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Ngữ điệu hay cách lên xuống giọng đóng vai trò quan trọng trong phát âm tiếng Anh bởi nó chuyển tải ý nghĩa của lời nói theo nhiều cách. Trong phần này chúng ta cũng sẽ tìm hiểu nguyên nhân vì sao sử dụng đúng cách ngữ điệu, trọng âm và các dạng nhấn là yếu tố thiết yếu cho việc nói tiếng Anh tự nhiên và lưu loát.

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1) Clip 1: Intonation 

2) Clip 2: Vocabulary Exercise

3) Printable Documents

a) Notes for Study

IELTS Tip

Be aware of and listen out for English stress and rhythm patterns. Practise these patterns by imitating the speech of native speakers.

In the IELTS interview remember to speak with a clear and strong voice. Use a rising tone when asking for clarification and a falling tone when making a statement.

INTONATION

Intonation is a feature of pronunciation, one of the criteria by which your Speaking is assessed. Other features which define this criterion include the following.

Speaking English naturally and fluently means speaking with English stress and rhythm patterns. It is sentence stress that actually gives the English language its rhythm. Try saying this sentence aloud.

I really admire my university professor.

How many stresses are there in the sentence?

There are four strong stresses or beats.

Now, tap out the beats with your hands. The beat occurs on the strong stresses or syllables.

The stressed syllables occur at regular intervals while the unstressed ones in between are said more quickly to keep the rhythm pattern of English.

Rhythm and sentence stress

English is a stress-timed language. This means that the timing between stressed syllables in a spoken sentence comes at regular intervals regardless of the number of syllables that may occur between the stressed ones. There may be one, two or three syllables between the stressed ones as in the example above.

Stressed syllables occur on certain words within a spoken sentence. There are two types of word in sentences:

• content or information words

• function or grammar words

Content words are the important words in the sentence. They carry the meaning or sense and are stressed.

Function words are the smaller words and give the sentence its structure and make it grammatically correct.

The following table shows the types and examples of content and function words.

Rhythm patterns of a sentence are created using stressed and unstressed syllables. The stressed syllables carry the strong beat. They are pronounced longer and somewhat louder. Unstressed syllables are weak and pronounced using a short vowel /i/ or schwa /ә/.

Here are some examples of rhythm patterns. A phonetic transcription is given of the unstressed syllables and/or words.

1. He’s a tall man with dark hair.

2. You promised to help me with my pronunciation.

3. The city is full of great restaurants and pubs.

 4. My goal in life is to run my own business in five years’ time.

 5. She’s the funniest person I’ve ever met.

Communicating different meaning

It is important to know that placing a stronger emphasis on a word in an utterance can also affect its meaning. In the single utterance below a different word is stressed changing the meaning in each.

Practising using rhythm and the stress patterns of English will help to improve not only your speaking but listening skills as well. Because English is a stressed-timed language not every word will be heard loudly and clearly. Being aware of this can help overcome some difficulties when listening. Be careful also that particular meaning may be conveyed when more emphasis is placed on a word.

b) Learning Activities

ACTIVITY 1

Practise the rhythm patterns of these utterances.

1. I started learning English three years ago.

 2. The match was really exciting.

 3. I prefer living in the countryside because the air is fresher.

 4. My brothers are quite different from each other.

 5. I’m not sure I agree with that.

 6. The government should invest more money in education.

 7. Hopefully, there’ll be a change in smoking habits.

 8. I’ll probably go to Europe for my holidays.

 9. I believe a good teacher must enjoy teaching.

 10. People need to be more aware of their health.

ACTIVITY 2

Match the utterance on the left with the correct rhythm pattern on the right. The example below shows how.

ANSWERS ACTIVITY 2

c) Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Study English, IELTS Preparation. I'm Margot Politis.

Intonation is a feature of pronunciation, one of the assessment criteria in the IELTS Speaking Test. You will need to use appropriate intonation in the test. You also need to understand the intonation used by the interviewer.

Intonation is important in spoken English because it conveys meaning in many ways. Changing the pitch in your voice - making it higher or lower - allows you to show surprise "Oh, really!" or boredom "Oh, really".

Let's listen to some intonation patterns used for specific functions.

First there's the high or rising tone, used for asking a yes/no question:

Do you find English difficult?

Are you listening?

Is this clear?

