Week 3: Phonetics and Intonation

1. Core Ideas

• Phonetics studies speech sounds.
• Intonation studies how pitch moves across speech.
• Stress is the emphasis placed on syllables or words.
• Rhythm is the timing pattern of spoken language.

2. What to listen for

• Word stress: one syllable is stronger than the others.
• Sentence stress: important words carry emphasis.
• Pitch: rising and falling voice movement.
• Intonation patterns:
  • Rising pitch often signals a question or uncertainty.
  • Falling pitch often signals completion or certainty.

3. Minimal toolkit

• Syllable: a beat in a word.
• Phoneme: the smallest sound unit that changes meaning.
• Minimal pair: two words differing by one sound, like ship and sheep.

4. Worked Patterns

Pattern 1: Stress changes meaning

Pattern 2: Recognize intonation

Pattern 3: Syllable count

5. Flashcards

<Flashcard front="What is intonation?" back="The rise and fall of pitch in speech." /> <Flashcard front="What is a minimal pair?" back="Two words that differ by just one phoneme, such as ship and sheep." /> <Flashcard front="Why is stress important?" back="It helps listeners identify the important part of a word or sentence." />

6. Practice Matrix

• Mark the stressed syllable in 10 common academic words.
• Listen to 5 spoken sentences and classify the intonation.
• Match minimal pairs with their sound difference.

7. Quick Recall

• Phonetics = sounds.
• Stress = emphasis.
• Intonation = pitch movement.
• Rhythm = timing.