In order to improve pronunciation, ESL students need controlled practice with stress-timed rhythm. But before they can produce it, they have to be able to hear it.

 

Those from syllable-timed languages, like Japanese or Spanish, will especially have difficulty, so they will need a little more practice, and what better way to let them practice again and again but with the aid of CALL.

 

 For this purpose, I have designed an exercise using a Dr. Seuss story, “And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street,”  read aloud by Daniel Pinkerton on NPR’s Saturday Edition, March 6, 2004 < http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1749674>.  Students will also need a copy of the text, “And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street,” which can be downloaded from the University of Massachusetts poetry website < http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~poetsma/mulberry.html>.

 

 As it is read, students concentrate on the rhythm and place a mark above the syllables where they hear stress.  You may need to help them get started by tapping out the rhythm with your fingers on a desk.  Tapping will let them experience the regular stresses, no matter how many syllables fall in between.

 

 Once they find the pattern, ask them use Sound Recorder to read part of the story.  They can then listen to themselves and record the story again and again until they are satisfied.

 

 As an optional activity, you can have them post a message in Nicenet to answer these questions:  Why do you think Marco saw more than a horse and wagon?  Why did he turn “red as a beet” at the end?  Think about what you see when you are on your way home from school and write a description.

 

 “That can't be my story. That only a start, I'll say that a ZEBRA was pulling that cart.”

by Debbie Mitchell

But what he really needed was a lesson in stress and rhythm.

 

 Not only did putting stress on the wrong syllable of “battery” prevent the clerks from understanding José, but also equal stress on all syllables throughout the utterance would have been interfering with comprehension.

 

 A regular patterned beat of stressed and unstressed syllables and pauses is what makes spoken English sound similar to music. This stress-timed rhythm is particularly heard in poetry, jazz chants and limericks.

 

 

Dr. Seuss: A prescription for stress!
Text Box: An ESL student, José, walked out of Wal-Mart feeling frustrated because no one could help him find a ba-tREE.

TELL@ELI  Email: gorenczo@ehelios.acomp.usf.edu

Copyright © 2004, University of South Florida.