Unit 14 Lesson Plan (With Notes for Teachers) Intonation Units of English Date: Dec., 16-20 Class: Classes 1, 2 & 3, Grade 2002 Subject: English Pronunciation for Communication Purpose: The students will learn intonation units of English. Objectives: Students will be able to: Define - in their own words a definition for intonation units. Compare – based on the understanding of the basic concept, compare different units of intonation in speech; Practice – imitate the stress patterns and intonation and do practice. Resources/Materials: Textbook: Wang, Guizhen, An English Pronunciation Course, Higher Education Press, Beijing, 2000; Handouts: illustration of stress patterns and rhythmic pattern; Recordings of native speakers Activities and Procedures: Stimulating: Begin by asking the class to find out how much the students know about what they are required to learn. Make sure that it serves the purpose of stimulating the students to think about the issue and have the desire to find out the answers themselves. Display examples by playing the recording of the native speakers showing the typical pronunciation in English. Ask the students to listen to the tapes to make a good discrimination of rhythmic patterns in connected speech. Have the students imitate the speech rhythm in utterances. Have the students share what they have learned by reading out the practice materials in pairs. Have the students listen to the conversations recorded by native speakers of English and try to get the rhythm correct in their pronunciation. Have the students practice the guided conversation. Ask them to pay special attention to the stress in speech. Highlight the language function in the conversation in the practice. Have several pairs of the students present their conversation in the class. Comment on the students’ performance by highlighting the achievement of the students and the efforts they need for the improvement. Ask the students to do more practice after class and get ready for presentation during the next session. Notes for Teachers Intonation Units of English In this unit, we will learn something about intonation units of English. Intonation units are also called intonation-groups, tone groups or tone-units. An intonation unit usually corresponds to a sense group (or word group). An intonation unit may contain several syllables, some of them stressed and some unstressed. The last stressed syllable is usually a marker of the highest importance and has the focus stress. On this syllable, there takes place a change of pitch, either an upward or downward movement, or a combination of the two. Nucleus of an intonation unit A nucleus refers to the syllable in an intonation unit which carries maximal prominence. For example, this is the normal way of saying the following sentence: I am WRIting a LETter to him NOW. There are ten syllables in this sentence among which three are stressed syllables. The last stressed syllable is NOW. So we say that NOW has the focus stress, and is the tonic syllable and therefore is the nucleus of the intonation unit. The nucleus is the essential part of the intonation unit. It is still present even if the unit consists of a single syllable, as is the case with many sentence words like yes, no, why, etc. Tail, Head & Pre-head of an intonation unit Any syllable or syllables that may follow the nucleus in an intonation unit are called the "tail". In the sentence "I am WRIting a LETter to him", the nucleus of this intonation unit is on the tonic syllable "LET". There are three unstressed syllables after the nucleus. These syllables are called the "tail" of this intonation unit. The part of an intonation unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to the nucleus ia called the "head" of the intonation unit. In the sentence "I am WRIting a LETter to him", the "head" of this intonation unit is made up of three syllables: "writing a". Any unstressed syllable or syllables that may precede the "head", or the "nucleus" if there is no head, are called the "pre-head". In the sentence "I am WRIting a LETter to him", "I am" comprises the "pre-head" of this intonation unit. So if you analyze the following sentence, we will come up with the structure of an intonation unit like this: I am WRIting a LET ter to him. P H N T P = Pre-head H = Head N = Nucleus T = Tail Following are the possible structures of an intonation unit: Structures of an intonation unit P H N T: We are learning a foreign language. P H N : I am afraid we can't go. P N T: We hope so. P N : It was at night. H N T: When are they coming? H N : Peter has arrived. N T: Look at him. N : Help! In conclusion, a nucleus is the last fully stressed word in an intonation unit has the biggest pitch change in the unit can be longer and louder than the other stresses in the unit carries a lot of weight in conveying the message can be on any word or phrase in the unit The following same short sentence can have the nucleus on different words conveying different message: They flew to London. They flew to London. They flew to London. They flew to London. They flew to London. The nucleus is on the last stressed syllable of the intonation unit, which is the normal way of the sentence spoken as in English. the last information word is usually the last stressed word which has the nucleus. They flew to London. The nucleus is on the preposition: to, which is not usually stressed. The speaker wants to highlight direction: They flew to London not from London. They flew to London. The nucleus is on the verb: flew. The speaker wants to highlight how they travelled: They flew to London instead of driving to London. They flew to London. The nucleus is on the personal pronoun: they, which is not stressed normally. The speaker wants to highlight who did this: They, not you, or we flew to London. Nucleus placing is important as English speakers use nucleus to focus listener's attention make meaning clear contrast information 英语的语调单位 本单元要求我们掌握的是英语的语调单位。 语调单位又称作语调群, 是语言中语调的基本单位。一个语调单位通常相当于一个意群，由一个重读音节和若干个非重读音节组成。每个语调单位中至少有一个是响亮音。最响亮的高峰音称为语调单位的核心（nucleus），即语调开始起变化的那个音节。语调单位通常由几个词组成，当然，也可以只含一个重读音节。完整的语调单位由以下四个部分组成：调冠、调头、调核、调尾。 语调单位的调核 调核是指语调单位中最具重要性的音节。例如，这是下面句子的一般说法： I am WRIting a LETter to him NOW. 这个句子有10个音节，其中3个是重读音节。最后一个重读音节是NOW。所以，也是语调单位的调核。调核是语调单位的核心部分。即使这个语调单位只含一个音节，如单字句Yes. No. Why?等，调核仍然是不可或缺的部分。 语调单位的调尾、调头、调冠 在语调单位中，所有出现在调核之后的音节都称之为“调尾”。在句子I am WRIting a LETter to him.中，语调单位的调核在音节LET上。调核之后有3个非重读音节。这些音节是语调单位的调尾。 语调单位中从第一个重读音节到调核前的那一部分是语调单位的“调头”。句子I am WRIting a LETter to him中，“调头”由3个音节组成：“writing a”。 任何在调头，或若如无调头则在调核之前的非重读音节称作“调冠”。句子“ I am WRIting a LETter to him”中，“I am”组成了这一语调单位的“调冠”。 以下是句子I am writing a letter to him.的语调结构分析： I am WRIting a LET ter to him. P H N T P=调冠 H=调头 N=调核 T=调尾   以下是语调单位的几种结构： P H N T: We are learning a foreign language. P H N : I am afraid we can’t go. P N T: We hope so. P N : It was at night. H N T: When are they coming? H N : Peter has arrived. N T: Look at him. N : Help!  总而言之，调核： 是语调单位中最后一个重读音节 是出现语调变化的音节 通常比同一语调单位中的其他重音更为响亮 在信息的传达中起着举足轻重的作用 可以出现在语调单位的任何一个词或短语中 以They flew to London.一句为例，调核不同，传递的信息也不同： They flew to London. 调核在语调单位中最后一个重读音节上，这是英语句子的通常说法, 即调核通常出现在最后一个信息词上。 They flew to London 调核在介词to上。to通常是非重读音节。说话者此时想强调的是方向：他们乘飞机去（to）伦敦而不是(from)从伦敦来。 They flew to London 调核在动词flew上。说话者想强调他们是怎样旅行的：他们乘飞机（flew）去伦敦,而不是开车(driving)去伦敦. They flew to London 调核在人称they上，这又是一个通常是不重读的单词。说话人想强调是谁(who)飞往伦敦：他们(They)，不是你们（you），也不是我们(we)乘飞机去伦敦。 调核位置很重要, 因为说话人要用调核来?: 吸引听者的注意力 清楚地阐明句子的含义 对信息加以对比