A study on the prosodic features in responses via english and the equivalent expressions in vietnamese

Aims of the study Due to the study is limited in the context of classroom in general and prosodicfeatures in responses between the teachers and students in particular as stated in scope

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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NGUYỄN THỊ VIỆT HOA

A STUDY ON THE PROSODIC FEATURES IN RESPONSES VIA ENGLISH AND THE EQUIVALENT EXPRESSIONS

IN VIETNAMESE (Nghiên cứu đặc điểm ngôn điệu trong sự phản hồi thông qua tiếng Anh và sự thể hiện tương đương trong tiếng Việt)

MA Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

HANOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ VIỆT HOA

A STUDY ON THE PROSODIC FEATURES IN RESPONSES VIA ENGLISH AND THE EQUIVALENT EXPRESSIONS

IN VIETNAMESE (Nghiên cứu đặc điểm ngôn điệu trong sự phản hồi thông qua tiếng Anh và sự thể hiện tương đương trong tiếng Việt)

MA Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc, M.A

HANOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF SYMBOLS

LIST OF TABLES

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

2 Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Method of the study

5 Structure of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Sentence and Utterance

1.1.1 Sentence

1.1.2 Utterance

1.1.3 Response as an utterance

1.2 Speech Acts

1.2.1 Classification of speech acts

1.2.2 Response as an act of speech

1.3 Prosodic Features

1.4 Intonation

1.4.1 Definition of intonation

1.4.2 Structure of intonation

1.4.2.1 The falling tune

1.4.2.2 The first rising tune

1.4.2.3 The second rising tune

1.4.2.4 The falling rising tune

1.4.3 Functions of intonation

1.4.3.1 The attitudinal function

1.4.3.2 The accentual function

1.4.3.3 Grammatical function

1.4.3.4 The discourse function

1.5 Summary

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Context setting

2.2 Participants

2.3 Data collection

2.4 Research questions

2.5 Data analysis framework

2.6 Summary

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS

3.1 Findings

3.1.1 Differences in responses between teachers and students

3.1.2 Agreeing samples via English and equivalent expressions in Vietnamese

3.1.2.1 Teacher towards students

3.1.2.2 Students towards teacher

3.1.3 Disagreeing samples via English and equivalent expressions in Vietnam

3.1.4 The functions of intonation in responses

3.1.4.1 Intonation of agreement

3.1.4.1.1 The attitudinal function

3.1.4.1.2 The accentual function

3.1.4.1.3 The discourse function

3.1.4.1.4 Grammatical function

3.1.4.2 Intonation of disagreement

3.1.4.2.1 The attitudinal function

3.1.4.2.2 The accentual function

3.1.4.2.3 The discourse function

3.1.4.2.4 Grammatical function

3.2 Summary

PART C: CONCLUSION

1 Recapitulation

2 Limitations and suggestions for further study

REFERENCES APPENDIX 1 .I

LIST OF SYMBOLS

1 Symbol of stress: '

2 Symbols of intonations

- The glide down:

- The glide up:

- The take - off:

3 Tonic syllable: Underlined part in an utterance.

4 Utterance is pulled:

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Agreeing samples of teachers towards students 23Table 2 Agreeing samples of students towards teachers 25Table 3 Disagreeing samples of teachers towards students 27

PART A: INTRODUCTION

In this part, the rationale which explains the reasons for choosing this topic, theaims of the study which illustrates typical goals, the scope of the study which narrowsdown the research scale and the structure of the study which builds up a frame areestablished clearly

1 Rationale

Prosody plays an important role in communication Through prosody, people canexpress their emotion state or sentiment tone People can use prosody to show theirattitudes such as happiness, sadness, anger, love or hate However, during communicativeprocess, it is easy to recognize that many speakers cope with problems in using prosody.They sometimes do not know exactly how to use prosody in speaking and even in somecases not understand the real meaning of utterances from speakers Consequently,understanding and choosing suitable prosodies will fill in the gaps in communication

