The role of prosody and rhythm means in the perception of English-language text. 
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INTRODUCTION

During last years linguistics has been interested in the study of human speech so much. The study of prosody seems to be an area of knowledge, which has undergone the most noticeable changes during the last ten or fifteen years. Such attention to prosodic research is probably explained by the fact that contemporary achievements in sphere of speech development technology have given an opportunity to conduct investigations of acoustic parameters associated with prosodic phenomena, in particular frequency of fundamental tone and duration. This also can be explained by the fact that last time in linguistics and in particular, phonetics significant theoretical advances that have allowed a better understanding of the functioning of prosodic parameters while expressing different types of values in world languages have been achieved.

Today the term «prosody» is widespread and it has simultaneous interpretation. According to A. Antipova, there are two distinct and diametrically opposite points of view to this matter. The first one sees difference between the concept of prosody and intonation. The second perspective is largely connected with the understanding of intonation as a multidimensional unity. In other words, the components of intonation are treated as «a complex set of prosodic features», and, in fact, identified with prosody which is seen as a system of pronunciation of stressed and unstressed, long and short syllables in speech [17, с. 36]. The second view is in the basis of this research work.

M.A. Sokolov, K.P. Gintovt, I.S. Tikhonova and R.M. Tikhonova distinguish three prosodic components of intonation: pitch, volume and tempo. As the authors note, the term «prosody» includes these three prosodic components and replaces the term «intonation». Among the properties of prosody they name the following: volume, speed of speech and rhythm. One of the main characteristics that demarcate style on prosodic level is, in their opinion, the accentuation of semantic centers [26, с. 13].

Prosody plays important role in teaching a language because in the study of English the particularly relevant tasks are the tasks forming a regular speech. Intonation is important as it is important for the meaning of an utterance. Intonation gives some sense to words and grammatical constructions. The same remark, uttered by different tones can be perceived as an order, a request, a statement or a question, spoken with various modal and emotional meanings. Proper use of voice tone is a sign of a speaker’s phonetic literacy. Therefore, those who learn English from the first tries to speak this language should be able to reflect true melody of English language and set phrase stress. Many people with theoretical knowledge need to learn a foreign language in practice.

Another important thing is rhythm of speech, which is caused not only by the features of the national language, but also by the internal state of a man, his social and cultural backgrounds, different extralinguistic circumstances in which he gets.

Local and foreign researchers working on these problems clearly showed that the overall picture of rhythm in a work is composed of specific elements of rhythm that are manifested in speech tissue of a prose. The rhythmic organization of a literary work provides connectivity and integrity of the text making it easy for perception and memory, creating an aesthetic effect [12, с. 24].

Thus, work on pronunciation, rhythm and intonation skills should be done at all stages of learning a foreign language. Pupils need to quickly understand what is said and make their speech tonally correct. Exercises in this should help automate pronunciation and speech perception skills [12, c. 26].

But not always young specialists have effective methods of teaching rhythm and intonation of English speech in perfect. Therefore, the study of this problem is particularly relevant and important.

Despite the fact that this aspect of teaching was studied by many modern phonology scholars, today this issue remains unresolved. So the topic of my research is «The role of prosody and rhythm means in the perception of English-language text».

The object of the research is prosody and rhythm means in English.

The subject of the work is the conditions and factors of success teacher’s activity to establish rhythm and intonation skills in English in the course of school.

The aim of the research is to study specific features and methods of teaching rhythm and intonation of English. To achieve the aim the following tasks were put forward:

1) to bring to light the concept of «rhythm» and «tone»;

2) to analyze and study the characteristics of rhythmic and intonational system of English speech;

3) to consider the instructional techniques of teaching rhythm and intonation of English speech;

4) to view the exercises and assignments for the formation of rhythmic and intonation skills of pupils.

The following research methods were used while working on the problem:

— bibliographical;

— descriptive;

— analytical;

— comparative.

The work begins with an introduction presenting the topicality of the problem set in it and the main aspects of making the research. Then two parts of the main content subdivided to units. The first part is theoretical; it deals with the concepts of prosody and rhythm of English language. The second one is practical; it contains teaching methods and examples of exercises which may be put into practice in English classes to improve prosodic-rhythmic skills of pupils. The work is ended with conclusions. Finally, the bibliography was added.