An investigation into english word stress mistakes commonly committed by 12th grade

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES *********************** AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH WORD STR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

***********************

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH WORD STRESS MISTAKES COMMONLY COMMITTED BY 12 TH GRADE STUDENTS AT BACH DANG HIGH SCHOOL IN QUANG YEN DISTRICT, QUANG NINH PROVINCE AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH WORD STRESS LEARNING

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HA NOI – 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

***********************

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH WORD STRESS MISTAKES COMMONLY COMMITTED BY 12 TH GRADE STUDENTS AT BACH DANG HIGH SCHOOL IN QUANG YEN DISTRICT, QUANG NINH PROVINCE AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH WORD STRESS LEARNING

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HA NOI – 2016

DECLARATION

I certify that this thesis, which is submitted to The Faculty of Post – Graduate Studies for the degree of Master of Arts, is entirely my own work, except where I have given fully-documented references to the work of others I have not been submitted this thesis for assessment for any other course of study

Hanoi, 2016

Ph

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincerest thanks to my supervisor, Mr Vo Dai Quang, for his generous assistance and guidance while I was doing this study I am really grateful to him for his precious advice and constant support

I would also like to send my special thanks to the teachers and students at Bach Dang high school, who have helped me in providing the materials for my data collection procedure

I am also in debt of my lecturers, my friends, my classmates as well as my colleagues for their invaluable comments and criticism

Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved people, my parents, my brother, and my husband who have always encouraged me

to complete this project

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to have an investigation into word stress mistakes committed

by 12th grade students at Bach Dang high school, Quang Yen, Quang Ninh, the research objectives set forth for the research were to: (1) investigate English word stress mistakes commonly committed by 12th grade students at Bach Dang high school, (2) figure out the causes of these mistakes, (3) and, propose some possible solutions for both teachers and learners to improve English word stress learning

The subjects of the study were 78 students at grade 12 The research was investigated through two instruments: questionnaires for students and students’ voice recording It is found that students made word stress mistakes mostly in poly-syllable words and compound words Besides, there was a certain difference in the way students did the written tests and the way students pronounced

With the investigation into students’ word stress mistakes, the researcher found out some possible causes of those mistakes In detail, the mistakes were supposed to result of both subjective and objective causes From the findings of the investigation procedure, the researcher proposed some possible solutions for teachers, students and book designers to deal with word stress mistakes

Although the study has offered some insightful findings, like many other studies, there are some limitations, and therefore, it needs suggestions and comments from other colleagues and those who are concerned

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Statement of the problem 1

1.3 Objectives of the study 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Significance of the study 2

1.6 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Role of mistakes in language learning 4

