Unit 3 TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

Part 1: Aspects of pronunciation

Aspects of pronunciation - Word stress

Stress

Words can be broken up into syllables – if you tap out the rhythm of a word, it
shows you how many syllables the word has. For example, syll- a- ble; 3 beats.
'Syllable' has three syllables.

Some words, e.g. dog, man, house, see, went, have only one syllable.

When an English word has more than one syllable, one syllable is pronounced
more 'strongly' – it is slightly louder and longer – than the other syllables.

SYLL-a-ble, im-POR-tant, GOV-ern-ment, de-PRESSED

This is known as word stress. If the stress is placed on the wrong syllable, it can
make the speaker quite difficult to understand.

Try saying syll-AA-ble, im-por-TANT, etc.

It is important that students know which syllable carries the main stress (this is
often referred to as primary stress).

Representing word stress when presenting new vocabulary

Writing the stressed syllable in capital letters can be confusing for students,
especially for those who do not use the Latin alphabet in their own language. They
may think that we always write it like that, so we need another way of showing
students where the stressed syllable is.

Some teachers place a box over the vowel of the stressed syllable:

Others underline the stressed syllable:

important

Another common way of representing stress is to draw circles to represent each

syllable, with a larger circle for the stressed syllable:

important oOo

If you find it difficult to identify which is the stressed syllable, don't worry. It
quickly becomes easier.
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Here are two techniques that might help:;

1) Try saying the word in different possible ways, exaggerating the stress to see
which sounds the best, e.g. HOS-pit-al, hos-PIT-al, hos-pit-AL

2) Stick your fingers in your ears to block out as much sound as possible and say
the word normally. You should be able to hear which syllable is the loudest – that
one is the stressed syllable

Disappearing syllables

Average Oo

Notice how the word 'average' has a ‘disappearing syllable'. In connected speech at
normal speed the 'er' in 'average' is not pronounced. This is the same for the second
'o' in chocolate. They sound more like 'av-ridge' and 'choc-let'.

Disappearing syllables are very common in English. You need to be aware of this
feature of English and draw it to your students' attention. There are a few
differences in which words have vanishing syllables in different varieties of
English. 

For example, comfortable in received pronunciation (RP) is pronounced with three

syllables – cumf-te-bel Ooo. In accents which pronounce the 'r' after vowels (most
North American, Scottish and Irish accents) the word may be pronounced with four
syllables – cum-fer-te-bel Oooo – or three with the position of the r moved –
cumf-ter-bel Ooo. 

Optional Further Reading: If you would like to read more about vanishing
syllables, have a look at this article by The Pronunciation Coach.

Here is a list of common words in which the second vowel is not usually
pronounced by native British English speakers, so that the word has one fewer
syllables than you would expect. This is especially the case in connected speech –
that is, when the word is part of a sentence, rather than said in isolation. There are
many other words in which this occurs:

aspirin, average, business, camera, chocolate, conference, corporal, desperate,

different, every, general, family, favourite, federal, history, interest, literally,
memory, mineral, miserable, opera, probably, separate, several, library, vegetable

Wednesday and laboratory also have disappearing syllables, but do not follow
quite the same rule as the words above. In Brtish English they are pronounced by
most speakers as 'Wens-day' and 'la-bor-a-tri'.

Shifting stress
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For each set of sentences, in the first use the word is a noun (it refers to a thing), in
the second it is a verb (it describes an action). The stress is on the first syllable for
nouns (Oo) and the second syllable for verbs (oO).

For example: 

I asked for a refund. refund (noun) Oo -> REfund

Will you refund my money, please? refund (verb) oO -> reFUND

These are examples of a group of 2-syllable nouns and verbs which have the same
written form, but are pronounced differently. 

(Don't worry if you are unfamiliar with grammar terms such a verb and noun. We
will look at these in Unit 4.) 

Unfortunately, this rule (like many rules in English) is not always true!

e.g. I enjoy foreign travel.                  travel (noun) Oo -> TRAvel

We often travel abroad.                     travel (verb) Oo -> TRAvel

The verb-noun pairs with shifting stress (eg, refund, export, insult) have a Latinate
prefix – that is, a short syllable that you see at the start of many words, but which
cannot be a word on its own: in the previous examples we have

re- (refund)

ex- (export) 

in- (insult)

But as this rule is not always true, students simply have to learn which words it
applies to!

If you want to do some Further Reading on Latinate prefixes, read this article. 

Word families

Photography

Photographer

Photographic 

Photograph

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A group of words which are all clearly related to each other is called a word
family. All the words in the family have the same basic meaning and the same core
form. 

This core form is called a base word. 

Sometimes the position of the stress changes in different words within the same
family:

person Oo

personal Ooo

personality ooOoo

personalisation ooooOo. 

Aspects of pronunciation - Sentence stress and rhythm

We have looked at word stress, but we also need to consider sentence stress.

In a sentence, certain words will be stressed while others will be unstressed. This is
what gives spoken English its rhythm, or beat. 

Usually 'content' words – verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs – carry stress, while
'structure' words – e.g., he, the, is, of – don’t. 

