Word stress
A major benefit of focusing students on how words are stressed is the extra mental engagement
with the word that it gives. A language learner needs to engage with a word many times,
preferably in different ways, in order to really learn it - identifying and practising word stress can
provide one or two of those engagements.
Why word stress is important
What word stress is
Some 'rules' of word stress
How I help my students
In the classroom
Conclusion
Why word stress is important
Mistakes in word stress are a common cause of misunderstanding in English. Here are the
reasons why:
Stressing the wrong syllable in a word can make the word very difficult to hear and
understand; for example, try saying the following words:
o O O o
b'tell hottle
And now in a sentence:
"I carried the b'tell to the hottle."
Now reverse the stress patterns for the two words and you should be able to make sense of the
sentence!
"I carried the bottle to the hotel."
Stressing a word differently can change the meaning or type of the word:
"They will desert* the desert** by tomorrow."
o O O o
desert* desert**
Think about the grammatical difference between desert* and desert**.
I will look at this in more detail later.
Even if the speaker can be understood, mistakes with word stress can make the listener
feel irritated, or perhaps even amused, and could prevent good communication from
taking place.
These three reasons tell me that word stress is an important part of the English language, and it
is something I should help my students with.
What word stress is
When we stress syllables in words, we use a combination of different features. Experiment now
with the word computer. Say it out loud. Listen to yourself. The second syllable of the three is
stressed. What are you doing so that the listener can hear that stress?
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