A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF WASP AND ONLINE AUDIO RECORDER TO DEVELOP SENTENCE INTONATION REPRODUCTION BY FIRST YEAR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES Nghiên cứu về hiệu quả của các phần mềm WASP và Online audio recorder

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

Nghiên cứu về hiệu quả của các phần mềm WASP và Online audio recorder trong việc nâng cao khả năng bắt chước ngữ điệu câu của sinh viên tiếng Anh không chuyên năm thứ nhất tại Đại học Khoa học - Đại học Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

Nghiên cứu về hiệu quả của các phần mềm WASP và Online audio recorder trong việc nâng cao khả năng bắt chước ngữ điệu câu của sinh viên tiếng Anh không chuyên năm thứ nhất tại Đại học Khoa học - Đại học Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: ASSOC PROF VÕ ĐẠI QUANG, Ph.D.

Hanoi, 2015

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled:

A study on the effectiveness of WASP and Online audio recorder to develop sentence intonation reproduction by first-year, non-major students at University

of Sciences – Thai Nguyen University.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in English Teaching Methodology.

Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.

Hanoi, August 2014

Mai Cong Trinh

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This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people.

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr.

Vo Dai Quang, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertize, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher.

A special word of thanks goes to my colleagues at University of Sciences – TNU who have helped me in piloting the materials and making constructive and insightful comments as well as suggestions for this paper, and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished.

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my wife for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.

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This study investigates whether first-year, non-major students at University of Sciences – Thai Nguyen University perceive and reproduce accurate intonation contours of sentences in English after two weeks of training with WASP and Online Audio Recorder focusing on two types of intonation patterns (definite statements, yes/no questions) The study found that the learners improved their correctness in reproducing the intonation patterns according to the results and analyses of pre-test, post-test and interview The participants also stated that the tools were beneficial, interesting to use and helpful for their learning The study also motivates future research in some kinds of aspects related.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

L1: First Language

L2: Second Language

ASR: Automatic Speech Recognition

CMS: Course Management System

TNU: Thai Nguyen University

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Participants’ information 13

Table 2 Summary of Design Study 15

Table 3 Pre-test results 28

Table 3 Post-test results 28

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Preview of an exercise in Moodle 23 Figure 2 Visual display of the utterance

“My car’s in the car park.” in WASP 24

Figure 3 Visual display of “Did you have a good time?”

first made by a participant in the training phase 32

Figure 4 Visual display of “Did you have a good time?” made by a

participant after several attempts in the training phase 33

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of Originality i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of Abbreviations iv

List of Tables v

List of Figures vi

Table of contents vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Objectives of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter 1: Literature review 4

1.1 Theoretical Background 4

1.1.1 Intonation theory 4

1.1.2 Technology for Learning 7

1.1.3 Technology-based Intonation Teaching 8

1.2 Review of Previous Studies Related to the Research 9

1.3 Summary 11

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Chapter 2: Methodology 12

2.1 Research-governing Orientations 12

2.1.1 Research Question 12

2.1.2 Research Hypothesis 12

2.1.3 Participants 12

2.2 Research Methods 13

2.2.1 Methods 13

2.2.2 Instruments/ Materials 16

2.2.3 Preparing the Materials 16

2.2.3.1 Questionnaire 16

2.2.3.2 Interview 16

2.2.3.3 Pre-test and Post-test 16

 Sentences 17

 Conversations 17

2.2.3.4 Piloting 17

2.2.3.5 Final Materials 18

2.2.3.6 Pre- and Post-tests Materials 18

2.2.3.7 Training Materials 19

 Moodle Familiarization 19

 Perception and Reproduction Training 19

2.2.3.8 Testing and Training Applications 19

 Moodle 19

 WASP 20

 Online Audio Recorder 20

2.3 Procedure for Data Collection 20

 Familiarization Phase 20

 Pre-test Phase 21

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 Training Phase 22

 Post-test Phase 22

2.4 Data Processing and Analysis 25

2.5 Summary 25

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions 26

3.1 What effects does the training with the tools have on participants’ perception, reproduction of definite statements and yes/no questions? 27 3.1.1 Perception 27

