Lesson 15 - Making keywords stand out

Any topic will have a number of keywords: e.g., a talk about pollution will probably include references to 'fuels', 'diesel', the 'air pollution index' and 'respiratory diseases'. These are keywords. Possible pronunciation difficulties which could be anticipated are:

i) final consonants, e.g. fuels, diesel, index
ii) the pronunciation of 'respiratory'.

A useful strategy for ensuring that the listener hears such keywords clearly is to make a slight pause just before the keyword and then pronounce it a little more slowly and carefully than other words. Keywords would always be stressed, i.e. said more loudly and at a higher pitch than the other words, to draw attention to them.

Preparing keywords for specific topics

Here is a list of topics. Choose a topic and think about the keywords you would expect to use in a talk about it. Then examine those words for potential pronunciation difficulties. Rehearse them and be prepared to introduce the topic referring to the keywords.

Possible topics

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