Korean Job Discussion Forums

[poet13]

English, like any language, has a rhythm. That rhythm, among other things, is one way that we impart meaning and "texture" into our speech. In a simple way, I can say that you read this text with rhythm, sometimes reading a little faster, sometimes a little slower, and making groups of words that are related to each other.


But....how do I explain that to students; specifically teachers? Are there any rules? Guidelines? Even just a simple way to explain the concept?

Anyone?

[yingwenlaoshi]

You could say that we speak fast, but everyone speaks their native language fast. We use different intonations depending on the context or situation. But I think it's useless to even delve into that.

[VanIslander]

It's like music.

I do the full funny concert as conductor while my students read. Sometimes we review the sentences first and agree on where the natural breaks are, having them put pencil slash marks in the sentences. But soon they get the hang of it.

It all starts when they read a sentence deadpan even keel. I stop them as cal them "Robots!" Then get them to flow.

[poet13]

Well, I'm trying to get at the heart of why we group words.....or at least the easiest way to explain that to a group of teachers. They aren't all English teachers. Some are elementary teachers too. We don't read every word at a monotone pace.....but a lot of Koreans do. The class is about getting away from that, pre-reading, and trying to instill a more natural reading-speaking style to their voice.

[Cerriowen]

mmmm... I think we usually group sub-thoughts together

I went to the store / to buy some bread.
I forgot / to call you back...
She looked happy / to see me

Is that what you meant?

[Cerriowen]

Oh... per the idea of "intonation"...

Usually emphasis is put on the verbs and nouns, or the part of the sentance that is important.

i WENT to the STORE to BUY some BREAD.

Usually when I'm teaching that, I write out a sentence, and have them mark a ^ over the words that they hear stressed. It'll take more than one or two classes to get this across, but get them to clap with you on the stressed words.

If that's what you mean, I can give you a basic run through of how to teach that.

[cruisemonkey]

There are content words and structure words. For example, if I said to you "Sell car gone Europe" you would know what I mean and wanted you to do. Those are the four structure words for the sentence "Please sell my car because I've gone to Europe." The words: please, my, because, I've and to are the structure words that make the sentence grammatically correct.

Spoken English had a rhythm because the time between content words is always the same no matter how many or how long the structure words (we say the structure words slower or faster, as the case may be, in order to achieve this); and it sounds musical because the 'beat' is always on the content words.

[Whistleblower]

I love teaching chunks of language as it is more useful for language learners. Look at the following to help:

1. By leaps and bounds
2. As good as it gets
3. State of the art
4. Without missing a tick

Now you get the idea. I have included a good lesson for pre-int learners below:

Guess My Chunk;

One by one volunteers come up to the board, each with an idiom or expression in mind, and have to draw, mime or make some gesture of it and the class have to guess it. This can create an interesting lesson and can really get the lesson flowing.

It provides an opportunity for learners to re-assess the language they have learnt, the expressions and idioms that they have come across in other lessons as well as allow students to re-distribute the new language with other students.

For new learners, you could provide each student with various expressions and then get them to mime, gesture or draw the expression for students to guess. Get a leaderboard setup on the whiteboard and distribute points for successful students (1 point for the mime and 1 point from the student who guessed correctly).

[poet13]

Sub-thoughts! Eureka!

All of the responses were exactly what I meant. Thank you. I teach this to lower levels as well. I teach them that language is like music. It has rhythm, spikes and pits, sometimes we speak faster, sometimes slower and that when we do, we impart more meaning to our words than the words alone possibly can.

I was just getting hung up on not having an adequate word for those groups of words.

I like the idea of clapping.

For the teachers today, at the beginning of class, I will play some music. A little Cuban mix, something from some Japanese guy (Dantes Music, Passionate Rhythm. Stuff with good rhythm. Then I'll ask them to read a passage (actually song lyrics reorganized into prose form without changing the words at all.

I'll give it back to them as song lyrics so they can see it in it's natural form.

Then we'll listen to Grandmaster Flash, The Message and they can follow with the lyrics.

We can read it again, perhaps clapping on the rhythm, or exagerating the word groups...

Then I'll ask them to break into work groups, each taking a verse, and ask them to practise and present.

Should be fun.

I have today to work on it, so we'll see what I come up with.

Thanks, and anymore ideas are welcome.

[fishy]

Instead of rhythm, I think you mean "stress-timed." Although linguists will disagree about the details of our stress-timed language (google "stress-timed" and you'll find lots of teaching material) in essence, we put stress on noun, main verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. We put less stress on prepositions, pronouns, and articles.

[poet13]

Yes, perhaps I do...but....I think rhythm is a word students can understand. Stress-timed? Doubt it. Good keywords though for more research. Thank you.

[losing_touch]

Indeed, the words you are looking for are stress-timed. English is a stress-timed language which is much different than Korean since Korean is a syllable-timed language. This is difficult to teach, but it is manageable. It is an important concept. The reason that they might sound like 'robots' is because they are transferring the syllable timed aspect of Korean to English. You need to teach them about stress. Word stress and then sentence level stress.

As for reading, you are talking about the difference between a top-down and bottom-up reading strategy.