Luận văn an analysis on word stress errors commonly made by 12th grade students in le quy don high school hai phong and some solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDLES: AN TII NGÀ AN ANALYSIS ON WORD STRESS ERRORS COMMONLY MADE BY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDLES:

AN TII NGÀ

AN ANALYSIS ON WORD STRESS ERRORS COMMONLY MADE BY

12" GRADE STUDENTS IN LÊ QUÝ ĐÔN HIGH SCHOOL,

HÃI PHÒNG AND SOME SOLUTIONS { Phân tích các lỗi thờng gặp về trong âm từ của học sinh lớp

12 trường THPT Lê Quý Đôn Hải Phòng và một số giải pháp )

~M.A, MINOR 'THESIS-

English teaching methodology

601410

Hanoi, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDLES:

AN TII NGÀ

AN ANALYSIS ON WORD STRESS ERRORS COMMONLY MADE BY

12" GRADE STUDENTS IN LÊ QUÝ ĐÔN HIGH SCHOOL,

HÃI PHÒNG AND SOME SOLUTIONS { Phân tích các lỗi thờng gặp về trong âm từ của học sinh lớp

12 trường THPT Lê Quý Đôn Hải Phòng và một số giải pháp )

~M.A, MINOR 'THESIS-

Hanoi, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A : INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale

2, Aims of the sludy

3, Scope of the SEUÄY eo

A, Significance of the study

3 Rescarcli qucsfiOT co eccsreiieerriee

6, Organization of the study

PARI B : DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature review

1, Role of errors in language learring

2, Role of stress in language Ìeatring

2.1 Stress and learners’ intelligibility

2.2 Some †hcorctical backpround †o the coIIecpf SỈTc5s co een

2.2.1 Nature of syilable

2.2.2 Slructure of syllable

2.3.3 Characterisiics ofstressed and tsiTessed wordis

2.244 Nahreofstress 2.2.5 Schwa sound, 2.2.6 Marking of stress

2.2.7 Placement of word stress

4 Data analysis and findings

4.1 Findings fiom the questlonnairs

&

3.1.1 Stndenis affitude toward learning word sirsss 4.1.2 Students’ awareness of the difficulty in ward stress lessons

4.2 Findings fiom the tests

42.1 Students’ faihwre to distinguish primary stress and secondary stress 4.2.2 Stress on the wrong syllables of mmulti-syllabic words

43.5 Students’ lack of motivation and concem

Chapter 3: Possible solutions

1 Totheteaehets con

2 Yo the students

3 othe school's managers

= To the course book designers

PARI C: CONCLUSION

1 Summary of the stnđy

2 Conolusion

3 _Limifation of the study

A Suggestions for farther study

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students

Appendix 2: The spelling of the schwa in English

Appendix 3: Weak forrns oŸ words

Appendix 4: Production test and stress pattern key

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22,

23 wed

VI

vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF FIGURES

Eigure 1: 8uudenls sItude towsrds learning word.siress

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

Higure 3 : Students’ degree of certainty when marking stress pattem for a word

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

Iigure 5: Students’ common errors in learning word stress

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

Figure 7; Studenls ‘errors from the production Lest

PART A: ENTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

There is no doubt that making c1rors is part of learning and couceting crrots 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 tole of errors and error correction are considered 80 important in teaching and lcaming a forcign 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 i general and of the degree of maich balween his learning and syllabus and the teacher’s teaching one.” He also added that “Thanks to Exor Analysis, teachers know what language items their learners have already acquired, what they might not Inve been presented to, and what they have been langhl but havz not grasped accurately, which are considered as errors or mistakes”

Error Analysis seems to have received a great deal of attention ftom 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 Cordar §.P.(1967), Richards J.C.(1971), Dulay H.C

and Burt M.K.(1974) However, the errors analyzed in those studies come ftom their

learners aud imay be the characteristics of those learners ralher tham Vielrartese siuđenis"

