Before You Begin a New ESL Class By Kenneth Beare

If you are going to take an English or ESL class soon, it's best to go prepared. By following these tips you'll make sure that you understand your English learning strengths and weaknesses so you can get the most out of your new class.

Why Take an ESL Class?

The English learning goals quiz takes a fun approach to understanding your English learning needs. Just answer a few questions and you'll get feedback on what kind of a learning might be best for you. The Important Questions article provides a deeper look at the questions you should ask yourself about your learning goals before you begin the class. By understanding the answers to these questions, you will have a better idea what type of exercises and topic areas will be important to you. This could make the difference between taking an ESL course or an English for Specific Purposes (i.e., business or computer) course.

What Level am I?

It's a good idea to take a few level tests before you begin. The review tests listed cover all the major learning points for each level. Begin with a test you think is right for your level and take note of the questions you answer incorrectly. If the test is too easy, congratulations! Try to take the next most difficult test. If you pass the advanced level test with more than 80%, you may want to consider taking an English course that specializes in your English learning objective - for example a Business English Writing course.

Intonation and Stress - Key to Understanding and Being Understood

Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud.

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds.

Wait a minute the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening

You are only partially right!


This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).

Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.

Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can". When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.

They can come on Friday . (stressed words underlined)

On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't".

They can't come on Friday .

As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed.

So, what does this mean for my speaking skills?

Well, first of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDSsuch as

• Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
  
• (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct
  
• Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
  
• Adverbs e.g. often, carefully

Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDSsuch as

• Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
  
• Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
  
• Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite
  
• Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
  
• Pronouns e.g. they, she, us
  

Let's return to the beginning example to demonstrate how this affects speech.

The beautifu l Mountain appeared transfixe d in the distance . (14 syllables)

He can come on Sunday s as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening . (22 syllables)

Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressedwords in each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn't worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be understood (we native speakers certainly don't). You should however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.

Now, do some listening comprehension or go speak to your native English speaking friends and listen to how we concentrate on the stressed words rather than giving importance to each syllable. You will soon find that you can understand and communicate more because you begin to listen for (and use in speaking) stressed words. All those words that you thought you didn't understand are really not crucial for understanding the sense or making yourself understood. Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English.