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TITLE CONTENT FEATURES OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE STRESS TIMING RHYTHM INTONATION PATTERNS PUBLIC SPEAKING SPEECH EXAMPLE - CONSUMERISM AND HEALTH CARE

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Features of Spoken Language

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Pronunciation. Definition:
1. The act or manner of speaking a word or

2. A speech sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or a combination of morphemes.

Word Stress in English Word stress is your magic key to understanding spoken English. Native speakers of English use word stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for them that they don't even know they use it. Non-native speakers who speak English to native speakers without using word stress, encounter two problems: 1. They find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking fast. 2. The native speakers may find it difficult to understand them. What is Word Stress? In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly. Let's take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they sound the same when spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in each word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the shape of each word is different. shape PHO TO GRAPH PHO TO GRAPH ER PHO TO GRAPH IC total syllables 3 4 4 stressed syllable #1 #2 #3
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The syllables that are not stressed are weak or small or quiet. Native speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension. There are two very important rules about word stress:
1. One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two

stresses, you have heard two words, not one word.) 2. The stress is always on a vowel. Why is Word Stress Important? Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or French for example, pronounce each syllable with eq-ual em-pha-sis. Other languages, English for example, use word stress. Word stress is not an optional extra that you can add to the English language if you want. It is part of the language! English speakers use word stress to communicate rapidly and accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for example, you do not hear a word clearly, you can still understand the word because of the position of the stress. Think again about the two words photograph and photographer. Now imagine that you are speaking to somebody by telephone over a very bad line. You cannot hear clearly. In fact, you hear only the first two syllables of one of these words, photo... Which word is it, photograph or photographer? Of course, with word stress you will know immediately which word it is because in reality you will hear either PHOto or pho TO.. So without hearing the whole word, you probably know what the word is ( PHOto graph or pho Tographer). This is a simple example of how word stress helps us understand English. There are many, many other examples, because we use word stress all the time, without thinking about it. There are some rules about which syllable to stress. But...the rules are rather complicated! Probably the best way to learn is from experience. Listen carefully to spoken English and try to develop a feeling for the "music" of the language. When you learn a new word, you should also learn its stress pattern. If you keep a vocabulary book, make a note to show which syllable is stressed. If you do not know, you can look in a dictionary. All dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a word. This is where they show which syllable is stressed, usually with an apostrophe (') just before or just after the stressed syllable. (The notes at the front of the dictionary will explain the system used.) Look at (and listen to) this example for the word plastic. There are 2 syllables. Syllable #1 is stressed.
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example PLAS TIC

phonetic spelling: dictionary A /pls'tik/

phonetic spelling: dictionary B /'pls tik/

Rules of Word Stress in English There are two very simple rules about word stress:
1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you

hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.) 2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants. Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally. 1 Stress on first syllable rule Most 2-syllable nouns Most 2-syllable adjectives 2 Stress on last syllable rule Most 2-syllable verbs example to preSENT, to exPORT, to deCIDE, to beGIN example PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable. 3 Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end) rule example
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Words ending in -ic Words ending in -sion and -tion

GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic teleVIsion, reveLAtion

For a few words, native English speakers don't always "agree" on where to put the stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy.

4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end) rule Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy Words ending in -al 5 Compound words (words with two parts) rule For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part example BLACKbird, GREENhouse bad-TEMpered, old-FASHioned to underSTAND, to overFLOW example deMOcracy, dependaBIlity, phoTOgraphy, geOLogy CRItical, geoLOGical

Stress Timing
Some languages are syllable timed and others are stressed timed. In syllable timed languages, the syllables are the same length and the number of syllables determines the length of time required to say something. English is a stressed time language. In a stressed time language, speakers try to make the amount of time to say something the same between the stressed syllables. If there are three or four unstressed syllable between the stressed syllables, the unstressed syllables will be spoken faster, so that the speaker can keep the rhythm. Also, in order to keep the rhythm, if there are no unstressed syllable between stressed syllables, the stressed syllables are stretched out to space them equally. The time it takes to say something in English depends on the number of stressed syllables, not the number of syllables.

