One of the hardest things to learn about English is rhythm and stress. The way that English puts the important words on the beats, and then squeezes the rest of the words into the spaces between the beats…well, that’s hard to learn and hard to teach. One of the tools I use for rhythm practice is a metronome. ESL and EFL teachers can set the speed fast or slow or somewhere in-between, and model for students how to speak on the beat and reduce and shorten words between the beats. Peggy models the process by counting, in a method that may remind you of a band leader setting the beat for musicians.
Watch the METRONOME VIDEO on YouTube. A transcript of the video follows.
“If you or your students are learning English rhythm and have never used a metronome, this is the video to watch first.
Go to metronomeonline.com and you’ll see this image; this is a screen shot from there. Turn it on, set your beat, and you’ll hear the metronome start to click. You can change the beat anytime you want.
The first learning curve with a metronome is trying to speak WITH the beat. I’m going to do a sample for you.
One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight.
One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight.
Once your students can speak ON the beat, add a word between the beats, like this:
One and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight.
Now, two hits between the beats:
One and a two and a three and a four and a five and a six and a seven and a eight.
I’ll finish this by adding the rest of the beats to it, so you can hear what it sounds like when you get them all in.
One-two-three-four
One and two and three and four
One and a two and a three and a four
a one and then a two and then a three and then a four
So that covers just the first part: “how does a metronome work?” And how can you start to speak on the beat and speak between the beats, and this is really critical in English, both in understanding native speakers, and also in being able to produce a natural rhythmic stress pattern in English, because we really do speak on the beats, and the reductions and liaisons happen between the beats, don’t they?”
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