Stress in english words introduction

Activity: Guessing stress

Guess where the stress of these words fall, then check with the teacher and put the following words into the correct stress group (pair work)
papaya kangaroo whispering romantic solution guarantee national protection management company personnel understand connection examine beautiful benefit commercial provider digital excellent employee correspond resistance embarrass magical unhappy undergo

whispering	papaya	understand

Can you think of any words you know that fit in these stress patterns above?
WHAT IS UNSTRESSED?
As stressed syllables are characterized as louder, higher in pitch and longer in duration, an unstressed syllable therefore phonetically means the absence of those features.
To get the clearer picture of the concept of unstressed syllable, some examples of stressed syllables are demonstrated. In the word, faculty, it is the first syllable that receives stress; so this implies that the last two syllables are unstressed. And, in the word, computer the second syllable is stressed; so this means that the first and the last syllable are unstressed. Finally, the word, guarantee, the last syllable receives stress; thus the first two syllables are unstressed. However, above is the simplified concept of unstressed syllable. To understand better what unstressed syllable is, weak syllable will be explained.

Weak syllable

The distribution of strong and weak syllables is important in understanding stressed and unstressed syllables in English. For this part, general characteristics of weak syllables will be discussed to understand better what unstressed syllable is.
It is found that the vowel in a weak syllable tends to be shorter, lower in intensity than strong vowel and also different in quality. For example, in the word, Christmas  s/, the second syllable, which is weak, is perceived as shorter than the first, is less loud and has a vowel that cannot occur in strong syllables.
The vowel sounds that give weak syllables in English are for example

• 
  schwa  
  
• 
  close front unrounded vowel 
  
• 
  syllabic consonants   
  

1.) Schwa is a commonly occurring vowel sound in English. It usually appears within the unstressed syllables. It is an unstressed sound. There are various spellings that represent schwa  
Spelt with a, as in above, arrive, arise
Spelt with e, as in supplement, secret, quiet, prophecy, happen
Spelt with o, as in mosquito, today, potato, together
Spelt with u, as in supplant, supportive
Spelt with ar, as in polar, regular, monarchy, particular
Spelt with or, as in forgetful, doctor, horror
Spelt with er, as in winter, mother, terrace, butterfly