Language Value June 2020, Volume 12, Number 1 pp. 1-29
http://www.languagevalue.uji.es ISSN 1989-7103
Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/LanguageV.2020.12.2
1
New research genres and English prosody: an exploratory
analysis of academic English intonation in Video Methods
Articles in experimental biology
Ignacio Guillén Galve
iguillen@unizar.es
Miguel A. Vela-Tafalla
mvela@unizar.es
University of Zaragoza, Spain
ABSTRACT
The digital multimedia environment where research communication develops nowadays has important
consequences for EAP course design (Pérez-Llantada 2016), since speaking and visuals are ever more
decisive for communicative success (Crawford-Camiciottoli and Fortanet-Gómez 2015). However,
intonation manuals have remained virtually unchanged for decades, reflecting a time of limited access to
actual academic intonation in use. To countervail this situation, we draw on Hafner‘s (2018) multimodal
analysis of experimental biology Video Methods Articles by examining the intonation used in an
exploratory corpus of the Researcher‘s Introduction section, identified as the most hybrid in generic
nature. Our analysis suggests that traditional Hallidayan intonation explained in handbooks like Hewings
(2007) and Brazil (1994) fails to capture phenomena observed in our corpus. These intonational
phenomena (mostly deviations from traditional tonicity) have been found to be consistent with genre-
specific factors like communicative purpose and move structure. Consequently, a broader revision of
academic intonation materials is proposed.
Keywords: English for Academic Purposes; digital research genres; English intonation; English
pronunciation teaching
I. INTRODUCTION
I.1. Background
Today more than ever, research communication and science dissemination are mainly
digital multimedia activities. This communicative environment shapes the practices of
both producers and consumers of scientific texts, which is discernible in the emergence
of new academic genres and the adaptation of more traditional ones to the new contexts.
Consequently, in the interest of providing appropriate frameworks and pedagogical
insights for English for Academic Purposes, the study of academic and professional
genres in recent years has been concerned with genre change and innovation (Hyon
2018, Pérez-Llantada 2016, Tardy 2016) as well as intertextuality and interdiscursivity
(Bhatia 2017, Hafner and Miller 2019).
mailto:iguillen@unizar.es
mailto:mvela@unizar.es
Ignacio Guillén Galve and Miguel A. Vela-Tafalla
Language Value 12 (1), 1–29 http://www.languagevalue.uji.es 2
After the journal article and its orbiting part genres (see Pérez-Llantada 2013), the
academic blog stands as the most widely studied digital research genre, with studies
(Luzón 2013a, 2013b, Zou and Hyland 2019, 2020) focusing on the linguistic strategies
deployed by academic blog writers to adapt scientific discourse to a hybrid, highly
interactional genre with a wider, diversified audience. In writing, other digital research
genres that have been explored include web-based texts for crowdfunding science
(Mehlenbacher 2017), online conference announcements (Lorés 2018), virtual special
issue introductions (Mur-Dueñas 2018), and graphical abstracts (Sancho-Guinda 2016).
Some relevant studies addressing oral digital research genres cover work on research
dissemination videos (Luzón 2019), video methods articles (Hafner 2018), webinars
(Ruiz-Madrid and Fortanet-Gómez 2017), and online poster sessions (D‘Angelo 2012).
Interestingly, all these studies but the last make use of Multimodal Discourse Analysis
(cf. Kress and van Leeuwen 2001). This analytical framework, common in the study of
other oral academic (i.e. not online or research) genres (see Morell 2018, Querol-Julián
and Fortanet-Gómez 2012, Valeiras-Jurado et al. 2018), is highly convenient to capture
the combination of semiotic resources that the digital medium affords and provide
valuable insight into the synergies achieved by the different modes of scholarly
communication online. This presentation, if succinct, is enough to gain an impression of
how rich and diverse the present-day repertoire is when new digital research genres are
added to the existing pool of academic genres.
Adding to studies that address the genres of interest directly, there is also increasing
scholarly interest in understanding the contexts of generic practices and the different
constellations of genres that arise, which is mainly achieved by researching
intertextuality and interdiscursivity (Bhatia 2017, Hafner and Miller 2019) and
especially by implementing ethnographic methodologies (Paltridge et al. 2016, Swales
2019).
All in all, this situation of growing scholarly interest in new forms of research
communication appears to favour studies which highlight the hybridity and
interdiscursivity of texts in new contexts, as well as the exploitation of the multimodal
resources of the digital environment. However, to the best of our knowledge, no
research has tackled intonation in these investigations. We argue that intonation can
contribute to the exploration of both types of phenomena, as a linguistic resource
New research genres and English prosody: an exploratory analysis of academic English intonation in
Video Methods Articles in experimental biology
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subject to contextual constraints and as a mode contributing to the meaning-making
process of multimodal expression. Consequently, this paper presents an initial approach
to the study of intonation in relation to digital research genres and discusses the
pedagogical implications of some preliminary yet valuable findings.
I.2. Aim and rationale
Previous research with a similar topic is scarce and usually different from the research
interests of this project. Crystal and Davy‘s (1969) famous work on stylistics, featuring
mainly prosodic analysis, considers a ―modality‖ dimension corresponding to what has
been defined as genre in ESP/EAP since Swales (1990). However, this dimension is just
a minor part of a proposed framework for stylistics studies. Johns-Lewis (1986b)
presents a different problem in exploring prosodic characteristics of ―discourse modes‖.
These ―modes‖ are reading aloud, acting, and conversation, so this study also falls short
of linking intonation to generic configuration. Cheng et al. (2008) present a valuable
corpus-driven study of intonation in discourse including an academic sub-corpus with a
variety of non-research-related text types like the student presentation or lecture.
Nevertheless, their selection does not strive for genre representativity, as their interests
lie in other factors. Indeed, their text labels are reminiscent of MICASE (Simpson et al.
