stress rhythm intonation libre

8/12/2019 Stress Rhythm Intonation Libre

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Stress, Rhythm and Intonation Thor May 2001-2011

2. The experience of immigrants:

E%ery year tens of thousands of immigrants !ome to ma)e ne' li%es in

Australia and 9anada and Ameri!a. Some )no' no English, $ut many ha%e

studied English in their home !ountries.

ften they go into a sho& or fa!tory and use the English 'ords they learned in

some !lass. ery often, no$ody !an understand them, or sometimes no$ody

'ants to understand them. 3:7

3ell, if some$ody s&ea)s English 'ords 'ith "5orean musi!# +for e;am&le in

Australia, many &eo&le 'ill not understand them. I usually understand $e!ause

I am an English tea!her, $ut the lady in the sho&, or the fa!tory manager

might not understand. This is %ery u&setting for e%eryone, and !auses a lot of

unha&&iness. *or e;am&le, sometimes immigrants !ant get


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&hrases and senten!es 'ith une=ual timing.

*or e;am&le, ta)e this =uestion>

What / are / you / go/ing / to / do 1-1-1-1-1-1-1@e=ual sylla$les, more li)e 9hinese

3hen Im s&ea)ing English to friends, this is 'hat I say>

wodya gunna DO2-2-B

The sylla$le times I gi%e here are not e;a!t. They are


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&. 'ractice at home:

ere is a 'ay that you !an &ra!ti!e the musi! of English $y yourself.

a Ste& 1> Ma)e a ? minute ta&e re!ording of an English s&ea)er 'hose %oi!e

you li)e. Ma)e sure that the s&ee!h is !lear. *irst, study the ta&e the old

fashioned 'ay for meaning et!. 3hen you )no' it 'ell, you !an go to the ne;t

ste&.

$ Ste& 2> Ea!h day for se%eral 'ee)s, ta)e ten minutes to "sha#o( talk# the

ta&e re!ording. "Shado' tal)ing# means you try to s&ea) at the same time as

the %oi!e on the ta&e. This is hard, $ut do your $est to )ee& together 'ith the

re!orded %oi!e as !losely as you !an. e!ome hy&notiedC *orget your o'n

$odyC E the other s&ea)erC 'hen the s&ea)ers %oi!e goes u&, your %oi!e goes

u&F 'hen the %oi!e goes do'n, your %oi!e goes do'nF 'hen it goes fast, you

go fastF 'hen it $e!omes loud, you $e!ome loud G and so on. :ou are

learning the musi!, not the meanings.

! o' it 'or)s> 3hen you shado' tal) e%ery day, as in $, you are $e!omingli)e an a!torC :ou are also tea!hing your mus!les and your mind to follo' the

ne' &atterns automati!ally. In fast s&ee!h, your mouth and throat mus!les

ha%e to ma)e u& to 100 different mo%ements &er se!ondC This is


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Part B Some Notes for Teachers

In H? years of tea!hing English as a Se!ond (anguage I ha%e found that stress,

rhythm and intonation ha%e almost ne%er $een taught in any !ons!ious or

systemati! 'ay to the students 'ho !ome into my !lasses. Im afraid this is a

se%ere !riti!ism of tea!her ignoran!e. 6o single fa!tor is more im&ortant to

$eing understood and so!ially a!!e&ted than ha%ing !ontrol of "the musi! of a

language#.

In general, only !ertain )inds of students $enefit from $eing told A8T a

language in any a$stra!t 'ay +e.g. !om grammar rules et!, es&e!ially

sin!e fe' tea!hers ha%e an insightful )no'ledge of linguisti!s themsel%es.

o'e%er I ha%e found that almost all students 'el!ome a sim&lified

e;&lanation of STRESS TIMI6 in English, as o&&osed to more mar)ed

S:((A(E TIMI6 in languages li)e 9hinese, 5orean and *ren!h. They are also

intrigued to $e gi%en at least some fre=uent and !ontrolled &ra!ti!e in s&ea)ing

fast and rhythmi!ally, as nati%e s&ea)ers do, as against the stilted monotonesty&i!al in !lassrooms e%ery'here.

Teacher Attitu#es

Perha&s true to the "!lassroom tal)# en%ironments they ha%e !reated, I ha%e

found that many nati%e English s&ea)ing tea!hers themsel%es +let alone nati%e

s&ea)ers of another language 'ho ha&&en to tea!h English are e;tremelyresistant to tea!hing natural s&ee!h rhythms.

After some years of tea!hing in non-nati%e English s&ea)ing en%ironments,

some de%elo& a slo', !lassroom $a$y-tal) e%en out of the !lassroom, so that

their daily s&ee!h rhythms, although !lear, no longer refle!t the norm of their

home !ountry s&ee!h !ommunities. ther nati%e s&ea)ers, es&e!ially those

doing a little "English tea!hing# to &ay $a!)&a!)ing e;&enses, may ga$$le on


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it#. e ready to &ara&hrase.

Rea#ing Alou#

Reading is a large to&i! 'hi!h I 'ill not deal 'ith in de&th here. o'e%er, the

s&e!ial s)ill of reading aloud needs a note in any dis!ussion of !lassroom oral

language. Students should ne%er $e &ermitted to read aloud 'hile loo)ing at a

&age. 6or should tea!hersC. That is almost guaranteed to lo!) anyone into a

'ord-&lus-'ord monotone. The tri!) is to loo) do'n, remem$er a fe' 'ords,

loo) u&, and TE6 s&ea)F +this also ha&&ens to $e an effe!ti%e method of

memoriing material. The $est 'ay to en!ourage s)illed reading aloud is to

ha%e students reading dialogues in &airs, and re=uiring them to (5 AT their

&artner 'hile s&ea)ing.

Resources

Almost any tea!hing material !an $e ada&ted to learning su&ra-segmental

&honology +K the fan!y name for stress, intonation and rhythm. ne of the

fe' really useful $oo)s I ha%e found 'hi!h is &ur&ose-$uilt for tea!hing

students +and tea!hersC this stuff is 3. Stannard-Allan, "(i%ing English

S&ee!h#, &u$lished (ongman 1L?BF IS6 0 ?2 ?2HN1 H G yes 1L?B. They did

s&ea) English in 1L?B, and the $oo) 'ent through many im&ressions. It is

una%aila$le no' unless you are lu!)y enough to &i!) u& a se!ond hand !o&y

some'here. *or that reason, I !o&ied a fe' useful &ages for my graduate

TES( &rogramin 200B at usan, South 5orea. :ou !an see those &ages at

this lin)'hi!h also has a des!ri&tion of su&ra-segmental &honology I &ro%ided

for those students. The same TES( &rogram site has some other lin)s to

studies on intonation'hi!h I ha%e also in!luded here.
http://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/index.htmhttp://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/index.htmhttp://www.thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/intonation/intonation1.htmhttp://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/extraresources.htmhttp://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/extraresources.htmhttp://www.thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/intonation/intonation1.htmhttp://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/extraresources.htmhttp://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/extraresources.htmhttp://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/index.htmhttp://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/index.htm


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)ibliograph for Pronunciation, Intonation & Prosody

note: these references are only current up to about 2004. A search of the Internet will

obviously find you many more!

http://www.thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/intonation/intonation.htm on this site : adiscussion of suprase"mental phonolo"y# plus some scans from $. %tannardAllen&s excellent 'out of print( boo)# *ivin" +n"lish %peech.

http://members.o,email.com.au/-cdu"/lan"ua"e/ori"inal/homepa"e/index.htmlmimic &he *an"ua"e Index& a pa"e of lin)s to material by hristopher1u"dale# with especially interestin" material on mimic)in"# or shadow tal)in".

http://www.dest."ov.au/ty/litnet/docs/teachin"pronunciation.pdf Australian"overnment schools pro3ect and handboo) on teachin" +n"lish pronunciation to*2 learners.

ranscribin" intonation some examples and lin)s

A "ood biblio"raphy of printed wor)s on intonation can be found at

htt&>OO'''.u!m.esOinfoOfing1Oentona!ion.html

A useful discussion of ideas about intonation and prosody can be found in theintroduction to a boo) called rosody and %po)en 1iscourse 'author un)nown(

at htt&>OO'''.ou&.!omO&dfO01L?1BH21H01.&df

&Intonation in the lassroom& :http://www.cels.bham.ac.u)/samplemats/scd/04sd.pdf

QStress, Rhythm IntonationQ !o&yrighted to Thor May 2012F all rights reser%ed
http://www.thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/intonation/intonation1.htmhttp://members.ozemail.com.au/~cdug/language/original/homepage/index.html#mimichttp://members.ozemail.com.au/~cdug/language/original/homepage/index.html#mimichttp://www.dest.gov.au/ty/litnet/docs/teaching_pronunciation.pdfhttp://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol_web/tesol_teaching/intonation1.htmhttp://www.ucm.es/info/fing1/entonacion.htmlhttp://www.ucm.es/info/fing1/entonacion.htmlhttp://www.oup.com/pdf/0195143213_01.pdfhttp://www.oup.com/pdf/0195143213_01.pdfhttp://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/samplemats/scd/04sd.pdfhttp://www.thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/intonation/intonation1.htmhttp://members.ozemail.com.au/~cdug/language/original/homepage/index.html#mimichttp://members.ozemail.com.au/~cdug/language/original/homepage/index.html#mimichttp://www.dest.gov.au/ty/litnet/docs/teaching_pronunciation.pdfhttp://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol_web/tesol_teaching/intonation1.htmhttp://www.ucm.es/info/fing1/entonacion.htmlhttp://www.oup.com/pdf/0195143213_01.pdfhttp://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/samplemats/scd/04sd.pdf

stress rhythm intonation libre

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