4.

3 Rhythm When we listen to a stretch of spoken English discourse, we often feel that there is a rhythm or regularity to it, which it a characteristic sound, different from other languages and not always well-imitated by foreign learners. The impression of rhythm may arise out of a feeling of alternation between strong and weak beats in !arious patterned recurrences" # - - # #- $4.%& 'ost of the people were !isitors. - # - # # # $4.(& ) friend of mine has bought a boat. - # - # - # - # $4.3& ) week at the seaside is *ust what + need. ,rown $%-..& found such recurring patterns in her recordings of broadcast talk. ,ut other natural speech is often not as regular as this, nor will the patterns necessarily recur in the same way at different times. +f we dip at random into natural data, we find stretches such as" - # -# # - # $4.4& and the speed limit was fi!e miles an hour - # # - - # - - #$4./& there was a sharp turn at the end of this !illage $)uthor s data %-0-& 1ometimes, in order to capture a felt rhythmically, we can mark silent beats to maintain the rhythm" # - - # $- -& # - $4.2& there s a house o!er there, isn t there )nother way of looking at this is to say that utterances can be di!ided up into groups of syllables that ha!e more or less the same duration, called feet $a foot as a unit must contain one stressed syllable&. Within each foot, syllables will be stretched out or s3uee4ed together , depending on how many there are, to maintain the rhythmic time span, as in" 5 # - - 5 # - 5 # 5 # 5 $4..& 5 This is the 5 one that 5 6rank 5 bought 5 Where the first foot has two weak beats, the second has one and the third and fourth ha!e none, but where all the feet are percei!ed to be of more or less the same duration.

+n fact, instrumental analysis may re!eal that the beats are anything but precisely regular in real time and as we shall see, there are problems with such an account of rhythm. 7onetheless, the o!erall e8perience of rhythm is often still present. This general feeling we shall refer to as rhythmically $see 9ouper-:uhlen %-02" //&. Traditionally, rhythm has been considered an important element in the teaching of spoken English. This is probably due to two main factors. 6irstly, there does seem to be rhythmically in !arying degrees in long stretches of speech, especially carefully considered deli!eries such as broad- cast talks, fluent reading aloud, speeches and monologues, as well as some ordinary con!ersation. 1econdly, the concept of English as a stress-timed ;anguage, deeply rooted in theoretical and applied linguistics, has dorni- nated approaches to the teaching of rhythm.