Understanding and Teaching the Pronunciation of English.pdf

Patient: Doctor I have a pain in my eye whenever I

drink tea

Doctor: Next time take the spoon out of the cup

before you drink

Sentence matching: Write or !nd sentences that can be
divided into two or three thought groups. Write sentences
using the language students have been studying, or use
proverbs or famous quotations. Give students lists of the !rst
and last halves of the sentences in mixed-up order. Have
them match the sentence parts to make good sentence. Then
practice reading the sentences, pausing between the thought
groups. (Grant 2010 p. 107)

A penny saved

An apple a day

Easy come,

A rising tide

All good things

easy go.

lifts all boats.

must come to an end.

is a penny earned.

keeps the doctor away.

Prominence

Introducing prominence

Explain to students that in English, there is one word that is

emphasized more than the others in every thought group.

Give examples of a sentence that could have di"erent

intentions, depending on which word is emphasized. For

example have students think about the di"erence between

these three sentences:

Bob didn’t do his HOMEwork.

(A normal sentence)

BOB didn’t do his homework.

(Someone else did it for him.)

Bob DIDN’T do his homework.

(You thought he did it, but he really didn’t.

Listening to prominence

Mark it up: Have students listen to short sentences !rst, and

then longer dialogs or stories, following along on a written

script. Ask them to notice and mark how the sentences were

divided into thought groups. Then ask them to listen again

and mark the word in each thought group that was the

loudest, highest in pitch, and most emphasized. It’s important

for students to hear and work with plenty of examples before

they’re expected to predict on their own where prominence

should go.

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