Page 19 - Acedemic_Comms_F5

Academic Communication for Advanced Secondary Schools Crafting meaning

Sentence stress and intonation

1. Sentence stress is often linked to the way our voices rise and fall (intonation) while
speaking. The natural rise and fall in pitch usually determine stressed and unstressed
words.

2. In English, there are two basic types of intonation: rising intonation and falling
FOR ONLINE READING ONLY
intonation. Falling intonation is far more common and often uses stressed verbs
and objects. Rising intonation is less common but can be used to express a negative
emotion or ask a Yes/No question.
Understanding and using stress in words and sentences effectively can help convey
meaning more accurately and naturally in English.

Activity 1�10
1. Put stress on words in oral sentences. Use the following words and add more
words from different specialisations.

wave art heat break ion paint mass come light charge

2. Search different words with the following affixes and practise pronouncing
them in oral sentences.

de- pre- un- -tion -sion -ic -ical -ity -ety -graphy -ic -ity
-graphy -ient -ual -ious -ical

Common pronunciation challenges in English
There are several reasons why pronouncing English words accurately can be tricky. One
issue is that English has more vowel sounds than letters in the alphabet. This means that
one letter can make multiple sounds, and one sound can be represented by different letters.
The varying vowel sounds in English can be particularly challenging to produce because
the positions of the speech organs are constantly changing, making it hard to maintain a
steady position. Additionally, the different qualities of vowel sounds can make them hard
to differentiate. For instance, the long /i/ sound in “seat” and the short /ɪ/ sound in “sit”
differ in tongue height and advancement but sound very similar acoustically. Similarly,
diphthongs or vowel glides pose another difficulty in pronunciation.
(a) Vowel sounds

English has approximately 20 unique vowel sounds, far more than the five vowels
in Kiswahili. Interestingly, these vowels can be pronounced in various ways, and
multiple-letter combinations can represent the same sound. This implies that individuals
learning to speak English fluently must master the accurate pronunciation of each
vowel sound and distinguish between different combinations of vowels.

12 Student’s Book Form Five

30-Jun-24 11:02:02 AM
Academic Communication.indd 12
Academic Communication.indd 12 30-Jun-24 11:02:02 AM