(LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ) An analysis on word stress errors commonly made by 12th grade students in Le Quy Don High School, Hai Phong and some solutions

Pages Figure 1: Students’ attitude towards learning word stress Figure 2: Students’ awareness of the difficulty in word stress lessons Figure 3 : Students’ degree of certainty when mark

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

AN THÞ NGµ

An analysis on word stress errors commonly made by

H¶I Phßng and some solutions

-m.a minor thesis-

Field : English teaching methodology Code : 601410

Hanoi, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

AN THÞ NGµ

An analysis on word stress errors commonly made by

H¶I Phßng and some solutions

-m.a minor thesis-

Field : English teaching methodology Code : 601410

Supervisor : TrÇn ThÞ Thu HiÒn

Hanoi, 2010

PART A : INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale ……… 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Significance of the study 2

5 Research questions 3

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B : DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1 Role of errors in language learning 5

2 Role of stress in language learning 8

2.1 Stress and learners’ intelligibility 8

2.2 Some theoretical background to the concept stress 9

2.2.1 Nature of a syllable 9

2.2.2 Structure of syllable .9

2.2.3 Characteristics of stressed and unstressed words 10

2.2.4 Nature of stress 11

2.2.5 Schwa sound 12

2.2.6 Marking of stress 13

2.2.7 Placement of word stress 13

2.2.8 Levels of stress 17

2.2.9 Weak forms of words (Reducing function words) 17

2.3 Summary 17

Chapter 2 : The study

1 Research setting 18

2 Subjects of the study 19

3 Research methods 19

3.1 Questionnaire 19

3.2 Tests of Production 19

3.3 Post-questionnaire interview 20

4 Data analysis and findings 20

4.1 Findings from the questionnaire .20

4.1.2 Students’ awareness of the difficulty in word stress lessons 21

4.1.3 Degree of students’ certainty in marking stress patterns for a word 21

4.1.4 Frequency of students’ errors in word stress 22

4.1.5 Students’ most common errors in word stress 22

4.1.6 Students’ expectation towards the teaching of word stress 23

4.2 Findings from the tests 24

4.2.1 Students’ failure to distinguish primary stress and secondary stress 24

4.2.2 Stress on the wrong syllables of multi-syllabic words 25

4.2.3 Stress on the wrong syllable bi-syllabic words 25

4.2.4 Students' failure to produce weak forms of words and schwa sound 26

4.3 Causes of the errors 26

4.3.1 Influence of mother tongue 26

4.3.2 Inequality between the course book and the curriculum .27

4.3.3 Lack of teaching and learning facilities 27

4.3.4 Students’ different learning styles and phonetic ability 28

4.3.5 Students’ lack of motivation and concern 28

Chapter 3: Possible solutions 1 To the teachers 29

2 To the students 33

3 To the school 's managers 34

4 To the course book designers 34

PART C: Conclusion 36

1 Summary of the study 36

2 Conclusion 36

3 Limitation of the study 37

4 Suggestions for further study 37

References 39

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students I

Appendix 2: The spelling of the schwa in English III

Appendix 3: Weak forms of words IV

Appendix 4: Production test and stress pattern key VII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EA Error Analysis

FL Foreign Language

Pages

Figure 1: Students’ attitude towards learning word stress

Figure 2: Students’ awareness of the difficulty in word stress lessons

Figure 3 : Students’ degree of certainty when marking stress pattern for a word

Figure 4: The frequency of students’ errors in word stress

Figure 5: Students’ common errors in learning word stress

Figure 6 : Students’ expectation towards the teaching of word stress

Figure 7: Students ‘errors from the production test

20

Part A : Introduction

1 Rationale

There is no doubt that making errors is part of learning and correcting errors is part of teaching As a result, error correction is one of the ways that make the process of teaching and learning more effective The role of errors and error correction are considered so important in teaching and learning a foreign language that a method called Error Analysis has developed and used as one of the most useful methods in studies related to teaching methodology Richards, JC (1984: 1) regarded Error Analysis as “a chief means of both assessing the pupil‟s learning in general and of the degree of match between his learning and syllabus and the teacher‟s teaching one.” He also added that “Thanks to Error Analysis, teachers know what language items their learners have already acquired, what they might not have been presented to, and what they have been taught but have not grasped accurately, which are considered as errors or mistakes”

Error Analysis seems to have received a great deal of attention from many linguists The importance of errors in theory and practice of teaching and learning languages can be seen

in the works by researchers such as Corder S.P.(1967), Richards J.C.(1971), Dulay H.C and Burt M.K.(1974) However, the errors analyzed in those studies come from their learners and may be the characteristics of those learners rather than Vietnamese students‟

