Intonation is an important aspect of spoken language which often does not receive the attention it deserves. We present results of a survey on the teaching of French intonation by French teachers in several English Universities. We compare the conventional way of teaching intonation with the potential of methods based on computer-aided learning.
We link intonation, interaction and interactivity : intonation is often assessed without being taught. When it is taught, interaction with the teacher is favoured, but this is more acceptable to extrovert learners. With interactivity, the use of a computer benefits the more reserved students, who otherwise tend to underperform.
After a critical analysis of existing IT methods for learning French intonation, we describe the steps to set up a new IT method using the world-wide web language HTML together with the choice of criteria for setting up learning units.