Aka (2019) conducted an year-long large-scale study demonstrating that Japanese high school students who undertook extensive reading performed better than a control group who undertook grammatical instruction. Those showing the greatest gains were those of lower and intermediate proficiency. The students' achievement was measured in terms of…

Discusses the theoretical foundations of discourse analysis and intonation and emphasizes that intonation has received little attention in the communicative competence or proficiency movements, despite the fact that intonation is a powerful tool for negotiating meaning, managing interaction, and achieving discourse coherence. (CB)

Discusses why English pronunciation and intonation have been neglected in Hong Kong English-as-a-Second-Language lessons, why it is essential to teach English phonetic symbols, and what remedial measures should be taken to implement this neglected component of teaching ESL. (Author/VWL)

In lieu of language lab attendance, second-year language students had the option of attending a drama lab. This program has met with great success. The objective of the lab is to improve skills in pronunciation, intonation, and stress patterns. Also, an environment is created in which the student feels at home with the target language. (PJM)

Presents an approach to teaching pronunciation to Chinese students of English that has been successful in improving students' pronunciation and intonation, as well as their basic skills in English. The approach compares Chinese and English sound systems, advocates perception before production, and emphasizes teaching in a meaningful and…

Discusses the use of focus, or intonational prominence, to create meaning for learners of English. Presents an alternative approach to predicting focus that appeals to functional and meaning regularities that do not depend on extensive written input and are more easily adaptable to normal conversation. (Author/VWL)

The "theme-rheme" division leads to certain problems for Germans learning English--e.g., the greater importance of intonation in English, or the freer word-order of German. Various types of errors are discussed (systemic, context, and rule); also pedagogical treatment of "theme-rheme," including precise definition of teaching goals, and…

The inability to focus on the rhythmic pattern as a whole is one of the main deficiencies in the teaching of English rhythm, and it is partly responsible for syllabic rhythm in the speech of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). A technique is proposed that isolates the segmental phones and sequences so that EFL learners recognize them.…

Describes activities that have been used to teach pronunciation to English-as-a-Second/Foreign Language students<-song and video<-and provides a template that can be adapted and revised for different populations and settings. Shows one way of using song recordings and short video segments from popular television programs to practice intonation of…

Different types of stress, rhythm, and intonation used by Nigerian speakers of English are analyzed, and lexical differences are discussed. Problems with vowels, consonants, and syllable structure are also covered. (SW)

This article discusses the importance of the teaching of phonetics to students of English as a Second Language (ESL) and describes the place of phonetics in a course for Iraqi students of English at the University of Mosul, Iraq. (CFM)

An argument is made for stressing rhythm and intonation (the prosody of the language) when teaching pronunciation in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) courses. A review of pronunciation teaching revealed that ESL methodology was formed largely from structural linguistics and behavioral psychology. These theories produced at least two concepts…

Looks at how speech-interactive computer-assisted language learning can help the classroom teacher carry out recommendations from immersion-based approaches to language instruction. Emerging methods for pronunciation tutoring are demonstrated from Carnegie Mellon University's FLUENCY project, addressing not only phone articulation but also speech…

This paper examines the parallels between suggestopedia and Soviet sleep-learning for learning foreign languages. Both systems are based on the idea that the acquisition of information can occur in states below the optimal level of consciousness. Hypnopedia makes use of the period of paradoxical or light sleep that usually occurs just as one is…

Students in Taiwan are required to learn English, and schools are placing even more emphasis on listening and speaking skills. At the same time, English-language programming is widely available in Taiwan via cable television. Cable television is a useful instructional tool for teachers of English as a Second Language. This source of authentic…