Increasingly, Chinese students are pursuing their studies abroad in English-speaking countries, such as the USA, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Despite the fact that they have studied English as a compulsory subject for a number of years and have passed multiple English proficiency tests, many still find it is difficult to communicate well in…

Discusses the use of prerecorded material as an aid to learning stress-rhythm and intonation. Central to this method is that learning prosodic features is largely auto-instructional. Once study materials have been carefully chosen and assembled, and a pace of self-instruction established, students' resources assume control. (Author/PJM)

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)

Provides a set of priorities and learning activities for a short-term English as a second language pronunciation course. These include: stress/unstress, major sentence stress, intonation, and linking and pausing. (CB)

Describes Audio-Lectal Practice, a technique which offers systematic and controlled practice in connected discourse while emphasizing oral discourse features of rhythm, tempo, pausing, and suprasegmental patterns. Students listen to, read along with, and imitate recorded texts concurrently. Such practice facilitates oral fluency in the target…

The development, testing, and classroom use of an instructional module for teaching French intonation patterns to beginning students are described. The module begins with the "accent tonique," the simplest of French intonation patterns, which the student must learn to detect and imitate in progressively more difficult combinations before going on…

This collection of essays on pronunciation theory and practice as it relates to second language instruction includes: "Pronunciation Assessment in the ESL/EFL Curriculum" (Janet Goodwin, Donna Brinton, Marianne Celce-Murcia); "Empowering Students with Predictive Skills" (Wayne B. Dickerson); "Intonation: A Navigation Guide for the Listener" (Judy…

A study to assess the feasibility of the use of low frequencies for teaching foreign language to the hearing impaired is described. The subjects were unimpaired Japanese students, aged 18 and 19, in beginning French language study. Recorded sentences translated into English, French, and Mandarin Chinese were combined in various ways and presented…

The sound system of English is described in all its complexity, from the relationship between spelling and pronunciation to the rules of connected speech, focusing on the methods and rationale of teaching pronunciation of English, particularly to English as a second language learners. (CB)