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.