English is a Stress-Timed Language

As opposed to syllable-timed languages like French, Spanish, Italian or Hindi, syllables in an English sentence are stressed at approximately equal intervals. In sentence stress, the accent, or stress, is on certain types of words within the sentence, giving English its unique rythym. A sentence in spoken English is composed of two types of words: content words and structure words. Look at the examples below:

 

Content Words                                      

Main Verbs: go, eat, sit, speak               

Nouns: restaurant, sofa                  

Adjectives: big, Italian                       

Adverbs: softly               

Negative AuxiliaryVerbs: can’t, don’t, aren’t          

Demonstratives: this, that, those                 

Question Words: who, which, where, what, when, why, how 

Structure Words

Pronouns: I, you, he, she, we, they         

Prepositions: on, under, with, near, in

Articles: the, a, some

Conjunctions: for, but, and, so, yet, nor, or

Auxiliary Verbs: can, should, must

Verb "to be" : is, was, am

 

 

Here are some examples:

 

I'm going to eat at the Italian restaurant.

 

You’re sitting on the sofa, but you aren’t listening to me.

 

She’s speaking softly, so it’s difficult for me to hear her.

 

Notice how, in the first sentence, only the content words (verbs, adjective, noun) are stressed. The same is true for the other examples (verbs, noun, adverb, adjective). When you say the unstressed words in between, they sound like they're almost swallowed, don't they?

 

As the key words in a sentence, content words provide the meaning, while structure words provide the form. If you spoke just the content words aloud, you could still derive some meaning, even if the sentence is incompletely formed. Check out this graphic:

 

 

 

Although only the nouns are stressed, this is a nice illustration of an English stress pattern. Because English is a stress-timed language, there is a beat, or rythym, to spoken English. Think of content words as beats and structure words as fillers between the beats. Unlike Chinese, English is a non-tonal language. In tone languages, the meaning of words is distinguished by pitch (an absolute frequency assigned to a specific note). A spoken word's meaning can change according to its pitch.  In English, on the other hand, changes in pitch may emphasize or express emotion, rather than impart meaning. (Thanks to Paul Shoebottom at the Frankfurt International School for that explanation).

 

Say this sentence out loud:

 

We're speaking English and watching the World Cup in the student lounge.

 

Spoken language and music have much in common. Listen to the music. Catch the rhythm. And try not to stress out.

Summer Solstice

Did anybody notice that today is the first day of summer? Today is the longest day of the year, with the sun at its zenith above the Tropic of Cancer. The farther north you go, the later the sun goes down. I'm not sure how many hours of daylight that translates into here in this southern college town. Four years ago on this date my wife and I were on a cruise in the Baltic Sea. The shipped docked at St. Petersburg (Russia) for the night, and the sun was visible until slightly after 11:00 pm --not quite far enough north to be a "midnight sun," but close. The word solstice , which has its root in the Latin sol (sun), has been celebrated all over the planet for thousands of years, from Stonehenge to Machu Pichu, and beyond. Check out these pictures of Summer Solstice 2010 at National Geographic.

The World Cup has gripped us here at the school for ten days now. Today a student dutifully informed me that he would be late tomorrow, or possibly even absent, because his team match and our class had a scheduling conflict.Now, I'm not a soccer (futbol) fanatic the way my students are, but, hey, I get it! (see Sox, Red). Nevertheless, attendance at class should be your top priority. Although the rules may vary, my World Cup attendance policy is that if you choose to watch a match instead of attending class, and you miss a speaking assignment or quiz, you will receive a zero. As long as students understand the possible consequences of being absent, they have my blessing. After all, the World Cup happens only once every four years, right? Go Team USA!

Taking Note of Note Taking

This week during Listening, by way of practicing for the pratice TOEFL, we examined a note-taking technique that involves assigning a column for each speaker (or, in the case of a lecturer, using the entire page). However, as one student observed after today's practice test, there wasn't any time to look at the notes before answering the questions. So why bother taking notes? Because the act of note taking reinforces the knowledge you acquire while listening. That is why active listening requires taking notes. You see, it's not really about the notes, it's about the process. Taking notes requires that you think about what you're writing, as you're writing it. That's where the reinforcement part comes in. Here's a PowerPoint presentation from Virgina Western Community College on effective note taking that includes a  summary of the Cornell Method.    

