Abstract:
This study aims at investigating the degree of students’ knowledge
concerning identifying and producing different tones and the tonic
syllable in the intonation of English language; moreover whether this
ability could be improved through teaching Intonation. Another aim is to
find out the degree of students exposure to English language and whether
it affects their standard concerning English language. One of the aims is
to examine the intonation of Sudanese colloquial Arabic to point out the
similarities and differences between it and the English intonation, to
determine if there is any kind of transfer. To achieve these aims the
researcher used two methods namely the descriptive and the experimental
methods. The data was collected through testing a sample of 92 third year
students. Statistical analysis of the students’ performance showed the
following: Students’ performance regarding the receptive and productive
tests as total has improved after being taught intonation by about 20%,
and 30% respectively. Students’ performance has improved regarding the
three levels level of word level of sentence and level of tonic syllable but
the improvement is quite obvious concerning the level of sentence in the
receptive test, and level of tonic syllable in the productive test.
Regarding the tonic syllable the students in the pre-test have an
inclination not to choose and intensify the structure words as a tonic
syllable. Their understanding in this area has improved.
The most important recommendations are: Supra-segmental
feature and particularly intonation should be diffused in different
syllabuses in the curriculum of the English language. Teachers should be
well trained to teach such features.
