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In:English Pronunciation Instruction: Research-based insights
Edited by Anastazija Kirkova-Naskova, Alice Henderson and Jonás Fouz-González
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 19] 2021
► pp. 175–196

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Chapter 8
The intonation contour of non-finality revisited

Implications for EFL teaching

 | Aix Marseille University, CNRS, LPL, France
 | Aix Marseille University, CNRS, LPL, France
Published online: 13 October 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.19.08her
Abstract
It is well documented that in English falling contours are associated with final statements and rising contours with yes-no questions and continuation. Our analyses of the speech of native speakers show that falls dominate in read speech and are widely used non-finally. This has important pedagogical implications for EFL teaching. To help French learners avoid pronouncing too many rises, a visualisation technique is promoted to show the difference between the French and English intonation systems. We also show how relevant a map task can be for the practising and learning of intonation contours. Hopefully this chapter will provide learners with clues to gain greater competence as listeners and speakers, and teachers with tools useful and adaptable in the language class.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Theoretical framework and previous research
    • The functions of intonation contours
    • Rising contours and speaking styles
    • Hypothesis and possible pedagogical implications
  • Corpus and method
    • Corpus
    • Method
  • Results and discussion
    • Tonal distribution in the corpus
    • Results per speaker
  • Pedagogical implications
    • The visualisation of prosody
    • The map task as a support for authentic oral production
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
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