The placement is one of the important topics to teach because it can have a huge effect on the quality of the sound and accent.
The placement or the setting for an accent is the way that speakers hold the muscles. It is a game between the lips, jaws, teeth, palate, throat, nose, mouth, back part of the mouth, upper chest, tongue, and the pitch of the sound.
Words must be treated like musical notes producing the rhythm of a specific language, stressing certain words in a phrase or sentence.
The stressed part of the word or syllable is higher in pitch, longer in duration, and a little bit louder. Word stress is important because stressing the wrong syllable can cause misunderstandings. These accented syllables differentiate nouns between verbs for example:
Present Present
Attribute Attribute
Progress Progress
Another important thing to consider for my little learners is to invite them to observe the swallowed letters, those silent letters that are not pronounced at all.These silent letters confuse the kids at the moment they start writing. So they compare the h in Spanish such as hola, hilo, hermana, hermano, etc.
a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i |
typically | climb | muscle | Wednesday | age | fifth | foreign | hour | business |
k | l | m | n | o | p | s | t | u |
Kinfe | Walk | mnemonic | autumn | sophomore | receipt | island | listen | guide |
w | ||||||||
answer |