Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 1
Week 8 – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation
1. I usually understand stress patterns and intonation.
2. I understand speech at normal speed.
Intonation and Stress - Key to
Understanding and Being Understood
By Kenneth Beare, About.com Guide
Correct intonation and stress are the key to speaking English fluently with good
pronunciation. Intonation and stress refers to the music of the English
language. Words that are stressed are key to understanding and using the
correct intonation brings out the meaning. Students should move on to
intonation and stress exercises such as sentence markup. The following
exercise can be used by students and teachers to further help with
pronunciation by focusing on the stressing content words rather than function
words in the exercise below.
Intonation and Stress - Exercise Introduction
Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.
The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.
Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence
aloud.
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the
evening.
Time required? Probably about 5 seconds.
Wait a minute the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!
The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the
evening.
You are only partially right!
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 2
This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use
English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other
languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in
English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken
(some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each
syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own
length).
Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or
swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has
equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends
more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less
important, words.
Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can". When we use the positive
form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.
They can come on Friday. (stressed words underlined)
On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the
fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't".
They can't come on Friday.
As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on
Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't"
and the verb "come" are stressed.
So, what does this mean for my speaking skills?
Well, first of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and
which we do not stress. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT
WORDS such as
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Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
(most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct
Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
Adverbs e.g. often, carefully
Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 3
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Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite
Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
Pronouns e.g. they, she, us
Let's return to the beginning example to demonstrate how this affects speech.
The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. (14 syllables)
He can come on Sunday s as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.
(22 syllables)
Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the
sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressed words in
each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn't worry about
pronouncing every word clearly to be understood (we native speakers certainly don't).
You should however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.
Now, do some listening comprehension or go speak to your native English speaking
friends and listen to how we concentrate on the stressed words rather than giving
importance to each syllable. You will soon find that you can understand and
communicate more because you begin to listen for (and use in speaking) stressed words.
All those words that you thought you didn't understand are really not crucial for
understanding the sense or making yourself understood. Stressed words are the key
to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English.
"sound scripting" exercises which help learners become more expressive by taking sentence
intonation skills to the next level. These examples uses a method of bolding key content
words and CAPITALIZING the most important words chosen for the best emotional impact.
This starts off with a simple sentence paragraph that an intermediate student might use to
practice and ends with a more advanced selection that is typical of a presentation. Click on
the example link at the end of each, then click back on your browser to return to this page.
Paragraph to be Read
Our school is the best in town. The teachers are friendly, and very knowledgeable about
English. I've studied at the school for two years and my English is becoming very good. I
hope you will visit our school and try an English class. Maybe we can become friends, too!
Paragraph with Sound Scripting Markup
Our school is the BEST in town. The teachers are friendly, and VERY
KNOWLEDGEABLE about English. I've studied at the school for two years and my
English is becoming VERY GOOD. I hope you will visit our school and try an English
class. MAYBE we can become FRIENDS! - Listen to Example
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 4
Paragraph to be Read
In this day and age, facts, statistics and other numbers are used to prove everything.
Intuition, gut feelings and personal preferences are all out the door. Of course, there are
some who are trying to battle this trend. Recently, Malcolm Gladwell wrote Blink, a bestseller which explores the usefulness of making split-second decisions based on intuition
rather than careful consideration of all the facts and figures.
In this book, Gladwell argues that initial impressions - or gut-feelings - are quite rational.
However, that this "split-second" thinking process moves faster than what we usually
associate with thinking. If you are one of these people - and there are many of us - Blink
provides "proof" that you're actually quite a rational human being.
Paragraph with Sound Scripting Markup
In this day and age, facts, statistics and other numbers are used to prove EVERYTHING.
Intuition, gut feelings and personal preferences are all OUT THE DOOR. Of course,
there ARE some who are trying to battle this trend. Recently, Malcolm Gladwell wrote
BLINK, a best-seller which explores the USEFULNESS of making SPLIT-SECOND
DECISIONS based on INTUITION rather than careful consideration of all the facts and
figures.
In his book, Gladwell argues that INITIAL IMPRESSIONS - or GUT-FEELINGS - are
quite rational. However, that this "split-second" thinking process moves FASTER than
what we usually associate with thinking. If YOU are one of these people - and there are
MANY of us - Blink provides "PROOF" that you're actually quite a RATIONAL HUMAN
BEING. - Listen to Example
Pronunciation - Practicing Stress and
Intonation
I am often surprised at how focusing on the "stress - timed" quality of English helps students
improve their pronunciation skills. Students often focus on pronouncing each word correctly
and therefore tend to pronounce in an unnatural manner. By focusing on the stress - timed
factor in English - the fact that only principle words such as proper nouns, principle verbs,
adjectives and adverbs receive the "stress" - students soon begin sounding much more
"authentic" as the cadence of the language begins to ring true. The following lesson focuses
on raising awareness of this issue and includes practice exercises.
Aim: Improving pronunciation by focusing on the stress - time nature of spoken English
Activities: Awareness raising followed by practical application exercises including: function
or content word recognition exercise, sentence stress analysis for spoken practice
Level: Intermediate to upper intermediate depending on student needs and awareness recommended for upper level students who have a high level of understanding but are having
problems with fluency in communication caused by pronunciation problems.
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 5
Outline:
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Begin awareness raising activities by reading an example sentence aloud to the
students (for example: The boys didn't have time to finish their homework before the
lesson began). Read the sentence the first time pronouncing each word carefully.
Read the sentence a second time in natural speech.
Ask students which reading seemed more natural and why it seemed more natural.
Using the ideas students come up with, explain the idea of English being a "stress timed" language. If the students speak a syllabic language (such as Italian or
Spanish), point out the difference between their own native language and English
(theirs being syllabic, English stress - timed). Just this awareness raising can make a
dramatic difference in such students abilities.
Talk about the differences between stressed words and non-stressed words (i.e.
principle verbs are stressed, auxiliary verbs are not).
Write the following two sentences on the board:
o The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.
o He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in
the evening.
Underline the stressed words in both sentences. Ask students to try reading aloud.
Point out how each sentence seems to be approximately the same length in "stress time".
Help students improve their recognition of content words with the function or content
word recognition exercise. Students must decide if words are function or content
words.
Ask students to look through the example sentences and underline the words that
should be stressed in the worksheet.
Circulate about the room asking students to read the sentences aloud once they have
decided which words should receive stresses.
Review activity as a class - ask students to first read any given sentence with each
word pronounced followed by the "stress - timed" version. Expect a surprise at the
quick improvement students make in pronunciation (I am every time I do this
exercise)!!
Pronunciation Help - Sentence Stress
Take a look at the following list of stressed and non-stressed word types.
Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as




Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
(most) principle verbs e.g. visit, construct
Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
Adverbs e.g. often, carefully
Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as


Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 6
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Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite
Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
Pronouns e.g. they, she, us
Content or Function?
Write down 'C' for content and 'F' for function. When you have finished click on the
arrow to see if you have answered correctly.
Example: magazine (C) as (F) many (F)
went
with
just
quickly
the
hard
next to
CD ROM
open
had
for
information
in order to
difficult
much
exacting
in front of
Jack
he
however
Identification and Practice
Mark the stressed words in the following sentences. After you have found the stressed
words, practice reading the sentences aloud.
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John is coming over tonight. We are going to work on our homework together.
Ecstasy is an extremely dangerous drug.
We should have visited some more castles while we were traveling through the back
roads of France.
Jack bought a new car last Friday.
They are looking forward to your visiting them next January.
Exciting discoveries lie in Tom's future.
Would you like to come over and play a game of chess?
They have been having to work hard these last few months on their challenging
experiment.
Shakespeare wrote passionate, moving poetry.
As you might have expected, he has just thought of a new approach to the problem.
Worksheet Printing Page
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 7
Pronunciation Help - Sentence Stress
Take a look at the following list of stressed and non-stressed word types.
Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as




Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
(most) principle verbs e.g. visit, construct
Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
Adverbs e.g. often, carefully
Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as





Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite
Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
Pronouns e.g. they, she, us
Content or Function?
Write down 'C' for content and 'F' for function. When you have finished click on the
arrow to see if you have answered correctly.
Example: magazine (C) as (F) many (F)
went
with
just
quickly
the
hard
next to
CD ROM
open
had
for
information
in order to
difficult
much
exacting
in front of
Jack
he
however
Identification and Practice
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 8
Mark the stressed words in the following sentences. After you have found the stressed
words, practice reading the sentences aloud.