Moreover, choosing fitted prosodic features is necessary because this will helpspeakers in reaching their aims in communication For example, speakers may raise theirtone at the end of the utterance in asking instead of using question words as in: ''While theteacher is teaching, students can talk''

One more reason for choosing responses as the topic of the study is that response is

a factor in communication that helps speakers or hearers go on the conversation, depending

on the way they response to the others

We hope that the study not only contributes a small part in the success of eachconversation but also can be considered as the ground stage for further researches

2 Aims of the study

Due to the study is limited in the context of classroom in general and prosodicfeatures in responses between the teachers and students in particular as stated in scope ofthe study, therefore, the goals of the study are as follows:

* To find out the similarities and differences in the responses between teacher and students in context of a class

* To look at the way how teachers and students express their responses showing agreement and disagreement in classroom context

* To find out the prominent intonation strategies preferably used in agreeing and disagreeing responses by teacher and students.

3 Scope of the study

The study investigates responses in the level of speech acts There are many kinds

of responses such as responses to a letter, responses to a question, responses to aninvitation and so on Nevertheless, this study focuses on responses of teachers and students

in showing agreements and disagreements In addition, the study examines chiefly prosodicfeatures in which intonation in utterances will be paid attention

Moreover, due to the limitation of time, ability as well as knowledge, the researchcontext chosen is in English classes in grade 11 at Ischool Hatinh where the researcherobserves and describes mostly the actions and responses between teacher and students

4 Method of the study

The study bases on quantitative research, which is to determine the relationshipbetween one thing and another Quantitative research designs are either descriptive orexperimental, which means that we use personal observation and facts to form generalrules

The participants of the study include teacher and students at Ischool Hatinh highschool

5 Structure of the study

The study is divided into three main parts: Introduction, Development andConclusion

Part A Introduction:

As many other studies, this part introduces briefly the rationale, aims, the scope,methods and organization of the study

Part B Development

This part includes three chapters:

* Chapter 1: Theoretical background

This is an overview of the related theories It also concerns the previous works andissues on speech acts and prosodic features In each part, there are many sub-terms thatexplain Speech Acts theory, sentence and utterance, similarities and differences in the

responses between teacher and students, response as an utterance, definition of intonation,structures and functions of intonation.

* Chapter 2: Methodology.

This chapter introduces quantitative method as the main method for the research Inparticular, it describes the research questions, participants, data collection and data analysisframework

* Chapter 3: Findings

This chapter presents findings on intonation in agreeing and disagreeing responses

of teacher and students in class context

Part C Conclusion

The last part will summarize the over all of the study and provide limitation and suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

All the related theories are covered in this chapter Sentence, utterance and responseare the foundation for Speech acts and Prosodic Features

1.1 Sentence and Utterance

1.1.1 Sentence

According to Crystal (1980: 319-320) ''sentence is an expression in natural language , often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it'' A

sentence can include words grouped meaningfully to express a statement, question,

exclamation , request or command As with all language expressions, sentences maycontain both function and content words, and contain properties distinct to naturallanguage, such as characteristic intonation and timing patterns Sentences are generally

characterized in English by the presence of a finite verb for example in the following

sentence "She gives me a dollar", ''give'' is a finite verb Crystal (1991: 321) classified

sentence into four main types basing on their structure:

* Simple sentence consists of a single independent clause with no dependent

clauses The sentence below has one independent clause, which contains one subject: baby, and one predicate: cried.

Eg: ''The baby cried''.

* Compound sentence consists of multiple independent clauses with no dependent

clauses These clauses are joined together using conjunctions, punctuation, or both

Eg: ''Do you want to stay here or go shopping with me?''.

* Complex sentence consists of at least one independent clause and one dependent

clause As we can see in the following example:

Eg: ''I ate the meal that you cooked''.

''I ate the meal'' is an independent clause and ''that you cooked'' is a relative clause.

