Increasingly, Chinese students are pursuing their studies abroad in English-speaking countries, such as the USA, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Despite the fact that they have studied English as a compulsory subject for a number of years and have passed multiple English proficiency tests, many still find it is difficult to communicate well in…

Physical aspects of listening skills are described, including speech rate, syllable tone, word-word separation vs. joining, listening for "focus," word clues per message, and intonation. (LB)

Listeners judged whether they heard a terminal fall, rise, or a flat final intonation contour in 9 sentences produced by 8 deaf children, aged 8-18. The more slowly the contour fell, the more likely listeners were to perceive the contour as flat, regardless of the amount by which it fell. (Author/JDD)

A study of the order of acquisition and fossilization of several French forms by anglophone students focused on the intonative aspect of interlanguage and the transfer of learning from one language to another. (MSE)

Discusses the use of prerecorded material as an aid to learning stress-rhythm and intonation. Central to this method is that learning prosodic features is largely auto-instructional. Once study materials have been carefully chosen and assembled, and a pace of self-instruction established, students' resources assume control. (Author/PJM)

Current popular texts are reviewed to suggest which are most useful in teaching word order in introductory Russian. Recommendations are also made about how and when to introduce word order, intonation, and sentence stress within the course. (MSE)

Ten infants aged 8-12 months were studied to determine whether they would spontaneously imitate the average fundamental frequency or fundamental frequency contour of their speaking partners. Acoustic analyses failed to reveal any tendency by the infants to adjust vocal pitch, amplitude, or duration in home or laboratory settings. (Author/JDD)

In lieu of language lab attendance, second-year language students had the option of attending a drama lab. This program has met with great success. The objective of the lab is to improve skills in pronunciation, intonation, and stress patterns. Also, an environment is created in which the student feels at home with the target language. (PJM)

Presenting an account of the general workings and functions of English intonation and accentuation, the discussion notes the prominent role of accent placement. An attempted overall framework for interpreting intonation and accent in English takes account of the discourse dimension to render the subject accessible to both teacher and learner.…

Discusses the use of imagination as a tool to improve students' musicianship. Suggests that imagery can be used to teach intonation, tone color, sight-reading, and expression. Describes active listening in which the students must use musical memory and participate in musical expression to produce a certain sound that may be difficult to describe.…

Considers some ways in which choral directors can help choristers improve intonation. Suggests music exercises for vertical and horizontal intonation and unified vowel formation. Also discusses physical factors, including tension, poor posture, and poor breath management, that influence how well a chorus stays in tune. Outlines relaxation and…

Provides a set of priorities and learning activities for a short-term English as a second language pronunciation course. These include: stress/unstress, major sentence stress, intonation, and linking and pausing. (CB)

A discussion of techniques for teachers to best use functional materials focuses on providing practice in recognizing and manipulating stress and intonation variations to produce attitudinally appropriate utterances. Lesson planning ideas for beginner and intermediate levels are included. (MSE)

Describes Audio-Lectal Practice, a technique which offers systematic and controlled practice in connected discourse while emphasizing oral discourse features of rhythm, tempo, pausing, and suprasegmental patterns. Students listen to, read along with, and imitate recorded texts concurrently. Such practice facilitates oral fluency in the target…

Different types of stress, rhythm, and intonation used by Nigerian speakers of English are analyzed, and lexical differences are discussed. Problems with vowels, consonants, and syllable structure are also covered. (SW)