Luận văn a comparative study on how hesitation and reservedness is expressed via prosodic means in english and the equivalent expressions in vietnamese

Aims of the study The main aims of this study arc: - ‘To explore prosodic features in English which express hesitation and teservedrass, - Ta provide a brief account of similarities a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POS'T- GRADUATE STUDIES

trong Tiếng Việt)

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

HANOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POS'T- GRADUATE STUDIES

trong Tiếng Việt)

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

Supervisor: Nguyén Hương Giang, M.A

HANOI - 2010

1 Rationale of the study

2 Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

4, Methods of the study

5, Design of the study

1.3.2.1 Pitch Cor [Imdarnonlaf froquency)

1.3.2.2 Loudness (or intensity)

10

10

11

12

evidence that speech hesitation sometimes supports and enhances commmnication and suggests the ways hey may be dealt with in the EET classroom Finally, there arc

studies of hesitation across languages trom the perspectives of prosody and using English

I do hope that my work can give more insight info the similarities and differences of hesitation via prosodic means bslween two languages in which English is a slresselimed language and Vietnamese is a tonal language

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of this study arc:

- ‘To explore prosodic features in English which express hesitation and

teservedrass,

- Ta provide a brief account of similarities and differences between hesitation and

reservedness expressed via prosodic features in English and Viemamese,

-'To give some proposals for further study and suggestions for improving speaking

skill

To fully achieve the stated aims, the study should answer the following basic questions:

- What are the prosodic features used to express hesitation and reservedness in English spontancous speceh?

- What are the similarities and differences in the expression of hesitation and

reservedness by prosody in English and Vietnamese?

- What tips are utilized to improve speaking fluency?

3 Scope of the stuty

Many fields relating to hesitation phenomena and prosodic features need to be

explored However, dus to the limitzd time and available facilities, this thesis only focuses

on the following aspects:

+ Tlesilation and reservediness in spontaneous speech,

- Typieal types of hesitation and reservedness in English and their equivalences in Vietnamese including silent pauses, filled pauses, repetitions, syllable lengthening

+ Only prosodic features of pitch, length, fondness and tompo are explored in he expression of hesitation and reservedness

Chapter 3: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

SPEAKING

3.1 Hesitation phenomena in English Language Teaching classroom (FLT)

3.2 Using filled pauses to gain processing time

3.3 Implicalions for improving siutonis’ speaking fluency

3.4 Summary

Chapter 4: SOME KEY FINDINGS

4.1 Hesitation and rescrvedness in English and Victnamesc specch

Chapter 3: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

SPEAKING

3.1 Hesitation phenomena in English Language Teaching classroom (FLT)

3.2 Using filled pauses to gain processing time

3.3 Implicalions for improving siutonis’ speaking fluency

3.4 Summary

Chapter 4: SOME KEY FINDINGS

4.1 Hesitation and rescrvedness in English and Victnamesc specch

Chapter 3: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

SPEAKING

3.1 Hesitation phenomena in English Language Teaching classroom (FLT)

3.2 Using filled pauses to gain processing time

3.3 Implicalions for improving siutonis’ speaking fluency

3.4 Summary

Chapter 4: SOME KEY FINDINGS

4.1 Hesitation and rescrvedness in English and Victnamesc specch

1.3.2.3 Tempo

1.3.2.4 Length (or duration)

Chapter 2: HESITATION AND RESERVEDNESS EXPRESSED VIA

PROSODIC FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

2.2.2.4 Loudness (or intensity)

2.3 Comparison: prosodic cues for hesitation and reservedness in linglish

Chapter 3: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

SPEAKING

3.1 Hesitation phenomena in English Language Teaching classroom (FLT)

3.2 Using filled pauses to gain processing time

3.3 Implicalions for improving siutonis’ speaking fluency

3.4 Summary

Chapter 4: SOME KEY FINDINGS

4.1 Hesitation and rescrvedness in English and Victnamesc specch

expressed via prosodic features in inglish and Vietnamese equivalent expressions, Chapter

Parl © is “CONCTASION” in which the author will give the readers some concluding:

remarks as well as suggestions for further study

Chapter 3: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

SPEAKING

3.1 Hesitation phenomena in English Language Teaching classroom (FLT)

3.2 Using filled pauses to gain processing time

3.3 Implicalions for improving siutonis’ speaking fluency

3.4 Summary

Chapter 4: SOME KEY FINDINGS

4.1 Hesitation and rescrvedness in English and Victnamesc specch

1.3.2.3 Tempo

1.3.2.4 Length (or duration)

Chapter 2: HESITATION AND RESERVEDNESS EXPRESSED VIA

PROSODIC FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

2.2.2.4 Loudness (or intensity)

2.3 Comparison: prosodic cues for hesitation and reservedness in linglish

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1; Praat Editor showing waveform, spectrogram and TextGrid

Figwe 2: Mustzalion of pitch contour of “No” on Praal Screen

Figure 3: Pitch contour of the sentence “Um u no, I don’t think so I can’t

Table 2: Speaking rate (syllablas/second) before and after each pause

Table 3; Summary of prosodic features which contribute to the expression of

hesitation

23

PART A: INTRODUCTION

4 Rationale of the study

For many people, learning English is uneasy and mastering it is more difficult, Some people underestimate that a learner only needs to have a treasury of vocabulary ar good Imowledge of grammar, he can speak English Mucnlly Tt is a concerning problem in teaching and learning a foreign language at schools, universities and centers because it causes leamers to waste much more time and effort while the achievements are not up to their expcetations At English lessons, there cxist many situations in which teachers ask students to answer the questions or read a text aloud, the students feel embarrassed and shy even they orly response in whisper or murmur Il is not because they da nol have any vocabidary in their mind or they do not know how to arrange words in a correct pramunar But the fact that students are aftaid of pronouncing words wrongly or making mistakes

‘These phenomena directly or indirectly hinder the effectiveness and motivation of leaming

a forcign language

It is common knowledge that among phonctic aspects, prosody is considered a erucial factor which helps leamers master a communicative skill People usually talk much about intonation, stress or zhythm in language while prosody is rarely mentioned, However, in Linguistics, intonation, stress and thythm maiuly refer lo prosadic components

The Bille “a comparative study of how hesitation and reservedness is expressed via prosodic features and its equivalents in Vieinamese” was chosen for my M.A thesis

‘because of some following reasons First of all, prosody is a new area and not many studies

of students have been conducted on the basis of this theory because it is difficult and challcnging Meanwhile, prosody plays an important role in the comprchension of spoken language, it helps human in recognition of spoken words, in resolving global and local ambiguities and in processing discourse structure Therefore, il will be worth conducting a study on this area, Secondly, in the world of English language teaching (ELT), however, the communicative value of hesitation in speech has been largely ignored ‘The prevailing

view of hesilation sccrns to

hal they are evidence of disfluency and should therefore bs

discouraged This view i

's inadequate when il assumes thal ucney is dircelly rotated to communicative ability while disfuency is inversely related The present study examines the

expressed via prosodic features in inglish and Vietnamese equivalent expressions, Chapter

Parl © is “CONCTASION” in which the author will give the readers some concluding:

remarks as well as suggestions for further study

PART A: INTRODUCTION

4 Rationale of the study

For many people, learning English is uneasy and mastering it is more difficult, Some people underestimate that a learner only needs to have a treasury of vocabulary ar good Imowledge of grammar, he can speak English Mucnlly Tt is a concerning problem in teaching and learning a foreign language at schools, universities and centers because it causes leamers to waste much more time and effort while the achievements are not up to their expcetations At English lessons, there cxist many situations in which teachers ask students to answer the questions or read a text aloud, the students feel embarrassed and shy even they orly response in whisper or murmur Il is not because they da nol have any vocabidary in their mind or they do not know how to arrange words in a correct pramunar But the fact that students are aftaid of pronouncing words wrongly or making mistakes

‘These phenomena directly or indirectly hinder the effectiveness and motivation of leaming

a forcign language

It is common knowledge that among phonctic aspects, prosody is considered a erucial factor which helps leamers master a communicative skill People usually talk much about intonation, stress or zhythm in language while prosody is rarely mentioned, However, in Linguistics, intonation, stress and thythm maiuly refer lo prosadic components

The Bille “a comparative study of how hesitation and reservedness is expressed via prosodic features and its equivalents in Vieinamese” was chosen for my M.A thesis

