Some techniques to improve english intonation for students in grade 11

In order to be moreauthentic and sound like a native speaker of English, it is important that uppersecondary school students should learn how to use intonation.. It is also beneficial fo

THANH HOA EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING SERVICE

HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL

INDEX

1 Raise an issue 1

1.1 Reasoning base 2

1.2 Practical base 2

1.3 Scope of studying special subject 2

1.4 Study objects 2

1.5 Study techniques 2

2 Table of content 2

2.1 Identifying English intonation 2

2.1.1 Definition 2

2.1.2 Reasons to use English intonation 3

2.2 The techniques of English intonational tone……… 5

Technique 1: Falling intonation……… 5

a Statements 5

b Commands 6

c Wh-questions 6

d Exclamations 7

e Tag questions (confirmation) 8

Technique 2: Rising intonation 8

a.Yes-No questions 9

b Tag questions (real questions) 9

c Echo questions 10

Technique 3: Rise-Fall intonation……… 11.

a Alternative questions 11

b Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling )……… 12

c Unfinished thought 13

d Conditional sentences……… 14

Technique 4: Fall-Rise intonation……… 14

a Hesitation/ Reluctance 14

b Politeness- Doubt- Uncertainty……… 15

2.3 The limitation and measures of the special subject 16

2.3.1 The limitation of the special subject 16

2.3.2 The measures of the special subject 16

2.4 The result of practical teaching 17

3 Summary and suggestions 18

1 Raise an issue

1.1 Reasoning base.

We know that communication is very keen role in any field, whether it is business,medicine, transportation, technology, trade or marketing Language has a greatimpact on the division of the different traditions and cultures of different people

We learn more about the traditions, cultures and customs of different people aroundthe world through travel and learning For this effective communication is anecessity English language empowers people from around the world The internetalso plays an important role in promoting English as the standard language.Through the pages of various social networks people connect with each other fromanywhere in the world, mostly through English This is because this language isaccepted worldwide English is also essential for air traffic control and flight crews.English is globally accepted and known by all Globalization covers all aspects oflife Deep understanding is very important in every field Without propercommunication it is not possible to be in connection Millions of people considerEnglish as their first language; two thirds of them prefer it as a second language Inaddition, billions of people are in the process of learning English has become themost popular international language in the world nowadays It is used as the officialone in many different countries In Vietnam, English is also considered as anindispensable language in all domains, especially in education Therefore, it hasbeen taught in primary, secondary, high schools, colleges and universities and hasbecome a compulsory subject during study process so far In order to be moreauthentic and sound like a native speaker of English, it is important that uppersecondary school students should learn how to use intonation In today’s world,English is the most widely spoken language and it is gaining more and moreimportance every other day because of the technological developments anddiplomatic reasons It is also beneficial for upper secondary school students to befamiliar with intonation in that, knowing about usage of intonation in Englishmakes it easier to understand a communication between native speakers of English

I have chosen “intonation” as the subject of my study because I think it is one ofthe most important aspects affecting the pronunciation of upper secondary schoolstudents In fact, most students of a foreign language transfer their native intonationpatterns “i.e the melody of speech utterances” to the new language and retain themeven after they have improved in other aspects Consequently, though most studentsmay have exposed to English for quite some time, their English is usually far fromauthentic Intonation is closely interrelated with other factors- not only grammarand vocabulary, but also non- linguistic factors like the roles of the speaker andhearer (who is talking to whom, in what capacity and in what type of situation).This means that a given sentence can have different intonation patterns in differentsituations This problem with intonation is quite common in Vietnam because

English is not so widely used and there are not that many native speakers ofEnglish living there Another reason is that nearly most of the English teachers inVietnam are getting their education in the country and they are not given the chance

to spend some time in UK or any other European countries Teaching of intonationgains more importance in countries like Vietnam because there is not a naturalenvironment for acquiring the intonation of English Thus, we, English teachers,should explain every aspect of intonation to our students to make the best of it Myaim is to draw out the rules in which English intonation is prefered In thisexperience, I also hope to apply these rules to a few exercises which are notmentioned in upper secondary schools

1.3 Scope of studying special subject.

I can say that intonation is a wide term covering important aspects of a languageand a framework of English intonation should include four major intonationalfeatures: intonation units, stress, tones, and pitch range In this experience, I onlyfocus on the phenomena of intonation in English with “tones”

I use this technique to distinguish the rules of used in exercises of the phenomena

of intonation in English with “tones”

2 TABLE OF CONTENT

2.1 Identify English intonation.

2.1.1 Definition.

Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say, the way the voicerises and falls when speaking, in other words the music of the language Just aswords have stressed syllables, sentences have regular patterns of stressed words Inaddition, the voice tends to rise, fall or remain flat depending on the meaning orfeeling we want to convey (surprise, anger, interest, boredom, gratitude, etc.).Intonation therefore indicates the mood of the speaker.