Presentations

Here is an excellent resource on how to give an effective presentation that completely covers every aspect of this very important skill, which you can master even if your vocabulary is limited. Having a large vocabulary is ideal, of course, but good pace, presence, and pronunciation are equally important. By pace, I mean the speed and rhythm --  words spoken not too fast, not too slow, with stressses in the right places.  Presence means your personality and how you  connect with your audience, and how they respond to you. And, of course, clear pronunciation is critical if you want to be understood. Your grammar may be first-rate, but it's ultimately meaningless if there are pronunciation issues. Developing a large vocabulary is easy by comparison. The ability to deliver an effective presentation is a highly-prized  skill, and speaking competently and confidently takes practice. But the results are well worth the effort. People with excellent public speaking skills are a valuable asset to any organization, whether in business, science, government, technology, or academia.

I'm Sorry For Bothering You, But Would You Mind Reading This Post?

This week we've been focused on two important speech acts: apologies and requests. As with all other forms of social speech, how you apologize or request depends on several variables: social context, the relative status of the speaker and hearer, the closeness of the relationship, the sex and age of both persons, and the seriousness of the situation. Whatever the language or culture, speakers modify their speech according to these social and contextual factors.  As social animals we learn to develop an awareness of our environment, to size up the listener, and to modify our speech accordingly. Making a proper apology requires these six steps:

1. An expression of regret (I'm sorry, I apologize, Forgive me, Excuse me)

2. An acknowledgement of responsibility (It was my fault, I'm so stupid!)

3. An explanation (I was careless, I wasn't paying attention, I missed the bus, The dog ate my homework)

4. An offer of repair (I'll pay for the drycleaning, I'll buy you another one)

5. A promise of non-recurrence (It will never happen again, I promise!) 

6. Asking for forgiveness (Will you forgive me?)

The sixth step, asking for forgiveness, can effectively be combined with any of the other five steps. For example: I'm so sorry for forgetting to mail the check. I promise it won't happen again. Please forgive me for being so careless.

When you take responsibility for your action, you also acknowledge the hurt that was caused to the other person. By asking for forgiveness at the end of the apology and submitting yourself to the other person's mercy, you have demonstrated your remorse and sincerity. Now it's up to the other person to make the next move. The ball is in their court.

We also learned that applying an intensifier in front of sorry (I'm so sorry, really sorry, very sorry) is most appropriate when the speaker has a close or important relationship with the hearer. Thus friends, family, teachers, and employers should hear an intensifier. The seriousness of the situation will also dictate the need for an intensifier. For example, bumping into someone on a crowded train merits a simple "I'm sorry" or "Excuse me." However, if you bumped a stranger and caused him to spill his drink, an intensifier would be appropriate. Other intensifiers include terribly (I'm terribly sorry to bother you), which is more common to British English than to American, and frightfully, another Britishism. I'm frightfully sorry for dragging you to that awful faculty party last night.


A simple way of acknowledging responsibility for your careless or thoughtless behavior is to apologize by using the word for along with an explanation. I'm sorry for eating the last slice of pizza. If it's something for which you are not directly responsible, use about. For example: I'm sorry about last night -- I didn't know that my parents would behave so badly. 

Making requests is another form of speech dictated by social context. Using the conditional tense (would, could) is more polite than using can. For example, Would you pass me the salt is more polite than Could you pass me the salt, which is more polite than Can you pass me the salt. Sometimes a request is preceded by the phrase Do you mind or Would you mind. For example, Do you mind is always followed by if, and the verb is always expressed in the present tense.  Do you mind if I borrow your car? When would you mind is followed by if, the verb is expressed in the past tense. Would you mind if I borrowed the car?  But when if is removed, the verb that follows would you mind is always in the progressive form (-ing ending). Would you mind moving your chair? Of course, always add please to these requests. You can never go wrong saying please. To fail to say please when making a request is to risk being perceived as arrogant or  uncouth.  Politeness, after all, is the mark of a civilized person.  However, social discourse is also culturally-driven.  Here in the South, children are taught to say, "yes sir" and "no ma'am." Northerners, often in a hurry to get to the point, are often perceived by southerners as rude or brusque, while to a New Englander like me, some southerners can come across as phony, or insincere. Unfamilair with the code, outsiders often misinterpret culture-bound behavior. On the other hand, you'll never go wrong saying please and thank you.

