Accent and intonation in foreign language instruction tend to be treated in a haphazard manner for two reasons: lack of research analysis that can be applied to second language acquisition (SLA) situation; and absence of pedagogical materials that effectively train learners on this aspect of the target language. Japanese language instruction at all levels will benefit from both deductive and inductive instructions on accent and intonation at the level of utterance and discourse. Such seemingly challenging a task can be accomplished by using a computerized exercise that involves the shift of accent and intonation patterns.
I will demonstrate a computer program currently being developed to help Japanese students improve their communicative effectiveness by directing their attention to the effect of variations in accent and intonation patterns. This program is part of an on-going project to improve the instruction on prosody in Japanese. Currently, no other computerized material is available to provide an organized overview of the effects of variations in accent and intonation in Japanese utterances. The users of this program will have opportunities to learn the facts about the lexical accent and utterance intonation, as well as to practice perceiving and producing such variations accurately. The final stage of each of the included exercises will involve contextualized and simulated conversations. The use of the computer allows both instructors and learners to utilize the time outside the classroom effectively.
I will also propose ways to make the topic of accent and intonation a part of the curriculum without having to spend much of the valuable class time.