Teacher Discussion Forums

[darimana]

sentence stress, linking and rhthym - teaching Chinese students.....

any suggestions?

[xantarcx]

Chinese students? They speak with very weird stress like singing.

[Lorikeet]

[rainbluesky]

Ｅｖｅｎ　ｔｈｏｕｇｈ　xantarcx has said that Chinese students speak with very weird stress like singing, I suppose there are still some useful skills.

First, students should be instructed some basic knowledge about the special features about the English language, such as stress and rhythym.

Second, students are encouraged to do plenty of imitation of some autitary materials read by native speakers after class. I hope no one could deny me that there is no short cut in learning a foreign language.

Third, teachers should be patient in class to check every student's pronunciation and try to help them.

ＤＯ　ＮＯＴ　always expect your students to speak English as well as natives, because even some natives have their own accents . Therefore, the most important thing for teachers is to train students' confidence to speak English besides the skills.

Ｈｏｐｅ　ｔｏ　ｈｅａｒ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｉｄｅａｓ！

[peter1997]

I don't agree with xantarcx at all when he announced that Chinese students speak with weird stress. There are always learners who need improvement. And there are so many Chinese students speak with native-like pronunciation, to my knowledge. There is no way in speaking with national prejudice for improvement in discussion.
I think Lorikeet is right in saying that we need make sure whether the prospect student is Mandarin or Cantonese speaker. There are even more typical Chinese dialectical area which all play a role in influencing the learners pronunciation, and thus beneficial for the teacher to take such a part into consideration.

[CEJ]

Pronunciation comes along apace with other language development. In terms of where their native language leaves them with to learn English, they have less difficulty, overall, with stress and rhythm than some other language groups. I certainly don't think their accent is any weirder than any other. Incidentally, a psycho-socially real model for many might be Singaporan or Hong Kong English (though if they look down on such English it would be because of the popular belief in US and UK English).