| Hello Jonathan and colleagues, My name is David and I write from Madrid (Spain). I do not teach English, but Spanish (and French) as FL. I have studied English as a FL and I can tell you by far that it is, for now, the worst language for this kind of matters. Of course I can't agree with you in most of your points. If you are patien enough with my English, I will try to develop my thinking trying to answer to every 'question'. 1. There's no agreement about what the significant features of intonation are, or what purposes they serve. I can't be sure about that, as I am only a becomming-phonetician, but I can tell you that after have being shown the studies about English, Catalan and Spanish TOBI, my opinion is that intonation is essencial in most cases. What about all the possibilities you have in English with question tags, for exemple? I discovered some really interesting things about my own language that I had not realised before! The problem is that intonation is really difficult of grasping as it touches both Phonology and Phonetics... it can touch segments (phonemes) but at the same time it is much more than that. In my culture we have a lot of gestures that go with intonation, we can joke with it more than with changing sounds. .. 2. Intonation is unpredictable. I agree with you, but... is it predictible the thing the other person in conversation is going to say? Is language really 'predictible'? 3. Intonation is subject to massive variation in different varieties of English. As in every language in the world. In the case of English, RP, American Pronunciation and other models are the same? Does it mean that teachers should not teach pronunciation and correct students because of variation? Why should it be different for intonation? It is clear that teacher should teach its own variety first; however, through aural documents we can expose students to most of language varieties: mass media (more in the case of English) will help us to to that. I think we need to help to our students to have their own pronunciation and intonation personality and give them passive receptive skills with other 'accents'... As we do in our native language by the way... My 'native language' is castillian Spanish but I can understand and sometimes even speak Southern, Mexican, Colombian Spanish...; my French is southern French, but I can understand Nothern, Belgian, Swiss and Québecois French... So why should not our student being able to do the same as they do in their own language(s) with their new language? 4. Learners will pick it up, eventually, if they have enough exposure to English. Well. As we say in my Spanish variety: "you have discovered America!"... However, if everyone of us would say the same... we would lose our jobs! As nobody would go to language classes as 'language is learnt when you have enough exposure. 5. It doesn't really matter, and trying to teach it is a waste of time. I think that our role as teachers is giving our students the most tools as possible so that they can reach enough proficiency to do whatever they want or need. However, I would say that teaching pronunciation and intonation is the most difficult and frustrating task for teacher; the same for the student to learn. The problem is that you can have a very good grammar and vocabulary, but it is pronunciation and intonation the first thing people see (or hear) and it is that which is going to class you as a proficient foreign or not). Unfortunatelly I can tell you by my own experience. I can express myself in four languages without a lot of problems, but in England I suffered the most humilliating experiences because of my pronunciation and intonation. People is really cooperative when you make mistakes in grammar or vocabulary but not with pronunciation. So, how can we let our students without some preparation for that? And you speakabout 'enough exposure' to English but... variation in intonation, in the case of English, is so big that the big question rises again: which variety shoud you teach? And How? As a native of Spanish (and the same occurs to you as native teachers of English) we can't know everything about variation in our own language. If we can't, how about teachers who are not native speakers? If you thing about that, native language of teachers are the minority... 6. Most people, including most teachers, can't recognise intonation patterns - they can't even distinguish between a fall and a rise. I think that our duty is to try to study and learn the most we can about the language we teach and about our students' languages, so that we can help them to become better learners and better users of the language(s) they learn.That does not mean to learn every language in the world, of course. The problem in here is a really commmon one. Teacher training is not always (good) enough. Experience help a lot, but we need to retrain again and again. I thing most attention is still given to written language, to correctness in structure. The communicative approache was telling all the time: "if you understand and you are understood, it is ok". However, why pronunciation/entonation is not given more attention when it is our first linguistic ID as foreing speakers? Should I remind you that our students are in a world in which they are going to need to communicate? We are not anymore in XVIII century, when people learned languages only to write and read... 7. Trying to teach intonation only confuses learners and does more harm than good. So, teaching intonation will only help our students to become more proficient in their new language, as they are going to be able to interact better in the language and with the language. Well, thanks God I finish here. Once again sorry for my English. Now it is up to you. I think we will have a really good discussion in here. Best wishes from Madrid, David. ______________________________________________ Diverses són les parles i diversos els homes, i convindran molts noms a un sol amor (La pell de brau, Salvador Espriu). --- El jue, 28/5/09, Jonathan Marks <jonathanmarks@...> escribió:
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