MCM pronun chap

I was looking at the section about Kinesthetic Activities and it mentions the scene from the Wizard of Oz when they are afraid of the forest. First I love the scene, secondly I never realized they were stepping on the emphasized syllable...I was waiting for Lion to jump out. I think this would be interesting to try sometime. It aloso made me wonder how much I actually take for granted. I had this exact scene come up as an example in ESL 202, but it was a terrible example. This movie is a classic here in the states and the story is one I read when I was very little, along with all the sequels. It never occurred to me that someone could be unfamiliar with it, but not one of my students had even heard of the story.

I was also thinking about reduced speech and linking. For me they are very difficult to teach. I don't even notice that things are being combined in a way that would be "inexact" they are said how they should be.

I've mentioned before that I have trouble understanding some people because all the words have the same stress, intonation, length etc. They are pronouncing everything correctly, but all of the linking etc has been eliminated, because I don't think about that it takes me a long time to figure out why I'm having so much difficulty understanding them. On a related topic, my experiences in areas with many spanish speaking people has developed my ear for this. I am so used to listening to S/Central American Spanish accents that I rarely misunderstand and have a hard time picking out what they are doing that is non-standard.

Finally, I get four beats in the movie example on page 120.