Have a Nice Talk! Stress and Intonation

To have a nice talk is necessary to be clear and also to use your mood and feelings. Let´s take a look to those English sounds!

Words and Syllables:

A word is made up of phonemes, i.e. individual sounds, and syllables, which divide a word and require different stress. 

You can put a line above the part of the word or draw capital letters to show where the stress occurs. 

Let's look at the following. The stressed syllables are bolded:

'prepare': you could show this as prePARE

'computer': you could show this as comPUter

Sentence Stress:

When we consider a sentence, some words are stressed more than others.

The cat sat on the mat 

The words in bold are stressed and the others are not stressed. We say different parts of the sentence with more or less stress, i.e., slower and louder, or quicker and more softly. The word stress within a sentence helps bring more meaning to the sentence. 

Often, though, one word in the sentence will have the main stress. This is the word which the speaker thinks is most important to the meaning of the sentence.

Other words can have secondary stress. This is not as strong as main stress and falls on words which are not as important to the meaning as the word with main stress.

Other words in the sentence are unstressed.

For example, in this spoken sentence: She came home late last night, the word with the main stress is the underlined one - late; the words with secondary stress would probably be came, home, last, night; and the unstressed word is she .

But remember: It is possible to stress any word in a sentence if the speaker thinks it is important.

Whether you are looking at word stress or sentence stress, provide the class with some guidance about the position of the stress.

Either write the word/sentence on the board and show the stress by using a symbol or capitals or use a hand to make a gesture (perhaps a chopping movement) to demonstrate where to place the stress when you say the word.

Word stress and sentence stress rules:

We're going to stick to simple rules here as many rules are full of exceptions.

For example, there are many two-syllable words in English which are spelt the same but their meaning changes depending on the stress:

1. You will progress a lot with your English if you follow this rule.

   You will make a lot of progress with your English if you follow this rule.

2. He rejected the plan.

   This bowl was a reject, so I bought it at half price.

3. Everyone was present at the meeting.

    I will present my ideas to the company tomorrow in a presentation.

Here are some key word stress rules:

1. One word has only one stress. One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a secondary stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main (primary) stress, and is only used in long words.)

2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some sentence stress rules:

1. Content words are stressed. Content words carry meaning, e.g. main verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs and negative auxiliaries (don't, can't, aren't)

2. Structure words are unstressed. Structure words are used for correct grammar, e.g. pronouns, prepositions, articles, conjunctions and auxiliary verbs (e.g. do, be, can, have, must)

3. The time between stressed words is always the same.

There's the odd exception to sentence stress rules, but far fewer than word stress exceptions.

For example, we have said that structure words are unstressed in a sentence. But look at the structure word she (pronoun) below, which the speaker is stressing for emphasis whilst confirming information:

'Lisa didn't do that, did she?'

'Yes, she did.'

Rhythm:

Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or beat.

Look at this sentence:

Will you CLOSE the DOOR because he's GONE to WORK?

In our sentence, the 4 key content words (close, door, gone, work) are stressed.

Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds music to the language. It is the rhythm of the English language. It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language. The time between each stressed word is the same.

There is 1 syllable between CLOSE and DOOR and 3 syllables between DOOR and GONE. But the time between CLOSE and DOOR and between DOOR and GONE is the same.

We maintain a constant beat on the stressed words. To do this, we say the more slowly, and because he's more quickly. We change the speed of the small structure words so that the rhythm of the key content words stays the same.

Connected Speech (Linking):

When a person speaks naturally in English, words seem to join together in connected speech. The way a person pronounces the end and beginning of a word depends on the sounds at the beginning and end of a word. 

Consonant to vowel linking: This is when a word ends in a consonant and the next word is a vowel, then the consonant and vowel join together. It's called an intrusion. For example, 'not at all' becomes 'notatall'

Vowel to vowel linking: The word ends in a vowel and begins with a vowel. In this situation, an extra sound is added to make the words smooth. It's called an intrusion. For example, 'please do it' sounds like 'please do wit.'

Sounds disappear: This is called elision. For example, the word 'interest' becomes 'intrest'. Here, the syllable containing the unstressed schwa is often not pronounced. Elision can also be seen in this example: 'It's no joke' is often pronounced as 'snow joke'

Sounds join together: With consonants, the sounds  / t / and / d / are commonly elided, especially when they appear in a consonant cluster. These words join together. For example: the 'first three' becomes 'firsthree'.

Note that students need to hear natural, fast, relaxed pronunciation as we speak it every day, not a carefully over-articulated overly-pronounced one-word-by-one-word phrasing of sentences.

Speaking too slowly and too emphatically is a common characteristic of the inexperienced teacher.

Speaking unnaturally affects your students for two reasons:

·they will imitate your speaking style and speak unnaturally too

·they will not recognise and understand natural rapid speech when they hear it

This doesn't mean you shouldn't slow your speech down a bit to help your students get some basic ideas, but it does mean that you should speak naturally most of the time.

It also means that you need to teach them what natural speech sounds like. There is some evidence that says that if students don't speak naturally, they won't recognise normal speech when they hear it.

Some examples:

My name is Fred sounds something like Mi naeh miz Fred.

How much is it? sounds something like How muh chi zit?

Don't eat apples! sounds something like Don tea tapples!

If you habitually speak slowly and over-enunciate, your students will listen for How much is it? and won't understand when they hear the normal speech sounds of How muh chi zit?

The effective EFL teacher instructs her students in these differences, how to pronounce them and how to listen for them.

You should encourage your students at least to attempt to approximate these linking features of English because they are so commonly used in normal speech. This, in turn, should raise their awareness of the existence of these features and will make the task of listening easier.

Intonation: 

Intonation is another important part of pronunciation. It is the movement of the level of the voice, i.e., the tune of a sentence or a group of words.

We use intonation to express emotions and attitudes, and to emphasise or make less important particular things we are saying.

We also use intonation to signal to others the function of what we are saying, that is, to show we are starting or stopping speaking, or whether we are asking a question or making a statement.

Practice: To hear these intonation uses, try saying School's just finished with these meanings: 

1.as a statement of fact

2.with surprise

3.with happiness

4.as a question

5.to emphasise 'just'

You should hear the level of your voice rising and falling in different patterns.

Different intonation patterns can show many different meanings. However, there is no short and simple way of describing how the patterns relate to meanings.

Intonation patterns can also be demonstrated with the use of arrows on the board or hand gestures to show the 'musical' pattern. Wherever possible, try to speak in a normal manner without a distorted intonation pattern as this will provide the students with a better model to follow.