On Patterns of English Intonation Advisor:鍾榮富 Presenter:王雅慧 Number:M98C0207

Introduction Background and Motivation Students learning English as a foreign language. Multiple learning English resources i.e. movies, radio, English TV shows Students learning English in exam-oriented environments.

Statements of the Problem Tone language v.s. Intonation language Lead to misunderstanding

Research about Intonation Lado (1975) points that if foreign language’s intonation patterns are not found in the native language, students may have trouble speaking and knowing the meaning of intonation. Chen (2010) states that Taiwan learners’ speech is found with syllable-time patterns.

Purposes of the study To explore English intonation of Taiwan students and native speakers. To compare students’ pitch value with native speaker’s. To find out the differences between students’ pitch system and native speaker’s pitch system.

Research Questions 1.What are the differences of intonation patterns between Taiwan students and native speakers? 2.What are the characteristics of pitch of Taiwan students? 3.What are the elements of native speaker’s English intonation? 4.Which intonation patterns would students have more difficulties?

Definition of Terms Intonation: Intonation refers to the pitch values in the ups and downs of daily utterances, which, as stated in Ladefoged (2006) , can be simply translated as patterns of pitch changes occurrng in a sentence. Ranalli (2002) addressed that we attach familiar labels describing levels, high or low, and tones, falling or rising.

The levels of pitch Four horizontal in the American English intonation Extra-high 4________ High 3________ Normal (Middle) 2 ________ Low 1________ For example: Declarative intonation: /231/intonation