A survey on teaching reduced forms to improve listening comprehension of eft learners at the language centre of education university

2.3.10 Reduced forms relating to Linking and Intrusion ··· 25 2.3.11 Juncture or transition ··· 27 2.4 The significance of reduced forms and connected speech in communication ··· 27 2.5

Vietnam National University - HCMC UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

A SURVEY ON TEACHING REDUCED FORMS TO IMPROVE LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT THE LANGUAGE CENTRE OF EDUCATION UNIVERESITY OF HO CHI MINH

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I here by certify that this thesis entitled

“A SURVEY ON TEACHING REDUCED FORMS TO IMPROVE LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF EFL LEARNERS AT HCM CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION FOREIGN LANGUAGGE CENTRE”

submitted in terms of the Statements of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee, 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, March 5th , 2012

Dương Thị Tuyết Lan

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, DƯƠNG THỊ TUYẾT LAN, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in 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, March 5th , 2012

Dương Thị Tuyết Lan

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of authority ··· i

Retention of use of the thesis ··· ii

Tables of content ··· iii

Lists of charts ··· vi

Lists of tables ··· vii

Lists of abbreviations··· viii

Lists of Figures ··· ix

Acknowledgement ··· x

Abstract xi

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION ··· 1

1.1 The background of the study ··· 1

1.2 Problems ··· 1

1.3 The rational for teaching reduced forms ··· 3

1.4 The aim of the study ··· 4

1.5 Limitation and Delimitation ··· 5

1.5.1 Limitation ··· 5

1.5.2 Delimitation ··· 5

1.6 Methodology··· 6

1.7 The overview ··· 6

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ··· 7

2.1 An overview of language notions ··· 7

2.1.1 Pronunciation ··· 7

2.1.2 Phonetics and Phonology ··· 7

2.1.3 Two types of phonology ··· 8

2.2 The concept of Connected Speech and Reduced forms ··· 9

2.2.1 Definition of Connected Speech ··· 9

2.2.2 Definition of Reduced forms ··· 10

2.3 Reduced forms and Modifications of sounds in connected speech ··· 11

2.3.1 Reduced forms relating to the weak forms of function words ·· 11

2.3.2 Commonly reduced verbal phrases ··· 16

2.3.3 Reduced forms relating to Contraction and Blending ··· 17

2.3.4 Reduced forms relating to word stress··· 19

2.3.5 Reduced forms relating to Vowel reduction ··· 20

2.3.6 Reduced forms relating to Sentence stress ··· 21

2.3.7 Reduced forms relating to Rhythm ··· 21

2.3.8 Reduced forms relating to Assimilation ··· 22

2.3.9 Reduced forms relating to Deletion of consonants ··· 25

2.3.10 Reduced forms relating to Linking and Intrusion ··· 25

2.3.11 Juncture (or transition) ··· 27

2.4 The significance of reduced forms and connected speech in communication ··· 27

2.5 Reduced forms, Connected speech and Listening comprehension ··· 28

2.5.1 Definition of listening comprehension ··· 28

2.5.2 Two processes in teaching and learning listening ··· 28

2.5.3 The significance of Pronunciation and Reduced forms in teaching and learning listening comprehension ··· 29

2.6 Pedagogical Notions ··· 31

2.6.1 Should we teach connected speech vs reduced forms? ··· 31

2.6.2 Approaches in teaching pronunciation ··· 32

2.6.2.1 The intuitive-imitative vs analytic-linguistic approach · 32 2.6.2.2 The communicative approach ··· 33

2.6.3 Suggestions to teach reduced forms ··· 34

2.6.3.1 Cloze text and dictation ··· 34

2.6.3.2 Games and competitions ··· 36

2.6.3.3 Using song lyrics for awareness-raising ··· 37

2.6.3.4 Listening journals ··· 37

2.7 The previous studies related to Reduced Forms and listening comprehension ··· 39

