THE IMPACT OF INTONATION ON EFL LEARNERS’ LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

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.