Have you noticed that when English native speakers talk
they have special ways of saying their sentences and their tones go up and down
like that and you think are their English now I can help you too
to have the same ways of intonation and the same ways of saying questions so
that you too can sound much more like a native speaker interested so watch this
video so that you can find out exactly how to do it and watch to the end
because I give you tips on how to practice your intonation let's go
welcome to my channel where you will learn English better and welcome aboard
palm tree teaching English Academy I'm Deirdre Nicholas teacher trainer speaker
and English expert of more than 20 years I've helped thousands of English
learners early around the world improve their English and now it's your turn for
a new way to learn English that really works subscribe to my channel by
clicking on the red button and the Bell so that you don't miss any of my twice
weekly lessons so what is intonation well intonation is all about the way we
say things not the words themselves it's a form of pronunciation every language
has its own musical sounds and it's rising and falling melody and this is
what we call information in fact you could think of your voice as a musical
instrument how you say things is just as important as what you say in order to
sound fluent and natural in English intonation shows the speaker's attitude
and against your meaning across let me give you an example if your friend told
you that they just won a million pounds there are two ways of responding that
can change the meaning firstly you might say really or you might say really now
the first one with a rising tone really sounds like you're surprised and
actually it's a pleasant thing the second one with the falling tone really
sounds like you don't believe them so you can see how important intonation is
there are lots of ways that intonation is used in English of course such as
making statements about things listing things expressing your feelings and
emotions and stressing certain points and so on in this lesson I'm going to
share with you how to ask questions British English style to improve your
English and to sound much more natural so the correct intonation in asking
questions is incredibly important but luckily there are some rules that I'm
going to teach you listen to these questions do you want to go for coffee
where do you want to go for coffee did you notice the difference the first
one do you want to go for coffee had a rising intonation the second one had a
falling intonation where do you want to go for coffee why so the rule is if the
question is a closed question and you can answer it with a yes-or-no answer
then the intonation rises so in that example do you want to go for coffee the
answer is either yes or no so the intonation rises these types of
questions usually start with question words such as our will did do have and
you always answer them with a yes or a No so for example is there a lesson now
is there a lesson now or do you want me to help you do you want me to help you
the second question with a falling intonation where do you want to go for
coffee it's used for most other types of questions and for questions where the
answer cannot be yes or no for example why aren't you going to school where did
you meet your best friend or when do you finish work today so now let's focus on
how you can practice your intonation and how you can improve it in your own
speaking here are some ideas for you number one the first way is to become
much more aware of your own intonation and how you sound listen to your voice
how by recording yourself listen to yourself and how you speak you can just
use a mobile phone to do that you can even do it with a friend and create a
dialogue between you and help each other and teachers in schools you can do it
with your pupils as well you could use a script from a book or a scene from a
film listen to your intonation think about does it sound natural
does it show your attitude the third idea is shadow read with a video why not
try this one turn on the subtitles and read it aloud
I'm saying the words as well watch a short segment and then repeat it try to
match the same stress and pace and pitch a fourth idea is exaggerate your
intonation really exaggerate it so when the pitch Rises make your voice really
rise higher than you normally would of course you wouldn't do this in public
but it really becomes you become much more aware of it
listen to lots of native speaking English on the television on YouTube on
podcasts BBC News BBC radio the more you listen to native speakers speaking
English the more you will notice how native speakers use intonation to
express themselves so I hope you really enjoyed this video if you have hit the
like button and would put a comment underneath the video because I'd love to
hear from you don't forget I post two lessons a week one on a Tuesday and one
on a Friday so subscribe so you don't miss any of my lessons and I hope you
really enjoy learning your English and I'll see you really soon bye
you