Teaching1 english intonation

Evaluate critically the models and frameworks of teaching Intonation within the context of English language teaching and try to devise course material and teaching practice for the actu

Teaching English Intonation

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

by Tahir Ali Khan

School of Language and Literature,

King’s College Aberdeen

A Master’s Dissertation

TEACHING ENGLISH INTONATION

(an action research project)

A master’s dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of

MLitt in English Linguistics for Advanced Teachers of English

at the University of Aberdeen

by

TAHIR ALI KHAN

Supervised by: Dr Mark Garner

School of Language and Literature,

University of Aberdeen

2010

Teaching English Intonation

by Tahir Ali Khan

12 sentences and short interviews to be conducted before and after each round of teaching This data will then be analysed qualitatively as well as quantitatively

The qualitative data from Journals showed that most of the participants felt an improved sense in practice while voicing their areas of difficulty Whereas the audio data was judged

by three volunteer native-speakers which was then quantitatively analysed for statistical significance through SPSS The audio results were also promising especially when it comes

to the spontaneous interviews, whereas, though the sentences showed improvement, statistically speaking the probability was around 50%

Though inconclusive in its findings due to several constraints of time and other resources that the project suffers from it was still highly appreciated and student researchers participated enthusiastically Further research incrementing on the findings of this research will hopefully bring a positive change in intonational pedagogy

Tahir Ali Khan

We/I endorse the declaration by the candidate

Dr Mark Garner

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To my visionary Mother who means the world to me!

Acknowledgement

The greatest thanks, by far, go to my supervisor Dr Mark Garner who has been a constant source of encouragement, and inspiration His constant support throughout the project as well as during my stay at the university has been instrumental and without his guidance this work would not have come to fruition

Many a sincere thanks go to Dr Haishang Jiang for his insightful teaching sessions during the undertaking of this project I cannot thank fully Dr Barbara Fennell for her kind support during my time at the university To Dr Mercedes Durham and Dr Robert McColl Miller for their help during my course of study I shall always remain indebted Thanks are also due to all the staff at the school of language and literature, University of Aberdeen Last but not least thanks to all of my family and friends, especially my elder brother Zard Ali Khan, whose encouragement and support has brought me to study here in the UK

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Contents

Dedication i

Acknowledgments ii

Contents iii

Figures and Tables v

Chapter I: Introduction 1

Background 1

Research Aim and Focus 3

Value of This Research 3

Chapter II: Literature Review 5

What is Intonation? 5

Form of Intonation 6

English Intonation 8

Models of Intonation and Research in Applied Linguistics 9

Research Methodology: Action research 11

Studies in Teaching Intonation 12

Conclusion 14

Chapter III: Research Methods 15

Introduction 15

Research Strategy 16

Research Paradigm 17

Data Collection: Site and Sampling Method 22

Data Collection Techniques 24

Framework for Data Analysis 25

Chapter IV: Findings & Discussion 27

Description of Findings 27

Journals’ Data 27

Interest about the Programme 29

Participants' Attitude Towards the Teaching 30

Participation of the Students 31

Comments or Feelings of the Effectiveness of the Teaching/Teacher/Methods 32

Can you apply what you have learned in everyday speech? And in what ways? 36

Impact of the Teaching and Personal Feelings about the Whole Learning

(General feelings) 37

Audio Recorded Data 40

Discussion of the Results 47

Journals’ Data 47

Audio Data 48

Conclusion 49

Appendix A: Round 1 Teaching Material from EnglishPronunciation in Use (Advanced) 50

Appendix B: Pre-Test and Post-Test Sentences for Utterance with Context & Round 1 Task2 (Interview) 53

Appendix C: Criteria for Judges (Pre- and Post-Test) 56

Appendix D: Consolidated Audio Results from Judges 58

Appendix E: Pitch Variation Across the Participants’ Utterances 61

References 79

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Figures and Tables

Introduction

Background

Being the undisputed lingua franca of the world English language has reached almost every corner of the world with more and more people learning it for so many reasons Even countries where English has no colonial history are now turning to English in order

to understand the rich knowledge of science and technology available mostly in English only The domain of research is almost solely occupied by the English language with researchers bound to present their fresh research in English so as to be able to reach a global research audience According to a British Council report the number of people learning English will reach its peak in the next 10-15 years which might be as early as

2010 with some estimated 2 billion people from around the world learning English (Graddol, 2006) In the wake of these developments the area of English Language Teaching (ELT) has grown tremendously with hundreds, if not thousands, of titles coming

to the market every year English language is hence the most researched language in the world From the largest historical dictionary (the Oxford English Dictionary) to the publication of a thesaurus in 1852 English language has been setting standards for all other languages Same is the case with the ELT material with grammar books for natives

as well as non-natives of the language in mass production since the nineteenth century Situation during the colonial era and the ensuing economic and technological superiority

of the English speaking countries during the post colonial period up to the present day has revolutionised the ELT and learning resources Almost all aspects of the English language have been meticulously investigated in the previous century Take any aspect of the English language and you can find a host research material As for as applied linguistics is concerned there is abundance of resource material on almost every aspect of the English language Yet the illusive nature of intonation has been a reason for its being left in the hands of theoreticians only with no or very few pedagogical examples in the everyday ELT material Even handbooks on the pronunciation of English language and books about English phonology usually make a cursory mention of the subject only This situation has lead to an almost freeze on intonation teaching in the wider ELT community Despite this virtual stagnation in applied linguistics on intonation the value and importance of intonation in linguistic meaning is attested to by researchers as well as ELT practitioners alike

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Research Aim and Focus

Knowledge of the present ELT material on intonation inform us about the very limited role of intonation Its teaching practice inside the classroom environment is almost non-existent The issue of intonation is sidelined more so by the fact that English is now a global language with more and more second language teachers of English coming to meet the demands of the growing number of people turning to English Being non-native themselves these teachers impart English language skills that are almost free from the natural intonational patterns that the native speakers of English use in their day-to-day business

Being a course in linguistics for ‘advanced teachers of English’ it was highly felt that this area of study be investigated further with the aim of improving practice As most of the students in this course come from second language background and are expected to become teachers of English as a second language an investigation into intonation teaching would serve two purposes Firstly an experiment of this kind would open up new vistas of transfer of intonational skills to second language learners, in our case experienced users of English Secondly being in direct contact with the native speakers the participants of this experiment would learn natural contours of intonation directly from native speakers along with critical insights from experienced linguists on the said topic This would help these would-be teachers of English to transfer what they have learnt here in non-native settings This project would also provide a platform for an insight into a correlation between the intonation of English and other global languages from around the world which the participants of this course are drawn from

This research project does not claim to be conclusive about its findings yet it is hoped that

it would help future research in exploring the problems faced by second language learners

in acquiring English intonation Neither does it claim to be replicable in every situation Despite the fact that the sample size for this research is in no way representative of the wider ELT community as the individual participants themselves have variation with regard

to proficiency in English and the amount of English use on a daily basis with native speakers Being set in a native language environment the participants are also likely to be influenced by other factors (including more use of English out of necessity in parley with the native speakers outside the class) surrounding their life in an English country which may have a bearing on their language ability However, it would not be the case in other

settings for example in a non-native setting, and probably the most frequent of situations, where the only place for practice is the classroom learners are not likely to be influenced

by their environment outside the class

The fundamental premise of this experimental project is to investigate the effect of teaching in second language acquisition of intonation and the transferability of intonation through such practice To achieve this goal the experiment would draw on the experience

of expert linguists in the field along with input from the participants (themselves experienced teachers of English) who would voice their problems or suggest improvements Within such a context the objectives of this research are:

1 Identify the important intonation patterns necessary for the teaching of English to

students of other tongues

2 Evaluate critically the models and frameworks of teaching Intonation within the

context of English language teaching and try to devise course material and teaching practice for the actual teaching sessions

3 Critically explore the progress of the participants of this research project and the

hurdles in their way of achieving a native-like intonational standing complemented

by their views themselves in several ways

4 Formulate recommendations with regard to the teaching of Intonation in English

language classes

It would however be a mistake by the reader to view these objectives as detached and disparate activities These activities are necessarily interlinked to form a composite whole With these objectives in mind this research is aimed to contribute critical mass of data for the continued development of this discipline in a number of significant ways The result findings will be made available to the public and placed online for the future researcher in the field

Value of This Research

The literature review presents a brief overview of the available research on intonation and its employment in the English language teaching Based on this information we assume that although there have been previously experiments in teaching intonation to speakers of other languages it is the first time that a systematic research is being carried out involving teaching based on several resources and ideas taken from ELT textbooks in the market

The following chapter introduces the idea of intonation in general and then examines the critical mass of theoretical as well as literature in applied linguistics and looks forward to the way ahead

Literature Review

This chapter tries to introduce the subject of intonation and its form and how it is transcribed on paper It then focuses on intonation in English and its five different forms followed by the a summary of the different models of intonation and the research in applied linguistics It also informs about action research and the rationale for its being used for this project Finally it provides a brief introduction of some of the studies in teaching intonation and their limitations

Native speakers of English according to Wells (2006, 2) usually make allowances for segmental errors in foreign learners’ pronunciation of English but they do not do so with regard to intonation as they don’t realise that intonation can be erroneous too They assume that with regard to intonation you mean what you say and not what you think you are saying And because several patterns of intonation are possible in English a wrong choice of intonation patterns may, sometimes, lead to unforeseen problems for a foreign learner In the past the issue of intonation was treated mostly as a theoretical rather than practical concern and was ignored in the past for many years in language teaching but due

to advancement in linguistic theory along with the growing use of technological tools in speech synthesis there has been a renewed interest in intonational research (Chun 2002)

What is Intonation?

According to the OED intonation (sense 4) is a “manner of utterance of the tones of the voice in speaking; modulation of the voice; accent” and records the first use of intonation

in English language by Thomas Newte in “A tour in England and Scotland in 1785”:

“The people of Inverness…are not only free from that unfortunate intonation of Aberdeenshire…but speak the English language with greater purity than they do in any other part in Scotland.”

In linguistic terms intonation is classed under the suprasegmental phonology which also

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includes such elements as tone, and stress The subject of intonation has been a matter of considerable vagueness from its definition to its application to the actual classroom setting although in its restricted sense, “intonation refers to the variations in the pitch of a speaker’s voice used to convey or alter meaning” (Roach, 2009) However, intonation, in its broader sense, is “used to cover much the same field as ‘prosody’, where variations in such things as voice quality, tempo and loudness are included” (ibid) Thus, intonation is the pattern of pitch changes that occur during speech where pitch is “the auditory property of a sound that enables a listener to place it on a scale going from low to high, without considering the acoustic properties, such as the frequency of the sound” (Ladefoged, 1982: 284, 168)

O’Connor and Arnold (1973) affirm that they do not know any language which is spoken

on a monotone; variations of pitch accompany languages usually though languages differ

in their pitch variations Kingdon (1958) comments that:

Not all syllables are uttered on a fixed pitch; there is a fairly continuous rise and fall in the pitch of the voice, and furthermore, for purposes of expression, intentional changes in pitch are produced while certain syllables are being uttered (p.1)

Form of Intonation

Pitch of the voice may be described as being high or low or in between It should be remembered that “high and low are arbitrary choices for end-points of the pitch scale” (Roach, 1991) According to Roach for pitch differences to be linguistically significant, two requirements are necessary: pitch differences should be under the control of the speaker and secondly they should be perceptible

Change in pitch correlates with the change in frequency Frequency is “the rate of variation in air pressure in a sound” (Ladefoged, 1982: 282) It also refers to “the number

of complete cycles (opening and closing movements) of vocal cord vibration in a unit of time (per second)” (Crystal, 1985: 131) Gimson (1989: 20) believes that the air particles vibrate at the same rate as the original vibrator Thus vibration may be of a complex but regular pattern producing “tone” such as producing vowels In addition, vibration may be

of an irregular pattern producing “noise” such as producing the [s] sound Vibration might slightly be both regular and irregular, i.e “a combination of tone and noise”, as in producing the sound [z] (ibid) When the vocal folds vibrate, they produce the fundamental frequency ( F0 ) which is “a basic vibration over their whole lengths” and a number of “overtones (or harmonics)” which are simple multiples of the fundamental frequency such as F1, F2, F3, … etc (ibid) Accordingly, “we hear a high pitch if the rate

of vibration is high and a low pitch if the rate of vibration is low” (Roach, 2009)

One might refer to pitch in terms of tones The word tone is representative of the “overall

behaviour of the pitch” (Roach, 1991) Tone can be defined as “the distinctive pitch level

of a syllable” (Crystal, 1985: 309) Moreover, it refers to “identifiable movement or level

of pitch that is used in a linguistically contrastive way” (Roach, 2009) A tone language is the language where word meaning is dependent on pitch level (op cit.) For example, in Mandarin the word /ma/ said on a high pitch means “mother” but “a horse” when said with a fall-rise tone (see Roach, 1991: 116, Crystal, 1985: 309, and Roach, 2009) In tone languages, the substitution of one distinctive tone for another on a particular word may result in altering its meaning or its aspect of grammatical categorization (Roach, 1991)

For notational purposes no single model has yet been taken up as a standard and different people in the field use different notational schemes which is a reminder of the earlier versions of musical tablature These include:

Figure 1

a) the “scrolling typewriter” system used by Bolinger (1989), (b) the “four line” technique

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of Gårding (1983), (c) the “close-copy stylization” used by Collier and ‘t Hart (1981), (d) the “interlinear-tonetic transcription” (Cook: 2002, 103)

English Intonation

O’Connor and Arnold, (1973) argue that English intonation is based on three major

premises that: (1) intonation is significant; accordingly, one can utter the same utterance

with different intonation patterns and as a result he can capture different meanings, (2)

intonation is systematic; the idea of systematization stems from the belief that each

language has its own limited number of tunes and one learns these tunes in his childhood, therefore, a person does not invent tunes rather he uses the tunes he learnt originally in a

systematic way, not haphazardly, (3) intonation is characteristic; since each language has

its restricted number of tunes the application of a specific tune of one language on another language may seem to be vague and does not indicate the intended impression This does not rule out the possibility that the use of some tunes of one language may resemble the use of the tunes of another language, but serious and dangerous difficulties of miscommunication may arise due to the invalid use of pitch patterns

Roach (1991) has dedicated five chapters in his book to the treatment of intonation due to its complex nature Although there is considerable variation in the analyses of tones within the research community with some realising the distinction between “high fall” and “low fall” and others having a set of tones “fall-rise-fall” and “rise-fall-rise” (O’Connor and Arnold 1973 and Crystal 1969) He, on the other hand, lists five contours of intonation in English namely:

dasso

ea

te

) whi ch is used “a lot i n Engl i sh” a

dasso

ea

te

sh” a

However, he cautions against rigid rules to affix meanings to these contours and instead treats the above generalities as merely indicative of the norms and not the exceptions as in certain contexts other contours may be possible

Models of Intonation and Research in Applied Linguistics

Fox (2000: p 277-287) and Roach (1991, 140-143) recount the progress in intonational research made since 1920s by scholars from not only the theoretical linguistics but rather more pedagogically oriented scholars for whom the theoretical framework has not always been their prime concern These include the Prague school with scholars like Karcevskij (1931) and Trubetzkoy (1939) The British tradition originated from the work of German scholar Klinghardt and Fourmestraux (1911), Klinghardt and Klemm (1920), and Klinghardt (1927) which was taken up by Coleman (1914), and Palmer (1922), Armstrong and Ward (1926) and further developed by Kingdon (958) O'Connor and Arnold (1961), followed the same tradition in their widely used textbook Halliday’s work

on intonation (Halliday, 19633, 1963b 1967, 1970) provided the British school with a more theoretical treatment The American Structuralist tradition include Bloomfield (1935), Harris (1944), Pike (1945), Wells (1945), and Trager and Smith (1951) Stockwell (1960) tried to reconcile the Trager/Smith analysis with the formal framework of Chomsky's early transformational model Among scholars in the Lund school are Fujisaki and Nagashima, (1969), and especially Garding and her associates (Bruce, 1977; Bruce and Garding, 1978; Garding, 1981, 1983) but their work was primarily on Swedish language which has since then been applied to several other languages And finally the Dutch school included scholars like Cohen and 't Hart (1967, 1973) 't Hart and Collier, (1975) 't Hart, Collier, and Cohen, (1990)

Levis (1999) points out six findings from the theoretical knowledge of the past and current pedagogical practice and which can inform the practice of teaching intonation These involve:

(a) the placement of significant pitch in an intonational phrase; which entails that even though every voiced sound intrinsically carries pitch information not all syllables are associated with pitch in a significant way This results in a few syllables standing out in a given phrase In this respect Bolinger asserts that English has a salient “nearisochrony (ie

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the tendency to have equal intervals of time between accentual peaks)” (Chun 2002, 171) (b) pitch levels, which according to his assertion should be simpler ie requiring the teaching of high and low only instead of the usual norm of complex three, four or five levels

(c) listeners' perceptions of intonation, which means that listeners hear intonation according to internal phonological categories inside their brain patterns rather than according to acoustic phonetic realities In case where the learner’s L1 has different intonation patterns than English he is likely to have difficulty in mastering his L2 intonation In this respect results in Kees de Bot and Kate Mailfert (1982) show that four aspects of pitch change are perceptually relevant: (1) direction of pitch change (rise, fall, or level), (2) range of pitch change (difference between high and low levels), (3) speed of pitch change (how abruptly or gradually the change happens), and (4) place of pitch change in sentence, word, or syllable

(d) intonation patterns, where he suggests for more than two intonation patterns that are in vogue ie rising and falling Instead he suggests at least a third pattern if not many and that is a falling-rising pattern He also lists other researchers findings related to the number of patterns in English with Ladd (1980) having five, Pierrehumbert (1980) with a long list of 24 of which most are found in English and Gussenhoven (1983) having three basic patterns for English, each of which can in turn be modified to produce other patterns

(e) the use of high and low pitch for nuclear stress, where he illustrates that past practice in textbooks usually recognise a rising pitch at the tonic syllable but argues for the recognition of low-pitch intonation pattern at the start of the tonic syllable

(f) the placement of tonic syllable, where he discusses the theoretical legacy of Halliday’s (1967) “given and new information” and its incorporation into the textbooks and Brazil’s (1984) dependency of the tonic syllable onto the speaker’s intentions He also cites Cruttenden’s (1990) emphasis on word classes which also echoes in Dickerson (1989)

Thus Levis (1999) comes up with four principles for intonation teaching materials namely: (a) that intonation must be taught in context, (b) that intonational meanings must be generalizable, (c) that the teaching of intonation should be subordinate to larger communicative purposes and (d) that intonation be taught within the context of real language

