Rhythm

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Rhythm

• Stress, intonation and connected speech forms

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• How important is rhythm stress, intonation and
  connected speech in pronunciation?

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1. What is the difference between stress-timed and
   syllable-timed languages?

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• What is the difference between stress-timed and
  syllable-timed languages?
• In stress-timed languages, there is an
  underlying tendency for stressed syllables
  (whether prominent or accented) to occur at
  roughly equal intervals of time, regardless of
  the number of unstressed syllables in between.1
• In syllable-timed languages, the time taken to
  speak an utterance depends roughly on how many
  syllables there are,2since each syllable is
  pronounced for roughly the same amount of time.2
• 1Adrian Underhill, Sound Foundations (Oxford
  Macmillan Heinemann English Language Training,
  1994) 71.
• 2Underhill, 71.

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• Would you say English is syllable-timed or stress
  timed? What about Spanish?
• Here are some examples to help
• Whats his name?
• What the hells his name?
• Cómo se llama el?
• Cómo diablos se llama el?

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• Would you say English is syllable- or stress
  timed? What about Spanish?
• Here are some examples to help
• Whats his name?
• What the hells his name?
• Cómo se llama el?
• Cómo diablos se llama el?
• English is stress timed because it takes
  approximately the same amount of time to say 1
  and 2. Spanish is syllable-timed because it takes
  longer to say 4 than 3.

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1. What issues does this imply for teachers of
   English in Mexico?

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• What issues does this imply for teachers of
  English in Mexico?
• For students whose L1 is Spanish, syllable-timing
  is second-nature and stress-timing therefore
  sounds and feels unnatural. (Just consider how
  difficult it is to try to get students not to
  give every syllable of What is your name? equal
  stress.) Most students (and perhaps teachers, as
  well) are unconscious of the resulting
  transference, so awareness raising, drilling and
  correction are required.

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• How does it work in these examples that each
  sentence takes about as long as the other to
  pronounce, despite one containing more
  information than the other
• Whats his name?
• What the hell is his name?
• That is, what happens in pronunciation to make
  this possible?

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Stress

• Whats his name?
• What the hell is his name?

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
stress
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Techniques for raising students awareness of
stress

• Beat stress

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
stress

• Beat stress
• Mark stressed syllables

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
stress

• Beat stress
• Mark stressed syllables
• Finger technique

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
stress

• Beat stress
• Mark stressed syllables
• Finger technique
• Model and drill with nonsense sounds

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
stress

• Beat stress
• Mark stressed syllables
• Finger technique
• Model and drill with nonsense sounds
• Clay/Plasticine balls

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
stress

• Beat stress
• Mark stressed syllables
• Finger technique
• Model and drill with nonsense sounds
• Clay/Plasticine balls
• Cuisenaire rods

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
stress

• Beat stress
• Mark stressed syllables
• Finger technique
• Model and drill with nonsense sounds
• Clay/Plasticine balls
• Cuisenaire rods
• Divide beats

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
stress

• Beat stress
• Mark stressed syllables
• Finger technique
• Model and drill with nonsense sounds
• Clay/Plasticine balls
• Cuisenaire rods
• Divide beats
• Exaggerate stress for emphasis (but return to
  modeling and drilling correct model)

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
intonation
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Techniques for raising students awareness of
intonation

• Draw intonation contour

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
intonation

• Draw intonation contour
• Show intonation contour with your hand(s) or body

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
intonation

• Draw intonation contour
• Show intonation contour with your hand(s) or body
• Model and drill with nonsense sounds

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Techniques for raising students awareness of
intonation

• Draw intonation contour
• Show intonation contour with your hand(s) or body
• Model and drill with nonsense sounds
• Exaggerate intonation for emphasis (but return to
  modeling and drilling correct model)

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Sound changes
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• Assimilation, when consonants at the ends of a
  word often assimilate to the place of
  articulation of the consonant at the beginning of
  the next word, for example
• ten pin bowling ? /?temp?m'b??l??/
• this shop ? /ð?'??p/ (US)
• ?/ð?'??p/ (UK)
• dont you know? /?d??n??'n??/

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• What about
• Tin Man ? /'t?mæn/
• good boy ? /g?'b??/

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• What about
• Tin Man ? /'t?mæn/
• good boy ? /g?'b??/

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• Then theres elision, which occurs when a sound
  which would be present in a word spoken in
  isolation especially /t/ or /d/ is omitted in
  connected speech, for example
• Omission of /t/
• next please ? /'nekspliz/
• I dont know ? /?a?d?'n??/
• Omission of /d/
• old man ? /??l'mæn/
• sandwich ? /'sænw??/

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• What about
• past the church
• Dont just stand there.

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• What about
• past the church ? /'pæsð?'??r?/ (US)
• ? /?pæsð?'???/ (UK)
• Dont just stand there.
• ? /?d??n??'stænðe?r/ (US)
• ? /?d??n??'stænðe?/ (UK)

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• Strong and weak forms occur when otherwise strong
  vowel forms are reduced in unstressed syllables
  to weak vowel forms, for example
• We can work it out.
• ? /'wik?nw?rk?d'a?t/, ie for can, /kæn/
  becomes /k?n/

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• Strong and weak forms occurs when unstressed
  vowels are reduced from strong to weak forms, for
  example
• So does my mom.
• ? /?s??d?zma?'m?m/, ie for does, /d?z/
  becomes /d?z/

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• Strong and weak forms occur when unstressed
  vowels are reduced from strong to weak forms, for
  example
• Ill have a cup of coffee.
• ? /?l?v??k?p?'k?fi/, ie for Ill, /a?l/
  becomes /?l/ for have, /hæv/ becomes /?v/
  and for of, /?v/ becomes /?/

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• What about
• Are you okay?
• I dont know.
• They must be exhausted.

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• What about
• Are you okay?
• ? /?r?j?'w??ke?/, ie for you, /ju/ becomes
  /j?/
• I dont know.
• ? /?a?d?'n??/, ie for dont, /d??n/ becomes
  /d?n/
• They must be exhausted.
• ? /?ðe?m?sb?jeg'??st?d/, ie for must, /m?s/
  becomes /m?s/.

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• Then theres liaison, in which final consonants
  are linked to following initial vowel sounds, and
  initial consonants to preceeding final vowel
  sounds, for example
• linking /r/ ? car engine (versus car seat, for
  example)
• intrusive /r/ ? tuna and egg (more common in
  British English)
• intrusive /w/ ? go out (versus go to bed, for
  example)
• intrusive /j/ ? she is (versus she said, for
  example)

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• What about
• America and Mexico
• he is
• her English
• you are
• Match to these examples of liaison
• linking /r/
• intrusive /r/
• intrusive /w/
• intrusive /j/

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• What about
• America and Mexico ? intrusive /r/
• he is ? intrusive /j/
• her English ? linking /r/
• you are ? intrusive /w/

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Techniques for indicating sound changes
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Techniques for indicating sound changes

• Phonemic transcription

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Techniques for indicating sound changes

• Phonemic transcription
• Eliciting identification of strong and weak
  syllables