Pronunciation

• Consists of the phonemes (sounds from alphabetic letters)…– 24 consonant sounds– 20 vowels sounds

• …and stress, rhythm and intonation

Vowel Lengthening

• Pick-pig• Lived-lift• Lock-log• Tab-tap• Miss- Ms.• Lake-leg• Save-safe

• Feet-feed• Knees-niece• Lice- lies• Plays-place• Proof-prove• Belief-believe• Excuse (n)-excuse (v)

Lengthening Exercises

• Example:• What’s a cap?

– A kind of hat.• What’s a cab?

– A taxi

Lengthening ExercisesPartner A

• What’s a seat?• What’s a seed?• How do you spell “tight?”• How do you spell “tide?”• What does wrote mean?• What does rode mean?

Lengthening ExercisesPartner B

• What is a rope for?• What is a robe for?• What does “bright” mean?• What does “bride” mean?• How do you spell “beg?”• How do you spell “bake?”

Regular past tense

• Walked (t)• Liked (t)• Laughed (t)• Closed (d)• Filled (d)• Smiled (d)• Agreed (d)• Hugged (d)• Planned (d)

• Decide• Want• Need• Add• Start• Rent• Crowd• Visit

Past tense exercise

Partner A• Wash• Cause• Arrange• Load• Cause• Calculate• Subtract• Practice • Multiply

Partner B• Plant• Wait• Work• Divide• Open• Save• Add• Record

Nouns and verbsVerbs have a longer (last) syllable

Verbs• Use (it)• Prove (it)• Save (it)• Excuse (me)• Advise (me)• Believe (me)• Relieve (me)

What are the associated nouns?

• What use is it?• Show me the proof.• Put your money in a safe.• That’s a good excuse.• Give me some advice.• He has strange beliefs.• The device is broken.• I need some relief.

Word stress

• Word stress in English is so important that it is sometimes more important than the actual letter sounds.

• I can swim. [kən]• I can’t swim. [kænt]• All words of two syllables or more have

stress on at least one syllable.

Word stress

• 7/11• Seven eleven• There is no set system but there are some

patterns.• For example, what pattern do you notice:

• Reduction, suggestion• Politician, registration• Participation examination• Identification, electrification

Stress on second last syllable

•Reduction, suggestion•Politician, registration•Participation examination• Identification, electrification

More stress patterns

• Strategic• Economic• Statistic• Biology• Geology • Astronomy• Policy• equality

• Main stress comes on the syllable before:

• ic• omy, • ery ,• ogy,• ity

Where is the stress?Patterns do not hold for all endings, e.g., “ment”

• Argument• Establishment• Regiment • Achievement

Stress on nouns and verbs

Nouns (try making a question starting with “Is it a…”• Record

• Object• Permit• Suspect• Conflict• Contract• Increase• Produce

Verbs (try asking a question starting with “Does it…”

• Record• Object• Permit• Suspect• Conflict• Contract• Increase• Produce

English rhythm

• I really like eating apples.• I really like eating apple• Content words tend to be stressed while

function words are unstressed.

English rhythm

• The girl is interested in increasing her vocabulary.

• The girl is interested in increasing her vocabulary.

Practice rhythm

• I ate a chicken salad sandwich• In an hour, I’ll be ready to go to school.• He eats three full meals each day.• Do you like the photo on your passport?• My cat eats fish and she likes to hunt mice

in the garden.• Make sure you study for the test during the

holiday.

Rhythm

• I ate a chicken salad sandwich• In an hour, I’ll be ready to go to school.• He eats three full meals each day.• Do you like the photo on your passport?• My cat eats fish and she likes to hunt

mice in the garden.• Make sure you study for the test during

the holiday.

Intonation

• English uses rising and falling tone to indicate meaning?

• For example– Falling tone indicates the end of a sentence.– Rising tone indicates a yes/no question.– Rising also indicates a list

• Get some bananas, oranges, apples and lemons.

Coffee or tea?• Would you like coffee or tea?• Two stress and intonation patterns…• …and different expected answers.

• Would you like coffee or tea? (Choose one)

• Would you like coffee or tea? (yes or no)

Common teachers’ question?Either or

• Is the answer 2 or 4?• CPU or RAM?• Melody or harmony?• 3-dimensional or 2-dimensional?• Underhand or overhand?• Think of two words or concepts in your

own teaching that you ask this type of question.

Why is spoken English so hard to understand?

• Is he busy?• Ed • edited • it.• ededitit

Informal contractionswhich you don’t learn in school

• Wanna- I wanna study English. (want to)• Gonna- I’m gonna study English. (going

to)• Hafta- I hafta study English. (have to)• Gotta- I’ve gotta study English. (got to)• Shoulda- I shoulda studied English.

(should have)• Do you… [jə]

Informal sentences

• What are you going to do tonight?• [wǝdǝyǝgǝnǝdutǝnait]• Do you want to go to a movie tonight?• [jəwanəgotəəmuvitənait]

Finding the stress in tech words

• alphanumeric, asynchronous, proprietary, mnemonic

• Acrylics, Assemblage, Maquette, Rhythm

• disassembly, ergonomics, translucent, malleable, adhesive

• strenuous, sport etiquette, calisthenics

• revenue, allotment, Merchandiser, Proprietorship

• utensils, recipe