Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 13. Integrating prosodic features in a children’s English course

  • and

Abstract

The chapter reports on an experiment which focused on the integration of prosody into an English course for young children. Two groups of Czech primary school children (aged 6–7, n = 12 in each group) were analysed, one of which received prosody-focused training and the other followed the regular curriculum. The prosodic training targeted pitch range, melodic suppression of unstressed syllables, and linking. We analysed the children’s rendition of short chants after four and eight months of instruction. Participants in the experimental group had a wider pitch range and did not realise the typical Czech rise between the stressed and post-stressed syllable. Linking was partially present in both groups. The chapter is concluded with the discussion of pedagogical implications.

Abstract

The chapter reports on an experiment which focused on the integration of prosody into an English course for young children. Two groups of Czech primary school children (aged 6–7, n = 12 in each group) were analysed, one of which received prosody-focused training and the other followed the regular curriculum. The prosodic training targeted pitch range, melodic suppression of unstressed syllables, and linking. We analysed the children’s rendition of short chants after four and eight months of instruction. Participants in the experimental group had a wider pitch range and did not realise the typical Czech rise between the stressed and post-stressed syllable. Linking was partially present in both groups. The chapter is concluded with the discussion of pedagogical implications.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of tables vii
  4. List of figures ix
  5. Acknowledgements xi
  6. Contributors xiii
  7. Chapter 1. Advancing towards research-informed pronunciation pedagogy 1
  8. Part I. Linking research and practice
  9. Chapter 2. Connecting the dots between pronunciation research and practice 17
  10. Chapter 3. When a psycholinguist enters the multilingual classroom 39
  11. Part II. Surveying beliefs, attitudes and classroom practices
  12. Chapter 4. Teaching English pronunciation in Croatian elementary schools 63
  13. Chapter 5. Cause for optimism 91
  14. Chapter 6. Summative and formative pronunciation assessment in Polish secondary schools 119
  15. Chapter 7. Pronunciation learning strategies 147
  16. Part III. Using corpora to inform instruction
  17. Chapter 8. The intonation contour of non-finality revisited 175
  18. Chapter 9. Rationale and design of a study of foreign-accented academic English 197
  19. Chapter 10. Corrective feedback and unintelligibility 223
  20. Part IV. Investigating learners’ output
  21. Chapter 11. Acquisition of English onset consonant clusters by L1 Chinese speakers 255
  22. Chapter 12. Vowel reduction in English grammatical words by Macedonian EFL learners 279
  23. Part V. Exploring tools and techniques
  24. Chapter 13. Integrating prosodic features in a children’s English course 305
  25. Chapter 14. Differential effects of lexical and non-lexical high-variability phonetic training on the production of L2 vowels 327
  26. Chapter 15. Mobile apps for pronunciation training 357
  27. Index 385
English Pronunciation Instruction
This chapter is in the book English Pronunciation Instruction
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.19.13von

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of tables vii
  4. List of figures ix
  5. Acknowledgements xi
  6. Contributors xiii
  7. Chapter 1. Advancing towards research-informed pronunciation pedagogy 1
  8. Part I. Linking research and practice
  9. Chapter 2. Connecting the dots between pronunciation research and practice 17
  10. Chapter 3. When a psycholinguist enters the multilingual classroom 39
  11. Part II. Surveying beliefs, attitudes and classroom practices
  12. Chapter 4. Teaching English pronunciation in Croatian elementary schools 63
  13. Chapter 5. Cause for optimism 91
  14. Chapter 6. Summative and formative pronunciation assessment in Polish secondary schools 119
  15. Chapter 7. Pronunciation learning strategies 147
  16. Part III. Using corpora to inform instruction
  17. Chapter 8. The intonation contour of non-finality revisited 175
  18. Chapter 9. Rationale and design of a study of foreign-accented academic English 197
  19. Chapter 10. Corrective feedback and unintelligibility 223
  20. Part IV. Investigating learners’ output
  21. Chapter 11. Acquisition of English onset consonant clusters by L1 Chinese speakers 255
  22. Chapter 12. Vowel reduction in English grammatical words by Macedonian EFL learners 279
  23. Part V. Exploring tools and techniques
  24. Chapter 13. Integrating prosodic features in a children’s English course 305
  25. Chapter 14. Differential effects of lexical and non-lexical high-variability phonetic training on the production of L2 vowels 327
  26. Chapter 15. Mobile apps for pronunciation training 357
  27. Index 385
Downloaded on 19.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/aals.19.13von/html
Scroll to top button