apply the rules in correctly producing word stress. It works
better to help students notice the stress of new words and
realize that stress is an important and necessary part of each
word. Then as learners say and use the new words many
times, the stress patterns will become natural and automatic.
They’ll build up a kind of muscle and sound memory of each
word, including the appropriate stress. This is much less
frustrating than trying to memorize a list of rules, but it does
require that students get plenty of practice using new words
in many contexts—something that good language teachers
should be helping their students to do anyway.
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