Background
The modal verb ‘might’ to mean 50/50 probability is one of the commonest words in English, but also one that learners often fail to use because they translate from L1 and say things like: ‘It is possible that I will’ or ‘Perhaps I will’. Now, the really fun thing about ‘might’ is that the % probability can change a lot depending on our intonation. The activity I describe below takes about 3 minutes of class time, and I do it on nearly every course I teach (as part of a review of modals – always welcomed by students).
Activity
1 Say aloud the number ‘one’, strongly and with one finger held up. Then look out of the window and say: ‘It might rain this afternoon’. Do this like you are making a passing matter-of-fact comment in a conversation.
2 Now say aloud the number ‘two’, strongly and with two fingers held up. Look out of the window and say: ‘It miiiiiiiiiight rain this afternoon’. Do this with a pronunciation of ‘might’ that drops the probability of rain right down. So: pause for a microsecond before the word, extend the vowel, and say the word with a slightly higher pitch. Try it and you’ll find yourself also using a facial expression with slightly closed eyes and head rocking slightly from side to side – like you’re evaluating something.
3 Ask the students: ‘What is the difference between one and two?’ They’ll quickly say that with number two there’s less chance of rain. You can then ask for approximate probabilities, and I usually say 50/50 for the first one, maybe dropping to 20% or 30% for the second.
4 Drill both versions. Alternate one and two. Clear model from you first, then choral repetition on your hand command. Repeat x3.
5 Now ask one particular student what they’re going to do at the weekend, adding ‘choose something 50/50′. Then ask the same student the same question, adding ‘choose something with a low probability, but still possible’. They’ll have a lot of fun trying to get the intonation for #2, and everyone will laugh. Keep it light-hearted, and ask a few more students the same question.
6 Finish by encouraging the students to use ‘I might’ more often, in place of ‘Perhaps I will’ or (Latin languages) ‘It is possible that I will’ or ‘There is a possibility that I will’.
Development
Something very similar happens with ‘should’. For example in a negotiation, ‘That should be possible’ with intonation #1 means perhaps 98% possible – like ‘I’m sure it’ll be okay, but I just need to check a couple of things first’. The same phrase with intonation #2 means perhaps 90% possible – like ‘I think it’ll be okay, but I’m not sure and I can’t promise anything’.
I think you are confusing ‘stress’ with ‘intonation.’ Intonation is the change in pitch (up and down) to reveal emotion. ‘Stress’ is the use of volume and speed to reveal emphasis. Of these two, I would say that stress is the most important to teach and the hardest to learn.Mulit-syllabic words have stress points, which can change according to the form of the word. (i.e. the verb ‘produce’ is stressed on the second syllable, while the first syllable of the noun ‘produce’ is stressed. Furthermore, stressing specific words in a sentence is largely a matter of speaker choice and is entirely context dependant. As your red hat exercise shows.Most students beleive stress is acheived mainly through volume, but it is my belief that focusing on speed is the most effective way to help students understand stress and develop natural rhythm.For example, when saying the sentence, “I’m not going to buy those shoes, I just want to try them on.” If we ask the student to stretch the words ‘buy’ and ‘on’ (i.e. say them very slowly in comparison to the rest of the sentence, they understand the idea of stress very clearly. The other benefit of this method is that while focusing on slowing down the stressed words, they automatically say the rest of the sentence more quickly and fluently. It ends up sounding like this, “I’m nogonna BUY thoshoes, I’m jusgonnatrythem ON.” A very natural native sounding rhythm!