Developing Speaking Skills - Part 1

​Developing Speaking Skills

• ​Speaking with appropriate pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation

​

Open Ended

What have you learned from this video?

​​Pronunciation /prəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/

​​= The way in which we make the sound of words

​​Pronunciation /prəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/

• Phoneme = smallest distinct unit of sound in a language that distinguish one word from another ​​

• Syllable = ​a unit of pronunciation having ONE vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants

• ​One or more syllables form a word

• ​In English: sounds ≠ spelling (NOT phonetic)

  • ​​Be aware of homophones and homographs

  • 26 letters BUT 44 phonemes

​Stress

​= intensity given to a syllable of speech by special effort in utterance, resulting in relative loudness

• ​produced with a more powerful contraction of the chest muscles than unstressed syllables

• ​operates at word level and at sentence level

• ​In English: distinguishes meanings

  • ​'permit (noun)

  • ​per'mit (verb)

  • ​I thought your sister was a singer. (not your friend's sister)

  • ​I thought your sister was a singer. (not your cousin)

​Word Stress

Simple Rules:

1. ​One word has only ONE primary stress.

2. Only stress vowels, not consonant​

​​More complicated Rules (WITH MANY EXCEPTIONS):

• ​1st syllable: 2-syllable nouns / adjectives, e.g. 'table, 'happy

• ​last syllable: 2-syllable verbs, e.g. be'gin

• ​penultimate syllable: words ending in -ic / -sion / -tion, e.g. geo'graphic, tele'vision

• ​ante-penultimate syllable: Words ending in -cy / -ty / -phy / -gy / -al, e.g. de'mocracy, a'bility, 'geography, bi'ology, 'critical

• first part for compound nouns, e.g. 'greenhouse

• ​second part for compound adjectives / verbs, e.g. ill-'tempered, over'write

​Sentence Stress

• Some words receive greater stress than others

• Usually, more on content words and less on grammatical items

  ​Draw special attention

​Rhythm

​= the speed and cadence of how you say a sentence

• ​created by the stressed syllables in a sentence

• ​the unstressed syllables have to fit into the rhythm

• ​several unstressed syllables are spoken quicker than a single unstressed syllable

• If you say each word in a sentence ​at the same speed, without any rise and fall of the voice, you will sound robotic.

​Intonation

​= melodic pattern of the speech

• ​primarily a matter of variation in the pitch level of the voice

• pitch = relative highness or lowness of a tone as perceived by the ear, depends on the number of vibrations per second produced by the vocal cord

• tone = variation in the pitch of the voice while speaking

• In English, intonation ​involved stress and rhythm

• ​conveys differences of expressive meaning, e.g. surprise, anger

• ​serves a grammatical function, distinguishing one type of phrase / sentence from another

• ​Try this:

  • ​John is still on holiday.

  • ​John is still on holiday?

​TIPS

• If people are always asking you to repeat or saying that they don't understand​ what you have said, the problem might be that you do not speak with appropriate pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation.

• ​Check an online dictionary for the correct pronunciation and word stress if you are unsure (make sure it's British English). ​Listen and imitate the pronunciation

• ​Watch English videos and mimic what is being said. Record yourself and play it back to check if you sound the same.

• ​Talk to people whose mother tongue is English whenever you have a chance.

​English by T. S. Watt

​I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough?

Others may stumble but not you

On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.

Well done! And now you wish perhaps,

To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead, it's said like bed, not bead-

for goodness' sake don't call it 'deed'!

Watch out for meat and great and threat

(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth in mother,

Nor both in bother, broth, or brother,

And here is not a match for there,

Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,

And then there's doze and rose and lose-

Just look them up- and goose and choose,

And cork and work and card and ward

And font and front and word and sword,

And do and go and thwart and cart-

Come, I've hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Man alive!

I'd learned to speak it when I was five!

And yet to write it, the more I sigh,

I'll not learn how 'til the day I die.

Open Ended

How do you feel about today's lecture and practical tasks? Do you enjoy them? Any issues or problems? Any thoughts or comments? Please share with us.