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Putting Stress on Words is Tricky Business!

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Published: 20Jun2008
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The difficult task of learning another language is no small feat! There are new sounds to make, different tones and melodies to learn and differences in sentence construction. Many people, when learning a new language, take their native language and transfer what they know onto the new language they are learning.

One of the most difficult tasks for foreigners to learn is the stress patterns and melody of English. Inappropriate stress can change the entire word or sentence so much that the message is unrecognizable to the listener. One of the first language characteristic learned as a child is the intonation of the native tongue. We began babbling by imitating the melody of speech we heard the adults around us use. Learning pitch patterns as a child is easier than learning new patterns as an adult. However, mastering intonation will greatly benefit the non-native speaker's intelligibility in conversation.

In English, sometimes our pitch rises and sometimes our pitch falls. We use changes in pitch and loudness to stress words and to lengthen vowel sounds to give words and syllables more emphasis, meaning, variety or to soften the tone of speech.

Consider the following sentence. Try to say it in a very staccato way by giving each syllable the same amount of time. Say it very flat in pitch and loudness.

"The issue was discussed."

Now, say the sentence and lengthen the vowel in the first syllable of "issue" (ISsue) and the second syllable in "discussed" (disCUSSED). Really exaggerate the length of those vowels. Also, get higher in pitch when you say them. You have just modified the melody of speech!

No matter what country a person comes from, there will be differences between languages. Here are some other examples that often create challenges to overcome for non-native English speakers.

1. Mandarin Chinese relies on tone differences to make different words. One word may have four different tones and each tone has four different meanings. In English that happens some but not as often. (Consider PROject and proJECT.)

2. Some languages have more pitch changes on individual vowels in words to indicate different word meanings.

3. In Japanese, some tone differences signify a change in the grammar of the sentence.

4. Some languages place equal stress on every syllable with limited variation in loudness or pitch so it is more of a monotonic language.

The task of learning the melody of American English comes easily to those of us who grew up speaking it. But for a non- native speaker, it takes time, practice and perseverance. In order to be better understood in the workplace, on the telephone or giving presentations, the melody of speech is a critical piece in order for the listener to understand the speaker's message. It is even considered to be more important than pronunciation of sounds. Mastering this aspect of speech will greatly benefit the communication effectiveness between two speakers.

Modifying a foreign accent with the goal of becoming more understandable in another country takes a lot of hard work. If you need assistance mastering American English we can help. Contact us here.

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