Pragmatics and Prosody in English Language Teaching: (15 Educational Linguistics)

This volume explores the elusive subject of English prosody—the stress, rhythm and intonation of the language—, and its relevance for English language teaching. Its sharp focus will be especially welcomed by teachers of English to non-native speakers, but also by scholars and researchers interested in Applied Linguistics. The book examines key issues in the development of prosody and delves into the role of intonation in the construction of meaning. The contributions tackle difficult areas of intonation for language learners, providing a theoretical analysis of each stumbling block as well as a practical explanation for teachers and teacher trainers. The numerous issues dealt with in the book include stress and rhythm; tone units and information structure; intonation and pragmatic meaning; tonicity and markedness, etc... The authors have deployed speech analysis software to illustrate their examples as well as to encourage readers to carry out their own computerized prosodic analyses.

Table of Contents:
1.Introduction .- Theoretical approaches to the teaching of Prosody 2. Issues in the acoustic measurement of rhythm .- 3. Prosody and second language teaching: Lessons from L2 speech perception and production research .- 4. Factors affecting the perception and production of L2 prosody: Research results and their implications for the teaching of foreign languages .- 5. Function vs. form in speech prosody — Lessons from experimental research and potential implications for teaching .- 6. Prosodic adaptation in language learning .- Pragmatics, Prosody and communication 7. Prosody and meaning: Theory and practice .- 8. Prosody and feedback in native and non-native speakers of English .- 9. Early prosodic production: Pragmatic and acoustic analyses for L2 language learners .- 10. Prosody in conversation: Implications for teaching English pronunciation .- Pedagogical implications for English Language Teaching 11. Same but different: The pragmatic potential of native vs. non-native teachers’ intonation in the EFL classroom .- 12. The pragmatic function of intonation: Cueing agreement and disagreement in spoken English discourse and implications for ELT .- 13. Trouble spots in the learning of English intonation by Spanish speakers. Tonality and tonicity .- 14. Teaching prosody with a pragmatic orientation: A synthesis .- Name Index .- Subject Index.

Review :
From the reviews: “This book is mainly about prosody, its relationship with pragmatics, and the implications of this relationship for English language teaching, learning, and use. There is much in it that I recommend the book. … This book also draws out pedagogical implications relevant to teaching English and offers a platform for comparing native and non-native speech performance in the ELT context. … On the whole, this book offers a good example of critical scholarly engagement balanced with practical pedagogical recommendations.” (Christine C. M. Goh, ELT Journal, Vol. 68 (2), April, 2014)