Problems in teaching intonation to english majors at USSH HCM

LIST OF TABLES Chapter 1 Table 1.1 How English intonation is treated in Ship or Sheep Table 1.2 How English intonation is treated in English Pronunciation in Use Chapter 2 Table 2.1

Ho Chi Minh City, September 29, 2012

Hoang Thi Nhat Tam

I owe earnest thankfulness to all my teachers in the course who provided me with knowledge as well as inspiration in teaching and doing research

My special thanks also go to Ms Nguyen Nha Tran for providing me with the materials that I was unable to access in Vietnam Especially, she was really patient to give me precious advice at the beginning of my writing-the-thesis period In addition,

I would like to send my thanks to Ms Pham Ngoc Kim Tuyen who nicely listened to

my very first ideas and gave me great advice

I would like to thank all of the eight teachers who spent their precious time doing my questionnaire Especially, they did share with me a lot of wonderful teaching experiences and I could learn a lot of great things from observing their class which I could never get from books

This thesis would not have been possible without the sincere encouragement from my colleagues, my classmates and the enthusiastic help of the kind librarians in ERC Last but not least, I am truly indebt to my beloved family who always stand by me Without their love and sacrifice, I could never be today‟s ME

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Hoang Thi Nhat Tam, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‟s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction

of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, September 29 2012

Hoang Thi Nhat Tam

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS iii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES x

ABBREVIATIONS xi

ABSTRACT xii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the research 1

1.2 Background to the study 8

1.3 Aim of the study 10

1.4 Research questions of the study 10

1.5 Limitation of the study 11

1.6 Significance of the study 11

1.7 Organization of the study 12

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 13

2.1 Teachers‟ knowledge of subject matter 13

2.2 English intonation 18

2.2.1 Definition of English Intonation 18

2.2.2 Functions of English intonation 19

2.2.3 The significant role of intonation in communication between a native speaker and a non-native speaker 21

2.3 Teaching english intonation 30

2.3.1 The necessity of teaching English intonation appropriately to Vietnamese learners 30

2.3.2 Views of priorities in teaching intonation: Segmentals or suprasegmentals or combination 31

2.3.3 Three common approaches to teaching English intonation 32

2.3.4 Meanings of tones in English 35

2.3.5 Some illustrated practice activities 36

2.4 Previous studies on teaching and learning english pronunciation 38

2.5 The conceptual framework of the study 41

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 43

3.1 Research questions of the study 43

3.2 Research design 43

3.2.1 Pilot survey 44

3.2.2 Main survey 45

3.2.2.2 Participants 46

3.2.2.3 Instruments 46

3.2.2.4 Data collection procedures 53

3.2.2.5 Data analysis procedures 55

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 56

4.1 Results 56

4.1.1 Class observation 56

4.1.2 Questionnaire 59

4.2 Discussions and findings 67

4.2.1 Discussions 67

4.2.2 Findings 78

4.2.3 Discussion of findings 80

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 83

5.1 Conclusion 83

5.2 Recommendations 84

5.2.1 A dynamic career development program for pronunciation teachers at EF 87

5.2.2 Summary 90

5.3 Contributions of the study 91

5.4 Further research 91

BIBLIOGRAPHY 93

APPENDIX 1a Program of English Linguistics and Literature 101

APPENDIX 1b Syllabus of Introduction to English Linguistics 106

APPENDIX 2 Pronunciation syllabus (in Vietnamese) 111

APPENDIX 3 How intonation is treated in the two main coursebooks 117

APPENDIX 4 Meanings of tones 120

APPENDIX 6 Questionnaire 131

APPENDIX 7a Class observation checklist 1 145

APPENDIX 7b Classroom observation checklist 1 146

APPENDIX 7c Classroom observation checklist 1 147

APPENDIX 7d Classroom observation checklist 1 148

APPENDIX 8 Classroom observation checklist 2 149

APPENDIX 9 Classroom observation checklist 3 150

APPENDIX 10 Teaching routine 152

APPENDIX 11a Results from class observation checklist 1 153

APPENDIX 11b Results from class observation checklist 1 154

APPENDIX 11c Results from class observation checklist 1 155

APPENDIX 11d Results from class observation checklist 1 156

APPENDIX 12 Results from classroom observation checklist 2 157

APPENDIX 13 Teaching routine teacher 1 158

APPENDIX 14 Teaching routine teacher 2 159

APPENDIX 15 Teaching routine teacher 3 160

APPENDIX 16 Teaching routine teacher 4 161

APPENDIX 17 Teaching routine teacher 5 162

APPENDIX 18 Teaching routine teacher 6 163

APPENDIX 19 Teaching routine teacher 7 164

APPENDIX 20 Teaching routine teacher 8 165

APPENDIX 21 Results from questionnaire teacher 1 166

APPENDIX 22 Results from questionnaire teacher 2 167

APPENDIX 23 Results from questionnaire teacher 3 168

APPENDIX 24 Results from questionnaire teacher 4 169

APPENDIX 25 Results from questionnaire teacher 5 170

APPENDIX 26 Results from questionnaire teacher 6 170APPENDIX 27 Results from questionnaire teacher 7 171APPENDIX 28 Results from questionnaire teacher 8 172APPENDIX 29 Table 4.15 the number of right and wrong answers the teachers got from the test part 174APPENDIX 30 Table 4.16 The number of right answers the teachers got from the test part by guessing 175

LIST OF TABLES

Chapter 1

Table 1.1 How English intonation is treated in Ship or Sheep

Table 1.2 How English intonation is treated in English Pronunciation in Use

Chapter 2

Table 2.1 Meanings of tones in the 25 cases introduced in the two main coursebooks

Chapter 3

Table 3.1 Study setting

Table 3.2 Total number of class observation meetings

Table 3.3 Class observation plan

Table 3.4 Plan of distributing questionnaire

Table 3.5 How often the teacher taught the intonation patterns introduced in the two coursebooks?

Table 3.6 How often the teacher taught the intonation patterns introduced in the two coursebooks?

Table 3.7 How often the teacher taught the intonation patterns introduced in the two coursebooks?