2.8 Summary ··· 41

Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ··· 42

3.1 Research questions··· 42

3.2 Research design ··· 42

3.2.1 Procedure ··· 42

3.2.2 Participants ··· 45

3.2.2.1 Learner Subjects ··· 45

3.2.2.2 Teacher Subjects ··· 45

3.2.2.3The Researcher ··· 46

3.2.3 Experimental Teaching ··· 46

3.2.3.1 Materials ··· 46

3.2.3.2 Procedure of the experimental teaching ··· 46

3.3 Instruments ··· 47

3.3.1 Tests ··· 47

3.3.1.1 The diagnostic test ··· 48

3.3.1.2 The achievement test ··· 49

3.3.2 Questionnaires ··· 49

3.3.2.1 The Learners’ questionnaire ··· 49

3.3.2.3 The teachers’ questionnaire ··· 50

3.4 Observation ··· 51

3.4.1 Researcher’ observation ··· 51

3.4.2 Researcher’ observation ··· 52

3.5 Summary ··· 52

Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ··· 53

4.1 Findings from the questionnaires ··· 53

4.1.1 Questionnaires 4.1.1.1 Teachers’ questionnaire ··· 53

4.1.1.1.1 Responses for teachers’ background information ··· 53

4.1.1.1.2 Teachers’ understanding about reduced forms · 53 4.1.1.1.3 Teachers’ response to the importance of reduced forms··· 55

4.1.1.1.4 Teachers’ response to the learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension ··· 56

4.1.1.1.5 Teachers’ response to the role of reduced forms ··· 57

4.1.1.1.6 Responses to teachers’ teaching the contents of reduced forms ··· 58

4.1.1.1.7 Teachers’ description of situations of teaching reduced forms ··· 59

4.1.1.1.8 Teachers’ responses to the time estimated to devote to reduced forms instructions ··· 60

4.1.1.1.9 Responses to challenges faced by teachers ··· 60

4.1.1.1.10 The teachers’ expectation of the Role of Reduced forms··· 61

4.1.1.1.11 Summary ··· 62

4.1.1.2 Students’ questionnaires ··· 62

4.1.1.2.1 Responses for background information ··· 62

4.1.1.2.2 The learners’ experience of using English ··· 64

4.1.1.2.3 Learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension ··· 66

4.1.1.2.4 Responses to Learners’ understanding about the role of reduced forms··· 67

4.1.1.2.5 Responses to learners’ understanding about the use of reduced forms ··· 68

4.1.1.2.6 Learners’ response to the importance of reduced forms on listening comprehension ··· 68

4.1.1.2.7 Learners’ responses to familiar aspects of reduced forms··· 69

4.1.1.2.8 Responses to the sources giving reduced forms for learners ··· 70

4.1.1.2.9 Learners’ response to the role of reduced forms

instruction ··· 71

4.1.1.2.10 Learners’ expectation of the Role of Reduced forms··· 72

4.1.2 The results of the two tests ··· 72

4.1.2.1 Section 1 ··· 72

4.1.2.2 Section 2 ··· 76

4.1.2.3 The comparison of results of the achievement test and the diagnostic test ··· 82

4.1.2.4 Summary ··· 91

4.2 The teachers’ observation in class sessions of experimental teaching ··· 91

4.3 Overall summary ··· 93

Chapter 5 RECOMMENDATIONS AND TEACHING STRATEGIES ··· 94

5.1 Summary of Findings ··· 94

5.2 Recommendations ··· 97

5.2.1 To the learners ··· 97

5.2.2 To the teachers ··· 98

5.2.3 To the syllabus and the course book ··· 100

5.3 Teaching Strategies ··· 101

5.3.1 Adopting and adapting different techniques in teaching reduced forms ··· 101

5.3.2 Using sound recorders ··· 103

5.4 Contribution ··· 104

5.5 Summary ··· 105

CONCLUSION ··· 106

BINLIGRAPHY ··· 108

APPENDICES ··· 113

Appendix 1 section 1 of the test ··· 112

Appendix 2: section 2 of the test ··· 114

Appendix 3: Teachers’ questionnaire ··· 117

Appendix 4: Learners’ questionnaire (Vietnamese version) ··· 121

Appendix 5: Learners’ questionnaire (English version) ··· 125

Appendix 6: Lesson plan 1 ··· 129

Appendix 7 Lesson plan 2 ··· 133

Appendix 8: Lesson plan 3 ··· 137

Appendix 9: Lesson plan 4 ··· 142

Appendix 10: Lesson plan 5 ··· 145

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1: Teachers’ experience in teaching listening

