Learning English Pronunciation Intonation

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Learning Beyond the ClassroomBy Anna

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Learning Objectives

Today we are going to work on pronunciation

In particular we are going to focus on intonation







What is Intonation?


Intonation is variation in pitch . Improving sentence intonation is one of

the key elements in your English pronunciation.



What is Intonation?

There are four basic types of word stress that lead

to proper intonation in English. tonic stress emphatic stress contrastive stress new information stress







Tonic Stress

Tonic stress refers to the syllable in a word which receives the most stress in an intonation unit.

An intonation unit has one tonic stress. It's important to remember that a

sentence can have more than one intonation unit, and therefore have more than one tonic stress.







Tonic Stress

He's waiting He's waiting / for his friend He's waiting / for his friend / at the

station. Generally, the final tonic stress in a sentence receives the most stress. In the above example, 'station' receives the strongest stress.







Emphatic Stress

If you decide to emphasize something, you can change the stress from the principal noun to another content word such as an adjective (big, difficult, etc.), intensifier (very, extremely, etc.)

This emphasis calls attention to the extraordinary nature of what you want to emphasize.







Emphatic Stress

That was a difficult test. - Standard statement

That was a difficult test. - Emphasizes how difficult the test was

There are a number of adverbs and modifiers which tend to be used to emphasize in sentences that receive emphatic stress.







Emphatic Stress

There are a number of adverbs and modifiers which tend

to be used to emphasize in sentences that receiveemphatic stress. extremely terribly completely utterly especially




Contrastive Stress

Contrastive stress is used to point out the differencebetween one object and another.

Contrastive stress tendsto be used with determiners such as 'this, that, these and those'.




Contrastive Stress

Contrastive stress is used to point out the differencebetween one object and another.

Contrastive stress tends to be used with determiners such as 'this, that, these and those'.

I think I prefer this color. Do you want these or those curtains?




Contrastive Stress

Contrastive stress is also used to bring out a given word in a sentence

which will also slightly change the meaning.

He came to the party yesterday. (It was he, not someone else.)

He walked to the party yesterday. (He walked rather than drove.)

He came to the party yesterday. (It was a party not a meeting or something else.)

He came to the party yesterday. (It was yesterday not two weeks ago or some other time.) http://skype-englishschool.co

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New Information Stress When asked a question, the requested information is

naturallystressed more strongly. For example: Where are you from? - I come from Seattle, in the USA. What do you want to do? - I want to go bowling. When does class begin? - The class begins at nine

o'clock. Use these various types of stress to help improve your

pronunciationand understandability.




Why is this important for pronunciation?

Focusing on the "stress - timed" quality of English will help you to improve your pronunciation skills.

Students often focus on pronouncing each word correctly and therefore tend to pronounce in an unnatural manner.

By focusing on the stress timed factor in English students soon begin sounding much more "authentic.




What does this mean?

When you are speaking English the words you stress

can change the underlying meaning of a sentence.

Let's take a look at the following sentence: I don't think he should get the job. This simple sentence can have many levels of

meaning based on the word you stress.





Consider the meaning of the following sentences withthe stressed word in red. I don't think he should get the job. Meaning: Somebody else thinks he should get the job. I don't think he should get the job. Meaning: It's not true that I think he should get the job. I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: That's not really what I mean. OR I'm not sure he'll

get that job. I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: Somebody else should get that job.





I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: In my opinion it's wrong that he's going to get

that job. I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: He should have to earn (be worthy of, work

hard for) that job. I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: He should get another job. I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: Maybe he should get something else instead.




Learning Review

What did we learn today? English is a stressed language There are 4 types of intonation The way we use intonation changes the

meaning of the sentence




Education

Learning English Pronunciation Intonation