Word stress is an important part of learning
a word & it is probably the easier area of phonology
for both the student & the teacher. We've looked at
it briefly in the Teaching Tip 'A
Vocabulary Presentation'
What about the word stress
rules? Do you pass them on to your students? And as some
are quite complicated, which ones do you look at? And then
there are always exceptions to the rules!
Have a look at these groups,
mark the stress on the words & work out the rules:
1. finger, father, ugly, apple,
silly, happy
2. insult (n), insult (v),
export (n), export (v)
3. information, decision,
invention
4. automatic, infectious,
falsify
5. entertain, ascertain, refugee,
evacuee, Japanese, journalese, cigarette, laundrette
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Here are the rules:
1. With two syllable adjectives
& nouns, the stress tends to fall on the first syllable.
2. With some words that can
act as a verb or a noun, such as produce, import, content,
increase, the stress falls on the first syllable with the
noun & the second syllable with the verb.
3 & 4. With words ending
in -tion, -sion, -ic, -ify, -ious & -ify the stress
tends to fall on the syllable before the suffix.
5. The suffixes -ain, -ee,
-ese, -ette tend to take the stress.
There are more rules so check
them if you are not familiar with them - even if you don't
pass them on to your students, you need to be aware of them.
You can introduce a rule when it crops up in some vocabulary
or focus on it through a problem solving task as the one
above. On the wall, have a word stress rule chart, adding
to it when a new rule appears. Unless the students are particularly
keen for more rules I should limit them to the easier ones.
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There are many ways of developing the group dynamics in
a class. One way is to involve the students in the running
of the lessons, adding new meaning to the idea of students
being 'active' in the classroom. Here are a few ideas:
- at the end of an exercise
- a comprehension task or a grammar gap fill - choose a
student who you see has the answers correct & ask them
to do the feedback, as you would normally do, by eliciting
from the group.
- get the early finishers
to monitor & help out the others. Encourage them to
correct each other.
- to help with sub-skill awareness,
ask the students how long they might need on a certain task,
or how they would like to tackle it. If they say they'd
like to take 5 minutes for a scan reading task then you
will need to correct them but the more you do it the better
they will become at gauging the requirements.
- negotiate what will be in
the next two week of lessons by discussing the upcoming
units & see if they are interested in the themes. Plan
accordingly.
- students take it in turns
to choose some vocabulary to review as a warmer. You could
give them five or six activities to choose from to use with
the vocab & they do the warmers for you.
- encourage student to student
correction in both oral & written activities.
- if you need to do a roll
call with younger learners, get them to do it, taking it
in turns each day.
- also for younger learners,
get them to draw & write on the board for you.
- ask the students to take
it in turns to bring in an article for all to read. You
could ask them to design a comprehension task to go with
it. Clearly this would only work with those with easy access
to English reading materials. Ask the student who brings
the text to give it out, give instructions, control feedback
etc..
- the idea of getting more
advanced students to give presentations on areas of their
interest fits in here as well.
- at the beginning of a lesson
assign a student to tell all what happened in the previous
lesson.
- assign study buddies - if
a student misses a lesson, instead of you explaining what
was missed, the study buddy does the job.
- at the end of a lesson,
assign a student to run through what has been covered.
While the above are taking
place, keep an eye on what is going on but make a point
of getting out of the way. You may feel that some of the
above ideas are asking too much of the student & that
it is your job & what they pay you for. OK, but if done
sensitively, you are giving the class back to the students
& it will become much more enjoyable for all. Think
about what the student might be able to do & transfer
it over to them - not all the time at once, but now &
then until they are comfortable.
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| Skeleton texts |
 |
Here's a nice idea for showing students
that they really don't need to understand everything in
a text & that they can read much quicker if they look
for the information words.
