Additional Activities

Step 1

Find a TED Talk you find interesting.

Step 2

Copy and paste the transcript text into a text editor (e.g., Microsoft Word).

Step 3

Watch the TED talk at least twice, inserting a single slash “/” where the speaker makes a short pause and inserting a double slash “//” where the speaker makes a long pause.

Step 4

Highlight the last “important word” of each pause unit (usually a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb), since this is the default position for focus in English.

Step 5

Listen to the talk one more time to check whether the speaker actually stresses in each thought group the word(s) you highlighted. Change your highlighting as necessary to match the speaker’s actual focus.

Step 6

If the speaker puts focus on a word in order to contrast it with another word, highlight in a different color the specific syllable he/she actually stresses.It’s important to highlight the exact syllable the speaker puts focus on and not just the word since contrast focus can not only change which word the speaker puts focus on, but also which syllable in that word gets focus. For example, Eric Berlow in his TED talk, “Simplifying Complexity,” consistently shifts his focus in the word “complicated,” altering its word stress, in order to contrast it with the word “complex“:

“So / I hope to convince you that complex / doesn’t always equal complicated. // So for me / a well-crafted baguette, fresh out of the oven / is complex / but a / curry / onion / green olive / poppy cheese bread is complicated” (Eric Berlow: “Simplifying Complexity,” TED).

Step 7

Read the transcript again, underlining each pause unit you think the speaker will mark with a rising tone, the default falling tone, or other tones sometimes used in English.

Step 8

Listen to the talk again to check and correct your predictions.

Step 9

Read the transcript again, marking in bold any words you think the speaker will connect together rather than pronouncing separately, e.g., “want to” → “wanna.” Listen again to the talk to check/correct your predictions.

Step 10

Record yourself giving the talk (use a free tool like online-voice-recorder.com. Pay attention to pausing only where you marked either “/” or “//”, to lengthening the stressed vowels in each of your highlighted words, and to using rising intonation with every thought group you underlined.

Step 11

Check your recording. Did you pause only where you marked “/” or “//”? Did you lengthen the stressed vowels of all your highlighted words? Did you use rising intonation for all of your underlined thought groups? Mark in bold any thought groups in which you made a pausing, focus, or intonation mistake.

Step 12

Rerecord the talk, paying particular attention to the stress and intonation of the words and phrases you marked in bold.

Instructions: Read each paragraph (punctuation has been removed) and mark the beginning and end of each thought group using a / or // depending on how long you think the pause would be.

Paragraph 1

How was my weekend oh it was fun I went to my friend’s house where we had a really nice dinner my friend was worried about his place being a mess but I told him not to worry my house is also a mess right now when I got to his place I really didn’t think it was messy at all just some papers on his desk and of course he had several books on a coffee table I wonder if he cleaned up before I arrived even though I told him he didn’t need to to be honest I probably would have done the same haha

Paragraph 2

Hello class today we are going to discuss thought groups what are thought groups generally any discrete stretch of speech that forms a coherent message they typically are grammatically and semantically sound are set off by pauses before and after include one prominent element and have an intonation contour built around that prominent element why do they matter they affect other language features such as pausing prominence/stress intonation and linking they affect meaning by signaling important information and can change the listener’s interpretation of information

 Thought Group Activities

The website Tools for Clear Speech provides additional activities for practicing Thought Groups. The website provides an answer key so these activities can be used autonomously by the learners or assigned as homework