* Complex-compound sentence (or compound-complex sentence) consists of

multiple independent clauses, at least one of which has at least one dependent clause

Eg: ''The dog lived in the backyard, but the cat, who knew he was superior,

lived inside the house''.

Basing on their purpose, sentence are divided into five types, exclamative,

imperative, informative, declarative and interrogative sentences (Crystal 1991: 322)

* Exclamative sentence : An exclamative or exclamatory sentence expresses the

speaker's emotion

Eg: ''I'll never finish this paper in time!''

* Imperative sentence : An imperative sentence gives anything from a command or

order, to a request, direction, or instruction Imperative sentences require audiences, astheir aim is to get the person spoken to either do or not do something

Eg: ''Look at me''.

* Informative sentence is more for the mutual benefit of both the listener and the

speaker, and, in fact, requires more of an interaction between both parties involved

Eg: ''We are going to school now''

* Declarative sentence is the most common kind of sentence in language, it states

an idea (either objectively or subjectively on the part of the speaker) for the sheer purpose

of transferring information to the receiver In writing, a statement will end with a period

Eg: ''The earth goes around the sun''.

*Interrogative sentence asks a question and, therefore, ends with a question

mark Eg: "What do you want?"

In general, ''sentence is neither a physical event nor a physical object It is,

conceived abstractly, a string of words put together by the grammatical rule of language''.

(Hurford & Heasley 2003: 17)

1.1.2 Utterance

Hurford & Heasley (2003: 15) stated, ''An utterance is used by a particular speaker,

on a particular occasion, of a piece of language such as a sequence of sentences, or a single phrase or even a single word" Utterance is certainly used in speaking not in writing

because an utterance is a natural unit of speech, a complete unit of talk Hurford & Heasley

(2003: 15), moreover, explained the way to express sentence and utterance: "We adopt the

convention that anything written between double quotation marks represents an utterance

and anything italicized represents a sentence or part of sentence such as a phrase or a word.''

Eg: ''Help" represents an utterance

''The postillions have been struck by lightening'' represents a sentence

(Hurford & Heasley 2003: 16).Following the ideas of Hurford and Heasley, from the beginning to the end of thestudy, all utterances and sentence will be illustrated in the form above

1.1.3 Response as an utterance

In Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (1985: 273), Richards et al defined

response as ''an act of answering or replying'' Response can be verbalized by physical

response or an utterance For example, students may answer their teacher's question asfollows:

Teacher: (angry) '' How many of you complete the homework?''Mai: ''I am sorry''

Lan: (looks down and doesn't say anything)Lan and Mai answer their teacher's question in different ways and the teacherunderstands that his/her students haven't finished their homework yet

The content of the response is based on the meaning of the previous question as inthe example above In some other cases, the question is an implication so that the hearermust answer fitly to it For example, during a lesson, while the teacher is teaching, Tu, aschool boy, is not paying attention to the lecture, and the teacher says to him:

Eg: Teacher: ''What is the meaning of not paying attention Tu?''

Tu: ''I am sorry"

In this case, Tu understands the implication of his teacher's question, which meansreminding him to concentrate on the lesson so that Tu apologies for not paying attention.However, if Tu did not understand the real meaning of the question, he would explain the

meaning of "not paying attention".

In one another case, if the sentence is too long, the speaker may use intonation toemphasize the key words for example:

Eg: "this 'afternoon, I will have a dis'cussion with our 'headmaster aboutstudying English through extra curricular activities so that the 'deadline for the 'essay will be to'morrow''.

In answering, addressees may use body language to answer instead However, withthe limitation of the study, the research only pays attention to the verbal language inutterances which were collected from observation and interviews

1.2 Speech Acts

1.2.1 Classification of speech acts

Austin (1962: 75) determined that ''Many utterances do not communicate

information but are equivalence to actions In many cases to say something is to do something'' The actions such as agreeing, disagreeing, shocking, promising, ordering,

greeting, warning, inviting or congratulating and so on are acts of speech The examplebelow can be interpreted in different meanings:

Eg: ''Our headmaster is over there".

(a) It could be uttered as a means of complaining to a students that they are very noisy then

(b) It could be understood as a warning of teacher to his students not to make any trouble because their headmaster is looking at them

(c) It could be uttered to introduce the headmaster to students

Each of utterance can include its meaning, which is why Austin (1962), Searle

(1976) and Quang (2009) said that ''to make an utterance, the speaker must do three acts:

Locutionary, Illocutionary act and perlocutionay act'' In addition, in Austin's theory (1962:

75), speech acts included three levels: The first is locutionary act, which is the

performance of an utterance, the actual utterance and its ostensible meaning in the sense of

"say" based on words or structure of the utterance.

Eg: "I want to drink an orange juice"

The speaker wants to produce a locutionary act with the example above Moreover,

people rarely make an utterance without having any purpose In the utterance above, thespeaker not only wants to drink orange juice but also intends to make a requirement This

kind of action is called illocutionary In addition, Austin classified the third level

perlocutionary act which performs intended or unintended affect to the hearer or speaker.

Yule (1996: 48) also agreed by saying, "In communicating, we do not simply create an

utterance without intending to have an effect" So in the utterance "I want to drink an

orange juice, the speaker certainly wishes the act of bringing a glass of orange juice to be done That action is called perlocutionary act.

Beside the theory of Austin, Searle (1976: 54) divided speech acts into five types:

(1) Commissives are acts that commit the speaker in doing something in the future

such as promising, swearing, threatening etc

Eg: ''I will come back tomorrow, I promise''

(2) Declaratives are acts that can change the available situation

via utterance Eg: ''I now pronounce you husband and wife''.

(3) Directives are acts that get the hearers to do something because they are acts of

offering, requesting or ordering

Eg: "Could you open the door?"

(4) Expressives are the ways that speakers express their feelings and attitudes such

as apologizing, thanking, congratulation etc

Eg: "Congratulation! You've passed your examination".

(5) Representatives/ assertives are acts that the speakers utter the assertions, reports

or conclusions and they are responsible for that situation

Eg: ''I am sure that he is wrong''

Yule (1996: 49) classified acts into direct and indirect acts He stated direct acts as

''the direct relationship between a structure and a function'' meanwhile ''indirect relationship between a structure and a function is indirect act'' (Yule, 1996: 49) For

Teacher: "Actually, we can find another way'' (b)

Eg 3 Student: I think the girl should apologise the boyTeacher: ''Good! How about others' opinions?'' (c)

(a) is a direct act because it shows the direct disagreement to the hearer's opinionand the hearer can understand immediately Meanwhile, the utterances (b) and (c) areindirect disagreement of the teachers to their students The teacher wants to refuse in the

most polite way and even elicit the other answer Searle (1976: 54) also added, ''In indirect

speech acts the speaker means more than what it is said'' Therefore, the act as (b) and (c)

can be seen as indirect answers

In the range of speech acts theory proposed by Searle (1976), acts are very helpful

in different contexts, agreeing and disagreeing responses between teachers and students areput in representative acts In Yule's theory (1996), these acts can be direct and indirect acts

1.2.2 Response as an act of speech.

As mentioned above, response in conversation is an utterance Furthermore, the

idea of the linguistics such as Austin (1962) and Quang (2009) that ''to make an utterance,

the speaker must do three acts: Locutionary, Illocutionary and perlocutionay act was

highly appreciated

Besides, there are different ways to respond, there are many kinds of responses, andthere are many factors affecting the responses Moreover, the responses in differentcontexts can be not entirely agreement or disagreement However, we limit the paper in thefirst part is in case study Therefore, agreement and disagreement responses betweenteachers and students in this study will be taken into consideration under theory of Yuleabout direct and indirect acts

1.3 Prosodic Features

Prosody has been studied as a knowledge source for speech understanding and hasbeen successfully used in many researches In the recent years, the number of studiesrelated to speech acts has increased Speech acts are more natural and spontaneous Theprosody usages, therefore, are much more important and necessary However, this is not asimple scale because when an utterance is analyzed, the speaker's implication will be better

known through the way he/she stresses, the way he/she uses intonation and rhythm.

In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Richard et

al (1992: 355) stated that ''Stress is the pronunciation of a word or syllable with more than

the surrounding words or syllables A stress word or syllable is produced by using more air from the lung''.

Rhythm, on the other hand, is ''creating by the contracting and relaxing chest,

muscles'' (Richard, J C et al 1992: 346).

Intonation is defined as ''raises and falls in pitch level'' (Richard, J C et al 1992:

155) and will be clarified in the next part

Stress, rhythm and intonation are important factors in prosodic features in whicheach factors have private functions However, within the limitation of the study, the thesiswill mostly focus on intonation in the following part

1.4 Intonation

1.4.1 Definition of intonation

Intonation is a famous component in making every utterance This is also aninteresting topic for researchers There are different definitions about intonation

According to Quang and Tam (2009: 37) English intonation was ''the rises and falls

in pitch level'' This means that when we utter any sentences, intonation is presented.

O'Connor (1973: 78) pointed out '' when we talk about English intonation we mean the

pitch patterns of spoken English, the speech tunes of melodies, the musical features of English'' Intonation is a feature of spoken language.

Richard, J C et al (1992: 190) explained, "When speaking, people generally raise

and lower pitch of their voice, forming pitch patterns They also give some syllables in their utterances a greater degree of loudness change their speech rhythm These phenomena are called intonation Intonation does not happen at random but has definite patterns, which can be analyzed according to their structure and functions Intonation is used to carry information over and above which is expresses by the words in the sentence''.

Intonation is related to sentence, stress is related to word but tone is related to syllable

Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish words According to Roach (1983: 62),

''a unit of speech bounded by pauses has movement, of music and rhythm, associated with the pitch of voice'' This certain pattern of voice movement is called tone Through tones,

speakers' signals, i.e proclamations, agreements, disagreements, questions or hesitationsare shown Ladefoged (1982: 52) identified four basic tones (fall, rise-fall, rise, and fall-rise) while Roach (1988: 127) gave out five tones: fall, rise, rise-fall, fall-rise, and level).Level is rarely used so that in communication, tone should be based on fall, first-rise,second-rise and fall-rise

1.4.2 Structures of intonation

The intonation in English is different from stress, which is related to stress of asyllable in a word Most of English words have their own stress placement Intonation onthe other hand, concerns on utterance in conversation In English, according to Roach(1988: 121), structure of an individual tone unit consists: Head, Pre-tonic segment, Tonic

or nucleus and Tail

Tonic unitHead

A head is all that part of a tone-unit that spreads from the first stressed syllable to

the tonic syllable (not including tonic syllable) Let us have a look at the followingexample, which was quoted in Roach's book in 1988

Eg: 'give me those (Roach, 1988:123)The first two syllables are the head of the tone-unit (those)

Eg: 'Bill 'called to 'give me thoseThe head is first five syllablesEg: in an hour

In this case, there is no stressed syllable before the head preceding the tonic

syllable (hour), so that there is no head "In an" in the example above is called pre-head.

Pre-head includes all the unstressed syllables before the head in a tone-unit.

Therefore, we can find out pre-head in two cases: The first is in the last example above.The second is "in a" in the following example:

Eg: In a 'little 'less than an hour (Roach, 1988:124)The pre-head is "in a", the head is "little" and "less than an" and the tonic syllable is "hour"

Tail is between of tonic syllable and the end of tonic unit (''did you say" in the

example below) Tonic syllable is the most important and obligatory part of tonic unit.

Eg: What did you say? (Roach, 1988:124)O' Connor (1973) argued that there are four basic shapes of tunes, which express the speakers' feeling and intention He furthermore, found out shapes of tune when having

a look at the dependence of important words, which are given stresses, in an utterance andthe attitude of the speaker An utterance spoken words with different kinds of focus onimportant syllables have different ways to be interpreted As a result, there may be manydifferent tunes in utterances.

In short, catching intonation in conversation is necessary because it helps theaddressee to avoid misunderstanding in mutual relationship

O' Connor (1973) proposed four shapes as follow:

1.4.2.1 The falling tune

The falling tune (the Glide-down) shows the definite assurance of the speaker

It is mostly used in WH questions, exclamations, tag questions, yes-no questions,responding to something previously informed or commands The falling tune consists of afall in the voice from a high pitch to a very low one The fall is on the stressed syllable orfrom the stressed syllable to a following one:

Eg: Teacher: ''Definitely''

/'definitli/

It is necessary to know that on a single syllable the voice falls within thesyllable Either on more than one syllable, the voice falls within the stressed syllable or itjumps down from that syllable to the next Alternatively, unstressed syllables at the end areall very low

If there are any unstressed syllables before stressed syllables, this can be shownthat:

Eg: Student: "I agree"

/ai ə'gri:/

In groups with more than three important words, the stressed syllable of each one is lower than the one before; this is why tune the glide-down is named Another way

of showing the Glide-Down, which is simpler and quicker than the dots and lines used up

to now Before the stressed syllable where the voice falls we put (') So: 'Definitely

Notice that no other mark is needed to show the very low unstressed syllables at the end any unstressed syllables after a fall are always low

-Therefore, with these few marks we can show all the features of the glide-down.They are mostly used in definite statement or an assurance.

1.4.2.2 The first rising tune

The first rising tune is called the Glide- up It just likes the glide down except that itends with a rise in the voice instead of a fall Both important and unimportant words beforethe rise are treated exactly as in the Glide-Down

Eg: Teacher: ''Is it right or wrong?''

/iz it 'rait ɔ: 'rɔη/

The unstressed syllable at the beginning of the utterance above is low Then thevoice jumps up to stressed syllable with high tune Therefore, it is called the first risingtune Note that, in this kind of utterance, the stressed syllable may be at the beginning ofthe utterance as follow:

Eg: Teacher: "Right or wrong?"

/'rait ɔ: 'rɔη/

1.4.2.3 The second rising tune

The second rising is called Take-off After the glide-down and the glide-up, wehave the take-off This also ends with a rise in the voice, like the Glide-Up, but any wordsand syllables before the rise are low The Take-off tune, moreover, is often used inutterance with anger and annoyance of the speaker

Eg: Student: ''Yeah, I see your opinion"

/ jeə ai si: jɔ: ə'piniən/

We call it the Take-Off because, like an aeroplane taking off, it starts by runningalong at a low level and finally rises into the air The rise, as in the Glide-Up, either takesplace on one syllable, like everything, or it is spread over several syllables

1.3.2.4 The falling rising tune

The falling rising tune is called the Dive The falling-rising tune is mostly used inhesitated or uncertain utterance In this part, the voice falls from high note to low then rises

to about the middle of voice

Eg: Teacher: ''That is right''

/'ðæt iz 'rait/

1.4.3 Functions of Intonation

Intonation is especially important for who is speaking, for who will speak in thenext turn, for how the act will be understood as an apology, thank or explanation etc Inconversations in general and in a specific case as in a class, the use of intonation is muchmore paid attention

According to Arne Vanvik (1979: 64), there are three fundamental functions of

intonation: grammatical, delimiting and expressive When pitch variations constitute the

only difference between a question and an assertion, intonation has a grammatical function

This is so-called grammatical function When intonation signals continuation or termination that is delimiting function For example, in some regions, the desire for

continuation is usually associated with a rising pitch at the end of an utterance, while afalling pitch usually represents an intention to conclude A question normally demands ananswer The third one, the expressive function of intonation, gives us an indication of thespeaker's mood, feelings or attitude towards his/her subject or audience

Nguyen Huy Ky (2006: 36) mentions that there are six functions: Grammaticalfunction, attitudinal function, accentual function, discourse function, pragmatic functionand distinctive function

In this study, we follows the view points of Roach (1988), Quang & Tam (2009)that there are four main functions of intonation:

1.4.3.1 Attitudinal function:

Intonation is used to express feelings, attitudes of the speaker in different situations

In the example below, we can see that the speaker may utter in different tones to make thehear understand his/her real meaning

Eg: Student: "I agree"

Student may utter with happy voice to show their eagerness with fall-rising tune as: /ai ∂'gri:/

Student may say with sad voice to show their indisposing in doing something by using falling tune: /ai ∂'gri:/

1.4.3.2 Accentual function

Intonation helps to mark certain syllables or words as prominent and thereforeimportant in term of information This function is related to tone-unit The most commonposition for this is in the last lexical word of a tone-unit Roach (1988: 143) also points that

"for contrastive purpose any word may become the tonic syllable" In the following pairs

of examples, (a) represents a normal agreement and (b) is a contrastive:

(a) '' That is a good idea"

/ ðæt iz ə gud ai'diə /

(b) " That 'isn't a good idea"

/ ðæt 'iznt ə gud ai'diə /

information) Normally, "the falling tones indicated new information while rising tonesindicated given information".

Eg: Teacher: "your first answer about extend family is good"

/ jɔ: fə:st 'ɑ:nsə ə'baut iks'tend 'fæmili iz 'gud /

is used in spoken language

The second part is about speech acts, which are very important to identify acts ofagreements and disagreements in class context In this part, the theory of Yule (1996) aboutdirect and indirect acts is taken into account

In addition, an introduction about prosodic features in general and intonation inparticular is put into the direction of the study Therefore, the researcher pays attention tothe structures and functions of intonation in the light of legendary linguists

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the context of the study, Participants, Research Questions, Datacollection and Data analysis will be taken into consideration.

There are three classes in grade 11 of which students are taken acquainted withstudying condition in this school Therefore, class 11A will be chosen to study All studentsare in medium level of English

Moreover, this is a high school where the researcher is working Lifestyle,psychology and ability of students are understood clearly Although, the level of students is

in medium, the technology for teaching and studying are well invested such as stereo,computer and other teaching facilities

As the students' ability is limited, the Headmaster decided to teach four periods ofEnglish per week instead three classes as in other high schools in the city Besides teachinglessons in textbook, five English teachers have to hold the reflex classes, workshops,English-speaking club to improve the students' language skills Therefore, in this study, theresearcher joins reflex classes to take note and to record conversations between teacher andstudents The conversations were joined in May 2010

2.2 Participants

One American teacher whose name is Rory Bradley, is 35 years old and has taughtfor many years as volunteer teacher in Vietnam and now he is invited to join the study.Bradley is an enthusiasm teacher, who gives out many new methods in studying English.His pronunciation, moreover, is excellent Therefore, it is believed that all his utterances incommunication in class context are perfect

In the study program, Bradley teaches in reflex class He is in charge of discussionsthree topic about "family", "friendship" and "love" The time for each period is forty-fiveminutes With these topic discussions, Bradley teaches in three periods, which are onMonday, Wednesday, and Saturday afternoon

The students involved are forty-two students in class 11A Their English skills aremedium but they all are very eager to study English in extra activities.

We are aware that if we have more participants and condition, we will have moresamples to study However, the topic is only in some specific cases We believe in teachingexperiment of teacher and the truthful answers of students Therefore, the number ofparticipants and the talking times between them will be carefully studied

The observation of communications between the teacher and students in a class 11Awas mostly in form of note-taking, interviewing and recording The lessons, which has justintroduced above, are speaking lessons about factual topics such as "family", "friendship"and "love" All those lessons are taught at room number A21 at Ischool Hatinh high school

The conversations, which are collected carefully and taken note or sometimesrecorded to clarify the intonation of users, are expressed in appendix

In addition, the researcher also interviews Bradley to reconfirm the intonation heused in the lessons

2.5 Data analysis framework