Teaching with functional materials: the problem of stress and intonation Jon Roberts

Coursebooks teaching speech functions have to indicate contexts of use. Such contexts render inappropriate some attitudinal, stress and intonation options, and enforce others. It follows that one objective of these coursebooks must be that learners produce attitudinal& appropriate utterances. Appropriate stress and intonation patterns must be used when doing this, and so one objective has to be to provide practice in recognizing and manipulating variations related to attitude. The examples given suggest ways in which class teachers may work towards this objective.
introduction

This is for teachers who are using coursebooks that present and practise functions in face-to-face interaction. It is assumed that teachers will have tape recorders and taped model dialogues. Also, it is assumed that classes will total a maximum of 35 students, that they are not studying to become language specialists, and that the students will have enough social experience to appreciate the factors that affect language use in social contexts. As soon as functional materials1 became part of the ELT curriculum, teachers recognized the problem of matching stress and intonation to speakers attitudes. The problem can be described as follows. In functional materials, the language to be presented and practised (for instance Are you doing anything this evening? in a unit on invitations) must be presented and practised in social situations. For the function to be recognizable, the speakers must have identity, intention, and a relationship of some kind, and it follows that speakers will have an attitude to each other and the situation. It is for this reason that stress and intonation becomes so important, and so problematic. The stress and intonation patterns used in Are you doing anything this evening? must fit the attitude of the speaker: certain stress and intonation patterns will be appropriate and acceptable, but others will definitely not be; indeed, they might be inconsistent with the speakers attitude and mislead as to his or her intention. However, the great majority of learners will not be able to develop the native speakers ability to produce the subtle and apparently unsystematic variations in stress and intonation that match variations in attitude.2 What can teachers do? It is my view that, whatever the level of the students, teachers have to attention to speakers attitudes and the stress and intonation patterns fit these attitudes. All students have to be helped to recognize that there connection between function and attitude on the one hand, and stress
ELT Journal Volume 37/3July 1983

The problem

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intonation on the other. And all students should be helped to recognize significant variations in stress and intonation. However, the contrasts we expect students to recognize or produce may be very general indeed, for instance, sad/happy or fall/rise, and no more.
Lesson planning to achieve the goal

When planning lessons, one has to convert a general goal into reasonable short-term expectations for ones students. The teacher will have to make decisions about the balance of work on recognition and production, about levels of challenge, and about appropriate activities. It seems to me that there are four areas in which such decisions have to be made.
1 Recognition of stress and intonation

of stress and a. How finegrained should the learners discrimination intonation in sample dialogues be? For example, do you expect them to discriminate between fall and rise, but no more? Do you expect them to recognize high falls as different from low falls? Do you expect them to recognize fall rises, and, perhaps, the significance of relative loudness?3 b. How can taped dialogues be exploited to achieve the desired recognition of variations?
2 Recognition of contextual factors

a. Which of the many aspects of a social context should be focused on? b. How can this be done most effectively?
3 Recognition of attitude

How fine should learners discrimination of attitude be? For example, do we reduce the possible contrasts to three: happy-neutral-sad? At more advanced levels, do we distinguish further between, for example, furious,
angry, upset, irritated, frustrated ? 4 Production of appropriate prosodic variations

a. What consistency and accuracy are expected in students attempts to approximate to a given model ? Are expectations in controlled practice different from those in freer practice? b. What activities are chosen for drill and freer practice? I hope that the two examples be answered.
Example 1:

given below show how such questions

may

Beginner level

The first example is a short model dialogue taken from Bianchi et al. (1980). It presents models of greetings, and is to be learnt and re-enacted with little or no variation.
The material

He She He She He

Good morning. Morning. What a beautiful day. Yes, really nice. Real holiday weather. Mmm. Were lucky. Have a nice day! Thank you. You too.

(Sound effects: birds chirping)

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Aims

These will not necessarily be the stated aims of the coursebook, but are aims that a teacher may adopt when using it. a. Students will recognize the strongest word in each tone unit (the nucleus). b. Students will recognize the difference between fall and rise. c. Students will recognize the relatively wide pitch span used by the female speaker. d. Students will be fully aware of the context. e. Students attention will be focused on the speakers attitudes and how they match with certain very obvious prosodic variations. Attitudes will be described in terms of very general categories, e.g. happy, neutral, sad. f. When repeating the model, students will produce the closest possible approximation to it. In this case, they will be asked to produce a wide pitch span and emphatic high falls. Nuclear stress should be correctly placed. (Teachers may change the order of stages 1, 2, and 3 .)
1 Awareness of context All the clues (including

Exploitation of materials

sound effects, illustrations in the book) should be used. Note that students should learn I think to introduce a suggestion or opinion. Teacher says : Look at the picture and listen to the tape. Now, where are they? Can you hear anything ? Is it a cold day? Is it winter or summer? What time is it? Who are they? Are they good friends? Are they relatives? The teacher must ensure that students understand that suggestions and interpretations are wanted, not answers that will be judged right or wrong, as in a test.
2 Production activities

The students repeat the dialogue a line at a time (chorally and individually). The teacher indicates rhythm and pitch movement with simultaneous hand movements. He or she may also focus on the rhythm and pitch variations by humming the line, so giving a wordless model, or split the class into halves and have repetition in role (You are all the man . . . you are all the woman). The aim is that students should memorize one speakers part in the dialogue. Expect close approximation at this stage: correct by referring back to the context, particularly the illustrations. The more the teacher acts out the dialogue, the better the class response will be. After repetition, the dialogue is acted out. This should be done as realistically as conditions allow, with movement, appropriate facial expressions, use of realia. An interesting and useful variation at this stage is to rehearse and act out the dialogue wordlessly, that is, to hum the lines, not speak them. This focuses attention on stress and intonation very effectively. Once the model has been rehearsed, memorized, and performed, a further optional step is to act out a parallel dialogue in which the only change is in attitude, so enforcing changes in stress and intonation. To do this, change the mans attitude to neutral lack of enthusiasm, or gloom. This will require low falls, with narrow pitch span overall. The teacher signals the change of attitude by drawing faces on the board and then acting out the new dialogue as the new speaker, the class taking the other, unchanged role. Then after chorus (half class) repetition in role, act out the dialogue. It is best to avoid asking a student to switch from one character to the other at this stage, and so the new attitude will be adopted only by the teacher.
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3 Recognition activities

Step I : Students dictate the learnt dialogue to the teacher, who writes it on the board. Step 2: Replay the tape line by line, and mark major features of stress and intonation according to students answers; e.g. Which are the strongest syllables? There are two. Listen and tell me. Tape Good morning. What a beautiful day. S(1) Morning. First or second syllable? This or this? T S(1) First. S(Z) And beautiful - first syllable. (Marks sentence on the board: Good morning. What a beautiful T day.) Now, does her voice go up or does her voice go down? Listen. Is it / morning or \ morning? Down. S T Do you agree ? OK. (Marks the board: \ Good morning. What a \ beautiful day.) T This kind of analysis of the dialogue will not take long and will be time well spent. You are focusing students attention on these linguistic features so that, when listening to future dialogues, they are more likely to recognize similar significant features. Once students are familiar with this type of recognition/analysis activity, you may do a quicker version, in which students complete a partly marked dialogue. For example : (On the board: Yes. Really nice. Real holiday weather.) Teacher: Mark the strongest syllables. (On the board: Yes. Really nice. Real holiday weather.) Teacher: Mark where her voice goes up or down. Step 3: This step must not be omitted. Pick a line or lines in which the attitude is very clear and where stress and intonation variations are easily recognized; e.g. What a beautiful day!. T How does she say this? Does she say What a beautiful pitch). S NO. What a beautiful day! T Why? (pause) T Is she sad? S No, shes happy. T Why? S It is a nice day. (holiday/feels happy) day? (i.e. level

Through questioning and other devices, the teacher has related stress and intonation to attitude and context.
Example 2: Intermediate level

In this example, a model dialogue is used for recognition and production activities. The dialogue is taken from Johnson and Morrow (1979). Last night Paul had a party in his room and made a lot of noise. Now he is trying to get in with his friend Alan. He doesnt want to meet her.
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Mrs ONeill hears them come in. She calls to Paul and he answers.

Paul apologizes for the noise last night

Mrs ONeill is angry. Transcription

Paul knows that his landlady

want to meet her.

is probably

angry with him - so

he doesnt

Paul :

Come on, this way. And keep quiet. I dont want Mrs ONeill to hear us. Alan : OK. I must say, I dont want to meet her either, after what youve told me about her. Paul : Shh. Mrs 0 : Paul, is that you? Just a minute, I want a word with you.
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Paul : Mrs O: Paul : Mrs O: Paul : Mrs O: Paul : Mrs O : Paul :

Oh God, thats done it! Oh, hello, Mrs ONeill. Nice to see you. This is Alan, a friend of mine from college. Hello. But it was you I wanted to see. Yes, look, I really am sorry about the noise last night - but I didnt realize it was so late. Well, Im sorry, but it just isnt good enough. After all, this isnt the first time it has happened. You know what . . . Yes, I know, but. . . Well, this time I mean it. If you keep us awake one more time, youll have to go. Yes, all right. Look, Ive said Im sorry. I promise it wont happen again. Yes, well, just make sure it doesnt. Come on, Alan, Lets go up to my room. Silly old woman.

Exploitation of materials

1 Recognition activities a. Awareness of context Play the tape and use open-ended questions to help students understand the situation. Ask some of the questions before playing the tape. Encourage students to use all available clues: structure, lexis, sound effects, illustrations, speaker reactions, interruptions, hesitations, as well as stress and intonation. Sample questions: what does Paul do? Who is Mrs ONeill? Where is Paul living? Where is Paul now? What happened last night? Is Paul alone? Where is his room? Why were Paul and Alan whispering? Did Alan want to meet Mrs ONeill? How did Paul feel? Why? How did Mrs ONeill feel? Was she sad? How do you know she was angry? Did Paul know she was very angry? How? b. Relate attitude to stress and intonation. Select key utterances from the dialogue. An exhaustive study of features is unlikely to be possible, because of lack of time, and the very advanced level of proficiency required for such activities, and, above all, the extreme difficulty of generalizing about stress and intonation beyond broad contrasts. Select utterances according to these two criteria: first, choose instances where the speaker maintains a constant attitude and repeatedly uses the same stress and intonation. In our example, Mrs ONeill is angry, and consistently speaks relatively loudly and quickly, with a wide pitch range, using high falls. Second, select instances where variations in stress and intonation that are recognizable to students can be clearly related to attitude: e.g. Well, Im sorry, but it just isnt good enough. After all, this isnt the first time it has happened. Never mind excuses. You know what happened last time. You remember what I said. Well, this time I mean it. If you keep us awake one more time, youll have to go. c. Focus on the selected utterances and analyse them through questioning: how is she speaking? How quickly? Is she speaking loudly or softly? How does her voice move on It just isnt good enough and Never mind excuses? IS it a big movement or a small one? Can you find another sentence where she speaks in the same way? (Replay a section of dialogue.) How does she feel? Why does she speak this way? Did you hear any other examples in the dialogue?

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2 Production activities

I suggest that the teacher should indicate at the recognition stage the relation between certain attitudes and stress and intonation in the model dialogue. He or she should expect students to approximate as closely as possible to the model when they are able to monitor their own performance, that is when other simultaneous demands do not make monitoring difficult or impossible - for example, when doing role play, which entails complex simultaneous tasks (recognition, interpretation, and planning utterances). a. Heart dialogues The teacher makes a short dialogue focused on for analysis : from the selected sentences, previously

I really am sorry about the noise last night. P: Mrs O: Well, Im sorry, but it just isnt good enough. P: Yes, but... Mrs O: Never mind excuses. If you keep us awake one more time, youll have to go. This dialogue is memorized and acted out. Students may be unable to produce consistently wide pitch variations. This is not necessarily easy to correct, and remedial exercises may be needed. (See Haycraft I971: 123-48, and Haycraft 1981.) b. Drills In Johnson and Morrow (1979), from which the previous taken, situationalized drills are also available. For example: example was

You are in a restaurant, and you order a rare steak. The waiter brings you one that is so overcooked that it tastes like shoe leather. You say:
Figure 5

What would you say in these situations? When you booked a hotel room, you asked for one with a sea view. But all you can see is the gas works. (Give another room) You were told that in this school you would have lessons every day. Now your teacher tells you there are no lessons on Wednesdays. (Give us extra evening classes) The person in the room next door promised that his party would be finished by 11.00. Now its 12.00, and theres still a terrible noise. (Make less noise) Your friend knows you are waiting for a call from home. Hes been on
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the phone an hour, and he said hed be only two minutes. (Finish your conversation soon) You bought some shoes to wear in the rain, but they leak. You take them back. (Change them)

First practise contexts in which the attitude focused on will be appropriate. You may need to supplement this practice by substitution drills. Note the writers intention to practise complaining in a variety of contexts. This variation alters speaker identity and relationships. Even though the same form is used, attitudes between waiter and customer, for example, will be very different from those between two close friends. It follows that the stress and intonation patterns in the model dialogue will only be appropriate in some of the contexts, quite inappropriate in others. It seems that the only sensible course when switching contexts like this is to reduce expectation of likely prosodic variations. Attempts to switch from one set of variations to another would be confusing in the extreme, and liable to disrupt the one variation dealt with.
Conclusion

The problem described is not simply solved. I hope this article will stimulate other teachers to look at the problem in their own terms, and to devise workable ends and means.
Received April 1982

materials I mean coursebooks in which each unit is organized by grouping together examples of a speech function or a set of connected speech functions. You can think of function as meaning a language users communicative intention A typical contents page might look like this: Unit 1 Getting people to do things: requesting, attracting attention, agreeing and refusing. Unit 2 Invitation: offering, accepting, refusing; making excuses. Unit 3 Asking for permission. etc. 2 See Brazil et al. 1980, pp. 117-120. 3 In any sentence, one word is more prominent than the others. This prominence is marked by beginning a change in the pitch direction of the voice, either falling or rising. This most prominent pitch change is called the nucleus of the intonation group. The main types of pitch change can be listed as follows: the voice falls from a mid pitch level to low high fall : the voice falls from a relatively high pitch level to low low rise: the voice rises from a low level to a mid pitch level high rise: the voice rises from a relatively mid pitch level to a relatively high pitch level fall rise: the voice falls and then rises. (See Gimson 220 1975: 52-5.)
Jon Roberts

Notes 1 By functional

References Bianchi, M., W. Bliemel, A. Fitzpatrick, J. Quetz. 1980. English fr Erwachsene 1b. Berlin: Cornelsen and

Oxford University Press.

Brazil, D., M. Coulthard, J. Sinclair. 1980. Discourse Intonation and Language Teaching. London: Longman. Gimson, A. C. 1975. A Practical Course of English Pronunciation. London: Edward Arnold. Haycraft, B. 1971. The Teaching of Pronunciation.

London:
Haycraft, Johnson,

Longman.
B. 1981. It Depends How You Say

It. Oxford:

Pergamon.
K. and K. Morrow. 1979. Approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thompson, I. 1981. Intonation Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The author

low fall:

Jonathan Roberts is a lecturer at the Centre for Applied Language Studies, Department of Linguistic Science, University of Reading. He has postgraduate qualifications in Education and Applied Linguistics, and has worked in ELT as a teacher and teacher educator since 1969. He is particularly interested in problems connected with teacher education.

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