Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS an investigation into intonation awareness of teachers and students at faculty of foreign languages at industrial university of ho chi minh city

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES --- LƯƠNG MINH TÍN IN INVESTIGATION INTO INTONATION AWARENESS O

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

-

LƯƠNG MINH TÍN

IN INVESTIGATION INTO INTONATION AWARENESS OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF

HO CHI MINH CITY

( ( KHẢO SÁT SỰ QUAN TÂM CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN TẠI KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

-

LƯƠNG MINH TÍN

IN INVESTIGATION INTO INTONATION AWARENESS OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF

HO CHI MINH CITY

(KHẢO SÁT SỰ QUAN TÂM CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN TẠI KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Trường Sa

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP TITLE:

“An investigation into intonation awareness of students and teachers at Faculty of Foreign Languages in Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City.”

Name:LƯƠNG MINH TÍN Supervisor’s Name: Dr NGUYỄN TRƯỜNG SA

“I certify that this work is entirely my own and has not been accepted as part of a submission to another purpose elsewhere”

Signed:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Every researcher who conducts a study owes a debt to his supervisor, to his counselors, to his respondents, to his friends, and to his supporters; I gratefully acknowledge my deep indebtedness to all of them First and foremost, my sincerest thanks go to my supervisor, Doctor NguyễnTrườngSa, a great lecturer atFaculty of Foreign Languages (FFL), in Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) He has spent a lot of time guiding me through how to approach the research and how to conduct it step by step with comprehensive instructions He also spends his valuable and limited time correcting my research and provides me with trustworthy feedback Hopefully, I have applied exactly what he has told me; in case I failed to

do so it was my fault Secondly, I wish to express my particular thanks to respondents and teachers who have supported me with all their heart The data collection is not without their support

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the research is to look at English teaching and learning at tertiary education in Ho Chi Minh City The university that I chose is Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City The context makes me curious because it is still on its newly-born development During my teaching and practice at this university, I have come to see that a lot of students find it difficult to use English, especially how

to speak it One important factor that contributes much to speak English is intonation I have always seen a lot of students use English without intonation But more importantly, what is the cause of this? This research uses three research tools

to investigate the case: questionnaire, recording journals, and interview The data have been coded manually with the help of computers The research has revealed truths under the light of scientific research With the results, the research has helped both teachers and learners really improve their teaching and learning English intonation I refer readers to go chapter by chapter to fully comprehend what is behind those results

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration of authorship

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

Table of contents iii

List of chart, shape, extract iv

List of abbreviations vi

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

1 Reasearch background and problem 1

2 Context of the research 2

3 Research objectives 2

4 Research questions 3

5 Value of the research 3

6 Definitions of terms 3

7 Conclusion and overview of chapter 4

Chapter 2 Literature review 5

1 The nature of pronunciation 5

1.1 The definitions 5

1.2 Tones in intonation of spoken English 7

1.3 Theoretical and practical importance of intonation 8

1.4 English intonation acquisitions 9

1.5 Ways into intonation 11

2 Review of methodolody 13

Chapter 3 Methodology 15

1 Introduction 15

2 The research design 15

3 Ethical issues 17

4 The reason for choosing FFL, part of IUH as fieldwork 17

5 Pilot the research tools 18

Chapter 4 Results and discussions 19

1 Introduction 19

2 Students with their awareness of intonation 19

3 Students‟ recording journals 29

4 Teachers‟ interview 33

Chapter 5 Conclusions 36

1 Introduction 36

2 Essences of the research 36

3 Research strengths and weaknesses 37

4 Recommendations for future research 38

References 38 Appendixes I Appendix 1 Questionnaire II Appendix 2 Recording journals VI Appendix 3 Interview VII

LIST OF CHART, SHAPE, EXTRACT

Chart 1 Respondent‟s academic year 20

Chart 2 English learning important elements 21

Chart 3 Which is more important: stress or intonation? 21

Chart 4 Students‟ frequency of using intonation 22

Chart 5 Intonation challenges 24

Chart 6 Do you practice intonation at home? 24

Chart 7 Using of the internet to help you with learning English intonation 25

Chart 8 How do you often practice English intonation? 26

Chart 9 Students‟ self-correction 26

Chart 10 Do you learn intonation from your teachers? 27

Chart 11 Teacher‟s care 28

Chart 12 How do you get trained on English intonation? 28

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Shape 1 How do you think intonation is important to you? 22

