Pronunciation is something that all second language learners struggle with.  There are many elements that factor into clear pronunciation all the way from individual phonemes, morphemes that need to be pronounced clearly to sentence level prosodics such as word stress and proper intonation that is context dependant.

At the sentence level, one such example is the difference in sentence level pronunciation of English questions that ask for a simple yes/no answer compared to questions that are asking for detailed answers (so called wh questions).

• With yes/no questions, the speaker's intonation usually rises at the end of the sentence.
• With 'WH' style questions, the intonation rises and drops just before the end of the sentence.

There is a very useful piece of software called PRAAT that can help you as a teacher provide very good audio samples and practice for your students that includes visualization of the sounds so they can see the difference between rising and rise/fall intonation in questions.

PRAAT is free software that is available for both Apple and Windows based PCs.  It was developed for high-end pronunciation analysis by linguists, however it also works quite well as a simple pronunciation practice tool.   I've written another post that introduces how you can use PRAAT - pronunciation software for language learning.

All you need to do is spend a couple of minutes making samples, and then let the students loose on them.  I'll include a list of relevant sentences at the end of the post that you can use to get started.  Having just done this exact activity with one of my classes, here are a couple of things I'd suggest you do to make the whole pronunciation lesson go more smoothly.

• Prep and review the concepts in class before working with the software
• show the sentences on the board with lines indicating the rising or rise/fall intonation
• have a couple of audio samples they can listen to in class 1st
• Give students copies of all the sentences they will be working on - it is a good idea to list the sentences in rising and rise/fall groups
• In the Lab (or at the computer), take time to show the students the way the two types of sentences LOOK different at the end where the rising or rise/fall intonation is heard
• encourage them to work on one group of sounds 1st, and then switch to the other

Finally, and THIS IS IMPORTANT, remind them that they will NEVER be able to match the samples exactly.  No two people have the same pronunciation, the structure of the sounds are similar, but never identical.

The goal is to have their voice roughly mirror the intensity and voice wave of the samples.  E.G. when intensity rises in the sample, their recording should have rising intensity, when the sound wave is dense, their voice wave should be dense.  This is really important because there are always students who seem to go mental trying to match the sample exactly and in so doing lose sight of their real goal - which is to make their voice sound more natural in a foreign language. 

When students seem to resist this, I always ask them to imagine how truly horrible the world would be if they all ended up sounding like me!  They seem to understand that

Once you've got them all lined up and they have an idea about what they are trying to do, just let them get to work on their pronunciation.  It will be frustrating for them at first, but once they start to see where their voice differs from the samples, they will really appreciate working with PRAAT.

Cheers,

Eric

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Sample Sentences for practicing intonation in English questions

Yes/No Questions

Usually Yes/No questions have a rising intonation at the end of the sentence. This means that the speaker’s voice gets just a little higher as they finish the sentence. Below are some example sentences to practice.

1. Are you ready to go?
2. Could you please repeat that?
3. Is it cold today?
4. Am I interrupting?
5. Are they cheaper in Japan?
6. Are you a girl?
7. Should we sell the fish?
8. Is it time to go?

Questions that ask for information

Usually information questions (wh questions) have a rise/fall intonation at the end of the sentence. This means that the speaker's voice goes higher for a moment and then drops lower to end the sentence.

1. What time is it?
2. What’s your name?
3. Where do you live?
4. How do you get to school?
5. When should we go?
6. Who ate the apple pie?
7. Where can I find a bank?
8. How old is Eric?
9. How did they win?

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