Content words are the important words in a sentence because they carry the
meaning of the sentence; if they are taken away, you won’t understand the
sentence. Grammatical words make a sentence grammatically correct but are not
essential; they can be taken away and you would still understand the sentence. 

This is how stress can help you understand spoken English.

How do we know where the stress is in a sentence?

Consider the following sentence (which is more like a telegram than a sentence):

  This – house – Jack – built.

Even though the grammatical words have been removed, you can still understand
the sentence. 

When we add the grammatical words in, the sentence becomes:

  This is the house that Jack built. 

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This sentence is now grammatically correct and the four content words are
stressed. While the grammatical words were necessary for the grammar of the
sentence, they were unnecessary for the meaning of the sentence. 

Consider again the sentence:

  This is the house that Jack built.

We have noted that the stressed words are: 

  This is the house that Jack built. 

In other words, the stress falls on the 1st, 4th, 6th and 7th syllable. This means that
there are two syllables between this and house, one between house and Jack and
none between Jack and built. 

However, the timing between the stressed syllables is the same. 

This is because English is a stress-timed language, with equal time between

stressed words. In order to do this, we usually need to shorten the length of some
words in order to maintain the rhythm of the sentence. 

Shifting stress

NOTE:

Sometimes we want to emphasize a specific word in a sentence. This will change

the natural stress of the sentence and can change the meaning of the sentence.

Consider the following sentences and notice how the stress changes the meaning of
the sentence: 

I want the chocolate cake.        He doesn’t want the cake but I do.

I want the chocolate cake.        I really want the chocolate cake.

I want the chocolate cake.        I don’t want the cheesecake, I want the chocolate
cake.

I want the chocolate cake.        I don’t want the chocolate biscuit, I want the
chocolate cake.

Why should we teach rhythm?

Having an understanding of rhythm will help learners in terms of both speaking

and listening:

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  Using the correct rhythm when speaking will help your learners sound more
fluent and natural in English. 
 Familiarising students with the rhythms of English will improve their
listening skills.

When teaching rhythm:

1. Teach recognition before production.

2. Integrate rhythm into the teaching of grammar and vocabulary.
3. Use authentic listening texts.
4. Use dictogloss* and other dictation activities in your lessons. 
5. Use poems, songs and jazz chants in the classroom.

Aspects of pronunciation - Intonation

While sentence stress is the rhythm of English, intonation is the melody. Intonation
is how we say things rather than what we say. It helps us understand the emotions
behind sentences. 

Intonation usually follows these patterns:

Wh- questions: falling intonation

Yes/No questions: rising intonation

Statements: falling intonation

Why teach intonation?

Incorrect intonation when speaking can lead to misunderstandings. Speakers can

sound bored or impolite, which could cause listeners to take offence. This is why
it’s important for learners to become aware of intonation patterns in English.

Advice on teaching intonation:

Learners can be made aware of the different rules of intonation, but there are
activities that can be done in the classroom to help learners practise intonation in
their production:

1. Include intonation in speaking activities

2. Provide real contexts for intonation practice

3. Provide accurate models of intonation

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Aspects of pronunciation - Assimilation

Read the following words aloud:

his
son
ten
bucks

Now read the following sentence aloud.

His son gave me ten bucks. 

What do you notice about the difference between the way you say the words
individually, and when you say them as part of a whole sentence?

Try this a few times and think about it carefully before moving on to the next
slide. 

Assimilation

You should have noticed that some of the sounds in the words change when they
are in a sentence. 

   His son > hison. 

   Ten bucks > tembucks. 

This is known as assimilation – the process by which one sound becomes more like
the preceding or following sound. 

This can occur within a word or between a word and occurs in fluent speech. 

To be more precise, sounds can assimilate to a following sound but they may also
assimilate to a preceding one. 

Let’s look at a few more examples:

In the phrase good girl, the /d/ sound changes to more of a /g/ sound in connected
speech, becoming more like googirl. Here, the /d/ sound of good changes because
of the following /g/ of girl. 

In the phrase did you, the y sound in you is changed by the preceding /d/ sound of
did, making it more of a j – di-jou. 

Assimilation activity feedback

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Heres our answers.

I ate a ham samwich. (/nd/ changes to /m/)

Please can you pass the wipe pepper. (/t/ changes to /p/)

That’s a hopotato! (/t/ changes to /p/)

Every time I see him he says "Goomorning!". (/d/ is elided)

Wait! I know a shorcut. (/t/ is elided)

A note on the glottal stop

In the previous activity, there are two examples when the ‘t’ is 'dropped.' This is
elision which is similar to assimilation.

Sometimes when 't' sounds are dropped they are replaced by a kind of gap, known
as a glottal stop.

This is a common feature in most English accents. There is some snobbery about it
as it was historically seen as an indicator of lower social class. 

However, it is becoming more and more common in accents from all classes of
society.

Further Reading: For more information on glottal stops, read this explanation. 

To read more about the snobbery regarding this practice, read the article Why have
we got it in for the glottal stop? 

The spelling does not help learners decide how the words should be pronounced.