Shape 2 How do you think intonation is difficult to you? 23

-

Extract 1 Intonation for Wh question 29

Extract 2 Intonation for sentence reading 30

Extract 3 Intonation for correction 31

Extract 4 Intonation for listing 31

Extract 5 Intonation for short presentation 32

Extract 6 Intonation for role playing 32

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Chapter 1 Introduction

1 Research background and problem

The development of English has been so dramatic over the past centuries and

centuries beyond that Harmer (2006) called the language lingua franca However,

the biggest question that has even been asked by generations and generations is why

a lot of students fail to interact effectively at workplace and even at interviews for job opportunities It is long believed that everything is there for reason; the same goes for the situation being discussed Chomsky (1980) ever addressed the terms of competence and performance on discussing learner‟s learning ability These two terms also account for speaking skill learning and acquisition Cook (2003:41) points out that the formal systems of language consist of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary When linguistic competence is taken into consideration, three above-mentioned areas of language seem to be placed at the center of language teaching and learning However, only knowing the systems is one basic aspect of the invisible picture; another beneficial side of this picture may be hidden in language learners‟ ability to make use of the systems and put it into spoken language acquisition, especially that of speaking skill When English-majored students make their voice heard through their oral performance, we do not want to admit this but they normally, in fact, have an obstacle in the path of speaking English with variant pronunciation and sometimes even incorrect intonation patterns It is true that Pronunciation Course has been provided during their early years at tertiary education The course is a collocated combination of phonetic

training of sound systems, including minimal pairs (like /p/ and /b/ as in pin and

bin), stress (both at word level and sentence level), intonation patterns such as rising

tone, falling tone, level tone, fall-rise tone and so on as Baker (1993) and other pronunciation text-book writers have put them onto the table for consideration; for example, Mortimer (1996) and O‟ Connor (1967) In some other discussions,

Nunan(2006) and Hedge (2000) have also agreed that a student with good English pronunciation could make him understood and get his meaning crossed easily

However, in the light of this, it seems that these authors fail to address intonation correction in relation to sharpening speaking skill Then it becomes doubtful whether it is required for students to be provided with intonation correction and does intonation really play an important role in improving oral performance inside and outside language classrooms? Can students be completely comprehensible without being trained about intonation patterns? Scientifically, intonation correction has not been much discussed; which leads to a potential fact, i.e whether intonation correction is one of the causes that leads to failure and corruption of English speaking students With that background and problem, the thesis has been carried out

2 Context of the research

Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City was upgraded into a university from

a humble college known as Don Bosco for almost 10 years ago Although the school name sounds industrial; however, it includes a number of approximately 30 institutions and faculties which are about Tourism and Management, Bio Technology, Food Technology, Environment, Electronics, Mechanics, Business Administration, English and the like The Faculty of Foreign Languages attracts as many as 900 students and 30 teachers Most of students come from rural areas and are very studious with learning The teachers follow pre-designed programs and take turn teaching students The training program divides into 2 main kinds: four-year and three-year training programs In the former program, there are students as freshmen, sophomores, junior and senior These students will be taken randomly as samples for the research The sample will also be discussed more deeply in chapter three, Research Methodology

3 Research objectives

The objectives of the research are to discover the awareness of students and teachers in language classrooms about intonation and how this awareness has helped them both to teach and learn English speaking skill

4 Research questions

With the hope of understanding the tangible role of intonation correction, this paper will also be used to answer the following research question:

Does intonation awareness matter to both teachers and students?

The research question will be solved through these three sub questions:

(1) To what extent do teachers take care of intonation correction as part of their error correction and feedback provision in language classrooms?

(2) What is students‟ awareness of intonation as part of their learning English for communicative purpose?

(3) What could be challenges for both the teacher and students in teaching and learning English intonation as a foreign language?

5 Value of the research

The paper will be practically and scientifically valuable For practical aspect, it will grasp interest of those who are concerned with intonation correction yet fail to have chance to search it in detail in a particular situation like Industrial University

of Ho Chi Minh City; for scientific aspect, it helps to find out what kind of role intonation correction plays that text-book writers have not deeply considered yet

6 Definitions of terms Intonation

Intonation is one of the three major branches of the language with grammar and vocabulary (Nunan 1999 143)

Intonation, as Nunan (1999) defines, is „raising and lowering your pitch to convey aspects of meaning‟, he also adds that intonation is the „suprasegmental aspect‟ of pronunciation

Pitch

As Carter and Nunan (2001) points out, pitch is „voice height‟, and it depends

on the frequency of vibrations of the vocal cords

7 Conclusion and overview of chapter

The first chapter of the research provides you with a short introduction of research background and research questions, some key terms that you might want to understand before reading the second chapter which deals with Literature Review

Chapter three, which based on chapter two, will address the research methodology and will also be the official tool for gathering data for analysis in chapter four

Chapter five will continue the research with results, recommendations and the research will end up with chapter six, the conclusion

Chapter 2 Literature review

1 The nature of pronunciation 1.1 The definitions

Features of pronunciation mainly compose of segmental phonology, i.e

individual sounds, such as minimal pairs like /bit/ and /pit/ and so on and segmental phonology, i.e stress, for example, falling tone, rising tone and the like, rhythm, and intonation (Nunan 1999 313) Pronunciation thus has been vitally indispensable to teaching a foreign language in terms of spoken language (Cook

supra-2003 41; Hedge 2000 119; Kumaravadivelu 2006 67; Nunan 1999 42) Factually, pronunciation has recently gained more and more awareness from both language learners and teachers The matter of pronunciation, as described by Nunan (1999) above, is divided into two types: segmental and supra-segmental phonology Both categories will be thoroughly considered as follows

Pronunciation

Pronunciation, according to Nunan (1999), is „the ways in which sounds are produced‟ (Nunan 1999 313) In English, it is commonly known that there are as many as 12 monophthongs, 7 diphthongs, 24 consonants (O‟ Connor & Fletcher

1989 14) By pronunciation, we actually mean the ways sounds might be produced through voicing organs of human beings Another definition from Hedge (2000) is that pronunciation is learner‟s ability to produce sounds that are intelligible to other speakers (Hedge 2000, 268) Supra-segmental phonology which is part of pronunciation consists of stress, rhythm, and intonation (Nunan 1999 313)

Stress

Carter &Nunan (1999) points out that stress refers to a particular syllable that is pronounced louder with more energy and higher pitch for the sake of making it prominent from other syllables (Carter &Nunan 1999 226) It is thus a part of supra-segmental phonology, together with pitch, rhythm, tempo, voice quality (Carter

&Nunan 1999 227) Carter &Nunan (1999) also claim for the stress system This system of stress is the way in which lexical stress is fixed within an utterance (Carter &Nunan 1999 9) They further state that in languages such as Spanish and Japanese stressed is located at fixed distances from the boundaries of words;

however, in languages such as English and Arabic the main stressed is pulled towards an utterance‟s focal syllable Obviously, there are two main kinds of stress:

word stress and sentence stress

They divide rhythm into two types which are trochaic (strong-weak) rhythm and iambic (weak-strong) rhythm (Carter &Nunan 1999 9)

Pitch

On their discussion about pitch, Carter &Nunan (2001) point out that pitch is the height of voice (Carter &Nunan 2001, 226) It is the vocal cords that create vibrations which help make voice height To make it clear, in the chapter written about pronunciation, Carter &Nunan (2001) agree that pitch change is the speaker‟s voice going up or down (Carter &Nunan 2001 58) As Roach (2000) suggests, pitch

is described as high and low (Roach 2000 150) However, he adds that only those that are linguistically meaningful should be considered (Roach 2000 150) For example, when someone is riding a horse, his voice might be high which is not very linguistically meaningful

Intonation

What is intonation? The answer to this question could never be satisfied (Roach

2000 150) However, Roach (2000) mentions the fact that intonation, to some extent

or perhaps most extent, has a strong relationship with pitch (see the definition above) (Roach 2000 150) Carter &Nunan (1999) define intonation as the „use of pitch to convey different kinds of meaning in discourse‟ (Carter &Nunan 1999 223)

They also mention the term intonation groups which are, according to their point of view, „chunks of spoken discourse‟ and that this serves listeners as „signals of organization and are characterized by pitch change on the most important syllable‟

(Carter &Nunan 1999 224) Intonation groups are also known as sense groups or tone units Also, in another book, Nunan (1999) proposes that intonation is by means of lowering or raising voice pitch to convey aspects of meaning (Nunan 1999 307); for that reason, it is one of the supra-segmental aspects of pronunciation

1.2 Tones in intonation of spoken English Tone and tone languages

In Mandarin Chinese, for example, the word has different meanings depending

on which tone is used (Roach 2000 154) If we wished, we should take the word ma for instance If we have a falling tone when we say this word, it will probably means „scold‟, but if it is spoken with level tone it means „mother‟ and the like

Languages such as the above are considered tone languages As far as we concern, Vietnamese is also a tone language However, English, as we all know, is not a tone language (Roach 2000 154) For that reason, there is a big gap between Vietnamese and English in terms of using tones to convey meanings and express someone‟s thought Obviously, the word tone has become much more complex than just rising

or falling We might take a closer look at tone and tone units in the next part

Tones, types, and functions of tones

Tone units, or intonation groups, are chunks of language that we have discussed above There are a variety of tones in English which could be used by speakers to convey different types of both intended and unintended meanings They are: falling tone, rising tone, fall-rise tone, and level tone (O‟ Connor & Fletcher 1989 18)

Falling tone

Falling tone normally means more or less „neutral‟ (Roach 2000 155) This tone

is also used to emphasize a „finality‟ of a statement or a sentence; in other words, there is nothing more to be expected to hear from a falling tone This will be considered deeply as follows

Rising tone

Rising tone, as Roach (2000) describes, plays an important role in suggesting that something more to follow (Roach 2000 156) If someone say „Excuse me‟ then with a rising „Yes‟, the conversations could suggest us that the second speaker expects the first speaker to say something on their head or something that they intend to speak Not only that, the rising tone has been adopted in some circumstances below

Level tone

Roach (2000) defines level tone as something we are trying to sing on steady note (Roach 2000 152) The function of level tone is to express the feelings of someone who is uninteresting and boring For example,

1.3 Practical and theoretical importance of intonation

Intonation together with stress is part on pronunciation (Carter &Nunan 2001 56) As far as we know, the role of pronunciation is:

the production and perception of the significant sounds of a particular language in order to achieve meaning in contexts of language use

(Carter &Nunan 2001 56)

It is because of the fact that intonation makes up pronunciation, it shares some roles with pronunciation We will take a close look at such roles: practical importance and theoretical importance of intonation

Divide a discourse into ‘units of information’

According to Taglicht (2008), intonation has the function of breaking a discourse into tone units, or chunks of meaningful language and then intonation will

structure these units by separating anything from the whole thing that is considered

„new‟ to listeners (Taglicht 2008 213-230) With this role, intonation clearly helps listeners to know before-hand which is new and which is given to them Thanks to that role of intonation, listeners are advantageous in understanding others and making themselves across too By contrast, without intonation, it is very challenging for listeners to read up what the speakers said That might be because of the truth that chunks of language will be very much harder to understand then small and comprehensible groups of words

Position ourselves in personal and social lives

Intonation helps us to position ourselves in personal and social lives (Carter

&Nunan 2001 56) That is mainly because with intonation, we tend to feel what the speakers intend to speak but he/she fails to express it out through words There is a good saying in English that goes „If you want to understand someone, you had better try to understand the part that is not spoken.‟ That literally means that not all the time we can read someone up thanks to verbal language That is also why we have paralanguage and extra-language For example, when someone is angry, the voice is expected to rise up with facial expressions and the like The voice and quality of voice can reveal a lot about how the speaker feels at the moment

1.4 English intonation acquisitions

Halliday (1967) divides intonation into three „T‟s‟ which is tonality (the chunking of speech into intonational phrases, or tone-units, tonicity (nucleus placement) and tone (mainly, but not only: fall, rise, and fall-rise) From his viewpoint we can see that acquiring intonation requires us to master three T‟s either

at the same time or one by one Basing on whatHalliday (1967) says, Vietnamese learners should have a lot of difficulty on tones They hardly fall or rise in their speech and many students speak the language without rising or falling their tone

The question to be asked is what are the factors that could stop students from doing so?

