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Pronunciation Project

English Rhythm – Stress timing

Lesson Objectives:

1. Students recognize content words and stress those words.

2. Students recognize structure words and attenuate those words.

Necessary materials:

3. Copies of “Stress Timing” handouts

Task and time Step-by-step Purpose

The Rhythm of Hopefully you’re a musical person and can have some Expose the students to
English fun with your classroom. If not, you can use the mp3 filling out the spaces in
~3 provided. between content words.
1- In an even and not so slow rhythm, sing the
numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, have ¼ of your class join in.
2- Sing: 1, and 2, and 3, and 4. Pointing out to the
second ¼ of your students. Give them time to
pick this up.
3- Sing: 1, and then 2, and then 3, and then 4.
Pointing out to the third ¼ of your students.
Give them time to pick this up.
4- Sing: 1, and then a 2, and then a 3, and then a
4. Pointing out to the last ¼ of your students.
Give them time to pick this up.
Tell them that this rhythm can be compared to English,
where the numbers are the important words (content
words), and everything else is not important (structure
words.

Content words Explain to them that content words have meaning to a Explain what are
and structure sentence. They are usually pronouns, nouns, verbs, content, and structure
words. and adverbs. words. Teach them the
~4 min Structure words usually are smaller and carry more stress of each word.
grammatical understanding than actual meaning.

They can follow their handout

Ex.: Dogs chase cats (Sentence with only content
words)
Clap your hands for each word. Have your students do
the same.

But you can also say: (Start with “dogs chases cats” in
a slower rhythm so the students don’t get frustrated
when they add too many structure words). You can
use the mp3 provided as a reference.

The dog chased the cat

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The dog has chased the cat

The dog has been chased by the cat

Alternative teaching
You can also use the butterfly technique as described
by Burri and Baker (2016) in this situation.
Ask the students to touch their hands to their opposite
shoulder, having their arms crossed at the front of
their chest. Every time there is a content word, they
tap their dominant hand and when there is a structure
word, they tap their other hand to the shoulder. Their
dominant hand is usually stronger and the tap should
be as strong as the stress of the word.
You can refer to the mp4 file for reference.
Extra Practice Following the same pattern for the previous exercise, Students have fun while
do the new sentences. practicing stress-timed
rhythm.

Reference

Burri, M. & Baker, A. (2016). Teaching rhythm and rhythm grouping: The butterfly technique.
English Australia Journal: the Australian journal of English language teaching, 31 (2),
72-77.
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Pronunciation Project

Content words
Are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning
or sense—the real content.
Ex: Nouns, verbs, and adverbs.

Structure words:
Are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence
correct grammatically. They give the sentence its correct form—its structure.
Ex: Articles, pronouns, possessive pronouns, verb conjugations.

Clap! Clap! Clap

Dogs Chase Cats
The Dog Chased The Cat
The Dog Has Chased The Cat
The Dog Has Been Chased By The Cat

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Kids Play Ball
The Kids Play Ball
The Kids Are Playing Ball
The Kids Are Playing With The Ball
The Kids Have Been Playing With The Ball