Peer teaching task sheet 4

Word stress
Each pair should pick ONE of the following problems, think about it and look up the relevant literature
(in that order). Prepare to briefly present your findings as if you were teaching an EFL class. Make sure
to build on students’ knowledge of their native language (compare and contrast sounds and
regularities across the two languages). Make it concise, simplify aspects of the problem if necessary,
avoid terminology if you can, but make sure to introduce it if necessary. The explanation (10–15
minutes) must be complemented by an original exercise for practice (5–10 minutes). Make sure not to
copy exercises from coursebooks, come up with your own task. You can divide up your time however
you want, but both members of the pair should contribute equally to the completion of the task.

Problem 1

Consider the following words: parade, kitchenette, divorcee, picturesque, balloon.

Examine the following:

- Where is the stress in all of these words?

- What is responsible for the placement of the stress? Is this regular? If so, cite further examples
(or counterexamples).

Problem 2

Some compounds (e.g. postman, necklace, breakfast, Jackson) demonstrate a peculiar stress pattern.
They are made up of two words, both of which would be stressed in isolation. However, in these cases,
only one element gets stressed, the other is ‘reduced.’

- What is the stress pattern of such compounds?

- What do these compounds have in common? Why does reduction happen in these words but
not in others? Cite further examples.
- What is the vowel in the unstressed syllables in these words and what would be their ‘full’
value? (Compare e.g. the ‘man-vowel’ in postman and in old man.)

Recommended literature:

English Pronunciation in Use – Advanced (Hewings, 2007) (p. 47)

Nádasdy Á.: Background to English Pronunciation: Phonetics, Phonology, Spelling. 2nd ed., Angol-
Amerikai Intézet, Budapest, 2002.

Nádasdy Á.: Practice Book in English Phonetics and Phonology, Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest,
2003.

and other sources listed here