An analysis on word stress errors commonly made by 12th grade students in Le Quy Don High School, Hai Phong and some solutions = Phân tích các lỗi thường gặp về

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES




AN THị NGà

An analysis on word stress errors commonly made by
12
TH
grade students in LÊ Quý ĐÔn High school,
HảI Phòng and some solutions
( Phân tích các lỗi th-ờng gặp về trọng âm từ của học sinh lớp
12 tr-ờng THPT Lê Quý Đôn Hải Phòng và một số giải pháp )

-m.a. minor thesis-




Field : English teaching methodology
Code : 601410

Hanoi, 2010









VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES




AN THị NGà

An analysis on word stress errors commonly made by
12
TH
grade students in LÊ Quý ĐÔn High school,
HảI Phòng and some solutions
( Phân tích các lỗi th-ờng gặp về trọng âm từ của học sinh lớp
12 tr-ờng THPT Lê Quý Đôn Hải Phòng và một số giải pháp )

-m.a. minor thesis-

Field : English teaching methodology
Code : 601410
Supervisor : Trần Thị Thu Hiền

Hanoi, 2010






iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART A : INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale …………………………………………………………………………… 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Scope of the study. 2
4. Significance of the study .2
5. Research questions. 3
6. Organization of the study 3
PART B : DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature review
1. Role of errors in language learning 5
2. Role of stress in language learning 8
2.1 Stress and learners’ intelligibility 8
2.2 Some theoretical background to the concept stress 9
2.2.1 Nature of a syllable. 9

2.2.2 Structure of syllable. .9
2.2.3 Characteristics of stressed and unstressed words. 10
2.2.4 Nature of stress. 11
2.2.5 Schwa sound. 12
2.2.6 Marking of stress. 13
2.2.7 Placement of word stress. 13
2.2.8 Levels of stress 17
2.2.9 Weak forms of words (Reducing function words). 17
2.3. Summary .17
Chapter 2 : The study
1. Research setting 18
2. Subjects of the study 19
3. Research methods 19
3.1. Questionnaire 19
3.2 Tests of Production 19
3.3 Post-questionnaire interview 20
4 Data analysis and findings 20
4.1 Findings from the questionnaire. .20



v
4.1.1 Students’ attitude toward learning word stress 20
4.1.2 Students’ awareness of the difficulty in word stress lessons 21
4.1.3 Degree of students’ certainty in marking stress patterns for a word 21
4.1.4 Frequency of students’ errors in word stress 22
4.1.5 Students’ most common errors in word stress . .22
4.1.6 Students’ expectation towards the teaching of word stress 23
4.2 Findings from the tests 24
4.2.1 Students’ failure to distinguish primary stress and secondary stress 24

4.2.2 Stress on the wrong syllables of multi-syllabic words 25
4.2.3 Stress on the wrong syllable bi-syllabic words 25
4.2.4 Students' failure to produce weak forms of words and schwa sound 26
4.3 Causes of the errors. 26
4.3.1 Influence of mother tongue 26
4.3.2 Inequality between the course book and the curriculum. .27
4.3.3 Lack of teaching and learning facilities 27
4.3.4 Students’ different learning styles and phonetic ability 28
4.3.5 Students’ lack of motivation and concern. 28
Chapter 3: Possible solutions
1 To the teachers 29
2 To the students . .33
3 To the school 's managers 34
4 To the course book designers 34
PART C: Conclusion 36
1 Summary of the study. 36
2. Conclusion 36
3 Limitation of the study. 37
4 Suggestions for further study 37
References 39
Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students I
Appendix 2: The spelling of the schwa in English III
Appendix 3: Weak forms of words IV
Appendix 4: Production test and stress pattern key VII




vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EA Error Analysis
FL Foreign Language

