3. Continue through the alphabet, pausing after each item to simulate natural speaking patterns. Skip letters that are challenging (like Q, X, or Z) if needed. 4. If you forget an item or need time to think, practice hesitating in English by saying things like: “…some eggs and… let me see… a football.” “…some eggs and… uh… a football .” 5 . The activity ends when you’ve completed the alphabet or can no longer continue .
Application
Natural Pauses Read the following sentence: “This morning when I was walking to campus which was a little before my 10:00 class I saw a professor sitting on a bench reading a book .” Think about where you would naturally pause if you were saying this sentence out loud . Mark the pauses with a slash ( / ) . A possible answer is: “This morning / when I was walking to campus / which was a little before my 10:00 class / I saw a professor sitting on a bench / reading a book .” Notice that these are many of the same places we might add a comma in writing. Spoken pauses often happen at the end of clauses (like “when I was walking to class”) and some prepositional phrases (like “This morning”) . Fluent speakers don’t plan these pauses; they happen naturally as they speak, and partly depend on what the speaker want to communicate or emphasize . Marking these thought groups with slight pauses helps the listener understand their meaning . There are not always strict rules governing pauses. For example, if a verb has a particularly long subject, a speaker might pause just a little after the subject to help indicate the end of the thought group. For example, a speaker might pause before “is” in the following sentence: “The separation and subsequent unification of diverse local factions / is the subject of next week’s lesson .” (In writing, this would not be marked by a comma .)
Activity 5.2 1 . Silently read the following passage from a psychology textbook .
In psychology, the feeling of complete and energized focus on an activity is called flow. People who enter a state of flow lose their sense of time and have a feeling of great satisfaction . They become completely involved in an activity for its own sake rather than for what may result from the activity, such as money or prestige . Contrary to expectation, flow usually happens not during relaxing moments of leisure and entertainment, but when we are actively involved in a difficult enterprise, in a task that stretches our mental or physical abilities . 2. Record yourself reading the text aloud, with no pauses at all (even at the end of sentences). In psychology the feeling of complete and energized focus on an activity is called flow. People who enter a state of flow lose their sense of time and have a feeling of great satisfaction . They become completely involved in an activity for its own sake rather than for what may result from the activity such as money or prestige . Contrary to expectation flow usually happens not during relaxing moments of leisure and entertainment but when we are actively involved in a difficult enterprise in a task that stretches our mental or physical abilities . 3. Now look at where many speakers would include short (/) and longer (//) pauses. Record yourself reading it aloud again, this time including the short and long pauses as indicated.
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