LV English intonation in discourse of first year students

It is certain that applying intonation in speech is not an easy task for Vietnamese learners of English.. Aims Personally, through the study, the researcher hopes to find out the areas

Traditionally, most pronunciation teaching and learning tends to concentrate on individual sounds, which although the most obvious, is not sufficient enough for good pronunciation Clearly, besides the sound system, other aspects of pronunciation such as linking, stress, and especially intonation are equally important Besides, it is essential to remember that a student who can pronounce and recognize every English sound may still be unintelligible and unable to understand the spoken English if he has not mastered English stress and intonation patterns, important factors in the skill of communication Pedagogically, as

Kenworthy (1988) puts it in the book titled “Teaching English pronunciation”, a

good pronunciation should be the mastery of individual sounds-segmental features,

as well as stress, linking, and intonation-suprasegmental ones Among such suprasegmental features, intonation is considered what makes a learner of English sound like native In addition, Baker (1982) stresses that “in the speech of advanced learners, departures from what we regard as desirable are said to be more often matters of intonation than matters of how individual sounds are made”

In spite of that, due to its inherent complexity and to the ensuring difficulty in learning and mastering it, intonation was ignored for many years in language teaching However, it is slowly gaining recognition as an integral part of language fluency, competence, and proficiency Furthermore, at a time when the language learning task is geared to instant interpersonal communication with efficiency and precision, the intonation phenomena could not have gone unnoticed in the preparation of English teaching syllabus as well as the pronunciation practice of all students of English

Practically, most students of English at Danang University face big difficulties with intonation Undeniably, they also have problems with the pronunciation of some vowels, consonants, stress, and linking Nevertheless, intonation is one of the most concerning In fact, it is often complained that a majority of students tend to speak English flatly, i.e their voices do not either go up or down Moreover, in my own observation of students of English at Danang University, it can be argued that a great number of students are not aware of how to vary their pitch properly It is certain that applying intonation in speech is not an easy task for Vietnamese learners of English

Added to this, students at Danang University do not have many chances to practice pronunciation in general and intonation in particular as the allocation time for pronunciation courses is limited, only thirty periods in the first semester in the total

of eight semesters Due to time limit, students hardly have good pronunciation as required, and pronunciation teachers are unable to fully observe and recognize the learners’ progress as well as diagnose their problems It seems that most of the teachers are aware of students’ intonation deficiency but it is not easy to get answer

to the question: “What exactly is wrong and why?”

From this context, there is an urgent need to investigate problems students of English at Danang University experience with intonation and to suggest some implications for the teaching of English pronunciation Therefore, it is worthwhile conducting a study analyzing English intonation in discourse of first-year students

1.2 Aims and objectives

1.2.1 Aims

Personally, through the study, the researcher hopes to find out the areas of difficulty

in applying intonation in speech of students of English at Danang University, and to suggest some effective teaching activities to improve the situation

1.2.2 Objectives

Three main objectives guide the study:

The first objective is to describe intonation and its important features

The second objective is to discover some common intonation mistakes in discourse

of the first-year students of English

The third objective is to suggest some implications for English pronunciation teaching

1.3 Research questions

With these objectives in mind, answers to the following questions are sought:

1 What is intonation?

2 What are important features of intonation?

3 What are common intonation mistakes in discourse of first-year students of English at Danang University?

4 What are the mechanisms leading to these mistakes?

5 What are some ways to teach intonation effectively?

1.4 Scope of the study

In this research paper, it is not my ambition to investigate all English intonation patterns experienced by students of English at Danang University Instead, I mainly deal with those that help with the analysis of students’ intonation in spontaneous exchanges

In addition, with the limitation of time and my ability, I just focus on first-year students of English at Danang University Also, many factors affecting the problem, such as the different accents of different students coming from different places, or how long they have learned English before attending to college etc… are not included here

1.5 Preview of organization

The study is organized into five parts as follows:

In Chapter One-Introduction- the role of intonation in cross-linguistic study will be presented Besides, it also includes the general situation of Vietnamese learners of English when applying intonation in discourse

Chapter Two-Review of Literature- begins with the introduction of intonation and the description of its important features Also, some concepts related to the matter investigated are clarified Intonation functions are then dealt with The chapter concludes with the review of some previous studies on intonation

Chapter Three-Method and Procedure- presents the research design and method, the generated hypotheses, the description of the population and sample The way to collect and analyze data will be introduced in this chapter with the study’s reliability and validity

Chapter Four- Presentation of Findings- presents the results of actual pronunciation performances of first-year students at Danang University

In Chapter Five-Discussion of Findings- the discussion about the results through testing the hypotheses will be included

In the final chapter, Chapter Six-Conclusion and Implications- the conclusion on the study will be made Also, some implications for the practical solutions will be put forward

Chapter Two

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Background to intonation

In this section, I will outline some of the background concepts related to intonation

as developed in the phonology and intonation literature

2.1.1 The concept of intonation

So far there have been many ideas on what intonation is

Cruttenden (6:9), for example, seems to equate intonation specifically with pitch movement Dauer and Grant have their own definitions of intonation as “the changes in the pitch of the voice over time” (7: 310) or as “the rise and fall in the pitch of the voice” (10:133)

Obviously, there are many definitions with different ways of expressing what intonation is Pitch, however, is the common thread running through most descriptions In order to capture the best meaning of intonation, the following definition would be chosen as an operational definition for the development of this research paper:

“Intonation is the variations in the pitch of a speaker’s voice used to alter or convey meaning” (Roach, 1992:56)

The span of speech over which an intonation pattern extends is called a tone unit Within a tone unit there is usually a single syllable that stands out because it carries the major pitch change A syllable of this kind is called the tonic syllable The pitch changes that begin on the tonic syllable continue until the beginning of the next tone unit

2.1.2 Intonation features

For Cruttenden (6:35), intonation has three important features:

1 the division of a stream of speech into intonation units,

2 the selection of a syllable (of a word), which is assigned the ‘tonic’ status,

3 and the selection of a tone for the intonation unit

Accordingly, this research studies three major features of intonation: intonation units, tonic syllables, and tones; all of which to some extent embrace the whole phenomenon of intonation

2.1.3.Tone unit

The phenomena of intonation in English should have a piece of utterance as its basis

to study all kinds of voice movements and features

2.1.3.1 Definition

Roach (27: 282) suggests that for the purpose of analyzing intonation, a unit generally greater in size than the syllable is needed, and this unit is called the tone-unit The tone unit can be thought of as the building block of spoken English Specifically, when speaking, unless people are reciting from a prepared script, they all make slips of the tongue, hesitate, repeat, and have to make corrections but in general they manage to deliver the message they intend That is they do not simply speak one sound after another or even one word after another; they organize the message into units of information, tone units

All spoken English is made up of tone units An utterance can be quite short, consisting of a single tone unit as follows:

2.1.3.2 Characteristics

Each typical tone unit:

+ is set off by pauses before and after

+ contains one prominent element

+ has an intonation contour of its own

+ has a grammatical coherent internal structure

Tone unit boundaries are identified by the presence of a pause preceding by a lengthening of the intonation contour at the end of the last word; if a word is cut off

in the middle, it is considered to have a fully produced intonational boundary Hence, pauses are taken as tone units’ boundaries

Sometimes, speakers do not actually pause completely at the end of a tone unit within a sentence; but they slow down, change the pitch of their voice, and lengthen the final syllables as if they were going to pause

2.1.3.4 Tone unit in relation with tonic syllable and tone

A tone unit is usually divided into several parts The most important part contains the syllable on which the change of pitch begins: the tonic syllable In other words, every tone unit has a tonic syllable-and therefore one of the five tones Each simple tone-unit has one and only one tonic syllable; this means that the tonic syllable is an obligatory component of the tone-unit In short, a tone unit is distinguished by containing a single complete pitch pattern and a tonic syllable

Within each intonation unit in English, a speaker must make two choices:

1.Where does the major fall or rise in pitch occur? That is, what is the location

of tonic syllable?

2.Which tone or pitch pattern will be used? That is, will there be a fall or rise at the end of the tone unit?

2.1.4.Tonic syllable

2.1.4.1 Sentence stress

Stress in speech is the greater prominence which is given to one or more words in a

sentence as compared with the other words of the same sentence In English this

great prominence is achieved by uttering the stressed words with greater force of

exhalation and muscular tension than the unstressed words, as well as by a change

in the pitch and by an increase in the length of stressed syllables of words in the

sentence

Consider sentence stresses in the following examples:

(a) ٰWater is a ٰliquid

(b) ٰShe ٰsat by the ٰwindow,⏐ٰreading the ٰletter

(18: 100)

Any word can be prominent if the speaker thinks it is important in a sentence, but

some kinds of words are much more likely to be prominent than others It is

generally the case that one word is stressed more than any other since it possesses

the highest information content for the discourse utterance, that is, it informs the

hearer most The group of words described above is largely from what is called

“content” words as opposed to “function” words From suprasegmental viewpoint,

on the basis of being stressed or not, the classification can be presented as follows:

Table 1 Classification of stressed and unstressed words

Content/Stressed words Function/Unstressed words

nouns articles adjectives conjunctions adverbs prepositions

prepositional adverbs negatives (12: 139-151)

2.1.4.2 Tonic syllable

2.1.4.2.1 Definition

The last prominent syllable in a tone unit is called the tonic syllable Brazil defines

it as “where the most noticeable pitch movement occurs and hence the place where the choice of tone is made” (4: 195)

A: She never comes on Saturdays

B: But she came `LAST Saturday

a change in pitch would start on last

A question does arise as to what happens to the previously stressed syllables They still get stressed, however, not as much as the tonic syllable, producing a three level stress for utterances

2.1.4.2.3 Functions

A tonic syllable is used to:

- give an emphasis:

(a) It was very `BOring (unmarked)

(b) It was `VEry boring (emphatic)

- make contrast:

(a) Do you like this one or THAT one?

(b) I like `THIS one

- give new information:

(a)What's your NAME?

(b)My name's `GEORGE

2.1.5.The concept of tone

2.1.5.1 Pitch

2.1.5.1.1 Definition

When people speaking, some sounds or groups of sounds in their speech can be heard relatively higher or lower than others This relative height of speech sounds as perceived by a listener is called pitch

Pitch is produced by the vocal cords vibrating Pitch produced depends on how fast

is concerned about the different heights of the pitch over syllables

2.1.5.1.2.Characteristics

In English pitch is not distinctive at word level At the utterance level, on the other hand, pitch is very distinctive Pitch varies continuously from the moment a speaker begins speaking to the moment he/she ends, and this kind of variation has a certain communicative significance

In fact, “only in very unusual situation do people speak with fixed, unvarying pitch, and when they speak normally the pitch of their voice is constantly changing” (24:260) Peter Roach confirms that when talking of intonation, the pitch of the voice plays the most important part Furthermore, he concludes that one of the most important tasks in analyzing intonation is to listen to the speaker’s pitch and recognize what it is doing

2.1.5.1.3 Pitch level

Pitch level is the relative height of the pitch of a speaker’s voice, as this is perceived

by the listener In English, 3 pitch levels have often been recognized:

Normal pitch level

Lower than normal level Higher than normal level These three levels can not be identified in absolute terms One person’s high pitch will not be the same as another person’s high pitch Differences in pitch level are therefore relative

2.1.5.1.4 Pitch range

Pitch range is the variations in pitch height that an individual speaker is able to produce Differences in the pitch of individual speakers are related to the size of their vocal cords and the structure of their vocal tract Usually, women can speak with a higher pitch than man, but there are exceptions

2.1.5.2 Tone

2.1.5.2.1 Definition

Tone or pitch movement is a change in pitch which takes place on the tonic syllable and affects the meaning and function of utterances in discourse

The pitch changes that occur in speech are complicated, often involving small pitch changes on each stressed syllable These comparatively minor pitch changes will be neglected in the discussion of intonation because intonation is considered to be only those changes that characterize a tone unit as a whole

There are no monotones in English At some moment in a phrase or a sentence, the tone must change It will either go up or down The tone of a phrase or a sentence begins to change on the tonic syllables

What makes a tone a rising or failing or any other type of tone is the direction of the pitch movement on the last stressed (tonic) syllable (5:45)

2.1.5.2.2 Neutral pitch patterns

Most intonation units begin on a low to mid pitch and jump up a little to mid or between mid and high on the first stressed syllable Following syllables are about mid pitch and gradually fall until the syllable with sentence stress From the sentence stress to the end of the tone unit is the most important part of an intonation pattern in English At that point, there is either a major fall or a major rise in pitch The tone of the tonic syllable determines the pitch of the rest of the tone unit following it Thus after a falling tone, the rest of the tone unit is at a low pitch After

a rising tone, the rest of the tone unit moves in an upward pitch direction

2.1.5.2.3 Basic tones

Pitch movements distinguished by their particular direction or contour According

to Brazil et al (1980) and Roach (1983), there are five kinds of tones: the fall, the rise, fall-rise, rise-fall, and level

2.1.5.2.3.a Fall

A falling tone is by far the most common used tone of all

Description: this tone consists of a fall of the pitch of the voice from a fairly high note to a very low note

The fall is used in simple statements of fact, special questions, commands, exclamations, offers, or suggestions to do something

2.1.5.2.3.b Rise

The rise is used in general questions, requests, greetings, and incomplete part of the sentence

2.1.5.2.4 Tone and intonation languages

Tone language is one in which substituting one distinctive tone for another on a particular word or morpheme can cause a change in the lexical meaning of that word or phoneme, or in some aspect of its grammatical categorization Well-known examples are Chinese and Vietnamese

On the other hand, languages, English for instance, that use pitch syntactically (for example, to change a sentence from a statement to a question) or in which the changing pitch of a whole sentence is otherwise important to the meaning are called intonation languages

2.1.5.2.5 Tones in Vietnamese and English

In Vietnamese, tone is mainly assigned to a word to distinguish its lexical meaning

It is considered to be the height of the pitch and change of the pitch which is associated with the pronunciation of syllables of words and which affects the

meaning of the word For example, in Vietnamese ga means railway station, but gà means chicken

In contrast, tones in English are not distinctive This means that a change of tone will not result in a change of lexical meaning Tones in English do not change the meaning of the word with which they are associated but change the meaning of the utterance as a whole For example, “John is going” is said as a statement with a falling tone but as a question with a rising tone

2.1.6 Functions of intonation

According to Roach (1998), intonation functions can be categorized into four groups:

+ Attitudinal function: intonation enables speakers to express emotions

and attitudes as they speak, and this adds a special kind of meaning to spoken language

+ Accentual function: intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence

on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed, and in particular the placing of tonic stress on a particular syllable marks out the word to which it belongs as the most important in the tone-unit

+ Grammatical function: the listener is better able to recognize the

grammar and syntactic structure of what is being said by using the information contained in the intonation: for example, such thing as the placement of boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences, the difference between questions and statements and the use of grammatical subordination may be indicated

+ Discourse function: intonation can signal to the listener what is to be

taken as “new” information and what is already “given”, can suggest when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or link with material in another tone-unit and, in conversation, can convey to the listener what kind of response is expected

2.1.7 Methods of intonation notation

Contemporary transcription of intonation varies greatly, as they reflect different theoretical views of the nature of the subject Some approaches attempt to provide a faithful phonetic record of melodic movement; others are more phonological in character, including only those aspects of melody which seem to be crucial for expressing contrasts in meaning Some phonetic studies rely on auditory judgement alone; others use a combination of auditory and acoustic analysis The Phonetic Approach in intonation transcription employed the methods used in musical notation which is referred to as dot-dash system This method is used for intonation transcription in this paper In this system, two parallel lines (staves in music) represent the approximate upper and lower limits of the range of the human voice in speech Dashes indicate stressed syllables, and dots represent unstressed syllables

A falling tone is represented by a downward curve and a rising tone by an upward one One tone unit boundary is denoted by a vertical bar

ٰ

For example:

(21:82)

2.1 Review of previous studies

So far there have been many officially published materials on English intonation

D Robert Ladd (1996), a well-respected Canadian scholar of intonation, is keen on the description of intonation and the analysis of it in discourse Although the study makes an exceptionally clear presentation of the theory of intonational phonology, it mainly deals with linguistic purposes, not for pedagogical ones

Peter Roach (1998) also pays much attention to intonation as one aspect of speech

A comprehensive description of its forms and functions is presented in his book:

“English Phonetics and Phonology”

More practically, Ann Baker (1982) mentions difficulties with individual sounds, stress, intonation that students of different mother tongues are likely to encounter in spoken English As she observes, Vietnamese learners have problems with all intonation patterns

Another particular reference book, “Learner English: A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems”, also makes assumptions on difficulties Vietnamese speakers have with English intonation by comparing relevant features between Vietnamese and English phonology It is asserted that being monosyllabic and tonal, Vietnamese is unable to express stress by tone, as in English, because this would affect existing syllabic tone Each individual syllable is pronounced with its characteristic tonal pattern, without which it would be unrecognizable Besides, Vietnamese learners of English experience difficulty with intonation production since in English, the meaningful patterns of tone and stress extend over groups of words

Clearly, Vietnamese speakers of English tend to experience problems with intonation production However, this has not been confirmed by many empirical experimental studies

The most recent and only research related to intonation analysis I have gained access to so far is the study: “Towards a Model to Teach English Pronunciation to Vietnamese Learners” by Nguyen Quoc Hung (1999) The paper covers the pronunciation analysis of Vietnamese learners of English in both segmental and suprasegmetal aspect Ten people coming from the North and the South of Vietnam are chosen as subjects for data collection To elicit the intonation patterns used by Vietnamese learners, every subject is asked to talk freely some minutes about any topic they like to talk Consequently, some findings are drawn as follows:

ƒ The Vietnamese does not divide a sentence into tone units in the way the English natives do

ƒ Vietnamese speakers are not aware of tonic prominence within a tone unit

ƒ The change of tone direction in Vietnamese speech appears to be level or level-rise, or level-rise-level

level-fall-ƒ By giving level pitch to most of the heavy syllables and lower or higher pitch to the unstressed ones, Vietnamese fails to form a descending scale pattern in speech

ƒ Vietnamese does not use intonation as a means of saying different things

On the whole, Hung (23:94) concludes that “Vietnamese speakers have an intonation device unfamiliar to British English and unsystematic” The results to some extent reveal problems Vietnamese speakers have with English intonation However, the empirical condition of the study does not reflect real-life communication situations It does not employ spontaneous speech, conversation for example, for data collection Furthermore, the research findings, in my opinion, are not reliable enough as the number of 10 subjects is too small to represent the whole Vietnamese learners of English

My study, therefore, focuses on the first two findings to do experiment for verification Besides, Vietnamese speakers’ choice of tones is also included as the third hypothesis of the study It is necessary to mention that since Hung covers all aspects of the pronunciation of Vietnamese learners of English, the intonation

analysis part is not fully presented with the study method and procedure as well as the detailed process of data analysis In fact, the total six papers are devoted mainly

to the presentation of typical intonation contours and the findings Nevertheless, since there has been just a modest quantity of empirical work on the intonation of Vietnamese speakers of English, his study, especially the presentation of typical contours is of great valuable to my research