Practice Stress and Intonation for English Students

Practice Stress and Intonation for English Students It is often surprising at how focusing on the stress - timed quality of English helps students improve their pronunciation skills. Students often focus on pronouncing each word correctly and therefore tend to pronounce in an unnatural manner. By focusing on the stress - timed factor in English - the fact that only content words such as proper nouns, principle verbs, adjectives, and adverbs receive the stress - students soon begin sounding much more authentic as the cadence of the language begins to ring true. The following lesson focuses on raising awareness of this issue and includes practice exercises. Aim: Improving pronunciation by focusing on the stress - time nature of spoken English Activity: Awareness raising followed by practical application exercises Level: Pre - intermediate to upper intermediate depending on student needs and awareness Lesson Outline Begin awareness raising activities by reading an example sentence aloud to the students (for example: The boys didnt have time to finish their homework before the lesson began). Read the sentence the first time pronouncing each word carefully. Read the sentence a second time in natural speech.Ask students which reading seemed more natural and why it seemed more natural.Using the ideas students come up with, explain the idea of English being a stress - timed language. If the students speak a syllabic language (such as Italian or Spanish), point out the difference between their own native language and English (theirs being syllabic, English stress - timed). Just this awareness raising can make a dramatic difference in such students abilities.Talk about the differences between stressed words and non-stressed words (i.e. principle verbs are stressed, auxiliary verbs are not).Write the following two sentences on the board:The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.He can c ome on Sundays as long as he doesnt have to do any homework in the evening. Underline the stressed words in both sentences. Ask students to try reading aloud. Point out how each sentence seems to be approximately the same length in stress - time.Ask students to look through the example sentences and underline the words that should be stressed in the worksheet.Circulate about the room asking students to read the sentences aloud once they have decided which words should receive stresses.Review activity as a class - ask students to first read any given sentence with each word pronounced followed by the stress - timed version. Expect a surprise at the quick improvement students make in pronunciation (I am every time I do this exercise)!! Another approach can help students improve their stress and intonation skills is sound scripting. Sound scripting has students highlight content words using a word processor. You can take it one step further with this lesson  helping students learn how to choose the focus word to improve pronunciation. This quiz  on Content or Function Words can be used to help students test their knowledge of which words are function or content words. Pronunciation Help - Sentence Stress Take a look at the following list of stressed and non-stressed word types. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter(most) principle verbs e.g. visit, constructAdjectives e.g. beautiful, interestingAdverbs e.g. often, carefully Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a fewAuxiliary verbs e.g. dont, am, can, werePrepositions e.g. before, next to, oppositeConjunctions e.g. but, while, asPronouns e.g. they, she, us Mark the stressed words in the following sentences. After you have found the stressed words, practice reading the sentences aloud. John is coming over tonight. We are going to work on our homework together.Ecstasy is an extremely dangerous drug.We should have visited some more castles while we were traveling through the back roads of France.Jack bought a new car last Friday.They are looking forward to your visiting them next January.Exciting discoveries lie in Toms future.Would you like to come over and play a game of chess?They have been having to work hard these last few months on their challenging experiment.Shakespeare wrote passionate, moving poetry.As you might have expected, he has just thought of a new approach to the problem.

