How can I help learners with correct word stress?
Why word stress matters
An important part of pronunciation in English lies in word stress: which syllable of a word receives the strongest stress. If learners put the stress on the wrong syllable, they can be harder to understand, cause confusion, and in some cases, even change the meaning of a word.
Many languages have regular, predictable patterns of word stress and some even use written marks to show stressed syllables when they don’t follow the expected pattern. Stress patterns in English are more variable and there are no stress marks on the words themselves. This means that learners have to learn word stress as part of the pronunciation of new words.
The power of schwa!
One of the keys to understanding English pronunciation is recognizing the weak vowel sound, known as schwa and shown by the phonemic symbol /ǝ/. It appears in many unstressed syllables, for example, about begins with a schwa rather than an A sound; in UK English, words like mother or later end with a schwa; and the A in the middle of the word syllable is also a weak schwa sound. Even if they’re not familiar with the full set of phonemic symbols in the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), it’s worth teaching learners to recognize /ǝ/ and understand its role in unstressed syllables.
Working with word stress in the dictionary
Each entry for a word in the dictionary shows the pronunciation right at the top.
The pronunciation in both British (UK) English and American (US) English
The phonemic spelling of the word using IPA symbols
A stress mark ‘ before the stressed syllable
A dot . to show boundaries between other syllables
🔊icons you can click on to hear audio of the word, in both UK and US English
You can also go to the dictionary pronunciation pages to hear the pronunciation of the words, along with a sound-by-sound transcription, where you can listen to each sound separately.
In addition, words in the CEFR all have pronunciation videos, so you can hear the word on its own and in a sentence, in both UK and US English.
With your class, look up a word in the dictionary and show the entry on screen:
Point out the IPA symbols and ask how many syllables the word has – point out the syllable divisions in the IPA.
Draw special attention to the stress mark and explain this comes before the stressed syllable.
Listen to the audio (focus on UK or US as appropriate for your learners) to listen for both the pronunciation and the stress.
Model the word and emphasize the stress, then get learners to copy for themselves.
Remind them that weak syllables may not be pronounced as they’re spelled. For example, in the verb form of object, the O at the beginning is not an O sound but the weak schwa, the same as in about.
Stress shifts activity
Highlighting examples of words where changing the stress changes the meaning can be a good way to emphasize the importance of word stress and for students to become familiar with how word stress is shown in the dictionary.
Preparation: Choose a set of words that have a different stress pattern in their noun and verb forms, as appropriate for the level of your learners. Create simple cards with the words written in large letters on each one, plus a card that says NOUN and one that says VERB.
Choose one of the words as an example. Ideally, pick a word that has come up recently in class. Show the dictionary entry on screen and point out how the word stress is marked (as above) and contrast the noun and verb entries. Remember to link the word stress, the part of speech, and the meanings.
Divide the class into groups, then give each group a list of words to look up. Tell them to look at both the meanings and the word stress patterns for each one. For many of these word pairs, learners might be familiar with one form, but the other form may be new, so it’s also a chance to expand their vocabulary.
When the groups have had time to check and study the words, hold up one of the word cards along with either the noun or verb card. Be careful not to say the word aloud!
Ask for a volunteer to read the word, emphasizing the correct stress pattern, and then to use it in a sentence. Learners could use a dictionary example or make up their own example sentence. The important thing is that they get both the correct stress pattern and show they’ve understood the correct meaning of the noun or verb.
Why it works
Pronunciation information in the dictionary (both the IPA and the audio) can be a useful reference for you as a teacher if you’re not 100% sure about the pronunciation of a word.
For learners, sometimes it can be hard to hear word stress, so having both the written transcription with the stress marks and the audio together can be helpful.
Giving learners the skills they need to check pronunciation in the dictionary enables them to look up new words they encounter outside of class. Many pronunciation sites on the internet use computer generated audio, which is often unreliable. The Cambridge Dictionary audio has all been recorded by humans and checked for accuracy.