Solving common intonation problems of non english major students at ho chi minh city university of science an action research study

ABSTRACT The study was carried out from November 13 to December 18, 2017 in order to determine some common intonation problems of non-English major students at HCMUS in the four main typ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

SOLVING COMMON INTONATION PROBLEMS

OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE:

AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master's degree in TESOL

By

PHAM DUY DUONG

Supervised by

Assoc Prof Dr NGUYEN THANH TUNG

HO CHI MINH CITY, MAY 2018

Firstly, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my beloved supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thanh Tung, for having wholeheartedly instructed, inspired, reminded and supported me when I conducted the study I

do apologize profusely to him for my lateness sometimes Without my dear supervisor, I could not have completed my thesis on time

Secondly, I would like to give all my heartfelt thanks to all the lecturers

at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and other lecturers for teaching, guiding and imparting the knowledge to me I have learned a great deal of valuable knowledge from them since I was a postgraduate at this university

Thirdly, this thesis is highly dedicated to my parents and my two older brothers I owe a debt of gratitude to them They always remind me of the bright future after graduation and say to me "Do not ever give up and do your best!" when I feel totally dispirited

Next, I am extremely grateful to all my dear students and colleagues at

Ho Chi Minh City University of Science for making my thesis complete and perfect

Last but not least, I owe my friends, especially my closest one, special thanks They are always by my side to unceasingly motivate and push me when I am on the wrong track and give me helpful pieces of advice when I do not have sufficient motivation for completing the thesis

Thank you all of you from the bottom of my heart!

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I certify that this thesis, entitled "Solving common intonation problems

of non-English major students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Science: An action research study" is my own work

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

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2018

Pham Duy Duong

RETENTION OF USE

I hereby state that I, Pham Duy Duong, being a candidate for the degree

of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the university related

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 purpose of the study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2018

Pham Duy Duong

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDMENTS i

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ii

RETENTION OF USE iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xiii

ABSTRACT xiv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Statement of the problem 2