vii
LIST OF FIGURES

Pages

Figure 1: Students’ attitude towards learning word stress

Figure 2: Students’ awareness of the difficulty in word stress lessons

Figure 3 : Students’ degree of certainty when marking stress pattern for a word

Figure 4: The frequency of students’ errors in word stress

Figure 5: Students’ common errors in learning word stress

Figure 6 : Students’ expectation towards the teaching of word stress

Figure 7: Students ‘errors from the production test

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21

22


22


23


24


1
Part A : Introduction
1. Rationale
There is no doubt that making errors is part of learning and correcting errors is part of
teaching. As a result, error correction is one of the ways that make the process of teaching
and learning more effective. The role of errors and error correction are considered so
important in teaching and learning a foreign language that a method called Error Analysis
has developed and used as one of the most useful methods in studies related to teaching
methodology. Richards, JC. (1984: 1) regarded Error Analysis as “a chief means of both
assessing the pupil‟s learning in general and of the degree of match between his learning
and syllabus and the teacher‟s teaching one.” He also added that “Thanks to Error
Analysis, teachers know what language items their learners have already acquired, what
they might not have been presented to, and what they have been taught but have not
grasped accurately, which are considered as errors or mistakes”
Error Analysis seems to have received a great deal of attention from many linguists. The
importance of errors in theory and practice of teaching and learning languages can be seen
in the works by researchers such as Corder S.P.(1967), Richards J.C.(1971), Dulay H.C.

and Burt M.K.(1974). However, the errors analyzed in those studies come from their
learners and may be the characteristics of those learners rather than Vietnamese students‟.
In Vietnam, there is a number of studies on errors such as the one conducted by Pham
Dang Binh (2003), which focused on the most common errors made by Vietnamese adult
learners and some others by M.A candidates focusing on students‟ common errors in
grammar (Trinh Phan Thi Phong Lan-2005) and students‟ errors on stress at sentence level
(Luu Thi Kim Nhung- 2003), etc. Unfortunately, little concern is paid to errors on word
stress.
It is undeniable that stress plays a very important role in learning a foreign language and
its pronunciation. It helps improve the learners‟ speaking as well as listening skill. A
learner with correct rhythm, intonation and stress usually makes himself understood with
ease.
Despite the importance of stress, especially word stress in English pronunciation,
Vietnamese students can not acquire it adequately. In fact, high school students
commonly fail to use them correctly.

2
With the experience of more than ten years working as a teacher of English in Le Quy
Don High School, the researcher realizes that whenever her students speak English or do
tests on phonetics, they seem to confront with a lot of difficulties in using English word
stress, consequently, a lot of errors occur. There errors are also committed by many of 12th
grade students who have learnt English in their high school for 3 years and have had a
chance to deal with English word stress in a few lessons. Being aware of the problem and
with the intention of helping students to overcome these difficulties and to perfect their
knowledge of English word stress, the researcher decides to choose the title:
An analysis on word stress errors commonly made by 12
th
grade students in Le Quy
Don High school, Hai Phong and some solutions for her M.A thesis.
It is hoped that the study, to some extent, will contribute to improving the teaching and

learning of English word stress in Le Quy Don High School in particular and English study in
general.
2. Aims of the study
This study sets the following aims for investigation:
 To identify the most common word stress errors made by 12
th
grade students in Le
Quy Don High School both in terms of their perception and production.
 To figure out the causes of these errors.
 To suggest some solutions to English word stress teaching and learning.
3. Scope of the study
Stress is one important part of English pronunciation, which consists of sentence stress and
word stress. However, due to both limited time and experience, this study only focuses on
the errors in word stress derived from perception and production tests of the 12
th
grade
students of English in Le Quy Don High School. Any attempt to study English word stress
errors on other aspect is beyond the scope of this thesis.
4. Significance of the study
The study aims at bringing about some benefits for teaching English word stress to high
school students especially the students of Le Quy Don High School.
In terms of foreign language teaching and learning, the study tells about the students‟ attitude
and method in learning English word stress, where they need help and what sort of help they
need. An explicit understanding why errors arise can assist in adjusting teaching techniques.

3
Besides, for immediate purposes, remedial lessons or exercises can be designed to help eliminate
errors.
In terms of material designing, the study may assist designers in understanding the nature
of errors occurring to high school students, which is useful for them in sequencing and

arranging target language items in text books in such a way that helps prevent error
occurrence as much as possible.
5. Research questions
To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following research questions are addressed:
 What are the most common word stress errors made by 12
th
grade students in Le
Quy Don High School?
 What are the causes of these errors?
 What should be done to reduce the students‟ errors?
6. Organization of the study
The study is organized into 3 parts, which are presented as follows:
PART A - INTRODUCTION
Includes the rationale and the aim of the study. It also specifies
the scope, the significance and provides the research questions as
well as the organization of the study.
PART B – Development
Chapter 1- Literature review:
Mentions theoretical background of errors and word stress
In errors, this deals with notion of error, distinction among
errors, mistakes, slips and attempts, error analysis and the
importance of learners‟ errors. In word stress, it discusses
some definitions such as syllable and its structure, schwa
sound, nature of stress; the marking and levels of stress
including mono-syllabic, bi-syllabic and multi-syllabic
words as well as weak forms of words.
Chapter 2- The study

4
This is the core part of the research, which describes the

research setting, the subjects, the research methods as well
as data analysis and findings.
Chapter 3- Possible solutions
In the first part, some possible solutions are given to help
teachers and students in high schools overcome difficulties in
teaching and learning English word stress as well as some
recommendations for school‟s facilities and course book
designers.
Part C- Conclusion
In this part, summary and conclusion of the thesis are
emphasized. Further more, limitations of the study and some
suggestions for further study are provided.

