Speaking skill

 

SPEAKING SKILL

Communicating ideas and thoughts in speech is speaking. It is an active skill.

In connected speech all syllables aren’t uttered with equal force. This stress and unstressed syllables make English speech rhythmic.

1. Stress or accent

-Use of extra force of breath is stress.

-The syllable which is pronounced with greater force is said to be stressed or accented.

Stress is based on:

I. Number of syllables in a world

II.Grammatical category of the word:

1)     Noun or adjective are stressed on the first syllable . Ex: Please see the ¹record. (noun)

2)     Verb is stressed on the second syllable. Ex: Please re¹cord the statement. (verb)

III.The structure of word simple or compound

 

It is 2 types: Word stress and sentence stress

Word stress: It is based on the structural words and content words

1)     Structural words

Structural words have weak forms. They are unstressed. Generally, they do not receive stress or accent. They are important in spoken English. They make the spoken English natural and rhythmic. These words makeup almost 50% of the spoken English.

Ex: Be forms, Do forms, Have forms, articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs. 

2)     Content words

They are also called as dictionary form or citation form. Content words have strong forms.

Content words are stressed. Ex: Nouns, adjective, verb and adverb.

Primary accent is marked above. Secondary accent is marked below. Ex: ¹Recog₁nize

Sentence stress:

It is marked with dash and dots.

Ex: The students were waiting for the bus. (Words without underline are dotted, i.e., unstressed)

Note: Dash is stressed.  Dot is unstressed,  Star is a pause.

2.Rhythm

Rhythm is the sense of movement in speech, which is marked by stress, timing and quantity of syllables.

Stressing the syllabus at regular intervals is called rhythm. (Up and downs)

English is a stress timed a language

Stresses come at equal intervals regardless of number of syllables between them.

In English, some syllables are longer; some are shorter. Only important words are stressed.

Ex: ¹Ravi put his ¹books on the ¹table

In stress timed languages, time taken to read a sentence depends on the number of stresses in it but not on the number of syllables. Ex: English, German, Swedish, Russian, Arabic

Most Indian languages the time is depended on the total number of syllables, because they are syllable timed languages. Ex: Telugu, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese

Rhythm is related to Stress; Intonation is related to Pitch

3.Intonation

-Melody of speech; or music of language.

Changing pitch of the voice is intonation.

Change of a pitch occurs only on stressed syllable.

Intonation indicates the speaker’s attitude.

Example: Really..? (here surprise)

Intonation indicates grammatical meaning, just as punctuation does in written language.

Example:  Falling tone- indicates statement. ; Rising tone -indicates a question.

 

INTONATION PATTERNS:

Falling Tone:               Remember:  SCWELTR

The falling tune is sometimes referred to as the glide-down. It consists of a fall in the pitch of the voice from a high level to a low level. It is marked [ ` ]

The falling tune is normally used in:

S-Statements(ordinary)- made without any implications, e.g.: I liked it 'very much;  It was 'quite good.

C-Commands- Ex:. Open the ¹window.

W-Wh questions (neutral)- beginning with a question-word such as what, how, where, why, etc., when said in a neutral way, e.g.: 'Who were you `talking to?; . 'What's the matter?

E- Exclamations- Ex: ¹splendid.;  'How extra ordinary!

L-Last item in list- Ex: Tomatoes, brinjals and onions.

T-Tag Questions- when the speaker expects the listener to agree with him,

Ex: It’s a good day, ¹isn’t ¹it? ; It was a 'good film, wasn't it?

R-Rhetorical questions-Ex: Isn’t that ¹kind of her? ; Wasn't that a `difficult exam?

(Note: [ ' ] before a syllable indicates that the following syllable is stressed.).

 

Rising Tone:    Remember:   FIREGUYAE

The rising tune is sometimes referred to as the glide-up. It consists of a rise in the pitch of the voice from a low level to a high level. It is marked [, ].

The rising tune is normally used in:

F-Friendly Questions: questions when said in a warm/friendly way,

Ex: 'How's your daughter?; . 'What's the matter?

I-Incomplete Questions: Incomplete statements,

Ex: It's 'seven o clock (and she hasn't got up as yet.);  I'll buy you a dress (if I go there.)

R-Requests: Polite requests, e.g.:  Go and 'open the window,;  Take it away

E-Echo Questions: when the speaker gives his/her listener the option to disagree with him/her,

Ex:. You're a gardener, aren't you?; . It was a 'good film, wasn't it?

G-Greetings, Partings, Apologies, Encourage.

Ex:. Hello.; 'Good bye.;  I'm so sorry.;  You ought to keep on trying.

U-Uncertainty: Afterthought, doubt, hesitation,

Ex. I'd buy a car, if I could afford it.;  In 'spring it 'rains a lot, generally.

Y-Yes/No questions: Polarity type questions which demand a yes/no answer, (Note: Non-polarity: wh-type) e.g.: 'Are they coming?  'Will you do it?

A-Alternate questions: e.g.: Do you like, tea, coffee or `coke?;  'Shall we drive or go by `train?

E-Enumeration- e.g.: One, two, three, four, five.

(If you wish to express real gratitude, you should say thank you with a falling tune. A rising tune shows a rather casual acknowledgement of something not very important.)