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Running Head: CONTRASTIVE WORD STRESS 1

How Contrastive Word Stress Can Change Sentence Meaning

Sharon Allie

Azusa Pacific University

CONTRASTIVE WORD STRESS 2

Context:

This lesson is designed for adult ESL learners with an intermediate to high-intermediate

English language ability. It is part of the curriculum for a pronunciation course at a U.S.

community college, however, it could be used in a variety of other adult ESL or EFL settings.

There are approximately 24 students in the class, with a mixture of nationalities, including,

Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, and Iraqi. The majority of students are between the ages of

18 and 24, with the remaining students in their late twenties or older. Most of the students are

studying English to eventually pass the TOEFL exam in order to pursue studies at a U.S.

university. This lesson plan covers 90 minutes of class time, however, the duration of the lesson

will vary depending on students’ particular needs.

Rationale:

It is assumed that the target students for this lesson plan have already taken lower level

pronunciation courses, and are familiar with the basics of segmental and some of the

suprasegmental features of English pronunciation. Celce-Murcia notes that teaching the

suprasegmental features of English is considered especially important for students to gain

communicative competence (p.163), therefore, this lesson focuses on the suprasegmental skill of

using contrastive stress. Contrastive stress is an important English language feature because it

allows speakers to easily change sentence meaning by changing which word in a sentence

receives heavy stress, and because the incorrect use of contrastive stress can cause significant

communication problems. Celec-Murcia also notes that the “flexibility [of contrastive stress]

allows the speaker to use prominence rather than additional verbiage to get the message across”

(p. 225). The lesson uses the 5-phases of the Communicative Approach to progressively move

students from more controlled to less controlled activities.


Lesson Plan

Title: How Word Stress Can Change Sentence Meaning

Time: 90 minutes

Terms:

T: teacher

S(s): student(s)

WB: white board

Resources & Preparation:

- WB & Dry erase markers

- On WB, write “Hello”, and tape 5 photos (Appendix A)

- 2 Handouts (Appendix A & B): for each handout, the number of copies is equal to ½ the

number of students.

- Tape the 5 printed images from Appendix C on WB.

- Color printout of Appendix D and E

- Laptop with wireless connection

- Confirm wireless internet connection

- 1 pencil for each S and paper for half the number of Ss in the class (or Ss may have their own

supplies)

Learning Outcomes:

1. SWBAT: Discriminate between different intonations (through listening), and determine the

appropriate meaning/context.

2. SWBAT: Produce the correct intonation based on different contexts.

3. SWBAT: Hum sentences they repeat with correct intonation.

4. SWBAT: Identify how sentence meaning change based upon the word that receives

contrastive stress.

5. SWBAT: Write a dialogue that accurately incorporates sentences where contrastive stress

words determine sentence meaning, and accurately read the dialogue aloud with attention to

contrastive stress.


I. Warm-Up- You Tube Music Video Clip

- Tell Ss that today they will be focusing on the importance of how they say or stress words in

sentences, and that they will begin with just one word: “Hello” (as written on WB), and will

watch and listen to part of a song about it:

- Video-Clip (minutes 0-1:39) with lyrics/ “Hello, Goodbye” by the Beatles

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Bw_cqPeiA)

- Play clip, and asks Ss who in the song is saying “hello” and who is saying “goodbye” [singer

wants to say “hello” and probably a girl wants to say “goodbye”] Ask Ss if the singer happy

about this?

II. Description & Analysis- HOW we say hello

- Ask Ss what they think is more important: what you say or how you say it. Some answers

might include:

Can change/affect the meaning of a sentence. Can cause misunderstandings. It’s as important as your choice of words.

- Point to the 5 pictures on the WB (Appendix A). Tell the Ss you are going to greet them

with “hello” in 5 different ways, and after each greeting you want them to guess which of the

people you are greeting: teacher, boss, 6 month old baby, and an attractive man/woman.

After saying each “hello”, draw an intonation contour line beneath each picture, and explain

how it shows the different rises and falls for each type of utterance. In pairs, have Ss test

each other in the same way just modeled, where they say “hello” in a certain way, and their

partner must guess which “person” (picture) on the board they are saying hello to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Bw_cqPeiA


III. Listening Discrimination-

Part 1- Modeling How Meaning Changes

- Tell Ss that you are going to talk about how when contrastive stress is placed on a word, it

shows the difference between that word and its alternatives. Explain that it is used when you

want a person to think about the word you are stressing, not its opposite.

- Show Ss the color wheel (Appendix D), which has an arrow pointing to the color “purple”, and

read the sentence on it: “I like THIS one.” (stress “THIS”) Ask Ss, “Do I like the YELLOW

one? (Ss will say “No.”). Do this with a couple of colors (except purple), and then explain that

when you emphasize a word like “this”, you mean, purple, not the yellow, green or any of the

other colors. Tell them you like this color (purple), and not the other colors.

- On the WB write: “I like THIS one.” And “I like the YELLOW one.” And explain that you can

also substitute the color name, pointing out that stressing “yellow” shows we don’t mean the

other colors. Then show students (Appendix E) and ask then how they would describe which

car you mean (Ss will answer “I like THAT one.” or “I like the RED one.”). Stress that it also

means they don’t like any of the other cars besides the red one.

- In pairs, ask Ss to tell their partners things they like, to show contrast with things they don’t

like in the classroom. For example, model, “I like HIS pants.” compared to HER pants.

Making sure they know to stress what it is they like.

- Tell students they can put contrastive stress on any word, and that this important because they

can change the meaning of the sentence by the word they choose to stress. Write on WB:

“SHE went to the party last night.” and “She went to the party LAST night.”

