A Study Of Higher Vocational College Students’Intonation Patterns In Read Speech

Language is an essential means of human interaction and intonation plays a very important role in communication. The significance of intonation is embodied in eliminating ambiguity, indicating new and given information and expressing the emotion, intention and attitude of the speaker. To sum up, the basic linguistic functions attributed to intonation are grammatical function, information and discourse function and attitudinal function. English pronunciation and intonation are the basis of English learning and an integral part of English teaching. The acquisition of English intonation is closely related to the improvement of speaking ability and listening ability of English learners.The study intends to find out the English intonation patterns of Chinese EFL learners in vocational college and the answers to the questions:what are the features of vocational college students’tonality, tonicity and tone respectively?40Chinese EFL learners were chose from the college where the author has been working. Among the chosen participants,20of them are English majors, with10majoring in Business English and another ten majoring in Tourism English. The rest20participants are non-English majors, who have not received intonation training in college. For comparison, the author also chose10native speakers, who are from different countries with different cultural backgrounds. Based on Halliday’s3Ts system, namely, tonality, tonicity and tone, a comparative study was made between10native speakers and40Chinese EFL learners in vocational college to explore the English intonation patterns of vocational college students. In the process of the study, such computer software as Cool Edit, Praat are applied to conduct the research. In the end, this thesis puts forward the implications of the study for the research of English intonation and the learning and teaching of English intonation.In addition, the limitations and suggestions of the research are also mentioned.The findings of the study show that the differences between Chinese EFL learners in vocational college and the native speakers lie in the following aspects. In terms of tonality, the excessive use of pause leads to too much separation of words and coherence and fluency are undermined. With regard to tonicity, vocational college students lack tonicity awareness and are unaware of the role it plays in conveying information. As for tone selection, there are similarities as well as differences. To be specific, Chinese EFL learners in vocational college tend to employ falling tone and level tone more often compared to native speakers.Through the analysis, the study draws a conclusion of the English intonation patterns of Chinese EFL learners in vocational college, which helps shed light upon the teaching of English pronunciation and intonation. Under the guidance of the study, it is more likely to improve the teaching efficiency and the students’ oral English communicative competence.