2.2 Role of stress in language learning 5

2.3 Theoretical background to the concept “stress” 7

2.3.1 Syllables 7

2.3.2 Strong and weak syllables 7

2.3.3 Nature of stress 8

2.3.3.1 The loudness 9

2.3.3.2 The length 9

2.3.3.3 The pitch 10

2.3.3.4 The vowel quality 10

2.3.4 Placement of Stress within the word 10

2.3.5 Some rules for word stress marking 11

2.3.5.1 Proper nouns 11

2.3.5.2 Monosyllabic words (1 syllable words) 11

2.3.5.3 Bi-syllabic words 11

2.3.5.4 Poly-syllabic words 13

2.3.5.5 Compound words 15

2.3.6 Levels of stress 15

2.3.7 Weak forms of words (Reducing function words) 16

2.4 Possible causes of word stress mistakes 16

2.5 Teaching and learning word stress of 12th grade students at Bach Dang high school 19

2.5.1 Word stress lessons designed in the textbook English 12 19

2.5.2 Language teaching and learning reality at BachDang high school 21

2.6 Summary 23

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 24

3.1 Research questions 24

3.2 The subjects 24

3.3 Research methods 24

3.3.1 Questionnaire 24

3.3.2 Voice recording2 25

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26

4.1 Findings from the questionnaire 26

4.1.1 Part 1 26

4.1.1.1 Students’ attitude towards learning word stress 26

4.1.1.2 Students’ awareness of the difficulty in stress lessons 26

4.1.1.3 Students’ degree of certainty in word stress marking 27

4.1.1.4 Frequency of students’ mistakes in word stress2 27

4.1.1.5 Students’ most common mistakes in word stress 28

4.1.1.6 Students’ expectation towards the teaching of word stress 29

4.1.2 Part 2 29

4.1.2.1 Scores students get in marking word stress 29

4.1.2.2 Detail in all lexical items 30

4.2 Findings from the voice recording 31

4.3 Cause of mistakes in word stress 33

4.3.1 Influence of mother tongue 33

4.3.2 Inappropriateness in the textbook English 12 34

4.3.3 Lack of teaching and learning facilities 34

4.3.4 Students’ lack of motivation and concern 34

4.3.5 English examination format 35

4.4 Possible solutions to improve English word stress learning 3 35

4.4.1 To teachers 35

4.4.2 To students 37

4.4.3 To the course book designers 37

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 39

5.1 Recapitulation 39

5.2 Conclusion 39

5.3 Limitation of the study 40

5.4 Suggestions for further study 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL English as a Foreign Language ELT English Language Teaching IPA International Phonetic Alphabet L1 A first language

L2 A second language SLLs Second Language Learners

LIST OF FIGURES

Pages

Figure 9: Difference between marking in paper and pronunciation in voice

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study

The English language has rapidly become the most popular first foreign language among Vietnamese people, especially at schools, colleges and universities For learners of English, the English language surely brings about a better career prospect Needless to say, pronunciation in general, and word stress in particular is amongst the most prominent aspects that language learners need to learn as an essential component of their academic practice and later on in their professional communication, which partially explains why teaching pronunciation has prompted

a good deal of research that covers various aspects of its broad instructional contexts Teaching and learning how to mark word stress gets even more complicated and challenging for both language teachers and students For many Vietnamese students, pronouncing a word accurately is a substantial challenge They may have little ability of pronouncing since the very first stage of schooling, and may be very anxious about having to pronounce marked by a tutor

1.2 Statement of the problem

High school students, generally speaking, cannot realistically achieve academic success without mastering the skill of pronunciation

In Vietnam high schools, although English are taught as a major subject, teachers usually emphasize the mastery of vocabulary and grammatical structures Students may be able to understand sentences and a short paragraph correctly, but almost all

of them have difficulties, or are even at a loss when requested to pronounce a single word, not mention to a whole sentence In addition, official tests are in written form;

as a result, students have very few actual opportunities to represent their ability of English orally Bach Dang high school is not an exception as well Pronunciation, especially word stress, seems to be rarely taught in English lessons When asked, teachers all agree stress itself appears time consuming and the students’ improvement is difficult to achieve

Being aware of the problem and with the intention of helping students to overcome difficulties and to perfect their knowledge of English word stress, the researcher

decides to choose the title: An investigation into English word stress mistakes

commonly committed by 12 th grade students at Bach Dang high school in Quang

stress learning for the M.A thesis It is hoped that the study, to some extent, will

contribute to improving the teaching and learning of English word stress in Bach

Dang high school in particular and English study in general

1.3 Objectives of the study

The objectives set forth for the research are to:

(1) investigate English word stress mistakes commonly committed by 12thgrade students at Bach Dang high school,

(2) figure out the causes of these mistakes,

(3) and, propose some possible solutions for both teachers and learners to improve English word stress learning

1.4 Scope of the study

The study is focused only on the 12th grade students at Bach Dang high school The subjects of the study were chosen at random among 78 students of English basic program Hence, the study results cannot be true to all Vietnamese learners That is

to say, the study works well only for teachers and learners who are teaching and learning at such schools with similar English syllabus or education training or for the ones who are concerned

Moreover, due to both limited time and experience, this study only mentions the mistakes in word stress Any attempt to study English stress mistakes on other aspects, such as sentence stress, is beyond the scope of this thesis

1.5 Significance of the study

The study’s aim is bringing about some benefits for teaching English word stress to high school students especially the students of Bach Dang high school When it comes to foreign language teaching and learning, the study tells about the students’

attitude and method in learning English word stress, where they need help and what sort of help they need An explicit understanding why mistakes arise can assist in adjusting teaching techniques

Besides, for immediate purposes, remedial lessons or exercises can be designed to help eliminate mistakes In terms of material designing, the study may assist designers to understand the nature of mistakes occurring to high school students, which is useful for them in sequencing and arranging target language items in text books in such a way helping prevent mistake occurrence as much as possible

1.6 Design of the study

The research consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1 - Introduction - presents the background and statement of the problem, the purpose, the scope as well as the method of the study

Chapter 2 - Literature Review - looks at notion of mistakes and the its roles in language learning It discusses some definitions such as syllable and its structure, nature of stress; word stress marking rules

Chapter 3 - Methodology - is the core part of the research, which describes research methods as well as data collection procedure

Chapter 4 - Findings and Discussion - indicates data analysis result and also helps teachers and students in high schools overcome difficulties in teaching and learning English word stress as well as some recommendations for school’s facilities and course book designers

Chapter 5 - Conclusion - offers recapitulations, limitation of the research; besides, gives suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Role of mistakes in language learning

Language learning, like any kind of human learning, entails committing mistakes According to Lennon (1991) a mistake is “a linguistic form or combination of forms which in the same context and under similar conditions of production would, in all likelihood, not be produced by the speakers’ native speaker counterparts" In the second language teaching/learning process, the mistake has always been regarded as something negative which must be avoided As a consequence, in the past, teachers always adopted a repressive attitude towards it To that extent, it was considered to

be a sign of inadequacy of the teaching techniques

During the past fifteen years, however, researchers in the field of applied linguistics came to view mistakes as evidence for a creative process in language learning, and

it was accordingly seen as a natural result of the fact that since by nature we cannot avoid making mistakes we should accept the reality and try to deal with them Little

by little the mistake has been seen from a different point of view being made obvious that we can learn from our mistakes Far from being eradicated, mistakes are, as Selinker (1969) indicates, significant in three respects:

(1) Mistakes are important for language teachers because they indicate the learner's progress in language learning;

(2) Mistakes are also important for language researchers as they provide in-depth understanding on how language is learnt;

(3) Mistakes are significant to the language learners themselves as it is

a way learners have to test their hypothesis about the nature of the language they are learning

2.2 Role of stress in language learning

Word stress is not used in all languages Some languages, Vietnamese or French for example, pronounce each syllable with equal emphasis Other languages, English for example, use word stress and pronounce different syllables with more or less importance

Many studies have shown that stress plays a very important role in English language production and perception

Word stress, according to Madeline (1979) “is not an optional extra that can be added to the English language It is part of the language” Fluent English speakers use word stress to communicate rapidly and accurately, even in difficult conditions

If, for example, listeners do not hear a word clearly, they can still understand the word because of the position of the stress

In terms of language perception, it would seem that heavy reliance on information about stress pattern and the nature of the stressed syllables is a common and an efficient way of speech comprehension When listeners mishear a word, it is usually stress pattern and the nature of the stressed syllable which decide what listeners think they hear The stressed syllable information is very important for the listeners

to reconstruct the whole massage Not surprisingly, when the stress pattern is incorrect, errors in interpretation occur

Bansal in “The intelligibility of Indian English” (1966) gave many interesting

examples of misinterpretation when words with initial stress were uttered with

second-syllable stress: “atmosphere” was heard as “must fear”, “yesterday” as “or

study”, “character” as “director” and so on That is the reason why students’

intelligibility is a matter that all teachers of English should pay much attention to Avery and Erlich (1992) and Kenworthy (1987) agreed that all second language learners will need practice in English word stress Bai (1994) proposed four different functions of English stress: distinctive function; highlight function; rhythmic function; and communicative functions Stress must be considered from the perspective of both the speaker and the listener (Taylor, 1996) If the speaker does not use stress in an appropriate way, the native speakers might find it difficult

to understand words It also would make the listener misunderstand what the speaker is trying to say The listener will not get cues about what words are important and when the speaker’s thought is finished The situation could result in either the speaker or the listener feeling frustrated or embarrassed when the

misunderstanding is cleared up, or the speaker might just express the opposite meaning and unconsciously offend the listener Hence, “incorrect stress placement

is the major cause if intelligibility problems for foreign learners” (Roach P 1983:73) Consequently, stress is not an optional extra, but rather a core part of the language Undoubtedly, stress especially word stress is of great importance to one phonetic ability

However, it is easy for some English teachers to neglect or forget this aspect of teaching Some teachers might lack proper training in stress teaching and confidence in providing correct models Much of the research indicates that native speakers organize English by stress patterns in their brains; they process the sounds and listen for the stress patterns rather than individual sounds (Brown, 1991; Celce-Murcia, Briton, & Goodwin, 1996; Kenworthy, 1987) Yan (1987) also pointed out that the mastery of stress could help students to enhance their listening comprehension If non-native speakers make a stress mistake within a word or sentence, native speakers might not be able to understand the word or sentence Therefore, manipulating the stress patterns of English improves not only pronunciation, but also the comprehension of spoken English

At the word level, stress in English is phonemic since the location of the stress could differentiate the meaning of words For instance, English uses stress on

different syllables to distinguish the verb “re΄cord” and the noun “΄record” In

Vietnamese, in contrast, stress is not phonemic and it cannot discriminate the meaning of a word; it is tone that can contrast meaning of words The differences between these two languages may cause problems for Vietnamese learners in learning English stress Vietnamese learners will tend to have problems in English reduction and blending in English everyday speech They find it difficult to reduce unstressed syllables and blend words in the same thought group Thus, their English might have a staccato rhythm or sound distracting Moreover, Vietnamese learners will probably fail to indicate focus, which should be expressed by stress because of the different ways to manifest information focus (Bai, 1994) Furthermore,

Vietnamese learners might use different tones to indicate different lexical meanings Hence, stress does not play an important role in Vietnamese communicative speech and is easily neglected by Vietnamese learners (Trang, 2002)

2.3 Theoretical background to the concept “stress”

2.3.1 Syllables

In general, the different aspects of stress can be described in relation to syllables In English, every word is made up of one or more syllables (Jones D.1998:134) The

sequences from: /frɒm/, cause: /kɔːz/ constitute single syllables; doctor: /ˈdɒktə/,

mistake /mɪˈsteɪk / contain two syllables each; document /ˈdɒkjʊm(ə)nt/, national

/ˈnaʃ(ə)n(ə)l/ contain three syllables, and so on Phonetically, syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this centre (that is, at the beginning and end of the syllable), there will be greater obstruction to airflow and /or less loud sound (Roach P 1983:127)

All of the sounds of a syllable are planned together and pronounced together as an unbroken unit For this reason, the length of a syllable remains fairly constant, no matter how many phonemes it includes The longest part of a syllable is its vowel The vowel is longest when being unsurrounded by any additional consonants With every consonant added before or after it, the vowel shortens a bit to compensate for the added elements of the syllable (Pennington M.C 1996: 129)

2.3.2 Strong and weak syllables

As is discussed above, English words can be made up of one, two or many syllables In all words of two or more syllables, one syllable is more prominent, louder, or more noticeable than the other syllables in that word This strong syllable

is stressed (accented), and the other weaker syllables are unstressed (unaccented) (Dauer: 1983)

A strong syllable described in terms of its phonetic characteristics will be the one, having as its centre, one of the vowel phonemes, but not ∂ (schwa) According to Jones Daniel, weak syllable on the other hand, can have four types of centre: (i) the

vowel ∂ (schwa), (ii) a close front unrounded vowel in the area of i: and ɪ, (iii) a close back rounded vowel in the area of uː and ʊ, (iv) a syllabic consonant

When weak syllables containing vowels are compared with strong syllables, we find the vowels in a weak syllable tend to be shorter, of lower intensity and different in quality, e.g in the word “kitchen” /ˈkɪtʃ(ə)n/, the second syllable which is weak is shorter than the first, is less loud and has a vowel that cannot occur in strong syllables In the word “bottle”, /ˈbɒt(ə)l/, the weak second syllable contains no vowel at all, but consists entirely of the consonant “l”

Simply, the first syllable of words like “pillow”, “mirror”, and “telephone” is stressed, that the middle syllable is stressed in “develop”, “apartment”, “precision” and that the final syllable is stressed in “pollute”, “require”, “perhaps”

We marked a stress syllable by placing a small vertical line just before the syllable

/ˈfɑːðə/, /ˈbɒt(ə)l/.

2.3.3 Nature of stress

Stress is an important feature of English Word stress is the special emphasis that

we give to certain syllables in a word This emphasis is produced by a stronger chest pulse

Only words of more than one syllable are marked for word stress Stressing a word wrongly can lead to greater misunderstanding than pronouncing phonemes wrongly, hence, of great importance “Stress may be described as the degree of force with which a sound or syllable is uttered… a strong force of utterance means energetic actions of all articulatory organs; it is usually accompanied by gesture with the hand

or head or other parts of the body; it involves a strong “push” from the chest wall and consequently strong force of exhalations; this generally gives the objective impression of loudness Weak force of utterance involves weak action of the chest wall resulting weak force of exhalatory and giving the objective acoustic impression

of softness” (Jones Daniel, An Outline of English Phonetics, p 245) According to Daniel Jones, one or more sounds in a word or a phrase are heard to stand out more

prominently than their immediate neighbors; and a syllable is essentially a sound sequence containing a peak of prominence If a word or a phrase contains a number

of peaks of prominence, the degrees of prominence are unequal at various peaks In other words, some syllables of a word or phrase are perceived more distinctly than others

Jones Daniel says that the prominence of a given sound may be increased or diminished by means of any one of the three sound attributes, length, stress, or intonation A common and effective means of increasing prominence is to increase the stress In English, increase of stress is generally accompanied by a modification

of intonation and sometimes by an increase of length

It is important not to confuse stress with prominence The prominence of a syllable, according to Jones Daniel is its degree of distinctness “The term stress refers only

to the degree of force of utterance; it is independent of length and intonation, though

it may be, and often is, combined with these.” (Jones Daniel, An Outline of English Phonetics, p 246)

In English Phonetics and Phonology, Roach P (1983:72, 73) held the view that “all stressed syllables have one characteristic in common, and that is called

“prominence” Stressed syllables are recognized as stressed because they are more prominent than unstressed syllables Prominence, then, is produced by four main factors: (i) loudness, (ii) length, (iii) pitch and (iv) vowel quality

2.3.3.1 The loudness

Most people keep the feeling that a prominent syllable is pronounced louder than the others In fact, if in a sequence of identical syllables, one is uttered with the intensive loudness, it would be heard as stressed syllable But only with changing the loudness of one syllable, the speaker will encounter some difficulties and the perceptual effect of stress is not strong

2.3.3.2 The length

Among others syllables with the same length, if only one of them is lengthened intensively, there is quite a strong tendency for that syllable to be heard as stressed

2.3.3.3 The pitch

Every syllable is pronounced on some pitch, it might vary from low pitch to high pitch Within a word, for example, if one syllable is noticeably said differently from the others, it will be recognized as prominent, and of course a stressed syllable Therefore, to place some movement of pitch (e.g rising or falling pitch) on a syllable is an effective way to produce a syllable with prominence

2.3.3.4 The vowel quality

A syllable will be considered as a prominence if it includes a vowel that has different quality from neighboring vowels Let’s give a nonsense word

“ba:ba:ba:ba” as one example If the second syllable is replaced by “bi” syllable, that replacement one will usually be heard as stressed

In short, a stressed syllable can be recognized thanks to the combination of those four factors though syllable may sometimes be made prominent by means of only

one or two of them Many studies such as “The Intelligibility of Indian English” of Bansal R.K or “English phonetics and phonology: A practical course” of Peter

Roach have shown that among the fours, the strongest effect is produced by pitch and length respectively, and then, loudness and vowel quality

2.3.4 Placement of Stress within the word

The question of the placement of stress at the correct syllable within the word causes a great deal of difficulty, particularly to foreign learners English is not one

of those languages where word stress can be decided simply in relation to the syllables of the word, as can be done in French, where the last syllable is usually stressed, in Polish, where the syllable before the last is usually stressed or Czech, where the first syllable is stressed Many writers have said that “… English word stress is so difficult to predict that the best approach is to treat stress placement as a property of the individual word, to be learned when the word itself is learned.” (Roach Peter, English Phonetics and Phonology, p.76) In order to decide stress placement, it is necessary to make use of some or all of the following information: (i) whether the word is morphologically simple or complex, (as a result either of

containing one or more affixes or of being a compound word) (ii) the grammatical category to which the word belongs (iii) the number of syllables in the word (iv) the phonological structure of those syllables The rules for the placement of word stress in two and three – syllable words or in compound words are different, as they are for words belonging to different grammatical classes

2.3.5 Some rules for word stress marking

2.3.5.1 Proper nouns

Proper nouns are specific names of people, places or things For example: Jeniffer Spain, Los Angeles

The second word is always the one that takes the stress

2.3.5.2 Monosyllabic words (1 syllable words)

Parviz B and Mohammad A.S (2005:107) stated: “Obviously, these words do not presents any problems because when pronouncing this isolation, they receive the primary stress on their only syllable” Normally, the stress of monosyllabic words is not shown When part of the sentence, monosyllabic content words are pronounced with full forms of vowels whereas monosyllabic function words are normally pronounced with the weak form of vowels (i.e., with /ə / or /ɪ/.)

2.3.5.3 Bi-syllabic words

In An Introduction To Phonetics, Parviz B.and Mohammad A.S (2005:108)

mentioned that to determine where the stress is in a word with two syllables is a simple decision: either the first syllable or the second one, never both of them The following hints are helpful for the placement of stress in bi-syllabic words:

- To verbs and prepositions: The basic rule is that: when the second syllable of that

word contains a long vowel or diphthong or tripthong; or it ends with more than one consonant, then the second syllable is stressed For example:

contain /kənˈteɪn/ insist /ɪnˈsɪst/

away /əˈweɪ/ among /əˈmʌŋ/

When the second syllable is a consist of a short vowel and only one (or none) consonant, therefore, the stress falls to the first syllable Thus:

open /ˈəʊp(ə)n/ hinder /ˈhɪndə/

under /ˈʌndə/ into /ˈɪntʊ/

The first syllable is also stressed if it includes “/ɒ/” For example:

follow /ˈfɒləʊ/ borrow /ˈbɒrəʊ/ onto /ˈɒntʊ/

In two-word verbs, when the verb and the particle are not separated (standing side

by side), the normal location of stress for two-word verbs is the on the particle when occurs at the end of a sentence or phrase like:

pick up /pɪkˈʌp/ drop out /drɒpˈaʊt /

- To nouns and adjectives: To the nouns and adjectives, the rules are quite

different If the second syllable has a short vowel, the stress will be focused on the first syllable

apple /ˈap(ə)l/ title /ˈtaɪt(ə)l/ money /ˈmʌni/

tidy /ˈtʌɪdi/ latter /ˈlatə/

On the contrary, if the final syllable contains a long vowel, the stress will be on that final one Thus:

mistake /mɪˈsteɪk/ design /dɪˈzaɪn/

severe /sɪˈvɪə/ asleep /əˈsliːp/

In reflexive pronouns, the last syllable receives stress:

myself /maɪˈself/ themselves /ð(ə)mˈselvz/

Note:

There are many two-syllable words in English that can be pronounced in two different ways The stress change also changes the part of speech of the word

This is one aspect of word stress that should be treated as a separate issue There are several pairs of two-syllable words function as nouns when stressed on the first syllable, and as verbs when stressed on the second syllable

present /ˈprez(ə)nt/ = a gift (noun); non past or future (adjective)

present /ˈprɪˈzent/ = to give something to someone (verb)

2.3.5.4 Poly-syllabic words

According to Parviz B and Mohammad A.S (2005:109), deciding which syllable to give stress becomes very complicated when words include more than two syllables With poly-syllabic words, the rules of stress placement start to become ever more arbitrary - with more exceptions than can easily be explained away

One general hint to remember is that weak syllables never carry stress Therefore, any unstressed syllable will reduce its vowel into a weaker one - like /ə/ or /ɪ/ Another hint is that poly-syllabic function words happen, for the most part, to carry stress on their final or ultimate syllable:

nevertheless / nev(ə)rðəˈles/ nonetheless / nʌnðəˈles/

Despite the large amount of research done on the subject of stress, it is still one area

of which phoneticians have little understanding They have, however, developed a few rules that can be safely used to identify the stress patterns of the majority of the English poly-syllabic content words:

- Verbs that end in –ate, -ify or –ize receive stress on their third from right

 ize: industrialize /ɪnˈdʌstrɪəlaɪz/ recognize /ˈrekəɡnaɪz/

- Affixes do not change the pattern of stress

The prefixes dis-, il-, ir-, in-, im-, mis-,re-, un-, under-, over-, and the suffix-ly (used to make adverbs), -er, -ist, -ism usually do not change the pattern of stress:

 dis: disappoint, disadvantage

 il: illegal, illiterate

 ir: irregular, irrational

 in: inaccurate, inattentive

 im: imbalance, immaterial

 mis: misunderstand, misbehave

 re: reactivate, reappraisal

 un: unimportant, unnecessary

 under: underestimate, underachieve

 over: overestimate, overachieve

 -ly: happily, interestingly

 -er: gardener, employer

 -ist: pharmacist, biologist

 ism: alcoholism, heroism

- Suffixes

o Stress on the suffix

Words that use the suffix ade, aire, ee, ese, eer, que, ette, or oon have the primary

stress actually placed on the suffix

This applies to words of all syllable lengths

 ade: lemonade, crusade

 aire: millionaire, questionnaire

 ee: jamboree, guarantee

 eer: engineer, puppeteer

 ese: Japanese, Vietnamese

 ette: cassette, cigarette

 que: picturesque, physique

 oon: afternoon, balloon

o Stress on the second from the end syllable

The stress is going to be on the syllable right before the suffix This applies to words of all syllable lengths

 able: addable, forgettable

 ial: differential, financial

 cian: musician, physician

 ery: bakery, scenery

 ian: comedian, technician

 ible: resistible, impossible,

 ic(s): characteristic, economics

 ion: classification, reposition

 ia: bacteria, victoria

 ient: ingredient, convenient

 ious: mysterious, religious

 ish: establish, distinguish

 osis: hypnosis, diagnosis

o Stress on the third from end syllable

The word stress is on the third from end syllable with ones that end in cy, ty, phy,

gy and al

 cy: democracy, accuracy

 ty: clarity, difficulty

 phy: geography, photography

 gy: allergy, apology

 al: nautical, magical

A compound adjective is an adjective made of at least two words

Often, hyphens (-) are used in compound adjectives In compound adjectives, the most stress is placed in the stressed syllable of the second word

E.g: fifteen-minute old-fashioned

In case words in a compound adjective are one noun and one adjective, the first one carries word stress

E.g: carsick waterproof

2.3.6 Levels of stress

In An Introduction To Phonetics, Parviz B.and Mohammad A.S (2005:101)

emphasized: There are four levels of stress placement: weak or quiet, tertiary or regular, secondary or louder and primary or loudest

However, usually two levels of stress (primary and secondary) are identified because no word in English is long enough to require more than 2 levels of stress E.g: recommendation /ˌrekəmenˈdeɪʃ(ə)n/

Here, “d ” carries primary stress, and “ ” carries secondary one

2.3.7 Weak forms of words (Reducing function words)

According to Peter Roach (1983:193), many function words have two pronunciations, a strong form and a weak or reduced form Strong form has a full vowel and is used only for emphasis or at the end of a sentence

E.g: Where are you from? What are you waiting for?

Unstressed weak form is normally used in the middle of a sentence or phrase The vowel is reduced to /ə/ or /ɪ/, and initial /h/ is dropped, and the whole word is very short

E.g: I said to him that I come from Quang Ninh

2.4 Possible causes of word stress mistakes

The phonological aspect that is analysed in this paper is word stress which is one of the suprasegmental aspects of pronunciation As cited in Yates (2002), word stress pertains to the emphasis or prominence that is given to certain syllable in a word The stressed syllabic system in English and Vietnamese is different Each system will be described below

Every word in English has its own stress pattern and they are fixed (Kimble-Frey, 2001) If a word is stressed wrongly, it reduces the speaker’s chance of being understood English words can have one, two, three and more syllables (Kenworthy, 1987) It is stated in Underhill (1994) that words having more than one syllable contain stressed and unstressed syllables Stressed syllables are often pronounced louder than other syllables and have long clear vowel sound (Zawadzki, 1994) For instance, the word Australia which is stressed on its second syllable, is pronounced louder on its second syllable -TRAAAA- and has long clear vowel sound on it

On the other hand, Johns (1977) contends that in Vietnamese, all syllables receive

almost equal stress, particularly in words of two syllables, such as ng t ng o There

is no difference in stress between its syllables as in kitchen and table, where there is

a strong stress on the initial syllable Kelly (2000) claims that it is relatively easy for some people to spot stresses and it takes time for some others to be able to do so consistently Learners need to be aware of stress and if they do, there is a need to practise identifying stressed syllables in order to be able to use it appropriately when speaking

To answer the research question, there are some theories that are going to be explored As implied in Saville-Troike (2006), a satisfactory account of second language learning should integrate multiple perspectives in which not one single theory could satisfy the issue of second language learning

The three different perspectives that should be included here are linguistic, psychological, and social Nonetheless, they will be integrated based on the research question formulated Accounting for why a mistake occurs is the essential step in attempting to understand the second language learning process (Corder, 1967) Therefore, the theories presented here will be related to interlingual (between the two languages; L1 and L2) and intralingual (within L2 itself) aspects of second language learning that contribute to the mistakes made

Corder (1967) distinguishes between the systematic mistakes which result from learners’ lack of L2 knowledge and unsystematic mistakes or mistakes resulting from some kind of processing failure, such as a memory breakdown These mistakes or unsystematic mistakes are excluded in mistake analysis

It is widely accepted that cross linguistic influence or transfer of prior knowledge from L1 to L2 is one of the processes involved in interlanguage development (Saville-Troike, 2006) - the term interlanguage was first introduced by Selinker (1972) and can be conceptualised here as the current state of the participant underlying competence of English word stress system These cross linguistic factors

may occur in all aspects of language structure and use, such as in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation

There are two types of knowledge transfer from L1 to L2; positive and negative transfer According to Lado (1957), positive transfer occurs when the structure or rule of L1 is employed in an L2 utterance and that use is appropriate in the L2 and negative transfer or interference happens when the structure or rule of L1 is expressed in the L2 utterance and if it is used inappropriately, it is considered as a mistake Ellis (1994) maintains that positive transfer facilitates L2 learning because

an L1 features also work for L2 This means that new ones do not have to be learned Meanwhile, negative transfer of L1 features can often be inferred from forms in the second language which are unlikely to be produced by a native speaker

of L2 It is pointed out in Gass (2006) that language learners have chances to notice the differences between the target language they formulated and the language of their interlocutors through interaction During interaction, the feedback that modifies the linguistic input (language exposed to them) are received by the language learners who are also pushed to modify their output or the language they produce Nevertheless, Schmidt (2001) contends that the learners can learn something if they notice, then the input can be intake This would mean that in order for the input or learning materials to become intake, the learners should pay attention to the input provided Dealing with phonology, Kenworthy (1987) remarks that inappropriate transfer of L1pronunciation to L2 can be detected as a foreign accent in non-native speaker production This is also probably the most common and most easily recognised aspect of L1 influence In addition to this, Munro (2008) explains that even after L2 learners have been exposed to native input extensively, foreign accents often persist due to incomplete learning of the segmental and suprasegmental aspects of the L2 phonological system According to Long (1990), after the critical period L2 phonology is learned not acquired to a native-like ability The age of six is the critical period for L2 phonology It is mentioned in Johnson (1989) that the nature of L1 cannot fully explain the difficulties of the L2 learner