At 05:25 PM 10/7/2007, Scott Woods wrote:
>In the process of teaching my 7th graders how to read poetry out 
>loud, I noticed that, for many of them, they paused at the end of 
>each line, regardless of its punctuation, and lowered the tone of 
>the last word as though it were followed by a period.   I found this 
>problem diminished when I worked with my students to distinguish the 
>sound of a word followed by a period from that word followed by a 
>comma, semicolon, or colon.  For instance, "The boy went to the 
>store. He bought a loaf of bread. Then he went home." is pronounced 
>differently from "The boy went to the store; he bought a loaf of 
>bread; then he went home."  Or in "Buy several items at the store." 
>store is pronounced differently from store in "Buy several items at 
>the store: bread, soap, and milk."
>  Does anyone know of any research relating to this phenomenon and 
> its relationship to instruction? Have others noticed this?

DD: I don't hear a difference in emphasis, or tone, or volume. Is 
this regional? Valley talk? I do have a know a woman at the gym that 
raises intonation at the end of sentences, where I would put a period 
in writing.  

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/