by Ana Paula Biazon Rocha
PronSIG’s second webinar of 2025, How to NAIL English Rhythm: A Blueprint for Increased Intelligibility, with Veronica Sardegna, took place on 15th February. It was a true masterclass, providing teachers with a deeper understanding of the core principles of English rhythm through clear examples and practical classroom activities. In order to kick off our blog posts for the year, we will be reviewing five key takeaways from Sardegna’s webinar, which can hopefully help us teach English rhythm more confidently, frequently and effectively in our lessons.
1. Prominence: the key element of English rhythm
Sardegna highlighted that the first thing we need to understand about English rhythm is prominence. The production of prominence is defined by two stress features, vowel length and loudness, and by one intonation feature, pitch. In other words, when we teach students about stressed syllables, we usually explain that they are longer, louder and higher (Hancock, 2012). For this reason, the perception of prominence comes from recognising the contrast between stressed and unstressed vowels.
Image 1: stressed syllable – longer, louder and higher
2. The importance of teaching English rhythm
Sardegna pointed out that English rhythm is one of the key factors of intelligibility, so teaching it in our lessons is essential to help learners improve their perception skills (listening comprehension) and productive skills (producing a more intelligible speech).
However, this is no easy task. Sardegna reminded us that L2 speakers usually find prominence cognitively challenging, as you can see in the slide below:
Image 2: Sardegna’s slide about the cognitive challenges of prominence for L2 speakers
So, does this mean that we are not going to teach prominence to our students? No, not at all. We should try and facilitate their understanding of it, especially through lots of examples and practice.
3. Prediction skills: The Two Peak Profile
Overall, when teaching pronunciation, we tend to focus on perception and production, or listening and speaking. However, Sardegna introduced another essential element, drawing from the work and research of Dr. Wayne Dickerson (Dickerson, 1994; Dickerson, 2012; Hahn & Dickerson, 1999). According to Dickerson, prediction is a fundamental skill that helps learners grasp English rhythm. This approach involves identifying two peaks that carry the semantic essence of an utterance.
Let’s examine the following example to see how this works:
Ana: Our next webinar will be about pronunciation and reading.
You: That sounds great! I won’t miss it.
- Spoken phrases can be divided into message units.
| Our next webinar will be about pronunciation and reading |
- Every message unit has at least a primary peak, that is, a peak in a vowel sound that makes the whole word / construction important. Primary peaks usually highlight the last (rightmost) new content word or construction in a message unit.
| Our next webinar will be about pronunciation and reading |
- Besides the primary peak, a message unit also has an anchor peak, also known as onset, which anchors the primary peak. Anchor peaks are usually on the leftmost word in a message unit.
| Our next webinar will be about pronunciation and reading |
Or as illustrated in this image:
Image 3: Example with anchor and primary peaks 1
In order to identify anchor peaks, Sardegna presented the acronym #NAIL, as you can see on the slide below.
Image 4: Sardegna’s slide about identifying anchor peaks
By following the rules above, we would have something like:
Image 5: Example with anchor and primary peaks 2
4. Practising English rhythm through TED talks
Sardegna reinforced that students can practise the two peak profile using TED Talks. Here’s a step-by-step approach for incorporating this into lessons:
- Select a short excerpt: Choose a TED Talk excerpt no longer than two minutes to avoid overwhelming students.
- Mark message units: Annotate the transcript with message units and distribute copies to students. With higher level students, you can ask students to mark the message units.
- Identify the primary peak: Ask students to find the primary peak in each message unit. Play the excerpt once or twice so they can check their answers. Then, provide the answer key and address any questions.
- Identify the anchor peak: Have students determine the anchor peak using the acronym #NAIL. Play the excerpt again so they can check their answers. Then, provide the answer key and address any questions.
- Practice aloud: Play the excerpt while students read along to follow the rhythmic patterns.
- Assign homework: Encourage students to practice independently by recording themselves reading the excerpt and comparing it to the original video.
Sardegna opted for TED talks as a way to provide learners with authentic spoken English, but you can choose any other video of your or your students’ preference. The point is to make students realise that the two peak profile does exist in real life, it is not just a set of abstract pronunciation rules. The more students practise, the better they can get at predicting prominence, understanding spoken English and becoming more intelligible speakers.
5. Resources to teach English rhythm
Unfortunately, it is not possible to summarise all the points and examples of Sardegna’s webinar in this blog post. However, she suggested some resources where you can find further information about the two peak profile, such as Hahn and Dickerson (1999) and Dikerson and Hahn (forthcoming), and about strategies for English pronunciation instruction (Sardegna, 2022).
You might also want to take a step back and start by teaching your students how to understand and identify syllable structure. In this case, please check one of our previous blog posts, which is also based on Hahn and Dickerson (1999).
If you missed Sardegna’s webinar, don’t forget to access the recording on the IATEFL members’ resources webpage. If you are not an IATEFL PronSIG member, no time like the present. Join us!
For more discussions, ideas and tips on how to teach pronunciation, our PronSIG blog awaits you! Don’t forget to leave your comments below and follow PronSIG on social media.
References
Dickerson, W., B. & Hahn, L. D. (forthcoming). Speechcraft: Discourse pronunciation for academic communication (2nd ed.). University of Michigan Press.
Dickerson, W. B. (1994). Empowering students with predictive skills. In J. Morley (Ed.), Pronunciation pedagogy and theory: New views, new directions (17–33). TESOL Press.
Dickerson, W. B. (2012). Prediction in teaching pronunciation. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0950
Hancock, M. (2012) English Pronunciation in Use Intermediate. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press.
Hahn, L. D. & Dickerson, W. (1999). Speechcraft: Discourse pronunciation for advanced learners. University of Michigan Press.
Sardegna, V. G. (2022). Evidence in favor of a strategy-based model for English pronunciation instruction. Language Teaching, 55(3), 363–378. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444821000380