- Read the 2 sentences above to Ss. Point out that the sentences have the same words, but

different meanings. Ask Ss what the meaning of each sentence is, encouraging them to

remember that “a word is emphasized to show you it’s not something else”.

- Write the following 2 sentences on the board, and ask Ss, “Does FRANK want pizza?”

a. Yes, FRANK wants pizza.

b. Yes, Frank wants PIZZA.

(Answer: a. We are clarifying which person we are talking about, not which food he wants.)


Part 2- Humming

- Write the following on the WB (the cryptic format is to save time, but Ss should see there are 5

sentences represented):

1. I love your mother’s cooking.

2. love

3. your

4. mother’s

5. cooking.

- Tell Ss you are going to look at how you can say the same sentence but have different

meanings. Point out that the underlined words (above) are the most emphasized or stressed

word in the sentence. Read each full sentence and have Ss repeat back what they heard by

humming, not by repeating the words; model an example. Ask Ss if the sentences all mean the

same thing or if they have different meanings?

IV. Controlled Practice- Matching Exercise

Continue the theme of the Listening activity above:

- In pairs, Ss read each of the sentences in Appendix B and try to match them with sentence

strips (also Appendix B) which describe the different potential sentence meanings. Review

answers with the whole class (answers follow).

Teacher Answer Key:

1. I love your mother’s cooking. = Personally. Someone else does not love the cooking.

2. I love your mother’s cooking. = Emphasis of natural meaning.

3. I love your mother’s cooking. = A particular mother. I don’t, for example, like his mother’s

cooking.

4. I love your mother’s cooking. = Particular family member. I don’t, for example, like your

father’s cooking.

5. I love your mother’s cooking. = Aspect of mother you love. I, for example, hate your mother,

but love her cooking.


V. Guided Practice- Decide the Sentence Meaning

- Write the following sentence on the WB:

I didn’t say we should kill him.

- Read sentence above and tell Ss they are going to do an exercise with a partner where they try

to figure out the meaning of the sentence when different words are emphasized or stressed

(similar to the Controlled Practice above). Have Ss read each of the sentences in Handout C

and write down what they think the sentence means in the blanks provided. Review answers

with the whole class (answers follow).

Teacher Answer Key:

1. I didn’t say we should kill him. = Someone else said we should kill him.2. I didn’t say we should kill him. = I am denying saying it.3. I didn’t say we should kill him. = I implied it / whispered it / wrote it down.4. I didn’t say we should kill him. = I said someone else should kill him /you should kill

him, etc.5. I didn’t say we should kill him. = I said we shouldn’t kill him / we must kill him, etc.6. I didn’t say we should kill him. = I said we should take him to dinner /take care of him /

send him on a diving holiday.7. I didn’t say we should kill him. = We should kill someone else.

VI. Communicative Practice- Murder Dialogues

- Have Ss pick one of the “murder” sentences from the Guided Practice above, and, in pairs, have Ss write a dialogue containing that line. Each pair (or group) can perform their dialogues for class, where there is an emphasis on using the correct stress and relevant meaning. T monitors Ss’ performances, makes on-the-spot corrections, and uses any time left over to correct repeated errors heard during the presentations.

VII. Assessment:

1. In the Description & Analysis section, T will listen for accuracy of intonation in the various

“hellos” produced by Ss.

2. In the Listening Discrimination section, whole group responses to T’s questions will allow T

to gauge understanding. T will also listen for accuracy of intonation in Ss’ hummed sentences.

3. In the Controlled Practice & Guided Practice sections, T will monitor pairs to check for

accuracy, as well as during a full-class review.


4. In the Communicative Practice section, T will monitor Ss’ intonation/word contrast when Ss

are preparing their dialogues, and then T will check accuracy of intonation/word contrast

during Ss’s performances of their dialogues.


References:

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D.M., Goodwin, J.M., & Griner, B. (2012). Teaching

pronunciation: A course book and reference guide (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge

University Press.

Chilton, G. (2011, December 11). “I didn’t say we should kill him!” – Intonation, sentence

stress and murder.. Retrieved from http://designerlessons.org/2011/12/10/intonation-

sentence-stress-esl/

MacLennan , R. (2011, August 18). Contrastive stress teaching high level ESL students about

contrastive stress. Retrieved from http://prezi.com/otaeex9mlfy_/contrastive-stress/

http://prezi.com/otaeex9mlfy_/contrastive-stress/


Appendix A(adapted from: http://designerlessons.org/2011/12/10/intonation-sentence-stress-esl/)






- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - cut - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Cut into sentence strips)

Someone else does not love the cooking.

I don’t hate it.

A specific mother. I don’t, for example, like his mother’s cooking.

Specific family member. I don’t, for example, like your father’s cooking.

http://designerlessons.org/2011/12/10/intonation-sentence-stress-esl/


Something specific about mother you love. I, for example, hate your mother, but

love her cooking.

Appendix B

Write the potential meaning of the sentences below, noting the bolded word is stressed.

1. I didn’t say we should kill him. ________________________________________

2. I didn’t say we should kill him.________________________________________






- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - cut - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Write the potential meaning of the sentences below, noting the bolded word is stressed.


2. I didn’t say we should kill him.________________________________________







(Adapted from http://designerlessons.org/2011/12/10/intonation-sentence-stress-esl/)

Appendix C

TEACHER

http://designerlessons.org/2011/12/10/intonation-sentence-stress-esl/


BOSS


6 MONTH OLD BABY


ATTRACTIVE MAN


ATTRACTIVE WOMAN


Appendix D

Image from http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm

I like THIS one.


Appendix E

Image from http://moz.com/blog/content-marketing-that-stands-out

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