John is coming over tonight. We are going to work on our homework together.
Ecstasy is an extremely dangerous drug.
We should have visited some more castles while we were traveling through the back
roads of France.
Jack bought a new car last Friday.
They are looking forward to your visiting them next January.
Exciting discoveries lie in Tom's future.
Would you like to come over and play a game of chess?
They have been having to work hard these last few months on their challenging
experiment.
Shakespeare wrote passionate, moving poetry.
As you might have expected, he has just thought of a new approach to the problem.
stress
By Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide
In these three pairs of words, the noun has the stress on the first syllable and the verb has the
stress on the second syllable.
Definition:
In phonetics, the degree of emphasis given a sound or syllable in speech.
One of the main functions of stress is to provide a way of distinguishing degrees of emphasis
or contrast in sentences or lines of verse.
See also:
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Accent
Connected Speech
Emphasis
Intonation
Intonation Phrase (IP)
Pause
Pronunciation
Prosody
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 9
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Rhythm
Etymology:
From the Latin, "draw tight"
Examples and Observations:
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"[O]ne of the functions of phonetic stress is to make words understandable. This kind of
stress, known as word-level stress, is actually part of a word's pronunciation. It may also
serve to differentiate words that are similar. For example, We're going to record a record,
the two similar words are stressed differently so that the first record is stressed on the
second syllable (vowel reduction in the first syllable also assists in helping us to assign stress
to the second syllable), whereas the second record is stressed on the first syllable (with
vowel reduction in the second syllable). All words of more than one syllable have a
prominent or stressed syllable. If we pronounce a word with appropriate stress, people will
understand us; if we use the wrong stress placement, we run the risk of being
misunderstood.
"Phrase or sentence stress is tied to meaning, and this is the second function of stress. As we
focus a camera on some item of interest, phonetic stress helps us focus our listener's
attention on what is most important in our message."
(Harold T. Edwards, Applied Phonetics: The Sounds of American English, 3rd ed. Thomson,
2003)
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"Stresses tend to recur at regular intervals. But the sound pattern of English does not make
it an overriding necessity to adjust the lengths of syllables so as to enforce complete
regularity. The interval between stresses is affected by the number of syllables within the
stress group, by the number and type of vowels and consonants within each syllable, and by
other factors such as the variations in emphasis that are given to each word."
(Peter Ladefoged and Keith Johnson, A Course in Phonetics, 6th ed. Wadsworth, 2011)
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Stress With Content Words and Function Words
"[T]he words most likely to receive sentence stress are those termed content words (also
called 'lexical words'), namely nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs. These are the
words that normally carry a high information load. We can contrast these with function
words (also called 'grammar words' or 'form words'), namely determiners (e.g. the, a),
conjunctions (e.g. and, but), pronouns (e.g. she, them), prepositions (e.g. at, from), auxiliary
verbs (e.g. do, be, can). Function words carry relatively little information; their role is holding
the sentence together. . . . Unlike content words, function words for the most part carry
little or no stress. Only two types of function words are regularly stressed: the
demonstratives (e.g. this, that, those) and wh- interrogatives (e.g. where, who, which, how).
Note, however, that when wh- words and that are used as relatives they are unstressed, e.g.
the girl who lent me the yellow hat that I wore to your wedding."
(Beverley Collins and Inger M. Mees, Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A Resource Book for
Students. Routledge, 2003)
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 10
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Lexical Diffusion
"Some linguistic change first manifests itself in a few words and then gradually spreads
through the vocabulary of the language. This type of change is called lexical diffusion. A wellattested example in English involves an ongoing change in the stress pattern of words such
as convert, which can be used as either a noun or a verb. Although the stress originally fell
on the second syllable regardless of lexical category, in the latter half of the sixteenth
century three such words, rebel, outlaw, and record, came to be pronounced with the stress
on the first syllable when used as nouns. . . .
"This change has still not diffused through the entire vocabulary of English. There are about
a thousand nouns of the relevant sort that still place the stress on the second syllable (e.g.,
report, mistake, and support)."
(William O'Grady et al., Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction, 4th ed. Bedford/St.
Martin's, 2001)
The Music of English
English is a very rhythmic language because only certain, important words are accented. For
this reason, you should practice using your ear as much as possible.
Naturally Spoken English
Speak through the following sentences trying to carefully pronounce EVERY word.
Notice how unnatural this sounds. Next, focus on speaking the sentences stressing only
content words. Tape yourself doing this and you will be surprised at how quickly your
pronunciation improves!
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By the time he receives this letter, I will have caught the train to Paris.
Following closely behind the herd was a group of filthy, disgusting vultures.
I'll make sure to give him a ring the next time I'm in town.
Not only are the exams required, but they are also absolutely imperative for your
further education.
Hey, have you seen the new film with Bruce Willis? You know, the one where he's
supposed to be a sensitive doctor.
Worksheet Printing Page
The Music of English
English is a very rhythmic language because only certain, important words are accented. For
this reason, you should practice using your ear as much as possible.
Naturally Spoken English
Speak through the following sentences trying to carefully pronounce EVERY word.
Notice how unnatural this sounds. Next, focus on speaking the sentences stressing only
content words. Tape yourself doing this and you will be surprised at how quickly your
pronunciation improves!


By the time he receives this letter, I will have caught the train to Paris.
Following closely behind the herd was a group of filthy, disgusting vultures.
Week 8 Oral – Rhythm, Stress, Intonation - 11
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
I'll make sure to give him a ring the next time I'm in town.
Not only are the exams required, but they are also absolutely imperative for your
further education.
Hey, have you seen the new film with Bruce Willis? You know, the one where he's
supposed to be a sensitive doctor.