“Pronunciation is woefully neglected in all mainstream language courses but it is the one area in which we can have lots of fun with patterning of sounds in a way which is acceptable even to teenagers and adults. the only book which I know that has systematically tried to do this is the wonderful Rhymes and Rhythm.”  David A. Hill, “Language Play and Creative Language Learning.”

The nice people at Garnet Education have brought out a new, updated version of the book I am most proud of: Rhymes and Rhythm: a poem-based course for English pronunciation. (ISBN: 978 1 85964 528 4). Unlike the original edition (published by Macmillan in 1994) this contains only poems written by me. Not only that: the book is accompanied by a CD-ROM and audio DVD containing detailed notes for teachers, a large number of visuals to make the systems of pronunciation much clearer and, of course, the full recordings (featuring a much wider range of accents than in the original version).

What’s behind the book is that in all cultures, everywhere and at all times, rhythm is and always has been important. Even before we are born we are aware of the regular beat of our mother’s heart, a beat

which the mother reproduces in the lullabies she sings to calm her baby or send it to sleep. Rhythm features again in the  nursery rhymes sung to children, as well as the playground rhymes created by children themselves: skipping and ball-bouncing chants, or those used to find out who is ‘it’.

Most of these also involve rhyme. Take

Baah baah black sheep, have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear.

One step, two steps, tickle you under there.

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet

eating her curds and whey.

There came a big spider and sat down beside her.

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Why can I remember these after more than 60 years?  Because they rhyme, as well as having a simple regular beat or pulse. So that’s why all the poems in my book are traditional, in the sense that (as the title implies) they are rhythmic and have a rhyme scheme.

The regular beat has another benefit for people learning English. If you get the beat right, you stress the words correctly (which makes it easier to  be understood.  For example, most two-syllable nouns in English tend to have stress on the first syllable.  (Click on the play arrow below and you’ll hear what I mean in this poem which just uses names, of people and places).

Norman’s from Nottingham,

Martin’s from Mottingham

Charley’s from Chester

and Lesley’s from Lee.

Joyce is from Jarrow

and Henry’s from Harrow.

Laura’s from Leicester

and Dave’s from Dundee.

(If you can’t hear the poems, you will have to download the QuickTime plugin).

Keeping to this simple ONE two three beat shows the learner, for example, that Leicester, despite the spelling, rhymes with Chester and has just two syllables. And Dundee, unusually, has stress on the final syllable. Now listen to the next poem, featuring place names from the Americas.

Mo’s from Montana

and Sal’s from Savannah,

Dave’s from Daytona

and Mary’s from Maine;

Nell’s from Nebraska

and Al’s from Alaska,

Will’s from Winona

and Fred’s from Fort Wayne.

Note the stress pattern of place names ending in <o> or <a> (often from Spanish or native-American languages): CHIno, REno, CHIle, CUba, monTAna, haVAna, dayTOna, aLAska, wiNOna, guYAna. They all have main stress on the syllable one before the end. (And this would be the place of main stress even in longer names: think of caliFORnia, alaBAma, amaRIllo etc).

Here’s another poem with the same waltz-time beat, involving a more complex set of stress patterns.

Tina’s a teacher, Priscilla’s a preacher,

Donald’s a doctor and Ted drives a truck.

Fred’s a photographer,

Joe’s a geographer,

Barry’s a barrister down on his luck.

                      

Here’s an example of how I use backing tracks (this one made with the help of the Garage Band application on the same Mac I use for the website.)  Notice the variety of accents used by the male actor.

Have you seen Peter, have you seen Pete?

I saw (h)im half an hour ago

walking down the street.

Have you seen Patricia, have you seen Pat?

I’ve just seen (h)er talking to (h)er

little ginger cat.

Have you seen my neighbours,

Anthony and Mark?

I saw (th)em Tuesday morning

strolling in the park

Click here to find a link to the publisher’s page about ‘Rhymes and Rhythm’.

                      (Look out for more poems in a later posting)