Table 3.8 How often the teacher taught the intonation patterns introduced in the two coursebooks?

Table 3.9 How often the teacher explained to his/ her students why they should learn intonation?

Table 4.3 How often the teacher taught the intonation patterns introduced in the two coursebooks?

Table 4.4 How often the teacher taught the intonation patterns introduced in the two coursebooks?

Table 4.5 How often did the teacher explain to his/ her students why they should learn intonation?

Table 4.6 How often did the teachers teach the tones introduced in the two

coursebooks in their classroom?

Table 4.7 How often did the teachers explain the reason why their students should learn English intonation?

Table 4.8 Teachers‟ knowledge of the definition of English intonation

Table 4.9 Teachers‟ belief in the role of intonation in communication

Table 4.10 Teachers‟ explanation about the important role of intonation is in

Table 4.14 Which approach(es?) did the teachers often use in classroom?

Table 4.15 The number of right and wrong answers the teachers got from the test part Table 4.16 The number of right answers the teachers got from the test part by

guessing

Table 4.17 Teachers‟ knowledge of tones in the 25 cases in the two textbook

Table 4.18 Teachers‟ knowledge of tones in the 25 cases in the two textbook

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Model of teacher knowledge

Figure 5.2a Teacher professional development

Figure 5.2b Dynamic career development program

ABBREVIATIONS

EF: Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature

USSH: The University of Social Sciences and Humanities

ABSTRACT

English intonation occupies a fundamental role in intelligibility between interlocutors

in communication More than that, it could create, maintain and strengthen their relationships One key problem arising from the researcher‟s general investigation of the curriculum, the syllabus, two main course books of the pronunciation course, and pronunciation teachers at EF was that the teachers seemingly lacked knowledge of English intonation Therefore, the thesis aimed at investigating to what extent the eight teachers of pronunciation courses at the Faculty understood English intonation

by yielding an insight into their knowledge of this prosodic feature

Four main aspects of English intonation were taken into consideration in the survey conducted on the eight teachers (four teachers in 2010 and four in 2011): (1) its definition, (2) fundamental role, (3) the three common approaches to teaching English intonation, (4) meanings of tones in the 25 cases introduced in the two course books The main research instruments were questionnaire and classroom observation

The findings revealed that the eight teachers lacked knowledge of English intonation

in terms of the four aspects mentioned above, and consequently, intonation was not properly taught as expected That provokes an alarm among teachers and administrators on teacher professional development Given this matter, both of the forces should work together to improve the awkward situation Especially, the administrators are supposed to support their teachers in terms of providing appropriate environments for them to learn more about English intonation Additionally, teachers should start their self-development, co-operative development and formal development as well

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE OF THE RESEARCH

Vietnam is a country in transition whose economy has experienced a very strong growth over the past decade It is a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations - ASEAN (1995) and Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation-APEC (1998), especially the World Trade Organization (WTO) (2007) Being the 150th member of WTO marked a very important milestone in Vietnam – U.S relation: the long process

of reconciliation and normalization Over the past 15 years, the U.S has become Vietnam‟s biggest foreign investor (VBN, 2010; VOV; 2007) American businesses have heavily invested in a variety of fields such as finance, banking and insurance services, hi-tech industries, pharmaceutical chemistry, energy, mechanical engineering, etc In his remarks at the January 11th 2007 Reception, Ambassador Nguyen Tam Chien emphasized:

We will see greater and greater trade and investment between our two countries; growing official contacts between our respective executive and legislative branches; and rapidly diversifying exchanges among our cultural and scientific communities, our militaries, and our citizens Cooperation in health, education, and social welfare and other humanitarian concerns will be strengthened and deepened Bilateral and multilateral cooperation will be

enhanced on a wide range of international issues (Sự kiện Việt Nam gia nhập

WTO và Quan hệ Việt Nam - Hoa Kỳ Bình Thường Hóa Hoàn Toàn, 2007, p.1)

Up to now, there have been many US leading business groups navigating to Vietnam

to search for cooperation between the two countries According to VOV (2007),

Vietnamese government will create the best conditions for U.S businesses to expand their investment so that the U.S would become the number – one foreign investor in Vietnam In 2007, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with representatives of nearly 20 U.S leading business groups including AIG, Citigroup, Bantry Bay, Ventures-Asia, Conoco Philips, Merriill Lynch and Vietnam Partner at separate receptions in New York on September 28th In 2009, another 16 ones visited Vietnam

to look for an effective investment destination In 2011, 14 other businesses met companies to find a franchise partners in the Vietnamese market

This fact means that Vietnamese people are going to communicate in English with those partners The relationship does not stop at making friends (trying to skip mistakes/ errors from their interlocutors so that they are able to be friends), but does move to a much further stage – working together in the same environment for a long time According to Kenworthy (1987) and Wong (1986), the very feature in pronunciation causing the toughest problems in intelligibility between interlocutors in communication is intonation Moreover, many other linguists all agree that intonation plays an extremely important part in communication (Kelly, 2000; McNerney & Mendelsohn, 1992; Schmitt, 2002; Wong, 1986; Kenworthy, 1987) Additionally, According to Wells (2006, p 1) native speakers do not realize that “intonation can be erroneous.”

