PTLC2005 Shimizu ＆ Taniguchi Reaffirming the effect of interactive visual feedback on teaching English intonation to Japanese learners:1
1 Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate how interactive visual feedback affects
Japanese learners in their improvement of English intonation. Taniguchi and Abberton
(1999) conducted an experiment on it with control and test groups, in which only the test group had access to interactive visual feedback, using the Laryngograph Processor.
Their results showed that the test group surpassed the control group in all four kinds of material used; the test group, on the average, made twice as great improvement as the control group. In their experiment, the subjects read aloud the four kinds of material, and their performance in intonation was tested.
In order to confirm the above results from a different angle, this paper shows some results of another type of experiments, i.e., experiments on Japanese learners’ auditory discrimination of intonation, focusing on the seven tones as described by O’Connor and
Arnold (1973) and on how interactive visual feedback can help their improvement.
2 Method, Subjects and Material
2.1 Experiment One
A pretest and a posttest on tone perception were given to 22 students at Susaki High
School, and in between the two tests, there was a practice session on the seven tones with the use of dynamic gestures, which represented and synchronized with the movements of the tones to help the students visualize them in their minds.
The material for the test was a one-word utterance, “Yes,” uttered in the seven tones at random. The students were given a handout with explanations of the nuances and implications of the tones, and they were asked to choose the one that matched the tone uttered by M. Taniguchi, one of the present authors. The handout read as follows:
Question) “Yes” can express different feelings according to the tone used. You will hear “Yes” in seven different tones. On the handout, you see seven different kinds of feelings, emotions and implications. Each time you hear “Yes” uttered with a tone, please choose the feeling, out of A to G, that you think fits it most.
1( ) 2( ) 3( ) 4( ) 5( ) 6( ) 7( )
A. The utterance seems to continue somehow, incomplete, indifferent.
B. Extremely excited, questioning, and implying “Yes, but…,” incomplete.
C. Very excited, questioning, incomplete, asking for repetition.
D. Calm, gentle, encouraging, soothing, calmly questioning, incomplete.
E. Extremely excited, very strong assertion, implying “Of course,” complete.
F. Very excited, interested, high-spirited, lively, complete.
G. Calm, quiet, uninterested, low-spirited, complete.
The order of the tones actually read aloud in the pretest was as follows (the answers are shown in parentheses): 1 Low Fall (G), 2 High Fall (F), 3 Rise-Fall (E), 4 Low Rise (D),
5 High Rise (C) , 6 Fall-Rise (B), and 7 Mid-Level (A)

PTLC2005 Shimizu ＆ Taniguchi Reaffirming the effect of interactive visual feedback on teaching English intonation to Japanese learners:2
And the order of the tones actually read aloud in the posttest was as follows (the answers are shown in parentheses): 1 Mid-Level (A), 2 Fall-Rise (B), 3 High Rise (C),
4 Low Rise (D), 5 Rise-Fall (E), 6 High Fall (F), and 7 Low Fall (G)
Test
Low Fall
High Fall
Rise Fall
Pre-test Post-test
63% 54%
Test
Low Rise
36%
68%
63%
58%
High Rise
Fall Rise
Pre-test Post-test
32%
27%
23%
50%
68%
72%
Mid-Level 36% 63% Average 41% 61%
Table 1: Comparison between the Pretest and the Posttest in Experiment One
Table 1 compares the results of the pretest and those of the posttest. The average rate of improvement for the seven tones was 149 percent, which was significant. It reaffirmed the effectiveness of interactive visual feedback tested from the auditory perspective.
2.2 Experiment Two
In Experiment Two, which was conduced with 35 students at Kochi Nishi High School
(different subjects from Experiment One), we used not only “Yes” but also a conversation and short utterances. The conversation was as follows (W indicates a waiter/waitress, and C the customer).
W: Hello, welcome to my restaurant! C: I made a reservation for today.
W: Oh! Are you Mr Higgins?
W: Are you really Mr Higgins?
C: Yes (Low Fall).
C: Yes (High Fall).
W: Could you show me your reservation card? C: Yes (Rise-Fall). Here it is.
W: Thank you. Would you like a nonsmoking seat? C: Yes (Low Rise).
W: Well, we have a special menu today! C: Yes (High Rise)?
W: We have a special menu today, because this is
St. Valentine’s Day! This is it. But you have to finish all of it. Would you like to order it? C: Yes (Fall-Rise).
W: Would you like some dessert? C: Yes (Mid-Level).
The short utterances were as follows (tones used are shown after the tonic syllables):
1A: Tea(Rise) or cof(Fall)fee? 1B: Tea(Rise) or cof(Rise)fee? 1C: Tea or cof(Rise)fee?
2A: Excuse (High Fall) me. 2B: Excuse (High Rise) me? 2C: Excuse (Fall-Rise) me.
Some explanations of the differences of meaning were given as follows:
Short Utterance 1A is used when the speaker has only two kinds of drinks to offer.
Short Utterance 1B is used when the speaker has more than two kinds of drinks to offer. Short Utterance 1C implies that the speaker is asking whether or not the listener is interested in having something to drink such as the drinks mentioned.
Short Utterance 2A expresses the speaker’s apology. Short Utterance 2B means the speaker is asking the listener to repeat what she/he has just said (a repetition question). And Short Utterance 2C is an utterance using a polite tone to call the attention of somebody the speaker wishes to talk to.
The subjects were divided into two groups, test and control. The test group consisted of
17, and the control group, 18. Both groups had the same explanation and the pretest first, which was exactly the same as the one given in Experiment One.

