone encl its prorunciatioll in Bed

ho$.e\.er is thc one that ntost stuclents learn first ancl the one the] expcct to hear ir.l

wofds like cdl/ sour]al in conltected speech ald thus il]lprol e corlprehensiotl (Choi

19f38 Murph,v 1991.) In addition, Xlichaud and l{eed nainrain thar pronunciation

irNtruction can lead to inproYelnent in \\,riti1lg b_v naking students morc aw:rre of

er()rs thilt occuf in borh sPcaking ancl $riting, like nissing $()rd endings (2(X)8).

In this Inlroductioll we discuss the goals of pronunciation teaching f-actofs

that aft'ect lcarning a new pronunciation pronunciation s\.llabi, gcncral tyl)cs ol'

pronunci;rtior.l excrcises and actiYities scll-monitoring, and fccclback.

C.OAIS OF PRONLINCIATION TEACHING

Studcnts who lcarn Enlilish as aclnlts Or $'h0 are adults wtcn significantexposure to English begins \['ill probabll'never speak jt \1,irh a nati\.e acccnt (br.tt

sec Bonlaacrts et al 1997) A natiYelike accent is not a realistic goal ii)r studcnts t.tor

Icr hrn,g fr',nunci.rtion

is it a necessaq' one for effcctive commlrnication in English More fealisticpronunciation go: s afe intelligibilit\' confidence in speakinl], an(l a reduction of

accent features that distract the listener's attention fiom intelligible mcss:rlacs

(Modey 1994, Gilbert 1980, (lelce-Murcii et al 1996) A gcntlc accent, together with

accuracy in other areas of English (grammar', word choice), can even be an

irtclligence While these are not modest goals and not all students achieYe them,most stlrdents can (and do) learn to speak lnore clearl)'and conlidently

Intelligibility, Cornprehensibility, Accent, and Yoice QualityIntettigibitity refers to the dellrcc to $'hich a listener can recognize words,

1997).In research, it is rtsuallJr measured by asking listcners to tmnscribc nonnativcspe€ch ancl comparing thc worcls listeners recognize with the words speakersintend Another term, comprehensibili4,', descrlbcs the easc with which listeners

can understand a nonnative speaker (llerwing and Munro 2005) "Confortable

intelligibility" is also usecl in this sense (Abercrombie 1949, Kenworthv 1987, 16).

Accent refers to noticeable differences betwccn native and nonnativepronunciations Wlile htelligibilit)', compre hensibiliq', and accent are interwoven,they are also, to a certain extent, indePendent lt is possible, fbf example, fbr even

heavily accented spcech to be intelligible Vrtice quality refers to pronunciatiol.)

The goal of inte lligibilit.Y is uncontroYersial: Without intclligibilit t',conlnlunication is impossible Considering all areas of language, errors s-ith

pronunciation and worcl choicc (the choice of an inappropriate word to exprcss aspeakcr's meaning) afe the rwo t,vpcs of errors most likely to nake a student

omitting tlre past tense in a selltence (c.g ,I'ast nlght I go to d lnof ie) rarel-v lead

to unintelligibiliry althou€lh a ltrrge number of grammatical errors, togethcr witl.Ipronunciation cffors, can reduce comprehensibilitv (Varonis ancl Gass 1982), as canronpronunciation discortrse etrors ('Nler 1992)

which t'catures of pronunciation havc the greatest impact Accurate use of

on intelli€libility assessments b)' rrative listencrs than accruate promrnciation of

consonanis and vorvels (see, for example, Anclerson Hsieh et al 1992, Derwing,

Munro and Wicbe 1998 Hahn 2004) Tllese strtdies havc inYestigated thepronuncietion of primarily intefnediate ancl athanced ESL learners, and it is tlotclear whether the same finclings wor'rld hold lbr studcnts at lowcr levels of

proficienc)' In addition, experjirental conditions can be far removcd from real

situations in which two per)ple try to unclerstand each othcr

Assessmcnts of illtelligibilitv also dePcnd on w-ho the Listeucrs ere Most research

on intelligibiliq' hes usecl mtive Englisll listel]ers When nonnative listeners iudge thc

Teaching Pronunciation 3

intelligibility of norxratiye speakers, their assessments are sometimes based on aspects

of pronunciation that are not importanr to native listeners Oenkins 2000, 2002; Field

2005).I'he familiarity of the listener with nonnati\,e speech in gene ral, with a particularforeign accent, and with a particr- ar nomative speaker also ailbcts ;rssessments of

intelligibility: Thc greater the familiarity, the more intelligible the speech (Gass andVaronis 1984) Because of this, ESL teachcrs may not be the best judges of their

intelligibilit!' than what they themselves actually require in the classroom (1987).Much

as our students like us, they are probabl_v not taking English so that they can ralk to us.

judgments depend on both segmental (consonants and vowels) and supfascgmental

(stfess, drythm, and intonation) errofs (Dcrwing and Munro 1997) In addition toefrors in pronunciation, many other factors have an effilct (nr compre he nsibility:

English, the extent to wltich learners use English, and the listenef's familiariw with

the topic of conversation have all bcen shown to affect comprehensibility (Hinfotis

Accent tefefs to djffefences between native and nonnative pronunciations thatare noticed by native listeners (Derwing, Munro, andWiebe 1998,396) The degree

Although accented pronunciations do not necessarily intedere with inre lligibiliqr,

distracting, stigmatized, or stereofi?ed pronunciations should be addressed bypronunciation teachers Even fu y htelligible pronunciations can be evaluated

dem lserc),whtle tnderstandable, is stigmatized (for native Enlllish listeners) because it

is a dialect feature of nonstandard English The substitution of /z/ for /6/ in tbem G.g.,

Bring zent beA, on the other ltand, simply marks the speaker as nonnative

Distracting or stereotyped pronunciations can affect intelligibiliry by dmwing

the listener's attention away from the message to the mispronunciation itseli

instezd, of He looked at tbe u)ornan); conftrsion of /r/

^fld /l/ (tbe sterectLyped, flie.l

Iice fot fried rice) forJapanese ESL students; and the confusion of /y/

^nd /d3/ (jess

problems that can and should be addressed The pronunciation of the vowels in

beach, sbeet, and Jbcu' words which have caused corntless ESL students

listeneii do not (Rine,v et al 1005)

4 Teachinp, Pronunciation

time in the speech of native spelll<ers some languages, for example, are tlpically

Japanese) relative to a particular Lurguagc (e g.' English) In one language, words may

lips may be more olten spread (or roundcd), or speech may havc a generzlly "creat<yl'

"breathll'or modal (neutral) sound (see, for example' I'aver 1980, Esling and wong

studcnts become familiar with a broad model of voice quality settin€ls for Nofih

hps, open jaw, palatalized (fronted) tongue body position, retrof'lex articulation (thetong., tlp ftrrns up and back), nasal voice , lowerecl larynx (lower o\'-erall pitclt, andcfeakyVoice(1983,91)'The)'offbfsevel?lwaysinwhichStudentscanbecomeaware

of voice qriality settinlis;for exrmple, students speaking differert native languages can

say a shon phnsc in their native language and <lifferences can be conpared (19a3,94)'Although there is Iittle doubt that Yoice quali$ plays a role in accent, more

