Speech Work: Introduction to Stress, Word Stress on Syllables

English words have a fixed stress pattern, so it is very important to take note of this when looking up the pronunciation of a word. It is difficult to predict the stress pattern of English words by the use of rules because such rules are often broken

when made. The safest thing is to study the stress pattern of English words.

Some Guiding Rules:

1. Stress the second syllable from the end of the word which ends in the following:

-‘ic’,  ‘-ial’ ‘er’ ,’ow’ ere, ege, ‘ure’, ‘ation’ ‘or’, ‘1^st’, ‘ade’ ‘ish’, eous, ‘ious, ‘sto’, ‘da’ ture

E.g. draMatic, inferior, colonial, coMEdian, paraSItic, enterTAINMent, insuFFIcient, confedeRAtion, supreTENdent, eXperimenTAtion

2. Stress the third syllable from the end of a word which ends in the following: “-ify’, ‘ity’, ‘ate’, -al, ‘ive’, “-lly’, ute, ‘ty’, ‘cal’ itude, ‘cle’, ‘ous’, ‘y’, ‘ize’, ise ‘ment’, ‘le’, ‘ness’, ‘able’, bly, ‘ony’, ‘ism’

Article, Management,PARticle, Nobody, Miracle, inferiOrity

3. Stress the first syllable from the end of a word which ends in the following:

-“stand”, -‘xert’, ‘duce’, ‘ployed’, ‘tain’, ‘noon’, ‘ree’, ‘-rade’, -‘bey’, “plete”,”pose”, ‘come’, ‘rette’, ‘ese’, ‘sine’,

UnderSTAND, interRUPT, refeREE, EnterTAIN, JapaNESE, magaZINE.

Evaluation: Answer question 1-5 of your countdown page 253

B: Writing Minutes of a Meeting.

Content: Explanation

Minutes of minutes

Another form of report is the minutes of a meeting. These are a record of the events and discussion that have taken place at the meeting. For every meeting, there should have been a prepared agenda, that is, a list of items to be considered or discussed during the meeting. The minutes of a meeting are usually numbered in sequence.

Writing out an agenda as a guide is very important. e.g.

1. Arrival and introduction of guest of honour.
2. Chairman’s Opening remarks
3. Club president’s Address.
4. Chief launcher’s Address.
5. Launching of the club.
6. Refreshments
7. Chairman’s closing Remarks
8. Vote of Thanks.

If you are to write the minutes of the Annual General Meeting of your Club or association, your report should also follow the sequence of items on the agenda already sent out to members’ e.g.

1. Introduction/opening
2. Minutes of the last Annual general meeting.
3. Matters Arising from the Minutes.
4. Secretary’s Annual Report
5. Financial Secretary’s Annual Report
6. President’s Annual Report
7. Election of officers for the Next Year.
8. Closing

Your report should begin with the name of your club, the date and venue of the meeting and the list of members, showing those. You should then follow the agenda, item by item, in sequence.

Evaluation:

Write a report of the inauguration of a club or association to which you belong or of the annual general meeting of the same club or association. Follow the first agenda written in your note.

Reading Assignment: page 45-46 of Countdown by Evans.

C: punctuation: Full stop, comma, Dash Colon, semi colon, quotation marks.

Content: full stop, comma, Dash Colon, semi Colon, Quotation marks.

Full-stop  (period/./

The end of an utterance in speech is indicated be definite breaks, accompanied by a rising or falling tone of voice. The written symbols of these breaks or rise or fall in tone are the full-stop, the question mark and the exclamation point.

Usage:

1. Use a full-stop to indicate the end of a statement that is grammatically complete e.g.

A.) Ngozi is good girl.

b). My mother came here yesterday.

c. The children love playing. In the rain  (In the rain, is a fragment)

d). The children love playing in the rain.

• Use a full-stop to indicate abbreviations; initials or numbers
• Abbreviations.

E.g.-Exempli gratia  (Latin)- means-for example.

Etc- Et cetera  (Latin) and so on.

A.M- Ante meridian  (Latin) afternoon

P.M- Post meridian  (Latin) afternoon

Viz-Videlict  (Latin) namely

PhD-Doctor of Philosophy

Oct- October

Jr-Junior

BBC- British Broadcasting Corporation.

B.) Initials: The first letters of a person’s name.

C   Numbering: When listing out things, a full-stop is used at the end of each number.

The comma

 (i) Commas for Separation

 (a)It’s used to separate items, words, phrases, clauses, in a list or series e.g. He ran down the stairs, along the corridor, through the door way and down the road.

 (b)It’s used to separate the words spoken in direct speech from the rest of the sentence e.g.

My mother said,’that is not what i believe”.

 (c) Commas are used in letter writing to mark off the greeting: Dear sir,

 (d) Commas are used after post-script yours sincerely, Uma.

 (e) Commas are used with addresses measurements and references

Federal Govt, Girls’ college, Abuloma, Port Harcourt.

 (ii) Commas to Enclose

 (a) Commas are used to enclose words which refer to a person just mentioned i.e. appositive e.g.

Mrs. Edwards, the principal, spoke to the whole school.

 (iii)To set off subordinate clauses or other introducing words or phrases from the main body of the sentence e.g. Before she died, my grandmother gave me a lot of money.

DASH/-/

It’s used to indicate a break in sense, or faltering speech.

If you tell a lie, I shall know it Ngozi- so remember that before you speak.

THE COLON/:/

Use a colon to announce a list, an explanation, or a long quotation e.g. Mummy will buy: meat, fish, garri, onions, and crayfish.

QUOTATION MARK

The use of single or double quotation mark is a matter of choice, quotation marks are used for direct speech e.g. ‘I shall go to the market’, said my mother.

They are used to indicate direct quotation from books or other reliable authorities: Shakespeare says: ”To thus is nothing, but to be safely thus”.

They are used to enclose titles or articles, poems, short stories, newspapers, chapters of books, songs and periodicals e.g. HHHHHHHHHH

Have you ever read the poem “casualties”?

Evaluation: Write five sentences making use of the various punctuation marks taught.

Reading Assignment: Page 55-56 of complete English Course for senior secondary schools by OkamakaChiomaIbe

Weekend Assignment: Questions 71-80, page370-372 of Countdown by Evans