Sentence Stress and Connected Speech - Lesson 1

Talk a Lot Free Spoken English Course – 19th June 2009 Sentence Stress & Connected Speech (Lesson 1) – Notes Part 1: Sentence Stress 1. Choose a sentence: We’ve applied for a mortgage with our local bank. 2. Underline the content words: We’ve applied for a mortgage with our local bank. 3. Draw a box around the stressed syllable in each content word: We’ve applied for a mortgage with our local bank. 4. Write the vowel sound for each stressed syllable: =================L~fL===========LlWL=======================L]rL====LôL= We’ve applied for a mortgage with our local bank. This is the “sound spine” of the sentence – the most important sounds. 5. Find any weak forms in the function words: =================L~fL===========LlWL=======================L]rL====LôL= We’ve applied for a mortgage with our local bank. Next, we have to connect these stressed sounds together. Part 2: Connected Speech 1. Draw boxes to show the sound at the beginning and the end of each word. Draw a white box for a vowel sound, and a black box for a consonant sound. (Don’t worry about the sound at the beginning of the first word, or at the end of the last word.) We've applied for a mortgage with our local bank. Identify how the words connect together: (vc), (cv), (vv), and (cc). Are the connections easy to say quickly? We've applied for a mortgage with our local bank. (cv) (cc) (vv) (vc) (cc) (cv) (vc) (cc) (vc) OK! (cv) OK! (vv) : ( (cc) : ( 2. Use connected speech techniques to make the difficult connections easier: We've applied for a mortgage with our local bank. (cv) (cc) (vv) (vc) (cc) (cv) (vc) (cc) OK elision intrusion OK OK OK OK assimilation =========================================LÇL=================LêL====================================================================================================LäL==􀃎==LïL=3. Put together both pieces of work: ================================L~fL=====================================================LlWL===============================================================L]rL==================LôL= We've applied for a mortgage with our local bank. (cv) (cc) (vv) (vc) (cc) (cv) (vc) (cc) OK elision intrusion OK OK OK OK assimilation =========================================LÇL=================LêL====================================================================================================LäL==􀃎==LïL= Further study: www.englishbanana.com/talkalot • Talk a Lot Handbook • Connected Speech Templates • Connected Sentence Cards • Free Copying Licence • Free Licence to Run Courses • Certificates of Authorisation