Children’s picture books have long been the recognized way to help aid the development of young learners in their first and second languages. Which makes them perfect for learners of English as a second language. Sentence stress in English is when you are giving more emphasis to the words or phrases used in a sentence. Simply, stressed words in a sentence can be longer or higher in pitch whereas non-stressed words are shortened. Stressed words are usually content words like nouns and verbs, articles and prepositions are generally unstressed. One easy way to help practice your sentence stress is to look at children’s books. Native speakers use sentence stress in order to help the listener to understand the main points being made. Today we’re going to take a look at some beneficial books to practice your stress and help you sound more like a native speaker.
The Cat In The Hat
The Cat In The Hat is a famous book by famed children’s author Dr. Seuss. Focussed heavily on rhyme, this book is a great way for new students to practice their English sentence stress. The book opens with: “The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so we sat in the house, all that cold, cold, wet day”. A simple, but a perfect reflection of how to begin practicing your stress. Practice this line and put the focus on “sun, shine, too wet, play, sat, house, cold, cold, wet day”. Leaving mainly words without any meaning: “the, did not, it was, to, so we, in the, all that”, which should be shorter and without stress. This is a perfect example of how to use sentence stress. When reading the lines with stress, the meaning can almost be inferred completely. If you were to read the second set of examples, the words have little meaning, other than making the grammar perfect.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The book by Eric Carle, is a favorite among many native English speakers. The book is about the young life of a caterpillar and his journey through many different foods. The use of repetition in this book is a great way to practice increasing stress. The caterpillar begins by eating healthy, but “still” isn’t full. Moving onto more and more unhealthy food, but “still” isn’t full. What is good to practice here is the use of the word “still”, and increasing the length and strength of the word as the book continues. This repetition is a good way of showing the importance of the content word in the sentences. As they become more and more important to the listener.
How To Practice Sentence Stress?
I have used these examples with many of my students and had them practice this over and over. My advice would be to read the first few pages of these books and record yourself as you’re reading out loud. Make sure to read the stressed words louder and longer and put more stress than you believe is necessary. Listen back to yourself and see how it sounds. Or send the audio to your teacher for them to listen to. The teacher will know if your stress sounds natural or unnatural. English is a stress-based language and there should be more emphasis, energy, and emotion when reading the stressed words.
Let us know in the comments your favorite books to read with your kids. Are there any other fun books that are great for practicing your sentence stress, rhyme, and rhythm?
