Listening: Listening for Inference, Attitude, & Opinion B1 - Lesson 2: Identifying Speaker's Basic Attitude (e.g., interested, bored, annoyed) from Tone of Voice

B1 Listening for Inference: Identifying Speaker's Basic Attitude

Welcome! In this lesson, we will practice identifying a speaker's attitude¹. This is the feeling or opinion a speaker has, and it is often shown through their tone of voice².

Note: For this lesson, we will make the computer voice pretend to have different attitudes by changing its speed and pitch. Listen carefully for these changes.

1. How Tone of Voice Shows Attitude

Listen for these clues in the computer's voice:

• An interested³ voice will sound faster and higher.
• A bored voice will sound slow and flat (monotone).
• An annoyed⁴ voice will sound sharp, clipped, and impatient.

2. Practice with "That's very interesting."

This sentence can have opposite meanings depending on the tone. Listen to the same sentence said with two different simulated attitudes.

"That's very interesting."

Listen with INTERESTED Attitude:

Listen with BORED Attitude:

Did you hear the first version was faster and higher, while the second was slow and flat?

3. Another Example

Let's listen to a teacher ask, "Do you have any questions?" The simulated tone shows their true attitude.

"Do you have any questions?"

Listen with HELPFUL Attitude:

Listen with ANNOYED Attitude:

Quiz: What's the Attitude?

For each sentence, listen to the audio and decide which attitude is being simulated.

1. "Oh, great. More work."

   Listen to Audio 1:

   What is the speaker's attitude? (a) Happy, (b) Annoyed, (c) Interested

2. "Wow, tell me more about that!"

   Listen to Audio 2:

   What is the speaker's attitude? (a) Annoyed, (b) Bored, (c) Interested

Click to Show Answers

Answers: 1-b (The voice is sharp and impatient). 2-c (The voice is faster and higher-pitched).

Homework Task

1. Attitude in TV Shows: Watch a scene from an English sitcom. Choose one character. Don't focus on their words, but on their tone of voice. What is their attitude? Are they happy, angry, sad, interested, bored?

2. Practice Different Tones: Say the simple phrase "Thank you" in three different ways: 1. Genuinely happy and grateful. 2. Bored and automatic. 3. Slightly annoyed. Can you make them sound different?

Vocabulary Glossary

1. Attitude (noun) - Khmer: ឥរិយាបថ - A feeling or opinion about someone or something, often shown in your behavior or tone of voice. ↩
2. Tone of Voice (noun phrase) - Khmer: សំនៀង - The way a person's voice sounds, which shows their emotion or attitude. ↩
3. Interested (adjective) - Khmer: ចាប់អារម្មណ៍ - Showing curiosity or wanting to know more about something. ↩
4. Annoyed (adjective) - Khmer: រំខាន - Feeling slightly angry or impatient. ↩