Hearing Accented Syllables?

[rainbowmama]

My nine year old struggles with hearing which syllable is accented. How do I help her hear it?

[luuknam]

My nine year old struggles with hearing which syllable is accented. How do I help her hear it?

 

A lot of practice with stressing the various syllables in words - e.g. SYL-la-ble, syl-LA-ble, syl-la-BLE, asking her which is correct. And also having her do the same thing with other words as well. FWIW, it took me a while to get it at that age or maybe a couple of years older.

[historically accurate]

My nine year old struggles with hearing which syllable is accented. How do I help her hear it?

 

I failed at learning this - it is the only part of English class that was a problem for me. I still have no clue which syllable is stressed in a word. I have not found that it has hampered my life in the least. Needless to say, I didn't bother teaching my children this information. 

[MerryAtHope]

Sometimes it can be hard to hear the accent in a word, especially if the syllables seem similar. Here’s a method that can help: Try accenting each of the syllables until the word sounds correct. For example:

 

PRE-fer. pre-FER.

 

Which one do we say? pre-FER.

 

AD-mit. ad-MIT. (Sometimes at a hospital, I’ve heard nurses say they had a new “AD-mit,†using this word as a noun–but most of the time we use it as a verb–we “ad-MIT†the truth.)

 

This can be a fun game to play, actually! Putting the “em-PHAS-is†on the wrong “syl-LAB-le†can make words sound strange! You’ll also notice that when we emphasize a syllable, we usually give it a full or regular vowel sound (a short or long sound). Sometimes in unaccented syllables, we tend to muffle the vowel sound or use a schwa sound.

 

There are some words that have different meanings depending on the way we use the accent. Consider:

 

CONtent (the contents of a package)

conTENT (to feel content)

 

COMbine (a farm machine)

comBINE (to combine items)

 

ADdress (what is your address?)

adDRESS (address the audience)

 

DIgest (Reader’s Digest)

diGEST (digest your food)

 

INvalid (a sick person)

inVALid (something is not valid)

 

PRESent (all present and accounted for, or a gift)

preSENT (present an award)

 

Notice how vowels in unaccented syllables tend to be muffled and don’t usually get their full, true sound, but when the syllable is accented, you can hear the vowel clearly. Experiment with words until the student becomes more confident in deciding which syllable has the accent. Students can also use a dictionary to double-check which syllable is accented.

 

I hope this helps!

[Tanaqui]

Notice how vowels in unaccented syllables tend to be muffled and don’t usually get their full, true sound, but when the syllable is accented, you can hear the vowel clearly.

 

What you mean to say is that in English we reduce the vowels in unaccented syllables to a schwa (or, in some instances in some dialects, a schwi). That is the correct way to say those vowels in those syllables in English. (Other languages do not necessarily do this.)

 

[IsabelC]

Maybe try reading or reciting some really rhythmic poetry, singing songs with an obvious rhythm, or clapping, stamping or playing a percussion instrument while saying the words?

Another thought, some people find it easier to notice things that are strange or 'wrong', so you could try saying things with obviously different accentuation from usual and getting your child to correct you. 

Edited November 29, 2016 by IsabelC

[Bics]

Piggybacking off a couple of helpful suggestions already offered, you can use Webster's Syllabary/Speller at donpotter.net. The version I use has two-syllable words organized in tables by accented syllable--so we read through an entire table of accent on first syllable, then switch to a table of words accented on the second. All multi-syllables are handled the same way. The accented syllable is emboldened, also. It helps my child catch the pronunciation, and has helped in spelling. For example, she will begin to spell a word like "across" with a u bc she hears a short u, but I can say, "That is an unaccented syllable" and she knows it will be a schwa a--

Hth:)

[RootAnn]

I still have trouble with this personally. Sometimes, the say-the-word-with-each-syllable-accented works for me, but what helped the most was the semester of poetry scanning we did (Graamar of Poetry). For some reason, that helped me more than years of trying a lit of the other techniques here.

 

I have one kid who can't tell either. No inner voice. It is helpful for spelling, but I haven't made it a hill to die on.

 

Good luck!

[GoFigure]

I wonder if it would help to try stressed words before examining stressed syllables?

 

WARNING: domestic violence trigger

 

When I was little the thing to do was examine the meanings of the different stresses of the sentence, "I never said I beat my wife." (Public school shenanigans, you know.)

 

*I* never said I beat my wife. (Someone else might have said that?)

I NEVER said I beat my wife.

I never SAID I beat my wife (maybe I implied it...)

I never said *I* beat my wife (I had the robot do it.)

I never said I BEAT my wife.

I never said I beat MY wife.

I never said I beat my WIFE.

 

I suppose you could tame down that sentence for sensitive souls, but "I never said I threw my ball" would not be nearly as scandalous and snarky.

[IsabelC]

We just use the generic "I didn't say she did it" which I admit is boring...