In Vietnam, there is a number of studies on errors such as the one conducted by Pham Dang Binh (2003), which focused on the most common errors made by Vietnamese adult learners and some others by M.A candidates focusing on students‟ common errors in grammar (Trinh Phan Thi Phong Lan-2005) and students‟ errors on stress at sentence level (Luu Thi Kim Nhung- 2003), etc Unfortunately, little concern is paid to errors on word stress

It is undeniable that stress plays a very important role in learning a foreign language and its pronunciation It helps improve the learners‟ speaking as well as listening skill A learner with correct rhythm, intonation and stress usually makes himself understood with ease

Despite the importance of stress, especially word stress in English pronunciation, Vietnamese students can not acquire it adequately In fact, high school students commonly fail to use them correctly

With the experience of more than ten years working as a teacher of English in Le Quy Don High School, the researcher realizes that whenever her students speak English or do tests on phonetics, they seem to confront with a lot of difficulties in using English word stress, consequently, a lot of errors occur There errors are also committed by many of 12th grade students who have learnt English in their high school for 3 years and have had a chance to deal with English word stress in a few lessons Being aware of the problem and with the intention of helping students to overcome these difficulties and to perfect their knowledge of English word stress, the researcher decides to choose the title:

An analysis on word stress errors commonly made by 12 th grade students in Le Quy Don High school, Hai Phong and some solutions for her M.A thesis

It is hoped that the study, to some extent, will contribute to improving the teaching and learning of English word stress in Le Quy Don High School in particular and English study in general

2 Aims of the study

This study sets the following aims for investigation:

 To identify the most common word stress errors made by 12 th grade students in Le Quy Don High School both in terms of their perception and production

 To figure out the causes of these errors

 To suggest some solutions to English word stress teaching and learning

3 Scope of the study

Stress is one important part of English pronunciation, which consists of sentence stress and word stress However, due to both limited time and experience, this study only focuses on the errors in word stress derived from perception and production tests of the 12th grade students of English in Le Quy Don High School Any attempt to study English word stress errors on other aspect is beyond the scope of this thesis

4 Significance of the study

The study aims at bringing about some benefits for teaching English word stress to high school students especially the students of Le Quy Don High School

In terms of foreign language teaching and learning, the study tells about the students‟ attitude and method in learning English word stress, where they need help and what sort of help they need An explicit understanding why errors arise can assist in adjusting teaching techniques

Besides, for immediate purposes, remedial lessons or exercises can be designed to help eliminate errors

In terms of material designing, the study may assist designers in understanding the nature

of errors occurring to high school students, which is useful for them in sequencing and arranging target language items in text books in such a way that helps prevent error occurrence as much as possible

5 Research questions

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following research questions are addressed:

 What are the most common word stress errors made by 12 th grade students in Le Quy Don High School?

 What are the causes of these errors?

 What should be done to reduce the students‟ errors?

6 Organization of the study

The study is organized into 3 parts, which are presented as follows:

PART A - INTRODUCTION

Includes the rationale and the aim of the study It also specifies

the scope, the significance and provides the research questions as well as the organization of the study

PART B – Development

Chapter 1- Literature review:

Mentions theoretical background of errors and word stress

In errors, this deals with notion of error, distinction among errors, mistakes, slips and attempts, error analysis and the importance of learners‟ errors In word stress, it discusses some definitions such as syllable and its structure, schwa sound, nature of stress; the marking and levels of stress including mono-syllabic, bi-syllabic and multi-syllabic words as well as weak forms of words

Chapter 2- The study

This is the core part of the research, which describes the

research setting, the subjects, the research methods as well

as data analysis and findings

Chapter 3- Possible solutions

In the first part, some possible solutions are given to help

teachers and students in high schools overcome difficulties in teaching and learning English word stress as well as some recommendations for school‟s facilities and course book

Part B: Development Chapter 1: Literature review

1 Errors in language learning

1.1 Notion of errors

Learning a foreign language is really a sophisticated process in which errors are unavoidable No one can master a language without making any error When saying this or that is an error, one has to base himself on a certain norm This norm is naturally not universal but depends upon different considerations, i.e it depends on how language is approached An analysis of errors is extremely important for teachers as they directly work with students and seem to have great influence on their student‟s effectiveness in learning because teachers do not only present new language items, but also have to take into

consideration of what errors should be corrected as well as what should be ignored In A

study of the statistical foundations of group conversation tests in spoken English, Liski E

and Puntanen S (1983: 227) argued that “an error occurs where the speaker fails to follow the pattern or manner of speech of educated people in English speaking countries today”

while Lennon P (1991: 182) defined that: “error is a linguistic form or combination of

forms which in the same context would in all likelihood not be produced by the learner‟s native speaker counterpart” His view is supported by James C (1998:1) who defined error

as an unsuccessful bit of language However, this is not reliable all the time because of the fact that a variety of dialects may be used by the native speakers in their country The linguistic form may be deviated from one dialect but not another one Thus, deciding whether a linguistic form is an error depends on what norm or standard should be taken into account

For some reasons, the following contentions will lay a foundation for the research thesis:

 First, errors in this study are understood as “the flawed side of learner speech and writing, those parts of conversation or composition that deviate from some selected norm” (Dulay H.C., Burt M.K and Krashen S.D 1982:138)

 Second, in a foreign setting like Vietnam, where English is taught and learned as a foreign language, the selected norm here is undisputedly the prescriptive English standard usage That is to say, any deviated forms or structures that cannot account

for the English model of usage assumed by educated users are considered

erroneous, ungrammatical, or unacceptable

 Last, the term error is also well adopted from Corder S.P (1975: 112):“either

superficially deviant or inappropriate in terms of the target language”

1.2 Distinction of error, mistake, slip and attempt

When studying error, the term mistake is also looked at Mistakes are said to be

unsystematic in nature and to be correctable as attention is drawn to their producers

Errors, in contrast, refer to any systematic deviations from the rule of the target language

as a result of the learner‟s internalizing the language during the process of learning a

second or foreign language In fact, the boundary between these two terms is so small that

in some studies they are used interchangeably Corder (1967:167) insisted that “mistake is

of no significance to the process of language learning since they do not reflect a defect in

our knowledge but are traceable to performance failure The learner is normally

immediately aware of their mistakes and can correct them with more or less complete

assurance Native speakers as well as learners may make mistakes On the contrary, errors

are of significance to the process of language learning They do reflect knowledge and are

not self-correctable Only learners of a second or foreign language commit errors.”

Supporting Corder‟s view, James (1998) defined error as “being an instance of language

that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by the learner” A mistake is

“either intentionally or unintentionally deviant or self-corrigible” Similarly, Edge J

(1989:10) defined errors as: “If a student cannot self- correct a mistake in his or her own

English, but the teacher thinks that the class is familiar with the correct form, we shall call

that sort of mistake an error” He added that a slip is what the student can self- correct An

attempt is a guess or when neither the intended meaning nor the structure is clear to the

teacher

In summary, the notions of errors, mistake, slips, and attempts are described as follows:

 Errors are mistakes caused by the incomplete understanding of language

competence

 Mistakes are caused by the inappropriate use of language in terms of social

acceptability or language performance

 Slips (lapses) are the consequence of carelessness (tiny mistake) in language use

 Attempts are mistakes where students have no ideas to structure what they want to mean

The problem of determining what is a learner‟s mistake and what is a learner‟s error is rather difficult In order to have a clear point of view on errors, it is better to pay attention

to the significance of learners‟ errors

1.3 Significance of learners’ errors

Discussion on the significance of learners‟ errors can be found in Richards‟s study (1992),

in which he stated that errors are significant in three different ways:

 To the teacher, in that they tell him, if he understates a systematic analysis, how far towards the goal his learners have progressed and consequently, what remains for them to learn

 They provide the teacher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures his learners are employing in their discovery of the language

 To the learners themselves, they are indispensable, because the making of errors is regarded as a device learners use in order to learn It is a way learners have to test their hypothesis about the nature of the language they are learning

1.4 Error Analysis

As discussed above, in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language, errors tell teachers how much progress learners have made toward the target language and assist in adjusting teaching techniques In order to help teachers assess their learners‟ learning, researchers have offered an approach called Error Analysis (EA), which is understood as the study and analysis of the errors made by language learners Talking about its functions, Richards (1992:127) stated that “ Error Analysis may be carried out in order to (a) identify strategies which learners use in language learning; (b) try to identify the causes of learner errors; (c) obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of the teaching materials” With the same viewpoint, James (1998:1) said, “Error Analysis is the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language” Discussing this matter, Cook V.J (1993: 22) emphasized: “Error Analysis was a methodology for dealing with data rather than a theory

of acquisition” Only by carrying out EA can teachers obtain information about difficulties

in learning a foreign language so as to figure out appropriate materials and select the proper teaching materials as well As a result, doing EA becomes so important and useful for FL teachers that it is preferred by many teachers, especially teachers of English in order

to realize their learners‟ errors

In short, errors and EA are undoubtedly significant in teaching and learning English They tell teachers what needs to be taught Besides, they tell researchers how learning proceeds

In addition, they are a means whereby learners test their hypothesis about the language they are learning and teachers adjust their teaching techniques so that they will be suitable

to their students With those assumed benefits, error analysis is placed on undeniable importance

2 Role of stress in language learning

2.1 Stress and learners’ intelligibility in language learning

Stress is an important aspect of pronunciation, which decides one‟s communication ability The better one is good at stress patterns of English, the more he understands native speakers The fact that stress plays a very important role in language perception and production is agreed by many researchers

In terms of language production, Brown R and Mc Neil D (1978) in The Tip of the

Tongue studied the phenomenon of speakers who cannot remember a word but have it on

the tip of their tongue Their study showed that with those speakers, the infrequently used words could become faint with disuse, and only parts of them could be clearly remembered Those parts are usually the beginning and the end of the word together with

its number of syllables and the location of the primary stress In Slip of the Tongue, Cutler

A (1987) also indicated that speakers only slip on those words with similarities in stress patterns with the same number of syllables, and with the same syllable carrying primary stress

In terms of language perception, it would seem that heavy reliance on information about stress pattern and the nature of the stressed syllables is a common and an efficient way of speech comprehension When listeners mishear a word, it is usually stress pattern and the nature of the stressed syllable which decide what listeners think they hear The stressed syllable information is very important for the listeners to reconstruct the whole massage Not surprisingly, when the stress pattern is incorrect, errors in interpretation occur Basal

R.K in The Intelligibility of Indian English (1966) gave many interesting examples of

misinterpretation when words with initial stress were uttered with second-syllable stress:

“atmosphere” was heard as “must fear”, “yesterday” as “or study”, “character” as

“director” and so on That is the reason why students‟ intelligibility is a matter that all teachers of English should pay much attention to

Concerning intelligibility, Kenworthy J (1987:13) defined: “Intelligibility is being understood by a listener at a given time in a given situation.” Consequently, it is the same

as understandability The more words a listener is able to identify accurately when said by

a particular speaker, the more intelligible that speaker is She also added that “If the foreign speaker substitutes one sound or feature of pronunciation for another, and the result

is that the listener hears a different word or phrase from the one the speaker was aiming to say, it can be said that the foreigner's speech is unintelligible Likewise, if the foreign speaker substitutes a sound in a particular word, but that work is nonetheless understood, then the speech is intelligible” Undoubtedly, stress especially word stress is of great importance to one phonetic ability Hence, “Incorrect stress placement is the major cause if intelligibility problems for foreign learners” (Roach P 1983:73)

As mentioned in 1.3, the scope of this study is to analyze errors in English word stress made by 12 th grade students in Le Quy Don High school in Hai Phong Therefore, it is necessary to have a brief view at the theory of English stress

2.2 Some theoretical background to the concept “stress”

2.2.1 Nature of syllable

In general, the different aspects of stress can be described in relation to syllables In English, every word is made up of one or more syllables (Jones D.1998:134) The sequences /in/, /praiz/, / fens/ (in thin, price, fence) constitute single syllables; /'inist/, /'praiziz/, /di'fens/ (in thinnest, prizes, defence) contain two syllables each; /'definit/, /s Ә 'praiziz/, /di’fensiv/ (in definite, surprises, defensive) contain three syllables, and so on

Phonetically, syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this centre (that is, at the beginning and end of the syllable), there will be greater obstruction to airflow and /or less loud sound (Roach P 1983:127)

2.2.2 Structure of syllable

Pennington M.C (1996: 128) stated that a syllable consists of one vowel alone or a vowel with 1-3 preceding and / or 1-4 following consonants The range of syllable types in English can be abbreviated as follows:

2.2.3 Characteristics of stressed and unstressed words

As is discussed in section 2.2.2.1, English words can be made up of one, two or many syllables In all words of two or more syllables, one syllable is more prominent, louder, or more noticeable than the other syllables in that word This strong syllable is stressed (accented), and the other weaker syllables are unstressed (unaccented) (Dauer: 1983) Thus,

Stressed syllables sound louder, are usually longer, and have clearer vowels and

stronger consonants In a word said in isolation, stressed syllables are higher pitched; in sentences, a pitch change (a change in melody from high to low or low to high) often occurs on stressed syllables

Unstressed syllables sound softer, are usually shorter, and are frequently reduced

or centralized This means that the vowels tend to become / ә / , / I /, or / ﮞ /, and the consonants are weaker The pitch does not change direction on unstressed syllables

2.2.4 Nature of stress

In English Phonetics and Phonology, Roach P (1983:72, 73) held the view that “all stressed syllables have one characteristic in common, and that is called “prominence” The stressed syllable of a word is recognized more prominent than the rest syllables of the word Deciding what makes a syllable become more prominent than others, in his book,

Peter Roach looked at four different important factors They are loudness, length, pitch

and vowel quality

2.2.4.1 Loudness

In a word, stressed syllables are louder than the unstressed; in other words, loudness is a component of prominence Gimson A.C (1962) argued that a sound or syllable which is stressed is one upon which there is expended in the articulation relatively great breath effort and muscular energy In voiced sounds, greater amplitude of vibration of the vocal folds, together with the reinforcing resonation of the supra-glottal cavities, results in physical terms in relatively great intensity of the sound or syllable, such intensity being perceived by the listener as greater loudness associated with the sound or syllable Thus, the greater energy which the speaker feels is concentrated on the first syllable or answer may be manifested for the listener as greater loudness In a sequence of identical syllables (e.g ba:ba:ba:ba:), if one syllable is made louder than the others, it will be heard as stressed

2.2.4.2 Length (duration or quantity)

Roach P in Phonetic and Phonology (1983: 163) defined that: “The length of syllables

has an important part to play in prominence If a word is presented to English listeners, with no pitch variations but with vowels of different length, those vowels which have the greatest length will be judged as “stressed” Therefore, vowels and diphthongs will always

be associated with prominence, especially by a listener, however weakly stressed they may

be and despite the fact that a long vowel or diphthong in a relatively unstressed syllable does not have the same length as it will have in a stressed syllable A vowel in a stressed

syllable may in fact be longer than that in an adjacent stressed syllable, without depriving the latter of its prominence, e.g /æ/ and / ai / in ally, / ʌ / and / iә / in frontier”

In other words, among others syllables with the same length, if only one of them is lengthened intensively, there is quite a strong tendency for that syllable to be heard as stressed

2.2.4.3 Pitch

Roach P (1983:163) also discussed: Every syllable is pronounced on some pitch, it might vary from low pitch to and high pitch Within a word, if one syllable is noticeably said differently from the others, it will be recognized as prominent, and of course a stressed syllable Therefore, to place some movement of pitch (e.g rising or falling pitch) on a syllable is an effective way to produce a syllable with prominence It is closely related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds and to the musical notion of low- and high-pitched notes He also emphasized: “If one syllable of a „nonsense word‟ (e.g ba:ba:ba:ba ) is said with a pitch that is noticeably different from that of the others, this will have a strong tendency to produce the effect of prominence If all syllables are said with low pitch except for one said with high pitch, then the high-pitch syllable will be heard as stressed and the others as unstressed”

2.2.4.4 Vowel quality

A syllable will be considered as a prominence if it includes a vowel that has different quality from neighboring vowels (Roach P.1983:163) If a nonsense word “ ba:ba:ba:ba ”

is changed as “ ba:bi:ba:ba”, then the “ bi” syllable will usually be heard as stressed

In short, a stressed syllable can be recognized thanks to the combination of those above four factors, among which the strongest effect is produced by pitch and length respectively, and then, loudness and vowel quality

2.2.5 Schwa sound

According to Kenworthy J (1987:51):“There is English one sound that all learners must be made aware of at a very early stage- the neutral vowel used in unstressed syllable and weak form- the schwa vowel” Schwa is represented by the phonetic symbol / Ә / In quality, it is mid (that is, half-way between close and open) and central (that is, half-way between front and back), it is generally described as lax, that is, not articulated with much energy It is noteworthy that this vowel / Ә / only occurs in unstressed syllables, never in stressed ones Appendix 2 gives more examples indicating the spelling of the schwa in English

2.2.6 Marking of stress

There are various ways of marking stressed syllables in English O‟Connor J.D (1967) showed stressed syllables by placing the mark * immediately before them, for example: / ai ﮞk d *ha:dli bi*li:v mai * aiz / ( I could hardly believe my eyes )

Avery and Ehrlich (1992) represented stress with dots: The larger the dot, the heavier the stress and the smaller the dot, the lighter the stress Look at these examples:

• • • • • •

Apple information

According to Jones D (1998), primary (strongly) stressed syllables are shown in international phonetic transcription by the mark “ ' ”placed at the beginning of the syllable

The words „father‟, „arrive‟, „opportunity‟ are thus written /'fa:δә /, /ә‟'raiv /, /, ɔpə'tju:niti /

Secondary stress is shown by the mark „, ‟ It is chiefly needed in words having three or

more syllables preceding the primary stress, and in compound words For examples: vulnerability /,vʌlnərə'biləti /, civilization /,sivәlai'zei∫n /, responsibility / ri,spɔnsə'biləti /, type-designing‟/'taip di,zainiη/ etc

2.2.7 Placement of word stress

According to O‟Connor J.D.(1967:91), within a sentence, there are two kinds of words known as content(lexical) words and function(or grammatical) words Content words are those that express independent meaning include: Nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives, question words and demonstratives, which are usually stressed

Function words are words that have little or meaning in themselves, but express grammatical relationships They include: Articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns, conjunctions, relative pronouns Function words are more likely to be unstressed, although they may be exceptionally stressed if given special attention In terms of syllables, content words are classified as mono-syllable, bi-syllable and multi-syllable words

2.2.7.1 Monosyllabic words( 1 syllable words)

Parviz B.and Mohammad A.S (2005:107) stated: “Obviously, these words do not presents any problems because when pronouncing this isolation, they receive the primary stress on their only syllable” Normally, the stress of monosyllabic words is not shown When part

of the sentence, monosyllabic content words are pronounced with full forms of vowels whereas monosyllabic function words are normally pronounced with the weak form of vowels (i.e., with /ә / or / I /)

2.2.7.2 Bi-syllabic words( 2 syllable-words)

In An Introduction To Phonetics, Parviz B.and Mohammad A.S (2005:108) mentioned:

“In two syllable words, the choice of stress placement is still somewhat simple: either the

first or the second syllable will be stressed” In their book, they held their view that: Bi-syllabic content words are stressed in a different way The following hints are helpful

for the placement of stress in bi-syllabic content words:

 Bi-syllabic verbs are usually stressed according to their second syllable:

- If the second syllable of the bi-syllabic verb contains a long vowel or diphthong, then

the second syllable is stressed: Increase / iŋ`kri:s /, encroach / әŋ`krәut∫ /

- If the bi-syllabic verb ends with more than one consonant, then the second syllable is

stressed: Collapse / kә`læps /, condense /kәn`dens/

- If the final syllable contains a short vowel and one or no final consonant, then usually,

the first syllable will be stressed: Open /`әupәn /, envy /`envI /

 Two syllable adjectives are stressed in the same manner That is, the three rules

mentioned for verbs hitherto, also apply to bi-syllabic adjectives: Discreet /dIs`kri:t

/, disguised /dis`gaIzd /, fishy / ‟fI∫I /, handsome /`hændsәm/

 For adverbs, the ending -ly does not affect stress Therefore, it is easy to put the -ly

aside and identify the stress for the remaining adjective The ending -ly is usually

pronounced as / lI /: Handsomely /`hændsәmlI /, manly /`mænlI /, lazily /‟leIzIlI /

discreetly /dIs`kri:tlI /

 Bi-syllabic nouns generally follow a different stress placement pattern If the

second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress will usually come on the first

syllable Otherwise it will be on the second syllable For instance: Money /'mʌni /,

product / 'prɔdəkt /, larynx /'læriηks/, estate / i‟steit /, design / di‟zain /

 In two-word verbs, when the verb and the particle are not separated (standing side

by side), the normal location of stress for two-word verbs is the on the particle

when occurs at the end of a sentence or phrase like: Pick 'up, drop 'out, put a 'way,

do 'over

 In reflexive pronouns, the last syllable receives stress: My'self, them'selves

 Stress in two-syllable noun-verb pairs:

This is one aspect of word stress that should be treated as a separate issue There are several pairs of two-syllable words function as nouns when stressed on the first syllable, and as verbs when stressed on the second syllable In the following two sentences, attention is paid to the placement of stress in the italicize words

(a) The unhappy customer may insult the manager

(b) That‟s an insult

In (a), the verb insult receives major stress on the second syllable In (b), the noun insult receives major stress on the first syllable

2.2.7.3 Multi-syllabic words( words with more than 2 syllables)

According to Parviz B.and Mohammad A.S (2005:109), deciding which syllable to give stress becomes very complicated when words include more than two syllables With multi-syllabic words, the rules of stress placement start to become ever more arbitrary-with more exceptions than can easily be explained away One general hint to remember is that weak syllables never carry stress Therefore, any unstressed syllable will reduce its vowel into a weaker one-like / ә / or / I / Another hint is that multi-syllabic function words happen, for the most part, to carry stress on their final or ultimate syllable:

nevertheless / ֽ nev(ә)rðә`les /, nonetheless / ֽ nΛnðә`les /, although / ɔ:l`ðәu /

Despite the large amount of research done on the subject of stress, it is still one area of which phoneticians have little understanding They have, however, developed a few rules that can be safely used to identify the stress patterns of the majority of the English multi-syllable content words:

 Prefixes and the adverbial suffix-ly (used to make adverbs) usually do not change

the pattern of stress:

