Lecture notes drop box and creative corner of Dr Aswathy Aravindakshan
Reading Time: 2 minutesHomophones are words that: Have the same pronunciation. Have different spellings. Have different meanings. Given below is a list of commonly used homophones in English Word 1 Meaning 1 Transcript Word 2 Meaning 2 Transcript Aisle A passage between rows of seats /aɪl/ Isle A small island /aɪl/ Aloud Out loud, not silently /əˈlaʊd/ Allowed…
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Reading Time: < 1 minuteSilent letters are letters that appear in the spelling of a word but are not pronounced when the word is spoken. Silent letters in English can be challenging, especially for non-native speakers, because they do not follow a consistent pattern. Understanding silent letters can help improve spelling and pronunciation, but since English spelling is not…
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Reading Time: 3 minutesThe table below explains the primary division of the 44 sounds of the English language. Category Number of Sounds Subcategories Symbols Vowels 12 Short and long vowels /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/, /ʊ/, /i:/, /ɑ:/, /ɔ:/, /u:/, /ɜː/, /ə/ Diphthongs 8 Gliding vowels /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aʊ/, /əʊ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/ Consonants 24 Plosives,…
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Reading Time: 2 minutes Accent and rhythm are key elements in connected speech. These aspects shape the natural flow of words and sentences in conversations. The Accent The accent is the stress or emphasis placed on a particular syllable within words or words in a sentence. There are stressed and unstressed syllables in the English language; the stressed syllables…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Sentence stress is the emphasis placed on certain words within a sentence to convey meaning and rhythm. Usually, content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) carry more stress, while function words (articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, etc.) are less stressed. There are different types of sentence stress. They are: The meaning of a sentence…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Word stress denotes the emphasis on one syllable of a word over the others. The stressed syllable would stand out from the rest in loudness and pitch, while the unstressed syllable would be softer and shorter. In English, changing the stress in a word can change the meaning of the word. This is…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Words in the English language can be broadly classified into form/content words and function words. Content or form words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that convey specific meaning. On the other hand, function words have grammatical functions and do not have their own meaning in isolation. They glue a sentence together and render meaning….
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Reading Time: 4 minutes Mother tongue influence/interference (MTI) refers to the interference/influence of one’s mother tongue (L1) in learning a second language (L2). Malayalam is the mother tongue and, as such, is generally the first language of the people of Kerala, a state located at the southernmost tip of India. Most people here learn English as a second language….
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