Throw a ball: Seat students in a circle. Give a very soft ball
(not a softball; that’s something else entirely) to a student
and ask him/her to think of a word with more than one
syllable. The student says the word slowly, throwing the ball
to another student (who is paying attention and ready to
catch the ball) when the stressed syllable begins. He/she
must keep saying the stressed syllable until the other student
catches the ball. This encourages students to stretch out the
stressed syllables and make them sound longer than the
unstressed syllables. (Of course, you should avoid this
activity if throwing things in the classroom is frowned on by
your school’s administration.)
Matching syllable patterns: Have students work in pairs.
One student says a word, and the partner answers with a
di"erent word with the same syllable pattern—the same
number of syllables and the same position of stress. Partners
take turns being !rst. For example, if the !rst partner says
ˈfather, the other might answer with ˈtable, ˈtextbook, or
ˈpaper.
Growing syllables: In a group, the !rst person says a one-
syllable word, the next says a two-syllable word, the next, a
three-syllable word, and so forth, until someone can’t think of
a longer word. Then that person starts again with a one-
syllable word. The same activity can be done with phrases.
Noun/verb pairs with different stress: Give students a
list of sentences or a story containing noun/verb pairs like
ˈproduce and proˈduce or ˈrecord and reˈcord and have
them practice reading with correct stress. Mix in some words
that have same stress as a noun or verb, like ˈtravel, reˈport,
or ˈpressure, to remind students that this noun/verb stress
change happens with some, but not all words that can be
used as both nouns and verbs.Suffixes and stress: This activity works best as a
competition between small teams. Give the teams some time
to prepare !rst, brainstorming words that can add a su#x to
make a new word, for example, nation and national, easy
and easily, or communicate and communication. Tell the
teams to be sure they know where the stress should be in
each word. After brainstorming, one team says a base word
(with correct stress). The other team has to make it into a
new word by adding a su#x, and say the new word with
correct stress. If the second team can’t think of a su#x to
add, the !rst team has to tell them one. For example, if the
!rst team says ˈnation, the second could say ˈnational or
nationˈality or ˈnationalize. Points can be given to teams that
say a word successfully.160