Stud-Yisneeded.Notonlyarethefedi-fferencesintheVojceqllalitySettingsof

pafriculaf settings are pfesent or absent (Keating and Esposito 2007) Mofe fesearch

using larger numbers of speakers is neecled befbre teachers can confidently apply

FACTORS THAT AFFECT PRONI-NCIATION LEARNING

The degree of success that learners achieve in adopdng a ncw pronunciati')n is

influenced by many elements, irlcluding age and social-psychological factors' amount

native language) are beyond the control of the classroom teecher and the learner

Age and Social-Psychological Factors

Lenneberg (1967) proposed thlt there is a "critical period" for learning a

stfonger attachrnent to their natiYe culture than children, which ma,v consciousb' or

'Tliis clllln is.Luestioned Lrr (r:rsltert, l9li

Tead)ing Pr()nuncialian 5

unconsciously prevent the adults from fully adopting the norms of a new language

:rnd culture (catbontin, Trofimovich, and Majid 2oo5,Jenkins 2005, Leyis 2005) One

of my students was very conscious of the conflict between English anct his native

Another explanation of the age effect may be that adults'greater cognitive abilities(cspecially anah.tic abilities) are less effective in learning a new pronunciation tltanthe mofe natural abilities found in young cl.rildren

Exposure and Use

Pfonunciation learninti is also affected by tlte amount of exposure lcafnershave to the new language and the extent to which they use it (see Trofimovicl.r and

Baker 2006 for a review of research on these factors) It is not surprising thatstudents who have spent three years in the United Srates typicalli, pronounce

English a great deal in drcir daily actiYities are likely to pronounce the language

better than tltose who rarely use it

Native-I-anguage Backgfound arrd Linguistic Universals

The ability of natiye speakers to recognize specific foreign accents once theyhave expefience with them attests to the influence of the native language onpronunciation of a new language The native-language sound q/stem (consonants,

pronounce English but how they hear it For example, the two vowels in the English

words sceze and slz correspond to a single vowel in Spanish Bcginning ancl intermediate Spanish-speaking stndenrs arc likel,v to haye difficulfl hearinE! thedifference between sc?n e and sl, and may transfer their native{anguage vowel intothe pronunciation of these words As proficiency increases, students becomc betterable to hear differences and notice pfonunciations that are not present in their

Similafities between a natiye language and English can either facilitate or

hindcr learning Lee, Guion, and Harada (2006) for-lnd that Japanese ESL learners

were better able to lengthen stressed English \.owels and shorten unstressed vowelsthan Korean ESL learners They attributed this result to the fact that, while neither

vowcls to contrast some words (e.g., stt

-"vinegar" and szzr-,,numbef,,) while

Korean does not.3 Because vowel length is impodant in Japanese, the Japanese

the othef hand, if learners interpret a similafity as an equivalence, tlte,v may be

i

Sone dialecLs of Korean conlr?Lst long end shofl vo,x€Ls, but l€ leatu€$ in lhei,ee et al stud\ werr: not sp€rkeN 0f dtos€ dixlecll

(2006 49r.

$ wra.toucnaN TeachingPrcnunciation

Glege 1987) The persistent mispronunciation of the vo$'els in sreet and beacb may

be the resnlt of classifying English /iyl (the \.owel it sheet alf.d beach) tl:le same as

more common in languages, or typical of children leaming their first language (L1)

or clifticulty of rclated features of pronunciation For example, open

marked) than closed syllables that end in a single consonant (e.9., dog, top, miss)

marked) than closed syllables that end in a consonant cluster (e.9., beh, ask,

stoppe.l) Open syllables are found in every language, whereas closed syllables are

not; and both 1,7 and L2 learners have more difficulty pronouncing the finalconsonants of closed syllables (Broselow and Finer 1991, Eckman 1991) For a

comprehensive review of natiyeLanguagc transfer and the fole of uniyersals, see

of pronunciation topics addressed in the classroom Difficulty with specificconsonants, for example, depends heavily on native language Arabic studentsconfuse /p/ and /b/, sour]ds that do not contrast in Arabic Spanish students haYcproblems with ,/b/ and /v/, which do not contrast in Spanish, while cantonese,German, Russian, and Turkish students have problems with /v/ and /w/ .

Difficulties with English vowels, on the other hand, are widespread, and

difficr- ties v/ith stress, intonation, and drythm are even more widespread

Appendix B summarizes typical pronrinciation problems of students from a

variety of native-language backgrounds

Personality

sLlccess in L2 learning Neyertheless, it is reasonable to suppose that outgoing,sociable learners should have an adyantage over introverted, shy leafnefs inacquiring oral-aural skills, including pronunciation Outgoing students are morelikely to participate in conversations with native speakers and will therefore havemore opportunities to practice and to hear English

A relaxed classroom atmosphere should also foster pronunciation learning In

an oft-cited experiment on lowering inhibitiot]s, Guiora et al found that learners'

pronunciation improved after drinking moderate amounts of alcohol (1972)

Fossilization

Vrith adult L2 leamers, pronunciation :rnd grammar learning seems to plateau,

leaming as fossiLization (1972): it is also referred to as stabilization (Gass and Selinker

/NrfOUU( r/ON Teaching pnuutjci,lti()n 72008)." Once fossilization (stabilizatiorD has ser i,', substantial improyemenrs inpronunciation (and grammar) in spontaneous speech mav not be possible Althougdt

vafious causes of fossilization havc been proposed including Ll intcfblcnce

motil?tion, leamers' goals or needs, and alae the process is not well unclerstood and

knneberg 1967, Gardner 1988, i_ong 1990, Nakuma 199u).

Acton describes a prollram to change the intelli€iibility of fossilizedpfofessionals who have spent many veafs in an English_speakinpl coulttrv ancl

reached high lcvels of fluencv (198,i) Thc program requires a substantial

commitment of time both in and our of class and a native_English .,infbrnrant,,on

the

.iob who assists the student witlt pfoblem words and provides natural pronunciation

used bv native speakers of English About half of the shjclents who be€iin thcprogram afe able to devote the time needed to show progress

My own experience, which has ilcluded lrany students of the type Acto11

commitment that might lead to significant improvements in intelligibilitY of

and to speak more intelligibl,v in some situations Fossilizecl learners fbr cxample, can

apply this knowledge when they deliver a rehcarsed presentation However whenthey mo!'e from plarmed into unplanned speecl], thc old errors are likely to recrjr

Phonological learning may be most rapid in the eafhr stages of lcarning (Flege

pfonunciation wofk with beginning learners Chela_Flores recommends thatpronunciatiorl be a regular part of coursework with beginncrs, like vocabulary or

SYLLABUS

Pronunciation shour(l be taught to a revcls of strrtlenrs as tonla as intelligibiritlldistracting pronunciations, and lack of confidencc in speaking are issues.Pronunciation improvements, like improvemcnts in grammatical accuracl,, occurslowly (Trofimovich et al 2007) According to wong, dramatic changes in stude'rts,

often piecemeal, students benefit from reviewil.tg or recycling olcl topics.

