Teaching Sentential Intonation Through Proverbs

Suprasegmental elements such as stress, pitch, juncture and linkers are language universals that are uttered naturally in the mother tongue without prior training but need to be learned systematically in the target language. Among other techniques of sentential pronunciation teaching to second language (L2) students, exercises with proverbs in the target language can be utilized effectively to acquire natural rhythm and articulation. By addressing a natural interest in traditional wisdom and common sense, proverbs in the target language benefit students with their grammatical and lexical importance and can be used to produce acceptable pronunciation and intonation in the new language. Going that one step further from word stress to sentential intonation by working on broad transcriptions, pronunciation teachers may produce a crystal pronunciation contributing to better communication.