Oral English Communication Skills

 

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Another very important aspect of communication skill in English language is phonetics.

Proper pronunciation of words is important in fostering understanding between the

parties that are communicating. Therefore, knowledge of phonetics is needed for

effective business communication skills. This note will explain more about English

phonetic.

2.0 OBJECTIVES OF THE NOTE

On completion of this note, you should be able to:

· Explain what English phonetics is.

· Discuss word stress in English phonetics.

· Explain what is called syllable in oral English communication.

· Describe sentence stress and the meaning of homophones.

Know the expectation from interviewee by the interviewer

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Phonetics

Phonetics is the science of the sounds of human speech. Phonetic theory regards the

nature of sounds in speech (called phones) and how they are made, heard and thought of.

Phonology, which came from it, studies sound systems and sound notes (such as

phonemes and distinctive features). Phonetics is one of the two parts of orthographical

linguistics, the other part being spelling, differing from grammar and lexis.

3.2 English is not Phonetic

Always remember that English is not "phonetic". That means that we do not always say a

word the same way that we spell it.

Some words can have the same spelling but different pronunciation, for example:

· I like to read [ri:d].

· I have read [red] that book.

Some words have different spelling but the same pronunciation, for example:

· I have read [red] that book.

· My favourite colour is red [red].

Learn the 52 Sounds of English

The English language may have 26 letters of the alphabet, but it has double that number

of sounds: 52. Knowing and recognizing the 52 sounds will help to give you good

pronunciation. Of course, everybody knows that good pronunciation helps our speaking.

But do you know that good pronunciation also helps our listening?

3.3 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.

In this lesson we look at the most important aspects of word stress, which are

· Understanding Syllables for Word Stress

· What is Word Stress?

· Why is Word Stress Important?

· Where do I Put Word Stress?

· Word Stress Rules

· Word Stress Quiz

3.3.1 Understanding Syllables

To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables.

Every word is made from syllables.

Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.

Word                                                              number of syllables

dog                             Dog                                         1

green                          Green                                     1

quite                           Quite                                      1

quiet                           qui-et                                      2

orange                       or-ange                                  2

table                           ta-ble                                     2

expensive                  ex-pen-sive                           3

interesting                 in-ter-est-ing                        4

realistic                      re-al-is-tic                               4

unexceptional          un-ex-cep-tion-al                 5

Notice that (with a few rare exceptions) every syllable contains at least one vowel (a, e, i,

o or u) or vowel sound.

3.3.2 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.

 

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa,

aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera,

etCETera

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.

Try to hear the stress in individual words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or

in films for example. Your first step is to HEAR and recognise it. After that, you can

USE it!

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.

3.3.3 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 phoTO... So without

hearing the whole word, you probably know what the word is ( PHOto...graph or

phoTO...grapher). It's magic! (Of course, you also have the 'context' of your

conversation to help you.)

This is a simple example of how word stress helps us to understand English. There are

many, many other examples, because we use word stress all the time, without thinking

about it.

3.3.4 Where do I Put Word Stress?

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.

 

3.3.5 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

2 Stress on last syllable

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

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.

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4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)

 

5 Compound words (words with two parts)

 

3.4 Sentence Stress in English

Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help

you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast.

Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember that word

stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is accent on certain

words within a sentence.

Most sentences have two types of word:

· content words

· structure words

Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry

the meaning or sense.

Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make

the sentence correct grammatically. They give the sentence its correct form or "structure".

If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the

sentence.

If you remove the content words from a sentence, you will not understand the sentence.

The sentence has no sense or meaning.

Imagine that you receive this telegram message:

3.5 Homophones

Homophones are words that have exactly the same sound (pronunciation) but different

meanings and (usually) spelling.

For example, the following two words have the same sound, but different meanings and

spelling:

hour

our

In the next example, the two words have the same sound and spelling, but different

meanings:

bear (the animal)

bear (to carry)

Usually homophones are in groups of two (our, hour), but very occasionally they can be

in groups of three (to, too, two) or even four. If we take our "bear" example, we can add

another word to the group"

bare (naked)

bear (the animal)

bear (to tolerate)

" Our bear cannot bear to be bare at any hour ."

4.0 CONCLUSION

In order to imbibe the culture of using proper pronunciation of English words, conscious

use of the words over time is required. That is learning it from a literature is actually not

enough but practicing what is learnt is paramount. More so, use of dictionary or any other

reference book will help in providing an update for solid knowledge of English phonetics

5.0 SUMMARY

In this note you have learnt about English phonetics. The following topics were treated

under the note

1. Word stress

2. Sentence stress

3. Homophones

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