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TESOL Matters Vol. 9 No. 5     (October/November 1999)

From the column of the TESOL Speech/Pronunciation Interest Section
by Ann Wennerstrom

Increasingly, ESL pronunciation teachers and materials writers are including suprasegmentals -- stress, rhythm, and intonation -- in their repertoire. A case in point is Grant's pronunciation book, Well Said (1993), which confines work on vowels and consonants to appendices while concentrating on suprasegmentals in the body of the work. Similarly, Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin's teacher-training manual, Teaching Pronunciation (1996), devotes two of its four major content chapters to suprasegmentals.

Why are suprasegmentals worth so much attention? This article represents one phonologist's view: Suprasegmentals are a meaningful, phonological part of the English language, not to be confused with paralanguage, the manipulation of the voice for expressive or pragmatic purposes.

A sense of rhythm is a universal human trait. All cultures have music, chants, drumming, poetry, and other rhythmic art forms. Languages as well have rhythmic foundations. In English, the stressed syllables of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) follow a rhythmic sequence. As an example, consider the rhythm of this sentence from Morley (1979):

I'd like a chicken salad sandwich.

Here, the stressed syllables of the content words -- like, chicken, salad, and sandwich -- are aligned regularly into rhythmic beats whereas the function words and unstressed syllables do not add appreciably to the duration of the sentence. This rhythm may be difficult for ESL students from language backgrounds in which every syllable carries a rhythmic beat.

Upon this rhythmic base rides the intonation -- the pitch melody of the utterance, which conveys distinctive meanings. For example, if the sandwich arrives and it is tuna salad rather than chicken, the customer might respond:

I'd like a CHICKen salad sandwich. (not tuna)

A contrast is conveyed by the intonation, although the words remain the same.

Intonation rules can be learned by ESL students, just as grammar rules can. They can lead to more comprehensible speech as well as better understanding of others' speech. However, it is important to distinguish these phonological aspects of intonation from paralanguage -- voice manipulations for pragmatic or emotional purposes. For example, if the customer ordering chicken salad and receiving tuna decides to stamp his feet and shout, "I want a CHICKen salad sandwich!!", the pitch of the entire utterance will be higher as a result of his emotional outburst, but the intonation will still convey the contrast.

Ladd (1980), a well-respected Canadian scholar of intonation, uses an analogy from segmental phonology to illustrate the distinction between what he refers to as the gradient aspect of intonation and the phonological aspect. The vowels in the words big and beg are different phonologically: They have distinctive forms and meanings. The words big and bi-i-i-g convey a more expressive meaning difference, but the vowel is phonologically the same.

Likewise, intonation can be exaggerated or minimized for expressive or pragmatic purposes while maintaining its basic phonological form.

To conclude, I offer a few recommendations for teaching ESL students about suprasegmentals: 1. Make students aware of the universality of rhythm, comparing the patterns of their own languages with the English system.

2. Teach the phonological elements of intonation to adults just as grammar rules are taught, and teach them within meaningful contexts.

3. Integrate practice with suprasegmentals into a variety of ESL skill areas -- listening, vocabulary, conversation, fluency, and presentation skills (as in Wennerstrom, 1993).

The supra in suprasegmental need not mean superficial. Though traditionally glossed over, suprasegmentals are central to clear, effective communication and should be welcome in any ESL class.

References

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Goodwin, J. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Grant, L. (1993). Well said: Advanced English pronunciation. Boston: Heinle and Heinle.

Ladd, R. (1980). The structure of intonational meaning. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Morley, J. (1979). Understanding spoken English. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Wennerstrom, A. (1993). Content-based pronunciation. TESOL Journal, 1(3), 15-18.

Ann Wennerstrom is affiliated with the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington.