Word stress Emma Pathare, Teacher, Trainer, Dubai A major benefit of focusing students on how words are stressed is the extra mental engagement with the word that it gives. A language learner needs to engage with a word many times, preferably in different ways, in order to really learn it - identifying and practising word stress can provide one or two of those engagements. Why word stress is important What word stress is Some `rules` of word stress How I help my students In the classroom ConclusionWhy word stress is important Mistakes in word stress are a common cause of misunderstanding in English. Here are the reasons why:Stressing the wrong syllable in a word can make the word very difficult to hear and understand; for example, try saying the following words: o O O o b`tellhottleAnd now in a sentence: "I carried the b`tell to the hottle."Now reverse the stress patterns for the two words and you should be able...