Intonation

Intonation is very significant in English. It can:

• Mean the difference between questions and statements,e.g. She likes the music? She likes the music.
• Show the speaker’s attitude and emotion, e.g. She likes the music.
• Divide speech into meaningful segments.
  

By improving your ability to segment speech properly, you will improve your communicative skills both conversationally and in oral presentations.

Use a dictionary to practice learning and saying difficult words until they sound natural to you. Before practicing, do the following example exercise:

1. Look up the word, "alacrity" in a dictionary. Note the IPA transcription.
2. Note how many syllables it has and where the stress is placed.
3. Check whether there are two pronunciations and decide which one to use.
4. Try to pronounce each individual syllable.
5. Say all four syllables together with the stress on the second syllable.
6. Say the word several times to make sure you are saying it naturally and pronouncing each syllable correctly.
7. Make up a sentence using the word and practise saying it correctly within a sentence.
   

Keys to Better Pronunciation

Introduction

To be confident in your own pronunciation you need to know not only how familiar English words sound but also how to pronounce new ones. It is also useful to practise sounds that may be more difficult for you. Unlike Chinese, each sound in English is represented symbolically in writing. English has only 26 symbols (the 26 letters of the alphabet), but these 26 symbols can make about 44 separate sounds. It is very important to learn to associate the correct sound with the correct symbol (phonics) so that you can pronounce most English words even ones you have never seen before. In fact,understanding phonics will help you read and spell words. In addition to phonics, you will also need to learn the stress and intonation patterns of the language.

Self-Assessment
To help you to assess your pronunciation, start with the, Clear Listening Test, found in "Clear Speech" (C.P.U.) written by Judy B. Gilbert. Alternatively, you may want to use the task reading a poem in the Pronunciation Pack. Both can be found in the ELSC Resource Room.

Suggested activities
To pronounce words, you can do any or all of the following:

• Listen to a model. A teacher or someone you trust can model new words for you. Pay attention to the ways people say words.
• Record a TV interview programme or radio programme and use it as a model.
• Become familiar with the pronunciation system used in your dictionary. It is usually explained in the first few pages. Make it a habit to check the pronunciation of new words in the dictionary.
• Learn phonics and phonetic rules and the relationship between spelling and pronunciation. Learn to associate the correct sound with the correct letter. For example, when a short word ends with e in a vowel-consonant-e pattern, we sound the alphabetical name of the vowel and omit the sound of the e, e.g. make, like, hope. For more details see the IPA Pack.
• Learn the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). Applying the knowledge of the IPA can help you to learn how words are pronounced. Pay particular attention to the sounds which are sometimes difficult for Chinese learners.
• It is also important to learn the difference between long and short vowels and the variations of vowel lengths before consonants. Learn where to put stress in a word and in a sentence. In speech each division of sound which contains a vowel is a syllable. Every word has one or more syllables.
• In the dictionary dots usually divide words into syllables. When a word has two or more syllables, one of them has more force, or stress. The syllable, which has the primary stress, is shown with a high mark.
• Practice saying a short sentence using correct intonation.
  

