RHYTHM IS A KEY TO LANGUAGE LEARNING

It is so important for children to understand the beauty of their language by appreciating and internalizing the rhythm and modulation.

All languages have rhythm and all have to use the same way to create rhythm and modulation. It is done by weak and strong stresses and by loud and soft sounds.

This can only be done by the teacher having the students read aloud and recite poetry aloud.

They will understand that poetry in particular runs mainly on weak-strong-weak-strong stress and occasionally with a strong stress to start the sentence. The words stressed below are marked in red.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.

Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow.

The English language is able to vary the stress pattern to match the mood of the story. A common stress pattern is weak-weak-strong or even weak-weak-weak-strong. Think of galloping horses.

There was movement at the station for the word had passed around that the colt from old regret had got away.

But rhythm is not limited only to poetry. It is also the key to language. Take the romance languages of Europe that grew out of the Latin of the Roman Empire. These are Italian, French, Spanish and English, all based on weak-strong-weak-strong stress.

Europeans know that the poetic languages include Italian and Spanish. This is the result of their inclusion of extra weak stresses within words. The English were never as poetic.

Take good old English names that are as musical as a boot. These names have few weak stresses and have the feel of a brick wall. Strong stresses are marked below in red. Many strong stresses are found at the start of proper names.

John Charles Smith.  Thomas William Dougall,  Harry Arthur Bloggs

But take the Italians and Spanish who love to put extra vowels in the middle of words and at the end. Note that some words have two vowels at the end eg  Clau di-o. Ni cho-lo.

Nicholas Pietrangeli, Claudio Santa Rossa, Nicholo Versace, Angelina Del Monaco, Angelo, Angela, Pinnochio, Emilio Trafficante, Los Angeles, San Francisco,

Take the word that means the head of a team derived from the latin Caput. The English say Captain which has no music whatever.

The Spanish put a vowel in the middle Kapitain. The Italians have put another vowel in to make the word Kapitano which makes it the music of the angels.

The language of Poland is interesting as it has words without vowels. But we are reliably advised that there are consonants that play the role of vowels.

And who else in the world wants to put vowels in their language? The people of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The Melanesians from here take English and put it to music with addition of a vowel in Tok Pisin.

Take axe which becomes akis. Dance becomes danis. Help becomes halivim. Place becomes peles. In the Solomon Islands, my favourite word is the Pijin for self which has added two vowels to become seleva.

Then we have the word bilas in Tok Pisin. That started on the sugar cane fields of Queensland as the slang word flash as in flash clothes. It became flas in Vanuatu. In Bislama, the word to decorate is flasem.

Somewhere between there and Papua New Guinea, it became blas. Then a vowel was added to make it bilas which means decorations.

So too the word banis. That started as fence. On the way up to Papua New Guinea, it became fans which became bans and banis with a vowel added.

For students of English in Papua New Guinea, there has to be an appreciation and understanding of stress patterns which we learn from speaking, reading, reciting and singing.

This report was part of the introductory briefing to Defence personnel on Tok Pisin courses at the RAAF School of Languages 1978-1992.

We start with the Tok Pisin patterns of weak-strong stress. Certain connectors exist and include the words long, i, bilong, and ol. Bilong is pronounced blaw. Long is pronounced law. These are all weak stresses.

FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS: TOK PISIN TREE (1)
familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2011/08/tok-pisin-tree-1_24.htmlCached
24 Aug 2011 – I came to PNG to serve at Igam Barracks during 1976-1977.
I had just completed a Bahasa Indonesia course at the RAAF School of
Languages ...

Mi go insait long ol haus bilong ol man.

Then we have to know that all English prepositions are weak stresses. These include to, in, at, from, with, on, and many others.

We have also to understand that most words derived from Latin have the root word as the strong stress.

This helps in teaching Latin words to students. Many English words based on Latin have a prefix-root-suffix. And the root word can be identified as the strong stress.

Transcription, injection, revolver, procession, incorporate, compartment, transportation, accident and many others.

LATIN FOR PNG STUDENTS - FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS ...

familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2011/.../latin-for-png-students.ht...

Cached 4 Sep 2011 – FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS

LATIN FOR PNG STUDENTS .... Latin roots can enrich understanding

of PNG and Australian ...

So there is a whole world of magic that has been deleted from curricula by uneducated teachers wanting to stop rote learning and reciting aloud.

Our students miss the key understanding to the beauty of their language. English has a grace and elegance of its own that can be appreciated only by the spoken word.

I once met a girl

who was so good to me

and she soon was the light in my life.

She gave me two children,

looked after my house.

I was happy to make her my wife.

Our marriage was strong.

Our family has grown.

My love for her never fades.

And I thanked God each day

that my wife came to stay.

But I did not thank her.

I just gave her AIDS.

She gave the virus to our baby son

and now both are dead and I am dying.

Please God forgive me.