Research Methodology: Action Research

Every research project follows a certain pattern which distinguishes it from others There are several well established research methodologies, eg case study, survey, ethnography experimental research, historical research, grounded theory and action research, all of them being used to help researchers in different fields of enquiry to arrive at a result that is expected of any research undertaking Yet the issue of suitability is taken quite seriously in the beginning of every research endeavour because a wrong choice of methodology might result in unexpected consequences Hence researchers look at the pros as cons of all the available research strategies that can be taken and then choose the most appropriate one for their research objectives Of the above methodologies action research is a quite recent development which is most importantly and increasingly being used in ELT settings to investigate into linguistic phenomena

Kurt Lewin in his paper "Action Research and Minority Problems (1946)" defined action research as "a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action" involving " a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action." Thus action research is a process of solving problems through reflection led by individuals working with others in teams in order to improve the way they address common issues

Action research has been worked on in the past sixty years and has now been recognised

as a valid form of enquiry At the moment three distinct developmental trends are visible

in the literature of action research: an interpretive, a critical theoretic and a living theory approach; where the first two work at observational and descriptive level and the third recognises the importance of the individual practitioners as "living contradictions"

From the action researcher’s perspective, McNiff & Whitehead (2002, 16-19) assert, that people are able to create their own identities while allowing others to create theirs Even in the face of different or contrastive values they try to find ways of accommodating multiple values and perspectives

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In the traditional views of scientific enquiry knowledge is seen as a free-standing entity, with an existence of its own, residing ‘out there’ in books and databases Accordingly, knowledge is divorced from the people who create it Action researchers see knowledge as something they do, a living process Learning in this view is founded in experience and reflection on the experience of practice and decision making based on whether the practice was in conformity with the espoused values, and planning for the future action as a result

of this reflection

Studies in Teaching Intonation

Bot and Mailfert’s (1982) research focuses mainly on the perception of intonation and was carried out in the Netherlands, then adapted for pedagogical purposes and applied in Kodak-Pathé in-company English courses in France Results confirmed the Dutch findings but suggested still further adaptations in intonation teaching This study was based on

Collier and ‘t Hart (1978) Course on Dutch Intonation The 15 subjects were first divided

into two groups: a controlled group of 5 students and an experimental group of 10 students who were asked do a pre-test of imitating 12 sentences that they heard in language laboratory followed by a 13-minute introduction-to-intonation tape for the experimental group only while the controlled “got only the pre-test and the post-test to control for the effect of using the same test twice” The rating of the tests was done by three non-native EFL teachers using a five-point scale In the Dutch experiment the introduction was in Dutch but for French settings the language was changed to English Also in the second phase of the experiment the tape was edited to include a humourus story read with British and then again an American intonation while ending the tape with

a self-correctable exercise

The results of this small-scale experiment tend to confirm the findings from applied linguistics that improved perception of intonation lead to improved production

Figure 2

Yong's (2004) action research project during 2002-2003 was conducted in Guyuan Teachers College (China) and is based on two premises for effective second language learning i.e focus on the mastery of English sound system and the correct production thereafter Students were divided according to their College Entrance Examination and Proficiency Tests He came up with some marked improvement through the results of his enquiry Unfortunately, this project touched the issue of intonation very briefly

In Singapore an action research by Heng et al (2007) on pronunciation aimed at improving the oral interaction inside the English language classroom was carried in 2001 Although not specifically a course in intonation this action research project tried to

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increase the effectiveness of students’ communicative competence, by giving them guidelines about “how and where they could improve” As a result the students had an improved feeling from 81.84% to 84.84% that they could speak with “correct” intonation (pitch levels) The research employed pre and post-test recordings and asked the students and teachers to have reflection journals Data gathered was then analysed through a “thematic analysis” using “triangulation” for validation of claims Rubrics were included in the journals for verbal and non-verbal competencies that were aimed at For measuring students’ progress they also employed “strategies for active and independent learning” over different sessions

Conclusion

The above discussion of the topic and studies in pedagogical concerns about the issue of intonation illustrate that although the phenomenon of intonation may be abstract and not easy to grasp for foreign learners of English it is not an impossible task and an informed approach, based on sound theoretical foundation and findings from the field of applied linguistics, can be taken to facilitate its learning in actual classroom environment In this regard the present research would try to highlight the inherent issues associated with the teaching of intonation Moreover, the students being teachers of English would be in a better position to give the present project their own insight through action research Also their own participation in the project from the curriculum design and decision making stage to the actual realisation of the experiment would be an added quality of the present approach Change in this respect cannot only be expected from the change in material but also in our approach to the teaching practice

3 Critically explore the progress of the participants of this research project and the hurdles in their way of achieving a native-like intonational standing complemented by their views themselves in several ways

4 Formulate recommendations with regard to the teaching of Intonation in English language classes

One important aspect of this research work is associated with objective 3; i.e the opportunity to give a fresh insight into the teaching of intonation in an English language teaching programme; to study the importance of intonational meanings in native language communication; and to try to work out a framework for teaching intonation and measure the progress of the participants over the two proposed cycles

of the present research project for the impact of intonational teaching This is done in order to come up with some fresh findings into this important aspect of language communication This, however, has been highlighted in theoretical and pedagogical circles since 1920s yet seldom given any real and due place in the ESL courses and course material partly due to its illusive nature because of the complexities involved in coming up with some tangible rules for conveying intonational meaning and partly because of the dearth of teaching material available to ESL circles

Chapter 2 (“Literature Review”) highlighted some of the issues involved in the existing research on intonation and the practical considerations thereof in actual classroom setting Although it is highly recommended by the experts in the field of phonology that intonation be part of any good course in ELT the dearth of original experimental research into the field of intonation only made it almost a theoretical consideration

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never to be of any practical value An important contribution of this research project is

to the study and analysis of experimental data on how foreign language students (in this instance mostly teachers of English as a foreign language) learn the different intonation patterns of English and what are the practical lessons that can be learnt from their experience of a course in intonation Objective 1 and 2 were addressed to some extent in the literature review section of this work The third objective takes this action research project a step further by exploring the different stages involved in preparing the course material followed by the two rounds of classroom teaching, the lessons learnt in the first round, and the collection of research data obtained from the recordings of the experiment from both rounds and the informal journals of the participants A comparison of the theory (literature review) and the practical (this action research project) would better inform the present researcher to be in a better stead to contribute valuable knowledge with respect to the teaching of English intonation

The present section on research methods would give details of the research strategy that was adopted to address the above-mentioned issues together with ways in which the research data for analysis was collected including the information about the site and sampling of the participants and the approach for analysis of the findings to be adopted

Moreover this research would try to point to the potential issues of limitations on teaching intonation and the problems associated with the chosen research strategy, the nature of the participants in this research project and the implementation of its finding and recommendations in the wider ESL community in general

