Antonín Zita is an assistant professor at the Language Centre, Masaryk University. He focuses on teaching academic writing and helps students write in a clear and coherent style. In addition, several of his courses provide students with the scaffolding to help them write their bachelor’s and master’s theses in English. Email: antonin.zita@mail.muni.cz

Introduction

While the pronunciation of individual words can be somewhat straightforward to practice, using word and sentence stress properly is challenging. In some cultures, the practice of word and sentence stress is limited in both primary and secondary education. As a result, identifying a user of English as not being a native speaker is usually fairly easy, as they generally struggle when it comes to conforming with the rules for word and especially sentence stress in their speech.

Naturally, incorporating the speech patterns of one’s primary language into their secondary language is a common and even expected phenomenon. Still, it is important to explain to learners of English that stress is an invaluable speech tool in English and that correct use of word and sentence stress greatly improves one’s communication skills. In other words, the point of this activity is to introduce learners of English to the basic concepts of word and sentence stress and make them think about the flow and rhythm of their spoken English.

The activities included below can be accommodated for individual work as well as group work. However, it is important for students to practice speaking aloud, so plan accordingly.

 

Stress

Every word in English which has two or more syllables has a defined stress pattern, which can be easily looked up in a dictionary. However, in spoken English stress also communicates the important information in a sentence, as we tend to stress words which are important so that they stand out from the rest of the speech.

In other words, word and sentence stress, i.e. the contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables and words, are the factors which make English sound, well, English.

 

Word stress

While there are several levels of word stress, for beginners it is most important to know that there exists a syllable stress in words and that it can be checked in a dictionary. This contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables, with the stressed syllables being more prominent (generally longer and louder) than unstressed syllables, is typically presented visually, e.g.:

sen tence                     be gin ner       di vide

Some words also have a secondary stress, which can also be found in a dictionary. Secondary stress is common in words of five and more syllables, e.g.:

com mu ni ca tion

 

Activity 1

Have students come up with words that they struggle to pronounce. Have them look these words up in a dictionary (for example, Macmillan Dictionary or Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries), check the pronunciation of these words, and then practice saying them aloud (you can also double-check the pronunciation by playing the pronunciation audio if available in the given dictionary). If your students cannot think of anything at the moment, try the words below:

nevertheless, conference, disinformation, thoroughly, interactive, instructions,

engineering, development, application, particularly.

 

Activity 2

While speaking, we often wish to emphasize a certain piece of information. This is where key word stress comes into play. Look at the following sentence:

I like your car.

Practice saying it in four different ways:

1. General observation
2. I like your car, but not someone else’s
3. You truly do like the car
4. You like the car, but someone else does not like it

 

Key:

I like your car. (emphasizing the important key word)

I like your car. (I like your car, but not someone else’s)

I like your car. (You truly do like the car)

I like your car. (You like the car, but someone else may not like it)

 

Sentence stress and speech chunks

In English, we tend to stress content words (nouns, adjectives, main verbs, and adverbs) while we shorten grammatical words (auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, and prepositions). For example, in the sentence “I jumped on the sidewalk” the underlined words are content words and thus the words we will emphasize more in speech. That being said, sometimes a grammar word can be stressed as a key word (e.g., “I met Bill Gates yesterday. The Bill Gates!”).

In addition, we separate sentences into speech chunks, which is a word or group of words (or even a sentence) which makes sense to be spoken together. To separate a speech chunk from another one, we use pauses, slowing down, or increasing the stress on the last key word of the chunk. For example, common meeting phrase “Hi. My name is XYZ. It’s nice to meet you” would be separated into the following chunks: “Hi. My name is / XYZ. It’s nice / to meet you” (“/” indicate a pause).

If one does not use speech chunks or uses them incorrectly, the resulting speech may be too difficult for listeners to follow. Consider the above example but with improper speech chunks: “Hi. My name / is / XYZ. It’s / nice to / meet / you.” 

 

Activity 3

Listen to the audio and mark key words by highlighting them and pauses by using slashes (“/”). For longer pauses, use a double slash (“//”).

Note on Activity 3:
The advantage of this activity is that it is fairly universal and can be used for any spoken text with a transcript. In other words, adapt the activity according to the level of the ESL learners and the kind of English lesson you teach (i.e., general English, English for specific purposes, etc.). When first practicing sentence stress and speech chunks in class, it is recommended to use an excerpt from something that the students are familiar with on a cultural or societal level. This way they can focus more on how English sounds rather than on the content of the excerpt. If necessary, have students skim the transcript before playing the recording. Despite the controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling, I have opted for Harry Potter as most students are familiar with the books or the film adaptations and therefore have little difficulty focusing on how English sounds.

Finally, sometimes students misidentify a stressed key word as a pause and vice versa. This is, in my opinion, fairly unimportant at this stage; what matters more is students identifying that something is different at the specific place in the speech and that it makes sense to slow down and use emphasis at that point in the speech.

 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling. Narrated by Stephen Fry. Chapter 1 – The Boy Who Lived  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ayp-S1Dg3c ) Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you would expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense. Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blond and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere. The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn’t think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley’s sister, but they hadn’t met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn’t have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.

 

Key:

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, / of number four, / Privet Drive, / were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, / thank you very much. // They were the last people you would expect to be involved in anything / strange / or mysterious, / because they just didn’t hold / with such nonsense. //

Mr. Dursley / was the director of a firm called / Grunnings, / which made drills. // He was a big, / beefy man / with hardly any neck, / although he did have a very large / moustache. // Mrs. Dursley / was thin and blond / and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, / which came in very useful / as she spent so much of her time / craning over garden fences, / spying on the neighbours. // The Dursleys / had a small son / called Dudley / and in their opinion / there was no finer boy anywhere. //

The Dursleys / had everything they wanted, / but they also / had a secret, / and their greatest fear / was that somebody / would discover it. // They didn’t think they could bear it / if anyone found out / about / the Potters. // Mrs. Potter / was Mrs. Dursley’s sister, / but they hadn’t met for several years; / in fact, / Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn’t have a sister, / because her sister / and her good-for-nothing husband / were as unDursleyish / as it was possible to be. /

Activity 4

Now that students know what word and sentence stress is and they understand the rules of speech chunks, they can practice on their own. How? For example, a number of podcasts offer transcripts of speech, as do TED talks and many news articles by NPR. Show your students some additional resources and encourage them to practice at home. They should also try to read the transcript on their own once they have highlighted the word and sentence stress. Finally, remember that you can also use any listening exercise with a transcript for further practice of word and sentence stress—once the class is done with listening for content, show the transcript to the students and play the recording one more time!

 

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