Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

Teaching intonation
Specialized intonation coursebooks, like my own Active Intonation (Cook, 1968),
often present the learner with a graded set of intonation patterns for understand-
ing and for repetition, starting, say, with the difference between rising ‘
´Well?’ and
falling ‘
`Well’, and building up to more complex patterns through comprehension
activities and imitation exercises. But the teaching techniques mostly stress prac-
tice and repetition; students learn one bit at a time, rather than having systems of
their own; they repeat, they imitate, they practise, all in a very controlled way.
Some teaching techniques for intonation aim to make the student aware of the
nature of intonation rather than to improve specific aspects. Several examples can
be found in Teaching English Pronunciation (Kenworthy, 1987). For instance,
Kenworthy suggests getting two students to talk about holiday photographs 
Acquiring and teaching pronunciation
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without using any words other than ‘mmm’, ‘ah’ or ‘oh’. This makes them aware
of the crucial role of intonation without necessarily teaching them any specific
English intonation patterns – the objective underlying the communicative inton-
ation exercises in my own textbook Using Intonation (Cook, 1979). Dickerson
(1987) made detailed studies of the usefulness of giving pronunciation rules to L2
learners, concluding that they are indeed helpful.
Other teaching exercises can link specific features of intonation to communica-
tion. For example, the exercise ‘Deaf Mr Jones’ in Using Intonation (Cook, 1979)
provides students with a map of Islington and asks them to play two characters:
Mr Jones, who is deaf, and a stranger. Mr Jones decides which station he is at on
the map and asks the stranger the way. Hence Mr Jones will constantly be produc-
ing intonation patterns that check what the stranger says within a reasonably nat-
ural conversation.
Discussion topics 85