Twelve Angry Men

In support of this week's unit on the American justice system, we watched Twelve Angry Men, the classic 1957 courtroom drama that mostly  takes place inside a jury room. Having received their instructions from a bored, monotone-speaking judge, eleven men are ready to convict and send to his death a teenager charged with murdering his father. However, one lone juror holds out for acquittal because he believes there is a reasonable doubt about the youth's guilt. Tempers reach the boiling point as these jurors struggle to reach a decision in an atmosphere of tension and racial bias. At the same time, the film is a paean to the ideals of democracy and fairness embedded in the Constitution. It also follows a common theme in American culture -- the righteous lone individual standing up against the System, or the State, or the Corporation, or against any number of other evils and badness. The jurors are neither good nor bad, but ordinary citizens guided by a complex set of emotions, values, and agendas.  Juror #8 is an extraordinary individual who uses reason and logic to overcome emotion and prejudice. There was a comment in class today about the fact that we never learn the jurors' names, except at the end, when the old man and #8 introduce themselves to each other. That the jurors are nameless reinforces a notion of universality. The jurors are Everyman. Hence, the jury of 12 "angry men" is meant to be a microcosm of society at large.  The class had previously debated the pros and cons of the death penalty, and deliberated as a mock, activities that I hope helped students gain a better appreciation for the awesome responsibility of juries. Today's discussion of the film,which barely scratched the surface before we ran out of time, left me hungry for answers: Can we ever really know the truth about something? Can we ever truly understand other people's motives? What kinds of pressure do jurors face to vote one way or another? Does a set of facts always point to the truth? In a world where nothing is simply black or white, but shades of gray, can we ever be certain about why people do the things they do, or say the things they say? One thing's for certain: prejudice obscures the truth, as this scene so powerfully shows.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

I was intrigued by Steve Jobs' quotation from the Whole Earth Catalogue: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” (See previous post for the link to his Stanford University commencement speech). What did he mean?

Here's my take.

Stay Hungry means                                                

Stay curious.
Stay motivated.
Stay adventurous.
Don’t be satisfied.
Don’t lose your appetite for new things.
Stay intellectually hungry – keep learning.
Stay hungry for experience.
Stay spiritually hungry. Seek truth.
Ask questions.
Stay hungry for knowledge.
Stay hungry for enlightenment.

Stay Foolish means

Take risks.
Be yourself.
Don’t worry about what other people think.
Be open to new ideas.
Be willing to fall on your face.
Accept failure, then overcome it.
Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Laugh, and make others laugh.
Don’t be self-conscious.

I wonder if The Most Interesting Man in the World (and Dos Equis pitchman) took a cue from this quote with his signature tagline, "Stay Thirsty, My Friends."

Ah, to be that guy......

Weeks 1-3 Recap

In Week 1 we heard Bill Moyers' interview with Mark Johnson on his documentary, "Playing for Change." (Did you notice the pun, or play on words, on the word change? Street musicians often play for change -- that is, for coins or small amounts of money.) In Week 2 Richard St. John summarized his 8 Secrets of Success in a 3 1/2 minute talk at TED, followed by his sobering reminder that success is a continuous process of change, renewal, and adaptation. That same week we listened to Steve Jobs give his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, where he told the newly-minted graduates to "Stay hungry. Stay foolish," a quote from the last page of the last Whole Earth Catalog (Jobs called this bible of alternative culture "Google in paperback form"). He talked about his close brush with death after receiving a diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer that later proved curable. This life-changing experience led to an epiphany: "Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new." Although it made the Internet rounds, I had never heard of Jobs' speech until Ken Auletta mentioned it in his April 23, 2010 interview with Charlie Rose, which we listened to on April 30. As you recall, the interview was a fascinating analysis of the emerging ebook market, of which Amazon currently controls 80% with its Kindle reader. The publishing and bookstore business has been turned upside down as a result. Apple, led by Steve Jobs, recently launched the Ipad as an ebook reading device that not only stands on Kindle's shoulders, but goes further in advancing functionality. Along with competing ebook reading devices from Sony and others,  Apple is going toe-to-toe with Amazon for a bigger share of the ebook market. In Week 2 we also listened to Wilma Mankiller, in an interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, explain why she lost her fear of death after surviving a near-fatal automobile accident that killed a close friend. (Mankiller, the first woman elected Chief of the Cherokee Nation, died of cancer in early April at the age of 64.)  In Week 3 we learned about how Kiva works in Uganda from the FrontlineWorld report, and got a lesson in microfinance from Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunis.  The classic 1971 recording "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye was a window into the social and political upheaval of that year. "Picket signs and picket lines. Don't punish me with brutality. Come on talk to me. So you can see. What's going on."  I think you'll agree that the three-minute video on how stock markets work was to-the-point. And now you know what a wiki is so you and your friends can create and maintain one. Yaaay!

I've enjoyed listening to the students' short presentations on This Day in History and, from what some have told me, students are finding value in this exercise, as it allows them to practice a short talk in front of the class. Plus, they're learning some historical trivia (which will come in handy if anyone ever becomes a contestant on Jeopardy!) There was the debate on social networking, the discussion on "success" and how you define it, the TED talks, and the timed TOEFL speaking. All of these activities contribute to the goal of giving students practice and getting feedback on their speaking and presentation skills.