Presentation

The Role of Word Stress in English as a Lingua Franca

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Abstract

Jennifer Jenkins, in numerous publications (e.g., 2000; 2002; 2006), has proposed a syllabus for teaching English pronunciation that takes into consideration the new role of English as an International Language (EIL), or English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). In these publications, she proposes a “lingua franca core” in which some pronunciation features are considered core, or necessary for intelligibility, and some features are considered non-core, or not necessary for intelligibility. She proposes that word stress not be considered part of the core for three reasons: because word stress does not pose intelligibility issues, because word stress is too complex to be teachable, and because word stress patterns are variable among Native Speaker (NS) dialects of English. This paper will argue from other research that each of these issues may be seen as an argument for rather than against word stress being considered a core feature, thus suggesting a more important role for word stress in ELF.

How to Cite:

McCrocklin, S., (2011) “The Role of Word Stress in English as a Lingua Franca”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 3(1).