Unsure of how to identify, describe and teach intonation? You're not alone - it's an area that most teachers have difficulty with. This post aims to improve your understanding of the area.
To start, have a look at this two-part video which covers the main areas you'll need to deal with: An Introduction to Intonation - Part One (15 mins) and Part Two (12 mins). The presentation comes from our Delta Module One course - and hence the reference to "Unit 6.2" - just ignore it. All the technical terms are explained, but if you want to see a written explanation, you can look them up in the ELT Glossary : Terms Connected with Phonology.
Further Reading
If you have access to any books on phonology, have a look at the relevant chapters there. In addition, the web articles included in another article in the Notebook, Teaching Intonation may be useful.
Test Yourself
The following tasks will help you test your understanding of and ability to recognise various elements of stress and intonation.
- Tonic Placement - Plato
- Question types and intonation. See here.
- Teaching Contrastive Stress : Look first at the teaching materials in the file and make notes on the points mentioned in the instructions. Then go to the task. Teaching Contrastive Stress.pdf - Task