Research Strategy

Cohen et al (2007: 78) point out that ‘research design is governed by the notion of

‘fitness for purpose’ and that ‘purposes of the research determine the methodology’ Objective three of this research sets out that this research project aims to explore ‘the progress of the participants of this research project (ie teaching English intonation) and the hurdles in their way of achieving a native-like intonational standing’ which would

be seen through the eyes of the participants from the curriculum design stage to the actual teaching sessions and the hurdles in their way of achieving a native-like intonation substantiated and supplemented by the collection and analysis of experimental data In order to achieve this goal the first task is to establish the research method most suitable for the current project

The primary focus of this research project is to measure the effectiveness and

appropriateness of a course in English intonation for second/foreign language learners

of English In this regard some non-native postgraduate students of English at the school of language and literature will collaboratively involved in the project design as well as being subjects of the empirical study Their progress will be measured through audio recordings over a period of two teaching cycles Their informal views through journal writings will also be taken into consideration In the absence of a specific course material for the teaching of English intonation course material for the teaching

of intonation for the teaching sessions will be prepared collaboratively by the research participants To measure the effectiveness of the teaching sessions different data collection and analysis techniques available will be decided upon through consensus Data will be collected in the form of audio recordings before and after the actual teaching sessions and will be rated thereafter through some native-speakers of English The native-speakers, acting as judges, will be instructed to follow a certain quantifiable format of measuring the qualitative data from the audio recording To meet these objectives the participants will collaboratively decide as to which kind of research design is best suited in this type of scenario from among the available research strategies?

A case study research is unsuitable for this project for the fact that as described in the introductory part of this work the area of intonation is not given its due place in ESL course material and consequently in English language teaching classes Hence a research work focused on teaching intonation, this poses a major problem in the absence of a special course in English intonation, which could then potentially be taken

as a case study, at the Language Centre of the University of Aberdeen or even in any accessible place within reach of this researcher Historical research is inappropriate in this instance as it relates to a contemporary phenomenon instead of a non-

contemporary phenomena Neither can the “descriptive research methods” (Cohen et

al: 2007), like surveys, longitudinal, cross-sectional and trend studies, be used to

research this classroom based project as none of them would be pertinent to allow for the participatory nature of this undertaking Similarly, ex post facto and experimental research methods do not serve our purpose either, for the fact that this research is not related to cause and effect variables and neither is it based on a specific hypothesis to prove To arrive at an appropriate strategy for this project we must consider the researcher’s research paradigm in order to better understand his choice of the research method that he plans to adopt

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Research Paradigm

Within the wider research community there are two major research paradigms ie qualitative research and quantitative research Whereas the former presumes to study things in their natural environment through subjective interpretation in order to make sense of the phenomena of the social world the later tries to explore reality objectively

“unaffected by the opinions and hopes of the researcher” (Burton & Bartlett 2005) Hence the two schools of research methods are usually at loggerheads about the validity of their opponents’ research paradigm As an earlier research paradigm the quantitative school has still a considerable following even in the social sciences as Sally Magnan, the editor of the Modern Language Journal, reported in 2006 that during the period 1995-2005 only 19.8% of the research articles in her journal were qualitative whereas 6.8% used mixed methodology (Magnan 2006) Yet this dichotomy of stances

is not accepted by some researchers as Dörnyei does not see “qualitative and quantitative methodologies as necessarily mutually exclusive” instead he favours a third approach ie a “combined use of quantitative and qualitative studies” also called

as multitrait-multimethod research, interrelating qualitative and quantitative data, methodological triangulation, multimethodological research, mixed model studies and mixed methods research (Dörnyei 2007)

The present research is intrinsically qualitative in nature involving audio recordings (Dörnyei: 2007, 19) and participants’ journals The audio recordings will not be transcribed in this instance, as that would not be relevant to this research, however, in order to come up with some tangible results with regard to the effectiveness of the teaching sessions this qualitative data from the audio recordings will be marked quantitatively by three native-speakers serving as judges to monitor the intonation of the participants Thus a mixed approach for analysis of the research data will be adopted so that both qualitative and quantitative (although qualitative in its essence) datasets could be analysed objectively In a similar vein the qualitative nature of this inquiry presupposes three epistemological research viewpoints ie positivist/empirical, interpretive and critical theoretic research A positivist approach cannot be taken as that is more suitable to pure sciences for the fact that human behaviours (in this instance teaching and learning English intonation) cannot be measured objectively in the same way as other phenomena of the natural world Similarly a mere interpretive stance would not be sufficient as this project needs critical reflection in order to inform and improve the teaching practice hence the critical theoretic subjective stance of the

researcher This is more so for the fact that the researcher is a participant in the collaborative research project envisioned to try to make an informed exploration of the teaching of English intonation from an insider point of view as well as objectively analysing the collected data from the project in order to give credibility to the research findings

Action research, as being the most appropriate research strategy for this project, has thus been adopted for several reasons A very simple definition given by Elliott, a lifelong exponent of this method, views action research as ‘the study of a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it’ (Elliott 1991: 69)

Action research according to Altrichter et al (1993: 5-6) starts from practical questions

arising from the working conditions of the teachers; methods of data collection are tailored to suit the circumstances; it is characterised by a continuing effort to closely interlink, relate and confront action and reflection and that each action research project is designed for a specific set of circumstances and so is unique In their widely used textbook of action research methodology McNiff and Whitehead list some of the salient features of action research where “people reflect and improve (or develop) their own work and their own situations by tightly interlinking their reflection and action and also making their experience public” and that participants gather their own data themselves in relation to their own questions, participate in decision-making, share power democratically through the relative suspension of hierarchical ways of working

in an industrial setting, collaborate among members of the group as a ‘critical community’, self-reflect, self-evaluate and self-manage autonomously and responsibly while learning progressively by doing and by making mistakes in a ‘self reflective spiral’

of planning, acting, observing, reflecting, re-planning, etc (McNiff & Whitehead 2002: 24-25) She gives her development of the research methodology in two figures reflecting her change of perspective over the years ie:

Fig 1 McNiff’s latest representation of the action research process (McNiff,

J & Whitehead, J (2002) Action Research: Principles and Practice London:

Routledge.)