1.3 Aim and research questions 3

1.4 Significance of the study 4

1.5 Organization of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Pronunciation 6

2.1.1 Definitions of pronunciation 6

2.1.2 Aspects of pronunciation 7

2.1.3 Importance of pronunciation 8

2.2 Intonation 9

2.2.1 Definitions of intonation 9

2.2.2 Components of intonation 11

2.2.2.1 Pitch 11

2.2.2.3 Sentence stress 14

2.2.2.4 Tone unit 16

2.2.3 Intonation patterns 20

2.2.3.1 Paulston and Bruder (1976) 20

2.2.3.2 Kelly (2000) 21

2.2.3.3 Kreidler (2004) 23

2.2.3.4 Yoshida (2013) 23

2.2.4 Functions of intonation 26

2.3 Intelligibility and its application to intonation assessment 28

2.3.1 Intelligibility 28

2.3.2 Applying intelligibility to intonation assessment 29

2.4 Intonation teaching techniques 30

2.4.1 Using videos 30

2.4.2 Using Coolspeech 31

2.4.3 Using Speech Analyzer 31

2.5 Review of previous studies 31

2.6 Chapter summary 33

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 34

3.1 Research site 34

3.2 Participants 35

3.3 Research methodology 36

3.3.1 Research approach 36

3.3.2 Research method 37

3.3.2.1 Reasons for choosing action research 37

3.3.2.2 Applying action research to the study 38

3.3.3 Research instruments 40

3.3.3.1 Questionnaires 40

3.3.3.2 Tests 41

3.4 Analytical framework 43

3.4.1 Questionnaires 43

3.4.2 Tests 43

3.5 Validity and reliability 48

3.5.1 Questionnaires 48

3.5.2 Tests 48

3.6 Chapter summary 49

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 50

4.1 Data analysis 50

4.1.1 Results from the two questionnaires 50

4.1.1.1 Results from the pre-questionnaire 50

4.1.1.2 Results from the post-questionnaire 59

4.1.1.3 Comparison of pre- and post-questionnaires 64

4.1.1.4 Results from the two mini-tests of the two questionnaires 67 4.1.2 Results from the two tests 67

4.1.2.1 Inter-rater reliability 67

4.1.2.2 Tests data analysis 71

4.2 Discussion of the findings 76

4.2.1 Findings about the students' attitudes towards learning intonation 76

4.2.2 Findings about the students' intonation performance 77

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 80

5.2 Evaluation of research methodology 81

5.2.1 Strengths 81

5.2.2 Weaknesses 82

5.3 Recommendations 82

5.3.1 For the teachers 82

5.3.2 For the students 83

5.3.3 For the schools 83

5.4 Suggestions for further research 84

5.5 Chapter summary 84

REFERENCES 85

APPENDICES 88

(Pre-questionnaire) 89

APPENDIX 2: Pre-questionnaire 94

(Post-questionnaire) 98

APPENDIX 4: Post-questionnaire 102

APPENDIX 5: Intonation test (Pre-test) 105

APPENDIX 6: Intonation test (Post-test) 107

APPENDIX 7: Pre-test assessment 109

APPENDIX 8: Post-test assessment 112

APPENDIX 9: Criteria for intonation assessment 115

APPENDIX 10: Raw scores by Examiner 1 116

APPENDIX 11: Raw scores by Examiner 2 117

APPENDIX 12: Total scores by Examiner 1 118

APPENDIX 13: Total scores by Examiner 2 119

APPENDIX 14: Mean scores by the two examiners 120

APPENDIX 15: General improvement of students 121 APPENDIX 16: Mean scores of the four types by the two examiners122 APPENDIX 17: Students' improvement for each type 123

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AR : Action research

HCMUS : Ho Chi Minh City University of Science

SPSS : The statistical package for the social sciences

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Definitions of intonation by Kenworthy (1987), Roach (1991),

Kelly (2000), Kreidler (2004), Knight (2012) and Yoshida (2013) 11

Table 2.2: Examples of word stress by Kelly (2000) 12

Table 2.3: Content words and function words by Yoshida (2013) 15

Table 2.4: Intonation patterns by Kelly (2000) 22

Table 2.5: Intonation patterns by Kreidler (2004) 23

Table 2.6: A summary of functions of intonation 27

Table 3.1: Students' personal information 35

Table 3.2: Teaching procedures 39

Table 3.3: A summary of questions in the pre-questionnaire 40

Table 3.4: A summary of questions in the post-questionnaire 41

Table 3.5: Number of questions in the two mini-tests 42

Table 3.6: Number of questions in the two tests 42

Table 3.7: Steps for assessing students' intonation 44

Table 3.8: Criteria for intonation assessment 46

Table 3.9: Criteria for students' levels 47

Table 4.1: Importance of speaking skills and pronunciation 52

Table 4.2: Aspects of pronunciation 55

Table 4.3: Familiarity with aspects of pronunciation 55

Table 4.4: Definition of intonation 56

Table 4.5: Functions of intonation 56

Table 4.6: Intonation patterns 57

Table 4.7: Reasons for difficulties in using intonation 58

Table 4.8: Suggested solutions for solving the problem 59

Table 4.9: Definition of intonation 61

Table 4.10: Functions of intonation 62

Table 4.11: Intonation patterns 62

Table 4.12: Incorporating intonation into the lesson and necessity of intonation teaching 63

Table 4.13: Suggested solutions for solving the problem 64

Table 4.14: Differences between pre- and post-questionnaires 65

Table 4.15: Students’ improvement from the two mini-tests 67

Table 4.16: Inter-rater reliability of pre-test scores of the two examiners 68

Table 4.17: Inter-rater reliability of post-test scores of the two examiners 68 Table 4.18: Inter-rater reliability of pre-test scores of the two examiners for each type 69

Table 4.19: Inter-rater reliability of post-test scores of the two examiners for each type 70

Table 4.20: Mean scores of pre- and post-tests 72

Table 4.21: A paired-samples t-test of the means before and after the intervention 72

Table 4.22: Improvement for each type of the sentence 73

Table 4.23: Mean scores of the four types 73

Table 4.24: A paired-samples t-test of the means before and after the

intervention for wh-questions 74Table 4.25: A paired-samples t-test of the means before and after the

intervention for statements 74Table 4.26: A paired-samples t-test of the means before and after the

intervention for tag questions 75Table 4.27: A paired-samples t-test of the means before and after the

intervention for yes/no questions 76

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Aspects of pronunciation by Kelly (2000) 7

Figure 3.1: Cycle of action research by Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988, as cited in Burns, 2010, p 9) 37

Figure 3.2: Sample contour (Wh-question) 45

Figure 3.3: Sample contour (Tag question) 45

Figure 4.1: Level of students 50

Figure 4.2: Years of learning English 51

Figure 4.3: The most difficult aspect in learning English 51

Figure 4.4: The most important aspect to acquire good speaking skills 53

Figure 4.5: Difficulty in English pronunciation 53

Figure 4.6: Level of difficulty in English pronunciation 54

Figure 4.7: Importance of intonation 60

Figure 4.8: Understanding of intonation 60

Figure 4.9: Using intonation in speaking 61

Figure 4.10: Differences of students' levels 71

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out from November 13 to December 18, 2017 in order to determine some common intonation problems of non-English major students at HCMUS in the four main types (wh-questions, statements, tag questions, and yes/no questions) This study also investigated their difficulties

in learning intonation and their suggested solutions to solve these difficulties The intervention was the application of videos of native speakers and two pieces of software on teaching intonation to help the students hone their intonation

The action research study with four phases (planning, acting, observing, and reflecting) was undertaken with one cycle for six weeks The class of 30 students was the sample of the study The data were collected through the two questionnaires (a pre- and a post-) and the two tests (a pre- and a post-) A Pearson correlation coefficient was employed for the test inter-rater reliability and a paired-samples t-test was run for checking whether the disparity in the means of the students’ pre- and post-test scores was statistically significant

The findings of the study indicate that using videos of native speakers and two pieces of software brought good results to the students as they significantly improved their intonation in the tests Furthermore, the findings from the two questionnaires show that the students became more aware of intonation for the four main types From the scores of the two examiners, the results were positive and the students could understand and apply intonation patterns to English speaking and use them in everyday communication

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

"English today is the native language of nearly 400 million people and and it is the second language of many others scattered all over the world" (Kreidler, 2004, p 1) In fact, an increasing number of people in general and Vietnamese people in particular have been learning English every day for many different purposes: learning, working and doing business That is why English has served a pivotal role in the social development and thanks to English, Vietnamese people today can communicate with native speakers and

do business with foreign companies easily

In reality, English has become a lingua franca and even those who are not native speakers know some simple words in English (Harmer, 2001, p 1)

It has lead to the growing demand for learning English of Vietnamese people

in recent years In fact, English has become one of the compulsory and core subjects for Vietnamese students since they started primary school However, Vietnamese students do not have sufficient time to cover all the English skills

at school In addition, when graduating from high school, they have to take the exam with only two skills of reading and writing They, therefore, cannot gain

a good level of competence in speaking when they get accepted to university Consequently, they lack confidence and motivation for learning English, especially learning for communication The truth is that when learning English, learners have to be adept at not only receptive skills but also productive ones because the main aim of learning any language is communication (Ahmad, 2016, p 478)

These days, English communication has become an integral part in learning English Besides enhancing listening, reading and writing skills, Vietnamese students must spend a great deal of time communicating with their classmates and even teachers through speaking activities When they enter a

university or college, it may be a long journey for them because everything such as life and studies has changed completely Back to the studies at university, English is one of the toughest subjects Vietnamese students have to face when going to university They have some barriers when approaching the new way of learning English at university Listening and speaking skills will then occupy most of the time in the English class Moreover, the teaching methodology will switch from teacher-centered to student-centered

According to Dang (2000, p 4), in English communication, Vietnamese students have to deal with seven problems pertaining to pronunciation (voiced, unvoiced, linking, word stress, to name just a few) and intonation is part of it The reason for the problem in using intonation is the dissimilarity between the two languages Vietnamese is a tone language, whereas English is an intonation one One more thing, when Vietnamese students speak English, they are afraid to raise or lower their voice and most of them are not taught much about intonation at school Besides, English teachers often ignore this aspect when they teach English to students for their lack of knowledge and experience (Setter & Ngo, 2011, p 1466) As a consequence, students may not understand what intonation is and do not know how to speak English naturally The neglect of teaching intonation is one of the main barriers to English learning success Based on the above problem, the researcher wants to choose the aspect of intonation to conduct the research to partly help his students hone their intonation in English communication

1.2 Statement of the problem

Although intonation is a crucial part of pronunciation, it is still not seen

as a priority in teaching English in Vietnam (Setter & Ngo, 2011, p 1466) Taking no notice of intonation teaching may potentially result in barriers for Vietnamese learners to gain communicative competence Doan (2005) and Ky (2007) (both as cited in Ngo, 2017) state the three main reasons for intonation

to be neglected to teach by teachers at universities: the lack of time, the lack of

written tests rather than speaking and pronunciation In addition, the complicated tonal system of the Vietnamese language and the low frequency

of intonation-related lessons in English coursebooks also make learning intonation become difficult (Griffiths, 2010, as cited in Ngo, 2017, p 13) Thus, these problems will adversely affect students’ intonation in English

In order to cope with these intonation problems, there is a great deal of research undertaken to find the best solution to solve students' problems in using intonation Some research mainly aims to address problems in using intonation in the four main types: wh-questions, statements, tag questions, and yes/no questions Park (2011) uses the technique "reading aloud" to help students improve intonation in the four types mentioned above After the intervention, the result was significantly positive because Park's students could understand and use intonation patterns for the four main types The study conducted by Winarti (2014) also brings the same result to the students By using "jazz chants" as the technique, this researcher helps them make a vast improvement in using intonation for the four aforementioned types: wh-questions, statements, tag questions, and yes/no questions

