Stress in English Language

1. Introduction

Many adult second language learners seem to reach native-like proficiency in the domains of morphology and syntax, but they have difficulty attaining the same proficiency level in the areas of phonology and phonetics. Native speakers or competent users of the language know how to say a word, know how to pronounce it. If we, Serbian learners, say /s/ a few times, e.g. ‘sa, sa..’ in English language this will not have any meaning. The difficulty attaining the same level as native speakers is found within the results of interference of the mother tongue with English. The interference of Serbian as the native tongue is evident in learners of English, not just in grammar but also in pronunciation and it can be seen in the comparative display of the vowels that this paper is partly about. ‘All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of the muscles contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds; muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the mouth. After passing through the larynx, the air goes through what is called the vocal tract, which ends at the mouth and nostrils. Here, the air from the lungs escapes into atmosphere. We have a large and complex set of muscles that can produce changes in the shape of the vocal tract, and in order to learn how the sounds of speech are produced it is necessary to became familiar with the different parts of the vocal tract. These different parts are called articulators.’ There are seven articulators - the pharynx, the velum, the hard palate, the alveolar ridge, the tongue, the teeth and the lips. They are the main ones used in speech, but we have three other things to remember. First of all, the larynx could also be described as an articulator as a very