ABSTRACT
English is stress-timed, which means that there is a regular beat to the language, just as there is a beat in a blues or rock and roll song. The idea to bring together the rhythm of English and the rhythm of blues sprang from the evidence that learning spoken English is not an easy task for French-speaking students. One main difficulty for learners stems from the fact that they have no rhythmic reference on which they can rely to support their speech and stress the words and phrases so as to bring out the salient and relevant units of utterances. Vocal music apparently derives from the way speech is balanced, alternating long and short syllables, and insisting on strong beats. Blues is based on a syncopated ternary rhythm. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
