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ELT Journal Advance Access originally published online on February 19, 2009
ELT Journal 2009 63(4):342-352; doi:10.1093/elt/ccp002
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.

Teaching discourse intonation with narrative

Mike Beaken

Mike Beaken has a PhD in phonetics and has taught linguistics, phonetics, and TESOL at universities in England, Nigeria, and China. He has also published The Making of Language, on the origins of language. He is currently teaching at Sheffield Hallam University

Email: m.beaken{at}shu.ac.uk


  Abstract

Brazil’s system of discourse intonation (DI) is critically appraised, and some shortcomings are described. Modifications to DI are suggested, the most important being to recognize that tones have meanings derived from two functions: firstly to indicate the distribution of knowledge between speaker and listener—the analysis of tone in yes/no questions is crucial here; secondly to indicate the respective viewpoints of speaker and listener. With these modifications, a simple system of four basic tones can be constructed. This enables meaningful readings of simple narrative. Narrative is proposed as a register that can be used effectively to teach the basics of English intonation, with a suggested method.

Final revised version received November 2008


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