A unit of speech bounded by pauses has movement, of music and rhythm,associated with the pitch of voice This certain pattern of voice movement is called

“tone” A tone is a certain pattern, not an arbitrary one, because it is meaningful indiscourse By means of tones, speakers signal whether to refer, proclaim, agree,disagree, question or hesitate, or indicate completion and continuation of turn-taking, in speech In other word, when we speak, we constantly vary the pitch ofour voice Tone is overall behaviour of pitch in a syllable

2.1.2 Reasons to use English intonation.

We can say that intonation is a wide term covering important aspects of a languageand it has a big impact on the pronunciation of students Although this subject istaught in primary, secondary and high schools in Vietnam, Vietnamese students aremore likely to have problems in sounding like native speakers of English.Furthermore, they have difficulty in understanding native English speakers withwhom they have never had a chance to communicate before Also, as Vietnamesestudents are not exposed to the language during their daily life, it is not likely thatthey grow a sense of awareness about how it is like to pronounce words like nativespeakers do So, as language teachers, we had better give explicit information aboutintonation patterns and concentrate on communicative aspects of language and try

to make students be active during the classes The more they use the language, thebetter they pronounce

The term intonation refers to a means for conveying information in speech which isindependent of the words and their sounds Central to intonation is the modulation

of pitch, and intonation is often thought of as the use of pitch over the domain ofthe utterance However, the patterning of pitch in speech is so closely bound topatterns of timing and loudness, and sometimes voice quality, that we cannotconsider pitch in isolation from these other dimensions The interaction ofintonation and stress — the patterns of relative prominence which characterise anutterance — is particularly close in many languages, including English For thosewho prefer to reserve ‘intonation’ for pitch effects in speech, the word ‘prosody’ isconvenient as a more general term to include patterns of pitch, timing, loudness,and (sometimes) voice quality In this study, however, intonation will be used torefer to the collaboration of all these dimensions, and, where necessary, the term

‘melody’ will be used to refer specifically to the pitch-based component Intonation

is used to carry a variety of different kinds of information It signals grammaticalstructure, though not in a one-to-one way; whilst the end of a complete intonationpattern will normally coincide with the end of a grammatical structure such as asentence or clause, even quite major grammatical boundaries may lack intonationalmaking, particularly if the speech is fast Intonation can reflect the informationstructure of an utterance, highlighting constituents of importance Intonation canindicate discourse function; for instance most people are aware that saying ‘This isthe Leeds train’ with one intonation constitutes a statement, but, with another, aquestion Intonation can be used by a speaker to convey an attitude such asfriendliness, enthusiasm, or hostility; and listeners can use intonation-relatedphenomenon in the voice to make inferences about a speaker’s state, includingexcitement, depression, and tiredness Intonation can also, for instance, help toregulate turn-taking in conversation, since there are intonational mechanismsspeakers can use to indicate that they have had their say, or, conversely, that theyare in full flow and don’t want to be interrupted Intonation is not the only linguisticdevice for which pitch is recruited by languages; many languages use pitch todistinguish words In languages around the world as diverse as Thai, Hausa(Nigeria), and Mixtec (Mexico), words are distinguished not only by vowels andconsonants but also by the use of one of a limited set of distinctive pitch patterns orheights on each syllable Such languages are called tone languages A number ofother languages, such as Swedish and Japanese, make a more limited use of pitch todistinguish words These languages might best be called lexical accent languages.All tone languages and lexical accent languages also have intonation, but in generalthe greater a language’s use of pitch for distinguishing words, the less scope it has

to develop an elaborate intonation system English, on the other hand, is not a tone

language or lexical accent language, and is generally agreed to have relativelycomplex intonation.

