Intonation: Learn the Music of the Language (5 Weeks)

Did you know that incorrect intonation can lead to misunderstanding, or can sound rude and offend the other party? That without intonation, your statements can sound flat and without life? You may even sound insincere ... Each language has its own "melody" and getting that melody right is what makes your speech sound fluent and natural. Intonation can help add attitudes to your words or emphasize important words in your sentences. Through extensive drills and exercises, this class will help students learn and practice the right intonation patterns, rhythms and stresses for English. It will be a valuable aid for proper communication.

1. Students will be able to develop and improve their English listening skills.
2. Students will be able to gain a greater understanding and practice of English language word stress at the sentence level.
3. Students will become more autonomous in their approach to studying and selection of useful resources so that they may continue to improve their speaking, listening, and understanding of key concepts after the course has finished.

English language learne who want to improve their rapid listening skills as well as their ability to speak with more natural inflection and prosody. This course is a recommended follow-up to PRL101.
English Level: Intermediate to Advanced

No required textbook

David Phillips

David Phillips earned his MAT in Applied Linguistics from the University of Southern California and has been working as an Academic English Instructor at Temple University Japan since 2016 and started working at Seikei University from April 2023. In addition to his university work, he also serves as an examiner for the Eiken Foundation of Japan throughout the year. Prior to living and teaching in Japan, he taught sociocultural anthropology to first-year undergraduates at the University of Washington and Intensive English courses at Seattle Pacific University for 5 years. David is focused on continuing to apply a sociocultural approach to every class lesson as a way to utilize student background knowledge and build co-created classrooms in which every student has opportunities to contribute and actively participate. When he is not teaching or publishing works on adapting materials for cultural responsiveness and autonomous learner development, David is working toward completing a doctorate degree in English Pedagogy at Murray State University and producing episodes for his YouTube channel called, "The Rhythm Circuit," which features a global listening base.