Intonation as a means to better english non majored students oral skills a case study at university of transport in ho chi minh city m a thesis 60 14 10

54 Chart 4.5 : Students’ responses for time in class spent on intonation teaching per unit .... 61 Chart 4.17 : Teachers’ responses for time in class spent on intonation teaching per uni

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

_

NGUYỄN THỊ NGUYỆT ÁNH

INTONATION AS A MEANS TO BETTER

ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS’ ORAL SKILLS:

A CASE STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT

IN HO CHI MINH CITY

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL)

Supervisor

TÔ MINH THANH, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer

HO CHI MINH CITY - August, 2009

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled

INTONATION AS A MEANS TO BETTER

ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS’ ORAL SKILLS:

A CASE STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT

IN HO CHI MINH CITY

in terms of the statements of requirements for Theses in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee

This thesis has not previously been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2009

NGUYEN THI NGUYET ANH

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN THI NGUYET ANH, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library

I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the University 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 and reproduction for theses

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2009

Signature

NGUYEN THI NGUYET ANH

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality i

Retention and use of the thesis ii

Table of contents iii

List of abbreviations x

List of charts xi

List of tables xiii

Acknowledgements xv

Abstract xvi

INTRODUCTION 1

0.1 Rationale for the study 1

0.2 Significance of the study 2

0.3 Statement of purpose 2

0.4 Limitation 2

0.5 Delimitation 3

0.6 Methodology 3

0.7 Organization of the thesis 4

Chapter 1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION 6

1.1 Curriculum and course book 6

1.2 Assessment 8

1.3 Teachers 9

1.4 Students 11

1.5 Summary 12

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW 13

2.1 Intonation-related terms 13

2.1.1 Stress 13

2.1.2 Stress-timed rhythm vs Syllable-timed rhythm 13

2.1.3 Placement of main stress in sentences 14

2.1.3.1 Content words vs Function words 14

2.1.3.2 Placement of major sentence stress 15

2.1.4 Pitch 16

2.1.5 Intonation 16

2.1.6 Tone languages vs Intonation languages 16

2.1.7 Intonation units 17

2.1.8 Prominence 18

2.1.8.1 Tonic syllables 18

2.1.8.2 Placement of prominence in an intonation unit 18

2.1.9 Intonation patterns 19

2.1.9.1 By Avery and Ehrlich [1995] 20

2.1.9.2 By Bradford [1992] and Brazil [1997] 21

2.1.9.3 By Celce-Murcia, Brinton andGoodwin [2002] 21

2.1.9.4 By Halliday [1978] 23

2.1.9.5 By O’Connor [1986] 24

2.1.9.6 By Roach [2000] 25

2.2 Roles of intonation 26

2.3 Overall functions of intonation 27

2.3.1 Attitudinal functions 27

2.3.2 Grammatical functions 27

2.3.3 Discourse functions 27

2.4 Common intonation patterns and their communicative values 28

2.4.1 The rising-falling 28

2.4.2 The rising 29

2.4.3 The falling 29

2.4.4 The falling-rising 30

2.5 Issues related to intonation teaching and learning 30

2.5.1 Supra-segmentals in pronunciation class 30

2.5.2 English teachers’ attitudes towards intonation teaching 31

2.5.3 Learners’ misconceptions of intonation and their common problems 32 2.5.3.1 Learners’ misconceptions 32

2.5.3.2 Common problems facing Vietnamese learners of English 32

2.5.4 Basic principles in intonation teaching and learning 34

2.5.4.1 When to start teaching and learning intonation 34

2.5.4.2 How to teach and learn intonation 34

2.5.5 Techniques in intonation teaching 35

2.6 Previous researches related to intonation and intonation teaching 37

2.7 Summary 39

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 40

3.1 Research questions 40

3.2 Research design 41

3.3 Subjects 42

3.3.1 Teachers 42

3.3.2 Students 43

3.4 Instruments 44

3.4.1 Tests 44

3.4.1.1 Written tests 45

3.4.1.2 Recordings 46

3.4.2 Questionnaires 46

3.4.2.1 Teachers’ questionnaire 47

3.4.2.2 Students’ questionnaire 47

3.4.3 Experimental teaching 48

3.5 Data collection procedure 49

3.5.1 Via questionnaires 49

3.5.2 Via Tests 49

3.5.3 Via Recordings 49

3.6 Summary 49

Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 50

4.1 Responses to students’ questionnaire 50

4.1.1 Responses for personal information 50

4.1.2 Responses to research questions 51

4.2 Responses to teachers’ questionnaire 57

4.2.1 Responses for personal information 57

4.2.2 Responses to research questions 59

4.3 Results from the two tests 68

4.3.1 The pre-test 68

4.3.1.1 Section I 68

4.3.1.2 Section II 69

4.3.1.3 Section III 70

4.3.1.4 Section IV 71

4.3.2 The post-test 72

4.3.2.1 Section I 72

4.3.2.2 Section II 72

4.3.2.3 Section III 73

4.3.2.4 Section IV 73

4.3.3 Comparisons of the two tests’ results 74

4.4 Analysis of the two recordings 76

4.4.1 Misuse of the rising tone in unmarked wh-questions 76

4.4.2 Misuse of the rising-falling tone in unmarked yes/no questions 76

4.4.3 Misuse of the rising tone in tag-questions for confirmation 76

4.4.4 Misuse of the rising tone in closed-choice alternative questions 77

4.4.5 Misuse of the rising tone in statements 77

4.4.6 Misuse of the level tone 77

4.5 Comments on techniques applied in the experimental teaching 78

4.6 Summary 79

Chapter 5 RECOMMENDATIONS, INTONATION TEACHING STRATEGIES AND CONTRIBUTIONS 80

5.1 Recommendations 80

5.1.1 Recommendations to the administrators at UT-HCMC 80

5.1.1.1 Intonation should be officially included as an obligatory part in the English curriculum 80

5.1.1.2 An intonation course should be systematically designed 81

5.1.1.3 Time for intonation teaching should be considered with great care 81

5.1.1.4 Intonation should be made one of the assessment criteria 82

5.1.2 Recommendations to the teachers at UT-HCMC 83

5.1.2.1 Teachers’ knowledge of intonation should be bettered 83

5.1.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards intonation and intonation teaching at UT-HCMC should be changed in a positive way 83

5.1.2.3 Teachers should help change their students’ attitudes towards intonation and intonation learning at UT-HCMC 83

5.1.2.4 Teachers should increase their students’ involvement in intonation lessons 84

5.1.2.5 Teachers should make their students well aware of communicative values of the intonation patterns 84

5.1.3 Recommendations to the students at UT-HCMC 85

5.1.3.1 Students should have proper attitudes towards intonation and

intonation learning at UT-HCMC 85

5.1.3.2 Students should apply proper ways to learn and practice intonation 85

5.2 Intonation teaching strategies 85

5.2.1 Employing concrete ways to explain abstract concepts 86

5.2.2 Applying various visual techniques in intonation production practice 86

5.2.3 Creating meaningful and interesting activities to arouse the students’ interest 86

5.2.4 Using audio-visual aids 87

5.2.5 Using games 88

5.2.6 Telling stories 88

5.2.7 Using sound recorders 88

5.3 Contributions 89

5.4 Summary 90

CONCLUSION 91

BIBLIOGRAPHY 93

APPENDICES 96

Appendix 1 : Teachers’ personal information 96

Appendix 2 : Test 97

Appendix 3 : Test’s suggested answers 99

Appendix 4 : Test’s CD 102

Appendix 5 : Teachers’ questionnaire in Vietnamese 103

Appendix 6 : Teachers’ questionnaire in English 106

Appendix 7 : Students’ questionnaire in Vietnamese 109

Appendix 8 : Students’ questionnaire in English 111

Appendix 9 : Students’ scores from the two tests 113

Appendix 10 : CD used in the experimental teaching 115

Appendix 11 : Lesson plan 1 116

Appendix 12 : Lesson plan 2 120

Appendix 13 : Lesson plan 3 127

Appendix 14 : Lesson plan 4 134

Appendix 15 : Lesson plan 5 140

Appendix 16 : Lesson plan 6 146

Appendix 17 : Lesson plan 7 152

Appendix 18 : Lesson plan 8 161

Appendix 19 : Lesson plan 9 165

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL English as a foreign language

ESP English for Specific Purposes

UT-HCMC Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport VLE Vietnamese learners of English

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1 : Students’ viewpoints on the role of intonation in English

pronunciation 51 Chart 4.2 : Students’ attitudes towards the necessity of teaching intonation at

UT-HCMC 52 Chart 4.3 : Students’ responses for teachers’ most focused part 53 Chart 4.4 : Students’ responses for the practice of intonation teaching at UT-

HCMC 54 Chart 4.5 : Students’ responses for time in class spent on intonation teaching

per unit 54 Chart 4.6 : Students’ responses for intonation features taught 55 Chart 4.7 : Students’ responses for techniques employed in intonation teaching 55 Chart 4.8 : Students’ responses for their evaluations on the techniques

employed in intonation teaching 56 Chart 4.9 : Students’ responses for their attitudes towards intonation learning 56 Chart 4.10 : Students’ evaluations on the influence of their intonation

acquisition on their English pronunciation 57 Chart 4.11 : Teachers’ qualifications 58 Chart 4.12 : Teachers’ years of teaching English as a foreign language 58 Chart 4.13 : Teachers’ viewpoints on the role of intonation in English

pronunciation 59 Chart 4.14 : Teachers’ attitudes towards the necessity of teaching intonation at

UT-HCMC 59 Chart 4.15 : Teachers’ responses for their most focused part 60 Chart 4.16 : Teachers’ responses for the practice of intonation teaching at UT-

HCMC 61 Chart 4.17 : Teachers’ responses for time in class spent on intonation teaching

per unit 62

Chart 4.18 : Teachers’ responses for intonation features taught 62

Chart 4.19 : Teachers’ responses for techniques employed in intonation teaching 63

Chart 4.20 : Teachers’ responses for students’ evaluations on techniques employed in intonation teaching 63

Chart 4.21 : Teachers’ responses for students’ attitudes towards intonation learning 64

Chart 4.22 : Teachers’ responses for the influence of students’ intonation acquisition on their English pronunciation 64

Chart 4.23 : Factors preventing the teaching of intonation at UT-HCMC 65

Chart 4.24 : Percentage of scores for students’ use of intonation in Sections I and Section III 66

Chart 4.25 : Percentage of scores for students’ use of intonation in the sections marked II, IV and V 66

Chart 4.26 : Student’s compared cores from the two tests’ Section I 74

Chart 4.27 : Student’s compared cores from the two tests’ Section II 74

Chart 4.28 : Student’s compared cores from the two tests’ Section III 74

Chart 4.29 : Student’s compared cores from the two tests’ Section IV 75

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 : Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in elementary Lifelines 7

Table 1.2 : Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in the first eight units in pre-intermediate Lifelines 7

Table 3.1 : Teachers’ personal information 43

Table 3.2 : Students’ levels of English 44

Table 3.3 : Apportionment of intonation features in experimental teaching 48

Table 4.1 : Students’ age 50

Table 4.2 : Students’ years of learning English as a foreign language 51

Table 4.3 : Students’ responses for time in class spent on pronunciation 53

Table 4.4 : Students’ responses for time in class spent on grammar 53

Table 4.5 : Teachers’ age 58

Table 4.6 : Teachers’ responses for time in class spent on grammar 60

Table 4.7 : Teachers’ responses for time in class spent on pronunciation 60

Table 4.8 : Teachers’ viewpoints on the official inclusion of intonation in the English curriculum 67

Table 4.9 : Students’ results from the pre-test’s Section I 68

Table 4.10 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the pre-test’s Section I 68

Table 4.11 : Students’ results from the pre-test’s Section II 69

Table 4.12 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the pre-test’s Section II 70

Table 4.13 : Students’ results from the pre-test’s Section III 70

Table 4.14 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the pre-test’s Section III 70

Table 4.15 : Students’ results from the pre-test’s Section IV 71

Table 4.16 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the pre-test’s Section IV 71

Table 4.17 : Students’ results from the post-test’s Section I 72

Table 4.18 : Students’ results from the post-test’s Section II 72

Table 4.19 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the post-test’s Section II 73

Table 4.20 : Students’ results from the post-test’s Section III 73

Table 4.21 : Students’ results from the post-test’s Section IV 73

Table 4.22 : Student’s dominant problems as found in the two recordings 76

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and above all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, To Minh Thanh, Ph.D., who read my manuscript with great care and devotion, gave me thoughtful and insightful comments and provided me with valuable support and relevant materials in the preparation and completion of this thesis, asserting her indispensable role as a wholehearted supervisor I would not have finished my thesis without her enthusiastic guidance and constructive critical questions to help me think over the problems

My thanks also go to the authors for the ideas quoted in the thesis Their books are a great source for me to produce my M.A thesis

I am also grateful to Mr Jake Cattlet, my colleague at Elite School and Mr John Norwell Usticke, a professor of Guildford College, who enthusiastically helped me make the CDs which serve as essential materials for my experimental teaching

Thanks are also offered to Mr Le Thanh Tu and Mr Nguyen Tan Loc, my dear classmates and also my helpful colleagues, who gave me useful ideas without which it would be hard for me to find out the right way to develop my thesis

I owe my thanks to the teaching staff of English Department and 52 students

of Class HH07B at University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City for their responsiveness to the surveyed questionnaires

Finally, I would also like to thank my husband, Le Quoc Tuan, for the loving support and encouragements he gave me during the time I attended the course and did the thesis

in enhancing their oral skills Hopefully, this thesis will raise administrators’ and teachers’ awareness of the significance of teaching intonation patterns to their students, leading to the redesigning of the current English curriculum, which may include intonation as one of its official components

By systematically presenting key elements that make up English intonation and carefully describing different intonation patterns shown in various ways by various scholars as well as the communicative values conveyed by means of these patterns, the thesis hopefully will give students a deeper insight into this intrinsically complex aspect of supra-segmental phonology, which in its turn will serve as a solid foundation on which their oral skills are based to develop

By recommending some effective and applicable strategies for teaching intonation which are drawn from a long process of study, observation and experimental teaching, the thesis is hoped to bring to both teachers and students at UT-HCMC a new way of teaching and learning intonation, which hopefully will release both of the subjects from the burden of time- and effort-consuming process

of intonation teaching and learning

INTRODUCTION

The introduction presents the rationale for choosing the topic, asserts the significance of the study, identifies the aims of the thesis, shows the methodology employed to conduct the research, draws a brief look of the study’s design, and states the study’s limitation as well as delimitation

0.1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

Intonation makes a linguistically significant role in English pronunciation Actually, it is “one of the many kinds of resources that are available in the language for making meaningful distinctions” [Halliday, 1978: 21] since in English,

“different pitch patterns can signal very different meanings for the same sentence.” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 77] With a good command of intonation, English speakers can find it a bit easier to make themselves properly understood and to precisely perceive “information over and above that which is expressed by the

words in the sentence.” [Richards et al, 1987: 148] Accordingly, “supra-segmental

features are far more important and central to communication than accurate production of the individual sounds” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 185]; as part of supra-segmentals, intonation is indeed too important to be ignored in any English teaching and learning Thus, mastering communicative values of intonation patterns and being able to naturally apply these patterns in conversational exchanges are essential to any learners of English who aim at improving their communicative competence However, “English intonation is English, it is not the same as the intonation of any other language.” [O’Connor, 1986: 108] Learning English intonation, therefore, requires Vietnamese learners of English (abbreviated to VLE) whose mother tongue’s tunes are quite different from those of English, a considerable amount of time and effort to seriously learn and to regularly practice the shapes as well as the meanings of the English tunes Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that intonation is among the first aspects of speech that infants attend to and produce themselves, these same features are among the last to be mastered by adult

EFL learners [Chun, 2003] Students at UT-HCMC are not exceptions They have very little chance to be exposed to intonation, and thus, do not know how to employ this aspect of supra-segmental phonology as one of the efficient means to avoid regrettable breakdowns in their oral communication It is strongly believed that the inclusion of intonation in the English curriculum officially applied at UT-HCMC is

of urgent needs to brighten the current gloomy situation at this institution

0.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Hardly can non-native speakers of English be regarded as good if they fail to pronounce English intonation naturally enough to approach the so-called native-like pronunciation In other words, good command of intonation lays the foundation for the subsequent development of oral skills Therefore, a deep investigation into the issue of how to teach intonation patterns as well as their communicative values is a matter of great urgency It is hoped that its findings may serve as a reference document to

teachers at UT-HCMC who are interested in improving their students’ oral skills in

general and precise pronunciation of English intonation in particular

0.3 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The study done for and then reported in the M.A thesis attempts to highlight the fact that teaching intonation does work in enhancing students’ oral skills Hopefully, this thesis will raise administrators’ and teachers’ awareness of the significance of teaching intonation patterns to their students, leading to the redesigning of the current English curriculum, which may include intonation as one of its official components Also presented in the thesis are some practical teaching strategies applied to teach common intonation patterns and their communicative values explicitly to students at UT-HCMC for

their oral improvement and more successful communication

0.4 LIMITATION

Due to the constraints of time and resources, the research only deals with

common intonation patterns presented based on the viewpoint of Celce-Murcia et al

[2002] whose theory of intonation, as believed by the researcher, is clear, and thus,

approachable to UT-HCMC students who do not major in English, excluding all the complex theories provided by other linguists Also due to the distinctive features of UT-HCMC where the study is conducted, the thesis’s generalizations and recommendations will be limited to teaching intonation to English non-majored students

at UT-HCMC only, leaving other contexts of English teaching and learning out of discussion

0.6 METHODOLOGY

The research is based on both quantitative and qualitative methods

Quantitatively, the diagnostic test and the achievement test, which are in fact exactly alike, are carried out at two different points of time in the study: the former right at the beginning of the study and the latter almost at the end of the study, the two times being nine weeks away from each other The data collected and analyzed will be statistically compared and contrasted for any potential findings of the study

Qualitatively, data collected from the teachers’ and students’ responses to the questionnaires which are delivered to the subjects right at the first stage of the study,

is another valuable source of information which helps the researcher figure out the respondents’ attitudes towards teaching and learning intonation at UT-HCMC In addition, notes taken via the researcher’s careful observation during the experimental teaching stage also serve as a reliable report on which she can rely when making judgments on the students’ progress and the techniques employed Finally, the result obtained from the comparison between the two recordings of the students’ oral performances, one of which is made after the diagnostic test is completed and the

other after the achievement test is done, will be carefully analyzed, giving the researcher trustworthy evidence of the progress the students gain during the process

of systematically learning and seriously practicing English intonation

Done for the M.A thesis is the study that, as mentioned-above, is analytic and statistical and that goes through the following steps:

 Step 1: Subjects are chosen

 Step 2: Teachers’ and students’ questionnaires are delivered to the respondents

and the answered versions are collected on the spot

 Step 3: The diagnostic test is done in class; the first recording of students’ oral

performance is made right after that

 Step 4: Responses to the two sets of questionnaires are analyzed, compared

and contrasted; at the same time, students’ papers are marked, their performance is evaluated, their problems are pointed out, and grade groups are established

 Step 5: The experimental teaching is carried out in the period of 9 weeks

during which good notes are taken via the researcher’s careful observation

 Step 6: The achievement test is done; the second recording of students’

performance is then made

 Step 7: Students’ papers are marked; results of the two tests and the two

recordings are compared; students’ progress and the effectiveness of the techniques employed during the experimental teaching stage are judged

 Step 8: Recommendations are given

0.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

In addition to the introduction which identifies the problems giving rise to the thesis and which provides an overview of the significance of the study and the

conclusion which restates the problems and then finds out their possible solutions,

the M.A thesis consists of five main chapters

Chapter 1 provides background information on how English has been taught

at HCMC and such factors affecting the teaching and learning of English at HCMC as the teachers, the students, the curriculum, the course books and the way

UT-in which students’ oral performance is assessed

Chapter 2 reviews the literature relevant to the study in two separate

sections: theoretical background and previous researches related to intonation and intonation teaching

Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology employed in the study, including a

list of research questions, a discussion of research design, a description of the study’s subjects, its instruments, and data collection procedures

Chapter 4 analyzes all the data collected from (1) the students’ and teachers’

questionnaires; (2) the two tests; (3) the two recordings and (4) the observation of the experimental teaching process for further discussion on the study’s findings

Chapter 5 presents some recommendations to the administrators at

UT-HCMC on redesigning the current English curriculum, to the teachers and the students at UT-HCMC for proper attitudes towards intonation and intonation teaching and learning at this university Some suggestions for teaching strategies and classroom activities that can be applied at UT-HCMC are also included in this chapter

Chapter 1

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This chapter presents background information essential for a preliminary understanding of the attitudes teachers and students at UT-HCMC have towards intonation, the problems facing them as well as the main causes of these problems

1.1 CURRICULUM AND COURSE BOOK

As a required subject, English is supposed to equip graduates of UT-HCMC with sufficient knowledge of both General English (abbreviated to GE) and English for Specific Purposes (abbreviated to ESP) Depending on their majors, students attend between 300 and 615 forty-five-minute periods of English within their four years at university The first 240 periods, called the first stage, is devoted to GE with Lifelines as the course books The objective of this stage is to build up learners’ confidence and English competence that are good enough for them to comfortably interact with other people in English During the remaining time, called the second stage, students study ESP which is aimed at providing learners with necessary technical terms relating to their majors and developing their reading skills, which is of great significance to their future work This stage, therefore, contains nothing related to intonation

During the first stage, students study the whole 14-unit elementary Lifelines and the first eight units of the 14-unit pre-intermediate Lifelines, so each unit is supposed to be covered within 10 periods on average These 10 periods can be theoretically subdivided as follows: 3 periods for grammar, 3 for vocabulary and reading, 2 for listening, 1 for speaking and the last one for pronunciation, which mainly focuses on individual sounds and the pronunciation practice of individual words containing these sounds Students are also taught stress in multi-syllabic words, but they usually have word-level-based practice only Rarely do they have chances to practice pronunciation with long complete sentences However, very

little time is dedicated to intonation Table 1.1 and Table 1.2 give more detailed information on how different aspects of pronunciation are apportioned in Lifelines

 Elementary Lifelines

Unit 1 No pronunciation lesson

Unit 2 The phonetic alphabet; word stress

Unit 3 Vowel sounds (1); “-es” endings

Unit 4 Vowel sounds (2); reduced vowels

Unit 5 Consonant sounds; word stress; /è/

Unit 6 Voiced/Voiceless sounds; present tense endings

Unit 7 /í/ and /8/

Unit 8 /1/ and /i:/

Unit 9 /å/ and /u:/; “-ed” endings

Unit 10 /æ/ and /e1/; and intonation of statements and yes/no questions

Unit 11 /ã/ and / èå/; intonation of wh-questions

Unit 12 /h/; sentence stress

Unit 13 /ê / and /tê/

Unit 14 Revision of pronunciation

Table 1.1: Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in elementary Lifelines

 Pre-intermediate Lifelines

Unit 1 The phonetic alphabet

Unit 2 Consonants; intonation of questions

Unit 3 “-ed” endings; word stress

Unit 4 /1/ and /i:/; sentence stress

Unit 5 /ã/ and /ä:/; reduced vowels

Unit 6 The pronunciation of “-a-”; word stress

Unit 7 /8/ and /í/; auxiliary verbs

Unit 8 Silent letters; sentence stress

Table 1.2: Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in the first eight units

in pre-intermediate Lifelines

As shown above, intonation, thinly disposed with only three times presented

as part of pronunciation lessons, taking totally just around two forty-five-minute periods, is almost neglected in the English course books Even worse, besides the main course books, no supplementary materials on intonation are included in the English syllabus That explains why students at UT-HCMC have spare understanding of intonation, which undoubtedly has negative effects on their oral performance in English

 Section I: In this section, students are asked to read aloud a short text

Evaluation of their performance is mostly based on their pronunciation of sounds whereas the production of stress, linking sounds and intonation, if considered, account for just a small part of the score they receive

 Section II: After finishing reading the text, students are asked about 4

comprehension questions which are aimed to check their understanding of the text The result only depends on the exactness of the information they provide

in their answers Their use of intonation does not bring any changes to this result

 Section III: The objective of this section is to check students’ use of English

through their presentation on one of the three or four topics given to them

1

For further information, see the analysis of Teachers’ questionnaire in Chapter 4.

before the testing date The informativeness of their presentation and their pronunciation of sounds are two main criteria on which teachers base to assess their performance Like in Section I, factors like stress, linking sounds and intonation, if ever put into consideration, just make up a small part in the assessment

 Section IV: On completion of topic presentation, students are asked three or

four other questions related to the topic they have just presented Like in Section II, the score students get much depends on the accuracy of their answers

 Section V: In this last part, students are expected to make questions for three or

four statements provided by the teacher They will win scores if they can give correct questions, their use of intonation is not considered at this stage, however

This way of assessment, almost excluding intonation as a crucial criterion, is one of the main causes that make intonation neglected in English classes at UT-HCMC

1.3 TEACHERS

There are totally 25 English teachers currently working at UT-HCMC, 20 of whom are full-time teachers; the others are part-time They are all qualified and experienced enough to teach English to non-English majors2 Unfortunately, they do not share their views on the target objectives of the teaching and learning of English, leading to considerable differences in the things they teach, the methods they employ and the activities they hold in their classes3

Many teachers believe that teaching English means teaching English grammar to students and learning English means learning everything about English grammar As a result of this belief, these teachers place a special focus on grammar and thus, spend most of their time in class teaching complex grammatical rules to

students and force them to learn all these rules by heart The practice of these grammatical points, however, is just sentence-based; the primary method employed

in classroom is traditional grammar-translation and the main language used in interactions between teachers and students and among students themselves is Vietnamese Seldom is English pronunciation mentioned in such classes Accordingly, intonation is also almost ignored That means these teachers are, instead of teaching English, teaching their students about English Explaining for their viewpoint, these teachers put forward the idea that if students are not learning English grammar, then they are not learning English at all because without a solid knowledge of grammar, it is quite impossible for them to use English The truth in their argument is obviously undeniable; however, the problem with their teaching habit is that they tend to teach English grammar out of contexts, which makes it impossible for students to know in what situations these grammatical rules should

be used, leading to their failure in expressing their ideas properly not only in spoken but also in written forms Moreover, these teachers forget that English, like all other languages, is comprised of not only grammar but also many other important aspects and that in order to enhance learners’ communicative competence, which is the main focus of most learners of English nowadays, it is not only the grammar but also the vocabulary and the pronunciation that count

Some teachers, although recognizing the significant role of intonation in conveying meanings as well as attitudes of the speaker, still do not teach intonation

to their students because, as explained by them, there are so many other things about English that are far more important, and thus, worth teaching than intonation Consequently, their students never have opportunities to approach intonation As a result, students have no idea of what intonation is and of how significant intonation

is to English pronunciation Accordingly, they tend to read or speak English in a weird way, i.e without any changes in the pitch of their voice

Some other teachers, reckoning intonation as one of the key factors that help build up learners’ oral competence, really spend a certain amount of time per unit

teaching intonation to their students However, the result of that, as revealed by the teachers, is not as good as expected: although it is simple enough for the teachers to provide their students with a number of common intonation-related rules, for the students to apply the rules properly in conversational exchanges, even only within the limited situation of an English class, is not that simple That means practice is a matter that counts in the process of acquiring English intonation

All the-above stated facts undoubtedly result in students’ inadequate knowledge of English intonation, which is believed to be one of the main causes of regretful breakdowns in their communications with native speakers of English if there are any

1.4 STUDENTS

Students at UT-HCMC are all non-English majors Most of them, after spending at least 2 years learning English, enter university with a lame, unsystematic knowledge of English grammar, an inadequate knowledge of English pronunciation system and poor competence in communicating in English This is the inevitable result of the way English is taught at most high schools in Vietnam4 Unfortunately, the English teaching and learning situation at UT-HCMC is not much brighter Students’ deficient knowledge of English which is thought to be the natural result of the above-mentioned way of English teaching, together with their unclearly-specified motivation of English learning are believed to be the main causes of their improper attitudes towards English and English learning

4

In her M.A thesis, Lu Thi Ngoc Lan [2009: 1] points out that “the teaching and learning

of grammar at high school has been, in fact, nothing but the teaching of a new grammatical point, its structure(s) and rule(s) for students to learn by heart Comprehension is acquired based on the meaning of individual words, not on their relationship with other elements in the grammatical structures containing them As a result, some grammatical structures have always been a haunt to Vietnamese high school students: they often fail to identify the meaning conveyed by the structures and thus, it is quite impossible for students to learn grammar as an accurate and efficient means to express what they want to communicate.”

1.5 SUMMARY

All in all, there are at least four factors that prevent intonation from being taught at UT-HCMC: (1) intonation is not included as a crucial part in the curriculum, (2) intonation is not considered as one of the assessment criteria, (3) teachers and students do not recognize intonation as one of the significant components of English pronunciation, (4) the English curricula at UT-HCMC are all set with a time limit, so even when teachers are interested in teaching intonation, they have no time to do that As a result, students at this university usually speak or read English in an unusual way: every syllable in their utterances is said on the same pitch level, with no changes in speed or loudness That explains why most of the students at this school fail to speak English naturally

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 mainly focuses on (1) definitions of some intonation-related terms, (2) an overview of the common intonation patterns and their communicative values, (3) a discussion about the roles and the overall functions of intonation in English Also included in this chapter is a brief look at (4) English teachers’ attitudes towards intonation and intonation teaching, (5) some of the learners’ misconceptions of intonation and common problems facing them in their intonation acquisition The focus of this chapter is also laid on (6) basic principles in intonation teaching and learning, techniques suggested by some linguists in intonation teaching and (7) previous researches related to intonation and intonation teaching in HCMC

2.1 INTONATION-RELATED TERMS

2.1.1 Stress

An important dimension of English pronunciation is stress Stress, as defined

by Roach [1991: 133], is “something that applies to (or is a property of) syllables5, and is, therefore, part of the supra-segmental6 phonology of English.” Avery and

Ehrlich [1995: 63] make it simpler by saying that stress involves “making vowels longer and louder.” Stress, also worded by Lujan [2004: 1.2], is “given to a word by accentuating certain syllable.”

2.1.2 Stress-timed rhythm 7 vs Syllable-timed rhythm

Unlike many languages which are syllable-timed, English has stress-timed rhythm, i.e “the time for each stressed syllable to the next will tend to be the same,

Supra-segmentals are “those features of speech which extend over more than one

segment, such as intonation and stress.” [Crystal, 1980: 314]

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Rhythm in speech is “the regular, patterned beat of stressed and unstressed syllables and

pauses The rhythm of an English utterance is created by combining word and sentence

stress.” [Celce-Murcia et al, 2002: 152]

irrespective of the number of intervening unstressed syllables.” [Roach, 1991: 120]

In the same vein, Celce-Murcia et al [2002: 152] maintain that “English moves in

regular, rhythmic beats from stress to stress — no matter how many unstressed

syllables fall in between.” In ‘b6å_6v ð6m ‘left ‘3:li , for example, each of the

three segments (separated by the vertical lines) would take the same time to utter,

although it has a different number of syllables In fact, “the amount of time it takes

to say a sentence in a stress-timed language depends on the number of syllables that receive stress, not on the total number of syllables.” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 73]

In syllable-timed languages like Vietnamese, “all syllables, whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur at regular time intervals and the time between stressed syllables will be shorter or longer in proportion to the number of unstressed

syllables.” [Roach, 1991: 121] The same idea is also stated by Celce-Murcia et al

[2002: 152]: “Rhythm in syllable-timed language is a function of the number of syllables in a given phrase, not the number of stressed elements.” Thus, unlike English, phrases with an equal number of syllables take roughly the same time to produce, and the stress received by each syllable is much more even than in English

2.1.3 Placement of main stress in sentences

2.1.3.1 Content words vs Function words

To produce appropriate English rhythm, it is necessary to know which words

of a sentence are stressed and which are not stressed According to Avery and

Ehrlich [1995] and Celce-Murcia et al [2002], English words can be divided into

two groups: content words, also called lexical words by Biber et al [1999: 55], and

function words Despite the divergences in the ways of naming the terms, the authors all agree that content words, including nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives,

demonstratives and question words like why, when, what, etc are words that carry

information, and function words, including articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, pronouns, conjunctions and relative pronouns, are words which have little or no meaning in themselves but which rather express grammatical relationships These

linguists also reach an agreement on the fact that content words are usually stressed whereas function words are usually unstressed unless they are to be given special attention

2.1.3.2 Placement of major sentence stress

Avery and Ehrlich [1995: 75] emphasize that “while all content words receive major word stress, one content word within a particular sentence will receive greater stress than all the other.” This is referred to as major sentence stress

The two authors also state that in most cases the major sentence stress falls on the

last content word within a sentence, like in (1):

(1) Susan bought a new sweater at Creeds

However, major sentence stress will not fall on the stressed syllable of the final content word of a sentence in these following cases [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 76]:

 When the speaker wishes to direct the hearer’s attention to some other content word in the sentence, this word will receive major sentence stress

Dialogue 1: (2a) A: What did you buy at Creeds?

(2b) B: I bought a new sweater at Creeds

The sentence marked (2b) in Dialogue 1 does not receive major sentence stress on

Creeds, but rather on the stressed syllable of sweater because it is the element of the

sentence that Speaker B is directing Speaker A’s attention to We call this element

the information focus of the sentence

 When the speaker wants to contrast the information, the word carrying this contrasted information will receive major sentence stress

Dialogue 2: (3a) A: I hear that Susan bought another second-hand sweater

(3b) B: No, she bought a new sweater

We might expect the major sentence stress in Speaker B’s response marked (3b) to

fall on sweater because it is the final content word of the sentence However, it is









the contrasted information in Speaker B’s response that receives major sentence stress,

i.e the fact that the sweater is new The same idea is also declared by Celce-Murcia

et al [2002: 185]: “Changes of pitch are highly dependent on discourse8 meaning and prominence, with rises in intonation co-occurring with the highlighted and more important words that receive prominence within the sentence.”

2.1.4 Pitch

Pitch, as defined by Celce-Murcia et al [2002: 184], is “the relative highness

or lowness of the voice” Richards et al [1993: 278] make it clearer by saying

“when we listen to people speaking, we can hear some sounds or groups of sounds

in their speech to be relatively higher or lower than others This relative height of speech sounds as perceived by a listener is called pitch.”

It should be noted that the phonetic notion of pitch is relative, referring to the differentiated pitch levels of a given speaker — not to the lower versus higher pitches of men’s and women’s voices or the differing pitch variations of different speakers

2.1.5 Intonation

If pitch represents the individual tones of speech, then intonation can be thought of as “the entire melodic line which involves the rising and falling of the voice to various pitch levels during the articulation of an utterance.” [Celce-Murcia

et al, 2002: 184] Intonation is also referred to as “the pattern of pitch changes that

we use when we speak,” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 76] “the way we use and change our voice,” [Lujan, 2004: 1.1] “variations in the pitch of a speaker’s voice,” [Finch, 2000: 50] “the continuous changing of pitch of a speaker’s voice to express meanings,” [Bradford,1992: 1] “the way the voice goes up and down in pitch.” [Kelly, 2000: 86]

2.1.6 Tone languages vs Intonation languages

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Discourse is “a general term for examples of language use, i.e language which has been

produced as the result of an act of communication.” [Richards et al, 1993: 111]

Avery and Ehrlich [1995: 77] draw a clear distinction between tone languages and intonation languages:

Languages like Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese which use pitch to distinguish word meanings are referred to as tone languages while English, known

as an intonation language, does not use pitch in this way In English, nevertheless, pitch changes do contribute significantly to the meaning of sentences: different pitch patterns can signal very different meanings for the same sentence

Richards et al [1993: 382] also recognize that in tone languages like

Vietnamese, tone9 is used to differentiate words; i.e variations in pitch affect the meaning of words and thus, substituting one distinctive tone for another on a

particular word or morpheme can cause a change in the lexical meaning of that

word or morpheme:

- ma (with the mid-level tone) = ghost

- má (with the high-rising tone) = cheek, mother

- mà (with the low-falling tone) = but

- mạ (with the low-broken tone) = rice seeding

- mả (with the low-rising tone) = tomb

- mã (with the high-broken tone) = horse

In English and other intonation languages, tone does not differentiate words

in this way Instead, it operates above the level of words and is perceived to influence the meaning of chunks of speech, which are commonly called intonation units

2.1.7 Intonation units

Seen from different perspectives, the concept is labeled differently by

different linguists If it is termed intonation units by Celce-Murcia et al [2002], then it

is named tonic segments by Brazil [1997] If it is referred to as tone groups by

Halliday [1978], then it is called tone units by Richards et al [1993] Expressing it in different ways, but Halliday, and Richards et al agree that an intonation unit is the

unit of information which can be of any length Going into its deeper nature, Brazil

9

Tone is “the height of pitch and change of pitch which is associated with the

pronunciation of syllables or words and which affects the meaning of the word.”

[Richards et al, 1993: 382]

[1997: 3] asserts that tone unit is “the stretch of language that carries the systematically-opposed features of intonation.”

2.1.8 Prominence

Prominence in discourse, as explained by Richards et al [1993: 296], means

“greater stress on the words or syllables which the speaker wishes to emphasize.” In

the same vein, Celce-Murcia et al [2002: 176] add that “prominence is the word the

speaker wishes to highlight.” The function of the tonic is to form the focus of the information

2.1.8.1 Tonic syllables

Bradford [1992: 14] states that a tonic syllable is “a prominent syllable on which a pitch movement begins.” It is well noticed that to refer to the notion

conveyed by tonic syllables, other linguists [Richards et al, 1993 and Brazil, 1997]

use another term — tonic segment, the point of operation of the tone system, and thus tonic syllables are to be understood as constituting a sub-set of prominent syllable Brazil [1997: 9] also shows that tonic syllable plays the principle part in the intonation of the tone group

2.1.8.2 Placement of prominence in an intonation unit

According to Bradford [1992: 14], the tonic syllable is “always the last

prominent syllable in a tone unit.” Not totally approving this view, Celce-Murcia et

al [2002: 176] state that only in unmarked utterances does the stressed syllable in

the last content word exhibit prominence and that, in fact, it is the discourse context that generally influences which stressed word in a given utterance10 receives

prominence Celce-Murcia et al [2002] and Chafe [1980] point out three

circumstances governing the placement of prominence:

 New information: Within an intonation unit, words expressing old and given information are unstressed and spoken with lower pitch, whereas words

10

In discourse, an utterance is “what is said by any one person before or after another

person begins to speak.” [Richards et al, 1993: 367]

expressing new information are spoken with strong stress and higher pitch Dialog 3 is a typical example of how prominence marks new versus old information provided by Allen [1971: 77]

Dialogue 3: (4a) X: I’ve lost an umBRELla

(4b) A: LAdy's umbrella?

(4c) X: Yes A lady’s umbrella with STARS on it GREEN stars

 Emphatic stress: When the speaker wishes to place special emphasis on a

particular element, this element will receive the prominence In I’m NEVer

eating clams again, for example, the speaker might place emphatic stress on never to signal a particular bad reaction she once had when eating clams

 Contrastive stress: When the speaker would like to contrast the information previously stated, the word carrying the contrasted information will receive

prominence High in (5b) is the information contrasted with low in (5a), and

therefore, it is the element that receives prominence in the sentence in question:

Dialogue 4: (5a) A: Is this the low impact aeRObics class?

(5b) B: No, it’s the HIGH impact class

2.1.9 Intonation patterns

An intonation pattern, also referred to as an intonation contour, is “the movement

of pitch within an intonation unit.” [Celce-Murcia et al, 2002: 185] It should be

fully recognized that the notion conveyed by intonation patterns is termed

differently by other linguists: pitch inflections by Lujan [2004], tones by Richards et

al [1993] and tunes by O’Connor [1986] Despite the divergences in the ways of

labeling the notion, a basic similarity is found in the essence of an intonation pattern: a significant change in pitch which affects the meaning and function of utterances in discourse

Besides the differences in the ways the notion is termed, the number of intonation patterns English has is another controversial topic that linguists can

hardly reach agreement on Moreover, these intonation patterns are also labeled and represented differently by different authors

2.1.9.1 By Avery and Ehrlich [1995]

Tones are divided by Avery and Ehrlich into two main categories: final intonation including the rising-falling intonation and the rising intonation; and non-final intonation consisting of the rising-falling intonation and the continuation rise

 Final intonation

o The rising-falling intonation: The pitch rises at the major sentence stress and falls over the remaining part of the sentence

(6) She gave him five dollars for it

o The rising intonation: The pitch rises at the major sentence stress However,

rather than a sharp decline in pitch level after the stressed syllable as with the rising-falling intonation pattern, the voice continues to rise

(7) Did she give him five dollars for it?

 Non-final intonation

o The rising-falling intonation: This tone is produced like the final rising-falling intonation except that the pitch, when falling, does not fall nearly as far

(8) The man you say you met yesterday  has left the town

o The continuation rise: This pattern is often used with lists The pitch of the voice must rise slightly on each noun of the list, indicating that we are not yet finished speaking

(9) I’ll have two pencils, a black pen, and some ink

Note: The double vertical lines indicate boundaries between tone units; the dots

identify tonic syllables and the lines refer to the tones chosen

2.1.9.2 By Bradford [1992] and Brazil [1997]

These two linguists highlight five basic tones: the fall, the fall-rise, the rise, the rise-fall and the level Of these, the first two tones are the most frequently found in many kinds of discourse

o The fall (also called the telling tone by Bradford or the proclaiming tone by Brazil): The fall is used when the utterance contains information which the speaker thinks is new to the hearer

o The fall-rise (also called the referring tone by the two authors): The fall-rise is used when the utterance contains known information — ideas the speaker thinks his hearer already knows about or has experience of

Dialogue 5: (10a) A: Why don’t we go on Wednesday then?

(10b) B:  I’m aFRAID  meeting  on WEDnesday 

Wednesday in (10b) is already mentioned in (10a), it is, therefore, considered as

known information, and thus, expressed with the fall-rise Meeting, on the other

hand, is the information Speaker B wishes to provide Speaker A, so it is new and therefore, is spoken with the fall

Note: The double vertical lines mark boundaries between tone units; the capital

letters represent prominent syllables and the arrows identify the tones selected

2.1.9.3 By Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin [2002]

The linguists pay much attention to the two most frequently used intonation patterns in English: the rising-falling intonation and the rising intonation

o The rising-falling intonation: There are two types of rising-falling intonation, the first one has the 2-3-111 pattern and the other has the 2-3-2 pattern

 The 2-3-1 pattern: The intonation typically begins at a neutral middle level 2, then rises to a high level 3 on the main stressed element of the utterance and

falls to the low level 1, signaling that the utterance is finished It is, therefore, named terminal fall

(11) Computers can also be FRUStrating (12) Computers are FUN

(13) I opened the old SUITcase (and found a million dollars!)

o The rising intonation: The rise usually begins at the syllable with discourse

prominence and continues slightly until the end of the phrase The intonation

also has two subgroups: the 2-3 or 2-4 pattern and the 1-2 pattern

 The 2-3 or 2-4 pattern: The intonation moves from middle level 2 to either high level 3 or extra high level 4 depending on the amount of emotion being

expressed

(14) The plane LEFT already?

11

As explained by Celce-Murcia et al [2002], 1, 2, 3, and 4 are numbers used to distinguish

the four levels of phonetic pitch in English, in which 1 means low, 2 means middle, 3 means high and 4 means extra high