Clase 08

RIGHT FROM THE TOP, DOWN TO THE BOTTOM

When our voice goes down...

We're already familiar with the general meanings of tones in English. Now it's our turn
to go deeper into the analysis of each of the tones. Today: FALLING TONES.

When do we use them? How do they sound?

Let's watch the following introductory video before we move on to some listening
identification and practice activities.

Main ideas to remember from the presentation:

● The use of tones varies whether they are used in live conversation or the
spoken text is just a monologue.
● Attitudinal meanings are conveyed through wide and narrow pitch
movements.
● Cultural conventions are crucial for EFL teachers regarding the use of tones.

We can listen to the dialogues in the presentation again and practice identifying how
the falling tones are produced:
● DIALOGUE 1:

● DIALOGUE 2:
Clase 08

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

There's no way to go but ahead...

Repetition and practice are crucial for cognitive learning. Doing something again and
again is a healthy way of remembering things and more naturally building up
knowledge.

BACK TO THE BOOK

We'll go back to Speak Out Upper Intermediate and base our

practice on language in context.

● We'll work on Unit 10.3 - Speak Out Upper Intermediate

The aim of the activity is to make us familiar with the use of falling
tones when we're giving a tour and describing places to other
people.

We will also find rising tones in the subordinate/incomplete parts of

the speech. We must make sure we concentrate on the main ideas,
the ones produced with falling tones (finality, completeness).

● We'll do the listening activity respecting the sequece:

pre-listening, wile-listening and pos-listening.
● Then, we'll go to the back of the book and check the script
(after doing the listening).

Make sure you find pleasure in doing the activity. Try to travel with your imagination.
Search for photos of the places described so that you can actually see the places
that are mentioned in the audio.

After some attentive listening, we should be able to imitate the speakers (in our own
way, of course). We'll be ready when we've listened to the audio file several times and
marked tonality, tonicity and tones.

Click here to access and/or download the

audio in Unit 10.3
Finally, we'll record our reading and upload it to the following link. We'll use this as
an important practice, similar to the one in the final exam.

To upload your audio files, please click here.

Remember to apply all the concepts we've studied for tonality and tonicity as well.

**If there are questions related to the topic, please post them in the forum.