An ESL curriculum example

1-2   Read a Text Aloud

Responses for questions 1 and 2 will each be given a score. One will be for pronunciation, and the other for stress and intonation.

Stress and intonation

One critical component of correctly speaking English is knowing when and where to use stress. An English sentence should never be spoken in a flat way, called a “monotone.”

Look at the example below. Put the accent, known as “stress” in English, on the words or syllables shown in boldface:

Never speak English in a monotone.

Another very important aspect of English is intonation, or rising and falling pitch. When speaking English, think of peaks and valleys. The most important words in the sentence—the ones that carry the most meaning—will have a rising pitch.

Here’s an example of the proper use of stress and intonation in the same sentence.

Never speak ^English in a ^monotone.

Note that the last syllable in the sentence, [tone], has falling pitch.

Another example of the proper use of rising and falling pitch, along with the use of proper stress, is shown below:

When speaking ^ENglish, think of ^PEAKS and ^VALleys.

Note that rising pitch is normally used at the end of a question, such as:

Did you ever learn about stress and intonation in an English language ^CLASS?

Pronunciation

English pronunciation is known for being very difficult.  Just when the French speaker understands a pronunciation rule, out jumps an exception to that rule.  Below are just a few English sounds that French speakers mispronounce, or, perhaps, overpronounce:

[th]    The English [th] as in “three” is often mispronounced as an s or f, sounding like [sree] or ]free].

[r]       The throat expands when Americans say the [r] sound, but the French [r] starts at the back of the tongue, then rubss against the soft palate. Both sounds are extremely different from each other.

[ə]       The most common vowel sound in English is the schwa. This is the unstressed syllable in words with more than one syllable. For example, that very word is pronounced “sil UH bul.”  The primary sound that is stressed is the “UH” in the middle of the word, and the schwa, or unstressed sound, is “bul.” (The first syllable has secondary stress.) The French typically stress every syllable, making words sound too clipped. This is why a good grasp of English stress patterns is so important.

[æ]     This basic English sound, as in the word [cat], doesn’t exist in French. The French speaker will usually pronounce it as [ket].

[i]       Phonetic symbols such as the one to the left certainly make things more difficult when it comes to pronunciation. While this particular symbol looks like the short “I” sound used in such words as “sit,” it is actually the long E sound of “keep.”

[I]       This is the phonetic symbol for “sit.” French speakers usually mispronounce the short [i] in words such as “sit” to the long E sound.  Thus, “sit” sounds like “seet.” It’s a good idea to practice differentiating words such as bit, beat, bid, bead. 

[ɒ]      The word “lot” is often pronounced with the sound of “oh,” which would seem to be correct. However, this sound should actually sound like “ah,” so the word should be pronounced as “laht.”

[ü]      The French speaker normally overpronounces this sound to “ooh,” making the word “could” sound like “cooled.”

The following scoring guide will be used to evaluate your spoken response:

SCORING GUIDE FOR QUESTIONS 1 AND 2: PRONUNCIATION

SCORE	RESPONSE DESCRIPTION
3	Pronunciation is highly intelligible, though the response may include minor lapses and/or other language influence.
2	Pronunciation is generally intelligible, though it includes some lapses and/or other language influence.
1	Pronunciation may be intelligible at times, but significant other language influence interferes with appropriate delivery of the text.
0	No response OR no English in the responseOR response is completely unrelated to the test

 

 

Inflection

If you are reading something aloud with any type of positive emotional message, you modulate you voice, meaning you “add a smile” to what you say.  However, if you read a death notice, you modulate your voice to imply sadness. This is called “inflection.”

There are varying degrees of inflection that are used in reading aloud. Not everything is “happy,” so you read the words with no emotion. This doesn’t mean you forget about stress and intonation, though. Those are still critical elements in reading and, of course, in speaking English.

You also need to remember that a question normally ends with a rising pitch and that  an exciting message ends with an exclamation mark. Show enthusiasm when you see an exclamation mark! Finally, a sentence normally ends with a falling pitch.

Read the following simple statements out loud for practice:

1. I can’t believe I won!
2. Could you please pass me the salt?
3. The meeting minutes will be given at the beginning of the meeting.

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There are two Read-a-Text-Aloud questions on the TOEIC Speaking Test. In each question, the directions and Read-a-Text-Aloud text will appear on your screen. You will hear the directions being read by the narrator.

After 45 seconds, you will hear “Begin reading aloud now.” Then you will read the text, and your response will be recorded. An example is below.

Directions: In this part of the test, you will read aloud the text on the screen. You will have 45 seconds to prepare. Then you will have 45 seconds to read the text aloud.

The scoring guide below will be used to evaluate your spoken response:

SCORING GUIDE FOR QUESTIONS 1 AND 2: INTONATION AND STRESS

SCORE	RESPONSE DESCRIPTION
3	Use of emphases, pauses, and rising and falling pitch is appropriate to the text.
2	Use of emphases, pauses, and rising and falling pitch is generally appropriate to the text, though the response includes some lapses and/or moderate other language influence.
1	Use of emphases, pauses, and rising and falling pitch is not appropriate, and the response includes significant other language influence.
0	No response OR no English in the response OR the response is completely unrelated to the test.

 The following paragraph is the type you will read aloud on the TOEIC. Read the following paragraph silently, then answer the questions that follow.

 ¹For many brides to be, planning a wedding is stressful. ²You strive to find the right dress, reception hall, flowers, cake, reception food, and many other details. ³However, there’s just too much to do, and you keep arguing with your spouse-to-be! ⁴To avoid all these pre-wedding problems, please contact fairytales.com, the premiere wedding planning company. ⁵With 30 years of experience, we have been making brides and grooms very happy for a long time! ⁶We want our couples to start out their married life in the most blissful, stress-free way possible. ⁷In fact, our motto is “A happy marriage begins as a fairy tale.” ⁸May we bring yours to life?

1. What is the message of this paragraph? Is it happy or sad? Would you read it with a smile in your voice or with sadness?
2. Would you use rising or falling pitch on the last syllable at the end of sentence 1?
3. Which words would you stress in sentence 2?
4. Would you read sentence 3 in a flat, emotionless tone? How about sentence 5?
5. Which words would you stress in sentence 6?
6. Would you use rising or falling pitch on the last word of the paragraph?