Issue 3. Connected speech
Another issue was observed while teaching higher- level
Russian students deals with understanding a connected
speech. The reason for this issue lies in the language
difference. When Russian speakers talk, they do not
connect words together. Moreover, Russian language
is syllable- stressed (syllables have the same length),
whereas English is stress- timed (syllables can be
longer or shorter), what brings extra complications in
the understanding process.
Suggestion 3
Aim: to increase learners’ awareness how
connected speech is formed to improve further
listening comprehension skills
Procedure:
– Students listen to the first 5 sentences of the TED
Talk by Sir Ken Robinson under the topic ‘Do
Schools Kill Creativity’
– Students try to notice difficult parts which cause
misunderstanding.
– Students listen to the sentences again and write
out stressed words
– Teacher writes out the stressed words on the
whiteboard and asks to reconstruct the sentences
by listening to the recording again.
– students learn about connected speech peculiarities
by listening to the most challenging parts of
sentences.
Evaluation:
By working on the elements of connected speech
higher- level students can help in better understanding
of spoken English in TED Talks. We should actively
encourage them to listen to more talks of the same
kind, because each presenter has his/her own
peculiarities the way he/she talks.
Issue 4. Intonation
Intonation has a great influence on the meaning of what
a person is saying, his attitude to the subject of narration
[9, c. 86]. To be exact, meaning is communicated
through the fall and rise in the voice (tone). Being
Russian and teaching in a higher- level monolingual
group of Russians it has always been controversial
to my them to understand some intonational patterns
and what meanings they convey. The problem occurs
due to the fact that some Russian intonational patterns
differ from the English ones. As a result of it could
cause misinterpretation of some information delivered
in a presentation (a TED Talk).
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