Given that there are over fofty consonants and I,owels (segmcntals) and atleast as nany features of word stfess, rhtthn, and intonation (suprasegmcnhls),curriculum planners, textbook writers, and cl;rssroorn teachers have a lurge number

of potential pronunciation topics trom which to choosc The audiolingual approachfocused more heavily on the teaching of segmentals, r-Nin!! acti\.ities like nir.f'ral

$ t^-rroo,:rcaov TcachinEPranunciation

pair drills, sentence repetitions, anci dialogues communicative approaches havefocusccl more on suprascllmcntals, moving stuclents bc1'ond the level of single

words Totllrl', a more "txrlancecl' approach, inchtcling important consonants and

vowels as well as sr.rpnscgme ntals, is fecommended ((lelce-Murcia et al 1996, 10;

Derwing, Mr.rnro andWiebe 1998 Dauer 2005)

Because rhlthm and intonation aflect mcanin!! in discourse profounclll',teaching them promotes intelligibility as well as flucncy.Word stress (lexical stress)

strould atso be taught (Catfbr.l 1987,Browl 1988, Nh.nro and Dcrwing 2006).Thc vowelcoutrdst leaue-lil,e has a hi!fi functionad loacl because there are rnany p:tirs of wotds that

contr:$t these two sounds (e.g., seat-sit, sleep-slip, least-list) C)n the other hand, the

vowel contmst in Iuke-look, whiclr occurs in fb$' word pairs, has a low linctioral load.

aclclrcss mispronunciations that are distracting, sti€lmatized, or stereot!?ed

Pronunciation textbooks providc rcad,y-made q'llabi from wltich teachers can

pick and choose A course syllabus that includcs problem pronunciation topics

levels of studcnts The teacher can alternate topics, starting, for e'xample, with a topic

on intonatiol, next addressing a problem consor.]ant or consonant cortrast, and thenprescntinli a topic on word stress arld so o1] This approach provicles variety arldinterest and also reflects the fact that in speaking, all aspects of pronunciation occur

In choosing topics for a particular class, the teacher can eithcr stafi with a

diaEinostic tcst to idcntiq,' problem areas or cltoose topics which Posc pfl)blems forlnost studcnts, regaralless of native-language backpgouncl (sce Conlmolt P()mrnciatioll

(:nd unwritten) speecl], such as a descriptiotl of a picture stor,v or caftoon A shortsample of spontaneous spccch provides a liood snapsltot of a strtdertt's pronunciation

ditliculty linking w<rrds), with ir.Itonation (inappropriate dses/falls in pitch, lack of

discourse foctts, general levcl of expressi\-cness), and segmentals (consonants and

The cl]oice of pronunciation topics should also fef'lect students' necds and

goals In a life-skills class for immigrant parents of school-aged children, for instance,

the pronunciation syllabus night centcr on topics required fcrr giving personalinformation: the letters ol the alphabet fbr spelling names; numbers and thcir

app()priate grouping for giving telcphone ancl address information; and irltonationand rhlthm in questions Work $'ith these pronunciation topics will also improve

International teach rg assistants (ITAS) in thc scienccs must be able to clearly

pronor-rnce technical terms that may contain many s-vllables and difficult sounds (c.g.,geothermal energi) Levis and Grant st rgElest basing plonutciation work on errors that

/NIROLrL,a r/oN Tcaching Pronunciation !

occur in student prescntatiolts (2003) ITAS ffLlst also be able to use appropriaterhythm and intonation pattefns to ask qucstions of their stuclents to group wofds, tohipdrlight kc1'w.ords, and to signal topic changcs in their presentations of material

'lhe sl,llabus fbr a short-term tlltorial f(,r a professional who is preparing a

pfesentati(,n can include the pfoltunciation problcms that occur in th€ presentatioll

itself To prepare for the q Llestion-and-answer session that fbllows nlanypfesent:itiurs, classwork can irlclude topics such as highlighting key words (see

Alrother factor thirt sho! d ilJlucnce the choice of pronunciation topic is the

of connected speech, other aspccts of pronunciation not dircctly addtessed in thelesson are likely to bencfit from this incrc;rsed arrenrion (Hardison 200.1) F'or example,

corafident about teaching the t, sounds (e.g.,tlxink, t/rrt, sornds tltat are casy to reach

on btlhdays (or personaLity characterisrics related ro birth order), not only are //,

Vhen students pa) attention to how they sound during speaking, many featufes of theirpfonunciation souncl better Attcntion to pronunciation druing speaking, then, may be

as impoftant as the particr ar point of pronllnciation beinla focused on during a lesson.Institutional or program goals and assigneal curricula may determinc thesl.llabus, rather tl.ran the teachcr In some progmms, for example r pronunciation work

is narrowly focused, covering all the vowels in one semester all the consonants in

anothct and so on Even though this ry pe ol syllabris does nor pro\.ide a balanccd

fhlthm and intonation, can still be addresseci as long as clxss materials includeoppoftunities to practice connected spccch (e.9., di"k)gues)

The Lingua Franca Core

Jcnkins (2000, 2002) proposes a pared-down pronunciation syllabus, theLingua Franca Corc (I-FC), fbr stu(lents who will be using English with otl]cr

nonnative speakcrs (rather thalt native speakers) Jenkins's clata sulllicst that

commulication breakdowns betrveen nonnative spcakers are usnally the fesult of

mispronoulccd consonants or yo$'cls, rather than inappfopriate suprasegmentals

In contr:Lst, inappropriate usc of suprascgmentals appears to hal.e a greater effect

on inte lligibilit_y with native listencrs (see Intelligibilit]' on page 2) The LFC s.vllabus,

which focuses on teachable ;rnd leernablc p(,ints of pronunciation that promote

intelligibility bctween nonrati\'-c spcakers, inclucles primarily consonants, some

!o\4iels and onc suprasegmental (highlighting of kcy words)

Jenkins's proposals have inspired he:rlthy debare on which areas of

pronunciation should be taught and who the arbitefs of intelligjbility shor cl be

10 Teach i ng Pran unci at i on

(see, for example, Dauer 2005, Levis 2005) Given that more research is needed and

that teachers cannot know for ceftain wl]ether their students' future inteflocutefs

will be native or nonnative Englisl] speakers, a syllabus that includes importantpfoblem sounds as well as suprasegmentals will serve students' needs better than

to be nore appealing to teachers and more interesting for students

Comrnon Pronunciation Problems

The following chart shows pronunciation topics that are useftll for most

Vowel length in stressed and unstressed syllables See pages 2L-27Vowel :eduction in unstressed syllables See pages 25-27

S:ress patterns of classes of words See pages 28-38

Highlighting important words with stress and pitch See page 96

Tlought groups Grouping words into meaningful phnses) Sec page 52

Intonation to mark utterance boundaries See page 100

Ftral consonants and consolant clusterc: bed, belt See pages 151- 162

The vowels in leaue-Iiue (/iy/-/ID See page 16P

The vowels k7 net-Nat-nut-not uE/-/r/-/e/-/oD See pages 176-183r-colored vowels in heorcl, hard, and board See page 192

Teaching Pronunciation'll

PROIIIINCIAIION DGRCISES AND ACTNTTIES

Pronunciation work call be integrated with other coursewolt, providin!!reinlbrcement of vocabularl', content, and structures dtat students are alfeady

(see page 23) Dialogues in course books can be used to practice grouping words orintonation A key word in a reading/discussiolt activitF may include a problem

sound that can be a point of focus Grammatical structures pfovide manyopportunities fof pronunciatiolt wofk: practice with comparatives, for example, can

than, or with contrasti!.e stress (e.g., It's BIGget not BETter) In tlte sections

co\IerinE! specific leatures of pronunciation, links with othef types of courseworkare pointed out

