If I want to do a blog post in February I'd better start writing!
At the beginning of February, it became apparent that this month would be dedicated to encouraging my son with his search for a new dental clinic, getting an evaluation and plan, faciltating appointments, then finally (today) chauffeuring him to dental surgery. And, indeed, all of that happened, including the chauffeuring. However, he could have driven himself home because the surgery got postponed for another month (long story).
So now I have a freezer and fridge full of ice cream, protein shakes, jello, and puddings. Plus hot/cold bead ice-packs which can go in the microwave to become hot packs when needed. They'll keep.
As of now, my main project is to de-stress.
Which reminded me that when I left-off teaching I was trying to develop more and better material to practice word, syllable and sentence stress. I especially needed more dialogs with sentence stress to convey meaning and informal vocabulary with more use of the schwa (de-stress!) for better understanding of Americans when they speak. De-stressing even further, I need to write more practice conversations using elisions. What are the most common English words involving elisions? As usual, I have started my own list.
I have found three super videos from Oxford Online English to help me with ideas.
The Schwa /ə/ Sound - How to Pronounce the Schwa - How to Improve English Pronunciation --This video is slightly less than 16 minutes long and covers word, phrase and sentence, all three.
Sentence Stress in English Pronunciation -- This video is just over 13 minutes and covers content words vs grammar words. It doesn't cover the schwa but offers good examples of intonation. Sample conversations show how stress conveys meaning.
Syllables and Word Stress - English Pronunciation Lesson -- This 14 minute video covers the main, most often-encountered rules. At the very end it mentions the schwa.
So, the month of March will be dedicated to stressing and de-stressing, in more ways than one.