ENHANCING YOUR READING

1. Open your eyes- Try to boost your awareness of the reading you do all around you. Pay attention to English on billboards, advertisements, leaflets, food packages, etc.
2. Identify your reading problems by writing a summary- Find a short newspaper article which interests you and read it once quickly to get the main ideas. Then cover it up and try to write a brief summary of the main points. Finally, compare the summary with the article to see how many main points you have got. If you find the result unsatisfactory, try to identify your problem. Do you have problems with sentence structures, vocabulary, etc ? If you can identify your reading problem, focus on it.
3. Time your reading- Look for the main ideas of an article for a limited time. Don't bother about the details. This is a method to enhance your speed of reading. Keep a log of the amount of time it takes. If the time decreases, then you should be getting more information more quickly.
4. Make cloze exercises- Make a cloze exercise, either for yourself or a friend. Photocopy the text and use correction fluid to white out some words. You can focus on any aspect of language you wish, for example, nouns, verbs, prepositions, or whatever you find difficult. Fill in the blanks. Check your answer with the original texts. Think about the words you used and the words in the original text. This method can enhance your awareness of using different terms in different contexts.
5. Read the Chinese version in advance- Read texts in Chinese first before you read the English texts. After getting the main ideas from Chinese materials, reading the English ones becomes easier. You will realise how some Chinese expressions are expressed in English.
6. Follow the instructions for various reading materials- Try to follow the instructions of manuals or guidebooks for any electrical appliance, e.g. computer, mini hi-fi, recording machines. Does the machine perform the function you wish? If not, try to decide what went wrong in your reading. Alternatively, you can read a cook book and test your comprehension by preparing the food correctly.
7. Guess meaning from context - While reading, people are usually discouraged by unfamiliar words or phrases. An inefficient reader looks up every unknown word/phrase in a dictionary but an efficient one doesn't. Why ? Because the efficient reader guesses meaning from the context of the text. When you come across new words from an article, don't check the dictionary immediately! Try to guess the meaning of the words first. A more interesting way of doing this is to try to get one or two friends to read the same article. If there are any common unknown words/phrases, compete with your friends to guess the correct meaning. Look the words/phrases up in the dictionary for the correct definition. The one who gets the closest meaning wins.
8. Keep a resource bank of similar reading items- You can divide items into several categories such as finance, education, accidents, fashion or housing. Add new articles according to these categories. Arrange them nicely in a book. Frequently read the materials and you will develop a large vocabulary on a particular item. Alternatively, you can find some listening materials, videos and television programmes, on the same or similar topics and compare them with the written topics. Your knowledge of words/phrases/grammatical structures will consolidate if you can see the same language several times in different contexts.
9. Read for pleasure- Research has shown that reading consistently for pleasure boosts comprehension and vocabulary. Try popular books, comics, books about the films you have seen. It is NOT necessary to understand every word, just keep reading.
10. Read with a grammar focus- Look at a reading passage and see how the grammatical structures are used. Try to classify them under different headings like relative clauses, present tense, passive voice etc. Being able to identify different grammatical structures of a passage boosts your reading speed. If you have trouble classifying the grammatical structures, you may have to consult a grammar book or teacher.
11. Create your own comprehension questions- Often you have a lot of materials to read but you do not have a specific task to test your understanding. If this is the case, write your own comprehension questions to an article to test a friend. You and your friend can take turns preparing comprehension questions for other articles. Don't forget that you have to prepare the answers before you test each other.

8 Ways to Effective learning

1. Engage with your full mental strength - If you can’t understand and remember something, you will never learn it. You can’t learn something, i.e. encode it into your brain. It means you don’t pay enough attention to it. It takes about eight seconds of intent focus to process a piece of information through your hippo campus and into the appropriate memory center. So, no multitasking when you need to concentrate! If you distract easily, try to receive information in a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.
2. Tailor information to your learning style. Most people are visual learners; they learn best by reading or otherwise seeing what it is they have to learn. But some are auditory learners who learn better by listening. They might benefit by recording information they need and listening to it until they remember it.
   
3. Involve as many senses as possible. Even if you’re a visual learner, read out loud what you want to remember. If you can recite it rhythmically, even better. Try to relate information to colors, textures, smells and tastes. The physical act of rewriting information can help imprint it onto your brain.
   
4. Relate information to what you already know. Connect new data to information you already remember, whether it’s new material that builds on previous knowledge, or something as simple as an address of someone who lives on a street where you already know someone.


5. Organize information. Write things down in address books and datebooks and on calendars; take notes on more complex material and reorganize the notes into categories later. Use both words and pictures in learning information.


6. Understand and be able to interpret complex material. For more complex material, focus on understanding basic ideas rather than memorizing isolated details. Be able to explain it to someone else in your own words.


7. Rehearse information frequently and “over-learn”. Review what you’ve learned the same day you learn it, and at intervals thereafter. What researchers call “spaced rehearsal” is more effective than “cramming.” If you’re able to “over-learn” information so that recalling it becomes second nature, so much the better.


8. Be motivated and keep a positive attitude. Tell yourself that you want to learn what you need to remember, and that you can learn and remember it. Telling yourself you have a bad memory actually hampers the ability of your brain to remember, while positive mental feedback sets up an expectation of success.

Brain Exercise

I've just read an interesting article regarding brain exercise. It mentions that not all the learning activities can be considered neurobic. "Neurobic" is a term used to describe the activity or exercise related to brain and nervous system. Although our brain is activated by senses as we have various stimuli all the time; not all the stimuli can be strong enough to exercise our brain cells. In other words, daily learning tasks or activities follows similar patterns may not be strong enough to enhance neurotrophin production. What shall we do then?

You may consider doing more engaging activities that are interesting, challenging, fun and potentially frustrating. The tasks should also make use of multi-sensory associations and doing something new that is important to you.

• Learn to write with the hand you do not normally use


• Solve new and difficult Math exercises


• play a difficult music piece


• completely rearrange your workplace


• take a completely new route to school or work


• go camping for the weekend


• invite your niece or nephew to sleep over


• recite a fun story or article

The results of any such activity means you are breaking your routine by doing something new. So, in some ways, you've changed the patterns of activity in parts of the brain activated by various stimuli that enhance neurotrophin production. Of course, such experience can open your mind and uplift your brain function to a higher level.