5
Part B: Development
Chapter 1: Literature review
1. Errors in language learning
1.1 Notion of errors
Learning a foreign language is really a sophisticated process in which errors are
unavoidable. No one can master a language without making any error. When saying this or
that is an error, one has to base himself on a certain norm. This norm is naturally not
universal but depends upon different considerations, i.e. it depends on how language is
approached. An analysis of errors is extremely important for teachers as they directly work
with students and seem to have great influence on their student‟s effectiveness in learning
because teachers do not only present new language items, but also have to take into
consideration of what errors should be corrected as well as what should be ignored. In A
study of the statistical foundations of group conversation tests in spoken English, Liski E.
and Puntanen S. (1983: 227) argued that “an error occurs where the speaker fails to follow
the pattern or manner of speech of educated people in English speaking countries today”
while Lennon P. (1991: 182) defined that: “error is a linguistic form or combination of
forms which in the same context would in all likelihood not be produced by the learner‟s
native speaker counterpart”. His view is supported by James C. (1998:1) who defined error
as an unsuccessful bit of language. However, this is not reliable all the time because of the
fact that a variety of dialects may be used by the native speakers in their country. The
linguistic form may be deviated from one dialect but not another one. Thus, deciding
whether a linguistic form is an error depends on what norm or standard should be taken
into account.
For some reasons, the following contentions will lay a foundation for the research thesis:
 First, errors in this study are understood as “the flawed side of learner speech and
writing, those parts of conversation or composition that deviate from some selected
norm” (Dulay H.C., Burt M.K. and Krashen S.D. 1982:138).
 Second, in a foreign setting like Vietnam, where English is taught and learned as a

foreign language, the selected norm here is undisputedly the prescriptive English
standard usage. That is to say, any deviated forms or structures that cannot account

6
for the English model of usage assumed by educated users are considered
erroneous, ungrammatical, or unacceptable.
 Last, the term error is also well adopted from Corder S.P. (1975: 112):“either
superficially deviant or inappropriate in terms of the target language”.
1.2 Distinction of error, mistake, slip and attempt
When studying error, the term mistake is also looked at. Mistakes are said to be
unsystematic in nature and to be correctable as attention is drawn to their producers.
Errors, in contrast, refer to any systematic deviations from the rule of the target language
as a result of the learner‟s internalizing the language during the process of learning a
second or foreign language. In fact, the boundary between these two terms is so small that
in some studies they are used interchangeably. Corder (1967:167) insisted that “mistake is
of no significance to the process of language learning since they do not reflect a defect in
our knowledge but are traceable to performance failure. The learner is normally
immediately aware of their mistakes and can correct them with more or less complete
assurance. Native speakers as well as learners may make mistakes. On the contrary, errors
are of significance to the process of language learning. They do reflect knowledge and are
not self-correctable. Only learners of a second or foreign language commit errors.”
Supporting Corder‟s view, James (1998) defined error as “being an instance of language
that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by the learner”. A mistake is
“either intentionally or unintentionally deviant or self-corrigible”. Similarly, Edge J.
(1989:10) defined errors as: “If a student cannot self- correct a mistake in his or her own
English, but the teacher thinks that the class is familiar with the correct form, we shall call
that sort of mistake an error”. He added that a slip is what the student can self- correct. An
attempt is a guess or when neither the intended meaning nor the structure is clear to the
teacher.
In summary, the notions of errors, mistake, slips, and attempts are described as follows:

 Errors are mistakes caused by the incomplete understanding of language
competence.
 Mistakes are caused by the inappropriate use of language in terms of social
acceptability or language performance.
 Slips (lapses) are the consequence of carelessness (tiny mistake) in language use