The following group of numbers each have 4 stressed syllables, but the actual syllables in each group is different.
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a. b. c. d. e.

one five nine thirteen seventeen

two six ten fourteen eighteen

three seven eleven fifteen nineteen

four eight twelve sixteen twenty

(actual syllables) 4 5 6 8 9

To practice getting the beat and rhythm of English try counting from one to twenty. Tap with your finger on a table as you count the numbers. Keep the tapping evenly spaced. The beginning of each number should occur on the tap.

Look at the three sentences below. They all have the same number of stressed syllables, but a different number of unstressed syllables. The stressed syllables should be said on the tap. All three sentences have four stressed syllables and should take about the same amount of time to say.

Bob ate some corn. 4 syllables Kenny has swam to France and back. 8 syllables The Americans are buying some souvenirs and posters. 15 syllables

Rhythm
As you know, spoken English words with two or more syllables have different stress and length patterns. Some syllables are stressed more than others and some syllables are pronounced longer than others. The same is true of phrases and sentences. Different words in a sentence have stronger stress and are pronounced longer and other words are weaker and shorter. This pattern of strong and weak stress and short and long pronunciation gives English its rhythm. It is important for non-native speakers to understand and master the rhythm of English. If the wrong words are stressed in a sentence or if all words are pronounced with the same length or loudness, the speech will be difficult to understand. Words that have the most stress in English are called content words. Content words are usually the nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns (demonstrative, 6

possessive, reflexive, and interrogative). These words are important to express the main meaning of the sentence. Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Pronouns : Terry, car, dinner : eat, study, drive : blue, large, oval : quietly, smoothly, equally : that, theirs, himself, what

Function words are those words that are weaker and shorter. They include auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, and possessive adjectives. These words are less important in expressing the meaning of the sentence. Auxiliary verbs Prepositions Conjunctions Determiners : may, do, have (if not the main verb) : under, around, near : but, not, : the, some, each : my, your, our

Possessive adjectives

Look at the following sentences. Note that the content words ( in bold ) are Stressed more ( pronounced louder and longer ) than the functions words. When are you coming to dinner? I have never liked the color red. Motorcycles can be dangerous to drive or ride on. Last month Carol got a new job in San Francisco. Not everyone likes chocolate ice cream, but I do. chocolate Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday.

Intonation
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Content words in spoken sentences are the words that are most important, the words that are stressed. Some sentences may have three, four, five or more content words that are stressed. However, not all the content words have the same stress. There is always one word that has the most stress and emphasis in the sentence. This word is sometimes called the information focus word. The information focus word will have different pitch (highness or lowness of a sound) and intonation (the rise and fall of pitch when speaking) than the other words in the sentence. English speakers use intonation and pitch to focus the listeners attention on what is important in the message. (Other languages use word order to show this emphasis). On the information focus word, the intonation will usually rise on that word (or stressed syllable- if more than one syllable) and then go back down. The pitch may also remain up, depending on the sentence type. Short sentences, clauses, and phrases usually only have one information focus word because having more than one is confusing to the listener. The information focus word is usually the last word or near the end of the sentence, but not always. Look at the following sentences and note the rising pitch of the information focus word. The content words are in bold, the information focus word (or stressed syllable) is in italics. What did you eat? I ate an apple pie.

What's the matter with you?

When are you coming over tonight?

I'm upset because I just lost my job.

I'll be there at 7:00. Sure, when?

Would you like to go to the movies with me? Why is the chicken burnt?

Because I had the oven set to high.

Intonation Patterns
There are three basic pitches in English- these are normal, high, and low. There is also a very high pitch, which is used to express strong emotions such as surprise, anger, or fear. (The very high pitch will not be covered in this text).

The normal pitch is where the voice usually is. High is where the voice rises to indicate information focus. Low is where the voice falls, usually at the end of sentences.

In most conversations the voice is normal at the beginning of the sentences, rises at the information focus word (or syllable), then falls back to normal, and drops to low at the end of the sentence. Look at the intonation patterns below. There are different intonation patterns used for different types of sentences. The intonation pattern for statement, commands, and WH questions is basically the same- the voice starts at a normal pitch, rises at the intonation focus word, falls back to normal after the intonation focus word, and falls to low at the end of the sentence. With yes/no questions and requests, the pitch starts at normal and rises at the end of the sentence. Statements I like riding horses.

My English isn't that good yet. Commands Get off the horse now.

Give me the key. Wh questions When do you go riding?

