Home    >    Lesson 1: Introduction    >    Unit 1.4 The sound spine

Presentation

Audio [03:33]

Quiz

#1. What is the aim of speech?

To say something.

To say something.

To communicate important information.

To communicate important information.

Effective communication.

Effective communication.

Miscommunication.

Miscommunication.

#2. What is the sound spine?

Part of the lower back.

Part of the lower back.

The sequence of stressed vowel sounds in a sentence.

The sequence of stressed vowel sounds in a sentence.

One of the main tools for speaking.

One of the main tools for speaking.

Words that connect sentences together.

Words that connect sentences together.

#3. Why is the sound spine so important?

It helps to connect words together.

It helps to connect words together.

It connects our ideas as we use connected speech.

It connects our ideas as we use connected speech.

We get a lot of the meaning of the sentence from the stressed consonant sounds.

We get a lot of the meaning of the sentence from the stressed consonant sounds.

We get a lot of the meaning of the sentence from the stressed vowel sounds.

We get a lot of the meaning of the sentence from the stressed vowel sounds.

#4. The wrong sound spine can cause:

Good communication.

Good communication.

Miscommunication.

Miscommunication.

A positive response from the listener.

A positive response from the listener.

Faster speech.

Faster speech.

#5. The aims of connected speech are:

To reduce the gaps when we speak.

To reduce the gaps when we speak.

To emphasise the sound spine.

To emphasise the sound spine.

To reduce the gaps when we speak and reduce the sound spine.

To reduce the gaps when we speak and reduce the sound spine.

To reduce the gaps when we speak and emphasise the sound spine.

To reduce the gaps when we speak and emphasise the sound spine.

Finish

Results

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Discussion

1. What did you know about the sound spine before this course?
2. Give examples of when you have tried to communicate in English but ended up with miscommunication.
3. Why do non-native speakers speak English with gaps between words?
4. Do you have word stress and sentence stress in your L1? Is it a stress-timed or syllable-timed language? How similar is it to English in terms of pronunciation?
5. Do you tend to add a lot of ‘um’s and ‘er’s when you speak… a) your L1, b) English? Why do you do that? How can you cut down or stop doing it?

Practice

1. Write five sentences. Mark the stressed syllables in each one. Identify the vowel sound on each stressed syllable. This is the sound spine. Read each sentence emphasising the sound spine.

Further Study

• The Sound Spine