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 Attempts are mistakes where students have no ideas to structure what they want to
mean.
The problem of determining what is a learner‟s mistake and what is a learner‟s error is
rather difficult. In order to have a clear point of view on errors, it is better to pay attention
to the significance of learners‟ errors.
1.3 Significance of learners’ errors
Discussion on the significance of learners‟ errors can be found in Richards‟s study (1992),
in which he stated that errors are significant in three different ways:
 To the teacher, in that they tell him, if he understates a systematic analysis, how far
towards the goal his learners have progressed and consequently, what remains for
them to learn.
 They provide the teacher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what
strategies or procedures his learners are employing in their discovery of the
language.
 To the learners themselves, they are indispensable, because the making of errors is
regarded as a device learners use in order to learn. It is a way learners have to test
their hypothesis about the nature of the language they are learning.
1.4 Error Analysis
As discussed above, in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language, errors tell
teachers how much progress learners have made toward the target language and assist in
adjusting teaching techniques. In order to help teachers assess their learners‟ learning,
researchers have offered an approach called Error Analysis (EA), which is understood as
the study and analysis of the errors made by language learners. Talking about its functions,

Richards (1992:127) stated that “ Error Analysis may be carried out in order to (a) identify
strategies which learners use in language learning; (b) try to identify the causes of learner
errors; (c) obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid to
teaching or in the preparation of the teaching materials”. With the same viewpoint, James
(1998:1) said, “Error Analysis is the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes
and consequences of unsuccessful language”. Discussing this matter, Cook V.J. (1993: 22)
emphasized: “Error Analysis was a methodology for dealing with data rather than a theory
of acquisition”. Only by carrying out EA can teachers obtain information about difficulties

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in learning a foreign language so as to figure out appropriate materials and select the
proper teaching materials as well. As a result, doing EA becomes so important and useful
for FL teachers that it is preferred by many teachers, especially teachers of English in order
to realize their learners‟ errors.
In short, errors and EA are undoubtedly significant in teaching and learning English. They
tell teachers what needs to be taught. Besides, they tell researchers how learning proceeds.
In addition, they are a means whereby learners test their hypothesis about the language
they are learning and teachers adjust their teaching techniques so that they will be suitable
to their students. With those assumed benefits, error analysis is placed on undeniable
importance.
2. Role of stress in language learning.
2.1 Stress and learners’ intelligibility in language learning
Stress is an important aspect of pronunciation, which decides one‟s communication
ability. The better one is good at stress patterns of English, the more he understands native
speakers. The fact that stress plays a very important role in language perception and
production is agreed by many researchers.
In terms of language production, Brown R. and Mc Neil D. (1978) in The Tip of the
Tongue studied the phenomenon of speakers who cannot remember a word but have it on
the tip of their tongue. Their study showed that with those speakers, the infrequently used
words could become faint with disuse, and only parts of them could be clearly

remembered. Those parts are usually the beginning and the end of the word together with
its number of syllables and the location of the primary stress. In Slip of the Tongue, Cutler
A. (1987) also indicated that speakers only slip on those words with similarities in stress
patterns with the same number of syllables, and with the same syllable carrying primary
stress.
In terms of language perception, it would seem that heavy reliance on information about
stress pattern and the nature of the stressed syllables is a common and an efficient way of
speech comprehension. When listeners mishear a word, it is usually stress pattern and the
nature of the stressed syllable which decide what listeners think they hear. The stressed
syllable information is very important for the listeners to reconstruct the whole massage.
Not surprisingly, when the stress pattern is incorrect, errors in interpretation occur. Basal
R.K. in The Intelligibility of Indian English (1966) gave many interesting examples of

9
misinterpretation when words with initial stress were uttered with second-syllable stress:
“atmosphere” was heard as “must fear”, “yesterday” as “or study”, “character” as
“director” and so on. That is the reason why students‟ intelligibility is a matter that all
teachers of English should pay much attention to.
Concerning intelligibility, Kenworthy J. (1987:13) defined: “Intelligibility is being
understood by a listener at a given time in a given situation.”. Consequently, it is the same
as understandability. The more words a listener is able to identify accurately when said by
a particular speaker, the more intelligible that speaker is. She also added that “If the
foreign speaker substitutes one sound or feature of pronunciation for another, and the result
is that the listener hears a different word or phrase from the one the speaker was aiming to
say, it can be said that the foreigner's speech is unintelligible. Likewise, if the foreign
speaker substitutes a sound in a particular word, but that work is nonetheless understood,
then the speech is intelligible”. Undoubtedly, stress especially word stress is of great
importance to one phonetic ability. Hence, “Incorrect stress placement is the major cause if
intelligibility problems for foreign learners” (Roach. P. 1983:73)
As mentioned in 1.3, the scope of this study is to analyze errors in English word stress

made by 12
th
grade students in Le Quy Don High school in Hai Phong. Therefore, it is
necessary to have a brief view at the theory of English stress.
2.2 Some theoretical background to the concept “stress”