3.1.2 Reproduction 29

3.1.3 Connection between Perception and Reproduction……… 30

3.3 Summary 31

PART C: CONCLUSION 34

1 Concluding Remarks 34

1.1 Conclusion on the Research Question 34

2 Limitations of the Study 35

3 Suggestions for Future Research 36

REFERENCES 37

BIBLIOGRAPHY 38 APPENDIX A I APPENDIX B II

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the Study

It cannot be denied that technology nowadays has been developing really fast.All fields of everyday life are covered by computers and Internet, whichcreates chances for teachers, and researchers to integrate technology ineducational settings However, most of applications of technology are now

seen under the term “Technology of Education” as Gupta (2010) defined in

her study It means that technology are considered as a medium for teachers toprepare digitalized lectures, learning materials, teaching aids… Very few of

teachers pay attention to the use of “Technology in Education” that Gupta

(2010) clarified as the use of technology to improve learning and meetlearners’ needs

From the facts mentioned above, the author decided to investigate iftechnology-based tools can improve the students’ reproduction of sentenceintonation Following Kern’s (2006) ideas about the use of technology: “Inthe tutor role, computers can provide instruction, feedback, and testing ingrammar, vocabulary, writing, pronunciation, and other dimensions oflanguage and culture learning In the tool role, computers provide readyaccess to written, audio, and visual materials relevant to the language andculture being studied In the medium role, technology provides sites forinterpersonal communication, multimedia publication, distance learning,community participation, and identity formation” (p 191, 192) This studyfocused on the use of technology as “tutor” and “tool” in case of the study

“on the effectiveness of WASP and Online audio recorder to develop sentence intonation reproduction by first – year, non – major students at University of Sciences – Thai Nguyen University.”

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2 Aims of the Study

The study explores the effectiveness of WASP and Online audio recorder todevelop sentence intonation reproduction by first – year, non – major students

at University of Sciences – Thai Nguyen University The major aims of thestudy are to:

 Make use of tools WASP and Online Audio Recorder to improvestudents’ sentence intonation in terms of perception and reproduction

 Confirm the easiness of the two open-access tools to the learning ofintonation and pronunciation in particular, and English learning ingeneral

3 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study were further elaborated into the research questionwhich can be stated as follows:

What effects does the training with the tools have on participants’ perception, reproduction of definite statements and yes/no questions?

4 Scope of the Study

It would be too ambitious for this minor thesis to cover all functions ofWASP and Online Audio Recorder in learning all intonation patterns Thus,the author chose to focus on the effectiveness of the two tools in perceivingand reproducing of two types of intonation patterns which are of definitestatements and yes/no questions The study was also conducted within 03

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participants who are non-major, first-year students at University of Sciences –TNU.

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5 Design of the Study

The study comprises of three parts: Introduction, Development andConclusion

Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, aims, objectives, scope and

design of the study

Part B: Development consists of 3 chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature Review gives the theoretical background to

Intonation and Intonation teaching as well as reviews the previous studiesrelated to the research area of the thesis

Chapter 2: Methodology gives the details of governing orientations of

the research and research methods of the study

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion deals with the results and

discusses the results

Part C: Conclusion summarizes the main points presented in the thesis,

proposes the limitations of the research, and makes suggestions for futureresearch

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Theoretical Background

of rhythm, stress, and intonation) of their first language (L1) on theresonances of the language learned This is on account of the suprasegmentalpeculiarities and patterns of the speakers’ L1 are profoundly established.Subsequently, language learners are regularly uninformed of contrasts inintonation between their first language and a second language, and of howdiverse intonation patterns can influence importance in the second language

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Ladd (1980) has shown the problems assuming that speakers chooseintonation contours based on grammar alone He [Ladd (1980)] also claimedthat intonation patterns can be seen as in the same way as lexical words.Referring to Liberman, (1967, p.141) intonation contours contain “an abstractcontext-free element of meaning, which produces specific nuances in specificcontexts” Intonation contours, therefore, cannot be separated from theircontext without losing some of their meaning However, it is impossible toteach every nuance but the general and salient rules of intonation.

Syntactically-defined contours are salient, and it is can be considered thatsyntax is the default determining function for intonation, although discoursefunctions may overrule it Following the recommendations of Celce-Murcia et

al (1996), the author chose to focus on two syntactically-defined contourswhich were intonation contours of definite statements and yes/no questions

Of the two intonation contours, a definite statement tends to have the finalfalling intonation and a yes/no question usually has the final rising intonation.This study focused only on the default contours of these two kinds ofsentences

In order for language learners to take in these features it is necessary for them

to perceive and reproduce them Examines on the learning of second languagephonology have not definitively indicated whether L2 speakers learn toperceive before they learn to reproduce aspects of L2 phonology, or the otherway around For instance, Archibald found that Hungarian and Polish nativespeakers, whose languages have predictable stress patterns, scored better inthe perception of stress for English verbs and nouns than in the reproduction

of the stress (1993, citing in Altmann, 2006) Atmann’s 2006 study uncovered

a quite opposite results with participants who were native speakers of

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predictable-stress-pattern languages He (Altmann, 2006) showed thatparticipants with a lower performance in the perception of stress for Englishwords had a very good performance in the reproduction task The studiesabove show that the relationship between perception and reproduction ofsuprasegmentals requires learners to engage in both perception andreproduction tasks.

1.1.2 Technology for Learning

Over the past few decades, technological devices, including computers, havebecome an indispensable part of our daily lives According to Gupta (2010),technology today is in the reach of more people because it has becomecheaper Moreover, compared to the past, many more students are verycomfortable using technology in many fields All these changes haveprompted the integration of technology in educational settings Gupta (2010)

made clear on the differences between two uses of technology: technology of education and technology in education Technology of education is

considered to be a medium which helps instructors prepare learning materials

such as video lectures and digitized lectures However, technology in

education is used to improve learning and meet learners’ needs In terms oflanguage learning, according to Kern (2006), the use of technology can beseen in terms of the metaphors of tutor, tool, and medium:

“In the tutor role, computers can provide instruction, feedback, andtesting in grammar, vocabulary, writing, pronunciation, and other dimensions

of language and culture learning In the tool role, computers provide readyaccess to written, audio, and visual materials relevant to the language andculture being studied In the medium role, technology provides sites for

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interpersonal communication, multimedia publication, distance learning,community participation, and identity formation” (p 191, 192)

1.1.3 Technological-based Intonation Teaching

Teachers and researchers have raised the worry that the intonation of a secondlanguage is troublesome both to teach and to learn in the language classroom(Park, 2011) However, because of specific attributes of technology-basedinstructions, there is an expanding tendency to show and learn secondlanguage intonation through the uses of technology and software In thisthesis, the design and possibility of an instrument which uses open-accessdevices to enhance L2 English learners' perception and reproduction ofEnglish intonation is described

Non-native-like intonation could lead to misunderstandings One famousexample was described in Gumperz (1982) that native speakers misinterpretednon-native speakers' intonation Non-native cafeteria workers from the Indianused a falling tone on the word “gravy” to ask if customers wanted gravy(p.173-174) Native speakers perceived the workers to be rude because thenative-like intonation should have been a rising tone on “gravy.” Alinguistically inappropriate intonation contour can result in misinterpretationand even conflict, showing why such teaching intervention applied in thisstudy is needed

Nowadays, technological devices have been used in a large range of anyfields including teaching and learning In the case of English, many teachersand researchers see them as tools for communication, teaching and learning

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In those terms mentioned, Thorne and Smith (2011) have identified at leastthree potential uses of technology in language learning:

“… to provide access to input and rehearsal (recording, tutorials, anddrills), to amplify possibilities for personal expression (text and mediaprocessing), to extend existing and enable new opportunities for interpersonalcommunication (synchronous and asynchronous messaging)…” (p.268)

One advantage of using technology is that it can provide “relevant and usefulfeedback” (Zhao, 2003, p.21) Thomson (2011) showed that a number ofapplications available can provide visual feedback to language learners which

is simple for them to interpret, helping learners to develop some specificaspects of second language pronunciation Moreover, he claimed, visualdisplays or feedback showing contours of pitch, relative segments andamplitude of segments, are likely to be very effective for the teaching ofsuprasegmentals such as, intonation, rhythm and stress

1.2 Review of Previous Studies Related to the Research

It is clear that using technology in language learning is not the same as usingtechnology effectively in language learning In this part, the author will look

at previous studies on using technology for language learning and the ways inwhich technology has been used effectively to help language learners with achallenging aspect of English: perceiving and reproducing intonation patterns

In many language classrooms, there is not enough time for learners to practicetheir oral reproduction and communication Technology can be used toprovide opportunities for oral reproduction In a study by Holland, Kaplanand Sabol (1999), students’ reproduction and production of Arabic utterances

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improved as a result of an interactive Microworld application with automaticspeech recognition (ASR).

Hirata (2010) concluded in his study that English learners of Japanese, whoused the CSL-Pitch Program to look at pitch and duration of speech, couldperceive and produce Japanese words correctly using appropriate pitch anddurational contrasts

A study by Anderson-Hsieh (1992) showed that with the help of a programcalled Visi-Pitch, participants could easily reproduce the targetedsuprasegmentals

In another study, Hardison (2004) made it clear that learners who receivedtraining in intonation with visual display improved their reproduction andproduction at the suprasegmental level Despite the participants were notprovided with explicit instructions, they still produced a significant progress.Taniguchi and Abberton (1999) revealed in their study that a group ofJapanese learners of English improved their reproduction of Englishintonation and the naturalness in English intonation after being exposed tointeractive visual feedback

According to de Bot (1983), participants can easily make decisions based onwhat they see in audiovisual feedback, depending on how similar the imitatedcontours are to the originals The participants’ imitation is visualized through

a picture which motivates them to either repeat an imitation or try a new one

To summarize the above, technology has played a successful role to implicitlytrain non-native speakers to perceive, reproduce and produce particularfeatures of intonation However, the above studies used the tools that requiredspecialized knowledge of intonation systems and instrumental phonetics

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These tools were generally expensive and not available to the public So, inthis study the author explore the use of accessible and user-friendlytechnological tools in providing audio-visual feedback to help learnersimprove their perception and reproduction of English intonation with aparticular focus on definite statements and yes/no questions The study wasinspired by Moussalli (2013) whose study proved the learners’ enhancement

of perception and production of tag questions after working with the twotools

1.3 Summary

To the author’s knowledge, there are a limited number of studies on the use oftechnology to help non-native speakers, especially Vietnamese learners ofEnglish, to perceive and reproduce sentence intonation Therefore, this studywere decided to concentrate on open-access tools which incorporatescomputer-based audio-visual feedback One was delivered through theactivity module for Moodle: Online Audio Recording, and the other wasthrough the application WASP It is to help non-major first year students inUniversity of Sciences – TNU improve their perception and reproduction offalling and rising in definite statements and yes/no questions

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Chapter 2: Methodology 2.1 Research-governing Orientations

It is because action research is beneficial in area of teaching practice that need

to be explored In the context of the present study, it is to employ thecomputer-based tools to improve participants’ perception and reproduction ofsentence intonation and find out how effective these tools are

2.1.2 Research Hypothesis

It is predicted that learners after being trained with the audio-visual feedbackmight perform better in their perception and reproduction of the sentenceintonation than before

2.1.3 Participants

Three participants were chosen randomly from an intensive English class forfirst year students at University of Sciences – TNU The students in the classare better at English than the average They had been tested and qualified tostudy with the aim for the outcomes of B1 – CEFR General information forthe three participants who participated in the study is summarized in Table 1.(Each participant was assigned with a code-name in the study.)

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Table 1 Participants information.

 Act – described in Procedure for Data Collection

 Observe – described in Data Processing and Analysis

 Reflect – described in Findings and Discussions; Conclusion.

Within the research, the authors employed some of the techniques which are listed as follows:

 Launching questionnaire at the beginning of the study to collect

participants’ background information

 Implementing pre-test, training and post-test to collect the data The study underwent three phases: a familiarization and pre-test phase, a training phase, and a post-test phase Table 2 shows the tasks and time periods for each phase

 Analyzing the data collected and discuss the scores

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 Conducting an interview to get the participants’ performance and opinions.

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