INTONATION

In English speaking, what we need to learn is not only pronunciation but intonation, which may turn out to be more important when you want to speak like a native.

英语的发音对有些人来说不难，很多人的发音很准确。可很多听起来还不那么像美国本国人。原因就出在英语的语调上。 中文字有声调。因为字的声调显著，因而句子的语调就不那么明确了。你有没有注意到中文的一个句子的语调没有多大的起伏。 我们强调什么只是加重声音而已，因而有重音。而英语则不然， 一个句子，甚至一个词，音调的起伏很大。这种起伏可以改变说话人的口气，甚至意思。所以，说一个英文句子如果像说中文一样，你听起来就不那么像美国人了，即使你的发音很正确。

Examples: For the word "Really", if you stress on the 2nd syllable, and make the 2nd syllable going up, you are questioning something. When you stress on the 1st syllable, while the tone of the whole word goes down, you express a feeling of being surprised.

For the word "OK", you may express unwilling to do something, yet you agree anyway, you stress on the 2nd syllable, and drag the tone downwards. When you raise the tone of the 2nd syllable, you are asking a question.

In the sentence “Hold on, what is that?”, if you drag the sound of "that", and make it a falling tone on “that.” there is a meaning of something "disgusting". If you raise up the tone of "that", you are asking a question.

How to Practice: Exaggerate. Practice your intonation by exaggerating it, which means making it much bigger than it should be. For example, when your pitch is supposed to go up, go really high or go down, go really down. You won’t speak like this in a conversation, but it’s a good way to become more aware of intonation when you speak. Eg. “I thought he liked dogs but he actually likes cats.”

Try different intonations. Choose one sentence and say it in many different ways. Raise and lower your pitch, put stresses on different words, and just play around with it. Try recording yourself and then listen to how you sound. What makes you sound angry? Surprised? You can learn a lot from just trying different things.

Get advice from a professionals. If you are not sure how to practice or whether you have been doing it right, you could always ask for help from someone you trust. You can send in your recordings and ask for feedbacks and guidance. Of course, if you have a friend or co-worker who can help, that'll be ideal. Or you can ask for help from online resources.

总之， 没有行动，就没有改变。