Namangan davlat universiteti ingliz filologiyasi fakulteti amaliy ingliz tili kafedrasi

Recording and analysing conversations. Students’ speech is recorded on tape / video and then played back for the whole group to discuss the importance of pronunciation for successful communication


TEACHING STRESS (WORD STRESS, SENTENCE STRESS).
Aim: to focus on importance of word stress


Objective:

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  identifying and practicing word stress
  
• 
  some general tendencies for word stress in English
  

A language learner needs to engage with a word many times, preferably in different ways, in order to really learn it - identifying and practicing word stress can provide one or two of those engagements.

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  Why word stress is important
  

• 
  What word stress is
  

• 
  Some 'rules' of word stress
  

• 
  How I help my students
  

• 
  In the classroom
  

Why word stress is important

Mistakes in word stress are a common cause of misunderstanding in English. Here are the reasons why:

Stressing the wrong syllable in a word can make the word very difficult to hear and understand; for example, try saying the following words: 

o O  b'tell

O o  hottle

And now in a sentence:

"I carried the b'tell to the hottle."

Now reverse the stress patterns for the two words and you should be able to make sense of the sentence!

"I carried the bottle to the hotel."
Stressing a word differently can change the meaning or type of the word:
"They will desert* the desert** by tomorrow."

o O desert*

O o desert**

Think about the grammatical difference between desert* and desert**. 
I will look at this in more detail later.
Even if the speaker can be understood, mistakes with word stress can make the listener feel irritated, or perhaps even amused, and could prevent good communication from taking place.
These three reasons tell me that word stress is an important part of the English language, and it is something I should help my students with.

What word stress is

When we stress syllables in words, we use a combination of different features. Experiment now with the word 'computer'. Say it out loud. Listen to yourself. The second syllable of the three is stressed. What are you doing so that the listener can hear that stress?

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  A stressed syllable combines five features: