Developing English language skills for Vietnamese learners of English through raising their awareness of the contrastive linguistic features

- Understanding contrastive linguistic features is closely associated with the use of a language, especially when English is used by the great number of non-native speakers in Southeast

Developing English language skills for Vietnamese learners of English through raising their awareness of the contrastive linguistic features

By Pham Huu Duc, PhD & Nguyen Cong Dan, MA

Department of English

International University – Vietnam National University HCM

Introduction

- The knowledge of contrastive linguistic

features comes as the essential complementary factor to the receptive skills and productive

skills

- Understanding contrastive linguistic features is closely associated with the use of a language, especially when English is used by the great

number of non-native speakers in Southeast

Asian (Duong, 2012)

The purpose of the study

Limitations of the study

 Comparison and contrast are supposed to be mainly phonological, lexical, and syntactical;

 Referring to the linguistic features of the

texts, excluding what forms of press, and

article titles are;

 Considering language structures in

lexical-grammatical aspects through the

metaphorical expression of grammar

(nominalization)

2 Literature review

How people use language is the question of:

How people interact naturally using the authentic speech and writing in certain social contexts

How language is structured, language users

interact through sounds, words or sentences to

make themselves understood and understand

others (Halliday, 1994; Martin,1992; Eggins,1993)

2 Literature review

(meanings)

Lexical-grammar (words & structures )

EXPRESSION Phonology (sounds /

letters)

Source: Eggins (1993: 27)

Contrastive linguistic features

 Krzeszowski (1991:10) indicated that

contrastive linguistics describes similarities and differences in languages, which leads to the results that are related to the linguistic

theory in the search for linguistic universals

Contrastive linguistic features

Lado (1957) in his study also states the comparisons and contrasts of

the systems of:

-sounds,

-vocabulary

-grammatical structures

3 Methodology

Sample: the sample (N= 1000), 1000 English news texts and 1000 Vietnamese news texts, were compared and contrasted

3 Methodology

Procedures: the analysis focuses on the

comparisons and contrasts of sounds,

vocabulary and grammar in the two languages

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

Phonological contrastive analysis

From the phonological perspective,

contrastive study is carried out in two aspects:

a) segmental

b) suprasegmental.

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

b) Suprasegmental

- Contractive linguistics deals with the

suprasegmental phenomena such as: tone,

stress, intonation

- Vietnamese is a tonal language with six tones while English has stress or intonations

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

Lexical contrastive analysis

Robert Lado (1957) identified three levels of lexical contrasts: form, meanings, and

distribution

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

1) Similar in form and meaning

These are usually the borrowings, for example,

“TV”, “radio”

2) Similar in form and different in meaning

For example, “may (luck)” in English and “may”

in Vietnamese

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

3) Different in form and similar in meaning

both “eat” in English & “ăn” in Vietnamese means “to put food into the mouth, chew it and swallow.”

4) Different in form and in meaning

“first floor” in American English & “tầng” in Vietnamese.

5) Different in morphological formation

“use up” ( verb + adverb) English, & “dùng hết” (verb + modal particle) in Vietnamese

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

6) Similar in original meaning and different in derivative meaning

“cat” in English also means a “clever woman”, whereas

“mèo” in Vietnamese means “mistress”

7) Similar in meaning and different in geographical

meaning

“petrol” is used in English, and “gasoline” is used in

American English

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

Syntactical contrast

- Deals with the units of a language: words,

sentences structures as well as other means of

expressing relationship and grammatical category.

- In written texts, the nominalization (turning a verb into a noun) is often used to make the writing more concise and exact This is also considered

information packing

4 Results: Analysis and

interpretation of data collected

Speech

(primary change) Bài diễn văn

Happiness

(secondary change) Niềm hạnh phúc

5 Discussion

For the phonological contrastive analysis:

- Both English and Vietnamese have /t/ sound, but that of

English is pronounced either in an aspirated way /th/or not in

an aspirated way/t/ whereas that of Vietnamese is only

pronounced as /t/

- Vietnamese learners of English pronounce /t/ or /k/ with a

closed mouth since Vietnamese has the sound:

uc / Ɯ ʊk p /, ôc / ɤ w k p /, oc /ɑ w k p /

- People whose native language is isolating and has such a

phoneme as /tu/ may pronounce /t/ and /u/ at the same time Cao (1985: 164) They may pronounce that phoneme as /tu/ or /ut/ at the same time, not in a linear way → Vietnamese

hardly pronounce the final sounds such as /t/ or /p/

5 Discussion

- The pronoun references in Vietnamese texts do not sometimes use pronouns "he / him“, but use

“the title + name” If learners want to refer to a

proper noun such as the leader's own name, then “ title + name" must be used

- The English pronoun "he" can be used to replace the name of the national leader, or the synonym, such as "the president", or just his/her name is

used

e.g “(President) Bush"

5 Discussion

For the syntactical contrastive analysis:

- In Vietnamese texts, the nominalization is formed:

putting “sự” or “việc" before an adjective or a verb“; putting

"cái" or "máy" before a noun

Meanwhile, in English, the nominalization is formed:

a) through the primary change of a verb: "to give" into a

noun "gift", or "to speak" into "speech”, etc.

b) through the secondary change by adding the affixes

(prefixes and suffixes).

c) putting "the" before the adjective, for example “the +

poor” (poor people).

Cummins (2000): "Conceptual knowledge developed in one language helps to make input in the other language comprehensible."

6 Conclusion

-The study forms a prototype related to the comparison and contrast of the aspects of phonology, lexicology, and syntax between English and Vietnamese

-This greatly helps to improve the progress of

Vietnamese learners’ English language performance in developing and in achieving their language proficiency -The prototype indicates two features, each of which

reflects one of the three meta-function of systemic

functional linguistic theory - Interpersonal, Experiential

(using nominalization) and Textual, and also three

modes of communication - Interpretive, Interpersonal

and Presentational.

Implications of the study

The study will significantly contribute to:

1.Working out the appropriate methods to

improve students’ weaknesses through the awareness of the distinctions of linguistic

features, on which a system of language

performance is built

2.The theoretical framework that supports the processes of identifying language similarities and differences in SLA ,

Implications of the study

 The awareness of the distinctions of linguistic features can allow teachers and students to get more access to the solutions to language barriers while language

learners of different systems learn each other’s

languages

 The study may also serve as a model in exemplifying not only how research on contrastive linguistics affects the second language acquisition, but also how immersion

programs and non-immersion programs can meet to

form a seamless connection It holds much promise for the future as our profession continues to advance in

standards-based instruction and assessment.

1 Bui, Manh Hung (2008) Ngôn ngữ hoc đối chiếu TP HCM: Nhà Xuất bản Giáo dục

2 Cao, Xuan Hao (1985) Âm vị học và tuyến tính – Suy nghĩ về những định đề của

âm vị học đương đại Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Quốc Gia Hà

Nội.

3 Cao, Xuan Hao (1998) Tiếng Việt – mấy vấn đề ngữ âm, ngữ pháp ngữ nghĩa TP

HCM: Nhà Xuất bản Giáo dục

4 Cummins, J (2000) Language, Power and Pedagogy – Bilingual Children in the

Crossfire NY: Multilingual Maters Ltd.

5 Duong, Thi Hoang Oanh (2012) Global vs Glocal English: Attitudes and

Conceptions among Educators, Administrators and Teachers in Eight Asian Countries

in Kirkpatric, A & Sussex, R (eds.), English as an International Language in Asia: Implications for Language Educations: Multilingual Education1, DOI 10, 1007/978- 94- 007-4578-0_8© Springer Science+ Business Media Dordrecht 2012.

6 Eggins, S (1994) An Introduction to Systemic Function Linguistics New York:

Wellington House

7 Halliday, M.A.K & Matthiessen, C MIM (2004)(2004) An Introduction to Functional

Grammar New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc

8 Krzeszowski, T P (1990) Prototypes and Equivalence In Fisiak, J (Ed) Further Insights Into Contrastive Analysis.) John Benjamin Publishing Company.

9 Krzeszowski, T P (1991) Contrasting Languages: The Scope of Contrastive

Linguistics New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

10 Lado, R (1957) Linguistics across Culture Michigan: Michigan University Press.

11 Martin, J.R (1992) English text – System and Structure Philadelphia: John

Benjamin Publishing Company.

12 Nguyễn, Đình Hòa (1997) Vietnamese – Tiếng Việt không son phấn Philadelphia:

John Benjamins Publishing Company.

13 Pham, Huu Duc (2008) The linguistic features in Vietnamese news texts (in

comparison with English news texts) The doctoral dissertation Unpublished.

14 Pham, Huu Duc (2009) Teaching English speaking skills to IU students The

scientific research at university-level International University.

15 Pham, Huu Duc (2010) The congruence of spoken and written English The

scientific research at university-level International University.

Thank you for listening