|
|
▲
Do you want to earn more money as an
English teacher? How to Teach TOEFL, TOEIC, and IELTS can show you
how. |
|
Additional Links To
TEFL Resource, Training
▼
and Jobs Sites ▼
|
An English
language site for students and teachers in the
hotel industry.
The site contains lessons plans which
cover specific functions
that hotel staff are likely to encounter on a daily basis.
Yadayada English
An English conversation
site
An
English conversation language site for students and teachers
focusing on English expressions used for various functions and
situations
TEFL Daddy
Frank and
friendly advice written
by an
experienced EFL teacher & former Peace Corps Volunteer:
working overseas since 1989
TEFL Boot
Camp
Free Online
TEFL Training
What you
need to know to start
Teaching
English Overseas
TEFl Temp
TEFL Temp is your
short-term EFL jobs directory: Short-term English
Teaching Jobs around the World
Teach
English Phuket
Information about
teaching English and living in Phuket- with Phuket, Thailand, and
world wide job listings
A site
listing hundreds
of EFL
related sites including job listings, teacher resources
and lesson plans, TESOL Training, and more
|
|
Intonation
Information Focus
Content words (see section on Rhythm) in spoken sentences are the words that
are most important, the words that are stressed. Some sentences may have three,
four, five or more content words that are stressed. However, not all the content
words have the same stress.
There is always one word that has the most stress
and emphasis in the sentence. This word is sometimes called the information
focus word.
The information focus word will have different pitch (highness or lowness of
a sound) and intonation (the rise and fall of pitch when speaking) than the
other words in the sentence. English speakers use intonation and pitch to focus
the listeners attention on what is important in the message. (Other languages
use word order to show this emphasis).
On the information focus word, the
intonation will usually rise on that word (or stressed syllable- if more than
one syllable) and then go back down. The pitch may also remain up, depending on
the sentence type. Short sentences, clauses, and phrases usually only have one
information focus word because having more than one is confusing to the
listener. The information focus word is usually the last word or near the end of the
sentence, but not always.
Listen to the following sentences and note the rising pitch of the
information focus word. The content words are in bold, the information focus
word is in bold with an over-line).
|
What did you
eat? |
play |
I ate an apple pie.
|
play |
|
What's the
matter with
you? |
play |
I'm upset because I just
lost
my
job.
|
play |
|
When are you
coming over tonight? |
play |
I'll be there at 7:00.
|
play |
|
Would you like to go to the
movies with me?
|
play |
Sure, when?
|
play |
|
Why is the
chicken burnt? |
play |
Because I had the oven
set too
high.
|
play |
Other
Intonation Pages
Page 2
Intonation Patterns
Page 3 New
information and Special meaning
Page 4 Choice
and Tag Questions
Page 5 Talking
to/about people and Lists
|
|
