Teaching American Intonation

[anupumh]

Hi,

I have attached a ppt on American Intonation. This can be used by language teachers to teach American Intonation. I would request the experts to check it out and comment and suggest amendments.

Thanks

[konungursvia]

Originally Posted by anupumh

Hi,

I have attached a ppt on American Intonation. This can be used by language teachers to teach American Intonation. I would request the experts to check it out and comment and suggest amendments.

Thanks

Hmm. A good effort. But I think your material has over-done the vernacular. /sko/ for instance is not how we say "let's go." It may be what LA gang members say after a drive-by shooting, but in American business English, no.

I think the pronunciation of individual phonemes is the most important part, rather than simply intonation alone. Both are necessary.

The descending staircase of intonation is not something I see as accurate, except that is how we do lists, for example, while ordering a pizza. Sentences, however, follow an olympic podium type order, 2 1 3, if you follow, but our intonation overall is very very flat.

I think a course in American phonetics, including the actual phonemes we use, will make your students cognisant of what to listen for, and will help them improve their own accent. If you start with intonation, which is starting with the "fine tuning," then what will they think of the "coarse tuning?" They might not become aware of it.

Hope this helps a bit.

[anupumh]

Originally Posted by konungursvia

Hmm. A good effort. But I think your material has over-done the vernacular. /sko/ for instance is not how we say "let's go." It may be what LA gang members say after a drive-by shooting, but in American business English, no.

I think the pronunciation of individual phonemes is the most important part, rather than simply intonation alone. Both are necessary.

The descending staircase of intonation is not something I see as accurate, except that is how we do lists, for example, while ordering a pizza. Sentences, however, follow an olympic podium type order, 2 1 3, if you follow, but our intonation overall is very very flat.

I think a course in American phonetics, including the actual phonemes we use, will make your students cognisant of what to listen for, and will help them improve their own accent. If you start with intonation, which is starting with the "fine tuning," then what will they think of the "coarse tuning?" They might not become aware of it.

Hope this helps a bit.

Thanks for your comments...
Though the size of attachments is a bottleneck, still I ll post more content and will expect similar feedbacks