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Speaking skill

Intonation and Stress: Key to Understanding and Being Understood

Try this short exercise

Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud.

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds.

Wait a minute the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening

You are only partially right!

This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).

Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.

Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can". When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.

They can come on Friday. (stressed words underlined)

On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't".

They can't come on Friday.

As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed.

So, what does this mean for my speaking skills?

Well, first of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as

Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
(most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct
Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
Adverbs e.g. often, carefully

Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as

Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite
Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
Pronouns e.g. they, she, us

Let's return to the beginning example to demonstrate how this affects speech.

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. (14 syllables)

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening. (22 syllables)

Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressed words in each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn't worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be understood (we native speakers certainly don't). You should however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.

Now, do some listening comprehension or go speak to your native English speaking friends and listen to how we concentrate on the stressed words rather than giving importance to each syllable. You will soon find that you can understand and communicate more because you begin to listen for (and use in speaking) stressed words. All those words that you thought you didn't understand are really not crucial for understanding the sense or making yourself understood. Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English.

I hope this short introduction to the importance of stress in English will help you to improve your understanding and speaking skills.

From Kenneth Beare,
Your Guide to English as 2nd Language.
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Accent Neutralization - Accent Reduction: Overview

From Kenneth Beare,
Your Guide to English as 2nd Language.
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As the global marketplace expands a new branch of English learning related to ESL has become very intriguing. This field is often called Accent Neutralization or Accent Reduction. The main purpose of accent neutralization / reduction is to help proficient English speakers speak with a more North American or British accent. The main cause of this trend towards accent neutralization / reduction is the demand created by outsourcing.

Outsourcing is generally defined as the transfer of components or large segments of an organization's internal infrastructure, staff, processes or applications to an external resource. The trend is towards outsourcing to countries where this work can be done at lower cost to the company. One of the most popular countries for outsourcing is India due to its wealth of highly educated English speakers.

Accent neutralization / accent reduction comes into play when these workers speak to North Americans who have difficulties understanding their accents. Of course, the English spoken is excellent. The problem that arises is that many customers have difficulties understanding accents other than their own, hence accent neutralization or reduction becomes important for customer satisfaction.

Some find this trend distasteful. However, reading the fascinating book entitled "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman, I came across the following passage that describes the general attitude towards accent modification:

... before you disparage it, you have to taste just how hungry these kids are to escape the lower end of the middle class and move up. If a little accent modification is the price they have to pay to jump a rung of the ladder, then so be it - they say.

As more and more tasks are outsourced, the more important "standard" North American English becomes to the young employees excitedly taking advantage of the new opportunities modern telecommunications and broadband access provide.

Common Techniques and Goals

Here are some of the common focus areas for accent neutralization or accent reduction classes:

Changing speech patterns
Voice production
Intonation and rhythm
Taking on a new North American "Personality" - I think is a great way to distance oneself from the more distasteful implications of accent reduction

The stated goals of many of these programs include:

Changing regional accents to increase personal and professional opportunities
Engaging in extensive conversations, presentations, and telephone calls
Be more confident and effective, both socially and professionally - This must apply to English speakers living in North America!
Improved professional image of your company
Greater understanding from listeners

I can imagine some people thinking, "Well, it's a brave new world." I definitely agree!

Pronunciation: Changing Meaning through Word Stress

From Kenneth Beare,
Your Guide to English as 2nd Language.
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Word Stress Explaination and Exercise

When you are speaking English the words you stress can change the underlying meaning a sentence. Let's take a look at the following sentence:

I don't think he should get the job.

This simple sentence can have many levels of meaning based on the word you stress. Consider the meaning of the following sentences with the stressed word in bold. Read each sentence aloud and give a strong stress to the word in bold:

I don't think he should get the job.
Meaning: Somebody else thinks he should get the job.

I don't think he should get the job.
Meaning: It's not true that I think he should get the job.

I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning: That's not really what I mean.

OR I'm not sure he get that job.

I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning: Somebody else should get that job.

I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning: In my opinion it's wrong that he's going to get that job.

I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning: He should have to earn (be worthy of, work hard for) that job.

I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning: He should get another job.

I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning: Maybe he should get something else instead.

As you can see, there are many different ways this sentence can be understood. The important point to remember is that the true meaning of the sentence is also expressed through the stressed word or words.

Here is an exercise to help you develop the art of correct word stress. Take the following sentence:

I said she might consider a new haircut.

Say the sentence aloud using the stress word marked in bold. Once you have spoken the sentence a few times, match the sentence version to the meaning below. You will find the answers to this quiz on the following page.

I said she might consider a new haircut.
I said she might consider a new haircut.
I said she might consider a new haircut.
I said she might consider a new haircut.
I said she might consider a new haircut.
I said she might consider a new haircut.
I said she might consider a new haircut.

Not just a haircut.

It's a possibility.
It was my idea.
Not something else.
Don't you understand me?
Not another person.
She should think about it. it's a good idea.

Exercise: Write out a number of sentences. Read each of them stressing a different word each time you read them. Notice how the meaning changes depending on which word you stress. Don't be afraid to exaggerate the stress, in English we often use this device to add meaning to a sentence. It's very possible that when you think you are exaggerating, it will sound quite natural to native speakers.

Summary and Comment:

I choose speaking and listening skills to be my topic in this mailing list. The reason I choose those two topic is simply because they are related each other. When we are speaking (talking) to other people, we must also listen to them. Therefore, understanding is really important. The question that comes up is “How do we give and get clear ideas?” The following is summary of the articles above and my opinion towards them.

The first topic that I will explain is Speaking Skill. As we know that speaking is the most important way to communicate with other people. In my opinion, communication will also work better if people are speaking directly (face to face) without medium (telephone, for example).

The first article in speaking skill part shows English is stressed language, while other language is more syllabic language. Beside that it shows that two different sentences can be said in the same length of time. On the other hand, two same sentences (the same length) may be said in different length of time. It happens because we give different stress to certain words. This will give different meaning also. It is supported by the third article. There, we can see that a sentence can have many different meanings if we give stress to different certain words.

The second article talks about the decide way to encounter problem that North Americans and British face because of different accent. People in different area will speak in different accent. That way is called Accent Neutralization or Accent Reduction. Hopefully, using this method, they will understand each other.

Based on the articles above, I can conclude that there are some important things that should be considered to deliver the ideas clearly and meaningful. The first is intonation. The accent (2^nd articles) will influence the intonation. Different area has different accent that affect the intonation. These aspects will influence the clarity that the hearers may get. Therefore, to speak in English, we have to speak like the native speak. I don’t mean that we have to be native like speakers but we have to consider the stress where the native speakers may put in a sentence (which words have to be stressed). When those way cannot work properly, understanding each other is the best action that should they take. Diversity is common in real world life.