As a variation, have two students practice and perform a
conversation with kazoos or by humming. Ask other students
to identify questions and answers and to try to guess what
they’re saying.
Computer software: There are several software programs
that allow you to record your voice and see a diagram
showing the intonation pattern of what you’ve said. These
sometimes come as part of a larger pronunciation practice
package and can be expensive. However, here are two free
software programs that can analyze intonation patterns.
- Praat was created by two Dutch phoneticists at the
University of Amsterdam, Paul Boersma and David
Weenink. Praat is useful, but it can take some e"ort to
learn to use. Video and print tutorials are available
online. (Google “Praat tutorials.”) You can download the
program for free at http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/
for either Windows or Mac. - Speech Analyzer was developed by SIL International
(the Summer Institute of Linguistics), and is available
only for Windows. It can be downloaded at http://
www-01.sil.org/computing/sa/index.htm.
When using one of these programs to look at intonation
contours, you can see the patterns best with sentences that
171Screen shot of Praat (Mac version)Screen shot of Speech Analyzer (Windows)