Glossary audiolingual teaching

Starting with words and phrases
We have seen the importance of basing lessons around words, phrases and sentences, rather than phonemes.
In doing this it is particularly useful if material can be used that is closely relevant to learners’ own lives and concerns, so that they can practice words and sentences they will actually use in ‘real life’. This can be done either by asking learners to provide examples of sentences they would like to practice, or by simply observing the kinds of speech that they need to use in their everyday encounters.
11.2. Teaching stress
We’ve seen that an understanding of stress is fundamental to both segmental and prosodic aspects of pronunciation. We have also seen that for speakers from many language backgrounds it is difficult to produce English stress – because they cannot hear and conceptualize it appropriately.
It is necessary to teach both word stress and sentence stress, but there are no hard and fast rules as to which comes first. Depending on the needs of learners, you may have to work on either or both.
As for when to teach stress, it is likely that most learners will need some work on it, so it is worth starting with stress for all learners. Those who have an aptitude for it, or whose native language uses stress in a way similar to English, will move through the sessions quite quickly. Others may need more intensive work. As a rule of thumb, if you have a learner whose English you find generally difficult to understand, even if you can’t diagnose precisely the errors they are making, it is likely they will benefit from general work on stress.
Teaching word stress
Let’s look now in some detail at a possible ‘recipe’ you might use for teaching word stress.
Start with two syllable words, and try to choose words with simple phonemes that are not likely to distract learners’ attention or undermine their confidence.
Ask learners to identify the stressed syllable from your pronunciation of the word. Make sure they are not using higher level knowledge based on the spelling of the word. If you think this is happening, as it may with learners who have had previous book-learning of English, try using some nonsense words.
Write the words on the board, and ask learners to copy them into their books. Then say the word several times and ask them to underline the stressed syllable.
Underline the stressed syllable on the board and check their answers.
Discuss any errors, then ask the learners, all together then one at a time, to repeat the words back to you. In judging their production, focus on stress pattern rather than phonemes, but do correct any glaring phoneme errors.
Comment throughout on the fact that one of the syllables of each word is louder than the other. It is true that stressed syllables are also usually longer and at higher pitch than other syllables, but getting into that can confuse learners, because we also talk about length in relation to vowel length, and about pitch in relation to intonation. So use these concepts with caution.
When you find they are doing well, try giving some more tricky exercises, such as saying some words with stress on the wrong syllable and asking them to judge if you have said them correctly or incorrectly. If you feel they are up to it, try getting them to say the stress on the wrong syllable.
When all this is mastered well, move on to words of three syllable and more. When learners are performing well with these, give more complex exercises such as asking them to group words into stress pattern families.
In general, you shouldn’t worry too much about the unstressed vowel schwa at this stage, though you may want to point it out if it comes up and you feel they can understand the idea. Be wary though in case it confuses or distracts learners. The most important thing at this stage is that they understand and use stress. Lack of stress, which needs to be understood for schwa, is by definition a later concept that requires understanding of stress.
What if you (the teacher) aren’t sure which syllable is stressed?!
Don’t be ashamed! It can often be difficult to figure it out, especially in multi-syllable words. Of course you can check in a dictionary as part of your class prep – but here is a useful on-the-spot check you can do. Students don’t mind at all waiting for a minute while you figure out the answer to a question about stress, especially if it means they can get instant help rather than having to stick with a pre-prepared lesson. (This tip relies on you knowing what ‘sounds right’ in English, so it is not a good one to pass on to learners.)
Let’s say you are teaching the word consultation, and you are not sure which syllable to underline for your learners. Just say the word several times (to yourself) in an exaggerated way. For example, put it in a simple sentence like ‘You want a consultation???!!!’ – as if you were absolutely amazed. Notice that the stressed syllable becomes much louder than the others. This can make it easier for you to pick out to give accurate instruction to your students.