In a sense, the same words spoken out with different tones convey different meanings For example, answering yes/no questions, we can use either rising or falling tone; however, the listener would understand the response in two ways First, as far as we are concerned, if “yes” or “no” is produced with a going-down tone, it is comprehended that the speaker wants to confirm yes or no Nevertheless, if s/he uses falling – rising tone to say “yes” or “no” to yes/no questions, her/ his interlocutor interprets that this person is not sure about her/his answer or still hesitates about her/his decision (Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000)

Noticeably, if communication frequently happens between these two persons mentioned in the example above, it leads to a fact that the one producing falling – rising tone for “yes” or “no” is thought to be too “wishy – washy” In other words, misunderstanding, at first, might be minor; nonetheless, if it happens repeatedly, then

“they may result in judgments about the attitudes, character, ways of behaving, etc of

a particular speaker” (Kenworthy, 1987, p.p 9 - 10) Obviously, the speaker did not have such a negative attitude, yet his/ her using inappropriate intonation pattern led to this misinterpretation, resulting in the fact that his/her listener does not like or does not feel comfortable In some cases, the wrong use of intonation could offend or hurt listeners; therefore, they will likely avoid communicating with the speaker It is the reason why Wong (1986) ascertains that intonation plays an extremely important part

in “establishment and maintenance of social harmony”

Clearly, apart from other factors making a good and long – term relationship between

a Vietnamese and an American in the together-working environment, intonation definitely holds one of the key roles

However, the fact is that not all university students in Vietnam receive a thorough study of English intonation Only those who major in English experience pronunciation courses in which this very special feature is supposed to be included One of the prestigious universities training English majors in Vietnam is the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City After graduation, these students would contribute a very important part in the workforce: they are supposed to be equipped with a sound knowledge of English, and be able to write, read, speak and listen to English well; especially, they may not be worried about problems caused by the use of wrong or inappropriate intonation patterns in communication

The researcher worked as a teaching assistant (TA) to the fourth – year students1 of Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature (EF) for three years As a TA, she attended all the classes and made observation on how the class activities were taking place During the courses, the students were supposed to make many presentations and participate in pair/ group discussions To the researcher‟s surprise, many of these graduates-to-be spoke English with level/ flat tone or used inappropriate intonation patterns in communication with their classmates As mentioned above, it unavoidably brought about misunderstandings between the interlocutors in this context For example, the listeners likely made a judgment that their interlocutor was so impolite, rude, aggressive, boring, or polite, nice, patience, interesting

Tracing back to the curriculum of EF, we can see that students at EF are supposed to enroll in two courses2 in which intonation content was included (Pronunciation course and Introduction to English Linguistics course) In the first year of the program for English majors, in Pronunciation course the freshmen are instructed how to accurately pronounce English sounds, to produce strong forms and weak forms, to put stress in isolated words and in sentences, to link sounds between words, and to produce speech with appropriate rhythm and intonation In the third year, they take Introduction to English Linguistics course in which intonation is briefly introduced Obviously, the students could have time practicing this prosodic feature in the former course much more than in the latter According to the syllabus for Pronunciation course (see Appendix 2 ), intonation receives as the same weight as the segmental aspect (sounds)

1

In the fourth year, students at EF are supposed to decide their specialized disciplines including (1) teaching English as a foreign language, (2) interpreting and translating skills, and (3) cultural and literary studies The researcher used to be a TA to students specializing at the third

2

There is another course namely Phonetics and Phonology which is supposed to be taken by only the students specializing at teaching English as a foreign language

i.e intonation content mostly appears in units assigned to be taught in every class meeting Especially, in week 12, intonation and rhythm are supposed to be specifically instructed to the students It means that intonation is also taken into consideration in the syllabus

Additionally, given the review of the two textbooks3 chosen as two main coursebooks

in Pronunciation course (see Appendix 3) (which was going to be clearly presented in

background to the study), it can be seen that intonation plays a part as equally

important as other pronunciation aspects, especially sounds – segmental

Evidently, as for the curriculum, the syllabus of Pronunciation course as well as the main course books, there have been no problems causing difficulties in teaching intonation to students because the suprasegmental aspect is taken into account in the three factors mentioned above

Filled with wonder about the problem, on December 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st 2009 she had informal discussions4 with four teachers5 who used to be in charge of pronunciation classes on the matter First, they were asked about their teaching in pronunciation classes They continuously talked about whatever they would like to share without

3 Baker, A (2006) Ship or Sheep – An intermediate course (New Edition)

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Hancock, M (2003) English Pronunciation in Use The United Kingdom:

Cambridge University Press

4

These teachers said that they were not comfortable when their voice was recorded during the discussions; therefore, all information provided by the four teachers was noted on paper only

5

These four teachers would be the subjects in the study They had experience in teaching pronunciation at least one course

any interruption All of them spent much time on discussing how they taught individual sounds during the course For instance, they shared (1) how they instructed the students to pronounce sounds correctly, (2) the activities for students to practice their pronunciation including games and quizzes, (3) common difficulties the students encountered, and (4) their solution Then, after they stopped their sharing, some questions on how to teach suprasegemental aspects in their classroom were asked They started to talk about rhythm and a little bit about intonation They revealed that they spent much time on teaching segmentals first and that if there was some time left

in each class meeting, they would introduce some information about rhythm and intonation Lastly, they were specifically asked how their teaching intonation was in their classrooms Again, they said that they did not spend much time on it Especially, two of them admitted that they actually did not know much about intonation and how

to teach this feature The other agreed with the fact that intonation was important in speaking English; nonetheless, s/he did believe that as communicating in English with good sounds and without much intonation, speakers could obtain success in communication Meanwhile, the last teacher seemed to be really confident of her knowledge of intonation S/he said that it was not hard to learn and teach because it related to attitudes of a speaker, and that she just encouraged them to produce intonation according to their attitudes and moods at the time of speaking For instance, if a student is bored, s/he will speak with a boring tone

The teachers seemingly lacked knowledge of English intonation because given the teachers‟ sharing two things should be taken into account First, according to Shulman (1986) teachers are supposed to both have knowledge of concepts, principles, theories and facts on the subject matter and acquire new knowledge in their field Otherwise, it could bring about serious problems in teaching Second, according to O‟Connor (1986), different languages have different intonations i.e non-native speakers of

English should not impose the intonation of their mother tongue on English, which could cause serious misunderstanding in communication

Moreover, among Master theses conducted at the Faculty, there has been no study on problems in teaching intonation in English-based environment Of course, there are so many factors affecting the success of teaching; nevertheless, no one, in this teaching and learning context, has ever deeply and solely studied on the very important element providing learners with knowledge, guiding them to practice and putting the

knowledge to use – it is teachers According to Allen and Valette (1972), among

many factors making a language course successful, the most significant one is teachers Research shows that a quality teacher is the greatest determinants of student achievement

