Rising and Falling Intonation
Rising and Falling Intonation
Rising and Falling Intonation
Activity 2:
Direction: Produce the sound of bird (tweet, tweet) for rising intonation and the sound of a frog (Kokak, Kokak)
for falling intonation.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Activity 3:
Direction: Choose a partner. Take turns reading the sentences. Draw arrow-Up, if the intonation is rising and
arrow down, if falling.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Have you heard the news? Mark won the Spelling Quiz Bee Contest!
Pamela:
Danny:
Pamela:
Danny:
Not only that. He will tour to Boracay for a week with his family.
Pamela:
Thats great! I will tell Mark to bring me white sand for my aquarium.
Danny:
Pamela:
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Work Out:
Read the following sentences. If the sentence has a falling intonation, write F, if it has a rising intonation, write
R.
1. There are wonderful places in the Philippines.
2. Have you met our new principal?
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I teach this lesson to my ESL students in my Oral Communications class. I usually start
my class with a pronunciation tip, such as this one, because my students find it helpful
and fun, and it loosens them up for the rest of the class session. I like to arrange the
desks so that they form a U. This arrangement is helpful for both pair and large group
work.
I start the lesson by explaining what Intonation is and why its so important:
Intonation is the rise and fall of the voice in speech and is necessary in communication.
Correct use of intonation helps to effectively convey your message, but incorrect use of
intonation may confuse the listener, causing the message to be misunderstood or
misinterpreted.
I then show how intonation is used correctly:
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Thats my house.
I like apples.
Intonation should rise at the end of questions or statements expressing doubt.
Rising intonation communicates uncertainty and doubt.
Examples:
Youre moving?
You didnt sleep last night?
Are you coming?
Is it snowing?
IN-CLASS EXERCISES (20-25 minutes)
After the instructional part of the lesson, I then give my students time in class to practice
what they just learned. I like to give them exercises to do in pairs, and also as a large
group. Ive found that variety helps keep them interested.
In pairs
For the following exercise, I would put my students in pairs and have them take turns
reading statements with falling intonation and rising intonation.
One of them would be Student A, and the other would be Student B. After reading all 4
statements, they would then switch.
As the instructor, I would walk around and listen to each pair to ensure that their
intonation was correct. If I heard them struggling or using incorrect intonation, I would
model the correct intonation for them and have them repeat after me until they got it
correct.
Student A: You ran fifty miles.
Student B: You ran fifty miles?
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As a class
For this exercise, I would divide the class in half. The right half would first ask the
questions, and the left half would answer them.
After doing all 5 questions and responses, they would then switch so that everyone has
practice using both rising and falling intonation.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
For homework, I would assign Speechpeek lesson that reinforces the lesson above and
allows me to review each individual students progress. Students love Speechpeek,
because they can practice without classroom embarrassment, and I can provide
personalized feedback to each of my students.
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I.OBJECTIVES:
-Recognize the rising and falling intonation in yes-no questions and answer.
-Ask simple questions based on dialogues.
VALUES II: Listening attentively.
SUBJECT MATTER:
-Rising and falling Intonation in Yes/No Questions.
REFERENCE:
-BEC Listening 5p 7; PELC I.A.4.1; TM English 1 pp. 14-15; Skills Development Book
in English 1 pp. 27-28.
MATERIALS:
-Computer Integration.
III.PROCEDURE:
A.
MOTIVATION
-video of JACK AND JILL song.
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Show the action of up and down. Let the pupils go up on their chair, they say up. Let
them down. Do this three (3) times.
B.
PRESENTATION:
1.
Its playtime. The children are playing. Tony covers his eyes. He counts one to ten. The
children are hidden, and tony look where they go! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Im sorry. Are you
hurt? May I help you? Said tony. No thank you, Im alright said Mimi.
3.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
4.
Ask questions about the story. Let the pupils answer the question with yes/no. Ask
them to listen to the intonation. If the voice goes up or down.
1.
2.
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3.
4.
5.
C.
GENERALIZATION
APPLICATION
Act out the dialogue following the patterns below.
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IV. EVALUATION:
-Ask your seatmate about his/her name, age, and grade.
V. ASSIGNMENT:
Answer the following question.
1.
2.
3.
I- Learning Objectives:
Focus Skill:
Recognize and use adjectives: words, phrase, and clause
modifiers.
Support Skill:
Use adjectives to enhance writing through the use of clearer
and vivid
descriptive words.
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The teacher will distribute pictures to some students. Ask all those with
related pictures to stay together.
1. Batman and Superman/other heroes
2. Mother Theresa- The Living Saint
3. Dr. Jose P. Rizal Philippine National Hero
4. Apolinario Mabini The Sublime Paralytic
5. Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay - Idol of the Masses
Ask the groups to do the following:
1.
Write words, phrases and clauses on the chart to describe what are in the pictures.
2.
Make a test of the happy sounds of the crowd, sad sounds and angry sounds.
Modifiers:
Single word
Phrase
Clause
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B.
