Module 3 (3 of 3)

TASK 1
ACTION RESEARCH
Find ONE intonation exercise/activity in a course book. Complete the
exercise yourself.
Use the exercise with your students. Reflect upon its usefulness and
how the exercise might be improved. Include a photocopy of the
exercise/activity in your submission. Which function of intonation
does it focus on?

This activity teaches the difference in Wh-questions and Yes-No

questions. This lesson proves to be very effective letting students get
acquainted with the intonation pattern of interrogative sentences. I modified

the lesson by letting my students give 2 examples of WH questions and YesNo questions. I let them take it in turns asking each other the questions they
were able to come up with and I also taught them how to intonation works in
statements.
For instance:

TASK 2
Design your own original activity for teaching intonation, or adapt
one from a course book, Teach it. Write a brief post teaching
reflection to indicate to what extent it was useful, and where it
would benefit from further refinement.
Submit an account of your activity, samples of materials and
learning outcomes, and a short reflection which should be linked to
your course reading.

Lesson Flow:
Allow the students to give an example sentence showing the four instances
that intonation would play an important part in. Let the students guess the
meaning behind each sentence (whether it shows new information, opinion,
contrast or emphasis to negative statements) as they takeit in turns giving
their sentences in class.

Post Teaching Reflection:

The students had an interesting time guessing the meaning behind
their classmates constructed sample sentences. This actually made the
students understand that thereare various ways of saying something. In

addition, they were able to be aware of the significance of stressing words

most especially in negative statements.

TASK 3
Reflect upon problems you have encountered in teaching (or
modelling!) intonation. Give specific examples. In the light of these,
outline both short-term and long-term strategies to implement as
part of your continuing professional development (CPD).
In teaching English to ESL students, the teaching of pronunciation and
intonation is demanding most especially because of grammar and
vocabulary. It is not easy for students to be spontaneous during classes for
they are not so accustomed with these two facets. However, for advanced
students, owing to the fact that they already have enough knowledge in
pronunciation, it becomes more factible and achievable. As for me, very
practical ways of teaching pronunciation for short-term students would be
drills that focus on enhancing intonation such as determining the difference
of declarative sentences and interrogative sentence intonation. On the other
hand, for long-term students, I reckon that there is a need for the teacher to
integrate grammar and vocabulary drills with intonation.

TASK 4
In what ways are foreign-language teachers who lack appropriate
and practical training in phonetics and phonology disadvantaged?
Teachers of foreign languages are disadvantaged when it comes to
practical training in phonetics and phonology. First and foremost, they need
to be equipped with basic terminology that deals precisely with
pronunciation. Additionally, they need to learn the phonemic alphabet, which
is not really simple for the untrained teacher. One has to read and train
intensely to learn to facilitate the improvement of ones students. To a welltrained teacher however, it doesnt matter how much time he has in order to
assist and assess his students improvement in pronunciation. He can exactly
locate the students weaknesses. On the other hand, time will actually be an
a hindrance to a teacher who still is experiencing difficulty in teaching

phonetics and phonology due to lack of proper training as he tries to solve

students problems. The question that basically needs to be addressed is
where to begin with and the amount of concentration that should be focused
on to a certain task.
Certainly, the students mother language influences most in speaking
or enunciating sounds. A legitimate foreign-language teacher must know
how to deal with this quandary such as which particular speech organs are
necessary to accurately create the appropriate sounds. If the teacher has
insufficient knowlegde in these, it will undoubtedly be difficult to teach his
students. If the foreign-language teacher has been perfectly trained in
phonology and phonetics, then the teacher will be able to teach his students
how to produce these sounds perfectly as well.
Furthermore, the foreign-language teacher who has had proper training
in phonology and phonetics will be able to utilize lessons aimed at students
improvement on accurate stressing and intonation. In contrast, the foreignlanguage teacher who has not undergone appropriate training will definitely
be struggling and may likely settle on less complicated lessons that only
show minute details in differences in stress and pronunciation.