Factors influencing intonation

There might be a variety of factors that could influence intonation acquisition;

those main factors are usually the dynamics of intonation, lack of exposure to English intonation, the current textbook treatments of intonation, and a missing communicative focus of either the curriculum or the teachers Each point will be addressed at a time

The dynamics of intonation

Carter and Nunan (2001) points out that early language learning could account for being a good learner of pronunciation (Carter &Nunan 2001 61) This means that with age, it tends to become much more difficult for someone to learn English pronunciation and intonation as well In other words, the older someone is the more difficult for them to learn pronunciation and intonation of a language, especially a foreign language For that reason, learners should begin with intonation as soon as possible

Lack an opportunity for exposure to English intonation

Carter and Nunan (2001) have shown that students need an ample opportunity for them to get as much exposure as possible to English intonation (Carter &Nunan

2001 60) Lack of opportunity also leads students to lack of perception of English intonation (Carter &Nunan 2001 60) From their view point, we come to understand that English intonation is very important but it will be useless if students are not provided with a chance to master themselves in the field of English intonation

Current treatments of intonation

In terms of teachers‟ feedback correction, it is very rarely for teachers to correct students‟ pronunciation and intonation This is true as Corder (1967) He reports that teachers do not have enough detachment to evaluate learner‟s pronunciation

That is also because of students‟ motivation and aptitude that might determine the acquisition of intonation (Skehan 1989a cited in Carter &Nunan 2001 62) Other factors are probably social attitudes, and personality factors (Carter &Nunan 2001 62) Apparently, current treatments of intonation are quite limited and for that reason intonation awareness has not been paid a lot of attention to

A missing communicative focus

According to Carter and Nunan (2001), „pronunciation moves from sound manipulation exercises to communication activities‟ and they also add that „it moves from a focus on isolated forms to the functioning of pronunciation in discourse‟ (Carter &Nunan 2001 64) The same should go for intonation, i.e it should move from sound manipulation exercise to a communicative purpose

Teaching English for communicative purpose is not easy at all; for that reason, the focus on meaning has been hardly achieved

1.5 Ways into intonation Exposing to English intonation

For example, we can let students expose to non-native and non-standard varieties of English (Wong 1987 2) The reason that leads us to this idea is that with non-native and non-standard varieties of English, students will be able to recognize the difference between native and non-native intonations From that recognition, they might learn something for themselves Such intonation varieties could be taken from radio broadcasts which are not spoken by native speakers but rather by non-native ones

Using the Internet

One very good way of mastering intonation is the use of the Internet (Carter

&Nunan 2001 64) Obviously, development of information technology has offered a lot of important opportunities for learners to become more familiar with accurate descriptions of language use Nowadays, it is not difficult at all for students to find

CD, DVD, Multi CD-Rom and the like (Carter &Nunan 2001 64) on the Internet

With a click on YouTube, hundreds or even thousands of videos teaching students how to make use of intonation will be ready in a minute One very famous teacher

of intonation and video learning is Mister Duncan from English However, to make

this kind of learning useful, students are encouraged to learn on their own

Autonomy

Autonomy is an important part of language learning and intonation acquisition (Carter &Nunan 2001 64) However, students‟ autonomy is a great burden to language education because many students do not really have a strong motivation for their learning and for their jobs in the future (Hedge 2000 22) Hedge (2000) states that such things as „anxiety‟, „attitude‟, or „willingness‟ will probably help to shape the motivation for students when they learn a foreign language including English Of the three words, attitude may be the most important factor With a never-give-up attitude, students are more possible to get successful than those who are still not clear of why they are studying English This attitude cannot be achieved easily; it is the part of teacher‟s encouragement and students‟ effort that count Once students are autonomous in learning, mastering intonation is just the matter of time

Self-assessing

Assessing intonation is very crucial in student‟s life The role of assessment has been pointed out by Hedge (2000); he claims that assessment guide you towards a greater awareness of your own assessment practices (Hedge 2000 406) Assessing is also beneficial for those who do not have much time to go to class After assessing themselves, they can learn something from themselves and then move on That is everything we expect our students to have with them right when they are still here, being on the chair of a high school student

