Activity 19- Release the Stress

This activity aims at exercising and checking students’ awareness on word stress.

The vocabulary for this activity can be taken from a text students have just finished reading or from a vocabulary list.

Level: any

Focus: word stress

Materials needed: a ball and slips with words

Instructions: 

1. Model how to work with the ball: every time a word is said, the ball should be bounced against the floor at the moment the strongest syllable is pronounced.  Example:  in·ter·NA·tion·al 

2. Divide class into 2 teams. 

3. Display the slips containing the words on the table. Then, ask a volunteer from

team A to pick a slip. Stick the slip on the board so that the whole class can see it.

Tell the student to say the word out loud and bounce  the ball at the strongest syllable. If the stress is demonstrated correctly, the group gets a point. Repeat the procedure with a volunteer from team B. 

Variation: Stress Dictation  

In this activity the vocabulary can be taken, for instance, from a text.

Write pairs of words on the board. These pairs of words should contain the same number of syllables but with the stress on different positions.  Use a ball that can be bounced against the floor. Explain that one of the words from the pair will be pronounced using the ball. For every syllable, give a gentle tap on the ball. Bounce it at the stressed syllable. Students, then, write down on their notebooks the word that has just been demonstrated according to the position of the stress.

Source: Vinicius Lemos