Exercise 1.15 application of stress
Mark every word or syllable with an accent marker where you think that the sound is stressed. Use the first sentence as your example. Check the anwer key beginning on page 193. pause the CD.
Listen and remark the stressed word with your marker. after you’ve put in the marker where you think they belong, take one of the color translucent marker. And as I read very slowlly, mark the words that I stress. I am going to exagerate the word far more than you normally hear in a normal reading of the paragraph. You can mark either the whole word or just the strong syllable whichever you prefer, so that you have a bright spot of color for where the stress should fall. Note: write a normal everyday sentence with at least 7 words and put it through as many changes as possible. Try to make a pitch change for each word in the sentence and think about how it changes the meaning of the entire sentences.
Application of intonation
There is always at least one stressed word in a sentence. And frequently you can have quite a few if you are introducing a lot of new information or if you want to contrast several things. Look at the exercise in Exercis 1.15. Take a pencil and mark every word that you think should be stressed or sound stronger than the words around it. I’d like you make just an accent mark to indicate the word you think should sound stronger than the others around it. Reminder: the 3 ways to change your voice intonation are- 1.volume, speak loud, 2. length, stretch out word and 3. pitch, change your tone. Pause the CD and work on the paragraph below.
Exercise 1.15 application of stress
Mark every word or syllable with an accent marker where you think that the sound is stressed. Use the first sentence as your example. Check the anwer key beginning on page 193. pause the CD.
Listen and remark the stressed word with your marker. after you’ve put in the marker where you think they belong, take one of the color translucent marker. And as I read very slowlly, mark the words that I stress. I am going to exagerate the word far more than you normally hear in a normal reading of the paragraph. You can mark either the whole word or just the strong syllable whichever you prefer, so that you have a bright spot of color for where the stress should fall. Note: if you do the exercise only in pencil your eye and mind will tend to skip over the accent marks. The spots of color, however, will register as different and thereby encourage your pitch change. This may strike you as unusual, but trust me, it works.
Hello! My name is Ann. I am taking an American accent training. There is a lot to learn. But I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American intonation pattern pretty easily. Although the only way to get it is to practice all the time. I use the up and down or peaks and valleys intonation more than used to. I’ve been paying attention to pitch, too. It’s like walking down a staircase. I’ve been talking to a lot of Americans laterly. And they tell me that I am easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on. But the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well! What do you think? Do I? Pause the CD and practise reading the paragraph out loud 3 times on your own.