According to the researcher‟s observation of the fourth – year students‟ production of intonation in their real speaking environment, they spoke English with level/ flat tone and used inappropriate intonation patterns despite its significant role in communication However, it is obvious that they were taught English intonation in the

two courses (Pronunciation and Introduction to English Linguistics).Moreover, there

has, generally speaking, been no problems with the curriculum, syllabus and the content of the two course book at EF in terms of how intonation is treated However, tracing back to the source who provided their students with knowledge and instructed them to practice, their sharing about teaching pronunciation in the informal discussion

seemingly revealed the fact that they lacked knowledge of English intonation

According to Shulman (1986), teachers‟ lack of knowledge of subject matter they are teaching could bring about serious problems Furthermore, there has been no research

on teachers‟ knowledge of subject matter in the context of teaching and learning at

EF All mentioned above captured the researcher‟s curiosity and strongly motivated her to have an understanding of this problem through yielding an insight into the teachers‟ knowledge of English intonation at the Faculty

1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The study was launched at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature (EF) at University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) Pronunciation course is placed

at the very beginning of the curriculum of EF i.e the students are taught pronunciation at the very first semester of the first year

250 students are usually divided into seven classes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) Therefore, every year there are also seven pronunciation classes However, the number of teachers in charge of these classes is varied One teacher could teach more than one class Especially, the teachers in charge of pronunciation classes can be different every year because they can choose the subject(s) they are interested in teaching

The pronunciation course aims at instructing English majors to accurately pronounce English sounds, to produce strong forms and weak forms, to put stress in isolated words and in sentences, to link sounds between words, and to produce speech with appropriate rhythm and intonation In addition, the course proposes to improve the students‟ speaking and listening skill, and also provides with a basic phonological knowledge This course consists of 60 periods The students are supposed to attend

one five – period class meeting each week in 12 weeks (see Appendix 2)

Two text books are considered to be core materials during the pronunciation course:

Ship or Sheep6 and Pronunciation in Use 7 The following part presents how intonation

6 Baker, A (2006) Ship or Sheep – An intermediate course (New Edition)

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

7

Hancock, M (2003) English Pronunciation in Use The United Kingdom:

Cambridge University Press.

is treated in the whole pronunciation system (compared with other aspects) of the two books

50 units in the first textbook, Ship or Sheep, consists of two sections: Section A

(vowels) and Section B (consonants) In every lesson, after instructing learners the target sound, Baker (2006) inserted explicitly teaching word stress, sentence stress, then intonation in dialogues to learners Given word stress and sentence stress, Baker used two symbols – small and big circles – to draw learners‟ as well as teachers‟ attention to the necessity of teaching and learning them In addition, not only is intonation deliberately put in a separate part to teach, it is also explained clearly and briefly how to use intonation patterns Baker (2006) helps, moreover, learners easily understand intonation by symbols of rising and falling arrows

Next, there are 60 units including four sections (A, B, C and D) in Pronunciation in Use Section A looks at individual sounds Section B is about joining sounds to make

words and sentences Section C focuses on pronunciation in conversations (discourse organization, prominence and tone) Section D contains other reference parts (introduction to phonemic symbols, pronunciation test, and guide for speakers for specific languages, sound pairs, sentence stress phrasebook, and glossary) However, the order recommended in the textbook to follow is that teachers/ learners start with a unit in Section A, then a unit in Section B, then a unit in Section C, then another unit from Section A, and so on

Specifically, as for how intonation is treated in the two main course books (see Appendix 3) it can be seen that intonation plays a part as equally important as other pronunciation aspects, especially sounds – segmental The first book explicitly merges intonation with other aspects in all units Especially, basic intonation patterns are repeatedly taught in the units, which is to help learners easily approach and remember the tones for long The second one devotes a whole big section (C) on the

suprasegmental feature – intonation More noticeably, this aspect is suggested to be taught in combination with sounds during the course Regarding approaches to teaching intonation, the two course books combine three common approaches (grammatical approach, attitudinal approach, discourse approach) together i.e meanings of tones are presented and explained according to the approaches in a very simple way

1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY

The topic of the thesis is about “Problems in teaching English intonation to English majors at University of Social Sciences and Humanities”; however, there are, certainly, many factors causing difficulties in teaching this suprasegmental feature to students such as curriculum, syllabus, textbooks, and teachers However, it can be seen that there has been no problem with the first three aspects because intonation is definitely given a clear focus in them; meanwhile, owing to the informal discussion with the four teachers, the lack of knowledge of English intonation was seemingly a key problem in teaching intonation to English majors at EF

According Shulman (1986), teachers‟ lack of knowledge of subject matter is undoubtedly one of the greatest problems in teaching Therefore, in the scope of this study, the researcher focused on investigating to what extent the teachers of pronunciation courses at the Faculty understood English intonation by yielding an insight into their knowledge of this prosodic pronunciation feature

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY

“Those who can, do Those who understand, teach.” (Shulman, 1986, p.14)

In a sense, a teacher is supposed to have an understanding of the subject s/he is teaching Therefore, to achieve the aim established above, the research was guided by the following research question:

To what extent do the eight teachers of pronunciation courses at EF understand English intonation?

1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

First, in terms of the numbers of subjects participating in the study, the researcher could not enlarge it because of the very objective reason: there were only eight teachers in charge of 14 pronunciation classes in 2010 and 2011 However, the study aimed at having an insight into the eight teachers‟ knowledge of English intonation In

a sense, each teacher‟s knowledge of this prosodic feature was sharply and critically looked at

Second, intonation is a feature necessary to be taken into great consideration in not only pronunciation course but also other speaking and listening courses since it is the very factor determining the comprehensibility in interlocutors during communication However, this study was limited to only pronunciation course Especially, the researcher stopped at checking their knowledge of meanings of tones in the 25 cases One of the very important factors determining effective teaching is how well teachers could produce intonation in their speech A teacher could know very well approaches

to teaching intonation and meanings of tones; nonetheless, we could not be sure that s/he could really possess right and good intonation in their voice Additionally, apart from teachers‟ knowledge of the subject matter, a lot of sources causing problems in teaching intonation deserve to be taken into consideration such as learners, facilities, etc Lastly, this study focused on having an insight into only one category of teachers‟ knowledge; the other three (general pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of context) are suggested to be under investigation

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

There has been no research on having an insight into teachers‟ knowledge of subject matter in general and of English intonation in particular at the Faculty Though several studies at the Faculty indirectly mentioned this sensitive issue, none of them

has gone into this matter deeply The study did put the very first step on investigating

to what extent the pronunciation teachers at the Faculty had knowledge of English intonation The study is hopefully to reveal some insights into the teachers‟ knowledge of this suprasegmental aspect

1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the study by stating its rationale, study context, aim, research question, significance, and organization

Chapter 2 is the literature review, presenting theoretical background, previous studies

in this teaching and learning context and the conceptual framework

Chapter 3 describes the methodology of the study including research questions, and research design

Chapter 4 provides a presentation of (1) the data collected from questionnaires and class observation, (2) discussion of data, (3) findings in relation to the aim of the study, (4) a discussion of findings

Chapter 5 presents (1) conclusion, (2) recommendations, (3) contributions of the study and (4) further research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of four main parts: (1) teachers‟ knowledge of subject matter, (2) theories on English intonation, (3) previous studies, (4) conceptual framework for the study The first section shapes the direction of the study: as presented in the

previous chapter, among many factors affecting success of teaching, teachers‟ knowledge is considered to be the most important one; therefore, in this thesis, the researcher just would like to yield an insight into teachers‟ knowledge of subject matter The next part presents theories on the subject matter – English intonation

including its definition, fundamental role in communication, the three common approaches in teaching English intonation, and the meanings of tones Thirdly, previous studies on pronunciation launched at the Faculty are reviewed Lastly, the conceptual framework of the study is clearly established

2.1 TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF SUBJECT MATTER

With respect to “teachers”, there are many aspects to discover such as technical knowledge, pedagogical skills, interpersonal skills, personal qualities (Brown, 2001,

p.430) Harmer (2007) devotes a whole chapter to discuss teachers Many aspects

should be looked at including teachers‟ personality, adaptability, roles, and rapport between the teacher and the class (as a result of recognizing students, listening to students, and respecting students, and treating all students equally), and teachers‟ preparation, record keeping and reliability, and teachers‟ skill (managing classes, matching tasks and groups, providing variety in lessons and offer student clear learning outcomes), and teachers‟ knowledge of language system, materials and resources, classroom equipment and the latest developments in the field

According to Johnson (1999), teachers‟ knowledge consists of a combination of experiential and professional knowledge, i.e it comes from the inside out First, the

experiential knowledge accumulated from real-world experiences was internal to teachers because it shapes “who we are and how we perceive and respond to the world around us”; in other words “the experiences that model the educational thinking

of teachers” Lortie (1975) calls this kind of knowledge “apprenticeship of observation” including experiences as students and memories of their own teachers‟ teaching strategies Second, teachers‟ knowledge from the outside is professional knowledge consisting of four areas: (1) subject matter knowledge; (2) general pedagogical knowledge; (3) pedagogical content knowledge; (4) knowledge of context In a sense, teachers are supposed to possess knowledge of (1) theories on the subject area that they are teaching and (2) specific strategies, skills, teaching methodologies used to help students understand the language, (3) how to present knowledge of certain subjects to students by using skills, techniques and strategies in the second kind of knowledge, (4) how to adapt the knowledge in the third into a specific teaching and learning environment These four areas really impact on what and how teachers teach

From the same point of view, Grossman (as cited in Auseon, 1995, p.55) proposes four categories of professional knowledge for teaching which are demonstrated

clearly in the following figure:

Figure 2.1 Model of teacher knowledge According to Shulman (1986), he simply suggests three categories of content knowledge including (1) subject matter content knowledge, (2) pedagogical content knowledge, and (3) curricular knowledge

Given the first one, he believes that “To think properly about content knowledge requires going beyond knowledge of the facts or concepts of a domain It requires understanding the structures of subject matter in the manner defined by such scholars

as Joseph Schwab” (Shulman, 1986, p 9) The structures of a subject matter consist of both the substantive and syntactic structures Brant (2006, p 9) explains “it is concerned with the organization of basic concepts (substantive structures) and the ways to validate them (syntactic structures)” In other words, “teachers must not only

be capable of defining for students the accepted truths in a domain They must also be

able to explain why a particular proposition is deemed warranted, why it is worth knowing, and how it relates to other propositions, both within the discipline and without, both in theory and in practice” (Shulman, 1986, p 9) All in all, teachers are supposed to both know about concepts, principles, theories and facts on the subject matter and acquire new knowledge in their field

With respect to negative effects due to inadequate comprehension of the content matter knowledge in terms of substantive and syntactic structure of a discipline, according to Hashweh (1985, 1987) and Wilson (1988) (as cited in Grossman, Shulman & Wilson , 1989), teachers might be incapable of evaluating critically the

“adequacy, accuracy and salience of the text” According to Ball and McDiarmid (1990, p 2), “subtly, teachers‟ conceptions of knowledge shape their practice – the kinds of questions they ask, the ideas they reinforce, the sorts of tasks they assign” Shulman (1986) also believes that teachers‟ lack of this type of knowledge can have

an effect on their style of instruction On the one hand, knowledge of substantive structure of a discipline can have a direct impact on curricular decision For example, history teachers are more likely to teach information interesting to them, resulting in what they teach are substantially different If a teacher does not have a sufficient understanding of substantive structure of a subject matter, the curriculum they follow would be quite limited or subjectively Thus, Shulman (1986) suggested that educators need to develop courses thoroughly focusing on this prime structure of knowledge owing to the fact that prospective teachers studied their disciplines in less depth in four – year teacher education program On the other hand, lack of knowledge

of the latter structure also causes two more destructive influences on teaching First, if

a novice teacher with the knowledge of syntactic structure of a subject matter, s/he would include this aspect in their curriculum For example, the history teacher‟s classes include not only the presentation and discussion of people, places and facts but also discussion sections where students use documentary evidence to explain and

interpret the past Second, an absence of syntactic knowledge may limit teachers‟ abilities to acquire new information in their fields Moreover, with full understanding

of the syntactic structure of a subject matter, they may be capable of determining what new theories and explanations are legitimate

In order to yield an insight into teachers‟ knowledge of a subject matter, comprehension of the structures of a discipline (substantive and syntactic structures)

is required to be taken into account In the next two parts of literature review concepts, theories, and principles on English intonation as well as how those aspects which have been developed overtime through linguists‟ researches were therefore presented

The first section consisted of three main components:

(1) Definition of English intonation

(2) Functions;

(3) Fundamental role in communication;

The second part composed four key aspects:

(1) Necessity of teaching English intonation appropriately to Vietnamese learners (2) Views of priorities in teaching intonation

(3) Three common approaches to teaching English intonation: (a) grammatical approach; (b) attitudinal approach; (c) discourse approach

(4) Some illustrated practice activities

(5) Meanings of English tones

2.2 ENGLISH INTONATION

2.2.1 Definition of English Intonation

According to O‟Connor (1986, p.150), there is no definition of English intonation totally satisfactory since different experts define it in different ways When defining this feature, many theorists only provide their learners/ readers with its shape: rising

or falling tune Others add its special function in communication to the definition Some of them directly admit that this suprasegmental is commonly thought to be at subconscious level

Specifically, the very factor that all of them agree on is using the two words „melody‟ and „music‟ to describe it (O‟Connor, 1986 , p.108; Wong, 1987 , p.55; Lane, 1993, p 14; Scrivener, 1994, p 295; Avery and Ehrlich, 1995, p 76; Hewings & Goldstein,

1998, p 89; Lujan ,2004, p 1.1; Reed and Michaud, 2005, p 221) i.e when speaking English, speakers change their voice by rising or falling it in a way that is no other than when they sing These changes are called by different names by different linguistic experts such as tune (O‟ Connor, 1986), intonation contour (Wong, 1987; Underhill, 1998), pitch inflection (Lujan, 2004), intonation pattern (Avery & Ehrlich, 1992; Lane, 1993) Moreover, when defining intonation, many of them add its key function that intonation plays an extremely important part in conveying meaning of the speaker‟s message as well as her/ his feeling and attitude (Hubbard, Jones, Thornton & Wheeler, 1983, p 219; O‟Connor, 1986, p.108; Wong, 1987, p.55; Lane,

1993, p.74; Scrivener, 1994, p 295; Avery & Ehrlich, 1995, p 192; Underhill, 1998,

p 74; Kelly, 2000, p.86) Especially, according to Scrivener (1994, p 295), Underhill (1998 p 75) and Kelly (2000, p 86) it is an aspect of language at a subconscious level; in other words, it would be very hard for learners to perceive and learn

In sum, when defining English intonation, it is supposed to take three factors into consideration: intonation (1) is a variation of pitch when people speak English (2)

carries additional meaning of speakers‟ attitude, feeling and intension during communication and (3) is a subconscious aspect in pronunciation system

2.2.2 Functions of English intonation

Also, different linguists have different views of functions of English intonation

According to Kenworthy (1987), there are eight functions (foregrounding, backgrounding, signaling ends and beginnings, showing whether a situation is basically „open‟ or „closed‟, showing involvement, showing expectation, showing that one speaker respects or cares about the other, showing the relationship between the parts of a speaker‟s message) ; meanwhile Roach (2000) proposes only four functions (attitudinal function, accentual function, grammatical function, discourse function) and Wells (2006) recognizes six (attitudinal function, grammatical function, focusing function, discourse function, psychological function, indexical function)

Although the experts use different names to describe the functions, there are four common functions that they all agree on: (1) attitudinal function, (2) grammatical function, (3) accentual function and (4) discourse function

(1) Attitudinal function:

Intonation is believed to be used to convey a speaker‟s feelings, emotions and attitudes at the time of speaking The same sentence can be said in different ways, i.e different intonation patterns carry different attitudes: it can be

“interested”, “bored”, “friendly”, “serious”, “sarcastic”, etc

(2) Grammatical function:

Intonation is used to “identify grammatical structures in speech, rather as punctuation does in writing” (Wells, 2006, p 12) i.e it helps to recognize “the placement of boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences, the difference between questions and statements and the use of grammatical subordination” (Roach, 2000, pp 183-184)

(3) Accentual function:

Intonation is used to signal the most important words by stressing most on them (making the words stand out) in a tone unit, which helps listeners recognize the most significant information conveyed by a speaker

(4) Discourse function:

Considering the use of intonation in a broader context – a discourse, intonation helps listeners to identify “old information” – which is already known, given and “new information”

Especially, among the three writers, only Wells (2006) presents a special function of

intonation: indexical function It “may act as a marker of personal or social identity”

(Wells, 2006, p 12) For example, the very factor makes a mother sound like a

mother, a lawyer sound like lawyer is tone determined by intonation Although the

other writers also mention this issue, they express its function in the way that intonation conveys a speaker‟s attitude For example, a person asks somebody to do something, s/he could say “Do it now”; however, the attitudes going along with the utterance might be understood differently: if it is spoken with a falling and definite tone, it means that the speaker gives an order; but if it is produced with a tone that rises a little high, it could be made sense that the speaker does not order her/his listeners strictly, but encourages them to do something and the utterance sounds more polite However, if it is the situation in which a commander gives an order to his soldiers, it is definitely appropriate to use a falling tone Tone helps listeners to recognize a person‟s social identity More importantly, to ESL/ EFL learners it is necessary to understand this function so that they are aware of what tone they should learn instead of imitating any tones that they hear For example, if a learner loves watching horror movies, s/he tends to imitate consciously or unconsciously the tone produced in the movies, making his tone always scary or serious or doubtful in real communication

2.2.3 The significant role of intonation in communication between a native speaker and a non-native speaker

Linguists all acknowledge the key role of English intonation in communication In comparison with other aspects in pronunciation system, this feature has its peculiar function in comprehensibility between interlocutors

Although some theorists say that intonation carries additional meanings in speakers‟ speech, they seem to describe its importance in a general way which is unable to make

it clear to readers how important intonation plays in communication O‟ Connor (1986, p 108) simply states that “the words do not change their meaning but the tune

we use adds something to the words, and what it adds is the speaker‟s feeling, at the moment.” O‟ Connor and Fletch (1987, p.p 4-5) simply introduce intonation to their

readers that “as well as sounds of English, the stress and intonation are important […]

the voice rises and falls as we speak, and the tune of the voice helps to show what we mean: this is „intonation‟” Baker (2006, p v) writes “other aspects of pronunciation (e.g stress, intonation) which are also important for successful communication in English”

Meanwhile many other theorists strongly emphasize its role in communication by using powerful descriptive phrases such as “fundamental part” (Kelly, 2000, p 86), “a very important component of meaning”, “extremely important in the communication

of meaning […] control the structure of information […] the greatest impact on the comprehensibility of learners‟ English” (McNerney & Mendelsohn, 1992), “the most important means” (Schmitt, 2002, p 222), “establishment and maintenance of social harmony” (Wong, 1986, p.21), and “ intonation […] can add tremendous expressive power to your speaking” (Lane, 1993, p 162)

According to Kelly (2000, p 86), intonation is a “fundamental part of the way we express our own thoughts” and “enables us to understand those of others.”

Meanwhile, Lane (1993, p 162) believes that it is a “very important component of meaning.” Moreover, Schmitt (2002, p 222) explicitly insists the core role of intonation in communication by stating that it is “the most important means by which interlocutors negotiate their mutual relationship and indicate how they view the topic under discussion.” Wong (1986, p.21) also comes from the same perspective that intonation also plays a crucial part in the “establishment and maintenance of social harmony” It can be seen that while Kelly (2000) and Lane (1993) just introduce the essential function of intonation – carrying meanings in communication, Schmitt (2002) and Wong (1986) clarify that how extremely important its role is in building the relationship between interlocutors However, Wong (1986) makes a much further move that she underscores the role of intonation which not only exists in the small context like conversations between interlocutors but in the much larger one – the society McNerney and Mendelsohn (1992, p p 185 - 186) do not directly mention the role of intonation, but instead they talk about suprasegmentals They believe that those pronunciation aspects are “extremely important in the communication of meaning in spoken language” and “control the structure of information” because they have “the greatest impact on the comprehensibility of learners‟ English.”

Especially, Wong (1986), Kenworthy (1987) and McNerney and Mendelsohn (1992,

p p 185 - 186) agree on the fact that intonation is the key role in intelligibility in communication According to Kenworthy (1987, p.p 16- 19), of the aspects in pronunciation including sound (substitutions, deletions, and insertions), linking, stress, rhythm, and intonation the very last one would seem to cause the most serious intelligibility problem She insists that “only those who take an extremely narrow view of intelligibility can disregard the importance of intonation” Wong (1986, p 2) explicitly state “Rhythm and intonation are the key elements of intelligibility in speech” McNerney and Mendelsohn (1992, p p 185 - 186) are the very authors

emphasizing strongly the role of intonation in influencing learners‟ comprehensibility: intonation has the “greatest impact on the comprehensibility of learners‟ English.” Moreover, the unfortunate fact is that although intonation is extremely important to create as well as maintain the relationship of interlocutors in communication, it is very subtle to recognize or it is at subconscious level (Kelly, 2000; Celce-Murica & Olshtain, 2000) If learners could master how to use intonation, it could help them to

“a better understanding of some of the subtleties of native speaker speech” (Kelly,

2000, p 87) Additionally, according to Cauldwell (2000), native speakers are more sensitive than non-native speakers to the „normal ranges‟ for an adult male speaking English, and that they would be more sensitive to variations from the normal which would have rarity value Besides, Wells (2006, p 2) states that:

The problem is this: native speakers of English know that learners have difficulty with vowels and consonants When interacting with someone who is not a native speaker of English, they make allowances for segmental errors, but they do not make allowances for errors of intonation This is probably because they do not realize that intonation can be erroneous

It could be seen that the very important role of intonation in communication is strongly emphasized and acknowledged by the authors All of them show its very distinctive feature from these other aspects in pronunciation system These theorists, then, make efforts to prove the viewpoint by giving examples

According to McNerney and Mendelsohn (1992, p 192), intonation „lives‟ even in a simple word like „oh‟ Spoken with different intonation patterns, it can carry certain meanings ranging from complicity to shock and disbelief, from surprise to disappointment, from „I didn‟t know‟ to frustration

Avery, Ehrlich and Jull (1992) state that if a student does not have “a large enough drop” in pitch when ending an utterance, the native listeners will expect that the

speaker is going to say something more It can lead to “embarrassing silences and communication breakdowns” Moreover, these three authors provide readers with examples on the fact that different attitudes are conveyed by different intonation patterns For example, if a speaker makes her/his voice lower, it indicates that s/he is angry

Another example used by both O‟ Connor (1986) and Wong (1986) is about the phrase “Thank you” which could be said in two ways In the first one, the voice starts

with a high note and ends with a lower one, showing “real gratitude” For instance, if

a British/ American friend did something good to a Vietnamese (helping her/him, giving her/him flowers/ gifts, giving her/him a lift, inviting her/him to their house,

etc.),s/he would say: THANK you to show her/his genuine appreciation However, if s/he says thank YOU instead, her/his friend would be quite or a little bit upset and

embarrassed because the speaker seems not really grateful According to O‟Connor (1986, p 109) it is called an “honest mistake” i.e that is really quite hard for the listener to realize and the speaker might be thought to be impolite In the second way,

the stress is put on you, showing a “rather casual acknowledgement of something not

very important” For example, a bus conductor will say in this way when he collects

your money; or at the end of sales transaction, the clerk will say a THANK you and then the customer will say thank YOU to show that s/he acknowledges the thanks by

returning a thank However, the non-native speakers tend to repeat the same pattern

THANK you instead of thank YOU, showing that they appear just to be parroting O‟

Connor (1986, p.12) also claims that it is clearly dangerous to confuse the two tunes showing different meanings

Wong (1986) also laid an emphasis on the important role of intonation in communication by giving two more examples

Student A: What are you STUDYing?

Student B: BUSiness And what aBOUT you?

Rising the voice at the syllable /baʊt/, student B unintentionally leads the conversation to another direction – unrelated question to student A‟s: Tell me about yourself Instead, student B is supposed to rise the voice at the sound /ju:/ so that s/he could ask her/his interlocutor about what are you studying about?

Wong (1986) also used the example from Bolinger (1972) to prove the viewpoint Think of a situation where a person asks, “Why is it that you‟re willing to do business with Mary but not with me?”, and there are two possible responses: in the first

response the voice rises and then falls dramatically at the word “trust”; in the second one, there are two words where the voice changes its pitch (Mary and trust)

The second one sounds more offensive because it explicitly compares Mary and you

in term of being trusted Therefore, the first one without accenting on Mary to avoid

such impolite attitude is more recommended

Kelly (2000, p.12) also provides two more examples about problems of speakers from German and Spanish Characteristics of certain German accents can make German impolite meanwhile Spanish speakers usually use a narrower range of intonation than English native speakers when they speak English, making them sound boring to native speakers

Having a look at how suprasegmental aspects occupy much more significant parts in communication than segmental ones, McNerney and Mendelsohn (1992, p p 185 - 186) provide an example: A says “He went on holiday” and B responses “ Where did

he go?” with rising intonation instead of rising – falling; and the A interprets that B is surprised at what s/he heard and wants to confirm again the information, instead of that B wants to know the place that the person went to As a result, misunderstanding takes place Apparently, they are trying to demonstrate that context could not help listeners to understand the precise question the speaker asked

All of the examples mentioned above assert that misunderstanding certainly happens

if the interlocutors use wrong or inappropriate intonation patterns However, if

intonation is a fundamental and the most important means carrying meaning in

communication between interlocutors, misunderstanding taking place by using wrong

tunes must be extremely serious The question is that whether the misunderstandings

which occur in all of the examples above are able to cause the breakdown of the relationship between interlocutors or “social harmony”

Among many linguists, only Kenworthy (1987, p.p 9 - 10) highlights a very core point:

The effect of intonation can be cumulative; the misunderstandings may be

minor, but if they occur constantly then they may result in judgments about the attitudes, character, ways of behaving, etc of a particular speaker For example, if a foreign speaker always uses very low pitch, without much variation in the melody of the voice, listeners may get the impression that they are “bored” or “uninterested” when this is really not the case

The misapprehension, at first, might be insignificant For example, a Vietnamese‟s colleague (a native speaker of English) does her/him a favor in work and s/he would reply “thank YOU” At first, the native speaker might be quite surprised at the attitude

her/his Vietnamese co-worker at the moment because rising the voice at you indirectly

shows that the speaker took the help for granted, but then the listener might skip her/his uncomfortable feeling because according to Wells (2006) native speakers of English do not realize that intonation could be erroneous However, if it takes place repeatedly during the long-term communication, then the American/ English colleague may make a general judgment about speakers‟ character that the Vietnamese fellow does not appreciate others‟ help Apparently, the Vietnamese does not have such an unfavorable attitude, yet the fact that s/he has used an inappropriate intonation pattern brings about the misinterpretation It likely results in the fact that this overseas colleague does not like or does not feel easy when communicating with the Vietnamese person Even in some cases, using inappropriate intonation patterns could be offensive; resulting in the fact that they avoid communicating with the speaker It is the reason why Wong (1986) believes that intonation plays tremendously crucial role in “establishment and maintenance of social harmony” All the examples given above by McNerney and Mendelsohn (1992, p 192), Avery, Ehrlich and Jull (1992), O‟ Connor (1986) and Wong (1986) , Kelly (2000, p.12) seem to stop at the line proving that different tunes convey different meanings, and using inappropriate tones in specific contexts can make listeners hard to understand the speaker‟s real meaning, intension, attitude or can cause misunderstanding in communication Nevertheless, they could not demonstrate how extremely serious the misunderstanding can happen between interlocutors in long – term relationship

However, the three ones provided by Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000) could clarify how misusing intonation patterns frequently occurs resulting in serious misunderstanding in judgment about speakers‟ attitudes or characters

The first example is one of the authors‟ teaching experiences in Nigeria Several native English speakers including British and North American who could not speak Yoruba all concluded that Yoruba were „wishy-washy‟, i.e they are unable to answer

clearly or give out a decisive answer when being asked a simple question like “Are you a student?” The key problem lies in the fact that in Yoruba language the native speakers emphasize on the vowel length and use the falling-rising tune for the word

beeni which means yes in English; therefore, when they response yes to the yes-no

question in English, they usually use the same tone of their native language

(falling-rising for beeni) for the word yes It means that yes is uttered in a way that starts high,

then falls and then rises again

The second example is from Argyres (1996) (as cited in Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000) who did a study on the intonation of yes/no questions in English produced by two native speakers of Greek whose English level was advanced and highly fluent in comparison with that of two native speakers of North American English After listening to many examples made by two Greeks and two English native speakers, native English-speaking judges came to the conclusion that the Greeks‟ yes/no questions were strongly ruder, more impatient and more negative than those made by native English speakers The problem is also similar to the mentioned-above example: the native speakers of Greek superimposed the falling intonation for yes/no questions

in Greek on the ones in English, i.e instead of rising the voice at the end of the question “Are you a student?”, they made the voice go down

Another example by Gumperz (1978) (as cited in Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000) This study involves a person‟s problems coming from another country – India Also affected by the regional dialect of Indian English, and using inappropriate intonation and pausing, the Indian English speakers – a food server in a cafeteria in England is thought to be rude to and insult the British customers

Due to the fundamental role of intonation in communication, the experts all agree on the suggestion that nonnative speakers should be taught appropriate intonation By using strong words like “urgency” and “necessity” to talk about teaching intonation to nonnative speakers, Celce-Murcia & Olshtain (2000) emphasize the importance of the