Integrating pronunciation elements into listening lessons for first year non english major students at hanoi university of industry

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********* NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀI THU INTEGRATING PRONUNCIATION ELEMENTS INT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********

NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀI THU

INTEGRATING PRONUNCIATION ELEMENTS INTO LISTENING LESSONS FOR FIRST YEAR NON ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(KẾT HỢP DẠY CÁC YẾU TỐ NGỮ ÂM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NGHE

CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

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

*********

NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀI THU

INTEGRATING PRONUNCIATION ELEMENTS INTO LISTENING LESSONS FOR FIRST YEAR NON ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(KẾT HỢP DẠY CÁC YẾU TỐ NGỮ ÂM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NGHE

CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph.D

Hanoi, 2015

DECLERATION

I declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and have been generated

by me as the result of my own original research

I confirm that this thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts and that this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree

or any other qualification at any other universities or institutions

Hanoi, August, 2015

Nguyễn Thị Hoài Thu

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude and indebtedness to my supervisor Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph.D for her extraordinary help, valuable advice and outstanding support

Secondly, my special thanks go to all the teachers in the faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their useful lectures, materials, guidance and enthusiasm during my course

I also highly appreciate the cooperation of my students in class CK2.2- K9 at Hanoi University of Industry, without them this thesis would not be at all possible

Finally, my grateful thanks and gratitude extend to my family and my friend, who have always encouraged me and supported me to fulfill this study

ABSTRACT

Proper pronunciation makes significant contribution to successful communication Despite its importance, it is often ignored and neglected in EFL classes The study involves an action research on integrating pronunciation elements into listening lessons However, since pronunciation comprises a variety of elements, in this study, the researcher just concentrates on intonation teaching The aim of this study is to investigate how integrating intonation teaching into listening lessons improves students’ intonation and students' attitudes toward the teaching method The participants were 45 first year non English major students at Hanoi University of Industry The treatment was conducted in eight weeks with eight intonation lessons which were integrated in the post-listening stage of the listening lessons The major source of data for the research came from two sets of instruments including tests and questionnaire The results of the study show that after the treatment, students’ intonation significantly improved and the majority of them had positive attitude toward intonation and the teaching method Therefore, it can be said that the intonation teaching integrated with listening lessons helped to improve the students’ intonation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgments ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations vi

List of tables vi

List of figures vi

List of charts vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1.RATIONALE OF THE STUDY 1

1.2.AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 3

1.3.RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

1.4.SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4

1.5.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 4

1.6.ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1.PRONUNCIATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE 5 2.1.1 The importance of pronunciation and pronunciation teaching 5

2.1.2 Pronunciation elements 6

2.2.INTONATION IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 8

2.2.1 Definition of intonation 8

2.2.2 System of intonation 9

2.2.3 Tone unit 13

2.2.4 Functions of intonation 14

2.2.5 The importance of intonation 16

2.3APPROACHES TO TEACH PRONUNCIATION 17

2.3.1 Bottom-up and top-down approaches 17

2.3.2 Intuitive-imitative and analytic-linguistic approaches 17

2.3.3 Integrated approach 18

2.3.4 Integrating teaching intonation into listening 18

2.4SUMMARY 20

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21

3.1.THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 21

3.2.SUBJECTS 22

3.3.THE ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT 22

3.3.1 Action research 22

3.3.2 Action research procedure 24

3.4SUMMARY 27

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 29

4.1.RESULTS FROM THE TESTS 29

4.1.1 Results from the pre-test 29

4.1.2 Results from the pre-test and four progress tests 30

4.1.3 Results from the pre-test and post- tests 32

4.1.4 Discussion of the test results 33

4.2RESULTS FROM THE STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE 34

4.2.1 Attitude toward studying English intonation 34

4.2.2 Attitude toward the integrated approach of learning intonation 35

4.2.3 Other opinions 36

4.2.4DISCUSSION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS 37

4.3SPECIFY LEARNING 37

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 39

5.1MAJOR FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 39

5.2LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 40

5.3RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 40

5.4CONCLUSION 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES… I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL : English as a Foreign Language

ESL : English as a Second Language

HaUI : Hanoi University of Industry

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Results from the pre-test ……… 28 Table 2: Comparison of the scores of the pre-test and progress tests………… 30 Table 3: Comparison of the scores of the pre-test and post-test ……… 31