2002) which refers to ―speech event types‖ rather than genres. Something similar
happens with the few studies of intonation related to genre from the systemic-functional
perspective (e.g. Rivas and Germani 2016), since genre conceptualization in Systemic-
Functional Linguistics (Martin et al. 1987) departs from our research interests. Finally,
O‘Grady (2020) has recently argued for register studies to incorporate prosodic analysis.
Reviewing these studies shows that there is scholarly interest in the study of intonation
in discourse, even if ESP/EAP research has yet to address genre in connection with
intonation.
Genre studies that include intonation are mainly restricted to multimodal analyses, as in
the above-mentioned work. Understandably, these analyses cannot afford to dwell on
intonation for too long, considering it together with other semiotic modes. We also
understand that general studies of oral discourse usually overlook the spoken
component and investigate transcripts of spoken events. This is often due to the sheer
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nature of the research design since many methodologies were devised and refined to
investigate the wording component of discourse.
Therefore, this paper presents the first steps into intonation analysis of digital research
genres. Our central thesis is that the English intonation system is used rhetorically like
any other linguistic system: genre restricts or permits the available choices according to
the purpose of the speaker, the intended audience, and the formal constraints of
rhetorical structure. Accordingly, we want to contribute to current research by
answering these research questions: What is the interplay between intonation and genre?
Is a general English intonation framework appropriate to analyse digital research
English? And consequently, are English intonation manuals appropriate for the teaching
of academic oral skills?
In the following sections, the analytical approach, some preliminary results, and an
original proposal for the adaptation of intonation manuals to the teaching of Academic
Spoken English (ASE) for digital research genres will be presented.
II. CORPUS AND METHODS
II.1. Text selection and move analysis
Owing to the exploratory nature of this study, it takes a qualitative approach in order to
gain insight as to how to proceed with the analysis of more data in future research.
Therefore, we have close-analysed a small-scale ad-hoc corpus of five texts so as to
observe with detail the interaction between genre and intonation.
These texts are clips from Video Methods Articles (VMAs) published by the Journal of
Visualized Experiments. VMAs are online videos featuring on camera the demonstration
of methodological procedures of different disciplines within the broad fields of biology,
medicine, or engineering. The production of the video, controlled by the journal itself,
follows the acceptance of a double-blind peer-reviewed manuscript proposal. Hafner
(2018) analysed VMAs for generic integrity, rhetorical structure and multimodal
expression. Thus, they constitute an optimal object of inquiry to start delving into
intonation analysis, as a digital research genre that is emergent but sufficiently
New research genres and English prosody: an exploratory analysis of academic English intonation in
Video Methods Articles in experimental biology
Language Value 12 (1), 1–29 http://www.languagevalue.uji.es 5
established in its discourse practices to be analysed for a stabilized-for-now rhetorical
structure.
Hafner (2018: 27) identifies, between the Video Intro and final Closing Credits, the
possible moves for five possible sections in VMAs. An initial Overview presents the
viewer with a straightforward summary of the procedure, followed by the Researcher‘s
Introduction, which highlights its advantages, applications, and innovative value. The
procedure is performed in the main section, Demonstration, while a voiceover gives
recipe-like instructions. Then, the Representative Results section shows interesting
application. The video concludes with the Researcher‘s Conclusion, recapitulating the
previous information. This rhetorical analysis is convenient to explore the meanings of
intonation, as it provides an understanding of what each section is trying to accomplish.
In his study, Hafner (2018) chooses to exemplify multimodal analysis in the
Demonstration section, as it exploits visual resources to communicate procedural
knowledge. Likewise, we have focused our analysis on the Researcher‘s Introduction
(RI) section, where researchers face the camera and make statements about their
research. This interesting hybridization of promotional and scientific discourse makes it
attractive for intonation analysis to investigate what strategies researchers deploy for the
particular purposes of the genre. Indeed, the other sections consist of voice-over
explanations which are usually read by the journal‘s professional voice actors.
Out of Hafner‘s (2018) corpus of 11 VMAs in experimental biology, 7 of them are
open-access. We have analysed the RI sections of the five most recent of these, in order
to avoid considerations of genre change over time, which is beyond the scope of this
project. The videos were extracted from the source code of the webpage. Each VMA‘s
section of interest was clipped, its audio track was extracted for later intonation
analysis, and it was transcribed manually. Each clip was coded as VMA-RI plus
numbers one to five (e.g. VMA-RI1), as shown in Table 1 with information about the
year of publication, size, length, original times, and reference.
Table 1. Corpus items.
Item Year Words Length Time Reference
VMA-RI1 2011 46 20‘‘ 00:56-01:16 https://doi.org/10.3791/2638
VMA-RI2 2012 34 14‘‘ 01:06-01:20 https://doi.org/10.3791/3037
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VMA-RI3 2013 63 22‘‘ 01:17-01:39 https://doi.org/10.3791/50762
VMA-RI4 2015 96 35‘‘ 01:10-01:45 https://doi.org/10.3791/50974
VMA-RI5 2016 110 43‘‘ 00:21-01:05 https://doi.org/10.3791/54112
Total
349 2‘14‘‘
Hafner‘s (2018: 27) possible rhetorical moves for the RI section are:
1) Introducing Self,
2) Forecasting the Demonstration,
3) Explaining Significance,
4) Introducing Additional Researchers,
5) Inviting the Audience.
In Moves 1 and 4 the speaker simply presents the researchers involved, usually by
providing their name and credentials. Move 2 anticipates the procedure to be
demonstrated, while Move 3 focuses on the implications and novelty of the technique.
Finally, Move 5 serves as a link to the next section, asking for the viewer‘s
involvement. Each move was assigned a colour code for analysis with Microsoft
Word‘s highlight tool.
II.2. Intonation analysis
Intonation is the linguistic apparatus which manipulates pitch in speaking for different
semiotic purposes. This exploratory study approaches intonation analysis from the
phonological model described in Tench (1996), which continues Halliday‘s (1963,
1967) identification of three systems that combine for intonational meaning. First,
tonality refers to the division of the utterance of spoken discourse into successive
Intonation Units (IUs). Second, tonicity refers to IU-internal analysis by identifying the
tonic syllable, defined as the last pitch-prominent syllable. Third, tone refers to the
selection of pitch movements associated with the tonic. This model has been influential
for other models and is adapted in intonation manuals without making reference to its
terminology (Hewings 2007, Mott 2011).
New research genres and English prosody: an exploratory analysis of academic English intonation in
Video Methods Articles in experimental biology
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Our methodology combines instrumental and acoustic observations of intonational
phenomena (Wichmann 2013). In short, instrumental pitch visualization software has
informed and validated manual acoustic coding. Therefore, intonation analysis has
followed a three-stage process: first, acoustic analysis marking up the text; second,
instrumental observation with the Praat computer program (Boersma and Weenink
2019); lastly, modification of the initial acoustic mark-up.
Tonality is mainly concerned with the identification of boundaries between IUs, which
are typically thought to correspond to pauses in speech. However, since these are
phonological categories and not physical/phonetic incidents, boundaries are in practice
more difficult to recognize (Roach 2009): speakers may make IU-internal pauses or
proceed to the next IU without making a pause. Therefore, we have followed
Cruttenden‘s (1997) and Tench‘s (1996) cues to boundary identification, marking them
with a vertical line (|). As an illustration, we have not assigned a boundary to the filled
pause ―er‖ in (1), as it would create a boundary at an odd grammatical juncture and as
the first part of the unit does not include a tonic syllable. Conversely, in (2), despite the
absence of a pause between ―solution‖ and ―and‖, pitch and rhythm are clearly distinct
to signal a boundary.
(1) | and the two people that will er present that | are my two PhD students | (VMA-RI2)
(2) | as the solution | and the setting | for each prepared exosome solution | has to be
performed individually | (VMA-RI4)
Tonicity is mainly concerned with the identification of the tonic syllable, i.e. the last
prominent syllable of IUs. The tonic syllable has also been referred to as the nucleus of
the IU (Cruttenden 1997), so that the syllables preceding it are called pre-tonic or pre-
nuclear. In turn, these syllables can be described as head and pre-head, the former being
the syllables from the first stress to the tonic and the latter being the unstressed syllables
before the start of the head. Tonicity analysis is therefore implicated in the internal
structure of the IU. Consequently, we identify two types of tonic phenomena. First, the
tonic syllable is marked with the associated tone explained below. Second, other
prominent elements in the pre-nuclear segment are identified, mainly the phenomenon
of having an acoustically perceptible jump from a relatively low pitch to a higher one in
a non-tonic syllable. We refer to this phenomenon as a step-up in pitch, marking it with
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a caret (^). We did not find other relevant variations in the head in our exploratory
corpus.
Finally, tone is the movement of pitch in the tonic syllable. Focusing on the tonic
syllable, only primary tones (Tench 1996) have been identified: the fall, marked with a
backslash (\); the rise, marked with a forward slash (/); and the fall-rise, marked with a
combination of both (\/). An example of text with the whole mark-up system can be
seen in (3).
(3) | the demon^stration of this method is \critical | as the so/lution | and the /setting | for each
prepared \exosome so/lution | has to be performed indi\vidually | (VMA-RI4)
Here, there are five IUs (tonality) delineated by boundaries (|). Tonic syllables (tonicity)
can be identified by the preceding tone mark (tone). And the tonic phenomenon of step-
up in pitch can be seen in ―demonstration‖, marked with a caret before the stepped-up
syllable. Note too that the fall-rise is a compound tone and the rise may be realized at a
point later than the tonic syllable, as in ―exosome solution‖, where the tonic syllable is
the first syllable of ―exosome‖ despite the rise taking place in the second syllable of
―solution‖.
III. PRELIMINARY RESULTS
III.1. Rhetorical structure
The most common move configuration in our corpus (three of five) is a two-move
section consisting of Move 3 (Explaining Significance) followed by Move 4
(Introducing Additional Researchers). VMA-RI1 consists of Move 3 alone and VMA-
RI2 is dissimilar, having Move 2 (Forecasting the Demonstration), then Move 4 and a
final Move 5 (Inviting the Audience). These two are the shortest and also the oldest,
suggesting that the rhetorical configuration of the section has gained stability with time.
Moreover, the most frequent moves found are arguably the most promotional and
interactional, which suits the overall communicative purpose of the section to highlight
the advantages, applications, and innovative value of the technique in question.
III.2. Intonation and genre
New research genres and English prosody: an exploratory analysis of academic English intonation in
Video Methods Articles in experimental biology
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Tonality analysis in VMAs reveals a total of 63 IUs: 22.2% consist of whole clauses,
and 47.6% higher-order clause constituents (19.0% subjects, 15.9% adverbials, and
12.7% predicates). Large IUs are typical of scripted/prepared speech and, more
interestingly, fulfil the expectations of the genre, as boundaries are found at junctures
that are critical for showcasing what they are presenting. For instance, (4) shows whole
pieces of information with only one idea per IU and a final prepositional phrase with its
own IU, ―in a single analysis‖, which is the main asset of their presentation, thus
enacting Move 3 (Explaining Significance).
(4) | the ^main ad\vantage of this /technique | is that by ^using mass spectrometry-based
prote\/omics | we can simul^taneously quantify most of the known PTMs on histone
\/proteins | in a single a\nalysis | (VMA-RI5)
The selection of tonic syllables is related to boundary placement, as boundaries follow
the words which have been made prominent. Thus, in (4), ―proteomics‖, ―proteins‖, and
―analysis‖ are nuclear. Instead, ―advantage‖ is prominent even if not IU-final, for
―technique‖ has been de-accented as a context-predictable lexical item. This usage of
tonicity also corresponds to the purpose of the section within the VMA genre: as an
opening section, the main ideas are presented in an unmarked way by accenting the
relevant technical words; as a persuasive section foregrounding the rest of the VMA, the
emphasis is on the benefits of the methodology explained.