In Vietnam, there is a mumber of studies on exrors 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’ cornmem errors dr grammar (Trinh Phan Thi Phong Lan-2005) and stadents’ errors on stress at sentence level (Luu Thi Kim Nhung- 2003), etc, Untortunately, little concem is paid to errors on word

stress

It is undeniable that stress plays a very important role in Ioaming a forcign language and its pronunciation, It helps improve the learners’ speaking as well as listening skill A learner with correct rhytimn, intonation and sts

Wih the @gerlenoe of more than ten years working asa teacher of English in Le Quy Don High School, the researcher realizes that whenever her students spoak Engtish or do tests ơn phonetios, they seem to contront with a lot of difiiculties 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 Bugtish in their high school fr 3 ysars and have had « 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 rescurcher decides lo choose the tille:

An analysis on word stress crrors commonly inade by 12 grade students in Le Quy

Don High school, Hal Phong and some solutions for her M.A thesis

Tl is hoped that the sindy, 10 some extent, will contribulz lo improving the teaching and leaming of English word stress in Le Quy Don High School in particular and English study in general

2 Aims of the stady

This study scts the following aims for investigation:

= To identify the most common word stress exors made by 12 ” grade students in Le

Quy Den High School both in tenns of thew 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

Strass is one important part of English pronunciation, which consists of sentence stress and

word stress However, dug to bath limitad ime and oxperienec, this study only focuses on the errors in word stress derived fiom perception and production tests of the 12 grade

students of Linglish in Le Quy Don Lligh School Any attempt to study English word stress

errors on other aspeet is beyond the scope of tus thesis

4 Significance of the stady

‘The study aims at bringing about some benefits for teaching linglish word stress to high school students especially the students of Le Quy Don Tigh Schoot

In tems of foreign language teaching and leaming, the study telis about the students’ attitude and method in learning English word stress, where they need help and what sort of help they

nocd An oxplicil understanding why crrors 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 stady may assist designers in understanding the nature

of errors occurring to high school students, which is usefal fir them in sequencing and arranging larget language items in lext books in such a way (hal helps prevent error occurrence as mich as possible,

5 Research questions

Toachicve the aims insulioncd above, the following research questions arc addressed:

© Whal are the most corumon word slress crrors made by 12" grade students in Le

Quy Don High School?

© Whal are the causes of these errors?

© Whal should be done to reduce the students” errors?

6& Organization of the stuily

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 specifics

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

PART B- DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1- Literature review:

Mentions thearclical 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-sylfabic and mulli-syltabic words as well as weak forms of words

Chapter 2- The study

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

rescareh sclting, the subjects, the research mcthods as welt

as data analysis and findings

Chapter 3- Possible solutions

In the first parl, some possible solutions are given to help teachers and students in high schools overcome difficulties in teaching and leaming Engtish word stress as well as some recommendations far schoal’s facilitivs and course book designers

PART C- CONCLUSION

In this part, summary and conchision of the thesis are cmphasived Further more, Fimilations of the study and some suggestions for farther study are provided

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature review

1 Errors in language learning

LE Notion of exrors

Learnmg 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

thal is an crror, onc has to base timsclf on a certain norm, This nor is naturally not

universal but depends upon different considerations, ie it depends on how language is

approached An analysis of errors is extremely important for teachers as they directly work

wilh students and scern lo have great imflucnes om their student's effectiveness in learning

‘because (eachers do net only presen! new language items, bul also have lo lake into

consideration of what errors should be corrected as well as what should be ignored InA

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

and Puntanen S (1983: 227) argued that “an crror 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 sare context would m 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 thal a variety of dialects may be used by the mative speakers i their country The

linguistic torm may be deviated ftom one dialect but not another one Thus, deciding

whether a linguistic form is an error depends on what norm or standard should be taken inlo 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 MK and Krashen 8.1) 1982: 138)

* Second, ina foreign setting like Vietnam, where English is taught and learned as a

forcign language, the sclected norm here is undisputedly the prescriptive English

standard usage ‘That is to say, amy deviated forms or structures that carmot account