Hunting for Witches in the Family Tree

Hunting for Witches in the Family Tree Whether your ancestor was actually a practicing witch, or someone accused of or involved with witchcraft or witch hunting, it can add a touch of interest to your family history. Of course, were not talking about the witches we think of today - the black pointy hat, the warty nose, and the ragged broomstick. Most women, and men, who were accused of witchcraft, were feared for their nonconformist ways more than anything else. It can still be fun to claim a witch in the family tree. Witchcraft in Europe Colonial America Talk of witches often brings the famous Salem Witch Trials to mind, but punishment for practicing witchcraft was not unique to colonial Massachusetts. A strong fear of witchcraft was prevalent in 15th century Europe where strict laws against witchcraft were put into effect. It is estimated that around 1,000 people were hanged as witches in England over a 200-year period. The last documented case of an individual found guilty of the crime of witchcraft was Jane Wenham, charged with â€Å"conversing familiarly with the Devil in the shape of a cat  in 1712. She was reprieved. The largest group of convicted witches in England were nine Lancashire witches sent to the gallows in 1612, and nineteen witches hanged at Chelmsford in 1645. Between 1610 and 1840, it is estimated that over 26,000 accused witches were burned at the stake in Germany. Between three and five thousand witches were executed in 16th and 17th century Scotland. The anti-witchcraft sentiment that had been growing in England and Europe undoubtedly had an impact on the Puritans in America, ultimately leading to the witch craze and subsequent Salem Witch Trials Resources for Researching the Salem Witch Trials Salem Witch Trials - Documentary Archive Transcription ProjectThe Salem Witchcraft Papers from the University of Virginias Electronic Text Institute provide a wealth of primary source documents, including a verbatim transcript of the legal documents generated during the arrests, trials, and deaths of the accused Salem witches in 1692. The site also includes site lists of jurors, Puritan ministers, judges, defenders and others involved in the Salem Witch Trials, plus historical maps.The Associated Daughters of Early American WitchesA membership society geared toward preserving the names of those accused of witchery in Colonial America prior to 1699 and to locate living female descendants of those witches. Contains a comprehensive list of accused witches.Genealogy of Witch Trial Ancestors FamiliesGenealogy reports for six of the individuals involved in the infamous Salem Witch Trials, including accused witches and officials involved in the trials. Researching Witch Trials the Witch Craze in Europe The Witch Hunts (1400-1800)Maintained by Professor Brian Pavlac at Kings College in Wilkes Barre, PA, this site examines the European witch craze through timelines and discussion of common theories, errors, and myths behind the Witch Hunts. You can also suffer through witch hunting first hand in an interesting simulation of a 1628 witch hunt.​Survey of Scottish Witchcraft 1563 - 1736An interactive database contains all individuals known to have been accused of witchcraft in early modern Scotland - nearly 4,000 in total. Supporting material provides background information on the database and an introduction to Scottish witchcraft. References Gibbons, Jenny. Recent Developments in the Study of the Great European Witch Hunt. Pomegranate, Vol. 5, 1998.History of the witch hunt (Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung). Maintained by the Server Frà ¼he Neuzeit (University of Mà ¼nchen) in cooperation with the Arbeitskreis fà ¼r Interdisziplinre Hexenforschung (research group for interdisciplinary witchcraft research). Mainly in German.Zguta, Russell. Witchcraft Trials in Seventeenth-Century Russia The American Historical Review, Vol. 82, No. 5, Dec. 1977, pp. 1187-1207.

The Rock Musical Hair Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Rock Musical Hair - Essay Example The songs that originated from that idea are about letting your hair grow long, wild and free with lyrics like "My hair like Jesus wore it, Hallelujah, I adore it, Here, Baby, There, Mama, everywhere, Daddy, Daddy, Hair, Hair, Hair, Hair! Keep on growin', Keep it flowin' my Hair!" The music was loud, joyous, soulful, angry and celebratory, capturing the spirit of the New Generation of Baby Boomers who were rebelling against their parent's generation of values that stood for right-wing conservatism. The musical Hair debuted on Broadway in April 1968. It had undergone a transformation with new staging and 12 new songs added. Hair was unusual in it's staging in that it had the performers running into the audience, handing out flowers, and inviting them to participate at the end of the performance in a big "be-in" on stage. It was also unique in that much of the cast, dressed as Hippies, was scantily dressed or even appeared nude. They even had some staging where performers swung from ropes over the audience and the stage, while singing. In The New York Times, Clive Barnes wrote an enthusiastic review, praising the original production: "Mr. O'Horgan has worked wonders. He makes the show vibrate from the first slow-burn opening - with half-naked hippies statuesquely slow-parading down the center aisle - to the all-hands-together, anti-patriotic finale." 1 The unique stagin