From the positive results above from the two researchers, the researcher

of this study then also wants to conduct the research to tackle his students' problems in using intonation for the four main types: wh-questions, statements, tag questions, and yes/no questions

1.3 Aim and research questions

The main aim of the study is that the researcher would like to investigate some common intonation problems of students in the four main types: wh-questions, statements, tag questions, and yes/no questions Specially, it aims to see the effectiveness of techniques used in the study on their intonation Therefore, the study entails the two research questions as follows:

1 What are common intonation problems of students in the four types: questions, statements, tag questions, and yes/no questions?

wh-2 What is the effectiveness of the techniques used in the research?

1.4 Significance of the study

The main significance of the study is that through the investigation of their common intonation problems, students can gradually develop their intonation in the four main types (wh-questions, statements, tag questions, and yes/no questions); from these, they may know and pay more attention to intonation when speaking English Furthermore, the researcher also has a chance to review what teaching situation he is in and what level of intonation his students belong to; therefore, he will achieve some valuable experience in teaching and improving students’ intonation in his teaching career Foremost among these is that his students will make the most of the solutions and treatments used in this study to learn English better later, especially in English intonation

1.5 Organization of the thesis

The thesis covers five chapters of the research Chapter 1 mentions the background, statement of the problem, aim, and significance, and then raises some research questions for the whole study The next chapter (Chapter 2) will next provide the theoretical background of pronunciation, intonation, components of intonation, intelligibility and its application to intonation assessment, and intonation teaching techniques Besides, this part also presents some previous studies of other researchers and gives the researcher’s comments on their limitations to identify a gap The third chapter justifies the methodology of the study, which consists of descriptions of setting, participants, research methodology, analytical framework, and the issues of validity and reliability of the data Next, Chapter 4 will analyze data collected from questionnaires and tape recordings and discuss the findings of the study The final chapter, Chapter 5, concludes the thesis by first giving the main

next evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the research methodology, then giving some recommendations for teachers, students and schools, and finally making some suggestions for further research with the same topic of intonation

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The second chapter of the study presents an overview of the relevant theoretical background for the study The aspects of pronunciation, intonation, intelligibility, and intonation teaching techniques will be discussed and clearly defined in this chapter The chapter ends with a review of previous empirical research studies related to the topic to identify the gap for this study to be conducted

2.1 Pronunciation

2.1.1 Definitions of pronunciation

There are various definitions of pronunciation given by phoneticians and linguists and each definition enormously contributes to the initial perception of most English learners when learning pronunciation

Roach (2002, p 61) simply defines pronunciation as the act of producing sounds when talking to others It sets a precedent for some more specific definitions of pronunciation later In order to describe the definition of pronunciation in more detail, the AMEP (2002) states:

Pronunciation is the production of sounds that we use to make meaning It includes attention to the particular sounds of a language (segments), aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality) and, in its broadest definition, attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related to the way we speak a language (p 1)

Besides giving clearer details, it can be seen from the AMEP's definition that pronunciation consists of two aspects: segmental and suprasegmental These two features of pronunciation are also explained clearly While segmental aspects relate to particular sounds, suprasegmental

features are the ones beyond the scope of individual sounds such as intonation, stress, and rhythm Yoshida (2013, p 24) shares the same idea as the AMEP

on the definition of pronunciation Pronunciation not only refers to single sounds (segmental), but it also affects more than just one individual sound (suprasegmental) Both segmental and suprasegmental features make pronunciation comprehensible to listeners Later, these definitions will greatly benefit learners in gaining a greater insight into pronunciation learning

There have been more and more definitions of pronunciation suggested

by other phoneticians recently but generally, the prevalent view of these is that pronunciation is the way in which a particular word or a sound is pronounced and is considered virtually indispensable for English learners when they learn English

2.1.2 Aspects of pronunciation

As mentioned above, pronunciation includes segmental and suprasegmental aspects In order to shed light on the features of these two aspects, Kelly (2000, p 1) introduces the detailed diagram of pronunciation as follows:

Figure 2.1: Aspects of pronunciation by Kelly (2000)

As in the diagram by Kelly (2000), followed by Kenworthy (1987), Roach (1991), Kreidler (2004), Knight (2012), and Yoshida (2013), pronunciation includes phonemes (segmental) and other aspects (suprasegmental) Phonemes include consonants (voiced and unvoiced) and vowels (short, long, diphthongs, and triphthongs) Suprasegmental features consist of syllable, intonation, stress (word stress and sentence stress), and even aspects of connected speech (rhythm, assimilation, liaison, elision, and linking)

Kelly (2000, p 1) defines that phonemes are how each sound is produced and the phonemes include two categories: vowel sounds and consonant sounds While consonant sounds may be voiced (/b/, /d/, /g/, /v/ )

or voiceless (/p/, /t/, /k/, /f/ ), all the vowel sounds are voiced (/i:/, /e/, /eɪ/ ) The term diphthongs (/ɔɪ/, /aɪ/, /əʊ/ ) and triphthongs (/eɪə/, /aɪə/ ) are also crucial parts of phonemes Meanwhile, suprasegmental features relate to a group of segments or phonemes that include stress, intonation and connected speech Hence, it can be concluded that the classification of pronunciation is practically significant for both English teachers and learners

2.1.3 Importance of pronunciation

Pronunciation is one of the neglected aspects when teachers teach English at school and it even gets pushed to the bottom of the list (Yoshida, 2013) Failure to have good pronunciation can lead to communicative incompetence Although English learners have a great knowledge base of grammar and vocabulary, mispronunciation can cause misunderstandings sometimes and can be extremely difficult for native speakers to understand (Kelly, 2000, p 11) In fact, one can easily understand English learners if they have good pronunciation

Let us take an example to illustrate the importance of pronunciation in English communication Pronouncing the two sounds beat /i:/ and bit /ɪ/ wrong will make the utterance ambiguous and that utterance may have a different

saying and conveying to them The two utterances below (Kelly, 2000) will explain more about the importance of pronunciation in general and intonation

in particular

For the first utterance, if the speaker asks the question for the first time,

he will use falling intonation to ask for information The second utterance is made for clarification The speaker has already been told about this but he/she

may forget it, and the falling intonation will start from "where", then the rising

intonation will go to the end of the question All the aspects of pronunciation are necessary and using them in the wrong way can cause some misunderstanding If you have good grammar and vocabulary but your pronunciation is not understandable, your communication will become a complete failure (Yoshida, 2013) Therefore, it is inevitable that pronunciation plays a significant role in learning English

2.2 Intonation

2.2.1 Definitions of intonation

Intonation is one of the suprasegmental aspects, together with syllable, stress and aspects of connected speech (Kelly, 2000) Many linguists have their own definitions of intonation Kenworthy (1987, p 11) and Knight (2012, p 227) define intonation as "the changing pitch while we speak, making it higher or lower and we can even jump up suddenly in pitch" The speaker will make the utterance higher or lower whenever he/she likes depending on his/her intention The utterance can be changed from a statement

to a question if the speaker changes his/her pitch and vice versa In connection with the above definition, Roach (1991, p 133) shares the same idea According to this author, there has been no explicit definition of intonation

and no definition has been completely satisfactory The central point of intonation rests on pitch and the speaker will constantly change pitch hinging

on the situation and purpose he/she wants to transfer It is obvious that the listener has to listen to the speaker's pitch, analyze it and realize what the speaker is saying or doing

According to Kelly (2000, p 86), intonation is defined as the way the voice goes up and down as we speak, so it is the best way to express the feelings and thoughts and let us understand those of other people The listener can understand others' thoughts without going into the intricacies of the things the speaker says As a result, the listener can easily perceive and grasp the ideas based on the accented syllable from the utterance of the speaker (Kreidler, 2004, p 163) Thanks to the accented syllable or tonic syllable (Kelly, 2000; Roach, 1991) or nuclear syllable (Knight, 2012), the listener will

be able to follow what is going on

It has also been suggested by Yoshida (2013) that besides emotions, intentions and situations, there are many other factors that affect the speaker's pitch The speaker's assumptions about what the listener knows or does not know, age, occupation, personality, willingness to keep talking, and the situation the speaker is in also have a significant influence on the pitch of the speaker It is not simple to predict the intention of the speakers without listening to their utterances while they are speaking

The table on the next page will restate the definitions of intonation suggested by the six linguists and each definition will be highly beneficial to English learners when they want to find out about intonation All the sources are arranged chronologically

Linguist Definition

Kenworthy (1987, p 11)

"Changes in pitch and the speaker will change the pitch of their voice as they speak, making it higher or lower in pitch at will."

Roach (1991, p 133) "Pitch is the most important and it changes

depending on the intention of the speaker."

Kelly (2000, p 86) "The way the voice goes up and down in pitch

when we are speaking."

Kreidler (2004, p 163)

"The way we produce melodies by changing the frequency of vibration of the vocal cords, mostly at the accented syllable."

Knight (2012, p 227) "The changing pitch of the voice as we speak."

Yoshida (2013, p 135) "The melody of language – the pattern of

higher or lower pitch as we speak."

Table 2.1: Definitions of intonation by Kenworthy (1987), Roach (1991), Kelly (2000), Kreidler (2004), Knight (2012) and Yoshida (2013)

As many phoneticians define intonation in their own way, we have no exact definition of intonation Still, there have been various definitions of intonation in recent years by new linguists In general, intonation is about the changing of our pitch when we communicate or speak, and it completely depends on our thoughts, feelings, emotions, attitudes, and so on

2.2.2 Components of intonation

2.2.2.1 Pitch

Kreidler (2004, p 164) defines that "pitch refers to the relative frequency of vibration of the vocal cords: ‘high pitch’ is rapid vibration; ‘low

pitch’ is slow vibration; ‘rising’ and ‘falling’ indicate increasing and decreasing speed, respectively" The vibration of the vocal cords will then be the key part of pitch Roach (1991, p 133) states that pitch is about the highness or lowness of the utterance, but this author also points out that there

is no explicit rule for assessing the voice of the speaker, or in other words, the lowness and highness of someone's voice Different speakers have different pitches because of their habitual pitch level, gender, and age (Knight, 2012)

It is now generally accepted that pitch is the highness and lowness of the sound It can affect the quality of the utterance and totally depends on emotions, feelings and attitudes of the speaker

2.2.2.2 Word stress

According to Kelly (2000, p 86) and Yoshida (2013, p 99), stress in the word means one syllable will sound louder than the other(s) when we pronounce Similarly, Kenworthy (1987, p 10) defines word stress by stating that "one syllable is made to stand out more than the other(s)" The table below will show how we put stress on each word:

Table 2.2: Examples of word stress by Kelly (2000)

Stress can fall on the first, second or last syllable of words For the first column, we have to put the primary stress on SYL, SUB and TECH The second column bears the stress on GAGE, NA, and NE The primary stress is the same for RETTE, ROO and STAND in column three That is how we stress on words, so the stressed syllables will be different from the others For stressed syllables, we can easily realize three features: loudness, change in

"substitute", the stress will fall on SUB, and the second and the third are

Length: the stressed syllable is longer than the other(s)

Pitch: pitch will change noticeably compared to the other(s)

Quality: the syllable will be prominent if it contains the syllable that is

different in quality from neighboring one(s)

To illustrate the stress in a simple word, let us take a look at the word

"around" /əˈraʊnd / The unstressed syllable will fall on (a) while the stressed syllable (round) will be higher in intonation compared to the other.

Stress may confuse learners in some cases, but some basic rules suggested by Kelly (2000, p 69) can somewhat help us achieve better stress when pronouncing words:

Core vocabulary: Many "everyday" nouns and adjectives of

two-syllable length are stressed on the first two-syllable: SISter, BROther, MOther, WAter, PAper, TAble, COFfee, LOvely

Prefixes and suffixes: not usually stressed: QUIetly, oRIGinally,

deFECtive (Some exceptions: BIcycle, DISlocate )

Compound words: POSTman, NEWSpaper, TEApot, CROSSword

Words having a dual role: Stress on the first syllable (noun) and on

the last syllable (verb): IMport (n) and imPORT (v), INcrease (n) and inCREASE (v)

Besides, Yoshida (2013, p 104) suggests some main features of unstressed syllables These features can help the listener differentiate between the stressed syllables and unstressed ones and find the actual word Firstly, the unstressed syllables are shorter in duration than stressed syllables – quick and weak Secondly, they are a bit quieter than stressed syllables Next, they are lower in pitch than stressed syllables Lastly, their vowel sounds are less distinct than those in stressed syllables and are often (but not always) reduced

The following example is taken from Kelly (2000) about sentence stress

in the utterance:

He LIVES in the HOUSE on the CORner

In this example, we have three stressed syllables (LIVES, HOUSE and CORner) We call them "content words" because they have lexical meaning, not grammatical one, and convey the most vital ideas of the whole utterance (Yoshida, 2013) The rest of the sentence are unstressed ("he, in, the, on, the")

and called "function words" – the words that have grammatical meaning but

do not have much meaning in themselves (Yoshida, 2013) Here are some

parts of speech that belong to "content" and "function words", so we can put stress more exactly

Interrogatives (question words)

Not and negative contractions

Adverbs

Adverbial particles

Articles Auxiliary verbs Personal pronouns Possessive adjectives Demonstrative adjectives Prepositions

Conjunctions Relative pronouns

Table 2.3: Content words and function words by Yoshida (2013)

As stated above, content words are words that carry the main meaning

of the sentence They may be nouns (computer, house, student, university ), main verbs (study, go, wash, listen, type ), possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, her, theirs ), demonstrative pronouns (this is, that is, these are, those are), interrogatives (what, where, when, why ), not and negative contractions (isn't, aren't, haven't ), adverbs (completely, negatively, beautifully ) and adverbial particles (back in come back, down in break down, off in fall off ) Meanwhile, function words are words that make the sentence grammatically correct and do not significantly affect the meaning of the sentence For example: articles (a, an, the), auxiliary verbs (do, does, have, am, is, are, was ), personal pronouns (I, you, we, they ), possessive adjectives (my, her, his, their ), demonstrative adjectives (this chair, that car, these students, those

books), prepositions (on, at, in, under, below ), conjunctions (and, or, but, also, because ), and relative pronouns (which, who, whose, that )

The division of content words and functions words will aid English learners in acquiring the rule of stress and they can know where to put stress in the utterance

2.2.2.4 Tone unit

Roach (1991) defines a tone unit as "a unit that is generally greater in

size than the syllable is needed" (p 144) An utterance consists of at least one tone unit in which one syllable, the accented syllable or the tonic syllable (Roach, 1991; Yoshida, 2013), is more prominent than any other (Kreidler,

2004, p 159)

In order to throw light on the tone unit, let us take an example (Kelly, 2000) to understand what a tone-unit is and its conventional components:

In the utterance, LON is the most important word in the sentence and it

is called tonic syllable (to be discussed in the next part) That is why the utterance includes a "tone unit" and a tone unit is shown by two pairs of

slanted lines (Kelly, 2000, p 89)

An utterance with two tonic syllables and two tone units will be shown

as follows:

OR

In the utterance above, we have two tonic syllables (LON and TWEN) because they bear the main meaning of the sentence Other parts of the utterance (head, pre-head, and onset syllables) will be discussed in the next part

The first part of a tone-unit is tonic syllable Kelly (2000) claims that

"utterances are made up of syllables and the syllables where the main pitch movement in the utterance occurs are called tonic syllables" (p 88) Therefore,

it is the salient syllable of the whole utterance In other words, it bears a tone and has a conspicuous degree of prominence To put it simply, the tonic syllable is the point of strongest stress (Roach, 2002) It is called "nuclear syllable" (Knight, 2012) For example:

She LIVES in LONdon (Lon is the tonic syllable.)

As we can see from the utterance, the voice starts at a certain pitch, then will go up slightly to the onset syllable (lives – to be discussed in the next part) and stays level until the tonic syllable (Lon) and finally falls down at the end

of the sentence

Secondly, tone is the central part of intonation The difference of using tone in English will then change the interpretation of the sentence Kelly

(2000) states that tone is "the main movements of pitch, within a tone unit" (p

89) There are many different patterns of tones used in intonation, depending

on the different linguists and phoneticians: fall and rise (Paulston & Bruder, 1976), fall, rise and rise, rise and fall (Kelly, 2000), final rise and final fall (Yoshida, 2013), and so on

One of the supplementary parts of a tone-unit is onset Kelly (2000) says that "the syllables that establish a pitch that stays constant up to the tonic syllable are called onset syllables" (p 88) In the example below, LIVES is the onset syllable

OR

Roach (1991, pp 146-147) shares the same idea about the components

of a tone unit (tonic syllable and onset) as Kelly, but he suggests the additional parts of a tone-unit: head, pre-head, and tail

Head is a part that constitutes a tone-unit Roach (1999) defines "A

head is all that part of a tone-unit that extends from the first stressed syllable

up to (but not including) the tonic syllable" (p 146)

The first five syllables – "Bill called to give me" – are head In some

sentences, we have no head:

Another additional part of a tone-unit is pre-head It is "composed of all

the unstressed syllables in a tone-unit preceding the first stressed syllable"

(Roach, 1991, p 146)

In the aforementioned example, "in a" is pre-head, head is the first stressed syllable up to the tonic one in the utterance (little less than an) and the most important syllable (tonic syllable) is hour

Pre-head: in a

Head: little less than an

Tonic syllable: hour

The last part of a tone-unit suggested by Roach (1991) is tail Roach (1991) argues that "any syllable between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone-unit are called the tail" (p 147) Therefore, it is unstressed syllables after the tonic syllable in the sentence

After summarizing all the components of the tone-unit, we have all the

conventional parts in an utterance as follows:

(Pre-head) (Head) Tonic syllable (Tail)

OR

(PH) (H) TS (T)

Let us consider this example:

In the sentence above, it can easily be seen that pre-head is the unstressed syllable in the sentence (she) From the first stressed syllable to the tonic syllable (wanted to face the problems) is head The most important part

of the sentence (Tues) is called tonic syllable The unstressed syllable after the tonic syllable (day) is tail

Pre-head: She

Head: wanted to face the problems on

Tonic syllable: Tues

Tail: day

Onset: wanted

Overall, there are numerous parts in a tone unit: pre-head, head, tonic syllable, tail, and onset Understanding and realizing these parts will hone the speaker to use the right pattern of intonation to convey the best meaning to the listener and avoid misunderstandings in communication

2.2.3 Intonation patterns

There have been various intonation patterns suggested by different linguists and the following are some basic types proposed by Paulston and Bruder (1976), Kelly (2000), Kreidler (2004), and Yoshida (2013)

2.2.3.1 Paulston and Bruder (1976)

Paulston and Bruder (1976) suggest two main patterns of intonation: falling and rising intonation While falling intonation is used for declarative sentences, requests or commands and wh-questions, rising intonation is mainly used for yes/no questions, or any questions with a statement word order Some examples taken from these two researchers for using the falling intonation are

as follows:

As we can see from the six examples above, the tone all starts at a certain pitch and rises up to the tonic syllable, and then falls down at the end

of the utterances Some other utterances using rising intonation are also taken from these two researchers:

Unlike the falling intonation, all the utterances above start at a certain pitch as well, and then rise from the tonic syllable up to the end of the utterance Overall, Paulston and Bruder propose two mainly used patterns of intonation: rising and falling

2.2.3.2 Kelly (2000)

Kelly (2000) suggests two most frequently used patterns of tones used

in intonation: fall – proclaiming tone (p) and fall-rise – referring tone (r) The

table below shows patterns of intonation suggested by Kelly (2000)

Sentences Falling Rising Rising, rising

and falling

Information

questions

What's your name?

What's the time?

(being asked for the first time)

Yes/no questions

Is it the blue one?

Do you have a pen?

Statements

He lives in the house on the corner

Imperatives Sit down!

Tag questions

Expecting confirmation

You're French, aren't you?

Showing less certainty

You're French, aren't you?

Lists of items

I need a pen, a pencil and some paper

Table 2.4: Intonation patterns by Kelly (2000)

As can be seen from the table above, we use rising intonation for yes/no questions and tag questions (showing less certainty) and falling intonation for wh-questions, statements, imperatives and tag questions (expecting confirmation)

2.2.3.3 Kreidler (2004)

Kreidler (2004, p 146) lists two main patterns of intonation as follows:

The falling tunes (long-fall,

Table 2.5: Intonation patterns by Kreidler (2004)

As suggested by Kreidler (2004), the falling intonation (including fall and short-fall) is used for statements, in replies to questions and wh-questions Meanwhile, the rising intonation (long-rise and short-rise) is mainly used for yes/no questions and tag questions In other words, we use falling tunes to show "finality and almost finality" and rising tunes for "non-final"

long-2.2.3.4 Yoshida (2013)

Yoshida (2013) proposes some main patterns for each type of the sentence: statements, commands and requests, yes/no questions, wh-questions, tag questions, and lists Some examples for intonation patterns suggested by Yoshida (2013) are as follows:

Statements usually end in falling intonation The prominent word bears the highest point and the intonation stays low after that

Commands and requests also end in falling intonation (the first example), but if the request is a question, it often has rising intonation, like a yes/no question (the second example)

Yes/no questions end with rising intonation The tonic syllable is marked by a change in pitch, either higher or lower, depending on the speaker Overall, the intonation will go up to the highest point at the end of the sentence

Wh-questions usually bear the falling intonation The intonation first stays at a constant level, it next rises on the tonic syllable and last falls down until the end of the sentence

For the two above utterances, if the speaker is not sure of what will happen next and looks for the answer, the intonation will go up at the end of the utterance

For the two previously mentioned ones, the speaker has already known the answer and wants to ask for confirmation, and then the intonation will fall down at the end of the sentence

Lists of three or more things usually have the intonation: rising, rising and falling The intonation will rise on the tonic syllable for each one of the list and fall down at the end of the utterance

From the aforementioned basic rules for intonation patterns suggested

by the four linguists, it is obvious that falling intonation is used for questions, statements, tag questions (asking for confirmation), commands and requests, and rising intonation is mainly used for yes/no questions and tag