Intonation difficulties in non-native languages. Irma Rusadze

3. Commonly occurring problems in non-native intonation.
In linguistics, intonation is the variation of pitch when speaking. Intonation is the
main element of linguistic prosody. Poor intonation can cause misunderstanding and even produce an unfavorable impression of a person. The most common mistakes of intonation are no rising pitch and the use of the wrong pitch. Students often have more trouble imitating the rising than the falling intonation and they often don’t use the right pitch to convey feelings. 
The following make teaching intonation not to be stressful:

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  Make the rising pitch as high as you can, and the flat intonation sound monotone. Make sure your face also shows the right feeling.
  
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  Go over patterns, such as:
  
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  Yes/No questions have the rising pitch towards the end.
  
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  Questions that begin with wh-words have a falling intonation.
  
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  Statements have a falling intonation.
  
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  Question tags may have either depending on the intention of the speaker. Questions tags that are comments or observations have a falling intonation while questions tags used to check information or express uncertainty have a rising intonation.
  
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  Use rising intonation to express surprise.
  
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  Use falling intonation to express sarcasm or disbelief.
  

Thus, in linguistics intonation is the variation of pitch when speaking. Intonation and stress are two main elements of linguistic prosody. Intonation is the “music” of a language, and is perhaps the most important element of a good accent. Intonation – the rise and fall of pitch in our voice – plays a crucial role in how we express meaning.

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