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The topic of the unit is teaching pronunciation and phonology, so the focus is on stress, rhythm, intonation and pronunciation of the sounds and sounds sequences. Such an element of speech as word stress does not present a great problem to the majority of students as in case of a question students are able to ask a teacher or consult a dictionary. In case of a sentence stress, a teacher can explain the difference in meanings using one and the same sentence, later asking students to put sentence stress on different words and encourage students to guess the change of meaning. Correct rhythm and intonation are, on the other hand, much more difficult area to master, as every language has its habitual patterns which mostly differ greatly throughout different languages. If a teacher wants to improve these skills s/he can use several methods: nonsense words, gestures, humming/singing, diagrams on the blackboard, listening to native speakers (eg radio), etc. The last element is pronunciation of sounds or sounds sequence. First of all, a teacher should realize that there are (in most cases) great differences between phonemic systems of the language being taught and students mother tongue, so s/he should pay attention to (at least) teaching sounds of one system that differ greatly from the other. Concepts of place of articulation and manner of articulation should not be neglected as describing sounds according to these criteria may help students greatly.