Capitulate / kә`pIt∫әleIt / recapitulate / ֽ ri:kә`pIt∫әleIt/, iterate /`ItәreIt / reiterate / ri:`ItәreIt /

sensitive /`sensәtIv/ oversensitive / ֽ әuvә`sensәtIv/

moderate /`mɔdәrәt / moderately /`mɔdәrәtlI/ tangible /`tændʒ Ibl/ tangibly /`tændʒ IblI/

 Verbs that end in -ate or -ize receive stress on their antepenultimate (i,e., last but

two, or the third from right ) syllables The endings are pronounced as / eIt / and /

aIz / respectively:

Confiscate /`kɔnfIskeIt /, demonstrate /`demәnrtreIt /, evaporate /I`væpәreIt / eradicate / I`rædIkeIt /

Vaporize /`veIpәraIz/, recognize /`rekәgnaIz/, romanticize /rә`mæntIsaIz/, sexualize /`sek∫uәlaIz/

 Verbs that end in -ify usually take stress on the syllable prior to the -ify ending:

Ramify /`ræmәfaI /, beautify /`bju:tәfaI/, testify /`testәfaI/, bokonovskify / ֽ bɔkә`nɔfskәfaI/

 Other verbs usually take the stress on their last syllables, unless when the last syllable contains a short vowel: Intervene / ֽ Intә`vi:n/, intercede / ֽ Intә`si:d/

 Adjectives that end in -ate receive stress on their antepenultimate syllable (like verbs) but the -ate ending is pronounced as /әt /: Moderate /`mɔdәrәt/, elaborate /I`læbәrәt/

 Adjectives that end in -ese usually receive stress on the syllable containing -ese:

Japanese / ֽ dʒæpә`ni:z/ Javanese / ֽ dʒævә`ni:z/

 Adjectives which end in -ious, -uous, -eous, -ieous,-ic, -ical, -ian, -ible, -ial, or -ive (except for those ending in -tive) usually receive stress on the syllable prior to these endings There are a few exceptions in connection to the ending -ic (e.g., Arabic,

lunatic, and rhetoric):

Impressive /Im‟presIv/, comprehensible / ֽ kɔmprә`hensIbәl/, public /`pΛblIk/ spontaneous /spәn`teInIәs/, biblical /`bIblIkәl/, presumptuous /prI`zΛmpt∫uәs/ dubious /`du:bIәs/, grammarian /grә`meәrIәn/

 Adjectives that end in -able, -al, and -ous usually take stress on their

antepenultimate syllables (i.e., the third from right): Corporal /`kɔ:pәrәl /, admirable /`ædmәrәbl /, scrupulous /`skru:pjәlәs /

 Nouns that end in -ity, -ety, -al, -ion, -ence, -ance, -acy, and -ian usually take stress

on the syllable prior to these endings: Piety /`paIәtI/, importance /Im`pɔ:tәns/, ability /ә`bIlItI/, correspondence / ֽ kɔrәs`pɔndәns/, proposal /prә`pәuzәl/,

recognition / ֽ rekәg`nI∫әn/, historian /hIs`tɔ:rIәn/, democracy /dI`mɔkrәsI/

 Other heavy nouns usually receive stress on their antepenultimate syllables:

Photography /fә`tɔgrәfI/, democrat /`demәkræt/, sovereignty /`sɔvrәntI/, decubitus /dI`kju:bItәs/, parameter /pә`ræmItә/, diplomat /`dIplәmæt/

 The endings -ist, and -ism do not change stress:

Organ /`ɔ:gәn/, organism /`ɔ:gәnIzәm /, physics /`fIzIks/, physicist /`fIzIsIst/

 Nouns ending in -ee usually receive stress on the ending itself; there are some

exceptions though Often the exceptions are those nouns that include double

consonants prior to the -ee ending (e.g., committee, coffee, etc.):

Referee / ֽ refә`ri:/, absentee / ֽ æbsәn`ti:/, flunkee /flәn`ki:/,devotee ֽ / devә`ti:/

2.2.8 Levels of stress

In An Introduction To Phonetics , Parviz B.and Mohammad A.S (2005:101) emphasized:

There are four levels of stress placement : weak or quiet, tertiary or regular, secondary or louder and primary or loudest However, usually two levels of stress( primary and secondary) are identified because no word in English is long enough to require more than 2 levels of stress

2.2.9 Weak forms of words (Reducing function words)

According to Peter Roach(1983:193), many function words have two pronunciations, a strong form and a weak or reduced form Strong form has a full vowel and is used only for emphasis or at the end of a sentence

E.g.: I said to not at

What are you waiting for?