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

crroncous, uigrammatical, or unavecplable

* Lasl, the len error is also well adopled from Corder 8P (1975: [12):“either

superficially deviant or inappropriate in tenms of the target language”

1.2 Distinction of error, mistake, slip and attempt

When studying orror, the lorm iistake is also locked al Mistakes are said lo be unsyslomatic in nature aril lo be eorrcelable as allention is drawn to their produvers Errors, in contrast, refér to any systematic deviations from the rule of the target language

as a result of the leamer’s internalizing the language during the process of learning a second or foreign language, In fact, the boundary between these two torias is so stall thal

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 arc traccable 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 learnors may make mistakes On the contrary, errors are of significanes lo the pracess of language learning They do reflect knowledge and are not self-correctable Only learners of a second or foreign Janguage commit exrors.”

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

thal is unintentionally deviant and is not sel©corrigible by the lemmer” A mistake is

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

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

that sort of mistake an error”, He added that a slip is what the student can self: correct, An attempt 1s a guess or when neither the intended meaning nor the structure is clear to the

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

» Errors are mistakes caused by the incomplete understanding of language

to the significance of learners” errors

13> Significance of learners’ errors

Dis sion an the significance of Tearners’ crrors can be found in Richards’s study (1992),

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

* Tothe 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 thers to learn

«They provide tho teacher evidence of how language is loaned or acquired, whet

14 Error Analysis

‘As discussed above, in the process of teaching and leaming a foreign language, errors tell teachers how much progress leamers have made toward the target language and assist in adjusting (caching techniques In order to help tcachers assess their Icarmers’ lewning, 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 fimctions, Richards (1992;127) stated that “ Error Analysis may be carried out in order to (a) identify strategies which leamers use in language learning; (b) try to identify the causes of learner errors, (¢) obtain information on common difficulties

in language learning, as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of the teachme matenals” 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) cmphasived “Fiver Arulysis was a methodology for dealing with data ralher than a theory

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

in leaning a foreign language so as to figure out appropriate materials and select the

to realize their learnars’ errors

In shorl, errors and BA are undoubtedly significant in texching and learning Pnglish They tell teachers what needs to be taught Besides, they tell researchers how learning, proceeds

In addition, they are a means whereby leamers test thair hypothesis about the language they are learning and teachers adjust their leaching Lechniques so that they will be suilable

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

importance

2 Role of stress In language learning,

2.1 Stress ond learners’ intelligibility in language learning

Stress is an important aspect of pronunciation, which decides one’s commumication

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

Tn lerms of language production, Brown R and Mv Nail D (1978) in The Tip of the Tongue studied the phenomenon of speakers who cannot remember a word bat have it on the tip of their tongue ‘Their study showed that with those speakers, the infrequently used words could become faint with disuss, and only parls of them could be clearly remembered Those parts are usuaily the beginning and the end of the word together with its number of syllables and the location of the primary stress In Stip of the Tongue, Cutler

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

stress

In terms of language perception, it would seem that heavy reliance on information about stress pattem and the nature of the stressed syllables is a common and an cfficicnt way of speech comprehension, When listeners mishear a word, it is usually stress pattern and the

nalure of the slressed syllable which decide what listeners (rink (hey hear The str

syllable information is very important for the listeners lo reconstrucl the whole massa

‘Not surprisingly, when the strass pattern 1s incorrect, errors in interpretation occur, Basal

RK in The intelligibility of Indian English (1966) gave many interesting examples of

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

“mimosphere” was heard as “must fear", ^

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

ery” as “or study”, “character” as

Concerning intelligibility, Kenworthy 3 (1987:13) defined: “Tmelligibilily 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 inolligible that speaker is She also added that “If the foreign speaker substitutes one sound or feature of promuneiation for another, and the result

is that the listener hears a different word or phrase ftom the one the speaker was aiming to say, il can be said that the foreigner's spocch is unintelligible Likewise, if the forcign 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 phonstic ability ITence, “Incorrect stress placement is the major cause if intelligibility problems for foreign Icamcrs” (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 ™ grade students in Te Quy Don Tigh school in Tai Phong Therefore, it is necessary to have a brief view at the theory of English stress,

22 Same theoretical background to the cancept “stress”

2.21 Nature of syllable

In general, the different aspects of stress can be described in relation to syilables In

English, cvery word is made up of onc or more syllables (Joncs D.1998:134) The

scquonces /#in!, Apraiz!, / fens! (in thin, price, fence) constiluls single syttablos, /inist/,

#prailzl, (di'fens! (in thinnest, prices, defence) contain two syllables cach, /"definit’,

/sO'praicic/, fdh'fensiv/ (in detinite, surprises, defensive) contain three syllables, and so or

Phoneticalty, syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little or no

obstruction fo airflaw and which sounds comparatively loud, before and afer 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

10

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

All of the sounds of a syllable are planned togcther and pronounced together as an unbroken unit, Kor this reason, the length of a syllable remains fairly constant, no matter how many phonemes il includes The longes! part of a syllable is ils vowel The vowel is longest when being unswrounded by any additional consonants With every consonant added before or after it, the vowel shortens a bit to compensate for the added elements of the syllable (Penmingion M.C 1996 129)

223 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, ons syllable is more prominent, louder, or more noticcable than the other syllables in that word This strong syllable is sticsscd (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 Lo low or low to high) often occurs on stressed syllables

1

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

or centralved This means that the vowels lend to become / a / /T ý, pm Z0 2, and the

consonants are weaker The pitch does not change direction on unstressed syllables

224 Nature of stress

In English Phonetics and Phonology, Roach P (1983:72, 73) held the view thal “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 whal makes a syllabke become more prominent (tan others, in his bouk, Peter Roach looked at four diffrent important factors They are loudness, lengthy, pitch and vowel quality

2.2.41 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 npon which Ihere is expended in Ihe articulation relatively greal 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 Iams in relatively groal intensity of the sound or syllable, such intensity being perceived by the listener as greater Joudness associated with the sound or syllable, Thus, the greater energy which the speaker feels is concentrated on the first syllable or answer

2.242 Langth (duration or quantity)

Roach P in Phonetic and Phonology (1983: 163) defined that: “The length of syllables has an important patt to play in prominence If a word is presented to English listeners, with no pitch variations but with vowols of different length, thoso vowels whrich have the greatest Iength will be judged as “stressed”, Therefore, vowels and diphthongs will always

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

bo and despitz the fact that a long vowel or diphihong in a relatively unstressed syllable

does not have the same length as it will have in a stressed syllable A vowel in a stressed

2243 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 noliccably sid ditferently from the others, it will be recognized as prominent, and of eourse a stressed syllable ‘Therefore, to place some movement of pitch (eg rising or falling pitch) on a syllable is an offective way to produce a syllable with prominence, Tt is eloscly related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds and to the musical notion of low- and high- pitched notes Lle also emphasized: “If one syllable ofa ‘nonsense word’ (e.g ba:ba:ba:ba ) is said with a pitch that is noticeably different ftom that of the others, this will have a strong tendency to produce the cffect of promincnes if all syllables arc said with low pitch except for one said with high pitch, then the high-pitch syllable willl be heard as stressed and the others as unstressed”

2.2.44 Powel quality

A syllable will be considered as a prominence if it includes a vowel that has different quatity from neighboring vowels (Roach P.1983:163) Ifa nonsense word “ ba/bác bá ba

is changed as “bacbi: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 vawel quality

2.25 Schwa sound

According to Kenworthy J (1987:51):“There is English one sound that all learners must be

made aware of at a very carly stage- the neutral vowel used in unstressed syllable and weak form- the schwa vowel” Schwa is represented by the phonetic symbol / 9 /, In quality, itis nid (thal is, halfway belween close and aperi) and central (Ihat is, hal -way between front and back), it is generally deseribed as lax, thal is, nol articulated with much onergy Tt is noteworthy that this vowel / 8 / only occurs in unstressed syllables, never in stressed ones Appendix 2 gives more examples indicating the spelling of the schwa in English

13

226 Marking of stress

There are various ways of marking stressed syllables im English O°Connor LD (1967) showed stressed syllables by placing the mark * immediately before them, for example

7 ai k ud *hadli bitliv mai*aiz/ ( Feould hardly believe my eves)

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

more syllables preceding the primary stress, and in compound words For examples:

vulncrabilily /,valnarebisti /, civilization ¿2sivalai⁄cijn /, responsibility / rieponse’bilati /,

type designing’ taip di,zainin/ cto

2.2.7 Placement of word swess

Accarding to O°Comnor LD.(1967:91), within a sentence, there are Iwo 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 demonstralives, 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 prouaums 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

22.74 Monosyllabie 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 (ic, with fo far /T))

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22.7.2 BEsviabie wordsí3 svllabls-words

Tn Aa Introduction To Phonetics, Parviz Baud 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 helpfl 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 / in kri:s/, encroach/ an kraut{/

- Ifthe bi-syllabie verb ends with more tle one consonant, then the second syllable is stressed: Collapse ko’ eps /, condense /kan! dens/

- If the final syllable contains a short vowel and one or no final consonant, then usually, the first syllable will be stressed: Open / supan /, cnvy / cn /

* Two syllable adjsctives arc stressed in the same manmar Thal is, the throo rules mentioned for verbs hitherto, also apply to bi-syllabie adjectives: Discreet /dis'kuitt

1, disguised /dis' gard /, fishy / "fL⁄, handsome Phamdsamn/

* For adverbs, the ending -fy does nol affect stress Thersfore, it is easy to pul the -y aside and identify the stress for the remaining adjective The snding -Jy is usually pronounced as /l/: Handsonly “hendsami ¿, manly / menh ý, lazily “lew / diserestly (đã kritk/

© Bisyllabic nouns generally follow a different stress placement pattem If the second syllable contains a short vawel, the stress will usually come on the first syllable Otherwise it will be on the second syllable For instance: Money mani,

product /‘prodekt /, larynx flerinks/, estate /i'steit /, design / di’zain /

* Intwo-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 al the end of a senteuce or phrase like: Pick ‘up, drop ‘out, pul a ‘way,

do ‘over

* Inreflexive pronouns, the last syllable receives stress: My'self, themselves

* Stress in Iwo-syllable noun-verb pairs

(@) The unhappy customer may ansedt the manager

(b) That’s an ised?

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

2.2.73 Mulli-syllabie words( words with more tum 2 syllables)

According to Parviz B.and Mohammad AS (2005:109), deciding which syllable to give

stress hocomes very complicated when words include more than two syllables With wnilti- syllabic words, the mules 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 ono-like / 9 / or /1/, Another hint is that multi-syllabic function words happen, for the most part, to carry stress on their final or ultimate syllable:

nevertheless /:nev(a)rés' les /, nonetheless /“anende"}es /, although / 31° 6au /

Despite the large amount of research done on the subject of stress, it is still one area of

which phonolickms have little understanding They have, however, developed a fow rules thal can bs safely used to identify the stress patterns of the majority of the English wwiti- syllable content words

* Prefixes and the adverbial suifix-ty (used to make adverbs) usually do not change the pattern of stress:

Capitulate / ko’ prtfalert / recapitulate (1i:ko" pitfalett?,

iterate /‘rtorect / reiterate / rit rtarect /

moderate /‘mpdarat / moderately / modareth/

tangible / tendgbl’ tangibly / tendytbb/

Verbs that end in -ate or -ice recelve siress on their antepennltimate (e., last but two, or the third fiom right ) syllables ‘Ihe endings are pronounced as / ext / and / arn respoctively

16

Confiscate /konfiskert /, demonstrate /’ demenrtrert /, evaporate‘ vaeparert /

eradicate / Tramcikert /

Vaporize /verperaz/, recognize /rekegnaz/, romanticize /re'mentisaz/,

soxualive / sok fuolard

Yorks thal ond in -#p usually Lake stress on the syllable priar to the ~éfy ending