Being able to recognize and copy English intonation

Roach (2000) has shown us that it is very important for students to be able to recognize and copy English intonation (Roach 2000 152) He also recommends several options which are to listen carefully to foreign speakers and to talk in person with them (Roach 2000 152) Nevertheless, Roach (2000) warns us that in case students are not able to have as much exposure as they can to English intonation through foreign speakers, then it becomes very hard and challenging for them to learn English intonation (Roach 2000 152)

Making students aware of structure of tone units

Brazil (2000) states that all spoken English is made up of tone units (Brazil

2000 194) Every tone unit has a tonic syllable A tonic syllable, according to Brazil (2000) is the last prominent syllable in the tone units (Brazil 2000 195) These clues suggest us that tone units are a very important part of learning intonation and they should be mastered by students either intentionally or unintentionally The structure should be made clear in the next few lines by Roach (2000) The tone unit usually has three parts: the head, the pre-head, and the tail (Roach 2000 165) In fact, students are not to know these kinds of things, but we at least try to fix the situation

by making a little effort in making them aware of the structure

2 Review of methodology

Before this thesis, a lot of researches have been done for the sake of broad understanding and deep revealing the nature of intonation In this part, some major researches will be included for reviewing Due to time constraints, this thesis will not cover all previous researches I refer readers to read more about this topic for better and deeper understanding it

Most of the previous researches have focused on learning and teaching intonation, little attention has been paid to teachers‟ care and students‟ awareness

That means that this research has been a central point in the big picture of intonation out there Let us dig deeper for this fact

Chun (1988) from University of Texas has discussed the role of intonation in communicative competence and proficiency He mentions firstly, the role of intonation and discourse, secondly, models of communicative competence and proficiency, and finally the guidelines of intonation Chun (1988) did not mention how to acquire intonation in relationship with teachers and students‟ awareness

Another research from Allen (1971) suggests how to teach intonation, from both theories to practice In comparison with Chun (1988), we see that Allen (1971) has more concentration on students in learning English intonation, with outside context He recommends four main things in his research (1) focus on major patterns, (2) difference between punctuation system and intonation system, (3)

intonation between isolated sentences and extended discourse, (4) teaching students how to think in terms of delivering a speech with intonation attached to it Though Allen (1971) has suggested and even taught in detail how to use intonation, all those things are just theoretical He fails to mention the role of teachers‟ care by correction and students‟ awareness by trying to use intonation both inside and outside language classrooms

As a word of summary, both above-mentioned researches and many others have focused on how to teach intonation, they did not reveal or suggest or include the awareness of students and teachers in teaching and learning intonation So this research once again will reveal the darkness and bring the truth which is the awareness of learners and teachers in the course of learning and teaching intonation out under the light of scientific research

Chapter 3 Research methodology 1.Introduction

The research has been conducted for the purpose of investigating awareness of students and teachers on the importance of intonation to learning and teaching speaking skill Previously, in the literature review discussed in chapter two, an overview of theory of teaching and learning intonation has been addressed This part will go one step further on how the research can be done to more thoroughly investigate the awareness in practice, or in a particular context: Industrial University

of Ho Chi Minh City The next section will be responsible for the research design (including the procedure of collecting data and the issue of analyzing the data to ensure generalizability, validity and reliability), the ethical issues and the rationale for choosing Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City as fieldwork

2 The research design Sampling

In this part, four factors that are worth mentioning and will be taken into considerations are: (1) the sample size, (2) the representativeness and parameters of sample, accessing to the sample, and (3) the sampling strategy to be used (suggested

by Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2000: Chapter 4)

The sample size is not expected to be very large as this research cannot cover all participants in a given time though I have always wanted to make a large-scale investigation for the time being As previously discussed, a number of thirty students from the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) in Industrial University of

Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) will be involved in the research to complete a questionnaire mostly about their awareness of intonation

In terms of representativeness of the sample, it is quite difficult to estimate exactly because the number of English majored students of English in IUH could be hundreds or so and this number seems difficult to be wholly accessed and measured

Therefore, I will do the research on several classes and students, and teachers as

mentioned above That number should be around thirty for students and four for teachers

For the part of accessing to the sample, the only matter that struggles this research is the issue of time Each semester at FFL lasts very shortly, especially the course of Pronunciation It probably lasts approximately 2 months It seems to race with time for observing the classes I have prepared very carefully under the pressure of time to deliver the questionnaires and conduct the interviews with teachers

