Discourse Intonation In ELT
Ihsan Ibaddurrahman (G1025429)
Term paper for Phonetics and Phonology (ENGL 6002)
Discourse Intonation in ELT
In order to attain total mastery of English language, ESL students should undoubtedly be taught the intonation of English. Without learning this suprasegmental feature, English learners, regardless of their level of English proficiency, would be at risk of causing serious communication breakdown with native speakers. Recent studies show that there has been a growing awareness of the importance of teaching intonation in ESL classes by integrating it into the main ELT curriculum. Unfortunately, the intonation rules exemplified in most course books nowadays are not adequate to describe what actually occurs in real life communication. In order to improve cross cultural communication between learners and native speakers, a systematic approach based on discourse intonation is thus called for. Discourse Intonation views intonation as more than just its attitudinal or grammatical function; it takes intonation to the next level by looking at the larger contexts where sentences occur. By exposing learners to context-sensitive language where natural speech occurs, discourse intonation hopes to offer a practical solution to teaching intonation to ESL students.
Up until 1980s, pronunciation was not regarded as essential in ELT. It was not until the communicative approach emerged into the field that the teaching of pronunciation came into play. As pointed out by Stibbard (1996), pronunciation is the core of communicative approach to language teaching. Thanks to the advancement of technology, teaching pronunciation was no longer limited to the segmental phonology such as the description of English phonemes. Suprasegmental feature such as intonation has now widely been used as a part of teaching pronunciation. Vaissière (2004) points out three interesting points for the emergence of intonation in research: 1) The remarkable technical progress such as the access to
Term paper for Phonetics and Phonology (ENGL 6002)
Discourse Intonation in ELT
In order to attain total mastery of English language, ESL students should undoubtedly be taught the intonation of English. Without learning this suprasegmental feature, English learners, regardless of their level of English proficiency, would be at risk of causing serious communication breakdown with native speakers. Recent studies show that there has been a growing awareness of the importance of teaching intonation in ESL classes by integrating it into the main ELT curriculum. Unfortunately, the intonation rules exemplified in most course books nowadays are not adequate to describe what actually occurs in real life communication. In order to improve cross cultural communication between learners and native speakers, a systematic approach based on discourse intonation is thus called for. Discourse Intonation views intonation as more than just its attitudinal or grammatical function; it takes intonation to the next level by looking at the larger contexts where sentences occur. By exposing learners to context-sensitive language where natural speech occurs, discourse intonation hopes to offer a practical solution to teaching intonation to ESL students.
Up until 1980s, pronunciation was not regarded as essential in ELT. It was not until the communicative approach emerged into the field that the teaching of pronunciation came into play. As pointed out by Stibbard (1996), pronunciation is the core of communicative approach to language teaching. Thanks to the advancement of technology, teaching pronunciation was no longer limited to the segmental phonology such as the description of English phonemes. Suprasegmental feature such as intonation has now widely been used as a part of teaching pronunciation. Vaissière (2004) points out three interesting points for the emergence of intonation in research: 1) The remarkable technical progress such as the access to
References: Atoye, R. (2005) ‘Non-Native Perception and Interpretation of English Intonation’, Nordic Journal of African Studies, Vol Cauldwell, R. and Hewings, M. (1996) ‘Intonation rules in ELT textbooks’, ELT Journal, Vol. 50, No.4, pp.327-334 Chapman, M. (2007) ‘Theory and Practice of Teaching Discourse Intonation’, ELT Journal, Vol. 61, no.1, pp.1-11 Clennell, C. (1996) ‘Raising the Pedagogic Status of Discourse Intonation Teaching’, ELT Journal, Volume 51, no Discourse Intonation. (n.d.) in speechinaction. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from http://www.speechinaction.net/SPARC_DI.htm Roach, P.J. (2009) English Phonetics and Phonology, 4th edn., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (first published 1983). Stibbard, R. (1996) ‘Teaching English Intonation with a Visual Display of Fundamental Frequency’, The Internet TESL Journal, Vol Thompson, S. (1996) ‘Teaching Intonation in Questions’, ELT Journal, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 235-243 Vaissière, J