2.2.1 Nature of syllable
In general, the different aspects of stress can be described in relation to syllables. In
English, every word is made up of one or more syllables (Jones D.1998:134). The
sequences /

in/, /praiz/, / fens/ (in thin, price, fence) constitute single syllables; /'

inist/,
/'praiziz/, /di'fens/ (in thinnest, prizes, defence) contain two syllables each; /'definit/,
/sӘ'praiziz/, /di’fensiv/ (in definite, surprises, defensive) contain three syllables, and so on.
Phonetically, syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little or no
obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this centre
(that is, at the beginning and end of the syllable), there will be greater obstruction to
airflow and /or less loud sound (Roach P. 1983:127).
2.2.2 Structure of syllable

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Pennington M.C (1996: 128) stated that a syllable consists of one vowel alone or a vowel
with 1-3 preceding and / or 1-4 following consonants. The range of syllable types in
English can be abbreviated as follows:
(C) (C) (C) V (C) (C) (C) (C)
These following examples of words illustrate the different possible compositions of
syllables in English:
i V pi CV

in VC pin CVC
ink VCC pint CVCC
inks VCCC pints CVCCC
prom CCVC split CCCVC
proms CCVCC splint CCCVCC
prompt CCVCCC splints CCCVCCC
prompts CCVCCCC strength CCCVCCCC
All of the sounds of a syllable are planned together and pronounced together as an
unbroken unit. For this reason, the length of a syllable remains fairly constant, no matter
how many phonemes it includes. The longest part of a syllable is its vowel. The vowel is
longest when being unsurrounded by any additional consonants. With every consonant
added before or after it, the vowel shortens a bit to compensate for the added elements of
the syllable. (Pennington M.C 1996: 129)
2.2.3 Characteristics of stressed and unstressed words
As is discussed in section 2.2.2.1, English words can be made up of one, two or many
syllables. In all words of two or more syllables, one syllable is more prominent, louder, or
more noticeable than the other syllables in that word. This strong syllable is stressed
(accented), and the other weaker syllables are unstressed (unaccented) (Dauer: 1983).
Thus,
Stressed syllables sound louder, are usually longer, and have clearer vowels and
stronger consonants. In a word said in isolation, stressed syllables are higher pitched; in
sentences, a pitch change (a change in melody from high to low or low to high) often
occurs on stressed syllables.

11
Unstressed syllables sound softer, are usually shorter, and are frequently reduced
or centralized. This means that the vowels tend to become / ә / , / I /, or / ﮞ /, and the
consonants are weaker . The pitch does not change direction on unstressed syllables.
2.2.4 Nature of stress
In English Phonetics and Phonology, Roach P. (1983:72, 73) held the view that “all

stressed syllables have one characteristic in common, and that is called “prominence”. The
stressed syllable of a word is recognized more prominent than the rest syllables of the
word. Deciding what makes a syllable become more prominent than others, in his book,
Peter Roach looked at four different important factors. They are loudness, length, pitch
and vowel quality.
2.2.4.1 Loudness
In a word, stressed syllables are louder than the unstressed; in other words, loudness is a
component of prominence. Gimson A.C. (1962) argued that a sound or syllable which is
stressed is one upon which there is expended in the articulation relatively great breath
effort and muscular energy. In voiced sounds, greater amplitude of vibration of the vocal
folds, together with the reinforcing resonation of the supra-glottal cavities, results in
physical terms in relatively great intensity of the sound or syllable, such intensity being
perceived by the listener as greater loudness associated with the sound or syllable. Thus,
the greater energy which the speaker feels is concentrated on the first syllable or answer
may be manifested for the listener as greater loudness. In a sequence of identical syllables
(e.g. ba:ba:ba:ba:), if one syllable is made louder than the others, it will be heard as
stressed.
2.2.4.2 Length (duration or quantity)
Roach P. in Phonetic and Phonology (1983: 163) defined that: “The length of syllables
has an important part to play in prominence. If a word is presented to English listeners,
with no pitch variations but with vowels of different length, those vowels which have the
greatest length will be judged as “stressed”. Therefore, vowels and diphthongs will always
be associated with prominence, especially by a listener, however weakly stressed they may
be and despite the fact that a long vowel or diphthong in a relatively unstressed syllable
does not have the same length as it will have in a stressed syllable. A vowel in a stressed

