"I am taking a TESOL course and I would like to get more tips on teaching intonation and pitch. How can I demonstrate clearly the use of intonation and pitch? Any good examples which can be provided? Thank you."
Any comments or ideas ? How do you demonstrate intonation and pitch to your students? Any tips, suggestions or comments? Contact us
This question is from Shu Yu Lee, Singapore
Comments
rebecca1
Dear Shu Yu Lee, I work on my research paper in teaching pronunciation, so I may help you.
I feel that teaching intonation on any levels can give colour to the lesson. First you have to decide, which usage of the intonation you want to teach and practise. (intonation that refers to mood/emotion; or intonation which gives a message upon the meaning-e.g.tag questions when you expect a positive answer and so on). The main point of intonation teaching I think is that the intonation teaching can be connected with all the other skills. I can send you my research, if you want, but now I suggest one exact example. Show a video scene of a film and draw your students' attention on the intonation of the actors/actresses. They have to concentrate on the emotions, the mimic, the bodylanguage to identify the used intonation. then give them the script of that scene to choose characters and ask them to be the voice of the film. Watch the scene without volume first, then watch it again so that the students act the story with their voice. It is very interesting, and humourous and it is a good oppurtunity to compare the non-native speech withthe native one; identify differences in intonation. Sorry I am out of time now, but I can give you more information, if you are interested in approaches used (and not used:))in Hungary. Hopefully I can help you and your students will use the suprasegmentals effectivly. Bye:Éva Gibicsár
Adam Gyenes, Japan
Here are 2 intonation drills I like to use in my classes.
1- I teach a set of 'intensifying adjectives' e.g. good > fantastic, interesting > fascinating, hot > boiling. I the set up a drill where I ask a question like, 'Was Hawaii hot?' and the student replies, 'Hot, it was boiling!!!', using higher pitch.
2- This one is from a book, but I like to call it the 'deaf shopkeeper'. I set up a clothes shop situation in which I am the shopkeeper. I have 4 cards with pictures of clothes on them, I make 4 cards with different materials on them e.g leather, cotton (which I elicit from the students), and 4 cards with different colours. the first student\customer says 'I'm looking for a blue cotton shirt'. I give them the cards for blue cotton skirt. They reply 'No, I said a blue cotton SKIRT!', with the emphasis placed on the mistake. I then go around the class, making mistakes in different places in the sentence. Once they understand this, I add more adjectives into the chain e.g. light\ dark...etc.
Hope this helps...
Harrow English School, UKOne work we think should be studied and kept at hand is the section called "The Transmission of English" by Prof. A.C. Gimson in QUIRK, Randolph;The Use of English (1969); Longmans Green & Co Ltd., ISBN 582 326818