Tone choices are quite straightforward and respond to general English usage of
intonation. Rises (15.9%) are used to indicate shared knowledge; falls (55.6%) to
introduce new information, and fall-rises (28.6%) to introduce new information while
indicating sharedness or incompleteness. The greater incidence of falls relates to the act
of introducing a new technique, while rises and fall-rises together (44.4%) can be
expected in a digital research genre, where the audience has some familiarity with the
content.
The use of appositions in Move 4 (Introducing Additional Researchers) shows how
these explicative devices mirror the tone selection of their antecedents. This reinforces
the identification of the noun phrases by assigning them the same tone and contributes
to the function of introducing the researchers and providing their credentials, as seen in
(5) and (6):
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(5) | Natarajan \/Bhanu | a \research /specialist | and Kelly \Karch | a graduate \student |
(VMA-RI5)
(6) | as^sisting the procedure will be Clare \Hayes | a research a\ssistant in our group | (VMA-
RI3)
In sum, an initial three-system analysis of the data in our small-scale corpus would
corroborate the idea that intonation plays a specific role in the social action carried out
by the genre, considering its communicative purposes and its situational context.
III.3. Step-ups
Even if pre-tonic intonational phenomena were not considered in the initial design of
the study, as a first approach to the study of intonation in relation to generic
configuration, we have allowed for the data to yield relevant results outside our pre-
conceived framework. Thus, from a data-driven perspective, we have found step-ups
(i.e. jumps to a higher pitch in non-tonic syllables) to be sufficiently present in our
corpus and discourse-relevant to merit scholarly discussion even in this early stage
research.
In (4), three examples are indicated by the caret symbol (^). The stressed syllables in
―main‖, ―using‖, and ―simultaneously‖ are made prominent by receiving an acoustically
perceptible higher pitch. This is confirmed by instrumental measurement, showing
respectively a 79%, 87%, and 80% pitch increment, as opposed to ―single‖ in the same
utterance, which is just initial in the IU head without a step-up and presents a 48%
higher pitch than its preceding syllable.
Interestingly, intonation manuals conceive of step-ups as phenomena that occur in two
positions: the beginning of the head, i.e. the first stressed syllable, creating what has
been variously called ―high key‖ (Brazil 1994: 97), ―onset‖ (Collins and Mees 2013:
145), or ―stepping head‖ (Mott 2011: 242, Tench 1996: 132); or the tonic syllable itself,
e.g. in Brazil (1994) and Hewings (2007). However, our results show occurrences of
step-ups at stressed syllables other than the first in the IU or the tonic. The only
reference we have come across mentioning such possibility is a brief notice to dismiss
―anomalous tone units‖ in Roach (2009: 142). Consequently, we refer to occurrences
considered in textbooks as ―canonical‖, meaning they are officially recognized, while
New research genres and English prosody: an exploratory analysis of academic English intonation in
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occurrences of step-ups at other places will be called ―non-canonical‖. In a count of 63
IUs in our corpus, 31.8% (n=20) have a step-up of either type, 19.0% (n=14) being
canonical and 12.7% (n=8) non-canonical. Canonical step-ups are present in (4) and (6);
non-canonical step-ups in (7):
(7) | this method can help answer ^key questions in RNA bi\ology | such as how the interplay
of ^different RNA binding \proteins | regulates RNA \processing | (VMA-RI1)
Exploration of the functions of this intonational device suggests, first, the introduction
of new topics in Move-initial IUs, and second, contrast or highlight, which corresponds
to the function of Move 3 (Explaining Significance) itself. Our exploratory data did not
reveal functional differences between canonical and non-canonical step-ups.
IV. DISCUSSION
The data suggest that relating intonation usage to genre is not only possible but perhaps
necessary, as the general English intonation framework would only partially account for
the intonational functions observed. Therefore, manuals covering features of this type
require a few significant modifications for the teaching of those English intonational
strategies that contribute to the development of academic oral skills. This section
discusses these points against the backdrop of current theoretical and methodological
reflections in EAP. Lastly, Section V delineates a pedagogy of the step-up as a genre-
driven phenomenon.
The approach to spoken academic language does not seem to need to differ from the
approach to rhetorical choices such as hedging in academic writing. Paltridge et al.
(2009: 37-41) explain that creating an appropriate academic-sounding text involves not
only linguistic choices (e.g. active vs passive voice) but also rhetorical choices (e.g.
―whether to express oneself diffidently‖). Good command of the academic language at a
linguistic and rhetorical level is thus said to ensure the use of a communicatively
adequate academic style.
However, while stylistic features of academic writing have been extensively
documented in the field of EAP (e.g. Hinkel or Swales and Feak mentioned by Paltridge
et al. 2009), generic features of spoken academic style have received much less
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attention, except within the field of English pronunciation. Very little work investigates
Academic Speaking, whereas Academic Writing has a repertoire of well-known
publications covering a wide range of aspects (e.g. English 2011, Lillis and Curry 2010,
Paltridge et al. 2009, Ravelli and Ellis 2004).
On the other hand, Academic Spoken English (ASE) seems to have generated two types
of materials: guide-like books, such as Reinhart (2013) or Blanpain and Lafutt (2009),
which may deal with spoken genres and discuss intonation but adopt a skills perspective
in connection with general features of oral production; and text corpora such as BASE
(Thompson and Nesi 2001) or MICASE (Simpson et al. 2002), driven by the notion of
speech events and only covering traditional ones. Consequently, multimodal, digital
genres such as VMAs do not fall within the scope of coursebooks and corpora. Indeed,
only less academic/formal publications (e.g. Thaine 2018) have considered English
pronunciation and EAP. Still, these approaches seem underpinned by theoretical and
methodological reflections similar to those in introductory EAP textbooks such as
Charles and Pecorari (2016).
All these ASE materials and theories foreground skills, lexico-grammar and rhetorical
structure, although pronunciation is known to have an impact on efficient
communication in academic spoken genres:
The skill of listening involves activating several sources of knowledge, including the phonology,
syntax, semantics and pragmatics of the language, along with body language such as eye contact
and gesture. In order to understand speech, listeners must decode auditory and visual signals
(often referred to as ‗bottom-up processing‘) and must also construct meaning from the input
(often called ‗top-down processing‘). (Charles and Pecorari 2016: 154)
However, despite the limited role of pronunciation for general ASE (as one of several
―sources of knowledge‖ in ―bottom-up processing‖), the concept of genre can be used to
highlight the rhetorical, communicative importance of pronunciation. When Charles and
Pecorari (2016: 156) address ―listening comprehension in lectures‖, phonology emerges
as meaningful precisely because of ‗delivery‘, a genre-related aspect: ―In terms of
delivery, students often have problems due to speech rate, accent and pronunciation, and
it has been suggested that lecturers should slow their speech rate‖. This perspective
implies the possibility of presenting certain aspects of pronunciation as genre-driven
teaching/learning topics (even if considered a ―difficulty‖). It also allows these authors
New research genres and English prosody: an exploratory analysis of academic English intonation in
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to invite the EAP practitioner to provide input to ―lecturers‖ as a way of raising
―awareness of good practice‖ while underscoring that ―it is clearly necessary to teach
students to cope with these difficulties‖ (ibid.). Step-ups can thus be viewed both as a
type of generic input and as a type of generic difficulty.
We also argue that the pedagogy of the VMA genre, like the lecture, requires us to take
account of both sides of the process: the producers of the genre and their typically
academic audience. As we see it, the VMA is part of an academic context demanding
―not just listening, but also making a spoken contribution to the discourse‖ (Charles and
Pecorari 2016: 161).
Nevertheless, VMAs are not general, spontaneous spoken discourse; rather, we view
them closer to genres like the conference presentation, as the type of ―academic speech
event‖ which Charles and Pecorari (2016) call ―monologue‖, which ―can be rehearsed
and even scripted to some extent‖. Interestingly, this EAP-manual description of
academic monologue as a rehearsed and somewhat scripted product contains elements
that link it to the description of ―prepared speech‖ given in, for example, Hewings‘
(2007: 114) pronunciation-centred coursebook English Pronunciation in Use Advanced:
In most contexts, when we speak we are making up what we say as we go along. However, many
people at times need to plan and prepare speech more formally, and read this aloud from a
written text or develop it from notes. For example, students and academics may have to give
presentations or lectures in class or at a conference.
Hewings (2007) already mentions and connects the same genres (―presentations‖), type
of user (―students and academics‖), and setting (―conference‖), with similar pedagogic
purposes.
Hewings‘ analysis characterizes ‗prepared speech‘ by a number of ―features of
pronunciation‖ which include Step-ups. In Unit 57 (Hewings 2007: 120), the author
explains that we can use ―a step-up to a relatively high pitch‖ to show (i) that
information contrasts with previous information or what was expected, or (ii) that we
are starting a new topic. One of the examples of the ‗contrast‘ function is ―Although
many people think of ants as a nuisance, they play // a VItal ROLE // in many
ecosystems‖. The step-up on ‗vital‘ expresses a contrast between the common belief
that they are a nuisance and their actual vital role.
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As regards the ‗new topic‘ function, one of the examples provided in the book is a step-
up on the word ‗that‘ in a sentence-initial phrase like ―With that in mind‖. The step-up
occurs between a paragraph about the general topic of the impact of business and
industry on the environment, and another about a proposal for making the production of
environmentally-friendly cars the joint endeavour of scientists and manufacturers. The
text is put in the voice of a senior manager from an imaginary car manufacturer, who
uses the step-up on ‗that‘ to separate the claim that her company is already aware of
their impact on the environment from the claim for a joint effort as a new topic. The
step-up indicates that the new topic, the manager‘s proposal for a joint effort, must be
interpreted as following on from her statement of industrial awareness, that is, ‗with
THAT in mind‘.
Not unlike Hewings (2007), Charles and Pecorari (2016: 163) also use the term
‗feature‘ to distinguish ―the features that are typical of successful presentations‖, and
they do so as a prior step to considering ―how to teach presentation skills‖; among other
features, ―varying pitch and speech rate‖ are said to ―contribute to interesting and lively
talks‖.
Step-ups can thus be viewed as instances of ―varying pitch‖, although they have a far
more precise definition in the context of English Phonology. For instance, Hewings
(2007: 100) explains that ―the symbol is used to show a step up in pitch. In other
words, the voice moves up to a noticeably higher level than it was at before‖. Later, as
shown above, the Step-up is re-defined functionally in the context of ‗prepared speech‘
(Hewings 2007: 120). Accordingly, as expected from the nature of Hewings‘ book, the
function of intonation (here, Step-ups as a linguistic feature relevant to developing
presentation skills) is narrowed down from Charles and Pecorari‘s (2016: 163) general
function of contributing to ―interesting and lively talks‖ to very specific communicative
functions such as signalling ―contrasts‖ and ―new topics‖.
Reinhart (2013) seems to consciously strive to bridge the gap between English
Phonology and EAP. For instance, Reinhart assigns functions to stress and intonation as
used in a given genre (the ‗oral presentation‘) even if, owing to the aims of the book,
those functions boil down to the essentials of tonicity. See e.g. the analysis on Reinhart
(2013: 86):
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Notice that in this example [Then after this step, // the cooled vapor travels to a condenser.///],
rising intonation does not occur on the last word before the pause (step) but on this. This is
probably because the speaker wants to distinguish this step from other steps in the process.
Yet, Reinhart seems to be open to considering deviations from the norm, as a later
remark indicates: ―no matter what the general guidelines are, rising intonation can occur
on any word that the speaker chooses to highlight‖ (Reinhart 2003: 126). This admitted
variability in the placement of ‗highlighting‘ (displacing it from the last word of the unit
to a previous word) always seems functional in the genre, just as the function of
―distinguishing‖ above is one of several indicated (e.g. ―reassuring the listener‖ or
―clarifying‖). This perspective is particularly relevant to the interpretation of the co-
existence of canonical and non-canonical Step-ups in VMAs.
Evidently, because Reinhart‘s (2013) work focuses on ASE, she does not stop to
consider or determine the range or degrees characterizing, for example, the ‗rising‘ of
intonation —this is rather a phonetician‘s task. Nevertheless, her remarks suggest that it
is well worth examining the communicative potential of pitch modification in genres
with a strong ASE component and, subsequently, that different functions can be
assigned to the complex constituted by the voice moving up to various degrees of
―higher level in pitch than it was at before‖ (Hewings 2007: 100) and the position inside
the IU in which the phenomenon takes place.
V. PEDAGOGICAL PROPOSAL
V.1. The adaptation of Bradford’s (1988) Intonation in Context to the teaching and
learning needs originating from the occurrence of Step-ups in VMAs
Concerning the practical delimitation of a Step-up pedagogy, we propose to adapt
materials from the theory of Discourse Intonation (DI) to the EAP needs exemplified by
VMAs. Brazil (1975, 1994) developed DI from Halliday‘s three-system approach as in
this paper. However, his focus on the communicative and informational use of
intonation soon became a pedagogical drive to make intonation more accountable to
communication, Brazil‘s (1994) Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English
(PALE) being the most prominent example. PALE is well known for including several
interactive contexts such as instruction giving or taking control of discourse. These
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contexts are likely to be relevant to learners who, for example, need to make oral
presentations.
Before Brazil‘s PALE, Coulthard (1985) had already underscored this pedagogical drive
when he made it clear that, in DI, intonation choices depend on context and that,
consequently, generalizations about the intonational meanings of isolated stretches of
speech without their context should be avoided. Halliday‘s system is, conversely, more
analytical, more tied to detail, with an emphasis on IU-structure description (tonicity).
Even if Brazil‘s IU has a structure, DI attaches more importance to the existence of IU-
associated ―options‖ (see Coulthard 1985 for a summary) than to the thorough
delineation of a system as Halliday‘s (for a summary of work on English intonation in
the Hallidayan tradition Bloor and Bloor (2013: 15) suggest consulting Greaves 2007,
Halliday and Greaves 2008, or Tench 1996).
Originating from Brazil‘s school, Bradford‘s (1988) Intonation in Context is still geared
to conversational situations (typical of DI), while presenting intonation as a system with
important communicative functions in any speaker-listener interaction. Adding to its
display of DI put into practice, what we value most from the book is the internal
organization of its units, allowing the learner to explore the meaning conveyed by
intonation before production exercises.
Therefore, our pedagogical contribution in this exploratory study is the adaptation of
Bradford‘s system to the teaching and learning needs originating from the occurrence of
Step-ups in VMAs. Another great asset in Bradford‘s approach is its in-context nature,
since this approach is sustained by the DI claim that intonation choices are bound up
with their context of occurrence. For this study, VMAs constitute the context in which
Step-ups occur; to be precise, their Move 3 (‗Explaining significance‘), a rhetorical
stage with a clear communicative function.
Despite the advantages in Bradford‘s method, we are aware that our pedagogical
proposal must address Charles and Pecorari‘s (2016: 81) warning concerning the
adaptation of materials for EAP, given that ―published materials are written to cater to a
wide, often global, audience and it is therefore highly unlikely that they will meet all the
needs of your specific group of students‖. Accordingly, our adaptation of Bradford‘s
method will reorganize its parts as ‗tasks‘ in line with Charles and Pecorari‘s (2016: 74)
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definition of EAP materials as comprising ―both texts and the tasks designed to exploit
them for language learning purposes‖. Our ―texts‖ will be extracts from our corpus. Our
―tasks‖ will result from the recasting of Bradford‘s method. Our ―specific group of
students‖ will be related to the notion of academic discourse community in terms of
Swales (1990: 24-27). In this model, discourse communities are characterized as having
mechanisms of intercommunication among their members, and utilizing and possessing
one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, which is where VMAs
come in handy. As our pedagogical proposal is constrained by genre considerations, it is
geared to learners who are also advanced level researchers, which implies that our
instructional strategy would have to be modified for use with novice researchers
unaware of the existence and communicative advantages of new genres like the VMA.
Bradford‘s (1988: 3) five-step method starts with a ―sensitisation‖ task presenting one
feature of English intonation so learners ―become aware of the choices a speaker can
make and how they sound‖. Then, ―explanation‖ describes the feature and the meanings
of the choices available. ―Imitation‖ and ―practice activities‖ follow, for learners to
recognize the feature and practice production. A final ―communication activity‖
provides the opportunity ―to think about the feature‖ and use it in a freer situation.
The Step-up is our intonation feature of interest, particularly as detected acoustically
and instrumentally in the IUs from our corpus. We propose to present it as a linguistic
choice and demonstrate how it sounds. For this latter purpose, we suggest using the
Praat software, as Nagy (2014: 101) has shown that ―[v]isualization tools and
Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) provide new possibilities for the study
of suprasegmental features by enabling learners to connect the perceived auditory signal
with its visual representation‖. Following this argument, we believe that Praat provides
―adequate visual feedback‖ because pitch tracings are easily interpretable, unlike, e.g.,
spectrograms. Accordingly, we suggest extracting pitch tracings from our corpus
together with their transcript (see Figure 1), thus incorporating speech visualization into
Bradford‘s method as a pedagogical tool for sensitization purposes.
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Figure 1. Praat pitch tracings with the marked-up transcription
It is indeed possible to adapt a whole unit to the requirements of Step-ups in the specific
genre of VMAs. Bradford‘s Unit 7, on ―Contrasts‖ (39-45), displays the closest topic
and aims to Hewings‘ unit on ―Step-ups‖, whose title highlights the phonetic
phenomenon instead of the basic function. Combining its fully-fledged structure with
similarity of topic and aims, Bradford‘s type of unit stands out as a very suitable starting
point for adaptation.
