OPTIMIZING THE TEACHING OF
ENGLISH SUPRASEGMENTALS

The overall melody of the utterance is referred to in
the literature as intonation contour and the chunks or utterances for the description of intonation as intonation units, tone units, sense groups, thought groups, etc. The intonation contour is usually decomposed into smaller units in order to account for its linguistic productivity.

From the stressed words in an intonation unit, there is usually one in neutral declarative utterances that is highlighted, bearing the highest level of prominence.
This stressed word is referred to as nucleus, tonic.

In neutral declarative utterances in English, the nucleus occurs in the last content word.

He arrived with his COUSin.

Or it could be followed by one or more unaccented grammatical words.

John asked me to TALK to him.

When the last content word in English is an adverb, especially an adverb of time, the preceding content word often receives prominence instead of the adverb.

I'm going to the THEAter tomorrow

In neutral declarative utterances in English, the highest tonal peak occurs
on the last content word. In Spanish, the highest tonal peak will be the first syllable in the unit associated with a pitch accent, after which the melodic line descends gradually to the baseline.

Tonal events are not only associated with pitch direction and pitch accent but also with pitch height.

He arrived2 with his COUS3 in1

Three main features that should be emphasized in a basic model of English intonation when teaching Spanish speakers:

(a) the nucleus of the
last content word

(b) the tonal peak on the nucleus

(c) a pitch height difference on
the nucleus from a level 3 to a level 4 to differentiate neutral declarative utterances
from emphatic ones.

In English, the discourse context generally influences which stressed words in an utterance receive prominence and, as mentioned in the last section, these highlighted words co-occur with the tonal peaks in the intonation unit.

pitch and prominence can be said to have a symbiotic relationship with each
other in English and the interrelationship of these phenomena determines the intonation contour of a given utterance.

English tends to recur more to phonological focusing, whereas in
Spanish, lexical and syntactic means seem to be more common.

Intonation refers to the melody of speech, the changes in the pitch of the voice
during the articulation of an utterance.

A falling tone is one which descends from a higher to a lower pitch and a rising tone is a movement from a lower pitch to a higher one.

- I found it! (2.2) - I found it
- What? - What?
- Your watch.

The functions of intonation are
those that indicate the distinction of sentence types, that is, questions versus statements and the expressions of the speaker's attitudes

- I speak Thai.
- You speak Thai?
- Where did you learn it?

We can conclude that a basic contour system for teaching the basic features of English suprasegmentals to Spanish speakers should clearly indicate:

(a) The association of the highest tonal peak with the nucleus

(b)The association of the nucleus with a content word in unmarked declarative sentences.

(c) Significant length differences between stressed and unstressed syllables and words

(d) The possibility of shifting the nucleus over other words in
the utterance for sentence focusing.

The recognition and production of stressed vs. unstressed syllables and words may be a better starting point in the teaching of intonation, they are also difficult to teach since rhythm is superimposed on the utterance and it is difficult to find means of directing the learner's attention to the pattern as a whole.

Syllable length is an important English phonological asset that helps highlight the focussed word in the utterance. It is specially important to enhance grammatical words in marked utterances.

The basic features of rhythm have been identified as “syllable length, stressed syllables, full and reduced vowels, pause, linking and blending sounds between words, and how words are made prominent by accenting syllables and simultaneously lengthening syllables”

Syllable length has been considered the most important rhythm feature for the comprehension of non-native speakers oral production.

syllable length is perhaps the most difficult pronunciation feature to teach because of the difficulty in perceiving and concentrating on the rhythmic pattern as a chunk.

It is not easy for example to present rhythmic patterns with near equivalents in the language (minimal pairs).

This is possible with vowel and consonants

ship/sheep; cup/cap; think/sink

And even with pitch variations

He’s coming tomorrow; He’s coming tomorrow?