TESL Ottawa April 25, 2008

TESL Ottawa April 25, 2008

Language Timing – Using Music & Rhythm in the ESL Classroom

This workshop features a physical, phonological approach to language: the sounds, rhythms and sensations of the spoken word. It will present music & song as well as rhythmic speaking as a means to facilitate language acquisition and to enhance clear communication. It will highlight word and sentence stress, intonation and voice register used to convey the emotions used in colloquial language..

Come prepared to sing, dance and shake rhythm instruments!

“If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance.” (African Proverb)

Jerry Golland has been teaching ESL to adults at the Ottawa Catholic school Board since 1991. He taught ESL in Istanbul, Turkey from 1987-1991.

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Pusan University of Foreign Studies (South Korea)
TESOL Program

Supra-segmental Phonology
(Rhythm, Intonation and Stress-timing)


May 2004

The languages of the world may be classified in many ways. One distinctive classification is how the timing of tone groups are arranged.

Tone groups in speech are bursts of sound, or sound frames, which contain a chunk of coded language patterns.

A tone group is said in a single breath.

These chunks seem to be rather similar to the 'packets' of information, which are sent through packet-switching networks on the internet, and their size is closely related to the needs of our human processor, the brain.

There are various options for arranging the sounds in tone groups. We usually recognize these choices as rhythm, intonation and stress;

(actually intonation contains a large number of more detailed features).

Stress is essentially anything, which marks one bit of sound out from the surrounding speech stream. It is typically made up from a subtle combination of duration, speed, pitch and loudness.

The feature of sound duration is often called 'timing'.

The timing method of sound chunks varies is in a continuum amongst languages.

At one extreme of this continuum are so-called stress-timed languages,

and at the other extreme are so-called syllable-timed languages.

In practice, no language is entirely syllable-timed or entirely stress-timed.

In syllable-timing, each syllable has the same time duration. This means that tone groups vary in duration, depending upon the number of syllables they contain. Because a tone group is said in a single breath, in practice this variation in tone group length is limited. Thus in a tone group with more syllables than usual, all the syllables might be said more quickly to 'fit within a single breath'.

In stress-timing, each tone group has more or less the same time-duration, (a single breath) regardless of the number of syllables it contains.

This means that some unstressed syllables will be spoken very quickly, while the stressed syllable or syllables will often have a much longer time duration.

If the tone group has an unusual number of syllables, everything might be speeded up, but stressed syllables will usually take relatively longer to say than unstressed syllables.

In English, tone groups average about five syllables (though it is possible to have a tone group of only one syllable !).

Usually (but not always) the stressed syllable in a stress-timed language is the one containing new information.

By changing the time taken to say any particular syllable in a stress-timed language, the meaning of that tone group can be changed. This is a very tricky game indeed ! Native speakers do it automatically, but the speaker of a syllable-timed language who tries to learn a stress-timed language will probably have great trouble mastering the new arrangement (and meanings) of sound patterns.

∑ English is very strongly a stress-timed language.

∑ Chinese is strongly syllable-timed.

∑ Korean is more or less syllable-timed.

∑ Japanese is timed by 'mora'. (A mora can be C+V (consonant + vowel), V, C+/y/+V, the sound /n/, or a special voiceless pause between certain consonants. Each mora has the same duration).

Teaching Supra-segmental phonology in English

The teaching of supra-segmental phonology is done very, very badly worldwide, even by native speakers. The sad truth is that very few teachers know how to handle it, even if they are aware of the problem.

The first rule for teaching this stuff is that you can't really do it analytically. It is just too complex. Rhythm, intonation, and stress-timing are best learned by imitation done frequently for a short time (every day !) . The teaching style should be brisk, humorous and ready to adapt instantly to handle individual difficulties.

One tool for learning rhythm, intonation and stress-timing is shadow talking. This is a big topic to explore in itself, but basically involves intense concentration, and an attempt to talk at exactly the same time, and to the same speech template, as a model speaker. Shadow talking is mimicking raised to an art form. Tape record two or three minutes of the speech of a speaker you admire. Figure out the meaning first, so you don't have to worry about that while you are practising intonation. Finally, shadow talk the speaker again and again and again, every day for a few minutes. Forget your own personality. BECOME the other speaker, like an actor. Don't be discouraged! Most people give up quickly. If you persist, you can become very skilled at shadow talking. It is one of the few known ways to master native speaker intonation.