Bradford‘s (1988) ―explanation‖ section uses DI‘s ―High Key‖, not ―Step-up‖, with the
function of expressing contrast to hearers‘ expectations. We use Hewings‘ term for its
metaphorical, more intuitive nature, close to the process type of meaning of the general-
English verb ‗to step something up‘, whereas Brazil‘s ‗key‘ comes from the specialized
field of music.
V.2. Tasks and sub-tasks of the pedagogical proposal
V.2.1. Sensitization
V.2.1.a. Task
After adopting speech visualization as a pedagogical tool, and ‗Step-up‘ as more
pedagogical terminology, our adaptation of Bradford‘s sensitization substructure entails
deciding on texts to replace conversation for the listening-for-gist task and on questions
for learners to discuss those texts. Our choice is an extract from our corpus,
accompanied by a transcript (8) with this type of heading (adapted from Bradford‘s
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Task 1.2, and Hewings‘ description of Step-up): ‗The parts in which the voice moves up
to a noticeably higher level than it was at before are shown below‘:
(8) | this method can help answer ^key questions in RNA bi\ology | such as how the
interplay of ^different RNA-binding \proteins | regulates RNA \processing | the
main ad/vantage of this technique | is that we in\crease both | the per/formance |
and the reso/lution | of our \transcriptome-wide /maps | of protein RNA inter
r\actions | (VMA-RI1)
V.2.1.b. Sub-tasks
As we view Step-ups as resulting from the formal constraints of the rhetorical structure
of VMAs, the learner can discuss what constitutes the reasons for the Step-ups
occurring in the audio as a first sub-task. Comments elicited would be along the lines of
‗communicative function‘ as relates to the Move where the extract with Step-ups occurs.
The next sub-task for sensitization involves listening again with pitch tracing and
transcript in front, first to show the occurrence of canonical Step-ups, then for non-
canonical ones. The final sub-task involves finding other places where speakers do Step-
ups.
V.2.2. Explanation
V.2.2.a. Task
The second task, ‗Explanation‘, describes the functions of our taxonomy of Step-ups.
The strong correlation between Step-ups and Move 3 in our corpus indicates that their
function is basically to provide emphasis and contrast (Hewings 2007: 120).
‗Explaining significance‘ sometimes involves highlighting the new characteristics of the
method or technique described in VMAs, and alternatively, contrasting the
characteristics with those of traditional/conventional procedures. This genre-driven
function is performed by placing the Step-up either ―in the first prominent word of [the]
speech unit‖ (Hewings 2007: 120; our ‗canonical Step-up‘), or later in the IU (hence,
‗non-canonical Step-up‘), since the most appropriate word for emphasis or contrast may
not be the first prominent one in the unit.
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V.2.2.b. Sub-tasks
For example, in VMA-RI4, ―the demon^stration of this method is \critical‖, there is a
canonical step-up for emphasis on the Theme, at the start of the IU, because the notion
of ‗demonstration‘ is likely to be key to the goal of a Video Methods Article, since the
―method‖ proper, not its demonstration, will simply be ‗known‘ information for the
practitioners of this genre. Consequently, the new information (the evaluative adjective
―critical‖, demonstration = critical) occurs at the unmarked position for this type of
information, which is the last lexical word of an IU, and with an unmarked tone choice
(falling). Later in VMA-RI4, there is also an instance of a non-canonical Step-up: ―to
find the ^optimal sensi\tivity /range‖. Emphasizing the idea of ‗finding a range‘ (i.e.
using the first prominent word) makes no communicative sense in terms of explaining
significance, as the researchers want to convey that the ―optimal‖ range is the only one
that matters for their technique. Accordingly, it must be explained to learners that more
than one position is communicatively available for Step-ups, that the lexico-grammar
influences the position, but that the communicative function is invariable regardless:
indicating what is really significant (the demonstration and, later, the optimal range) can
be carried out both by a canonical step-up and by a non-canonical one.
V.2.3. Imitation
V.2.3.a. Task
This third task represents the first stage of production, which does not require sub-tasks.
Having described the types of Step-ups in VMAs, repetition will not amount to mere
drilling: the learner imitates the phenomenon with a conscious communicative aim in
mind. Using (9) below as textual support, the learner repeats only from ―by‖ to ―vivo‖
(Step-ups on ―vitro‖ and ―emulates‖). Knowing that the two Step-ups in these units
occur in Move 3 enhances the value of repetition as a drill, since the Step-ups highlight
that there are two E-coli environments but the VMA is centred around the ―in vitro‖ one
and, moreover, that, if the choice raises issues of validity, the researchers are conscious
that the in-vitro environment is an emulation; it is imitation, hence, of the
emphasis/contrast function described in the ‗Explanation‘ task. Finally, imitating a non-
canonical Step-up shows that a delayed Step-up may also respond to the position of the
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lexical items used to shape the lexico-grammar of the function (see, in (9), the phrases
―in vitro‖ and ―in vivo‖, with the former occurring after an initial stress).
(9) | this method can help test \/circuits | in the field of syn\thetic bi/ology | by
providing an in ^vitro e-coli en\/vironment | which ^emulates that in \vivo |
(VMA-RI3)
V.2.4. Practice activity
V.2.4.a. Task
The fourth task pivots on learners as likely VMA ‗practitioners‘. With an upper-
intermediate or higher level of English, they are expected to determine which words
from (10) below (given without mark-up) are candidates for a Step-up, especially since
they have been exposed to the ‗Explanation‘ and ‗Imitation‘ tasks proposed. The
tonicity of the message in our example derives from the notion that the technique the
VMA reports leads to an increase in speed because prototyping is no longer necessary,
and is, therefore, more efficient than other techniques, a very relevant question to a
‗methods‘ genre. ―Increasing‖ (or ―speed‖ itself) and ―prototyping‖ become suitable
words for stepping up.