In pronunciation textbooks, lessor]s typically includc an int{oduction,

contfolled acti.llities and communicative activities Some textbooks also includehomework rcti\ ities

The introduction devclops awareness of the topic, sometilnes indr.rctivell',

most two-syllable nouns are stressed on the first syllable On the other hand,

students are not likely to induce the articulation of r-colored vowels (e.g., bird,bqrd, LUqr) simply by hearing examples In the latter case, articulation must beexpiicitly taught

Controlled exerciscs allow students to de\.elop skill in perception andlorpfoduction witl.r a fe ature of pronunciation: exxmples include repetition of words(addressing sounds or word strcss p;rtterns) or phrases (acldressing rhlthm and

intonation), minimal paifs (pairs of words diffbfing in only one sound, fof

example, bid-liead), dialogues, and so on Exercises may progress from highlycontrolled (repetition of words, for example) to less controlled activities (creatingdialogues and some types of games) The teacher can spend more or less time on

controlled activities, depcnding on the difficulty students experience with a

pronunciatiol.t point

Many students learn to pronouncc a feature of pronunciatioll accurately in

controlled exercises (reading a list of words, for example) but are unable to apply

their ncw skills in cofirmunicatiye spcakinla In communicatiye speech, where thefocus is on meaning, and processing demands are high, pronunciation often seems

to"fall apart" (Dickerson and Dickerson 1977, tune)'et al.2O00, Lin 2001,I-in 2003)

'l'he leafner must fincl words to express his meanin€i, make grammatical decisions,

and, at the same time, manage ditficnlt articulations and unfamiliar pfosodicpatterns (stress, rhlthm, and intonation) Thc fact that pronunciation gains incontrolled activities may not carr_y o\rf in communication does not mean thet

controlled activities haye no value; on the contrarl', they provide practice

opportunities that can graduall_v lcac1 to more automatic use of the newpronunciation as well as to skills for self-correcting However, contfolled activities

12 Teach i ng P ro n u nc I ati an

should not be the end of the lesson C)ur students are nor studying English tobecome proficient readers of word lists

Communicative actiyities push students to apply their new learning in more

normal speaking tasks and to deyelop self-monitoring skills Thc_y establish a

context in which a particular feature of pronunciatioll is called fbr ancl allow

students to create their own language in that context Al example of a

con nlrnicative ncti\Iit] involving contrastive stress is a compafison of two cellphone plans presented in chart form (Plan A is CHEAPCT, but Plan ts has moreANYTIME minutes)

Homework activities can take almost any form In a pronunciation/speaking

controlled warm-up exercise followecl by a freer speakin€i task If str-ldents have acccss to a compute! an inexpensive microphone, and the Internet, their recordings

recofded feedback Student recordings can also be used in class in peer feedback

activities (see Self-monitoring and Feedback, below) Instructions for recording and

Homework in ESL settillgs can also include real-world speaking and listeningtasks, such as calling an 800 number to inquire about a product or seryice (1brexamplc, ayailability on a llight to San Francisco) or lioing into a store to get

information about a particular product In these assilinments the teacher can

instruct studcnts to pay attention to their use of a particular t'eatufe of

pronunciation (for example, question intonation) or simpl_v to speak as cleady as

possible In tlre lbllowing class, students report on thc experience they had Listeninla tasks can also be used as homewofk Students can listcn to a recorcling and

note how many times a reducecl w<)rtl llke can is used and how it is prurounced

SELF-MONITORING AND FEEDBACK

from a more limitcd use of a new pronunciation to a wialer Llse, it is important thnt

students develop self-monitoring and self-correction skills.6 A student whoconsistently uses an s-like soud fot the"tl1" iJ1 tbing, th.tnks,

^nd tbink is li1(.ely f[st

to pronounce the l/: sountl correctl,v when it begins a common word like tbanks but

continue to use /s/ in other words With time, the correct pronunciation spreads toothef wofds and other positions C)sburne's stud.v of pronunciation seiicorrectionsfbuncl that a common strate€l'used by advanced learners involrcd focusing onspccific worcls as units and thinking about how they shor d sound (2003)

t lne4ensir,e r crophones fie prlerxble sinc€ thel lick ul less ambiert noisc Built in micro loncs nrin ormal olprolideclear

enough sound.

and onh later i stxtile (rr) and lLctility (rurlr) lerbs (Budoli Hdig ard Re|noLtls l99i).

TeachingPronunciation l]

Monitoring for Specific Pronunciation Features; Carryover Words

often start in common words or phmses ln this tcchnique, a carrl-or,rr word orphrase containing a targeted pronunciation feature is selected by the stuclent of

Continuing wirh the example of tr, the teacher can assilan the word, tbink as

a catryover word Thc students goal is to pronounce thc caffyover word correctlywhenever they use it Tlte cafryover worcl/phrase should be semantically cleaf,

grammaticall)' easy communicatively important, and frelluent enou€ih tltatstudents harr opportunities to use it in x variety of contexts The phrases I think

and I don't think, used to introduce opinions, rncct all of these rcquiremeflts AcommlrniclLtivc activity cenrered on givin!! opinions v,ith I tbink/I futn't think

words; an ITA doing rcsearch in geothermal energv migl]t select geothermql as acrrr) (

'\ cr u ord for /h.

While the carryoyer technique is particularl.t' srdted ro rvords (and the

problem souncls tltey contain) it can also be extended to common phfases: thephrase i7t q minute can serve as a cafryoYer phrasc for tlte rhlthm pattern of

prepositional phrases (see Rhy'thm, page 60) or for joining final consonants tovo\\.'els (c.g., in d minutq see Rhlthm pagc 56) Greetings can be uscd for

intonation carryover with beginning leafners (see xlso Chela-Florcs 20Ol)

Monitoring for Global Characteristics of Clear Speech

The carryoyer technique focuses monitorinli on specific worcls or phrases.Studcnts should also learn to nonitor thcir spcech fcrr more general (global)charactcristics tltat affect clarity 'l'lrese include specch fate, spcaking volume.attention to the ends of s.'ords, and speaking expressivcl)'

Researcl.r on speaking rate shows that nonnati\,-e speakers spcak English moreslowly than native speakers, a reflection of their incornplete knowlcdge of the L2(Guion, Flege, Liu, and Yeni Komshian 2000).'Ihere is some e\.idence that slower

and Derwin€i 199u) tlowever, asking most students to speed up is likely to be

themselves more time In the expcricnce of many teachers, when fast talkers(students whose speaking rate outpaces their abilitv to spcak accurately) slowdown, their pronunciation and contprchcl.tsibilitv improve, cven though the_v may

/Mo\ Gaad n ing I

l *\

See you ter I

"14 Tfithing hanutu iJltnn

not be speaking as quickl-y as nadve speakers In contrast to fast talkers, otherstudents may seem to speak too slowl_v, pausing too often for too k)ng, or in

inappropriate places Inappropriate pausing often reflects a lack of fluenc-y

It is not easy lbr students to change their speaking mte Fast talkers need

frequent rerninders to slow down ancl ma-v also feel that speaking more slowly will

fluency; it can also be addressed by pronunciation work on thought groups and

linking adjacent words (see Rh)'thm, pages 52 ancl 51).