Discussion:
> WHEN TO USE MODIFIERS
Adjectives and adverbs don't form the core of sentences as nouns and verbs do, but they
give sentences texture and precision. Without adjectives and adverbs, you wouldn't
know what color the curtains were, how the man crawled, when they came, etc. Use
adjectives and adverbs when they make a contribution to what you are saying.
For example, in He smiled sadly, you know his smile is not like the usual happy smile.
Sadly performs a function. On the other hand, in He screamed loudly, does the adverb
add anything to the verb? Is there such a thing as a soft or quiet scream? Here, loudly is
unnecessary. Avoid using adjectives and adverbs that don't tell us anything or that state
the obvious.
Now, tell the groups to come forward and stay together and write a speech about
Hero/Heroes.
1.) Work together to create a speech about your picture. Use the descriptive words you
have learned.
2.)
If you would be given a chance to talk about your ideal hero, what would you say?
Begin by saying
Who is my Hero? Or what makes a respectable person
Whether we have an actual hero or not, we all know what makes a person
admirable. There are two options for doing this speech:
1.
Pick a person in your life who is a hero* to you that you will talk
about.
or
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2.
respectable.
*It is important to note that in this speech you can describe a specific person as a
hero, role model, idol, or simply as the person you look up to. The term you choose is up
to you.
Once you decide which of the two choices you are going with, you will
want to start brainstorming for your speech.
Points to consider if doing choice one (but not mandatory or limited to): background of
the person, what they have done to achieve heroism, details of their life, description of
their personality, how they have influenced you, their accomplishments.
Points to consider if doing choice two (but not mandatory or limited to): things people
might (not) do, adjectives that would describe this kind of person, examples of stories,
people you know that might fit different qualities.
Use the outline below to help structure your speech. Do not forget to
give your forecast and your attention getter twice.
This speech will need to be at least 2 minutes long. The group will need
to have an outline made when they read their speech orally, and the leader or
representative will need to hand it in after the speech is given.
Introduction:
Attention Getter (more than a sentence):
Information (what youre going to talk about):
1.
2.
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3.
Body:
I.
a.
Support
b.
Support
c.
Support
II.
a.
Support
b.
Support
c.
Support
III.
a.
Support
b.
Support
c.
Support
Conclusion:
Pointer/Information:
Forecast (re-list points with summary):
1.
2.
3.
Attention Getter (bring us back to the opening ideas):
IV- Enrichment:
A. Prepare your groups work on a white cartolina and put this up on the
wall for appreaciation.
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B. Closure:
Rubric Presentation:
Criteria
Weighted
Points
20 pts.
20 pts.
20 pts.
20 pts.
20 pts.
TOTAL
100 pts.
V- Assignment:
In your journal, write a slogan about an ideal Hero_________________
For example:
i. Be the Hero
ii. My teacher, My Hero
iii. My parents, My Hero
The Melody of Spoken English: Intonation Patterns
Do you ever hear people say that English has a melody? Its true. Many people think that
spoken English has a musical quality. Thats probably because we use many intonation
patterns when we speak.
What do I mean by intonation patterns?
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Well, intonation refers to the pitch patterns we use when we talk. There are many
intonation patterns in American English. These patterns are important because they
convey meaning.
While some tonal languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese and Vietnamese use changes
in pitch to differentiate between words, English uses pitch or intonation patterns over
phrases and sentences to convey larger chunks of meaning.
The two most commonly used sentence intonation patterns used in spoken
English are:
a) rising-falling intonation and
b) rising intonation.
Rising-Falling Intonation
First Ill tell you about rising-falling intonation. In rising-falling intonation the
speakers pitch rises and falls on the focus word in a sentence (you learned
about focus words in last weeks lesson). The final falling pitch indicates that the speaker
is finished talking.
Rising Intonation
In rising intonation the speakers pitch rises and stays HIGH at the end of a
sentence. The rising pitch at the end of a sentence indicates that the speaker is waiting
for a reply.
Examples:
Here are some examples. Sentence A below has rising-falling intonation and Sentence B
has rising intonation.
A. She wants to buy some SOda.
B. Do you think thats a good deCISion?
SOME POINTS ON INTONATION
Intonation may be defined as "speech melody consisting of different
tones" (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1994). When we speak we go up or down on certain
stressed syllables. When, for example, we ask a yes/no- question in English (i.e. a
question that may be answered by a yes or a no), we tend to go up (= a rising tune), and
when we state a fact we tend to go down (= a falling tune). Intonation plays a very
important role in the spoken language, and different intonation patterns are used to send
out signals and express different attitudes that may "color" a message. In this course, we
are only going to have a brief look at some of the basic patterns, exemplified through a
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set of sentences. There is often a connection between sentence function and choice of
intonation pattern. By listening to and practicing the following examples you will at least
get some idea of the most fundamental tones that are used (or should be used) in the
English classroom.
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(Was it a good concert?) - The singer was good, (but the 'others were awful).
G: Rise on incomplete phrases; rise on listing, except final item.
Very often, the use of a rise signals "more to come, haven't finished yet". A fall often
indicates "end of message".
Listen and repeat:
'When she 'came home, she 'went 'straight to bed.
They 'saw lions, tigers, zebras, elephants and antelopes.
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