Ramily ˆremelin/, beautify 7bịulsi, tesHfy /testafh, bokonovskify

which end in -ioes, -tows, -e01s, -feous,-te, -ical, -ian, ~ible, -tal, or ~ive

hunatie, and rhetoric)

Impressive fm’presv/, comprehensible /karapre’hensibal/, public “pAbHi sponlancous /span termes’, biblical “brbkke/, presmmptuous fpr’ zAraptsuas!

dubious / du:bias/, grammarian /pro' mesr-an/

Adjectives that end in -able, -al, and -ous usually take stress on their antepenultimate syllables (ie., the third from right); Corporal “ ke:porel /, admirable

“&âmorabl /, scrupulous / skrupjolos /

Nouns that end in -itv, -ety, -af, fon, -ence, -ance, -acy, and -ian usually take stress

on the syllable prior lo these endings: Picty /parat/, imporlance én’ poston, ability /o" bist’, comespondence /koras' pandens/, proposal /pie' pauzal’,

recognilion 4: rekog fer, historian Ars‘tacon’, democracy /ch’ mpkrast/

Olher heavy nouns usually receive stress on their anlepenullimate syllables:

Photography /fo'tografi’, demooral 7 đempku/, — sovercignty —Psovrantt, decubitus /d kucbitas/, parameter /pa'remta’, diplomai /dpieuwet

* The endings -is1, and -ism do not change stress:

Organ sigan, organism /"s:garuzam./, physics / fiaks’, physicist / fizrsrst/

* Nouns ending in -ze 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 (c.g., committee, col

devotes! , devo tir?

228 Levels of siress

InAn Introduction To Phonetics , Parviz Band Mohammad A.S (2005:101) emphasized

‘There are four levels of stress placement : weak or quiet, tertiary or regular, secondary or louder and pritnary or loudes! Tlowever, usually two levels of stress( prinuary 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 wards (Reducing fimction words}

According to Peter Roach(1983:193), many function words have two pronunciations, a strong form and a weak ot reduced form, Strong form has a fall vowel and is used only for emphasis or af 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 rodueed to /a/orfi /, and initial ¿lý is dropped, and the whole word is very short

2.3 Summary

In this chapter, lilerature review on errors and slress has been taken inte 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

unstressed syllables, placements and levels of stress, schwa as well as weak form of words

Located in a rural district of Hai Phong city, Le Quy Don High school is the place that

attract children of farmers and poor workers in the region ‘here are some factors that affeel the process of tgaching and learning English in the school as follows

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, tle teachers’ leaching experiences and

qualiGeations are unequal, which results in their different altitude toward renuvation im

teaching method

About the students: Most of them come from Ilai An district, a newly established but

formally a rural onc Living in rural arca makes the students become less concerned and

confident in learning than those from crowded and more developed regions because they

do not have accesses fo modern devices such as computers or word processors Besides,

thei 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 thal their English knowledge especially their phonetic alitilies are still limited and heir

attitude towards learning word stress is also a matter to be considered

Aboul the matsriat and school facililies: 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 inchides 16 units about all the topics relating to daily lives Bach unil is divided into five lessons corresponding lo four skills: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing The lest lesson is called Language Focus, im 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 1o understand about stress thoroughly

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About faeiliies, the school is equipped with only 12 cassette players for the 12 teachers,

several CDs, a few books on grammar and there

laboratory or high classed rooms, which makes it difficult for the teachers and students to improve English teaching and learning

nol any modern equipment such as

2 Subjects nf the study

‘The subjects of the study included twenty-four (half a class of) 12" grade students at Le Quy Don Tligh School Hai Phong, both mate and fervate, 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 Engtish at thoi sccondary cducalion In term of campelonee, they have generally covered most basic grammatical and phonetic categories and developed tusic 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 produetive time to help the

sluderis recognize, identify, differentiale ant master subtle uses af Raygtish word str

when the students have alzeady leamt 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’ crrors are the most elcarly exposed and thercfore immediate comection is needed

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 fiom 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

‘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