Speech that is not lor.rd enough to hear (in my experience ,more cotrrmon with

only teacher who has repcatedly reminded a student to speak up in class only tohear the same student booming fofth in her native language in the hall during abreak A technique that is usually effectivc is to ask the student to address hercomments to a classmate on the opposite side of the room

Many students have problems pronouncing consonants at the ends of words(e.g.,pick, ask, belt) Pronunciation wolt with fu]al consonants and frequent errorcorrection are effective in improying this area of pronunciation

Some students use a flat, monotone delivery when thev speak En€ilish, possiblybecause they lack confidence or because the)' are using natiYe lartguage intonationpatterns or both They need to understand that a flat delivery can make thcm sound

disiflteiested and to be reminded to use their voices more (use a $/ider range of

pitch) This is a difficult pronunciation problem to correct, especially if a wider

To help students monitor the general clarity of their speech,I keep this short

list of reminders in the upper left corner of the blackboard and point to themwhen necessary:

Slow down

Speak u p

Final sounds

Spea k expressive y

Error Correction by Teachefs and Peefs

Little research has treen donc on thc effect of ertor correction onpronunciation Research on error cofrectiolt of gnmmar, l]orveve! indicates that it

is effective in promoting accuracy in communicatiYe contexts when it can be done

to be corrected (Lightbown and Spada 1999) These finclings would seem to appl-Y

Teachers should always draw attention to unintelligible speech, asking thestudent to repeat or rephrase more carefulll' (and often more slowll) It is only

TeaLhing Pronuncrton I J

'iyhen a whole discourse is unintelligible, the teacher must work with the student,often using spelling and repetitions, first to determine what the student is trying to

say and then to identily the errors

at unintelligible or odd sounding pronunciatiolls During pronunciation activities,

error) The general cue allows a student to appb-his pronunciation learning and

helps develop self correction and monitoring skills Sometimes students are

and coffect pronunciations to notice the error

Peer feedback on student recordings is also effective and gives thenonspeaking peef additional monitoring practice Celce-Murcia rccommends that

The next five chapters deal with pronunciation topics from word stfess,

rhythm, intonation, consonants, and vowels Each chapter presents usefulbackground information and research, general teaching tips, and suggested

He gucsseci *rong when hc stressed "c6nsummate," a word he hacl ncver heard

sentence (He's ct c()nsttl|ttnate politician) sounded like .,Hes a col]sumcrs,politicitrn 'lhe student's gucss tliat corstt rtl.tctlc was strcssed on tlte seconclslllable rvas probabll based on words likc contro| consurnet; connectj orconfession, all strcssed on thc second s,yllable It was a good guess-which

For native English listeners, the most important syllablc in a word is thestressed s)'llable, the primary cue for identi4'ing the word (Grosjean and cee 1987,Benratrah iggT, Boncl 1999) This mlkes strcss J \ crt- important p(ongnciationtopic ln xddition because tlte chamcteristics of stressed ancl unstressetl sl Uables in

with suprase gmentals Dalton altd Seidlhofcr describe worcl stress as a

comnunicativcly impoftant and teachable pronunciation ropic, bridging thecontinuum between segmcntals (consonants and vorvels), which are consideredrclatively easy to teach and suprasegmentals (rhythm and intonation) rvhich arc

LE\rEI"S OF STRNSS IN WORDS

In every En€ilish worcl Of more than ()nc svllable, One s,vllable, the stressed

stress, heaq'strcss, of simpl_y the stfesscd s,yllable/\,.owel (Thc tetms (ul1)strcssetl

uou'el and (utl)stlessed syllable are otten used interchangeabh'.) 1he remainin€j

s,vllables may be unstressed or have secondary (niinoo stress ln the woral sJlfa, tlnc

lifst syllable (so-) has prirnarl stress and the second (-y'l) is rntstfesscd.In the word

1B olAPftR I w.nd stess

diffcrences in length, pitch, loudness, or vowel clualiryr

can be distinguished b_v

As the chart below shows

STRESS PI-A.CEMENT

Learning to lengthcn stressed vorl-els and shorten/reduce unstressed vowels

is challenging for most students EquallY challenging is knowing which s-Yllable tostress in a word.'fi'lte n lcarners are f:rced witll a ncw word they have never heard

befbre, they basc strcss placcment on many of tlle same strategies that native

' speakefs do: analogv to phonologically sitrrilar words strcss patterns associated

et aI.200J (;uion ef aI.2004)

Misplacccl stress-stfessing the wrotlg sYllable-can make a wrlrd

nnrecognizable and co[rplctel,v clisftrpt the speakcr's message (Benrabal] 1997,

Fieltl 2005) Not all errors inYoh'ing misplaced stress arc equally serious Field

(2005) reports that rightward misplacements of strcss in two-s-Yllablc worcls (c !a.,

stre ssinli the se cond syllable of a,ozrdr: I\'oMAN) impaire d intelliSibility morc than

leftward misplacemcnts (c.g., stressing the first svllable of enlof'ENjo)-) My

stndcnt's n.rispronunciation of consumln(Ite, descriLted at the beginninti of this

The rules for English stress placement are con.tplex becar.rse English has

borrowed many words from other languages, cspecially Frcnch, Latin' Spanish, and

Grcek, with clifferent rules for assigning strcss (Jufis l99O) There arc, hower.cq

stressed syllable Teachcrs can also help students avoid misplaccd stless by working

with stress in reading and vocabnlar-v lessons.

t

Nol all l"uguages use str.ss to s\sl€ntdicitllt dilleruntiaft dre slllebles lf x \rold

/l/ is rhc lo{'el ir /l dso \b\\els CenLml\brtls /a/ lLIrd/l/ |r)llL \b{'cls.

t.HAPTER I Wor.l Slress 19NOTATIONS FOR STRESS AND SYLIABLES

Capitals and bold letters are yisuall_y strong and can be easily added by a

computef It is difficult, however, to show mofe than two levels of stfess withouteither changing tlpe size or combining bold ancl caps (tbr example, bold c:rps

Underlining is visually strong and exsy ro do bl compute! but in some

pronunciation s'ork the teachef ma,\- want to use undedincs to show linking of

words of to indicate syllables dcute and g.ave marks and verticals can be visuallystrong when handwritten but are less notice:rblc when adclecl by conputer Theteacher should not feel bound ro oltc tr?e of notation.When the meaning of thenotation is made clear, students are not tl.ouble d by mixecl notations In my own

to m)' students In typed mater.ials, for example, I use capital lettcrs for tlte stressedsyllable because they are visually more salient than a typed acute mark; on theboard,I usually place a large acute mark over the stressed syllable, since switchinlibetween capit:rls and lower case within a word slows clown my writing

Curved undedincs are uselul f<rr showing the syllables in a word They arepreferzble to slashes or hyphens within words (e.g., vilsit, vi sit) because they don,tcommit the teaclter to exact locations of syllable bounclaries, which are sometimes

difficult to determine

Stressed sy lable in capita s

Circles above syllables

Stressed sylla ble bo ded

Stressed sy labie u nderlined

Line over stressed syllable

grave marks (') over secondary stress

Vert ca s (dictionary markings)

visit

Heritage Dictionar!, for example, scgments .sofl,-)., as,.sof-eJ,' wltilc lte&stert has

"sor-re." It is more important tltat students know how many syllables a word has

rhln t xactly $ herc , )nc s1 llablc ends lntl r he ncrr hegins.