Unstressed weak form is normally used in the middle of a sentence or phrase The vowel is reduced to /ә/or/i /, and initial /h/ is dropped, and the whole word is very short

2.3 Summary

In this chapter, literature review on errors and stress has been taken into account as the theoretical background of the thesis Firstly, the study emphasizes that errors and error analysis is paid much attention to by both linguists and teachers Secondly, the focus of this study is on errors in learning another language Therefore, error is thoroughly studied

with notion of errors, distinction among error, mistake, slip, and attempt Besides,

significance of learners‟ errors as well as Error Analysis are mentioned Thirdly, the aim of this study is to find out common errors in tress at word level As a result, in the second section of this chapter, all the definition concerning stress such as syllables, stressed and unstressed syllables, placements and levels of stress, schwa as well as weak form of words

are carefully discussed Those concepts will be useful frame work for analyzing data in the

About the teachers: In the English Department of the school, there are 12 teachers of different ages and characteristics The oldest is 50 and the youngest is 25, among whom there are only 2 M.A Degree holders Obviously, the teachers‟ teaching experience and qualifications are unequal, which results in their different attitude toward renovation in teaching method

About the students: Most of them come from Hai An district, a newly established but formally a rural one Living in rural area makes the students become less concerned and confident in learning than those from crowded and more developed regions because they

do not have accesses to modern devices such as computers or word processors Besides, their background knowledge of English and their proficiency of English is poor Thus, it is more challenging for teachers to activate and motivate them to take part in the lesson, especially in the oral practice because of their shyness That is why, it can be concluded that their English knowledge especially their phonetic abilities are still limited and their attitude towards learning word stress is also a matter to be considered

About the material and school facilities: The course book used to teach the students are

Tieng Anh 12 designed by the Ministry of Education and Training and published by

Educational Publishing House It includes 16 units about all the topics relating to daily

lives Each unit is divided into five lessons corresponding to four skills: Reading,

Speaking, Listening, Writing The last lesson is called Language Focus, in which

pronunciation and grammar is mentioned The problem here is that among the 16 units, stress is only taught to the students in units 3, 4 and 5, which is too little time for the students to understand about stress thoroughly

About facilities, the school is equipped with only 12 cassette players for the 12 teachers, several CDs, a few books on grammar and there is not any modern equipment such as laboratory or high classed rooms, which makes it difficult for the teachers and students to improve English teaching and learning

2 Subjects of the study

The subjects of the study included twenty-four (half a class of ) 12th grade students at Le Quy Don High School Hai Phong, both male and female, who were learning English during the time the study took place Students at this level are chosen for some of these reasons: In terms of time length of learning, they have spent the most years learning English at their secondary education In term of competence, they have generally covered most basic grammatical and phonetic categories and developed basic skills such as reading, speaking, listening and writing The focus of this study on the students of this level is explained by the belief that the most appropriate and productive time to help the students recognize, identify, differentiate and master subtle uses of English word stress is when the students have already learnt about it themselves, thus have a relatively adequate amount of English knowledge to carry out various types of learning activities Moreover, at this level, the students‟ errors are the most clearly exposed and therefore immediate correction is needed

3 Research methods

Basing on both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study uses a questionnaire for students as the main instrument for data collection In addition, a test of production together with a post questionnaire interview with the subjects were also conducted in order to obtain objective assessments

3.1 Questionnaire

The questionnaire for students consists of 7 questions Questions 1 and 2 investigate the students‟ attitude towards the role of word stress and their difficulties in learning it Question number 3 aims at eliciting students‟ degree of certainty in word stress Questions from 4, 5 and 6 aim at investigating the students‟ most common errors in word stress The last question discovers their expectation towards the teachers‟ method in teaching word stress

3.2 Test of production

In order to focus on the most common errors on word stress made by the subjects, a test

was carried out It is an extract from tape-script 28 CD 1 of Practise Listening ( Collected

by Xuan Ba and Quang Minh - 2007) It is a short text describing Hollywood The test was employed to find out how the students marked stresses in normal texts and how they

produced the main levels of stress in the sentences of such texts

3.3 Post- questionnaire interview

After conducting the survey questionnaire and a test on the students, the researcher had a post-questionnaire interview with the teachers and students to investigate the students‟ learning methods and detect the causes of the errors found through the test Even though this instrument did not produce completely objective data, it proved to be useful under time constraints of the research

4 Data analysis and findings

4.1 Findings from the questionnaire

4.1.1 Students’ attitude towards learning word stress

Very interesting Interesting Not interesting

50%

29.2%

20.8%

Figure 1: Students’ attitude towards learning English word stress

From the students‟ reply, it can be seen that very few of the students recognize the importance of learning word stress, an indispensable part of learning pronunciation at school That is why, they do not find it interesting 12 out of 24 students(50%)said they did not feel interested in word stress lessons while only 5 students (20.8 %) agreed that learning word