Syllable Stress Table

A lot of people have a lot of problems with word stress in English. The problem is the language, not the learner. Because it is not very systematic, there is no system to teach. What we need then, is a system for studying it.

The Syllable Stress Table (SST),  has words in the cells of a table, positioned according to the number of syllables they contain and where the stress falls. 

As a task, the students can be given the table without any words in it. Or they can draw the blank table in their exercise books. Then the teacher reads each word, one at a time, and gives the students a little time to write them into the right cell. 

The words in the SST below represent the topic of phonology and can be used to good effect in teacher training sessions. SSTs can be used​ with any topic, for  example, flying, as on the right.  SSTs can be used to pre-teach vocabulary as shown in the Extreme Weather new story.

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Template
The PDF attached below can be downloaded for use as a handout.
It has numbered squares which make them easy to refer to when discussing it with students and getting feedback from them.

sst_with_numbered_squares.pdf
File Size:	17 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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SSTs can be used with virtually any level of student. Faulty word stress is common even among advanced learners.

​Value
In the process of positioning a word in the table, learners repeat the word, as modelled by the teacher, many times. To achieve the task, they focus very closely on the two criteria – the number of syllables and the stress. It is quite unlikely that they do not think about the meaning of the word and where they know it from. ​

 Variations

1. The table can be drawn on the board. The learners have the words on cards and position them accordingly.
2. Students work in groups. The cards can be used by students to dictate words to each other.
3. In their vocabulary note books, students can create an SST for each topic.
4. Teachers can ask students to write the words from a topic's vocabulary list into the SST as homework.

See examples related to texts:
Extreme Weather

Word lists
Lists of words according to the number of syllables and stress. 

• Open the Corpus of Contemporary American English, click Browse.
• The fifth row of the search field is called Syllables / stress.
• Click on that heading to see the instructions. 
• The result of your search is a long list of words in order of frequency in the language, or in COCA, to be more precise.