20 ]HAPTER 1 ward stress

STI]DENT PROBLEMS WITTI WORD STRESS

learning how different le\,-els of word st|ess are realized in English, in particular thelength of stressed r.owcls and thc shortness and reduction of unsressed vowels

There is considerable evidence that the length distinction betwecn stressed and

learned (Flege and Bohn 1989 Anderson Hsich and venkata€iiri 199'1, Ngul'cn ;urd

Ingran 2005, Lee et al 2006)

The second difficult,v inyoh'cs kno$'in€i which syllable to stress in a word

Althougli there are no simple, general rules that will allow students to predict

which syllable is stressed, there are classes of words, such as compound nouns

(.e.g., airPort).with regular stress patterns that can be taugllt As students becomemore proficient, they also becone better able to predict which s.vllable in a $.ord

is stressed.

TIPS FOR TEACHING WORD STRESS

The sk tips listed below ptovide some general suggestions for helping

better predict which s-vllable is stressed The tips are based on the characteristics of

3 Pfonounce new vocabulary so studerts call hear which syllables are stressed.

4 Use pronunciation spellings to develop stlrdents' awareness of how unstresscd

vowels are pronounced

5 Point out that unstressed ]rowels have a short, indistinct sound regardless of

spellirg

The remainder of this chrpter presents specific features of worcl stfess as

listed below' 'l-he tips are further explained in thc context of these leaturcs

ffi rrps

CHAPTER I Word Stress 21

@FWoRDsTREss

1 Primaf),/Hea\T stress

4 Stfess with two-syllable nouns antl verbs

5 Stress witlt compounds

6 Stress with verbs ancl nouns with prepositional prefixes

7 Stress with abbreviations

8 Stress with sulfi-\es

9, More on unstressed s)-llablcs

10 Stress switching

\ffe discuss I'hat the teachef should know about each of these topics and

provide sulillestions fbr teaching them

ffi r*narylHearT stress

What the Teachef Should Know

citation fbrm (the word pronounced in isolation), the stressed yowel is alsopronounced on a higher pitch; in connected speech, high pirch may be down-

message Because the long duration of English stressed vowels is ufl[amiliar to many

also Rhlthm, page 50).

In a stud)' con.lparing the length of stressed and unstressed vowels, it was

found that natiye-English speakers' stressed syllables were about four rimes longerthan their unstressed slllables, a large difference (Anderson Hsieh and Venkatagiri,

the nativc spcakers, but intermediate learners' stressed and unstresscd syllables didnot differ lireatly in lenlith Research involving leafners from other natiye-language

backgrounds also supports the claim tltat lengtlt of stresscd syllables is learned

Matclring or comparing the stress-s).l1ablc pattcrns of words (e.g SepTEMbef

OcTObe4 NoVEMbeti DeCEMber) is effecti\.c for building sensitiviq' to patterns of

"stron€i psychological validit,v" (2OO5, 42O) Kenworthy (1987, 60,63) also

recomrlends "odd one out" exercises in which students decide which of sevcrelwords lras a diffefent srcss pattern (e.g.,repeat, trauel, explqin, belieue)

22 C/tAPrtR 1 \4/dd sttcss

level Low lntermed iate

Worksheet Page 202

Tips Emphasize the length of stressed vowels,

Present sets of words with the same stress patterns.

Descr:ption This activity practices the stress patterns in the names of months

and seasons and in travel-related terms.

2 Elicit from students the months of the year and the names of the seasons

the stressed sy lable as you model the words: Stretch the rubber band as you

say the stressed syllable Pass the rubber bands out to students lr4odel the

3 Elicit the number of syllables n each month, tapping out the syllables

"February" as three-syllable words, mistaking the vowel-vowel sequence (the

("Janu*ary, Febru*ary") Underline the syl ables n all the words Then elicitthe stressed syllab e from students and mark lt on the board.

Jdnuary Fdbluary Mdlch April Mriy Jrine

Summer, Autumn)

5 Erase the words on the board lVodel the month names again, stretching the

CHAPITR 1 Worcl Stress 23

ALllDity l.l cantin cd

@ 6 Travel Trivia quiz Pass the trivia quiz out to the class Explain the meaning of

"trivia" if necessary, unimportant facts or pieces of information that most

the aud io.

have finished, ask them about their answers Remind them to make the

stressed voweis long.

r Where would you like to travel?

o When would you like to go?

9 When the pair work is finrshed, ask individuals to report their answers to the

level All levels

Worksheet Page 203

Tip Pronounce new vocabulary so students can hear which syllable

is stressed.

Descliption This activity focuses students' attention on the stress patterns of new

vocabulary The vocabulary sample is from "Imeline of Lindbergh'sLife" in Northstar Reading and Witing: lntroducto,:y (Beaumont 2009,

below can be used at any level to integrate stress with any reading.

1 Before class, follow this procedure:

welcome president receive kidnap invent

artiticial protect media factory cancer

animal environmentalist

( tttinued on n$;t paRe)

24 ]HAPTER 1 worcl strcss

A ctiui ty l 2 cotttinue.l

b Count the syl ables in the selected words and mark the stressed syllable; ignore

secondary stress, Determine the syllable-stress patterns (the number of syllables and the location of the stressed syllable) in the selected words lt does not matter

if some stress-syllable patterns are represented by only one word In the words below, syllables are underlined and stress is marked with an acute accent (')

Stress patterns:

r.l_ 2 t 3 _l 4 *l- 5

-l welcome president ' receive artilicial environmentalist

kidnap media invent

cancer factory

animal

syllable patterns onto a piece of paper Explain the notatlon: / represents a stressed syllable; - represents a syllab e without heavy stress.

3 IVlodel the words, lengthening stressed syllables (To reinforce vowel length, use

4 Draw students'attention to the first word on the list and model it again Ask

students to count syllables in the word Underline the syllables on the board Ask

students which syllable is stressed and mark it on the board (e.g., w6lcome)

7, When the class has finished, elicit from students the words that belong in eachcolumn and add them to the board.

them, column by column Students should notlce that words in the samecolumn have the same stress pattern

6nimal environm6ntalist

\JW\-/\-',\'/\-',

CHAPTER 1 Word Stress 25

Actlxity 1.2 @ntlnued

ffi tt"o."""d Syllables and yowel Reduction

\Xhat the Teacher Should Know

pitch than stressed vowels Most vowels in unsressed syrlabres are reduced to a

is the most common vowel sound in English (Avery and Ehrlich 1992,31)

page 72) Dauer, on the other hand, argues that it is dificult to speak English at a natural

speed without reducing either the length or quality of unstressed yowels (2005)

English-like unstressed vowels, with shorter lengths,lower levels of pitch, and less loudness.vowel reduction, however, seems to be more difficult The ability to reduce vowels

may depend on the presence of vowel reduction in the native language and/or on

et al.2OO6, Zuraiq and Sereno 2007) Flege and Bohn suggest that learning to make

a length difference between stressed and unstressed vowels is

" ,ra".rrury

precursor to \'owel reduction (1999)

Students whose native languages lack vowel reduction, spell worclsphonetically and share many cognate words with English (for example, Spanish orItalian) may haye an especiany difficult time reducing unstressed vowers.It is usefur

letter in English but are still prono\nced /a/ ot /r/

Research has not investigated the effect of teaching students to reduce vowelqualit)4 My own experience suggests that some intermediate and advanced students

can and do learn to reduce unstressecl yowels to /a/ in normal speaking, although

"toonight," and "toomoffow.', In my first attempt at teaching vowel reduction, after

I

The vowevt (lhe !'owel in /1/) may also be used in unstressed syliables, €s!€cially those spelled with the let tes e (u in clectle) or i (u

in di,uide) rheprctise qrality of rcduc€d vowels is inlluencerl by tlie sunouniiing soundr (Biownan and Gol*t"in iD2l ftr .naing"?

and -0,, in words likep,'el4'atird lrintlau) e ;iitsir.es$ed but not reduceri to /a/ ihe vorvel in the -r'zg ending is uruAiy p.noun O ir.'

