English intonation: what and how to teach to primary school pre-service teachers

English intonation: what and how to teach to primary school pre-service teachers

This study proposes a teachable and learnable procedure for the teaching English intonation to primary school pre-service teachers. Primary school teachers need to communicate in English in class to teach English and be a model to students. Teachers should have an intelligible and good pronunciation to conduct their English classes following the TEE guideline of MOE and demands of parents and students. In most English pronunciation classes, intonation has been neglected or avoided for various reasons. The procedure in this paper includes three main intonation features in order: thought groups, focus words, and intonation patterns. First, the concept and function of thought groups are provided for learners to realize the scope of English intonation. Second, the focus word is identified through the unmarked and marked meaning of the utterances. Last, three main intonation patterns selected based on the teachability and learnability are presented in relation to the grammatical structures as a general guideline. It should be emphasized that the general guideline can be overridden by speaker's intended meaning and attitudes. At this stage the use of wider voice range in English intonation is introduced and practiced to help learners to recognize the difference and to use their voice range appropriately. Through the three-step approach to English intonation, primary school pre-service teachers can increase their intelligibility of pronunciation making them use more comprehensible English in the classroom. The experimental study implementing this approach should be followed to verify the procedure.