PTLC2005 Shimizu ＆ Taniguchi Reaffirming the effect of interactive visual feedback on teaching English intonation to Japanese learners:3
After the pretest, the test group moved to a computer room, where they received training in perceiving and producing the seven tones, using Speech Filing System on the computer as well as such dynamic gestures as in Experiment One. The control group, on the other hand, had a practice session without access to such interactive visual feedback or any dynamic gestures representing the shapes of the seven tones they were perceiving and producing.
After the practice session finished for each group, the two groups got together again and had some more practice, using the tone marks of all the seven tones. We practised the conversation and the short utterances given above. After the practice session was over, the posttest was conducted.
The order of the tones given in the posttest was random, as follows (the answers are shown in parentheses): 1 High Fall (F), 2 Low Rise (D), 3 Fall-Rise (B), 4 Low Fall (G),
5 Rise-Fall (E), 6 High Rise (C), and 7 Mid-Level (A)
Test
Low Fall
Pre-test Post-test
41% 53%
Pre-test Post-test
47% 47%
High Fall
Rise Fall
Low Rise
High Rise
Fall Rise
12%
29%
36%
77%
47%
30%
29%
53%
77%
47%
29%
29%
35%
41%
24%
24%
29%
35%
47%
47%
Mid-Level
Average
47%
41%
65%
50%
Test Group
47%
36%
59%
41%
Control Group
Table 2: Results of the Pretest and the Posttest in Experiment Two
Table 2 shows that the test group’s average rate of improvement for the seven tones was 122 percent, which was higher than the control group’s, which was 114 percent.
This also reaffirmed the effectiveness of interactive visual feedback tested from the auditory perspective just as in Experiment One, though not as strongly.
2.3 Experiment Three
In Experiment Three, conducted with 152 students at Izuhara Junior High School, we used the same conversation and short utterances. We had the same practice session on the seven tones with the use of dynamic gestures which represented and synchronized with the movements of the tones to help the students visualize them in their minds. In addition, as in the test group of Experiment Two, we used computer software which can show the physical counterpart of pitch on the computer screen, so the students were provided with visual feedback of their own intonation as well as the teacher’s.
Test
Low Fall
Pre-test
42%
Post-test
47%
Test
Low Rise
Pre-test
26%
Post-test
48%
High Fall
Rise Fall
16%
19%
34%
28%
High Rise
Fall Rise
50%
29%
54%
41%
Mid-Level 35% 77% Average 31% 47%
Table 3: Results of the Pretest and the Posttest in Experiment Three

PTLC2005 Shimizu ＆ Taniguchi Reaffirming the effect of interactive visual feedback on teaching English intonation to Japanese learners:4
Table 3 shows that the average rate of improvement for the seven tones was 152 percent. It again strongly reaffirmed the effectiveness of interactive visual feedback tested from the auditory perspective.
With all the groups in Experiments 1 to 3, an attitude survey was conducted, and as a result, the lessons greatly aroused the subjects’ interest in improving English intonation.
3 Conclusions
The purpose of this research was to investigate how interactive visual feedback affects
Japanese learners in their improvement of English intonation. Taniguchi and Abberton
(1999) approached this from the productive point of view, and now this paper has approached it from the perceptive point of view, reaffirming the effectiveness of interactive visual feedback on the improvement of Japanese learners’ English intonation and in addition on arousing their interest in it.
The results of the tests confirmed the effectiveness of interactive visual feedback on the
Japanese learners’ improvement of English intonation from the auditory point of view.
It was strongly suggested from the lessons with the use of dynamic gestures of hand movements and the computer software which can show the physical counterpart of pitch on the computer screen. The lessons also attracted, aroused and maintained the interest of the students in English intonation practice. Pitch movements can be shown by computer, by the movements of hands, or by holding some objects in hands, such as tennis balls or oranges. The important point here is to help the learner visualize the pitch movement dynamically. It is of course necessary to provide the learner with some theoretical background knowledge, but the actual practice with interactive visual feedback is indispensable in order to help her/him to acquire an adequate level of intonational performance both productively and perceptively.
The results of the pretests and posttests showed significant improvement in the students’ ability in perceiving the seven tones accurately and matching them with the feelings and implications. Moreover, the results of the attitude survey showed that the students’ interest, concern, and desire to improve their English intonation also greatly improved.
The experiments in the form of English intonation lessons to high school and junior high school students made us realize the importance of the teacher’s responsibility to be the learner’s model, to improve her/his own ability in evaluating the learner’s intonation and correcting it when necessary.
4 References
O’Connor, J. D. & Arnold, G. F. (1973) Intonation of Colloquial English.
(2 nd
edition)
London: Longman.
Taniguchi, Masaki & Abberton, Evelyn (1999) Effect of interactive visual feedback on the improvement of English intonation of Japanese EFL learners. Speech, Hearing and
Language: Work in Progress . No. 11, pp. 76-89. Department of Phonetics and
Linguistics, University College London.