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

English is regarded as the main language of international communication Good communication in English depends considerably on the proper pronunciation In other words, pronunciation is considered the bridge through which the message is delivered; proper and correct pronunciation is the soul of comfortable and successful communication Moreover, good pronunciation is considered to be more essential than perfect knowledge

of grammar It is believed that a learner with poor pronunciation is less likely to be understood than a learner who makes many mistakes in grammar

When dealing with pronunciation, it is necessary to mention two main features of pronunciation- the segmental and suprasegmental features Segmental features are sets of distinctive sounds of particular language and the suprasemental features are related to intonation; stress and change of sounds in connected speech In this study, the researcher just focuses on intonation since it is an essential part of pronunciation Furthermore, intonation is very important for communication as it helps the addressee interpret the message Intonation choices made by speakers carry linguistic information and the various elements of intonation are seen to perform a variety of functions

Despite the significance of pronunciation as well as intonation, it is complained that pronunciation including intonation have often been ignored and received little explicit focus in the ESL classes (Griffiths, 2011; Woolard, 1993) A lot of English teachers seem

to feel uncomfortable with intonation and they tend to treat it as a difficult subject: difficult to isolate, difficult to describe, and difficult to formulate rules In the context of Vietnam, pronunciation along with intonation is still neglected or ignored at many universities and colleges It is mostly taught in separated lessons or by traditional approaches such as top-down approach, bottom-up approach, intuitive-imitative approach and analytic-linguistic approach However, with those traditional approaches, the English pronunciation teaching and learning seem to be not as effective as expectation

Like many universities in Vietnam, Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) considers English

as a necessary skill beside other professional skills which the students should be trained In order to help the students be able to communicate in English, the course syllabus is designed with general objectives to get the learner to be mastered in oral communication The main content of syllabus focuses on improving students’ listening and speaking skill However, as my observation during two years teaching here, the poor pronunciation is the big challenge for students to master those skills Many teachers complain that improper pronunciation leads students in being unconfident in speaking and confused with listening comprehension For two years working with non-English major students at HaUI, the researcher recognizes that a large number of them mispronounce separated words and words combined in a sentence Other pronounces a sentence with equal stress, flat intonation and no rhythm at all Especially, with the flat intonation, students speak English like reading their script There was almost no emotion, no change

well-in pitch when they are speakwell-ing Consequently, it is difficult to understand their expressions and thoughts that go with words In addition, with the limited knowledge of intonation, many students have difficulty in understanding and interpreting speakers’ expression in listening tasks For instance, if a positive sentence is spoken with the rising tone, the speaker has tendency to put a query rather than make a statement However, the students hardly understand clearly speaker’s purpose so they generally give incorrect answer

Since pronunciation is the most complicated aspect of language to obtain, most English teachers, especially non-native speakers like at HaUI, feel unconfident in teaching pronunciation Furthermore, because of some reasons such as the shortage of instructions

or guidance dealing with pronunciation in textbooks, too few pronunciation exercises as well as the lack of time, teachers at HaUI often ignore pronunciation teaching Therefore, teaching pronunciation by integrating it into other lessons is suggested As Morley (1991:486) stated “the need for the integration of pronunciation with oral communication was soon realized with a shift from specific linguistic competencies to broader communicative competencies as goals for both the teacher and the learner” In this study,

the researcher decided to integrate pronunciation elements into listening lessons because the conversations in listening tasks can be good models for students to imitate

For the reasons above, it is necessary to do an action research on: “Integrating pronunciation elements into listening lessons for first year Non English major students at Hanoi University of Industry” However, as pronunciation comprises a lot of elements, the research just concentrates on teaching intonation with the hope that students can improve their intonation for communicative purpose

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The research is conducted with the aims at:

- Improving students’ intonation by integrating intonation teaching into listening lessons

- Investigating students’ attitudes toward integrating intonation teaching into listening lessons

Besides the main aim at finding out how integrating intonation teaching into listening lessons improves students’ intonation, the researcher investigates students’ attitudes toward the teaching method because it is an important factor that influences learners’ studying results Moreover, understanding students’ attitudes helps the teacher to adjust lesson plans for more effective intonation teaching and learning

1.4 Scope of the study

This is an action research with a focused group of 45 first year Non English major students

at Hanoi University of Industry There are a great number of pronunciation elements; however, this study just focuses on intonation The researcher integrates teaching intonation into listening lessons with the aim at improving students’ intonation