Who do you like in the fifth? Yes/no questions Do you ever fall off?

Have you eaten yet?

Requests Could I have some money?

Can I go with you sometime?

Public Speaking
Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. It is closely allied to "presenting", although the latter has more of a commercial connotation. In public speaking, as in any form of communication, there are five basic elements, often expressed as "who is saying what to whom using what medium with what effects?" The purpose of public speaking can range from simply transmitting information, to motivating people to act, to simply telling a story. Good orators should be able to change the emotions of their listeners, not just inform them. Public speaking can also be considered a discourse community. Interpersonal communication and public speaking have several components that embrace such things as motivational speaking, leadership/personal development, business, customer service, large group communication, and mass communication. Public speaking can be a powerful tool to use for purposes such as motivation, influence, persuasion, informing, translation, or simply entertaining. A confident speaker is more likely to use this as excitement and create effective speech thus increasing their overall ethos. Effective public speaking skills can be learned by following a few simple points. A good speaker will be organized and have the confidence to present the substance of the speech to an audience. Being able to speak effectively is a valuable skill that can be learned as a student and applied later in life. The organized speaker will avoid the errors of people who talk in public but don't necessarily make good speeches. The organized speech will follow the following three point recipe:

HEADLINE

Capture your audience's attention by giving them a reason for listening. This establishes a theme for your speech and can be a provocative quote, statistic, or story. The thesis or main idea of your speech is then presented here and it relates to your theme. This is where you tell your audience what you are going to talk about.

MAIN BODY
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Break your idea into separate points (three is suggested) that explain or support your thesis and expand upon your theme. This is where your audience is told about your topic.

ECHO

Revisit your headline and summarize your main idea by referring back to the points made in your main body. This provides your audience with a complete package and tells them what you have told them. Characteristics of a Good Speaker Speaking in front of an audience is a skill and one that everyone should have learned in college. Being able to communicate and express yourself to many people is essential in every aspect of life, no matter the type of work you do. A good speaker does not necessarily have to have a good and loud voice; and although thats an advantage, without the right characteristics, unfortunately, an impressive loud voice isnt enough to keep people listening. If you intend to become a speaker thats not only engaging but impressive, build the right characteristics in yourself and watch people awe while youre speaking. Confident and Funny Stepping onto a stage, shy and uncertain of yourself, results in an audience that is also unsure of you and your ability to entertain them for what, the next 30 minutes? Any audience wants someone speaking to them to be convincing and the only way you can be convincing is to show youre confident about yourself and about what youre saying. Dont fidget around with your hands, hair or any equipment on the speakers table (pens, papers and microphone ). Add audience bonuses if you throw in a few funny punch lines out of the blue. This makes the audience feel a little more comfortable with you, as well as gives you time to think and pace out as they laugh. Dont be too serious. Keep a light mood during speaking so you wont feel nervous. Bring some handouts such as maps, time lines, recent Emails or website printouts. Use you own experience as the basis for your talk. Tell lots of stories and then relate them to points you want to make.

Organized and Responsible

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No speaker should come to an event without being prepared. Speaking requires a lot of energy, planning and research, especially if youre not as familiar with the subject. Learn why your audience is there listening to your speech, know their wants and goals. Be responsible enough to research on important things that will help make your speaking a success. Avoid being late to events as this ensures major negative points to you as a speaker. Everyone will be hating you already as soon as you step onto the stage. Determined and full of passion To make an effect on your audience while speaking, you have to be determined to make your point. Use various methods to pass your message onto your audience and use passion to get them hooked. Be convincing with your passion for the subject and earn respect for your dedication. Speaking is a skill that everyone can learn with much practice and sufficient dedication.

