[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-598079-105":59,"doc-detail-598079-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","teaching-high-value-pronunciation-features-contrastive-stress-for-intermediate-learners","Teaching High-Value Pronunciation Features - Contrastive Stress for Intermediate Learners","","Teaching high-value pronunciation features examines how certain phonological cues matter more for listener understanding than others. The study focuses on contrastive stress and tests whether explicit instruction improves comprehensibility and fluency in spontaneous speech for intermediate ESL learners over a three-week course. Posttest ratings show no fluency gains, while experimental-group comprehensibility improves significantly. The improvement is linked to stronger contrastive stress production and increased comfort using grammatical frames to express contrasts.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/teaching-high-value-pronunciation-features-contrastive-stress-for-intermediate-learners/598079/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/teaching-high-value-pronunciation-features-contrastive-stress-for-intermediate-learners/598079.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Indoniesian Boy","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What makes pronunciation features “high value” for learners?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Pronunciation features differ in how much they help listeners understand. High-value features are those that significantly improve comprehensibility.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What was the effect of teaching contrastive stress on fluency and comprehensibility?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"After a three-week class, fluency ratings showed no improvement, while comprehensibility ratings improved significantly for the experimental group.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does contrastive stress differ from unmarked sentence stress?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Unmarked sentence stress typically falls on the last content word, while contrastive stress places prominence to highlight explicit or implied contrasts, which may not follow the expected unmarked pattern.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},598079,1792188619,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962090760608,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Teaching High-Value Pronunciation Features: Contrastive Stress for Intermediate Learners  \nPronunciation features are not equal in how they affect listeners’ ability to understand. Some are low value, while others are high value. This study explores whether contrastive stress is high value. Previous research has shown that identification of contrastive stress is learnable (Pennington & Ellis, 2000), and that explicit teaching about contrastive stress patterns can improve production for advanced learners (Hahn, 2002; Muller Levis & Levis, 2012). To test whether instruction on contrastive stress improved comprehensibility and fluency in spontaneous speech, we developed a 3-week class for intermediate ESL learners, whose pre-and posttest productions were rated by native listeners. Ratings for fluency showed no improvement. Ratings for comprehensibility significantly improved for the experimental group while control participants showed no improvement. Improvement resulted both from better contrastive stress and greater comfort with producing grammatical frames to express the contrasts. The article concludes by discussing the importance of high-value pronunciation features for improved comprehensibility.  \nIn a video of his younger than 2-year-old son, the linguist Deb Roy  \n(personal communication, n.d.) shows a child whose contrastive stress is perfectly expressed. We hear the child saying, “That’s a BLUE car. That’s a GREEN car. That’s a ORange car. That’s an OTHer orange car.” In these utterances, the child shows command of a basic prosodic pattern of English by calling attention to contrasting lexical items when everything else in the sentence pattern is the same.  \nHe also demonstrates anticipation of a pattern of contrasts by placing contrastive stress on BLUE before any other colors are mentioned.  \nThe CATESOL Journal 30.1 • 2018 • 139  \nSentence stress, also called nuclear stress, primary phrase stress, sentence focus, prominence, and a variety of other names, uses prosody to draw listeners’ attention to a certain word in a spoken phrase or sentence. In this article, we will use sentence stress as our term to refer to this feature. Sentence stress is typically indicated in careful speech by pitch movement, greater syllable length, and increased loudness on the last content word (e.g., noun, verb, adjective, adverb) of each sentence, and it is often represented by capital letters, as in the examples below. Except in uncommon cases (Allerton & Cruttenden, 1979), the most typical placement of sentence stress is on the last content word of a sentence, as the example in (1) . This use of sentence stress, known as unmarked sentence stress, is so common in spoken English that Crystal (1969) found that up to 90% of spoken phrases/sentences stress the last content word. Contrastive stress, a second function of sentence stress, can be seen in (2) and (3). The example in (2) reflects a contrast that is explicitly present. In (3), we see an implied contrast, which although not present in the sentence, is retrievable or readily understood by a listener.  \n(1) It’s MONday. I have CLASS. So I can’t GO.  \n(2) It’s on the BOTTOM shelf, not the TOP shelf.  \n(3) You’ll find it UNder the table.  \nThis study focuses on contrastive stress as shown in (2), in which the contrasting items are explicitly said.  \nLiterature Review  \nSentence Stress  \nSentence stress is essential for intelligible communication in English no matter the teaching context (Jenkins, 2002) . Besides unmarked stress, sentence stress serves other functions in spoken English. For example, it marks new information in discourse (Halliday, 1967), promotes listener comprehension (Hahn, 2004), and calls attention to contrasts (Bolinger, 1961) . In general, every spoken phrase or sentence will have one word that is marked for sentence stress. In the unmarked case, sentence stress typically occurs toward the end of the phrase/sentence and is also the beginning of the pitch movement","cbCaitarnEG9RFiR","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitarnEG9RFiR","pdf",371301,22,"English","# Teaching High-Value Pronunciation Features - Contrastive Stress for Intermediate Learners\n## Contrastive Stress and Study Design\n## Sentence Stress and Its Functions\n## Literature Review\n## Contrastive Stress","[{\"question\":\"What makes pronunciation features “high value” for learners?\",\"answer\":\"Pronunciation features differ in how much they help listeners understand. High-value features are those that significantly improve comprehensibility.\"},{\"question\":\"What was the effect of teaching contrastive stress on fluency and comprehensibility?\",\"answer\":\"After a three-week class, fluency ratings showed no improvement, while comprehensibility ratings improved significantly for the experimental group.\"},{\"question\":\"How does contrastive stress differ from unmarked sentence stress?\",\"answer\":\"Unmarked sentence stress typically falls on the last content word, while contrastive stress places prominence to highlight explicit or implied contrasts, which may not follow the expected unmarked pattern.\"}]","Teaching High-Value Pronunciation Features - Contrastive Stress for Intermediate Learners | PDF",1792086247,55]