(10) | the implications of this /technique | extend towards in^creasing the speed of
synthetic biological de\/sign | by removing the need to conduct all ^prototyping
steps in \vivo | (VMA-RI3)
V.2.5. Communication activity
V.2.5.a. Task
Finally, the adaptation of Bradford‘s ‗Communication activity‘ is based on the genre
itself. Therefore, learners start by looking for the information needed to respond to
JoVE‘s goal (https://www.jove.com/about/) of allowing scientists, educators and
students ―to see the intricate details of cutting-edge experiments‖ rather than read them
in text articles.
V.2.1.b. Sub-tasks
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Therefore, the first step in this task entails thinking of a lexico-grammar (i.e. making
vocabulary and grammar choices) capable of sustaining a video demonstration aimed at
facilitating scientific reproducibility; in other words, a text meant to be read aloud, i.e. a
―scripted‖ or ―prepared speech‖ text. Learners may be invited to access a VMA of their
discipline, e.g. biology, and use it as a model. They can watch the video, which contains
both voice-over and speech from one of the authors and then they can reflect on the
reasons for the occurrence, in either the voice-over or the researcher‘s introduction, of
any Step-ups they identify, especially by relating them to the function of the Move
where they take place. With help from the instructor, they may also use visualization
software to verify the Step-ups. Then, as a second sub-task, they can use their own
research and write a VMA script which emulates the intonation in the model, i.e. its
communicative purposes for the genre.
VI. CONCLUSION
Despite its exploratory nature, the present study illustrates how to account for the
interplay between intonation and genre. For this purpose, we analysed a small-scale
corpus of five clips from Video Methods Articles (VMAs) published by the Journal of
Visualized Experiments. VMAs are thus dealt with as an instance of genre. We focused
on their Researcher‘s Introduction (RI) section where researchers face the camera and
make statements about their research. It is the hybridization of promotional and
scientific discourse occurring in this section that made us consider the analysis of
intonation as a very suitable procedure for the investigation of the strategies which
researchers deploy for the particular purposes of a genre. As explained above, this
approach to the study of genre is justified because a growing scholarly interest in new
forms of research communication has not yet generated enough research into the
communicative impact of intonation.
This said, we decided to examine the communicative potential of the changes in pitch
(whether in terms of direction or relative height) shown by some intonation units in
VMAs. The exact object of study was the complex phenomenon constituted by the
voice moving up to various degrees of higher level in pitch and the position inside the
intonation unit in which the rise to higher pitch takes place. In our study, the
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phenomenon is presented as an intonational device to be referred to with the term ‗Step-
up‘.
The main asset of the present study is that it adopts a data-driven perspective. As our
main goal was to explain how the study of intonation can contribute to the exploration
of the multimodal resources of the digital environment, corpus size was not considered
an overriding factor for a study aimed at that type of setting. With this in mind, the
preliminary results presented in this paper suggest that the general English intonation
framework is not appropriate to analyse digital research English. Accordingly, as a data-
driven decision, we also present a pedagogical proposal for the adaptation of intonation
manuals to the teaching of Step-ups in an Academic Spoken English (ASE) genre. Our
data reveal that intonation can be viewed as a linguistic resource subject to contextual
constraints and as a mode contributing to the meaning-making process. In VMAs, Step-
ups are used to introduce new topics in Move-initial intonation units, and also to
contrast or highlight as depending on the function of a specific Move in the rhetorical
structure, ―Explaining Significance‖. On the other hand, our data do not reveal
functional differences between canonical and non-canonical Step-ups.
In conclusion, our study indicates that it is not only possible to relate intonation usage to
genre but that it is necessary to do so, and that, as a result, English intonation manuals
dealing with these types of features should be modified to teach intonational strategies,
the Step-up being a case in point. While in EAP literature the role of pronunciation for
ASE is generally judged to be rather limited (as one of several ―sources of knowledge‖
in ―bottom-up processing‖), in this paper the concept of genre has been used to
highlight the rhetorical, communicative importance of pronunciation, since it examines
and discusses the Step-up as a genre-driven teaching/learning topic which results from
the formal constraints of the rhetorical structure of VMAs.
For this reason, we have complemented our study with a pedagogical proposal for the
Step-up based on the adaptation of Barbara Bradford‘s (1988) method in Intonation in
Context to the generic factors described above. The most important characteristic of our
proposal is the adoption of speech visualization as a pedagogical tool, the use of ‗Step-
up‘ as a more pedagogical terminology than ‗High Key‘, ‗Onset‘, or ‗Stepping Head‘,
and a set of tasks in which the type of response to be elicited from the learner is based
Ignacio Guillén Galve and Miguel A. Vela-Tafalla
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on the notion of communicative function as determined by the Move where Step-ups
tend to occur. This type of analysis and subsequent pedagogy is in its initial stage, and it
remains to be seen whether its results, or the pedagogical proposal itself, are sustained
by the analysis of a larger corpus compiled from texts similar to VMAs, or can be
extended to other intonational phenomena or strategies in the genre.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness
(project code: FFI2015-68638-R MINECO/FEDER, EU) and by the regional
Government of Aragón (project code: H16_17R).
Miguel A. Vela-Tafalla also acknowledges funding from the Spanish Ministry of
Education, Culture and Sports (research fellowship FPU2016/04734).
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Received: 12 December 2019
Accepted: 23 May 2020
Cite this article as:
Guillén Galve, Ignacio and Vela-Tafalla, Miguel A. 2020. ―New research genres and English
prosody: an exploratory analysis of academic English intonation in Video Methods Articles in
experimental biology‖. Language Value, 12 (1), 1-29. Jaume I University ePress: Castelló, Spain.
http://www.languagevalue.uji.es.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/LanguageV.2020.12.2
ISSN 1989-7103
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2019.100809
http://www.languagevalue.uji.es/