What is Prosody?

Prosody can be broken down into discrete elements: pitch, intonation, loudness, duration, and rhythm. The elements together are known as suprasegmentals because they change across the sound of words and sentences, as opposed to the segmentals of individual speech sounds (phonemes). 

In English, important words are easier to hear because: 

1) They are said in a higher pitch. 

2) The vowel in the stressed syllable has a longer duration than the vowels in unstressed syllables. 

3) There is a bit of extra loudness (loudness is how the brain perceives intensity which is caused by air pressure below the vocal folds, if you are too loud you may be using too much pressure).

Having a different prosody pattern than a native speaker of American English causes communication problems not just because you go up and down in pitch in different places, but because it is more difficult for the listener to understand your meaning, not just your words. 

Why Practice?

What makes the most difference in sounding like a native speaker of a language is having native-like intonation and overall prosody. 


Pronunciation of individual sounds comes second. Why? Because so much is expressed through prosody. 


The pitch of your voice carries more meaning than the actual words. This is true for every language. You understand a lot of emotions when people say very few words because you hear how they are saying it compared to what they are saying. 


How to Practice

You have the habit of using pitch in your speech based on the language you speak most often or the language you learned first. Where your voice gets higher and lower is part of the overall prosody of that influential language. You probably haven’t thought much about it but now I’m asking you to focus your attention on it. 


To change a habit, it's best to start with small amounts and frequent repetitions. These short daily exercises will help you set a new habit of paying attention to other people's way of speaking and your own. 



The first stage of practice is the most structured - imitation. I provide the audio example, show the text, and ask you to repeat it the same way. Focus your attention on which words are emphasized with higher pitch and longer vowel duration. 

The second stage of practice is applying intonation to new text so you don’t have a model to imitate, you have to decide which intonation pattern to use and produce it. 



Start your day with these emails and it will help increase your awareness of American English prosody the rest of the day!

Make Today Day 1

You can improve your American English prosody in small steps every day!

Let's Start Now!

Format

Each day's email includes:

  • Video Description

    A video that explains why this day's audio sample was chosen and what to listen for.

  • Audio Example

    A short audio of the day's speaker example with the script provided and a link to the full audio or video.

  • Quote

    A new quote each day for you to decide how to apply prosody to and an invitation to use prosody with once sentence you create.

Daily Emails

    1. Welcome to 30 Days of Prosody

    2. Day 1 - Something Familiar

    3. Day 2 - Extra Emphasis - Jack Nicholson

    4. Day 3 - Calm and Steady - Janet Echelman

    5. Day 4 - Very Wide Pitch Range - Angela Duckworth

    6. Day 5 - Good Stretching - James Rhee

    7. Day 6 - Pauses Between Thought Groups - Julian Treasure

    8. Day 7 - Motivational Speech - Gene Hackman

    9. Day 8 - Soft Emotion - Robin Williams

    10. Day 9 - Motivational Speaking - Mathew McConaughey

    11. Day 10 - Good Stretching - Chris Jordan

    12. Day 11 - High Pitch Emphasis - Amishi Jha

    13. Day 12 - Extra Emphasis - Rupal Patel

    14. Day 13 - Pauses for Emphasis - Safwat Saleem

    15. Day 14 - Extra Emphasis / Motivational - Al Pacino

    16. Day 15 - Serious Tone - "Thank You For Smoking" scene

    17. Day 16 - Lists- Anil Seth

    18. Day 17 - Contrasts - Powerful Computers video

    19. Day 18 - Fast Pace - Nick DiGiovanni

    20. Day 19 - Using stretching instead of pitch for emphasis - George Clooney

    21. Day 20 - Good placement of pauses - Celeste Headlee

    22. Day 21 - Contrasting words - Poet Ali

    23. Day 22 - Wide pitch range - Tim Urban

    24. Day 23 - Short phrases - Marques Brownlee

    25. Day 24 - Soft spoken and clear - StoryCorps - Storm Reyes

    26. Day 25 - Contrast stress - Lera Boroditsky

    27. Day 26 - Sarcastic, stretchy - Bruce Willis

    28. Day 27 - Emphasis in conversational speech - Matt Damon

    29. Day 28 - Emphasis in conversational speech - Julianne Moore

    30. Day 29 - Someone thinking of what to say while speaking - Dwayne Johnson

    31. Day 30 - Fast speech - Mathew McCnaughey

    32. Congratulations on Completion of 30 Days of Prosody!

About this course

  • $30.00

Meet Your Speech Coach

Owner, Adastra Speech Christi Barb

Dr. Christi Barb is an accentologist who focused her doctoral research and years of teaching in higher education in the area of foreign-accented English speech. Her own instructional method is: based on current psycholinguistic theory, supported by research, produces positive change, is teachable, and is self-motivating. Clients who have received instruction from Dr. Barb reported results as: increased confidence, increased listening skill, increased comfort with the sound of their voice, a decrease in requests to repeat or clarify what they said, and motivation to make self-improvements in other areas of their life.