26 ]HAPTER 1 worcl stress

explaining it and modeling reduced vowels in several words, I wrote the word

totnoffot! on the board and told my stuclents I would pronounce it itl two differentways Tlrey were to tcll me which wa-v was coffect I pronounced totrTonou flrst ls

"toolnorrow" and then with thc vowel correctly reduced When I asked the class

which pronunciation was correct no one said ar])'thing I repeated the dcmonstmtion

ancl agnin got no response.I triecl once lnorc, extremely nervous by this time, ,!rld was

relicved to see one student timidl-l/ raise her hancl She said, "'ifas the /f/ different?" I

learned two thinlas that day: first, that nl-v studcnts were very conccrned with thepronunciation of /r/; ;!nd second, that students do not rlotice reduced vowels, evenwhen they are constantly modeled in the native English spoken around them This

A fust step to learning to pronouncc reduced vowels, then, may be to devebp an

aw;Lreness for how they sound Awareness is addfessed in the san.Iple actiYity below'

unstressed vowe s are Pronounced.

regardless of spelling

in today, tonight, and tomorrow Other types of schedules (e g., train

Description

1 Present vowel reduction On the board, wrlte words in which unstressed vowels

unstressed vowels Below the normal spelling of the words' write the

than the normal spellings do) lvlark the stress on each word.

?C6 5vldgnce bScqn f5rtqne

ac6 6vadans b6kan l6rchan

physician lazishan

vowels to /a/; when you read words from a list, you rnay give more prominence to unstressed vowels than you would in norrnal speaking lmagine how each word

CHAPTTR 1 Word Strcss 27Actiultr t.3 Lontinuc.t

sounds toward the end of a sentence, spoken naturally (e.g., Ior physician,

you model the words Djrect students, attention to the pronunciation spellings

below the words and model them again Have students repeat.

3 Ask the following questions:

Do the underlined letters have different pronunciations?

out that the underlined letters represent all the vowel letters used in English,

below eac6 word lvlodel the words.

Add tonight and tomorrow Io the board, with their respellings: tanEht,

today, tomorrow, tonight, reducing the first vowel.

Put students in pairs, giving each member of the pair a different TV schedule

10

28 cHAPrtR 1 watd stress

lFl secondary stress

what the Teacher Should Know

In the word rl€mocriit the last Yowel has secondar-Y stress Volvels in s-Yllables

$'ith secondary stress (markecl with ' ) haYe ful| vowels (i e , not reduced)' length'ancl loutlness The major cliftbrence bet*-een secondary stress and primar,Y/lleav-Ystress is pitcll:Vowcls with seconclary sress are pronounced at a lower pitch than

vowels with primary stre ss Say ddm o.ru)l slowt-Y and liste n to how the Pitch of Your

voice changes; it starts high ovcr the first s1'llablc (with primar-v strcss)' then falls

over the seconcl unstressed syllablc ancl remains low t>ver thc last syllable with

Compounds Seconclary stress occurs on the second word of compounds:

5 irpdrt office biilding

Numbers: "teefls"' N'.rtive speakers use t\\() pattefns of stress with numbersendin!! in -teen Beforc a pause' ancl without special empllasis on dle number(e g., He\ sixtden), primarv stress usually falls ot7-teen ancl secondary stress on thenumber (s/D Sefore a worcl whose flrst syllable is stressed (e g

' t'l/tien cdndles)'

Numbers: "tens" With -ttl nun]bers, primary stress is always on the number (e g

'

s/xfy) and the -/if ending is unstressecl Another difference bet$'een -tee

^nd -ty

,-r.,-b l' is thc pronunciation of the lctter t In -ry numbers' t is a flap (1 fast d'' see

Studentsaresometimesmisrrnderstoodwhentheyuse-teenaf'd.t!numbers;intcndecl -teen numbefs are heard as Jt flumbers, and vice versa lf students stfess

-leer numbers on the second slllable' there *'ill bc less confusion as to whetherthey have said, sixtden or slxty

Verbs with Prepositionaf Prefixes Seconclar-v stress occurs on the preposition

Suffixes Seconclary stress ,Llso occurs on some suffi-res: r4alize' cblldhdod'atltititde, pictuftsque when worcls ending with -'7te are used as Yerbs' the -ale

"a rr".l as flouns or adjectives, the

CHAPTER I WoId Stress 29Polysyllabic Words with prirna"ry Stress tovrard the End of the Word.

Polysyllabic words with primary stress toward the end of the word often have

stress creates a more even alternadon of stresses:

e4ft

As a pronunciation topic, secondary stfess is less important than pfimarystress Fof beginning students, the teaching of secondary stfess can be limired tocertain types of words, like compounds anr| -teen worcls

If a beginning student's lack of secondary stress makes a word difficult tounderstand (this sometimes happens withpdlitlcian, wlnere secondary stress is onthe first syllable), the teacher can address the error by instructing the student to

lengthen the first syllable of the word

$i/ith intemediate and advanced str.ldents, secondary stress can be addressed

when working with the stress patt€fns of compounds, verbs with prepositional

S|rleet?

level Beginn ing

Worksheet Page 2O5

lip Teach classes of words that have predictable stress patterns,

Description This information gap provides practice with -teen and -fy numbers.

different locations Each student has the number of occupants in

half of ihe bu itdings.

2, lVodel the tee, words first, stressing -teen Students repeat Ask students

which syllable is stressed Repeat with the -fy words.

(continuetl o next page)cbntribition

30 IHAPTLR I word stress

Actittly 1.4 t:ontin ed

and sixty sound (the f in sxteen will be a true l; the i in s/xiy will be a flapped l)'

4 lVodel the numbers across the rows Students repeat'

5, Say one of the numbers on the board Ask students to write the number you

then checks with the speaker'

the address write the question "How many people live at 232 lvlain Street?"

tl

student and a different address

7 Put students in pairs and hand out a different rnap to each member of the pair' Read the instructions on the maps to the class During the pair work, monitor

ty n umbers.

K tat."" with Two-Syllable Nouns and Verbs

V/hat the Teacher Should Know

kitcben'husbdncl'tdble.About60percentoftwo-syllableverbsarestressedonthe

1lho

sylLable edjectnes $'hich are Geflnmic \Lot& (e E l'eltau h ngJ', l/,itstl) ae strcssed on the ii$t s'\'ilable of fie loot;hvo

(, lrhle ,rlrectrves lronowed fic,n other Lanlua::,es (e.g.', patite tfnirl,' ttwf1 raay be slrcssed on either the lirst oL second s,vlLabLe

i'i.i ,i""i".iri i,,gol inr"'

'iLr"lr, uorr] ,.,,iualli sireiserLon the fint or sccond syLlable 6Ttrar[t, 6Jiict't pisible lr't)

AJtrl.," uttrtr,rr,.Ltr the lirsi s,rllabLe lbl/0 ag irnettl ttptirhwnl tuid t?'/'i'b]r 1tle slrcssed ol thc second svll$Le

CHA?TER I Word Stress 31

is placed on the root syllabte (1993,6D This is a useftrl rule proyided thar students

contains a long vowel (e.g.,repe.1t, decide, contain) or ends in a consonant clustef

(two or more consonants; e.g., elect, disturb) These rypes of syllables are hear,y

syllables, which attfact stress.While students cannot be expected to anatyze syllable

structure, hear.y syllables are olten graphically longer (i.e., have more letters) thanlight syllables.