1.5 Significance of the study

Firstly, the study is conducted with the hope to help the students who participated in this project improve their English intonation Secondly, this research can be an interesting reference material for EFL teachers, especially English teachers at HaUI about the ways how to integrate intonation teaching into listening lessons Lastly, the research may make contribution to the overall literature picture of teaching intonation integrated into listening lessons in Vietnamese context

1.6 Organization of the study

The thesis is instructed in five chapters

Chapter 1 includes rationale, the objectives, research questions, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study

Chapter 2 provides a review of the literature on the approaches to pronunciation teaching

as well as intonation teaching

Chapter 3 presents the research methodology

Chapter 4 presents the results of the study, along with analysis and discussion of the data Chapter 5 offers a summary of the findings of the study, conclusion, limitations and suggestion for future research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Pronunciation in teaching and learning English as a second language

2.1.1 The importance of pronunciation and pronunciation teaching

Many linguists (Yates, 2002; Kelly, 2000) share the viewpoint that pronunciation plays an important role in second language teaching and learning Without it, learners have many difficulties in getting their speech understood and understanding others’ Misunderstanding, communication breakdown or failure may occur due to mispronunciation When mentioning about the importance of pronunciation, Hewings (2004:11) claims “difficulties with pronunciation might mean that students fail to get their message across, even when the correct words are being used, or they may fail to understand what is said to them” In other words, problematic pronunciation possibly prevents ESL learners expressing their thoughts clearly and comprehending others’ speech To some extent agreeing with Hewings, Kelly (2000) also states that a learner who consistently mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand This can be very frustrating for the learner who may have a good command of grammar and lexis but have difficulty in understanding and being understood by a native speaker

Mastering grammar, having a good knowledge of vocabulary, being able to read and write well are all parts of learning a language However, not being able to pronounce words hugely hinders communication, especially since it is believed that, learners who are unable

to pronounce words are also unable to understand them This means that teaching pronunciation is an important area which should be dealt with regularly Harmer (2001) also argues convincingly that it is thanks to pronunciation teaching that students not only become aware of different sounds and sound features, but can also improve their speaking immeasurably Subsequently, he claims that (Harmer, 2001:183) “concentrating on sounds, showing where they are made in the mouth, making students aware of where words should be stressed – all these things give them extra information about spoken English and help them achieve the goal of improved comprehension and intelligibility”

Without question, pronunciation is an inseparable aspect of the language which has a great influence on our successful communication Intelligible pronunciation is essential during a listening process, clear and correct pronunciation makes a conversation more comfortable for both the speaker and the listener and even helps to avoid misunderstanding

2.1.2 Pronunciation elements

Pronunciation involves features at the segmental level and suprasegmental level The figure that is shown below expresses the main features of pronunciation according to Pourhosein (2012:120)

Figure 1 Features of English pronunciation

Segmental features: segmental aspects of the sound system include individual vowels and consonants Segmental features relate to sounds at the micro level They include specific

sounds within words (for example, l as in lamp, r as in ramp, a as in hat)

Phonemes: The sound systems of consonants, vowels or their combinations are called phonemes Phonemes are sounds that, when pronounced incorrectly, can change the meaning of the word Compare the changes of meaning in: pet- pat, lamp- ramp

Consonants are sounds in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips Consonant sounds can be voiced (a part of the mouth is closed and the

air behind it is released suddenly – for example, v as in van, b as in bun) - or unvoiced (air

is pushed through a narrow part of the mouth – for example, f as in fan, th as in thin)

Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips Vowel sounds are articulated as single sounds They can be short (for

example, æ as in cat) or long (ɑ: as in cart) Diphthongs are two vowel sounds put together (for example, eɪ as in Kate or as in boy)

Suprasegmental features relate to sounds at the macro level Linking, intonation and stress are important features for effective pronunciation at the suprasegmental level Linking refers to the way the last sound of one word is joined to the first sound of the next word To produce connected speech, words are run together to link consonant to vowel, consonant to consonant, and vowel to vowel Some sounds are also shortened and others are left out altogether

Word stress relates to the greater prominence or loudness given to a particular syllable in

a word For example: conDItion, JOYful (The syllables indicated in capitals are stressed ones)

