Teaching English word stress constitutes a real problem for Iraqi EFL students at university level. The currently used method is to encourage students to listen attentively to how stress is placed on syllables and word without giving them rules for stress patterns. Relevant literature clearly shows that there are stress rules and patterns although exceptions are quite common. The present study attempts to make use of the rules in explicit teaching of English stress. More specifically, it addresses the following question. Will explicit teaching of English stress rules better help EFL students use stress patterns correctly and appropriately? It is hypothesized that teaching stress rules explicitly help EFL students use stress patterns appropriately at word level. In order to verify this hypothesis an experimental design will be used. Two groups of students (the experimental group and the control group) are taught English stress. The control group is taught without being given explicit rules. The experimental group is taught stress patterns by rules. The groups are pre-tested and post-tested. The results obtained showed explicit teaching of stress rules and patterns are considered more effective. The study concluded that explicit instruction is valued in its possibility to raise learners awareness of English knowledge. Further research is recommended to measure on learners levels of proficiency from different age scales and genders, with different levels of skills.