Noun-Vefb Pairs: a REcord-to feCORD Noun-yerb pairs are two-syllable wordswhose grammatical function determines stress.r#/hen sfessed on the f[.st syllable,the word functions as a noun (e.g., a pdrmit)iwhen sttessed on the second syllable,the word functions as a verb (e.g., to permit) These word pairs reflect the general

tendency for two-syllable nouns to be stressed on the first syllable and two-sdlable

Depending on both the speaker and the word, the stress slijt is not always

mandatory Some speakers, for example, pronounce lly'crease with the noun pattenl

whethef it is used as a noun or verb

Group Ar Different stress patterns for nouns and verbs are mandatory for

most speakers.

Group B: The noun pattern can be used for nouns or verbs.

increase, contract (business/legal agreement), protest, research, subiect, detail,

defect, insult

Group C; Nouns and verbs are stressed only on the first syllable.

ACcent, COMfort, PURchase, PROm se, REscue

Group D: Nouns and verbs are stressed only on the second syllable (many words

conTROL, surPRlSE, deSlRE, deMAND, aRREST, reVlEW

When used as nouns,the words in Groups A and B often have secondary stress

on the second syllable;the verb forms have reduced vowels in the fust syllable: tbePr6jact, to projdct /pfejtkt/ .

Because of the anount of new yocabulary this topic is better suited tointemediate and advanced students

32 aH \PrE^ / l4ordsre(r

Level Begin ners

Worksheet None

Tip Teach classes of words that have predictable stress patterns'

Description This activity familiarizes students with stress in two-syllable nouns It

ends with pair work in which each member of the pair tries to guessfive items that the partner has in her backpack (purse, bag)'

pocket, and Things in your backpack or purse Explain "pocket" and "purse"

if necessary.

2 Ask students to work together and wrlte down as many things as they can for

of your pocket or backpack/purse Examples of things !n the room include atable, a chair, a blackboard, chalk, eraser, a door, a computer, a window, and

include books, papers, pencils, pens' iPods, laptops, water, sandwiches,

and notebooks.

3 When the lists are finished, ask students to volunteer words Write the words

the circled words Ask students if the circled words are nouns (names ofthings) or verbs (names of actions) lvlodel the words, exaggerating the length

of the stressed vowel (ignore secondary stress in words ltke backpack or

blackboard) Students repeat lvlodel the words again Ask students what

syllable is stressed and mark stress Ask students if most two-syllable nouns are stressed on the first syllable or the second syllable'

stressed and add stress marks N4odel the words Students repeat'

5 lvlodel the pair work, Choose five ltems from the coLumn Things in your

"Sue, do you have a

-

in Your backPack?"

6 Put students in pairs Explain that each student will guess five things that his

-

in

loldel

]HAPTER 1 Word Sttess 33

AdlDiA 1.5 ontinued

7 After the pair work, ask several students to report on the contents of thejr

partners' backpacks Provide feedback on word stress.

IF s*."" with Cornpounds

What the Teacher Should Kmrw

frst word and secofldary stress on the second: air:pdtt, grdduate st dents, tbe

IYV:ite Hduse.'fhe first word is pronoutced on a higher pitch:

in most pronunciation textbooks

Mispronunciations of compounds usually occur because students have used a

higher pitch on the second word or on both words Most intemediate and

ot subu)ay, written as one word (although Spanish students often misstress

boyfriend and girlfriend) They have more difficulty with compounds written astwo words, which are harder to fecognize (e.g., graduate students, post ofrice,

oflice bailding).Nouns and adiectives fomed from phrasal verbs (e.g.,tbe tAke\fr

my mdkeiq), have the same stress-pitch pattefn as compounds phrasal \'erbs are

Teach classes of words that have predictable stress patterns.

iPods) and decide which came first

Ldog

"tL

road

(continue.l on page)

34 cHAPtR 1 \\lorcl strcss

Actll,iry t.6 continucd

necessary.

phones

4

5.

cell phones were in use before iPods.

the first word on a higher pitch

Fl so.tt with Verbs and Nouns with Prepositional Prefixes

What the Teacher Should Know

Most verbs with trlrepositiollal pretixcs have prinary stress on the Yerb and

often stressccl on the prepositio n: 6uer ddse, a)utage, 6u ALu Thcse are not fixed

to mnintain a more equal alternation of strcsses:

to intermediate and advancetl students

Nouns and acljcctives can be formed frottt some verbs with prepositionxl

pattern for two-syllable nouns: 4 Positirc 6utldok' an psrLting in prices' 4n

6utbriqk of Jtu.The adjective outstanding can bc stressed either on the prefk or

on the root: vrhen the mcaning is 'exceptionally good," outstandirlS usually has

primary strcss on sland;when the meaning is "unpaidi' as h an outstanding bill'

stress is usu:rlly on out Note that witll outdoor(s), indoor(s)' outside' a\d inside,stress can be on either syllable

Activity 1.7 Verbs and nouns with prcpositional prefixes: Why do wonen

level Advanced/intermed iate

Worksheet Page 206

Tip Teach classes of words that have predjctable stress patterns

oescliption This activity uses paired dictations to practice the stress patterns of

nouns and verbs with prepositional prefixes, in the context of gender

necessary Students may ask whether whelm is a verb Explain that it comes

itself in the American Heritage Dictionary with the meaning,,overwhelm',)

withhold overwhelm outweigh withdraw

preposition) l\4ark stress on the words Explain that most verbs with

3 Add nouns with prepositional prefixes to the board.

income outgo 0vervtew outline

]HAPTER 1 Wotd Stress 35

l\4odel the words, stressing the prepositions Students repeat Ask students

which part of the words is stressed Explain that nouns with preposittonal

Paired dictations Model the activity Dictate the sentence below to the class.

Put students in pairs and give each member of the pair a different set of

dictation sentences to the partner until the activity is finished

4.

5.

7.

6.

36 :HAPTER 1 word Stress

Hh Abbreviations

V/hat the Teacher Should Know

with abbreviations Students maich abbreviations 1o definitions and

5,

6.

& 1 Students listen to the abbreviations on Worksheet 1.8 and repeat them

pitch, which then falls.) Ask individuals to read some of the abbreviations

Provide feedback on stress and pitch

modifier in the blank before the abbreviation

(e.g,, the U/V stands for the United Nations), monitoring stress on the

possible), and FYI (for your information), and texting abbreviations such as BFF

t

nonspeclfic (or unknown) relercnt (e.g., an ATlti): no article is used when lhe abbrevialion is a prcler nalne (e.g., IBtr{) Possessives arc

used when re rcferent "be1ongs" to an individual (e.g., ll'r D0B, date of bitlh)