POINTS TO STUDY
Lean about the Word Stress by Dan
몇주전 제니퍼샘의 강의로 들었던 word stress에 대한 주제를 가지고 Dan이라는 분의 강의로 다시 들어 봅니다.
VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1yTbW3NP4Q
SCRIPT, LISTENING TIPS, & GRAMMAR
Hello friends and welcome to learning spoken English lesson three: word stress. I apologize for the delay in releasing this video. I was in China last month making plans with school officials to take a team of volunteers to China this summer to teach spoken English. I thank you for your patience.
When learning to speak in English, it is important to understand word stress. In English, every word’s made of syllables. Each word has one, two, three or more syllables, and with a few exceptions, every syllable in English contains at least one vowel or vowel sound. When speaking American English, we do not say each word with the same force or stress. In each word we accent or say one syllable louder, stronger or with more emphasis than the others.
Look at the words before you. Repeat the words as I say them. [see screen and listen]. Now if you say each word slowly, you can hear the syllables that make them up. Notice that the second syllable has been shown in capital letters. This is to indicate / that the second syllable is to be accented or stressed more than the first syllable. Repeat after me. Now let’s look at the word China. Notice that the word China is made up of two syllables: Chi-na. Also notice that the first syllable is shown in all capital letters to indicate that it is stressed or emphasized / while the second syllable is pronounced softer. [see screen and listen]. Repeat after me. Now look at the last word on the slide. [see screen and listen]. Con/ver/sa/tion has four syllables. Notice that the third syllable is to be accented / while others syllables are to be pronounced softer. Listen as I say the word. [see screen and listen]. Now you try it.
The syllables that are not stressed are called weak, small or quiet. Native speakers of English / listen for the stressed syllable in a word and not the weak syllables. So if you practice and use word stress in your speech, you can prove your pronunciation and comprehension // so here’re some simple rules to follow when practicing word stress.
[see screen and listen] One word, one stress. One word can not have two syllables. If you hear two stresses, you’ve heard two words, not one. Now some words DO have secondary stress, but it is much smaller or weaker than the primary stress, and it is used only inn long words.
[see screen and listen] Only vowels are stressed, not consonants. Remember the three words from the earlier slide? a/BOUT: The sound in the second syllable that is stressed is the short /o/ sound. [see screen and listen]. The sound stressed in CHI/na is the long /ai/ sound. With sound stressed in the word con/ver/sa/tion. Listen and see if you can hear the vowel that is accented. [see screen and listen] Of course, it’s the long /ai:/ sound.
The first two rules are easy to understand and easy to put in the practice. In English, there are many rules to learn and many exceptions to each rule. So instead of trying to learn all the rules and their exceptions, try to feel the rhythm of spoken English, and add stress naturally. Now let’s look at the rule number three and four.
[see screen and listen] Stress on the first syllable. 90% of all nouns are accented on the first syllable. Most two syllable nouns and most two syllable adjectives are stressed on the first syllable as well. For example, [see screen and listen]
[see screen and listen] Stress on the last syllable. Most two syllable verbs are stressed on the last syllable. Take the example of the verbs “de/cide”, the stress is on the second syllable and it is pronounced decide. The verb begin, for example, is pronounced, be/GIN.
Now let’s put all these together and practice word stress in complete sentences. This will give you an opportunity to hear how word stress along with the sentence stress creates the rhythm or the beat of American English. Practice speaking with the following sentences along with me. [see screen and listen]
These are some simple rules / to help you understand and use word stress to improve your spoken English. The best rule to follow, though, / is to practice speaking American English and listening to how a native English speaker stresses his or her words. I have mp3 files available to help you practice word stress. If you’re e-mail me at dan@zengmao.com, I’ll be happy to send you the practice exercises and the mp3 files. Until next time, XiaXien.
l Word/sentence stress는 듣기 영어에 있어서 가장 중요한 요소 입니다. 반드시 정독 및 정취 하셔서 영어듣기 실력이 늘지 않는 가장 큰 이유를 공부 하시기 바랍니다.
TODAY’S PRONUNCIATION
Daily Pronunciation #51 - English Lesson - ZANY 発音練習