Listening Cherry 08 – Bamboozled by ‘idle mass’

Listening Cherries is a blog where I talk about listening issues - from classroom activities to academic research. Listening Cherry no. 8 discusses an audio extract from Mark Hancock and Annie McDonald's 'Authentic Listening'.

Mark Hancock and Annie McDonald’s ‘Authentic Listening’ has wonderful recordings, the majority of them from local radio stations from around the UK – they include recordings from Insight Radio, Radio Teesdale, and Desi Radio (west London’s Punjabi community radio station). There are also videos – specially recorded ‘vox pop’ and discussions, and videos from TED-talk like events from FameLab, where young people give short presentations on science and technology. A fantastic collection of recordings, multi-accented.

In Lesson 10, the second of the nine Pronunciation for listeners lessons, there is a focus on what Mark and Annie call ‘crowded syllables’, which in my work I refer to rather less technically as a ‘mush’, or ‘squeeze zones’. The image below is taken from page 27, and the learner’s task is to write in the words that occur in the gaps between the prominent syllables. All twelve of the audio extracts are of authentic speech from the recordings. And I want to focus on item no. 6, because I couldn’t do it.

 

I had the wonderful experience of doing this exercise, as if I were a learner, without (of course) prior knowledge of what the words were. AND I COULDN’T DO IT. I was really stumped. Have a listen, what do you think is being said?

COULD _______________ haRASSing you

I discuss this further, and give the ‘answer’ on this page here.