The rising tone is also used for showing expectation as you can hear when this furniture maker talks about seeing the inside of some rare timber:

And I go down and it is really a fascinating day when I actually see a log being put on the head rig and that first cut and I can't wait to have a look at that grain that's actually opened up after a tree has been growing for 300 or 400 years.

And it's used for showing interest and excitement.

That's awesome. Absolutely awesome.

A low or falling tone is used for making a statement as does this art gallery director:

The Art Gallery of South Australia commenced the joint program in art history with the University of Adelaide in 2001.

Questions with who, what, when, why and how also use this low or falling tone:

Who are you looking for?

What is that you're reading?

Where is the art gallery?

Why are you learning English?

How are you?

Listen to the rising and falling tones used by the woman in the next clip to explain the properties of granular materials:

Take vacuum packed coffee for example. This is very much solid like behaviour because it's stiff, stiff as a brick and at the same time it's strong enough to hold your weight. And yet, if we open the pack, I can pour it just like I would pour water …

When listing things a rise-falling tone is used:

Granular materials constitute a wide range of everyday common materials, such as powders through to natural grains such as nuts, rice, wheat grains and mineral resources.

A level tone or a low rising tone can also be used for listing:

We have 3 studio cabins, 2 two bedroom cabins, 2 tepees and a campground.

Finally, a fall-rising tone expresses uncertainty:

Well, I'm not sure what all this means

Now we'll look at some sample IELTS interviews. Listen carefully for the intonation patterns.

Where else have you travelled?

I've travelled to other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore and of course I've travelled around in my own country.

Where would you most like to go?

I would like very much to go to Europe, for example UK, Spain or Netherlands, but I also want to go to Dubai and India.

The two questions the interviewer asks are 'wh-' type questions starting with 'where'.

Did you notice that the pitch of his voice fell at the end of both questions? Like this:

Where else have you travelled?

Where would you most like to go?

In the answer, notice how the countries are listed using a level tone that then falls for the last item in the list 'in my own country'.

I've travelled to other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore and of course I've travelled around in my own country.

In response to the second question her voice rises to show expectation. She then lists the countries with her voice pitch rising until she ends with a level voice for Dubai. She uses a rising intonation to express the afterthought India. Listen:

I would like very much to go to Europe, for example UK, Spain or Netherlands, but I also want to go to Dubai and India.

Now listen for whether the voices rise and fall in this part of the test:

Could you live without your favourite thing?

No, I cannot live without my mobile phone. I have to bring it everywhere because I will feel lost if I don't have it near me.

Do people have too many possessions?

Yes, I think they do. They tend to buy a lot of things that they don't really need at that time.

The two questions the interviewer asks are yes/no type questions. Rising intonation patterns are used for these questions. Did you notice the pitch of his voice rise at the end of the questions? Like this:

Could you live without your favourite thing?

Do people have too many possessions?

In response to the first question, the answer is definite and this certainty is expressed with a flat or level tone:

No, I cannot live without my mobile phone.

But in response to the second question about whether people have too many possessions, she isn't quite sure and responds with:

Yes, I think they do.

She uses a fall-rising tone appropriately to indicate that she doesn't really know or is unsure.

Yes, I think they do.

You are allowed to ask the interviewer what something means in the discussion part or Part 3 of the Speaking Test. It's called asking for clarification. Let's say you didn't know what was meant by 'valued possessions'. You could say:

What do you mean by 'valued possessions'?

This is a 'wh' question, so it needs a falling tone. Listen again:

What do you mean by 'valued possessions'?

A different intonation is required for the next way of asking for clarification:

Do you mean important things that I own?

It's a yes/no question with a rising tone. Listen:

Do you mean important things that I own?

The final example is a statement, so a falling tone is used:

Sorry, I'm not quire sure what you mean by 'valued possessions'.

So a falling tone is used for 'wh-' and 'how' questions:

Who are you looking for?

What is that you're reading?

Where is the art gallery?

Why are you learning English?

How are you?

But a rising tone is used for yes/no questions:

Do you find English difficult?

Are you listening?

Is this clear?

That's all for now. To find more information about the intonation patterns in English, visit our Study English website. The address is: australianetwork.com/studyenglish.

Good Luck with your studies. Bye for now.

(Nguồn UTS: Insearch and Australia Network)

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