Teaching the Perception of the Intonation of Finally Extended Simple Sentences: A Demonstration by Computer

A simple sentence consists of just one independent clause with a subject and a predicate and no dependent clauses. In terms of structure, a simple sentence normally has to have at least a subject and a predicate. That is why a simple sentence is the smallest sentence unit we know. It can be extended from the beginning, middle, and from the end. Their intonation patterns change in accordance with the grammatical nature by the added structures to the simple sentence and what the speaker wants to do with the utterance. An analysis of expanded simple sentences in terms of intonation will promote the improvement of students’ communication skills in English. The research on the sentence intonation is almost zero. The scarcity is the cause of this research in this paper. In this research, 12 sample sentences in the corpus, including finally extended sentences, will be given to 30 PhD students who will tape their utterances. They will hand in their taped corpus to the researcher on purposeful voluntary bases. By means of Grammar Intonation Approach and Discourse Intonation Approach the oral production of the participants will be evaluated via Audacity Program 1.2.6 in relation to perception and production of the intonation of finally expanded simple sentences in training foreign language teachers.