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ESSAY PART
Dear student:
Each activity in this essay test is composed by two or more tasks.
Be attentive and answer them all. Incomplete answers will not be scored.
Activity 1. Write the answers to the following tasks:
Task 1. Describe each function of intonation .
Grammatical
Attitudinal
Discourse
Accentual
STRATEGY:
1. Read the corresponding unit in both the textbook and the didactic guide.
2. Explain each intonation function; mention what it consists in.
3. Plagiarism will be graded zero.
4. Use additional sheet (s) of paper.
5. Follow the suggested format below.

The main function of intonation is to produce appropriate effects according to the

message the speaker conveys.
Grammatical:
Intonation play important roles in grammar, between them we can mention punctuation,
divide subject and predicate, defining and non-defining distinction.
Intonation work as punctuation.
Intonation divides subject and predicate in a sentence. Is necessary to empathize the
importance of separating subject and predicate. Subject need to be separate from
predicate because it requires more attention, as well as if it is long, intonation play an
important role because its use divides subject in group for a better understanding of the
sentence or clause, for example if there is a long subject, we can use one breath or
thought group for a better comprehension.
Martha is going to Miami.
Intonation is used to distinguish between defining and non-defining relative clauses,
as we know non-defining relative clauses are used to give extra information about a
person, animal or thing. Intonation makes distinction when we use a lower tone with
non-defining relative clause as in the example.
Marco, who is my roommate, is in the hospital since yesterday.
Intonation allows to make distinction between questions and exclamations. A simple
sentence or clause could be converted into question if we use other intonation by rising
or falling the tone. An affirmative or negative statement could change to an exclamation
by using other pitch.
- Dont you know that? Dont you know that!
Futhermore is necessary to introduce the use of falling intonation. Fall is used in
affirmative sentences, negative sentences, imperative sentences, wh question alternative
questions, tag questions, and in greetings.
Attitudinal:
Attitudinal function is about the relation between attitude and intonation. As we know
attitude is the manner of acting, thinking or feeling that shows ours disposition. When
we talk about disposition we refers to the way we express emotions and how these
emotions are percept by other people. These system of express and percept emotions is
named attitudinal function.

The way we express attitude is composed by prosodic elements and paralinguistics,

prosodic such as voice quality, loudness, speed of speech, and paralinguistics such as
gestures, facial expression and body movement. All this elements play an important
role in intonation.
Teaching intonation is relevant because students must realize that a sentence could be
understand in different ways by the listener if we use different intonation, for example.
- We must go to see the movie.
If someone says option the sentence with encourage, as the person is really motivated to
see tthe movie because he or she likes the activity, as: We must go to see the movie!
But if someone says the same sentence with an attitude that shows obligation, as he or
she is going to do the activity but the person is not going to enjoy it. Only intonation
could change the meaning of the sentence by expressing different attitudes.
Discourse:
Discourse function play important roles in teaching because if teachers use a correct
discourse they call the attention of their students and therefore the results will be better.
Intonation and discourse relationship concerns in two points:
How the intonation focuses the listeners attention,
The regulation of conversational behavior

When we are talking we are transmitting information, there is some information which
is more relevant than other information, for example: if you are a teacher, new
information is more relevant than known information, and you should know that new
information requires certain intonation, which is different to the intonation used for
known information. For this kinds of intonation we can mention the referring tone and
the proclaiming tone.
- Referring tone is intonation pattern which shows that the speaker is referring to
information that everybody knows. Referring tone falls and rises, or just rises.
- Proclaiming tone is intonation pattern which shows speaker is giving new information.
Proclaiming tone rises and then falls, or just falls.
Therefore, in the sentence:
The activity we did on Monday, is a question in the test.
o The activity we did on Monday: uses a referring tone because it is not new information
o is a question in the test: uses a proclaiming tone because it is new information
Accentual:
Accentual function of intonation is about emphasize the word or the group of words
which are more relevant when someone is transmitting an idea, sentence, phrase, etc.
Accentual function is important because of the accented syllable, which provides to the
listener a distinction between sounds.
For example, if the teacher uses the accentual function, students realize that the
important ideas are the ones in which teacher uses higher intonation, therefore the
stressed syllables are the accented syllables.
Furthermore, teacher could focus the attention of the students by using accentual
function, because when someone places a tonic stress in a word or syllable, he or she are
transmitting word or syllable prominence, and they give an idea for students to know in
which part they should pay more attention. Accentual function plays an important role
in correction sentences, as in the example below:
Secretaries must wear skirt on Fridays, not pants.
The sentence explains that important syllables are which have the placement of tonic
stress, therefore shows the importance of transmitting the correct meaning, and indicates
where the focus of the information is.

Task 2. Illustrate each intonation function with examples.

STRATEGY:
1. Read the corresponding unit in both the textbook and the didactic guide.
2. Write examples (at least two) for each kind of intonation function. Try to be
creative.
3. You may attach photocopies of the flashcards, pictures, charts, etc., if necessary.
4. Use additional sheet(s) of paper.
5. To do this activity, follow the suggested format below.
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Grammatical function examples:

Intonation divides subject and predicate in a sentence, furthermore it is used to
distinguish between defining and non-defining relative clauses.
Martha is going to Miami.
Marco, who is my roommate, is in the hospital since yesterday
A simple sentence or clause could be converted into question if we use other intonation
by rising or falling the tone. An affirmative or negative statement could change to an
exclamation by using other pitch.
- Dont you know that?
- Dont you know that!
- Dont you read that?
- Dont you read that!
- Doesnt she want to go?
- Doesnt she want to go?
First sentence shows question, second sentence shows exclamation.

Attitudinal function examples:

Teaching intonation is relevant because students must realize that a sentence could be
understand in different ways by the listener if we use different intonation, for example.
- We must go to see the movie.
If someone says option the sentence with encourage, as the person is really motivated to
see the movie because he or she likes the activity, as: We must go to see the movie!
But if someone says the same sentence with an attitude that shows obligation, as he or
she is going to do the activity but the person is not going to enjoy it. Only intonation
could change the meaning of the sentence by expressing different attitudes.
The same function could be showed in the following examples:
What are you going to go tomorrow? (showing curiosity)
What are you going to go tomorrow? (showing surprise)

This is part of the show (explaining to other person)

This is part of the show (showing boredom)

o
o
o
o

Discourse function examples:

Discourse function includes the Referring tone which shows that the speaker is
referring to information that everybody knows, this one falls and rises, or just rises. And
the Proclaiming tone which shows speaker is giving new information, this one rises
and then falls, or just falls.
The activity we did on Monday, is a question in the test.
The activity we did on Monday: uses a referring tone because it is not new information
is a question in the test: uses a proclaiming tone because it is new information
The car we saw on Monday, was bought yesterday.
The car we saw on Monday: uses a referring tone because it is not new information
was bought yesterday: uses a proclaiming tone because it is new information

Accentual function examples:

Accentual function plays an important role in correction sentences, as in the example
below:
Secretaries must wear skirt on Fridays, not pants.
The child must eat light food, not french-fries. He is sick.
The sentence explains that important syllables are which have the placement of tonic
stress, therefore shows the importance of transmitting the correct meaning, and indicates
where the focus of the information is.
Activity 2. Write the answers to the following tasks:
Task 1. Write the definition of the term stress. Define word stress and sentence
Give examples.
STRATEGY:
1 Read the corresponding units of the textbook and the didactic guide and pay a
close
2 Define the term stress .
3 Illustrate the definitions of word and sentence stress with one example for each
term.
4 Do not copy. Use your own words. Plagiarism will be graded zero.
5 Use the suggested format below:
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STRESS:
STRESS is an important phonetic feature which describes the prominence of a syllable.
The prominence of a syllable is recognized by an increase in loudness. Syllables which
have an increase in loudness are the stressed syllables, named as accented syllables too.
An accented syllable would have a longer duration than an unstressed syllable.

Examples:
We can explain stress in the following example:
PRESent (noun)
preSENT (verb)
The word present could have different meaning by changing the place of the stress, in
the first example we put the stress on the first syllable, so the first word is a noun. But,
in the second example we put the stress on the second syllable, so it is a verb.
14 we can conclude by recalling that stress deals with:
1 loudness: the most prominent syllable
2 vowel length: vowel reduction
3 difference in vowel quality: pitch change on the vowels
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5 Word stress
6 Word stress is used to make emphatic or more prominent. It is important because
emphasizes words to communicate an idea in the correct way. The improperly
placement of stress change the meaning of a sentence, therefore a communicate idea
could not be understood.
7 For example:
8 ERIKA went in the red car.
9 Erika went in THE RED CAR.

10 In the first sentence we are making an emphasis in the subject ERIKA, because we are
communicating the prominence in her, not in another person who could be Pedro or
Jose.
11 But, in the second sentence the emphasis is in the object THE RED CAR, so the
prominence is in that one, not in another one which could be a blue car, or a yellow car.
12 By the way, we can conclude that word stress plays an important role because people
can clearly understand the difference between make emphasis in certain word to
communicate an idea effectively, because certain syllables are longer, louder, higherpitched, or more clearly articulated than those around them ( Fasold. R, 2006).
1 Rules of word stress
There are specific rules for stress placement. In addition, to place stress we have to
consider:
- If the word is morphologically simple or complex (containing one or more affixes;
- The grammatical category (noun, verb, etc.) of the word;
- The number of syllables and their particular phonological structure.
- Some general tendencies can be defined in placing stress in English words.
All rules have exceptions.
Stress on TWO - SYLLABLE words
Many two-syllable words originate from one-syllable words, in this case the stress is on
the syllable of the original word, specially nouns and adjectives.
If the word does not have a suffix, stress usually goes on the first syllable.
Most two-syllable verbs have stress on the second syllable.
Stress in THREE - SYLLABLE words
Longer words are constructed by adding parts to original words, stress usually stays on
the same syllable as in the original word.
Stress in PREFIXES and SUFFIXES
When suffixes are added to English words, the stress remains on the same syllable.

The suffixes ic, ical are always unstressed,

When the suffixes tion, ity are added to words, the stress goes to the syllables
immediately preceding the suffix: Example: nation nationalization - nationality
STRESS in COMPOUND WORDS
Compound words use one primary stress like simple words, example: headache.
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Sentence stress:
Sentence is formed by content and function words. Content words tend to be stressed,
but function or grammatical words tend to be pronounced less stressed or in a reduced
form.
Content words are the ones which have meaning as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.
Function words are the ones which have a structural function, as auxiliary verbs,
pronouns, articles, prepositions.
By the way, a tonic syllable is a syllable that carries the main stress in a word. The
position of a tonic syllable change depending the word a speaker wants to emphasize in
a sentence.
As a rule, English sentences have the same stress interval. Usually the most stressed
words are nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns and numerals.
Examples:

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Word stress compound word: notebook

Sentence stress tonic syllable examples:
He need new pants (emphasize person he, not she or another)
He need new pants (emphasize new, not older or used)
Sentence stress content, function words examples:
The old woman have to use special shoes.
This new book presents a lot of examples.
Task 2. Write two class activities to practice word and sentence stress.
STRATEGY:
1 Read the corresponding units of the textbook and the didactic guide and pay a
close attention to sample lessons described in the textbook.
2 Write two activities to practice word stress, and two activities to practice
sentence stress.
3 Be sure to write clear instructions for class activities to practice word and
sentence stress.
4 You may attach photocopies of pictures, flash cards, charts, tables, etc., that are
necessary for the class.
5 To consult correct stress placement in words, use a dictionary.
6 Use additional sheet(s) of paper.
7 To do this activity, follow the format suggested below.
WORD STRESS:
Exercise 1.
Lesson type: Practice (all levels)
Materials: cards and word stress rules and examples.
Find the rule: Rules of word stress
A small part of the students have a type of rule. They could be four (depending on how
many students the class have)
The other part have 8 examples of each rule, (obviously they could be more too)
Teacher give to the first group of students, in this case four cards whit rules of word
stress.
And, the other group has the cards with examples of word stress rules. In both cases
color do not matter.
The small group of students have to find the more examples they could with the rule
they have by asking each student of the other group what examples do they have. In
this case each student of the first group has to find two cards.
Stress on TWO - SYLLABLE words
(nouns and adjectives usually has
stress on the first syllable)
Stress in PREFIXES and SUFFIXES
When suffixes are added to English words, the stress
remains on the same syllable

Stress on TWO - SYLLABLE words

Most two-syllable verbs have stress on the second syllable

STRESS in COMPOUND WORDS

Compound words use one primary stress like simple

Little
Large
Happiness
Slowly
Present
Object
football
Headache

words

Exercise 2.
Lesson type: Practice (all levels)
Materials: word cards and board.
Teacher write in the board a line which divides it in two part. First one is for the two
syllable words (or three syllable words) which stress change, and the second is for the
two syllable words (or three syllable words) which stress do not change.
Teacher gives to students cards with examples of these two groups of two syllable
words, they has to identify which example do they have, and later the has to write a
sentence using the word they have in the card.
DO NOT CHANGE
picture
promise
reply
travel
visit

CHANGE
report - report
desert- desert
present - present
record - record
convert - convert

The picture is really beautiful.

I picture a wonderful view.
This desert has three different flavors.
They desert the challenge.
SENTENCE STRESS:
Exercise 1.
Lesson type: Practice (all levels)
Materials: Cards and sentence stress (tonic syllable) definitions and examples.
Find a partner: sentence stress partner
Class will be separate in two. Teacher has different pair color cards, teacher give to half
of the students 5 (as an example) different color cards, each one have a kind of sentence
stress, with a detail of the definition.
The other half have examples of word stress. Class is divided in two columns, but there
are back to back (so they cannot see each other). The first column has to say the word
stress definition, and when they finish students who has the examples start to say the
examples.
When somebody who has the definition identifies his/her example, he or she has to raise
the hand (and so on the one who is saying the example has to raise the hand too). If the
definition has the same color of the example, they finish.
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Emphasize the color
Emphasize the size
Emphasize the person who has the action
Emphasize the texture
Emphasize the quality
Emphasize the animal which is suffering
Emphasize the number
Emphasize the thing

Marco has a red car.

All the shirts are really big.
Marco is going by the avenue.
This sofa is really soft.
Monica buy old books.
The dog is sick.
I have to ask in eight pharmacies.
This sofa is really soft.

Exercise 2.
Lesson type: Practice (all levels)
Materials: Cards and content function words examples.
Find a partner: sentence stress partner
Teacher gives to students different cards. Cards has two colors, these could be red and
blue in this case. Red cards has content word, as well as blue cards has function words.
When teacher gives the cards to the students the order of these ones do not matter.
The objective of the exercise is that students has to organize their cards so they can
create sentences. The sentences could be 2 or more, because they could compare
sentence stress.
The blue car, which he bought last mount, has a brown leather in the back seats.
The red wallet, which she gift me last year, need to be repair urgently.
The back seats has a brown leather
The blue car has back seats
He bought me the red wallet
She has a blue car
The
which
a
in
the
to
Be
Need

Blue
Car
He
Bought
Last
Mount
Has
brown
leather
Back
Seats
red
wallet
she
gift
me
last
Year
Need
repair
urgently

Activity 3. Write the definition of the term intonation. Write two class activities to teach
intonation.
STRATEGY:
1 Read the corresponding units of the textbook and the didactic guide.
2 Define the term intonation.
3 Provide two class activities to teach intonation. Be sure to write clear
instructions

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Do not copy. Use your own words. Plagiarism will be graded zero.
Use the suggested format below:

Intonation (definition)
1 According to linguists one of the major uses of pitch is intonation. Intonation is a
variation in spoken pitch or melody to transmit the meaning of the sentence or discourse
level. Therefore, intonation includes rise and fall of the voice when speaking by the use
of melody.
2 Use intonation in the correct way is important to convey your message, as we know
intonation helps to transmit attitudes and emotions, consequently its use ensure that
someones speech is appropriate and natural-sounding when we are communicating an
idea.
1 0,5 points