The intonation contour of non-finality revisited Implications for EFL teaching

Sophie Herment (1) , Anne Tortel

1 LPL - Laboratoire Parole et Langage

It is well documented that in English falling contours are associated with final statements and rising contours with yes-no questions and continuation. Our analyses of the speech of native speakers show that falls dominate in read speech and are widely used non-finally. This has important pedagogical implications for EFL teaching. To help French learners avoid pronouncing too many rises, a visualisation technique is promoted to show the difference between the French and English intonation systems. We also show how relevant a map task can be for the practising and learning of intonation contours. Hopefully this chapter will provide learners with clues to gain greater competence as listeners and speakers, and teachers with tools useful and adaptable in the language class.

Mots clés: British English intonation; non-finality contours; EFL teaching; read speech; L2 prosody learning; British English intonation

Domaines: Linguistique

Sophie Herment, Anne Tortel. The intonation contour of non-finality revisited Implications for EFL teaching. Kirkova-Naskova, A.; Henderson, A.; Fouz-González, J. English pronunciation instruction: Research-based insights, John Benjamins Publishing, pp.176 - 195, 2021, Applied linguistics series, ⟨10.1075/aals.19.08her⟩. ⟨hal-03418097⟩