plan plan plan plan

plan reflect reflect reflect

Fig 2 McNiff’s original action research spiral (McNiff, J & Whitehead, J

(2002) Action Research: Principles and Practice London: Routledge.) Action research would smooth the progress of this researcher’s enterprise to immerse himself into a course in English intonation by committing time and energy while trying

to learn the intricacies of intonation patterns quite foreign for him and his fellow participants in this experiment It would give him an opportunity to explore first hand the learning process and the related complexities associated with intonational teaching Adhering to Elliott’s definition the role of the researcher will not only be that of a researcher but also an active participant to try to improve the action (the teaching and learning of intonation) from working within it However, as some of the participants were advanced teachers of English, it is a practical consideration for them to reflect and improve upon the teaching process in order to bring about a meaningful change in their understanding of English intonational patterns important for effective communicative competence

The fact that each action research project has a character of its own (Altrichter et al

1993 p.6) and as mentioned earlier the absence of an existing sample to be taken, as a case study would have necessitated, entails that a special group of interested individuals

be formed for this enterprise Hence the research will be carried out in a newly created setting specifically for this purpose This should not be taken as a limitation of the generalizability of the research findings in the wider realm of English language teaching

as the project will be as genuinely teaching and learning oriented as possible Hence eight Students of ELATE programme and a few other students, all of them non-native speakers of English, who are interested in the project from the school of language and literature will be invited to participate

MacNiff’s definition is more elaborate and detailed and encompasses almost all aspects

of action research In this respect, in order to meet objective 2 of this research, participants of this research have to have greater freedom in devising course material and other aspects of classroom teaching environment as well as the assessment criteria

in order to test the effectiveness of the teaching This is needed because most of course material on intonation is lacking in one way or the other and hence the inevitability of

a fresh look at the whole scenario from the scratch Looking at the freedom required

by the participants in this kind of democratic situation the only viable strategy is afforded by an action research environment and not otherwise

Action Research is not without critics either, Dörnyei (2007: 191) for example criticises

it based on the assumption of its impracticability—ranging from its definition and its implications or limitations to its being too “little” in practice ever since the inception of the idea He, however, admits at the same time the nobility of the idea and its viability and powerful impact in an “ideal world” He mentions three reasons for his opposition: that teachers usually lack (a) time, (b) the incentives and (c) the expertise or professional support to immerse in a meaningful way in their research He argues that language teachers usually have a high workload and do not have enough time to devote their energies to extra research But this view is too categorical as all educational settings are much the same for all disciplines In fact the complexities of language teaching require some kind of special treatment The grounds for his criticism are mostly week for the fact that research is not a work to be done by layman and without giving time and energy More so in the case of this research where the participants did have time and energy to explore the complex area of intonation teaching in a practical situation

Any research must have some aspects of generalizeability, reliability and validity in order for it to be accepted as a form of methodical inquiry for the improvement of practice in future This researcher is aware of the issue of generalization as a result of a single research project, in this case selecting an experimental teaching of English intonation to a group of non-native speakers The researcher believes that although this experimental group of individuals may not be representative of the wider ELT community yet there may still be some lessons to be learnt from their endeavour for several reasons ie (a) that all of the participants are non-native speakers with no prior knowledge or systematic awareness of the intonation patterns of the target language (b) the study included participants from different linguistic backgrounds for example Chinese, Russian, Urdu and Arabic which can give us a clue to the different problems the speakers of these individual languages face in acquiring intonation patterns of the English language (c) being mostly teachers of English they are in a better position to

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investigate reflectively the language teaching and learning process

The issue of reliability is also important as the research aims to inform and influence future policy towards the teaching of English intonation by being as truthful and reliable in its findings as possible This would give it credibility and standings as an empirical study to be emulated in other ELT settings where unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, intonation is perceived as an area only to be given a desultory consideration by the ELT professionals both teachers and textbooks writers Similarly, for this research

to be considered valid the actions of the actors needs to be reflective of an actual classroom situation in English intonation teaching The participants will be given more rigorous training in intonation than in any natural classroom setting and research data from them will be collected as objectively as possible in order to make the findings as valid as possible Also the analysis of the research data will be carried out objectively (with the exception of the participants’ journals which will have to be analysed subjectively but even there individual bias will be kept to the minimum) in order for it

to be removed from the influence of the participants’ hopes, opinions and any personal biases

The present research lasted only through two cycles due to time constrains and other practical considerations of the postgraduate course requirements and does not claim to

be conclusive in any way and refinement in this area is still needed with similar studies for further improvement upon the work of this project to be emulated in other practical ELT settings It is only through repeated cycles like these in other settings that

a fully informed and practical course in English intonation can be developed and implemented These are the intentions and expectations of this research project envisioned to incrementally contribute to the body of knowledge in the ELT community

Data Collection: Site and Sampling Method

Qualitative study tries to understand individual perceptions of the world and discern the individual differences between them This is also the position of the present researcher with regard to the experiential aspect of this research project: to comprehend and experience first hand the actual teaching and learning process from within and to try to explain the practical processes and experiences of teaching intonation to second language learners of the English language This understanding and explanation requires gathering of data from the participants of the project in the

form of audio recordings, journals, and notes and other insights from the course material preparation stage etc to the actual realisation of the experiment in the teaching sessions Most of the data collected is qualitative in nature but some of the data was quantified for objective analysis

Convenience sampling was used for this empirical study Participants were mostly postgraduate students of the school of language and literature Even further all the ELATE students were not included for practical course considerations and in order to keep the sampling size small enough to be qualitatively analysed within the short span

of time at the disposal of the researcher Instead just eight students from the ELATE programme participated in the project with a few other PhD students invited from the same school of language and literature This was also done in order to have easy access

to the research participants The total number of participants was 10 excluding some passive participants (a few PhD students who only participated in the deliberation stage but did not provide research data) and our supervisor (a native-speaker) and another fellow faculty member (a phonetician) who actively participated during the project by providing useful feedback and other insights One PhD participant who actively participated in the experiment up to the first cycle (and even recorded for the pre-and post tests of the first teaching session) could not stay for the second cycle for personal reasons whereas an ELATE student who could not appear for the first teaching cycle’s recording (pre- and post test) appeared only in the second phase of the experiment (audio recordings) Thus making ten the total number of participants for recordings in each round of audio recordings (pre- and post-test and interview) To make the identity

of the participants anonymous a coding system was devised to name audio recording files (pre- and post-test and interviews) from each teaching round This coding system incorporated information about the teaching cycle, pre or post-test, sentence number, interview, speaker where the judges were named as A, B and C

