meaning the speaker wants to convey. We often can’t predict
the best intonation or prominence for a sentence without
knowing the whole story of what’s happening.
In teaching suprasegmentals, it’s important not to forget the
!rst stage, the introduction and explanation of the new
features. Students don’t intuitively know all this. We need to
give plenty of examples with some simple, clear explanations
to guide students toward noticing and understanding how
they work. Textbooks or teachers sometimes suggest, for
example, eliciting examples of connected speech from
students, or asking them to predict where the prominent
syllable in a sentence will be. However, we can’t expect
students to come up with these examples on their own too
soon. You can’t elicit what isn’t there yet, and students can’t
make predictions without some knowledge or experience to
guide their guesses. As the teacher, you need to provide a
source of information and some general principles before
students can be expected to apply what they’ve learned.
Don’t jump into the middle of the sequence of activities and
expect students to know what they haven’t yet learned.
Now let’s look at some ways to introduce and practice each
of the suprasegmental features we’ve talked about. Practice
activities are listed roughly in order from simpler to more
complex or from more controlled to less controlled.
Syllables and word stress
Introducing syllables and word stress
Syllables are hard to de!ne or explain, but easy to illustrate.
Say several simple words with two or three syllables,
clapping with each syllable. Encourage students to clap or tap
their !ngers on their desks too. First count the syllables
yourself as students count along with you, and then have
students try counting syllables on their own. Clapping or
making other gestures along with syllables helps students
understand what they are and count them more accurately.To introduce the concept of word stress, explain that in
English, one syllable in a word is louder, longer, and higher
in pitch than the others. Say some simple, familiar words,
exaggerating the stressed syllable, and ask students which
syllable was stressed. They’ll usually be able to recognize it.To further emphasize the importance of word stress, say a
familiar word with the correct stress and then again with
incorrect stress so students can hear the di"erence. For
example, say PENcil, and then penCIL. Ask students which
one sounds more like the word they’ve learned. Point out that
with incorrect stress, even words they know sound odd and
unfamiliar. The well-known comment that “You put the
emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble” also helps to point out that
words with incorrect stress can be di#cult to understand.
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