‘because of some following reasons First of all, prosody is a new area and not many studies

of students have been conducted on the basis of this theory because it is difficult and challcnging Meanwhile, prosody plays an important role in the comprchension of spoken language, it helps human in recognition of spoken words, in resolving global and local ambiguities and in processing discourse structure Therefore, il will be worth conducting a study on this area, Secondly, in the world of English language teaching (ELT), however, the communicative value of hesitation in speech has been largely ignored ‘The prevailing

view of hesilation sccrns to

hal they are evidence of disfluency and should therefore bs

discouraged This view i

's inadequate when il assumes thal ucney is dircelly rotated to communicative ability while disfuency is inversely related The present study examines the

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1; Praat Editor showing waveform, spectrogram and TextGrid

Figwe 2: Mustzalion of pitch contour of “No” on Praal Screen

Figure 3: Pitch contour of the sentence “Um u no, I don’t think so I can’t

Table 2: Speaking rate (syllablas/second) before and after each pause

Table 3; Summary of prosodic features which contribute to the expression of

hesitation

23

- Only British English is chosen for the standard sound and the Norther dialect m Victnan s utilized as the standard sound in this

4 Methods of the sturdy

In order to explore the differonecs and similaritics in cxpressing hesitation and reservednass via prosodic features, comparative study (CS) is utilized as the key method of the study Tere, Engtish is employed as the instrumental language Besides, systerizztion and generalization fiom previous studies are also integrated as reference for this thesis

To amlyve exactly the expression of hesitation and rescrvedness via prosody, cornpuler software such as PRAAT is applied despite the fact that transcribing prosodic features is really challenging and costly for a M.A student The information sources for analysis come from interviews at different situations recorded from Vietnamese channels such as VI'VI and textbooks such as TOEFL, NEW HEADWAY Other sources are also utilized in this study

A survey is also conducted to find ont how students express their hssitance and how they adapi to hesitation stralogics lo gain speaking fucney Then, the daia are collected,

analyzed and synthesized

5 Design of the study

This study is completed ơn the ba

of three separating parts: introduction, development and conclusion,

Part A is “INTRODUCTION” which gives the readers an overview of the reasons for

choosing the topic, the aims, the scope, the methods applied and the design of the study,

Part B entitled “DEVELOPMENT” which plays the most crucial role in the whole

study TL is considered as the backbone of the study This part consists of three main chapters, Chapter 1 shows the theoretical background of hesitation, rescrvediness and prosody, Chapter 2 explores the similarities and differences of hesitation and reservedness

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1; Praat Editor showing waveform, spectrogram and TextGrid

Figwe 2: Mustzalion of pitch contour of “No” on Praal Screen

Figure 3: Pitch contour of the sentence “Um u no, I don’t think so I can’t

Table 2: Speaking rate (syllablas/second) before and after each pause

Table 3; Summary of prosodic features which contribute to the expression of

hesitation

23

1.3.2.3 Tempo

1.3.2.4 Length (or duration)

Chapter 2: HESITATION AND RESERVEDNESS EXPRESSED VIA

PROSODIC FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

2.2.2.4 Loudness (or intensity)

2.3 Comparison: prosodic cues for hesitation and reservedness in linglish

1.3.2.3 Tempo

1.3.2.4 Length (or duration)

Chapter 2: HESITATION AND RESERVEDNESS EXPRESSED VIA

PROSODIC FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

2.2.2.4 Loudness (or intensity)

2.3 Comparison: prosodic cues for hesitation and reservedness in linglish

PART A: INTRODUCTION

4 Rationale of the study

For many people, learning English is uneasy and mastering it is more difficult, Some people underestimate that a learner only needs to have a treasury of vocabulary ar good Imowledge of grammar, he can speak English Mucnlly Tt is a concerning problem in teaching and learning a foreign language at schools, universities and centers because it causes leamers to waste much more time and effort while the achievements are not up to their expcetations At English lessons, there cxist many situations in which teachers ask students to answer the questions or read a text aloud, the students feel embarrassed and shy even they orly response in whisper or murmur Il is not because they da nol have any vocabidary in their mind or they do not know how to arrange words in a correct pramunar But the fact that students are aftaid of pronouncing words wrongly or making mistakes

‘These phenomena directly or indirectly hinder the effectiveness and motivation of leaming

a forcign language

It is common knowledge that among phonctic aspects, prosody is considered a erucial factor which helps leamers master a communicative skill People usually talk much about intonation, stress or zhythm in language while prosody is rarely mentioned, However, in Linguistics, intonation, stress and thythm maiuly refer lo prosadic components

The Bille “a comparative study of how hesitation and reservedness is expressed via prosodic features and its equivalents in Vieinamese” was chosen for my M.A thesis

‘because of some following reasons First of all, prosody is a new area and not many studies

of students have been conducted on the basis of this theory because it is difficult and challcnging Meanwhile, prosody plays an important role in the comprchension of spoken language, it helps human in recognition of spoken words, in resolving global and local ambiguities and in processing discourse structure Therefore, il will be worth conducting a study on this area, Secondly, in the world of English language teaching (ELT), however, the communicative value of hesitation in speech has been largely ignored ‘The prevailing

view of hesilation sccrns to

hal they are evidence of disfluency and should therefore bs

discouraged This view i

's inadequate when il assumes thal ucney is dircelly rotated to communicative ability while disfuency is inversely related The present study examines the

evidence that speech hesitation sometimes supports and enhances commmnication and suggests the ways hey may be dealt with in the EET classroom Finally, there arc

studies of hesitation across languages trom the perspectives of prosody and using English

I do hope that my work can give more insight info the similarities and differences of hesitation via prosodic means bslween two languages in which English is a slresselimed language and Vietnamese is a tonal language

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of this study arc:

- ‘To explore prosodic features in English which express hesitation and

teservedrass,

- Ta provide a brief account of similarities and differences between hesitation and

reservedness expressed via prosodic features in English and Viemamese,

-'To give some proposals for further study and suggestions for improving speaking

skill

To fully achieve the stated aims, the study should answer the following basic questions:

- What are the prosodic features used to express hesitation and reservedness in English spontancous speceh?

- What are the similarities and differences in the expression of hesitation and

reservedness by prosody in English and Vietnamese?

- What tips are utilized to improve speaking fluency?

3 Scope of the stuty

Many fields relating to hesitation phenomena and prosodic features need to be

explored However, dus to the limitzd time and available facilities, this thesis only focuses

on the following aspects:

+ Tlesilation and reservediness in spontaneous speech,

- Typieal types of hesitation and reservedness in English and their equivalences in Vietnamese including silent pauses, filled pauses, repetitions, syllable lengthening

+ Only prosodic features of pitch, length, fondness and tompo are explored in he expression of hesitation and reservedness

- Only British English is chosen for the standard sound and the Norther dialect m Victnan s utilized as the standard sound in this

4 Methods of the sturdy

In order to explore the differonecs and similaritics in cxpressing hesitation and reservednass via prosodic features, comparative study (CS) is utilized as the key method of the study Tere, Engtish is employed as the instrumental language Besides, systerizztion and generalization fiom previous studies are also integrated as reference for this thesis

To amlyve exactly the expression of hesitation and rescrvedness via prosody, cornpuler software such as PRAAT is applied despite the fact that transcribing prosodic features is really challenging and costly for a M.A student The information sources for analysis come from interviews at different situations recorded from Vietnamese channels such as VI'VI and textbooks such as TOEFL, NEW HEADWAY Other sources are also utilized in this study

A survey is also conducted to find ont how students express their hssitance and how they adapi to hesitation stralogics lo gain speaking fucney Then, the daia are collected,

analyzed and synthesized

5 Design of the study

This study is completed ơn the ba

of three separating parts: introduction, development and conclusion,

Part A is “INTRODUCTION” which gives the readers an overview of the reasons for

choosing the topic, the aims, the scope, the methods applied and the design of the study,

Part B entitled “DEVELOPMENT” which plays the most crucial role in the whole

study TL is considered as the backbone of the study This part consists of three main chapters, Chapter 1 shows the theoretical background of hesitation, rescrvediness and prosody, Chapter 2 explores the similarities and differences of hesitation and reservedness

- Only British English is chosen for the standard sound and the Norther dialect m Victnan s utilized as the standard sound in this

4 Methods of the sturdy

In order to explore the differonecs and similaritics in cxpressing hesitation and reservednass via prosodic features, comparative study (CS) is utilized as the key method of the study Tere, Engtish is employed as the instrumental language Besides, systerizztion and generalization fiom previous studies are also integrated as reference for this thesis

To amlyve exactly the expression of hesitation and rescrvedness via prosody, cornpuler software such as PRAAT is applied despite the fact that transcribing prosodic features is really challenging and costly for a M.A student The information sources for analysis come from interviews at different situations recorded from Vietnamese channels such as VI'VI and textbooks such as TOEFL, NEW HEADWAY Other sources are also utilized in this study

A survey is also conducted to find ont how students express their hssitance and how they adapi to hesitation stralogics lo gain speaking fucney Then, the daia are collected,

analyzed and synthesized

5 Design of the study

This study is completed ơn the ba

of three separating parts: introduction, development and conclusion,

Part A is “INTRODUCTION” which gives the readers an overview of the reasons for

choosing the topic, the aims, the scope, the methods applied and the design of the study,

Part B entitled “DEVELOPMENT” which plays the most crucial role in the whole

study TL is considered as the backbone of the study This part consists of three main chapters, Chapter 1 shows the theoretical background of hesitation, rescrvediness and prosody, Chapter 2 explores the similarities and differences of hesitation and reservedness

- Only British English is chosen for the standard sound and the Norther dialect m Victnan s utilized as the standard sound in this

4 Methods of the sturdy

In order to explore the differonecs and similaritics in cxpressing hesitation and reservednass via prosodic features, comparative study (CS) is utilized as the key method of the study Tere, Engtish is employed as the instrumental language Besides, systerizztion and generalization fiom previous studies are also integrated as reference for this thesis

To amlyve exactly the expression of hesitation and rescrvedness via prosody, cornpuler software such as PRAAT is applied despite the fact that transcribing prosodic features is really challenging and costly for a M.A student The information sources for analysis come from interviews at different situations recorded from Vietnamese channels such as VI'VI and textbooks such as TOEFL, NEW HEADWAY Other sources are also utilized in this study

A survey is also conducted to find ont how students express their hssitance and how they adapi to hesitation stralogics lo gain speaking fucney Then, the daia are collected,

analyzed and synthesized

5 Design of the study

This study is completed ơn the ba

of three separating parts: introduction, development and conclusion,

Part A is “INTRODUCTION” which gives the readers an overview of the reasons for

choosing the topic, the aims, the scope, the methods applied and the design of the study,

Part B entitled “DEVELOPMENT” which plays the most crucial role in the whole

study TL is considered as the backbone of the study This part consists of three main chapters, Chapter 1 shows the theoretical background of hesitation, rescrvediness and prosody, Chapter 2 explores the similarities and differences of hesitation and reservedness

evidence that speech hesitation sometimes supports and enhances commmnication and suggests the ways hey may be dealt with in the EET classroom Finally, there arc

studies of hesitation across languages trom the perspectives of prosody and using English

I do hope that my work can give more insight info the similarities and differences of hesitation via prosodic means bslween two languages in which English is a slresselimed language and Vietnamese is a tonal language

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of this study arc:

- ‘To explore prosodic features in English which express hesitation and

teservedrass,

- Ta provide a brief account of similarities and differences between hesitation and

reservedness expressed via prosodic features in English and Viemamese,

-'To give some proposals for further study and suggestions for improving speaking

skill

To fully achieve the stated aims, the study should answer the following basic questions:

- What are the prosodic features used to express hesitation and reservedness in English spontancous speceh?

- What are the similarities and differences in the expression of hesitation and

reservedness by prosody in English and Vietnamese?

- What tips are utilized to improve speaking fluency?

3 Scope of the stuty

Many fields relating to hesitation phenomena and prosodic features need to be

explored However, dus to the limitzd time and available facilities, this thesis only focuses

on the following aspects:

+ Tlesilation and reservediness in spontaneous speech,

- Typieal types of hesitation and reservedness in English and their equivalences in Vietnamese including silent pauses, filled pauses, repetitions, syllable lengthening

+ Only prosodic features of pitch, length, fondness and tompo are explored in he expression of hesitation and reservedness

expressed via prosodic features in inglish and Vietnamese equivalent expressions, Chapter

Parl © is “CONCTASION” in which the author will give the readers some concluding:

remarks as well as suggestions for further study

expressed via prosodic features in inglish and Vietnamese equivalent expressions, Chapter

Parl © is “CONCTASION” in which the author will give the readers some concluding:

remarks as well as suggestions for further study

expressed via prosodic features in inglish and Vietnamese equivalent expressions, Chapter

Parl © is “CONCTASION” in which the author will give the readers some concluding:

remarks as well as suggestions for further study

- Only British English is chosen for the standard sound and the Norther dialect m Victnan s utilized as the standard sound in this

4 Methods of the sturdy

In order to explore the differonecs and similaritics in cxpressing hesitation and reservednass via prosodic features, comparative study (CS) is utilized as the key method of the study Tere, Engtish is employed as the instrumental language Besides, systerizztion and generalization fiom previous studies are also integrated as reference for this thesis

To amlyve exactly the expression of hesitation and rescrvedness via prosody, cornpuler software such as PRAAT is applied despite the fact that transcribing prosodic features is really challenging and costly for a M.A student The information sources for analysis come from interviews at different situations recorded from Vietnamese channels such as VI'VI and textbooks such as TOEFL, NEW HEADWAY Other sources are also utilized in this study

A survey is also conducted to find ont how students express their hssitance and how they adapi to hesitation stralogics lo gain speaking fucney Then, the daia are collected,

analyzed and synthesized

5 Design of the study

This study is completed ơn the ba

of three separating parts: introduction, development and conclusion,

Part A is “INTRODUCTION” which gives the readers an overview of the reasons for

choosing the topic, the aims, the scope, the methods applied and the design of the study,

Part B entitled “DEVELOPMENT” which plays the most crucial role in the whole

study TL is considered as the backbone of the study This part consists of three main chapters, Chapter 1 shows the theoretical background of hesitation, rescrvediness and prosody, Chapter 2 explores the similarities and differences of hesitation and reservedness

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1; Praat Editor showing waveform, spectrogram and TextGrid

Figwe 2: Mustzalion of pitch contour of “No” on Praal Screen

Figure 3: Pitch contour of the sentence “Um u no, I don’t think so I can’t

Table 2: Speaking rate (syllablas/second) before and after each pause

Table 3; Summary of prosodic features which contribute to the expression of

hesitation

23

evidence that speech hesitation sometimes supports and enhances commmnication and suggests the ways hey may be dealt with in the EET classroom Finally, there arc

studies of hesitation across languages trom the perspectives of prosody and using English

I do hope that my work can give more insight info the similarities and differences of hesitation via prosodic means bslween two languages in which English is a slresselimed language and Vietnamese is a tonal language

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of this study arc:

- ‘To explore prosodic features in English which express hesitation and

teservedrass,

- Ta provide a brief account of similarities and differences between hesitation and

reservedness expressed via prosodic features in English and Viemamese,

-'To give some proposals for further study and suggestions for improving speaking

skill

To fully achieve the stated aims, the study should answer the following basic questions:

- What are the prosodic features used to express hesitation and reservedness in English spontancous speceh?

- What are the similarities and differences in the expression of hesitation and

reservedness by prosody in English and Vietnamese?

- What tips are utilized to improve speaking fluency?

3 Scope of the stuty

Many fields relating to hesitation phenomena and prosodic features need to be

explored However, dus to the limitzd time and available facilities, this thesis only focuses

on the following aspects:

+ Tlesilation and reservediness in spontaneous speech,

- Typieal types of hesitation and reservedness in English and their equivalences in Vietnamese including silent pauses, filled pauses, repetitions, syllable lengthening

+ Only prosodic features of pitch, length, fondness and tompo are explored in he expression of hesitation and reservedness

PART A: INTRODUCTION

4 Rationale of the study

For many people, learning English is uneasy and mastering it is more difficult, Some people underestimate that a learner only needs to have a treasury of vocabulary ar good Imowledge of grammar, he can speak English Mucnlly Tt is a concerning problem in teaching and learning a foreign language at schools, universities and centers because it causes leamers to waste much more time and effort while the achievements are not up to their expcetations At English lessons, there cxist many situations in which teachers ask students to answer the questions or read a text aloud, the students feel embarrassed and shy even they orly response in whisper or murmur Il is not because they da nol have any vocabidary in their mind or they do not know how to arrange words in a correct pramunar But the fact that students are aftaid of pronouncing words wrongly or making mistakes

‘These phenomena directly or indirectly hinder the effectiveness and motivation of leaming

a forcign language

It is common knowledge that among phonctic aspects, prosody is considered a erucial factor which helps leamers master a communicative skill People usually talk much about intonation, stress or zhythm in language while prosody is rarely mentioned, However, in Linguistics, intonation, stress and thythm maiuly refer lo prosadic components

The Bille “a comparative study of how hesitation and reservedness is expressed via prosodic features and its equivalents in Vieinamese” was chosen for my M.A thesis

‘because of some following reasons First of all, prosody is a new area and not many studies

of students have been conducted on the basis of this theory because it is difficult and challcnging Meanwhile, prosody plays an important role in the comprchension of spoken language, it helps human in recognition of spoken words, in resolving global and local ambiguities and in processing discourse structure Therefore, il will be worth conducting a study on this area, Secondly, in the world of English language teaching (ELT), however, the communicative value of hesitation in speech has been largely ignored ‘The prevailing

view of hesilation sccrns to

hal they are evidence of disfluency and should therefore bs

discouraged This view i

's inadequate when il assumes thal ucney is dircelly rotated to communicative ability while disfuency is inversely related The present study examines the

evidence that speech hesitation sometimes supports and enhances commmnication and suggests the ways hey may be dealt with in the EET classroom Finally, there arc

studies of hesitation across languages trom the perspectives of prosody and using English

I do hope that my work can give more insight info the similarities and differences of hesitation via prosodic means bslween two languages in which English is a slresselimed language and Vietnamese is a tonal language

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of this study arc:

- ‘To explore prosodic features in English which express hesitation and

teservedrass,

- Ta provide a brief account of similarities and differences between hesitation and

reservedness expressed via prosodic features in English and Viemamese,

-'To give some proposals for further study and suggestions for improving speaking

skill

To fully achieve the stated aims, the study should answer the following basic questions:

- What are the prosodic features used to express hesitation and reservedness in English spontancous speceh?

- What are the similarities and differences in the expression of hesitation and

reservedness by prosody in English and Vietnamese?

- What tips are utilized to improve speaking fluency?

3 Scope of the stuty

Many fields relating to hesitation phenomena and prosodic features need to be

explored However, dus to the limitzd time and available facilities, this thesis only focuses

on the following aspects:

+ Tlesilation and reservediness in spontaneous speech,

- Typieal types of hesitation and reservedness in English and their equivalences in Vietnamese including silent pauses, filled pauses, repetitions, syllable lengthening

+ Only prosodic features of pitch, length, fondness and tompo are explored in he expression of hesitation and reservedness

evidence that speech hesitation sometimes supports and enhances commmnication and suggests the ways hey may be dealt with in the EET classroom Finally, there arc

studies of hesitation across languages trom the perspectives of prosody and using English

I do hope that my work can give more insight info the similarities and differences of hesitation via prosodic means bslween two languages in which English is a slresselimed language and Vietnamese is a tonal language

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of this study arc:

- ‘To explore prosodic features in English which express hesitation and

teservedrass,

- Ta provide a brief account of similarities and differences between hesitation and

reservedness expressed via prosodic features in English and Viemamese,

-'To give some proposals for further study and suggestions for improving speaking

skill

To fully achieve the stated aims, the study should answer the following basic questions:

- What are the prosodic features used to express hesitation and reservedness in English spontancous speceh?

- What are the similarities and differences in the expression of hesitation and

reservedness by prosody in English and Vietnamese?

- What tips are utilized to improve speaking fluency?

3 Scope of the stuty

Many fields relating to hesitation phenomena and prosodic features need to be

explored However, dus to the limitzd time and available facilities, this thesis only focuses

on the following aspects:

+ Tlesilation and reservediness in spontaneous speech,

- Typieal types of hesitation and reservedness in English and their equivalences in Vietnamese including silent pauses, filled pauses, repetitions, syllable lengthening

+ Only prosodic features of pitch, length, fondness and tompo are explored in he expression of hesitation and reservedness

expressed via prosodic features in inglish and Vietnamese equivalent expressions, Chapter

Parl © is “CONCTASION” in which the author will give the readers some concluding:

remarks as well as suggestions for further study