Sentence stress relates to the prominence given to certain words in an utterance These focus words are stressed (made long and loud) to convey the overall rhythm of the utterance and the most meaningful part of the utterance At the meaning level, some words are given more prominence than others to foreground which meaning is important For example, compare:

Can YOU take the scissors? (not someone else)

Can you take the SCISSORS? (not the knife)

Intonation can be thought of as the melody of the language – the way the voice goes up and down according to the context and meanings of the communication For example, note the differences in:

Can you take the scissors? (rising pitch) – request

Can you take the scissors (falling pitch) – command

It is worthy to say that intonation is a key component of pronunciation It is an important factor to get speaker to express s/he thought easily and listener to interpret speech accurately Improper intonation is likely to be causing a breakdown in communication In this study, the researcher just focuses on intonation teaching instead of all pronunciation elements

2.2 Intonation in the English language

2.2.1 Definition of intonation

Intonation is defined in different ways by other linguists Intonation has been characterized

as “the rising and falling of the voice to various pitch levels during the articulation of an utterance” (Celce-Murcia, et al., 1996:184) or, more simply, “the pitch pattern in a sentence” (Ladefoged, 2006:23) To a certain extent sharing the same content with the above definitions, Kelly (2000:86) indicates that “the term intonation refers to the way the voice goes up and down in pitch when we are speaking.”

From the words of those linguists, it is clear to see that pitch is the common thread running through most descriptions Intonation, then, can be narrowly described as “the movements

or variations in pitch to which we are attached familiar labels describing levels (e.g low) and tones (e.g falling-rising), etc.” (Higuchi, 2002:1) Or it can be broadly defined as

high-“systematic variations in pitch level, pitch movement and prominence.” (Higuchi, 2002:1) The terms "intonation" and "pitch" are often used interchangeably when talking about the

"highness" or "lowness" of our voice when we speak The difference between the terms is not very significant; in short, intonation is the use of pitch and it is a broader term than pitch Being able to perceive pitch (the highness of lowness of voice) leads to the use of correct intonation

For purposes of this paper, the definition of intonation in Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992:190) will be adopted

“when speaking, people generally raise and lower the pitch of their voice, forming pitch patterns They also give some syllables in their utterance a greater degree of loudness and change their speech rhythm These phenomena are called intonation Intonation does not happen at random but has definite patterns which can be analyzed according to their structure and functions Intonation is used to carry information over and above that which is expressed by the word in the sentence.”

Obliviously, intonation cannot be defined in separation from pitch variation, stress and speech rhythm In other words, they are key elements forming three systems of English intonation namely tone, tonicity, and tonality Furthermore, it can be seen from the definition that English intonation has its own structure and functions The discussion of system, structure, and function of English intonation will be made in the following parts of the research

2.2.2 System of intonation

English intonation comprises “three separated, though related, systems: tonality (intonation units), tonicity (the tone syllables) and the tone (pitch movements) (Tech, 1996:73)

2.2.2.1 Tonality

According to Tench (2006:6) “the discourse – any discourse – will be segmented into a sequence of units of information (unless there is only one unit) This segmentation is called tonality” Spoken discourse may consist of a whole text, a sentence, one word or even only one syllable Furthermore, Tech points out that tonality holds a unit of information The information is ‘encoded’ in units of grammar Clause is the most obvious unit of grammar so a unit of intonation coincides with a whole clause or a significant element of clause structure Clause is designed to convey a typical piece of information Subject and predicates are two main components of clauses and predicates have verbs which are either followed by a complement or a direct object and possibly an indirect object or even by no kind of object at all The design of any clause represents our

perception of a happening or situation- one piece of information Clause is pronounced as

a single unit of intonation

2.2.2.2 Tonicity

Tonicity is the location of the most prominent word (or even syllable) in each intonation unit and causes a significant movement of pitch The most prominent word/syllable is called the tonic (or “nucleus”) and it usually occurs as the final lexical item in the intonation unit (Tech, 2006) System of tonicity is the range of choices in the position that the tonic syllable can have in a given intonation units Tonicity or tonic syllable is the focal point of intonation, the heart of an intonation unit, so it is the tonic syllable that is the compulsory part of each intonation unit The tonic syllable plays a very important role in the utterance because when the speakers put the prominence on any particular syllable, the hearers can percept what new information is “Its function is to indicate what is new and what is not new information in each intonation unit is.” (Tech, 2006:7)

2.2.2.3 Tone

The third system in the organization of information is tone The term ‘tone’ refers to the pitch movement that begins in the tonic syllable Tone handles the matters: primary and secondary information, ‘dependent’ information and implied and highlighted information Roach (1983:113) identifies tone as “a unit of speech bounded by pauses has movement,

of music and rhythm, associated with the pitch of voice” This certain pattern of voice

movement is called “tone” A tone is a certain pattern, not an arbitrary one, because it is

meaningful in discourse By means of tones, speakers signal whether to refer, proclaim, agree, disagree, question or hesitate, or indicate completion and continuation of turn-taking, in speech

Each linguist has their own classifications of English tones Crystal (1969) and Ladefoged (1982) identify four basic tones (fall, rise-fall, rise, and fail-rise) while O'Connor and Arnold (1973) distinguish only two (rise and fall) In the context of this study, five tones identified by Roach (1983) are chosen to teach for the students

Fall ( )

A falling tone is by far the most common used tone of all A speaker, by choosing a falling tone, also indicates to the addressee that that is all he has to say, and offers a chance (turn-taking) to the addressee to comment on, agree or disagree with, or add to his utterance However, it is up to the addressee to do either of these Overall, the fall could be said to give an impression of “finality”

For example, if someone ask a question and replies “ yes” or “no” with the fall tone, it will

be understood that question is now answered and there is nothing more to be said

A falling tone may be used in referring expressions E.g: I love your SMILE

Questions that begin with wh-questions are generally pronounced with a falling tone E.g: Whose is this DICtionay?

Imperative statements often have a falling tone E.g: Come and see a DOCtor

Requests or orders have a falling tone too E.g: Please come IN

Exclamations: E.g: Watch OUT!

Yes/No questions and tag questions seeking or expecting confirmation can be uttered with

a falling tone And the response to it may be lengthened Consider the following example:

A: You saw it, DIDN'T you?

B: Yes

In a Yes/No question structure, if the speaker uses a falling tone, we assume that he already knows the answer, or at least he is sure that he knows, and the purpose of asking the question, as far as the speaker is concerned, is to put the answer on record In the following exchange, the speaker is sure to get a 'Yes' answer from the addressee:

A: Have you HEARD that?

B: Yes

Rise ( )

This tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow For example, a typical occurrence in a dialogue between two speakers A and B might be the following:

A (wish to attract B’s attention): Excuse me

B: Yes (B’s reply is perhaps, equivalent to “what do you want?”)

The rising tone is often used in genuine 'Yes/No' questions where the speaker does not know the answer, and he is sure that the addressee knows the answer For instance, consider the following question uttered with a rising tone, the answer of which could be either of the three options:

A: Are you MArried?

B: Yes

Fall-rise ( )

The fall-rise is used a lot in English and has some rather special functions Two fairly simple ones considered in this context are the description of “limited agreement” or response with reservations” For example:

A: I’ve heard that it’s a good school

B: Yes

B’s reply would be taken to mean that he would not completely agree with what A said, and A would probably expect B to go on to explain why he was reluctant to agree Similarly:

A: It’s not really an expensive record, is it?

B: No

The fall-rise in B’s reply again indicates that he would not completely agree with A rise in such contexts almost always indicates both something “given” or “conceded” and at the same time some “reservation” or “hesitation”

Fall-Rise- fall ( )

This is used to convey rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise It is not

usually considered to be a useful tone for foreign learners to acquire, though it is still

useful practice to learn to distinguish it from other tones Here is example:

A: Isn’t the view lovely!

B: Yes

A: I think you said it was the best so far

B: Yes

The rise-fall in the first B’s reply may convey the strong surprise with A’s statement The

rise-fall in B’s reply again indicates that he strongly agree with A

Level ( ̲ ) This tone is certainly used in English, but in rather restricted context: is almost always

conveys (on single- syllable utterances) a feeling of saying something routine,

uninteresting or boring For example: a teacher calling the name of pupils from a register

will often do so using a level tone on each name, and the pupils would be likely responds

with _yes when their name was called

2.2.3 Tone unit

According to Roach (2010), 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 may consist of one syllable, for example utterance “cat” A tone unit may consist of

more than one syllable For instance “this is a cat” is a three syllable utterance in which the

fourth syllable is more prominent than the other three and carries a falling tone The other

three syllables will normally be much less prominent, and be said on a level pitch The

fourth syllable carries a tone, is called a tonic syllable In other words, tonic syllable is an

obligatory component of tone unit The center of the unit, around which everything else is

constructed, is the tonic syllable or nucleus Tonic syllable carries a high degree of

prominence which is a property of stressed syllables Thus, we will say that a tonic

syllable not only carries a tone but also a type of stress that will be called tonic stress

In the view of Roach (2010), besides tonic syllable, tone unit comprises of pre head, head, and tail as follows:

(Prehead) (Head) Nucleus/Tonic (Tail)

(Pretonic/Prenuclear part) Tonic/Nuclear part

Tone Unit

The head (H)

A head is all that part of a tone-unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable (TS) Thus, if there is no stressed syllable before the tonic syllable, there cannot be a head For example: Give me those

2.2.4.1 The attitudinal function of intonation

Many writers expressed the view that intonation is used to convey our feeling and attitudes, for example, the same sentence can be said in different ways, which may be labeled “angry”, “happy”, “grateful”, “bored” and so on Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitude as we speak, and this adds a special kind of “meaning” to spoken language This is often called the attitudinal function of intonation

2.2.4.2 The accentual function of intonation

Intonation help 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 world to which it belongs as the most important in the tone-unit This has been called the accentual function of intonation

The term accentual is derived from “accent”, a word used by some writers to refer to what

in this course is called “stress” When writers say that intonation has accentual function they imply that the placement of stress is something that is determined by intonation 2.2.4.3 The grammatical function of intonation

The listener is better able to recognise the grammar and syntactic structure of what is being said by using the information contained in the intonation: for example such things 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 This has been called the grammatical function of intonation The word “grammatical” tends to

be used in a very loose sense in this context It is usual to illustrate the grammatical function by inventing sentences which when written are ambiguous, and whose ambiguity can only be removed by using differences of intonation

2.2.4.4 Discourse function

Looking at the act of speaking in a broader way, we can see that 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 Such functions are examples of intonation’s discourse function

2.2.5 The importance of intonation

In order to be more authentic and sound like a native speaker of English, it is important that an EFL learner should learn how to use intonation In today’s world, English is the most widely spoken language and it is gaining more and more importance every other day because of the technological developments and diplomatic reasons It is also beneficial for EFL learners to be familiar with intonation in that, knowing about usage of intonation in English makes it easier to understand a communication between native speakers of English For example, when watching a movie, it helps us understand the situation even though we are not sure about the meaning of some words used by the actors

O’ Connor (1980) believes that intonation plays an important part in languages In English, with different intonation, we can say a word group definitely, hesitantly, angrily or kindly, with interest or without interest Although the words do not change their meaning, they are added the speaker’s feelings by intonation we use Kelly (2000:56) considers intonation as

a “fundamental part of the way we express our own thoughts” and it enables us to understand those of others.” To some extent agreeing with Kelly, Bradford (1988:2) claims intonation is a “feature of spoken language It consists of the continuous changing

of the pitch of a speaker’s voice to express meanings” People can mean different things

by using the same group of words, arranged in the same order, by saying them in different ways A speaker is able to make a group of words mean what he/she wants it to by choosing the right intonation Without intonation, it’s impossible to understand the expressions and thoughts that go with words

In short, so as for negotiation of meaning be present in a communication, being understood

by an English speaker is as important as understanding him/her This makes another reason showing that, apart from grammar and vocabulary, intonation is among the crucial things to be learned by EFL learners

2.3 Approaches to teach pronunciation

2.3.1 Bottom-up and top-down approaches

To have a look at the various approaches to pronunciation teaching, the “bottom-up approach” begins with the articulation of individual sounds or phonemes and works up towards stress, rhythm, tone and intonation On the other hand, the “top-down approach” starts with patterns of intonation and brings separate sounds or phonemes into sharper focus as and when required According to Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994), the former is based on the idea that if the segmentals are taught first, the suprasegmentals will subsequently be acquired without the need of formal instruction whereas the latter rests on the assumption that once the suprasegmentals features are in place, the necessary segmental discriminations will follow accordingly If pronunciation teaching is to be strongly integrated with the rest of language teaching, then a top-down approach is often useful, because teachers can start with whole chunks of language and work with these However, a bottom-up approach is also helpful, particularly where a certain sound or sound combinations need dedicated practice

2.3.2 Intuitive-imitative and analytic-linguistic approaches

The field of modern language teaching has developed two general approaches to the teaching of pronunciation namely an intuitive- imitative approach and analytic- linguistic approach An intuitive- imitative approach depends on the learner’s ability to listen and imitate the rhythms and sounds of the target language without the intervention of any explicit information; it also presupposes the availability of good models to listen to, a possibility that has been enhanced by the ability first of phonograph records, the of tape recorders and language labs in the mid- twentieth century, and more recently of audio- and videocassettes and compact discs An analytic- linguistic approach, on the other hand, utilizes information and tools such as phonetic alphabet, articulatory description, charts of the vocal apparatus, contrastive information, and other aids to supplement listening, imitation and production It explicitly informs the learner of and focuses attention on the sounds and rhythms of the target language This approach was developed to complement

rather than to replace the intuitive- imitative approach, which was typically retained as the practice phase used in tandem with the phonetic information

2.3.3 Integrated approach

According to Watts & Huensch (2013), the integrated approach was adopted for several decades This movement began to take shape in the 1980s with language teaching practitioners and researchers advocating for the linking of pronunciation practice with listening instruction (Gilbert, 1987) and with broader and more communicative speaking activities (Acton, 1984) According to Chela Flores (2001:88), it is very important to apply

an integrated approach in pronunciation teaching because “the integration of pronunciation into other language activities from the beginning stages of learning and throughout a complete program would allow the learner to reach stage of phonological development suggested as necessary to achieve results from pronunciation training” Pennington & Richard (1986) consider pronunciation as an important part of the interactional dynamics

of the communication process According to this view, it is artificial to divorce pronunciation from communication and from other aspects of language use, for sounds are

a fundamental part of the process by which we communicate and comprehend lexical, grammatical, and sociolinguistic meaning Murphy (1991:60) to some extent shares the opinion with Pennington & Richard’s (1986), he says that pronunciation instruction “needs

to be integrated with broader level communicative activities which speaker and listener engage in… meaningful communication”

To sum up, the researchers were familiar with the integrated approach several decades ago Most of them took advantages of this approach to integrate pronunciation into listening and speaking skills development

2.3.4 Integrating teaching intonation into listening

As mentioned above, many researchers have shown their concerns about teaching intonation by integrating it into listening lessons Some studies and articles related to this integrated approach will be reviewed in this section

As Muniem (2015) suggests, the best way to improve intonation is simply to become more aware of it He recommends ESL learners to listen carefully a recorded conversation and notice how other speakers use intonation to express themselves In addition, learners can record their own voices while they are making a dialogue with friends Then, they can listen their intonations to consider if the intonations are natural or express their attitudes in the way they hoped The recordings should be listened again and again or learners can even make a new version Recordings are an excellent way to keep a track of learners’ progress They clearly show how learners have improved over time

As Tech (2005) states, the basic technique in all pronunciation practice is imitation, listening to and repeating a model as accurately and fluently as possible The model is either the teacher or a recording Imitation provides a model and a target form for the learner to aim at It helps to build up confidence as a preparation for independent talk He suggests some exercises and techniques to improve intonation In this part, only techniques and exercises related to listening are reviewed He recommends students to listen to a recording and prompt the question “Why did they say it like that?” This kind of analysis is often called ‘noticing’ Explanations of the choices available to the speaker might be appropriate in certain learning environments A similar technique is prediction Given a particular context, a learner listens to one turn and then is expected to predict the tone in the next turn of a (printed) dialogue The other technique is matching Learner has to match what they hear to a written form or to an appropriate context or response Matching exercises develop a degree of independence once imitation has developed a degree of competence

According to Dang (2011), in order to integrate of pronunciation exercises into listening lessons, she carried out a treatment of three stages: recognition, practice and production In the first stage, teacher plays a recording of a dialogue Students repeated dialogues a line at

a time (chorally and individually) They marked the word stress an intonation on the sentences Then, teacher played the tape line by line and marked major features of stress and intonation according to students’ answer Students followed and wrote down their answers in the second part In the second stage, students practiced the dialogues among

group members and individual Teacher called some pairs to present the conversation In the third stage, teacher gave some other similar words and sentences and asked students to pronounce with correct stress and intonation Teacher listened and examined how they could apply what they had learnt in new sentences and conversations

In a nutshell, although each author has their own method to integrate intonation into listening, they share the view that imitation is the basic technique for learning intonation 2.4 Summary

The theoretical part provides a theoretical background and rationale connected with the topic of the study To start with, the importance of pronunciation is affirmed by a lot of linguistics who share the viewpoint that pronunciation plays an important part in second language teaching and learning Furthermore, they also claim that mispronunciation may lead to misunderstanding or communication breakdown Since pronunciation comprises a variety of elements, only intonation is concentrated in this study because of its significance

in communication Thus, the intonation features such as its definition, system and importance are made clear More important, the pronunciation as well as intonation teaching approaches, especially an integrated approach are reviewed Obviously, the integrated approach was discussed for several decades and most of researchers agreed that

it was necessary to integrate pronunciation with a broader level communicative activities Last but not least, the previous studies related to intonation teaching by integrating into listening are described in detail Almost authors agree that imitation is the basic technique for teaching intonation In the next chapter, the methodology of the study will be made clear

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 The context of the study

The study was conducted at a class of 45 first-years technology-major students at HaUI whose English competence is of mixed levels The classroom is equipped with multimedia facilities such as projector, loudspeaker and microphone The English course for non-English major first year students last for 90 sections including 32 sections for theory, 55 for practice and 3 for examination The text book used is New Headway Elementary- the third edition by Liz and John Soars (2006) The aims of this course are to improve students’ communicative competence After the course, students are expected to apply some basic grammatical rules to talk about their personal information, experiences, future plans, etc In addition, students are expected to be able to listen for gist, detailed information and missing words About writing skill, students are required to write some short paragraphs of description, comparison, storytelling, email, etc Furthermore, reading for general ideas and detailed ideas are the requirements of this skill Although the grammatical rules and vocabularies supplied in the text book is quite familiar with what students learned at secondary and upper secondary schools, it’s still problematic for them

to apply this knowledge into communication

3.2 Subjects

The subjects of this study are 45 students whose major is mechanical engineering Their ages range from 18 to 20 and most of them come from rural areas where English is not considered an important subject Most of these students studied English at high school in traditional approaches which focus on grammar, vocabulary and reading Therefore, their communicative competence, especially speaking skill is limited In other words, they hardly pay attention to pronunciation elements when speaking A large number of them even do not understand what intonation is and how to use it Thus, teaching them with the primary knowledge of intonation is necessary Fortunately, many students are aware of the importance of English for their future job They regard English as essential communicative means and pay much attention to this subject It means that they are quite motivated in learning English for communication Speaking English with proper intonation is one of their goals

3.3 The action research project

3.3.1 Action research

When thinking of an appropriate methodology, the researcher who is a teacher, found out that action research is the best choice for the purpose of improving the students’ pronunciation

Looking at the nature of action research, O’Brien (2001) asserts that action research is truly understood as “learning by doing” He explains that when a group of people encounter a problem; they do something to resolve it; they then see how successful their efforts are and if they are not satisfied with the result they can try it again O’Brien’s view (2001) is shared by Dick (2002) when he states that “action research is a natural way of acting and researching at the same time” To make it clearer, Dick affirms that action research is a true reflection of its names as it is intended to achieve both action and research at the same time In education setting, Glickman (1992) says that action research

is a study conducted by teacher researchers to improve problems in their classrooms In

other words, action research allows teachers to study their own classrooms in order to better understand them and to be able to improve their quality or effectiveness

Many scholars have attempted to characterize action research including Borgia and Schuler (1996) They describe components of action research as the “Five C’s” namely commitment, collaboration, concern, consideration, change Slightly different, Creswell (2005) proposes six key characteristics of action research as: a practical focus, the educator-researcher’s own practices, collaboration, a dynamic process, a plan of action and; and sharing research Creswell asserts that understanding the above characteristics will help teacher better design their own study to read, evaluate and use an action research study published in literature

Steps in action research vary from different points of view as Creswell (2005) asserts that action research is a dynamic, flexible process so it is really impossible to assert this or that researcher is right with exact four, five, six, seven or eight steps in their action research Sometimes, it is hard to define a clear cut between the steps and the number of steps in action research may vary depending on different points of view held by researchers According to Mills (2011), the basic process of conducting action research consists of four steps including identifying an area of focus, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting the data and developing a plan of action In this study, the model chosen to be implemented is identified by Susman (1983):