monotone for a few minutes and then say the sentences normally, so students will notice your different pattern of speaking. Most importantly they will understand the importance of intonation and the difficulties of listening and understanding a speakers meaning or mood when there is a lack of intonation. I will encourage them to practice the sentences with correct intonation by first dividing my students into two teams. Each team will take turns sending one student to the front of the class where they will tell me what emotion they want to convey. Then that student will choose one sentence from above and use inflection and intonation to convey that emotion. Afterwards, the student’s team will try to guess the emotion and choose a falling or rising tone. Then team two does the same thing, but with a new emotion and a different sentence. Another effective technique is to use a musical instrument that gives off different pitches like a kazoo. First, say the sentence while stressing just one word. Then play the sentence on yourkazoousingnormal English pitch andintonation. You can also put the stress on different words allowing your students to hear the difference when different words in the sentence are being stressed. Some students learn better by doing,so bringing extra kazoo’s or allowing your students to use the instrument themselves topractice can also be beneficial.
