Unit 15 Lesson Plan (With Notes for Teachers) Use of English Intonation Date: Dec., 23-27 Class: Classes 1, 2 & 3, Grade 2002 Subject: English Pronunciation for Communication Purpose: The students will learn the use of intonation in English. Objectives: Students will be able to : Define - in their own words the use of intonation in English. Compare – based on the understanding of the basic concept, compare different functions and use 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 Use of English Intonation In this unit, we will learn more about English intonation: its functions and uses. Intonation and stress work together to express meaning. Intonation makes it easier for a listener to understand what a speaker is trying to convey. Following are often cited as important functions of English intonation: The attitudinal function Intonation is used to convey our feelings and attitudes. For instance, the same sentence can be said in different ways, which might be labeled "happy", "grateful", "angry", "bored", and so on. Usually, intonation units with high heads sound more lively, interesting than those with low heads. A few generalisations are often made here: the falling intonation is said to be more often associated with completeness and definiteness; the rising intonation is more often associated with incompleteness and uncertainty or questioning; The falling-rising is said to have feelings of hesitation, contrast, reservation or doubt. The accentual function The location of the tonic syllable is of considerable linguistic importance. The most common position for this is on the last information word of the intonation unit. For contrastive purpose, however, any word may bear the tonic syllable. The grammatical function Some sentence may be ambiguous when written, but this can be removed by the use of intonation. An often cited example is the sentence "Those who sold quickly made a profit". This sentence can be said in at least two different ways: / Those who sold ((quickly / made a (profit. / Those who ((sold / quickly made a (profit. English speakers hear two different paraphrases of the sentences because of the different placement of the tone-unit boundary, as in: A profit was made by those who sold quickly. A profit was quickly made by those who sold. Another example is the use of rising tone in statements. The sentence "They're going to have a picnic" is usually said as a statement like this: a. They 're going to have a (picnic. In informal speech, however, we may hear: b. They're going to have a (picnic? (But, it's raining outside.) The sentence serves as a question here. The intonation used in question-tags can have a rising tone or a falling tone: They're coming to(morrow, (aren't they? They're coming to(morrow, (aren't they? When it has a falling tone, as in (a), the speaker is comparatively certain that the information is correct, and simply asking for conformation, while the rising tone in (b) is said to indicate a lesser degree of certainty, so the speaker is asking for information. The discourse function of intonation In speech, people often use intonation to focus the listener's attention on aspects of the message that are most important. So the placement of nucleus or tonic stress depends on the "information content": the more predictable a word's occurrence is in a given context, the lower its information content is. For example, people would say: The (telephone's ringing. The (kettle's boiling. In speech, people often use the falling tone to indicate new information and rising tone (including falling-rising) to indicate "shared" of "given" information. People also use intonation to indicate to others that they have finished speaking and that another person is expected to speak. 英语语调的功能及使用 本单元学习的重点是英语语调的功能及使用。语音学家将英语语音语调的功能概括为以下几点： 一、 强调功能 -- Did you say a lighter shade? -- No, a (brighter shade. 调核一般位于最后一个实义词上，但在以上的回答中，调核位于brighter而非shade，目的在于突出信息中心。 二、语法功能 Those who sold quickly made a profit. 这个句子根据调核位置的不同，可能有两个不同的意思。假定这句话含两个调核：前者为降升调，后者为降调。 如果降升调的调核位置在单词sold前面: Those who ((sold quickly made a (profit. 意思是：只要出售了便能迅速取得利润。 若降升调调核的位置落在单词sold后面: Those who sold ((quickly made a (profit. 意思则为：销售得快才能获取利润。 此外，语调的语法功能还表现在可以将一个陈述句变成疑问句，例如： They 're going to have a (picnic. 如果用升调说出来，句子就成了问句: They're going to have a (picnic? 用升调说出这一句子时,含义可能有两个：一是作为普通的一般疑问句（多见于非正规的使用场合）二是作为重复问句，用于以下场合： -- They 're going to have a (picnic. -- They're going to have a (picnic? But, it's raining outside. 另外，我们知道反意疑问句既可用降调亦可用升调，只是含义有所不同： They're coming to(morrow, (aren't they? (说话人的把握较大，通常用于需要证实的时候) They're coming to(morrow, (aren't they? (说话人把握不大，通常用于需要了解情况的时候) 三、语段功能 语段功能最常见的作用是使用语调引起听者对重要信息的注意力。语调的其中一个功能是它的“强调功能”, 语段功能则是根据上下文的信息分布决定的：通常说来，在上下文中如果某个单词出现是在预料之中的话，该词的信息含量就是比较低的；信息含量越高的单词，获得调核的可能性就越高。例如: I’ve got to take the (dog for a walk. I’ve got to take the dog to the (vet. a)句中的调核在dog而b)句的调核位于vet, 在这里，调核的选择不是依据“强调”, 而是根据信息含量。vet 一词的信息量明显高于walk (遛狗是每天要做的事而带狗去看病则不属日常工作)。 此外，人们还注意到这样一种现象：句中的新信息多用降调；句中的已知信息多用升调。 四、表明说话者的态度的功能 这一功能是显而易见的。语调表示了说话者的好恶与态度：高兴、生气、愤怒、充满感激之情、觉得索然无味等等都可以通过语调明白无误地表达出来。 掌握以上功能可以帮助我们恰如其分地选择合适的语调表达思想，同时还可以帮助我们快速且准确无误地获取信息。