Is intonation learnable in the classroom? Evidence from Turkish learners of English
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: For language learners, intonation is widely considered to be important in communicating meaning in context, but intonation is also considered by teachers to be difficult to teach, and some have even argued that it may be unteachable in classroom instruction. This study examines whether explicit teaching of three final intonation contours (falling, rising, falling-rising) led to improved perception and production. Thirty-one Turkish EFL learners participated in a full-semester course devoted to pronunciation. For three weeks of the course, they were taught perception and production of the three contours. Results from a pre-test/post-test design showed that, perception of all three intonation contours improved after instruction, whereas for the production, only the falling-rising and rising contours showed improvement. Results also showed that providing contextual information about intended meanings did not affect production but was helpful in perception. This study suggests intonation can improve when it is explicitly taught to L2 learners, like other aspects of pronunciation.
Source: Language Teaching Research
Authors: Sinem Sonsaat-Hegelheimer, John Levis
Institution: Iowa State University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4407266327