From the outset of the project it was decided unanimously by the whole group of participants of the project that there will be two teaching sessions/rounds to be conducted for the purpose of in-class intonation teaching practice spanning a week of regular classes to immerse the participants in the theory and practice of intonation The first teaching session was held in the week April 21th to 24th 2009 and the second round

of teaching was conducted from May 25th

to 28th

2009 During the time before the first round of teaching the group of participants met every week for 8 weeks for about an

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hour, to decide deliberation about how to carry out the action research project Decisions included doing the ground work from the preparation of the teaching material to the phrasing of the sentences for utterance Alongside that decisions were taken about the format of the teaching session and democratically to come up with criteria for judging the sentences and instructions to the volunteer judges for marking the recorded sentence utterances and the interviews for connected speech effects Individual diaries/journals/logs (with no distinction of meaning and function between

these terms in the manner of McNiff et al 1996: 88) were proposed to be kept during

the teaching sessions to record each individual participant’s observations and any other reflections during the teaching session and data recordings of before and after these

sessions functioning as “performance indicators” (McNiff et al 1996: 40) The second

cycle of teaching was proposed to implement any shortcomings and other consideration were identified during the first experiment Some adjustments were made

to the teaching material as well as to the phraseology of the sentences for utterance to accommodate the lessons learnt during the first cycle of the experiment along with the practical lessons learnt during recording audio data from the pre- and post-tests eg training for the interviewers and better time management issues etc During the first teaching session participant were introduced to the five basic English intonation patterns that are universally recognised to be of importance for non-native speakers Interactive presentation materials such as audio visual aids were utilised along with insight and guidance from a native speaker, also an expert linguist, who assisted in the delivery of the teaching session and including individual practice during the classes in order to make the teaching sessions as lively, interesting and real as possible

Data Collection Techniques

The data collected was to be in the form of sentence utterances (audio-recorded before and after each teaching round for intonational affects), interviews (again recorded for intonational and other rhythmic affects), daily journals from both teaching rounds for reflective aspects in order to improve future cycles of the project and notes form the deliberation meetings of course preparation and designing of the overall research process Audio data was kept in MP3 (128kbps) format to maintain the quality of the utterances Afterwards each individual sentence was edited and separately placed in individual files named in an agreed coding manner devised during the deliberation stage prior to the teaching sessions

Sentences for utterance were phrased and structured for intonational purposes so that the words did not predetermine the intended function of the intonation in the target language This would give credibility to the project when the data was marked by three native-speaker judges who will not be easily influenced by the semantics of the words

in the 12 sentences for each pre- and post-test

Interviews were structured with only a few guiding questions to make them as natural

as possible The participants were supposed to talk for about three minutes on a given topic In case a participant went blank on words or ideas a fellow participant was to assist with supplementary questions Recorded data from the interviews was edited and cropped to 60 seconds (to make it time-convenient for the judges as the whole group’s lengthy interviews might have a deterrent bearing on the availability of volunteer judges) and then analysed for intonation and emotive meanings associated with pitch variations etc against a scale of 1 to 5 indicating how far or near a speaker sounded to that of a native-speaker in terms of pitch variation (with 1 indicating the farthest point and 5 the near or native-like attributes of an individual’s intonation)

Individual journals were to have a several uses for this project: serving as time-lines, to illustrate general points, making raw data and as reflective accounts charting the progress of teaching and learning process Clear instructions were also given to the participants about the format of the journals and the material to be included As co-researchers the participants shared these individual journals with each other to bring other participant’s perspectives apart from this researcher’s own feedback about the project These informal journals would also provide an opportunity to explore individual perspectives, perceptions and experiences during the teaching and data collection stages providing a rich set of data for later analysis and comparisons with the performance of individuals from the recorded audio data and their avowed enthusiasm or lack thereof as gleaned from each of the participants’ journals

Framework for Data Analysis

To help achieve the objectives of the overall research project sentences for utterance were divided into several emotion categories indicating the different patterns of intonation used in English These include the intonation to show anger, worry, suggestion, surprise, sympathy and several others This would make sure that a speaker’s choice of intonation is not gleaned from the words in a sentence Also though

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the speakers were aware of the expected intonation pattern to be used in each sentence the judges who were supposed to score these sentences were not given any clue as to the context of the utterances The judges were given instructions about the marking criteria for each sentence which were to be scored under three indicated emotions categorised as A, B and C with a fourth category D open to subjective inference of the judges Interviews, however, were scored with a 5 scale formula with 1 indicating the farthest and 5 the nearest to the native speakers intonation For “triangulation” purposes each of the 12 sentence utterances were marked by three different native-speakers thus providing a rich quantitative data for objective analysis and levelling any differences of opinion on the judges’ part Similarly the audio data from interviews was judged again by the same three judges against a set scale This would produce an overall picture of each participant’s individual performance and learning goals that were achieved as a result of the teaching session

Journals, however, were to be qualitatively analysed for individual perceptions and would be instrumental in providing data for reflection of the future action cycles Journals were also to be analysed for individual performances and expectations from the teaching sessions along with how far the teaching sessions were successful in meeting those expectations of the participants Data from these journals would inform the way forward for future repetition of action research cycles especially the shortcomings and other issues of teaching methodology as well as material Moreover, being focused on individuals they would inform the researcher about each individual participant’s performance measured in his/her own words irrespective of the results from the recorded data from pre- and post-tests As Keith Richards points out, “even the most earnest efforts can be undermined by a failure to identify personal bias in perceptions of actions or processes, or in the selection and presentation of evidence” (2003: 268) There may be individual bias underlying their perception of themselves but to minimize it a comparison of the participants’ own picture (as to their performance in the project) that emerge from their journals against the results of the audio recordings from the three judges would create a fairly clear and bias-free representation as to their performance

Findings & Discussion

This chapter summarises the findings of this research project using the quantitative data from the dairies/journals and tries to recognise some common themes discernable in these individual accounts of what went during the teaching sessions The second part of the chapter relates to the description of the findings from the audio data collected and then judged by three volunteer native speakers serving as judges The data was statistically analysed through SPSS, a specialised computer program for analysis of data from social sciences in order to find the level of significance, effect size and power in order to reject the null hypothesis Lastly it briefly dwells on the limitations of this project and tries to shows the need for future research to come up with some tangible and conclusive line of action for the implementation of any teaching of intonation in the wider ELT circles

