Speaking English is often one of the most overlooked aspects in traditional English courses. Many teachers offer in-depth grammar, writing, reading and vocabulary-building, but struggle to incorporate the culminating aspect of speaking English.

This course was designed for upper intermediate/advanced English learners to learn the segmental and suprasegmental aspects of the English language. Segmental aspects refer to the consonants and vowels. Suprasegmental aspects of English include the features that involve phenomena that extend over more than one sound segment such as; word stress, sentence stress, rhythm and modifications that occur between words such as linking and assimilation.

Topics covered in the course:

• The International Phonetic Alphabet

• Vowel of English

• Consonants of English

• Word Stress in multisyllabic words

• Word Stress in Numbers

• Word Endings (-ed, -s, etc)

• Sentence stress

• Rhythm

• Intonation

• Linking in Connected speech

• Thought Groups

• Inflection

• Highlighting

• How to think in English

At the end of this course, students will be able to (SWBAT):

• Recognize and accurately use the International Phonetic Alphabet for their own research and use.

• Differentiate between and properly articulate this 20 different English vowel sounds.

• Differentiate between and properly articulate the consonants of English

• Understand word stress patterns in multisyllabic words, numbers

• Understand and predict sentence stress timing in English

• Properly use accurate English rhythm and intonation patterns and structures

• Understand and speak English using connected speech, thought groups, and inflection

• Think in English using phrases, sentences and longer chunks of English language