Week 5 Oral – Pronunciation & Fluency - 1
Week 5 Oral – Pronunciation & Fluency
What I Need To Know From This Lesson
 How to use stress to change meaning
 How to use tone and pace in speeches
 How to model a speech on the example of professional speakers
Teaching Notes
1. Review what the students learned in the last oral lesson: using conditions,
using dependent clauses and in particular constructing speeches. Refer to
their Exit Tickets.
2. Review what they need to know from this lesson.
3. Copy page 2 and pages 3 and 4 back-to-back for each student.
4. Make a few copies on coloured paper of page 5 for the answers.
5. No notes for this unit in the Student Booklet.
6. End with Exit Ticket.
Week 5 Oral – Pronunciation & Fluency - 2
In Week One we practised reading with correct pronunciation and fluency.
Now we need to apply those techniques to our speech.
Stressed Words
1. In spoken English, content words are stressed. These are usually
nouns, principal verbs, adjectives and adverbs. For example:
i.
I study Astronomy. (noun)
ii.
I finished the course. (verb)
iii.
Open the red one! (adjective)
iv.
Turn the gas off immediately! (adverb)
2. Other words (pronouns, articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions,
conjunctions) are glided over. They are not stressed.
3. An important skill in reading and speaking is to focus on the stressed
words.
Exercise One – Variable Stress
Practise reading the following sentences, putting the stress on the bold words.
Note how the meaning changes with the different pronunciation.
1. Put the chemical on the dark blue table.
2. Put the chemical on the dark blue table.
3. Put the chemical on the dark blue table.
4. Put the chemical on the dark blue table.
5. Put the chemical on the dark blue table.
6. Put the chemical on the dark blue table.
Exercise Two – More Variable Stress
Highlight the word so that the following meaning is clear.
1. Everyone else has one but I don’t: I’d like a steak, please.
2. No, I don’t want chicken: I’d like a steak, please.
3. It’s what I really want: I’d like a steak, please.
4. I’m sick of waiting but I really will be polite: I’d like a steak, please.
5. We are pleased because we have more lessons. The extra Science lessons
are useful.
6. It’s not the practical sessions that are useful. The extra Science lessons
are useful.
7. No, they are not a waste of time. The extra Science lessons are useful.
8. Which ones do you think are good? The extra Science lessons are useful.
9. You think the opposite. The extra Science lessons are useful?
Week 5 Oral – Pronunciation & Fluency - 3
Exercise Three – Barak Obama’s Election Night Victory Speech.
2.40 - 04.17 (1 min 37 sec)
Thank you so much.
Tonight, more than two hundred years after a former colony won the right to
determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward.
It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed
the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has
lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope,
the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are
an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one
people.
Tonight in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our
road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves
up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the
United States of America, the best is yet to come.
1. Time yourself reading the passage aloud. The time was: ……………….
2. This passage has 153 words.
3. Listen to the excerpt from President Barak Obama’s election speech in
November 2012. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk17f6_4iW8)
What was the difference in time between your reading and the original
speaker? ……………….
4. Memorise the speech.
5. Practise saying it in exactly the way the original speaker said it. When
you have it perfect, say the speech to me.
Week 5 Oral – Pronunciation & Fluency - 4
Exercise Four – Neil Gaiman’s Graduation Speech
3.39 - 4.39 (1 minute exactly)
Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be,
which was an author, primarily of fiction, making good books, making good
comics, making good drama and supporting myself through my words.
Imagining that was a mountain, a distant mountain, my goal, and I knew that
as long as I kept walking towards the mountain, I’d be all right, and when I
was truly not sure what to do, I could stop and think about whether it was
taking me towards or away from the mountain.
I said no to editorial jobs on magazines, proper jobs that would have paid
proper money because I knew that, attractive though they were, for me they
would have been walking away from the mountain, and if those job offers had
come earlier, I might have taken them, because they still would have been
closer to the mountain than I was at that time.
1. Time yourself reading the passage aloud. The time was: ……………….
2. Listen to the excerpt from Neil Gaiman’s university commencement
speech in May 2012. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAb-NYkseI) What
was the difference in time between your reading and the original
speaker? ……………….
3. This passage has 153 words. The Barak Obama extract has 153 words.
Suggest reasons why it took Obama 97 seconds to say 153 words and yet
it took Neil Gaiman 60 seconds to say 153 words.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
4. Memorise the speech.
5. Practise saying it in exactly the way the original speaker said it. When
you have it perfect, say the speech to me.
6. Write a speech on the topic of Science in the Modern World. Your
speech should be about 153 words. Read the speech to the class, copying
the style either of Barak Obama or Neil Gaiman.
Week 5 Oral – Pronunciation & Fluency - 5
Exercise Two – More Variable Stress - Answers
1. I’d like a steak, please.
2. I’d like a steak, please.
3. I’d like a steak, please.
4. I’d like a steak, please.
5. The extra Science lessons are useful.
6. The extra Science lessons are useful.
7. The extra Science lessons are useful.
8. The extra Science lessons are useful.
9. The extra Science lessons are useful? (change of tone.)