You need a shortish text,
blank out all of the 'grammar words', leaving all the 'content
words'. Make sure that you leave enough words in to make
the text comprehensible. A way to do this is to imagine
it is a telegram you are sending, leaving just enough for
it to be understandable. Present your students with the
skeleton text, first looking at the title & predicting
what the article might be about, & then give them 30
seconds/1 minute to read the text - be strict about the
time limit. The students then compare their ideas about
the content, before general feedback.
Then give out the full text
& ask the students to read for any more information.
If you had left the information in the skeleton text, there
won't be any more to find. Then ask for their impressions
on the difference between the two texts, & go on to
discuss strategies for speeding up their reading.
You could then transfer this
idea to the speaking skill by moving on to 'prominence'.
For more on
this.
Here's a text that would be
ideal for the business English class. There are ideas on
exploiting the text at the end.
First, there's the example skeleton text
followed by the full version:
|
Italian court tightens up on lax
timekeeping
By Peter Popham in Rome
Independent - 21.3.03
ITALIAN OFFICE workers - nip out
- working - shopping - penalty - law - Court - appeal.
Two employees - tax department -
Sicily - shopping - supermarket.
- absence - noticed - tried - make
up - extra time - prosecuted - guilty - court.
- Judges - confirmed - verdict -
back - Sicily - sentencing - fine. 'defendants - insisted
- absence - no harm - time - made up.
- ruling - latest - judgements -
deter - abusing - time. - ruling - same court - sentence
- employee - phone calls - one a day - 64 days - "embezzlement
of consumption". - another - made one - call
- every two days - let off.
Two nurses - jailed - fined - failing
- punch - cards - lunch breaks - increasing - earnings.
- honours - wrestling - problem - lateness - employees
- late - sacked - came - own steam - not - travelled
- public - judgements - read - ignored - public employees
- Italy - calls - mum - duty - know - best time -
supermarket.
(If you think your
students might need more or less information words
from the text, just add them in)
|
******************************
|
Italian court tightens up on lax
timekeeping
By Peter Popham in Rome
Independent - 21.3.03
ITALIAN OFFICE workers who nip out
during working hours to do a spot of shopping will
be liable to the full penalty of the law, following
a judgement this week in the Court of Cassation, the
state's highest court of appeal.
Two employees of the tax department
in Sicily took time off work to go shopping together
in the local supermarket.
Their absence was noticed and although
they tried to make up for it by putting in extra time
on another day, they were prosecuted all the same,
and found guilty in a Sicilian court.
This week the Judges in Italy's highest
court confirmed the verdict and sent them back to
Sicily for sentencing, probably with a fine. 'The
defendants had insisted their absence caused no harm
to the state and the time they had bunked off had
been made up.
The ruling is the latest in a series
of judgements seeking to deter workers' from abusing
their employers' time. A recent ruling by the same
court confirmed the sentence on a public employee
for making personal phone calls - one a day for 64
days - under the heading "embezzlement of consumption".
A little confusingly another defendant who made only
one private call every two days was let off.
Two nurses were jailed and fined
for failing to punch their cards in and out during
lunch breaks, thus increasing their earnings. Their
honours have also been wrestling with the problem
of lateness, and are of the view that employees arriving
late can be sacked if they came under their own steam
but not if they
travelled by public transport.
These judgements will be read, pondered,
digested and then ignored by the millions of public
employees in Italy for whom the daily calls to mum
and granny are a duty and who know the best time of
day to whizz round the supermarket.
|
Ideas for exploiting the text:
• Lexical sets of work
& the law.
• Other vocab: nip out,
a spot of shopping, took time off, to make up for it, time..bunked
off, let off, wrestling with a problem, came under their
own steam, to whizz round.
• Grammar: past simple/present
perfect, passives
• Overall text organisation:
introduction - problem - solution - exemplification - conclusion
• Fun follow up roleplays
from this text: Employer talking to worker about absenteeism,
saw them shopping in the local supermarket etc.
• Discussion: employees
rights within work time - for & against
• Writing: letters to
the editor.
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