Description of Findings

Journals’ Data

As mentioned earlier primary data for the project comes in two forms ie in the form of participant’s journals/diaries and the audio recordings which were later quantitatively analysed by three native speakers serving as judges Though the qualitative data from journals is more subjective and prone to individual idiosyncrasies than the objective data obtained from the audio recordings it contains vital information about how the whole experiment was undertaken by the participants It is through diary studies that we “gain

an intimate view of organizations, relationships, and events from the perspective of one who has experienced them him- or herself and who may have different premises about the world than we have” (Bogdan & Taylor, 1975 p 7)

Journal writing, as a research tool in an Action Research project like this, serves an important purpose in giving an opportunity to see the research in action from the perspective of the individual participants Hence for the use of diary studies in second language acquisition, Bailey and Ochsner (1983) propose five purposes, as "(1) research tools, (2) a source of research findings,( 3) a process of self-evaluation,(4 ) a language learning technique, and (5) a means of working out frustrations with the language learning (or teaching) experience" As regards the present research journals of the participants serve most of these purposes

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As mentioned in the preceding chapter, not all the participants recorded their individual insights and journals’ data is available from only the 8 ELATE students Several guidelines were established during the deliberation phase to streamline the recording of journal’s data which are as follows:

a) Interests about the program (How/what do you find the program interesting to you?)

b) Participants' attitude towards the teaching (What have you learned during the learning process?)

c) Participation of the students (How active are you in class? How do you respond to the class?)

d) Comments or feelings of the effectiveness of the teaching/teacher/methods

e) Can you apply what you have learned in everyday speech? And in what ways? f) Impact of the teaching and personal feelings about the whole learning (General feelings)

Keeping this in mind it was hoped that several of these themes would emerge to be of greater concern for the participants to testify to the effectiveness of the teaching sessions (or lack thereof) as well as giving a subjective opportunity to express their ideas about the above-mentioned aspects of the project As the two teaching sessions complemented each other hence participants’ journals from both sessions share many similarities with regard

to teaching and the overall enthusiastic reception of the course by the individual participants Yet still the slight change of strategy with regard to teaching and course content in the second session, most probably to avoid repetition, can be discerned from the journals’ entries from the second session

As all of the Elaters who provided their insights in the form of diaries/journals were native speakers and came from different linguistic backgrounds it was not deemed practical or useful to have any separation on any such basis, though four of the Elaters came from Sinitic background

non-Following is a brief overview of the most frequently mentioned points from each of the

afore-mentioned themes (italics mine) For the purpose of anonymity the names of

participants have been encoded (as the same was done for the audio recorded data)

Interest about the Program

Most of the participants commented about their involvement in the experiment quite candidly They seemed to be very enthusiastic about the pilot project A few examples in this regard would suffice:

APO:

 The first class was really good…all of us participated actively…the

course this week has been very entertaining, the fact of having spontaneous speech between participants made the course more enjoyable…It makes everyone feel more confident when talking to a native person, and thus it will help improve even more, with practice, our grasp of the English language

AMA:

 This intonation course is very helpful for me… I found it is very

interesting and helpful work with other students

DAV:

 It totally raised my interest and I deeply felt that this time it was a

good chance that I could improve my weakness

EGO:

 This class was conducted by two teachers; a native speaker of

English and a non-native speaker with a post-doctorate degree in this aspect of the English language This provided a great opportunity to listen to the different forms of English intonation produced by several speakers as well as CD recordings

QZH:

 The training seems interesting to all students, my classmates and I are

actively participated in each practice, and I sometimes would exaggerate certain intonation, for at my intonation recorded in the software showed that most of my intonation has little variation And

we also made some jokes about the intonation visualized on that software, for example, my partner said “it’s like a worm.” with a falling tone, a and I responded her with a rising-falling intonation saying “ it’s like a worm? No, it’s like a snake now…” this actually made the whole training more interesting!

SKA:

 I was really looking forward to the intonation teaching program

because I always thought that there is not enough instruction and practise given by teachers of English in Poland where I started my journey with the language I find the course particularly interesting, not only because I would like to master my English as much as possible, but also because, as a future teacher, I would like to know

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what kind of exercises give expected results, bring improvement and fun to learners

 I enjoyed every part of it and noticed that the time was running so

fast during our learning process

TAK:

 Intonation is a completely new phenomenon for me having no

concept of this linguistic aspect from the linguistic background that I come from Hence this programme is an opportunity to learn many new concepts that I had simply not bothered about previously

Initially it was very difficult for me understand the concept of tone and its use to convey meanings but with the help from our teacher I think I fared well during the course of teaching

Participants' Attitude Towards the Teaching

Most of the Elaters being teachers themselves were quite happy with the teaching and the methodologies used during the teaching sessions There judgement comes not only from their experience during the classes but also from a critical evaluation of their old practice

in teaching Their comments show a sense of transfer of desirable teaching skills that they deem proper in such situations of language learning Also they have tried to envisage future scenarios where they would be in charge of the teaching process themselves and, being non-native speakers themselves, what to do when a need arises for a native speaker

of English in order to judge and monitor their future classes Here are some of their comments about this aspect of the project:

APO:

 It’s always easier to learn and practice…when the class is lively…It

makes everyone feel more confident when talking to a native person, and thus it will help improve even more, with practice, our grasp of the English language

DAV:

 It is a good teaching demonstration for me to know that it is

essential to give students revision so as to remind them of previous learning content

EGO:

 I found the examples of intonation forms produced by the native

speaker much clearer and easier to understand than those produced

by non-native speakers and so think teaching using examples produced by a native speaker is most effective

 (referring to the introductory class of first session of teaching)

information presented in today’s class on intonation forms and the meanings they express will be useful knowledge for all students

TAK:

 (our teacher) seemed a perfect example of an ideal teacher who is so

approachable and candid in the class It is sometimes difficult for me

to exaggerate or act in such a way in front of others Usually our teacher was the first to set an example in such cases which helped a lot

QZH:

 I personally think I need more demo before I utter certain sentence

with an intended intonation

Participation of the Students

It can be clearly gleaned from the students’ diaries that they participated quite actively during both the teaching sessions A few excerpts from their diaries in this regard would help understand their role

 (referring to the role-play activity in circles) I was quite actively

participating in this activity because it was fun and it motivated me

to fully participate in this learning activity and it (intonation aided

by physical gestures) also helped me advance my ability of conveying

messages and information

EGO:

 Everyone in the class was active as the teacher forced everyone to be

involved by asking students by name to respond to their questions

QZH:

 my classmates and I actively participated in each practice, and I sometimes would exaggerate certain intonation

SKA: