Learner Awareness of the “Music” of Spoken English—Focus on Intonation—And Its Impact on Communicative Competence. Is Intonation Teachable and Learnable?

Abstract

This research examines the significance of intonation in spoken English. It is seen that existence of correct intonation goes quite unnoticed by the Native Speakers (NS) of English, as an unconscious mechanism, whereas its absence, or minimal use thereof, hinders communication by speakers using English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study, based on 110 EFL university students in China, demonstrated that majority of the students did not feel confident while tackling this dimension of oral discourse because of the ambiguity about how to deal with a feature many learners were not even aware of. Grammar and lexis are made accessible to learners through various devices, but the methodology used for transmission of intonation and related prosodic features is very abstract and intangible. The research, based on observations and oral discourses, which were video and audio-recorded, was then transcribed for qualitative content analysis (Kvale, 2007: p. 105). The results demonstrated a stimulation of curiosity among the participants. They expressed an ardent desire to overcome their speech shortcomings, acquire the nuances to become intelligible/natural speakers, and increase their understanding of spoken English for accurate verbal communication, thereby supporting the case study that intonation is teachable and learnable.