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Web Pages on Phonology


1) This is a simple yet definitive explanation of timing in language. ESL teachers and learners, please note the unique nature of English stress-timing. This could be of great interest to teachers who are teaching syllable-timed languages to English-speaking students.

http://thormay.net/lxesl/tesol/intonation/intonation1.htm

2) You may be able to contribute your knowledge & experience to this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllable-timed_language

3) This is an excellent presentation of syllable-timed & stress- timed languages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timing_(linguistics)

4) From New Zealand on Tone Groups:

http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/exp_lang/tonegroups.html

5) From New Zealand on Intonation:

http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/exp_lang/why.html



Learning English through Music and Rhythm!


∑ The key to understanding, speaking & writing English is becoming familiar with the unique rhythm of our language!

Syllables: Weak & Strong

∑ In English, some syllables are very long, loud & clear.

These are stressed or strong syllables. The stressed syllables are usually verbs & nouns.

∑ Other syllables are very short, quiet and unclear.

These are unstressed or weak syllables.


Unstressed (Weak) syllables: The workhorses of the English Language
Words that are unstressed in English are typically the “grammar” words:

Articles: a / an / the
Verb “to be”: am/is/are/ was / were/
Pronouns: I/ you/ he / she/ it / we / they
Possessives: my / your / his / her / our / their
Conjunctions: and / but / so…
Prepositions: in / on / at / …
Auxiliary verbs: do / don’t / does /doesn’t /did /didn’t
Weak syllables – You need to learn to hear them!

Because these grammatically important words are unstressed when English-speaking people are talking at a normal speed, they are hard to hear and hard to learn!

It’s very hard for students of English to hear these weak syllables! That’s why most grammar mistakes occur in conjunction with these weakly pronounced words. Learn to hear them!


Syllable Stress in Other Languages

In most languages there is less of a distinction between strong & weak syllables.

In French, for example:

“Ou voulez-vous aller?”: Is pronounced evenly:

6
DA
1 2 3 4 5
da da da da da

All these syllables are quite evenly spaced.

The English translation:
“WHERE do you WANT to GO?” is pronounced:

1. 2. 3.
DA DA DA
da da da
(1/2/3 are evenly spaced even though there are 2 syllables between 1& 2 but only one between 2 & 3 giving English its characteristic rhythm.)

That’s why a beginner student or newcomer might say:

I want eat lunch. (only verbs & nouns )

But will leave out the weak syllables:

I want to eat my lunch. (Weak preposition & possessive)
The problem is…

…students naturally listen for sounds and rhythms that are familiar to them in their native language. These sounds are learned very early in life – even before you are born! They become very strongly fixed in your brain!

To learn to hear English sounds and rhythms takes time and patience! You really need to use your ears because – as you know – in English, what you see on the page and what you hear can be very, very different!

Using rhythmic pronunciation exercises is a good way to practice your listening and train your ears to hear English sounds.

The Role of Music in Language Teaching

* The learner is using an entire text with a single, strong idea; not a series of unrelated sentences as in many grammar exercises.

* The learner is speaking in whole, fully constructed sentences.

*The learner is using the correct word and sentence stresses – i.e. the unstressed words are not being over-pronounced.

* By pronouncing the unstressed words accurately, the learner is being sensitized to the sound structure of the English language, wherein the weak, unclear syllables carry so much vital grammatical information.


Rhythmic Pronunciation Exercises

* The student speaks in full sentences, accurately expressing complete thoughts.

* Keeping the natural rhythm of English helps the brain to memorize these patterns of sound. It takes lot of repetition!

*The correct rhythm helps the student to speak the unstressed (weak) syllables correctly and train the ear to recognize these important sounds.

* Speaking with the correct rhythm and syllable stress gives students the encouragement to go out and try to speak English in real life situations. They know that they have produced accurate language in the classroom and will want to “try their wings” in the real world.

Students usually find that after practicing rhythmic speaking, they are usually able to understand native English speakers much better. A student once told me, “This puts English in my mouth!”

Carolyn Graham & Jazz Chants

The primary source for Jazz Chants is Oxford University Press. You can see the whole catalogue here:

http://www.us.oup.com/us/corporate/publishingprograms/esl/?view=us

Carloyn Graham pioneered this methodology.

Read about her and Language Timing here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Graham