The sampling strategy to be used is „non-probability sample‟ (see more in Cohen, Manion, Morrison 2000: Chapter 4 and in review of methodology which is mentioned in chapter two) Non-probability sample is made use instead of probability sample because in the former (non-probability sample) the researcher can purposely select a number of respondents to include or exclude (Cohen, Manion, Morrison 2000 99) Due to restricted time, non-probability sample may work better than probablility sample which requires every member of the wider population to have an equal chance of being included as sample

Questionnaire

There will be a couple of research tools to be adopted The most important tool

is questionnaire As far as we have known, questionnare is widely used and it is also

a useful way of collecting data A number of 14 questions will be included in the questionnaire Those questions range from general to specific level, from awareness

of intonation used in and out classrooms, from teachers‟ role to students‟ role I refer the reader to the appendix for a closer look at the questionnaire which has been composed basing on theory of research methodology suggested by Cohen, Manion, Morrison (2000 Chapter 14)

Interviews and recordings

For recording journal, all six students will be asked to help by recording their voices through some major types of intonation (see chapter one of the research) I want them to do this to reveal the relationship between their awareness towards

intonation and their performance to the language using Each student will be asked

to talk with me and I will record the conversation for later use The list of recording question will be not long There are probably eight questions that students are going

to go through with me I refer readers to the end of this research at the Appendices for more details

Teachers will get involved in the interviews also To avoid irritation, they will

be asked very shortly and the content of the interview questions will be as focused

as possible Before interviewing them, I will take ethical issues into considerations (see below) to avoid any incovenience for them They will be probably asked a number of ten questions that relate to their awareness of intonation and what they have done for their students in terms of intonation in teaching speaking skill in classrooms There are also eight main question items on the interviews the teachers are going to answer I make an appoitment with them one by one and set the record

I also have to make sure that they are totally free and comfortable in order to give full and reliable answers

3 Ethical issues

Padgett (1998 cited by Nguyen (2012)) suggests that „ethical concerns‟ should

be considered as an important part of a research To maintain these criteria, those matters will be thought in advance:

- Participants will be freely and comfortably take part in the research: either in questionnaire, recording journal or in interviews

- Data will be highly confidentialy kept Noone will have a chance to address it:

participants‟ answer, viewpoints, ideas will be stored to death

- The research will be practically and scientifically useful

4 The reason for choosing FFL, part of IUH as fieldwork The place where my English was re-born and really grown up

I have been learning English for years at secondary and high schools My secondary and high school teachers have helped me great deal in shaping basic concepts of English and they have also placed a firm and essential foudation for my

future Not until tertiary education do I realize the importance of English and how to make it work The FFL of IUH has been meaningful to me from my first worrying days at a new city All teachers have been very helpful to me and tried all their best guiding me with the bestest that they have It is clear that I have been trained with all care and knowledge that I might need And that benefit comes to responsibility

Ethically, this research is in strong decication to my teachers at FFL, IUH

Course discriptions

Pronunciation Classes: the main textbook of this course is Sounds English by

O‟ Connor and Fletcher (1967) The course is divided into two sub-course called Pronunciation 1 & Pronunciation 2 which is learned by students on their first year

Each class lasts 30 periods with 45 minutes in each period Each week students will meet up with teacher instructor and the course lasts approximately two and a half months

Speaking Classes: the main textbook of this course is Interactions 1, 2 and

Mosaic 1, 2 by Thrush, Baldwin, and Blass (2007) Speaking Classes are divided

into four sub-courses: Speaking 1, 2, 3, 4 Each course approximately lasts 45 periods

5 Pilot the research tools

After I have composed the questionnaire, recording journal items, and interview questions, I have piloted them to make sure they will bear as reliable and valid data

as possible First, I have given the questionnaire items to five student I told them the rules and wait for them to finish After they have finished, I looked at the questionnaire items and asked them about what they think about the questionnaires

I carefully noted them down on my booklet for further reference I have made several changes to the questionnaires And the one that I used for collecting data has been revised basing on the comments and recommendations from respondents The same process has been applied for recording journals and interview I refer readers

to the Appendices for more information about them