Pronunciation, Intonation and Chunking in Speaking Module

Now that we are through with all the parts of the Speaking module, including grammar and voice modulation, we also need to understand that Pronunciation, Intonation and Chunking are equally crucial components of a perfect speaking. Remember, 25% of the weight goes to how you pronounce and chunk the words in the Speaking exam!!

So let’s discuss these concepts one by one and learn how you can improve them. 

Pronunciation

Steps to improve pronunciation:

1.Become familiar with English sounds and the stress within words.

English is not a phonemic language, that is, the words are not always spoken the way they are written. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, but 44 sounds and phonetic symbols are used to represent the sounds in the dictionaries. 

Moreover, not only the sound but also the stress within the words and in a sentence plays an important role. One part of a bi-syllable and a multi-syllable word is always stressed more than the other parts.

2. Understand the syllables in words and learn to modulate your speech.

In English speech, vowel sounds give syllables to a word.

For instance:

• Prop has one syllable
• Proper has two syllables
• Properly has three syllables

A. Stress in single-syllable words 

When a word has more than one syllable then one of the syllables is stressed more than the other syllables. Sometimes, the stronger syllable is stretched more in order to bring a strong impact in our speech. 

In case the vowel sound is followed by two consonant sounds, the sound of the first consonant goes with the preceding vowel sound, and the sound of the second consonant goes with the next vowel sound.

Example:

Pamphlet - pamph-let

Pragmatic - prag - ma - tic

Sacrosanct - sac - ro - sanct

B. Stress in bi-syllable words  

One of the syllables is stressed more than the other. The weak vowel sounds are not stressed. Open your mouth more for the stressed part – put more force of breath on the stressed sound.

Weak vowel sounds in English Speech - The weak vowel sounds are not stressed in English speech.

Let’s understand the vowel sounds that are weak.

• The sound of ‘y’ at the end of words such as easy, policy, strategy, etc. is weak.
• The sound of ‘u’ in words such as put, ‘ou’ in words such as should, ‘oo’ in words such as foot is the same. This sound is weak.
• The sound of ‘i’ in words such as pin, gin, minute, etc. is weak.
• The sound of ‘a’ in words such as amount, ‘e’ in words such as water, ‘u’ in words such as circus is the same. This sound is weak.

Rules for stress in bi-syllable nouns, verbs and adjectives

Nouns -Mostly, the stress is on the first syllable, if the first syllable is weak, the stress is on the second syllable. Example:

•  Transport
•  Transfer
• Machine

Verbs - Mostly, the stress is on the second syllable, if the second syllable is weak, the stress is on the first syllable. Example:

•  Transcend
•  Acquaint
•  Transport

 Adjectives - Mostly, the stress is on the second syllable, if the second is weak, the stress is on the first one. Example:

• Unique
• Easy
• Stubborn

C. Stress in multi-syllable words  

One of the syllables is stressed more than the others. There can be a secondary stress also in words that have four or more syllables, ie, one more syllable has some stress. Weak sounds are not stressed. Open your mouth more for the stressed part – stretch the sound more than the others.

Nouns - Start with the last syllable...if weak, stress the penultimate...if the penultimate is also weak, stress the anti-penultimate ...if all are weak, stress the first syllable.

 Example:

• Mineral
• Deposit
• Transaction
• Benevolence
• Acknowledgement
• Acoustics
• Character
• Abnormality

 Verbs - Start with the first syllable...if weak, stress the second one,...if the second is also weak, stress the next one,...if all are weak, stress the last syllable.

 Example:

•  Determine
•  Examine
•  Acknowledge
•  Characterize

 Adjectives - Start with the last syllable...if weak, stress the penultimate...if the penultimate is also weak, stress the anti-penultimate...if all are weak, stress the first syllable.

 Example:

• Unitary
• Collective
• Abnormal

In a sentence, put more stress on the keywords or impact words i.e. noun, verb, adjective and adverb. Put more force of breath on these words.

 Example:

• The rise of Bangladesh in the Indian travel market has been quite rapid. 
• Could you help me please? 
• Tyre companies are planning to work with the Rubber Board to increase rubber production and quality.

Sometimes, a correction in the information or emphasis on certain information is needed. Then, accordingly, the words are stressed.

Example: 

• I need this pen, not that.
• This course is for students across the world.

Intonation

When we speak, we put our words together in different parcels/ chunks or tone units according to the meaning we wish to convey or to make it easy for the other person to understand what we say. For instance, if we have to give our contact number to somebody, we divide the numbers in two or three groups. 

Example - In case your contact number is 9098761368, you put the numbers in different units  - 9098  761 368 - called tone units and the voice rises or falls at the end of the tone unit.

Therefore, to have “pauses” at the correct place in your speech, you must learn to put the words of your speech in correct tone units. Otherwise, the pauses will be at the wrong places and that will make your speech incoherent.

Intonation is the rise and fall of voice before a pause in a group of words called tone unit, and the tone unit plays an important role in English speech. While speaking, put the words of a tone unit together. Speak out the words of one tone unit like one word and have the right intonation. You should not split phrases into different tone units. 

Your intonation shows whether you are confident, hesitant, polite or rude.

Chunking 

Chunking gives us the tone units. For effective speech, you should be able to chunk your sentences into word groups.

How should you decide the word groups?

1. According to the meaning you wish to convey

Example:

• Those who left/slowly got the benefit.
• Those who left slowly/ got the benefit.

1. According to the phrases in the sentence

• The next/ movie will be/ released /on Friday. - WRONG
• The next movie/ will be released /on Friday. - CORRECT

In English, if you wish to have more coherence in your speech, you must focus on chunking of words.