Speech example Consumerism and Health Care

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Good morning ladies and gentlemen. First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me to give a talk about Consumerism and Health Care. As consumers, we should not believe everything we see or hear. Advertisements are everywhere - on television and the radio, in newspapers and magazines. But if you ask me, in my opinion, advertisements do more harm than good. It is very expensive to advertise, but who pays for the advertising? The consumers! The well-advertised products are more expensive than the same or similar products that are not given so much publicity. This is because the prices of the things include the costs of advertising as well. Thus, the consumers have to pay more because of advertisements. Everyone knows that increased spending can lead to inflation which is bad for the economy of the country. We the consumers, must help fight inflation. Dont be fooled by the advertisements; buy what is cheaper and is usually equally good. Ladies and gentlemen Advertisements also target a certain group of people. Children are often the victims. They make the things so attractive and appealing that children will ask their parents to buy them. They will keep pestering their parents who usually surrender to their demands. But not all parents can afford to buy everything their children want, and this can bring about a lot of hardship on the poor parents who are striving hard to make ends meet. Besides, often thins are not actually what they appear to be in the advertisements. Certain product may look so good in the advertisement, but when we buy it and take it home, we find that it gets spoil in no time at all or it does not bring about the effects it promises. Certain brands of milk, for instance, promise to make ones child a genius. The worse thing is that these things are very expensive, so those who fall prey to the tricks of advertisements end up wasting their money for nothing. It is also obvious that in advertisements, there is discrimination against certain groups of people. Those using the beauty products are usually women who are young, slim and beautiful, the people doing household chores such as cleaning the house and doing the cooking and laundry are usually women, the bread-seller or the man running the teh tarik (tea) stall by the roadside is usually an Indian. We can say, therefore, that advertisements can lead to certain fixed, stereo-typed ideas that are not very healthy and should not encouraged.

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Ladies and gentlemen Furthermore, advertisements can be a bad influence on languages. Many make use of broken English or bazaar Malay, thinking that it will make the advertisements funny. The problem is people will usually pick up these words or phrases from the advertisements and keep using them for the fun of it. Some of them, students especially, will end up speaking in that manner and this will affect their learning of the language. The Singapore government realized the problem and imposed a ban on the use of Singlish Singapore English on TV and radio programmes and in advertisements. Other than languages, advertisements can also be a bad influence on the culture or the way the people live. They promote the western lifestyles among the youths. These young people will learn to talk, dress and behave in the same way, no matter how ridiculous it may be. For the mature audiences, advertisements will cash in on their dreams of becoming rich and their craving for expensive things. They make you believe that if you posses a product of a certain brand, you will appear high-class and people will respect you. In fact, many of these products are expensive because of their brand names but actually, they are of very poor quality. Besides, many of these companies are cigarettes. Smoking, as everybody knows, is bad for health and can lead to diseases such as lung cancer. Ladies and gentlemen Considering all these, it is clear that advertisements can bring about many undesirable effects. We, the consumers, should be aware of all these. We should make sure that we do not fall victim to their traps and should view advertisements with a pinch of salt. Thank you for your kind attention.

Benefits of the task given

Many benefits can be derived from the task given. When I think of grammar, I think of word usage, which of course everyone butchers. I think a skill everyone should have is good grammar. When correct intonation is used while you practice English pronunciation, the listener understands the message faster and can respond much
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more quickly. If the correct pattern is not used, the communication can become frustrating for both the speaker and listener. I believe good grammar should be important to everyone. It is so great to read a well written piece of literature or listen to an everyday conversation where grammar is well spoken. There is a lot of slang today, compared to in the past. Even articles in the newspaper sometimes are lacking good grammar skills. We really need to pay attention to our grammar skills before we lose the ability to use language correctly. A person who speaks and writes well is more respected. For me, pronunciation is one of the most important things in learning English. I really want to be able to speak like a native speaker. I know it is hard but it is possible to be a near-native.... I have been trying to learn proper pronunciation at all moments in my learning process of English. I always tried to imitate English sounds by repeating after listening tape. Frankly, I have learned pronunciation but I still could not speak the language properly. Through the task of a public speaking encouraged me to develop a sense of responsibility for my own learning process, which, in turn, makes me better learner because I become more aware of what I need to do to succeed in my language learning process. Public speaking teaches me how to communicate ideas clearly. It provides the means to that end. Anyone who wants to stand up for himself or to take a stand for others can benefit from developing public speaking skills. Sure, public speaking is tough. Many people actually hate it. It is also a skill that does not always come naturally and can require some effort to develop.

References :

http://articles.castelarhost.com/eight_parts_of_speech.html taken at 10 September 2011 Peggy Chan (2006). English Grammar. Selangor Darul Ehsan: Sasbadi Sdn. Bhd.
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www.uottawa.ca/.../arts/writcent/hypergrammar/partsp.html

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