12
syllable may in fact be longer than that in an adjacent stressed syllable, without depriving
the latter of its prominence, e.g. /æ/ and / ai / in ally, / ʌ / and / iә / in frontier”
In other words, among others syllables with the same length, if only one of them is

lengthened intensively, there is quite a strong tendency for that syllable to be heard as
stressed.
2.2.4.3 Pitch
Roach P. (1983:163) also discussed: Every syllable is pronounced on some pitch, it might
vary from low pitch to and high pitch. Within a word, if one syllable is noticeably said
differently from the others, it will be recognized as prominent, and of course a stressed
syllable. Therefore, to place some movement of pitch (e.g. rising or falling pitch) on a
syllable is an effective way to produce a syllable with prominence. It is closely related to
the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds and to the musical notion of low- and high-
pitched notes. He also emphasized: “If one syllable of a „nonsense word‟ (e.g. ba:ba:ba:ba
) is said with a pitch that is noticeably different from that of the others, this will have a
strong tendency to produce the effect of prominence. If all syllables are said with low pitch
except for one said with high pitch, then the high-pitch syllable will be heard as stressed
and the others as unstressed”
2.2.4.4 Vowel quality
A syllable will be considered as a prominence if it includes a vowel that has different
quality from neighboring vowels (Roach P.1983:163). If a nonsense word “ ba:ba:ba:ba ”
is changed as “ ba:bi:ba:ba”, then the “ bi” syllable will usually be heard as stressed.
In short, a stressed syllable can be recognized thanks to the combination of those above
four factors, among which the strongest effect is produced by pitch and length respectively,
and then, loudness and vowel quality.
2.2.5 Schwa sound
According to Kenworthy J. (1987:51):“There is English one sound that all learners must be
made aware of at a very early stage- the neutral vowel used in unstressed syllable and weak
form- the schwa vowel”. Schwa is represented by the phonetic symbol / Ә /. In quality, it is
mid (that is, half-way between close and open) and central (that is, half-way between front
and back), it is generally described as lax, that is, not articulated with much energy. It is
noteworthy that this vowel / Ә / only occurs in unstressed syllables, never in stressed ones.
Appendix 2 gives more examples indicating the spelling of the schwa in English.

13
2.2.6 Marking of stress
There are various ways of marking stressed syllables in English. O‟Connor J.D. (1967)
showed stressed syllables by placing the mark * immediately before them, for example:
/ ai ﮞ d *ha:dli bi*li:v mai * aiz / ( I could hardly believe my eyes )
Avery and Ehrlich (1992) represented stress with dots: The larger the dot, the heavier the
stress and the smaller the dot, the lighter the stress. Look at these examples:
• • • • • •
Apple information
According to Jones D. (1998), primary (strongly) stressed syllables are shown in
international phonetic transcription by the mark “ ' ”placed at the beginning of the syllable.
The words „father‟, „arrive‟, „opportunity‟ are thus written /'fa:δә /, /ә‟'raiv /, /, ɔpə'tju:niti /
Secondary stress is shown by the mark „, ‟. It is chiefly needed in words having three or
more syllables preceding the primary stress, and in compound words. For examples:
vulnerability /,vʌlnərə'biləti /, civilization /,sivәlai'zei∫n /, responsibility / ri,spɔnsə'biləti /,
type-designing‟/'taip di,zainiη/ etc
2.2.7 Placement of word stress
According to O‟Connor J.D.(1967:91), within a sentence, there are two kinds of words
known as content(lexical) words and function(or grammatical) words. Content words are
those that express independent meaning include: Nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives,
question words and demonstratives, which are usually stressed.
Function words are words that have little or meaning in themselves, but express
grammatical relationships. They include: Articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns,
conjunctions, relative pronouns. Function words are more likely to be unstressed, although
they may be exceptionally stressed if given special attention. In terms of syllables, content
words are classified as mono-syllable, bi-syllable and multi-syllable words.
2.2.7.1 Monosyllabic words( 1 syllable words)
Parviz B.and Mohammad A.S. (2005:107) stated: “Obviously, these words do not presents
any problems because when pronouncing this isolation, they receive the primary stress on
their only syllable”. Normally, the stress of monosyllabic words is not shown. When part

of the sentence, monosyllabic content words are pronounced with full forms of vowels
whereas monosyllabic function words are normally pronounced with the weak form of
vowels (i.e., with /ә / or / I /).