Happy Valentine's Day!

USA - circa 2016

 

Heteronyms - Part 2

So what exactly is a heteronym? 
In English, there are words that have the same spelling but different meanings. These are called homographs. If homographs are pronounced differently, they are called heteronyms. In heteronyms, the part of speech, along with the meaning, changes based on where the stress is placed: OBject / obJECT

Stressing the right syllable of heteronyms is crucial, and yet challenging, for nonnative speakers. Nonnative speakers’ awareness of the appropriate stress position can be increased through instruction.

In November 2014, I presented a poster with activities and discussed heteronyms at the CATESOL OC Chapter Workshop Fall 2014. If you work with English learners and would like a copy of my handout, which includes activities and useful links, please email me and mention "heteronyms" in the subject line: ravaghi@gmail.com 

Heteronyms - Part 1

What makes it difficult is a word that has different pronunciations based on its part of speech. For example, if I write the word record out of context, some will read it as a noun and some as a verb. If the first syllable of the word is stressed, REcord, it's a noun; if the second syllable of the verb is stressed, reCORD, it's a verb. This kind of word is called a heteronym.

In context, it becomes easier to distinguish, of course:
Here's a record of my expenses.
My students record my lectures.

However, for English learners, it is still a challenge.

Stress

When learning the intonation of different kinds of sentences in a language, it's important to pay attention to the stress, the relative loudness in a particular section of the sentence, depending on whether the sentence is affirmative, interrogative, etc. 

One difficulty language learners may face is the stress in individual words in certain languages.

This stress, phonetically speaking, is the emphasis given to a syllable of a word. In English, for example, multi-syllabic words have stress. The word banana has three syllables. All three syllables are not pronounced with the same stress; the second syllable (the first na) is given more intensity in utterance. This can be learned by practice, but it means practicing the pronunciation of individual words, so it may take a long time, but it is not difficult.

Matthieu, I was thinking of you when I wrote this. You know why.

Intonation

One aspect of the spoken language that is crucial to master in order to communicate is intonation. The right intonation is more important than the right pronunciation. If the pronunciation is not comprehensible but the intonation is correct, the listener can somewhat make sense of the speech by guessing the words and filling the voids in their comprehension, but if the intonation is not correct, the listener won't have a pattern or direction to follow. Intonation then becomes even more essential than pronunciation.

When learning a new language, it's important to pay attention to the intonation of sentences with various structures as well as the pronunciation of words.

Accent

When you learn a new language, you hope to speak it with the right accent. This doesn't always happen easily, though. I've met people living in the United States for decades and relatively fluent in the English language who speak English with a strong accent. 

Why is it so difficult for some people to lose their accent when they learn a new language? The short answer is that for years and years, the muscles in their tongue, lips, jaw, and pharynx, which make sounds and words from the vocal cord vibrations, have practiced their first language. It becomes a matter of practice and willingness to produce the sounds of the new language. 

The more you practice speaking, the better you get at it. If you speak clearly enough, as I've repeatedly told my students, and use the right grammar and vocabulary, your chances of being understood by others are good. 

L&LL