Here are some reasons why we need to use intonation patterns correctly:

✔ Using intonation will make sound more friendly, approachable and empathetic

✔ Using intonation will enable you to ask questions clearly and effectively

✔Using intonation will enable to speak with a pace that sounds natural to thelistener

2.2 THE TECHNIQUES OF ENGLISH INTONATIONAL TONE.

Technique 1: Falling intonation ()

A falling tone is by far the most common used tone of all It signals a sense

of finality, completion, belief in the content of the utterance, and so on A speaker,

by choosing a falling tone, also indicates to the addressee that that is all he has tosay, and offers a chance (turn-taking) to the addressee to comment on, agree ordisagree with, or add to his utterance However, it is up to the addressee to do either

of these This tone does in no way solicit a response from the addressee.Nonetheless, it would be polite for the addressee to at least acknowledge in somemanner or form that he is part of the discourse The pitch of the voice falls at theend of the sentence Falling intonation is the most common intonation pattern inEnglish It is commonly found in statements, commands, Wh-questions,exclamatory sentences, and tag questions

a Statements :

Examples:

*They expected me to finish my work ↘early.

*My mother likes me to do my ↘homework.

*Nice to meet ↘you.

*I’ll be back in a ↘minute.

*We should work together more ↘often.

Exercises and keys of statements:

Put the symbol “↘” at the end of each sentence and practise reading aloud these sentences :

1 My friends expected him to buy a new house.

………

(My friends expected him to buy a new ↘house.)

2 She likes her parents to pay money.

………

(She likes her parents to pay ↘ money.)

3 She doesn’t live here anymore.

………

(She doesn’t live here ↘anymore.)

4 Dad wants to change his car.

(Dad wants to change his ↘car.)

5 Here is the weather forecast.

………

(Here is the weather ↘forecast.)

b Commands:

Examples:

*Write your name ↘here.

*Show me what you’ve ↘written.

*Leave it on the ↘desk.

*Take that picture ↘down.

*Throw that ↘out.

Exercises and keys of commands:

Put the symbol “↘” at the end of each sentence and practise reading aloud these sentences :

1 Put your books on the table.

………

(Put your books on the ↘table.)

2 Take your hands out of your pockets.

………

(Take your hands out of your ↘ pockets.)

3 Go and see a doctor.

*What country do you come ↘from?.

*Where do you ↘work?.

*Which of them do you ↘prefer?.

*When does the shop ↘open?.

*How many books have you ↘bought?.

Exercises and keys of Wh-questions:

Put the symbol “↘” at the end of each question and practise reading aloud these questions :

1 What do people often do to prepare for Tet?

………

(What do people often do to prepare for ↘Tet?)

2 How many solutions did the expert offer?

………

(How many solutions did the expert ↘ offer?)

3 Why can’t women in the world limit the size of their family?

………

(Why can’t women in the world limit the size of their ↘family?)

4 Where can you find these scenes?

………

(Where can you find these ↘scenes?)

5 When did he become the first official female champion?

………

(When did he become the first official female ↘champion?)

d Exclamations:

Examples:

*How nice of ↘you!

*That’s just what I ↘need!

*You don’t ↘say!

*What a beautiful ↘voice!

*That’s a ↘surprise!

Exercises and keys of Exclamations:

Put the symbol “↘” at the end of each exclamatory sentence and practise reading aloud these sentences :

(What a wonderful ↘ holiday!)

3 What pretty girls!

………

(What pretty ↘girls!)

4 How well he swims!

………

(How well he ↘swims!)

5 How thick is the book!

………

(How thick is the ↘book!)

e Tag questions:

Tag questions are statements requesting confirmation or inviting agreement ratherthan questions, in which case we use a falling tone at the end

Examples:

*He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ↘ he?

*She’s such a nuisance, isn’t ↘ she?

*I failed the test because I didn’t revise, did ↘ I?

*It doesn’t seem to bother him much, does ↘ it?

*You like it, don’t ↘ you?

Exercises and keys of tag questions:

Put the symbol “↘” at the end of each tag question and practise reading aloud these questions :

1 You live here, don’t you?

………

(You live here, don’t ↘ you?)

2 No one likes snakes, do they?

………

(No one likes snakes, do ↘ they?)

3 Human beings have made efforts to protect the environment,

Technique 2: Rising intonation (↗)

This tone is used in genuine “Yes/No” questions where the speaker is sure that hedoes not know the answer, and that the addressee knows the answer Such Yes/Noquestions are uttered with a rising tone The pitch of the voice rises at the end of asentence Rising intonation invites the speaker to continue talking

a Yes/no questions: (Questions that can be answered by “yes” or “no”.)

Examples: