Intonation and feedback in the EFL classroom 193//o it SAID he CAME //p from a ROYal FAMily //
//p so an imPORTant FAMily //
‘royal’ is selected with high key, focusing attention on the statement in the
text being used that Yusof’s was a royal (as opposed to a ‘non-royal’)
family.
DISCOURSE STRUCTURE AND INTONATION IN FEEDBACK
The positive assessment of a response, we have argued, closes the exchange.
As an indication of this closure the teacher might simply move on to initiate
a new exchange. S/he may also, however, choose to give an intonational
marker of the completion of a section or unit of the discourse, and we now
turn to this discourse structuring function of intonation. In the following
extract, for example,
27 S: //o AHmad and ZAIdi //p WENT to the CINema //
T: //p GOOD // (a)
//o and the NEXT one // (b)
the teacher selects low termination (strictly speaking low key and low termination
in this minimal tonic segment) for the item ‘good’ (a), which is his indication
of assessment, before going on to initiate a new exchange with (b). It is
suggested that this selection of low (rather than high or mid) termination
serves to indicate the closure of the exchange.
Brazil (1985:178–99) identifies a phonological unit which consists of all
the tone units occurring between two successive low terminations and labels
it the pitch sequence. Its boundaries coincide with the beginning and end of
an ‘intuitively significant’ section of the discourse. Each choice of low
termination, therefore, represents the close of such a section. The precise
significance that can be attached to pitch sequence closure can only be
discovered by reference to local meaning within the discourse, but generally
speaking, with reference to classroom discourse, it may be stated that pitch
sequence closure coincides with the end of a perceived stage in a lesson.
Being the dominant party in classroom discourse this perception is usually
that of the teacher and it is primarily his/her prerogative to select low
termination. It is proposed, then, that a pitch sequence boundary, that is, a
choice of low termination, occurring in an item such as ‘good’ is a marker
of the closure of the exchange. In other words it indicates that the business
of the exchange has been completed to the teacher’s satisfaction, and that
the assessment is finished.
It would thus seem reasonable to suggest that in selecting low rather
than mid or high termination for ‘good’ in (27) the teacher wishes his
students to perceive a more significant boundary in the discourse than