Making use of intonation — AQA GCSE Modern Hebrew
Verified courseTeaching note checked against the official specification.
Making use of intonation explained
This guidance explains that intonation is chiefly a listening skill, yet written texts carry punctuation marks that do the same job.
Read the full explanation
A question mark signals a question where a voice would rise; an exclamation mark signals emphasis, surprise or a command where a voice would be raised or stressed. The teacher should therefore make sure students use these marks to improve comprehension. In practice, when a learner meets a sentence ending in a question mark, they should expect a question and look for the question word or inverted word order; when they meet an exclamation mark, they should expect strong feeling, a warning or an instruction. Reading punctuation aloud with the correct rise or stress, then comparing it with a recording of the same sentence, trains learners to transfer the listening skill to the page.
Your focus
- Identify question marks and exclamation marks in a written text and state the intonation each one represents.
- Read a short sentence aloud with a rising voice for a question mark and stress for an exclamation mark.
- Use punctuation marks to work out the meaning of a sentence and answer a comprehension question about it.
Making use of intonation exam tips
Examiner Tips
- 💡When a written passage contains a question mark, pause and identify the question word or word order before choosing an answer.
- 💡When an exclamation mark appears, note the emotion or force it signals, because this often carries the key idea of the sentence.
- 💡Practise by reading a short text aloud with correct rises and stresses, then answer comprehension questions on it to check that the punctuation guided your understanding.
Common Mistakes
- Treating punctuation as decoration and ignoring it when working out meaning; the correction is to read the mark as a signal, so a question mark tells the reader a question is being asked and an exclamation mark tells the reader strong feeling or a command is present.
- Assuming intonation can only ever be heard and never seen; the correction is that written punctuation marks can stand in for intonation, which is exactly why the teacher should draw attention to them.
- Reading every sentence with the same flat tone; the correction is to vary the voice, rising for a question mark and stressing for an exclamation mark, then checking that reading against the meaning of the sentence.