Chart 4.2: Teachers' understanding the role of Reduced forms

Chart 4.3: Teachers’ understanding about the use of reduced forms

Chart 4.4: The importance of reduced forms

Chart 4.5: The learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension

Chart 4.6: The role of Reduced forms

Chart 4.7: Contents of reduced forms taught

Chart 4.8: The teachers’ expectation of the Role of Reduced forms

Chart 4.9: Learners’ gender

Chart 4.10: Learners’ jobs

Chart 4.11: Learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension

Chart 4.12: Learners’ understanding about the use of reduced forms

Chart 4.13: Learners’ response to the importance of reduced forms on

Listening comprehension Chart 4.14: Learners’ responses to familiar aspects of the reduced forms

Chart 4.15: Learners’ expectation of the Role of Reduced forms

Chart 4.16: The result of the diagnostic test’s section 1

Chart 4.17: Mistakes found in section 1 of the diagnostic test

Chart 4.18: The result of the dialogue 1 of diagnostic test’ section 2

Chart 4.20: The result of the dialogue 2 of the diagnostic test’ section 2

Chart 4.21: Mistakes found in the dialogue 2 of the diagnostic test’ section 2 Chart 4 22 : The comparison of the result of the diagnostic test’s and

achievement test’s section 1 Chart 4 23 : Learners’ mistakes found in the section 1 of achievement test

compared with that of the diagnostic test Table 4 24: The result of the dialogue 1 of the diagnostic test’s and achievement

test’s section 1 Chart 4 25: The mistakes found in dialogue 1 of section 2 of the achievement

test compared with that of the diagnostic test

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4 1: Teachers’ teaching experience

Table 4.2: The learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension

Table 4.3: Contents of reduced forms taught

Table 4.4: Teachers’ description of situations of teaching reduced forms

Table 4.5: Time estimated to devote to reduced forms instructions

Table 4.6: Challenges faced by teachers

Table 4.7: Learners’ age

Table 4.8: Learners’ years of learning English as a foreign language

Table 4.9: Learners’ frequent use of English

Table 4.10: Learners’ self-evaluation of their English listening and speaking

Table 4.11: Learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension

Table 4.12: Learners’ understanding about the role of reduced forms

Table 4.13: Learners’ responses to familiar aspects of reduced forms

Table 4.14: The sources giving reduced forms for learners

Table 4.15: Learners’ response to the role of reduced forms instruction

Table 4.16: The result of the diagnostic test’s section 1

Table 4.17: Learners’ mistakes found in the section 1 of the diagnostic test

Table 4.18: Mistakes found in the dialogue 1 of section 2 of the diagnostic test Table 4.19: The result of the dialogue 2 of the diagnostic test’ section 2

Table 4.20: The result of the dialogue 2 of the diagnostic test’ section 2

Table 4.21: The comparison of the result of the diagnostic test’s and achievement

test’s section 1

Table 4 22 : The mistakes found in the section 1 of achievement test compared

with that of the diagnostic test Table 4.23: The comparison of the result of dialogue 1 of the diagnostic test’s and

achievement test’s section 2

Table 4 24: Mistakes found in the dialogue 1 of section 2 of the achievement test

compared with that of the diagnostic test

Table 4 26: The mistakes found in the dialogue 2 of section 2 of the achievement

test compared with that of the diagnostic test

Table 4.27: Teachers’ evaluation of class sessions in the experimental teaching

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL

HCMC

HUELC

English as a foreign language

Ho Chi Minh City HCMC University of Education Foreign Language Centre

LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Full forms and Weak forms of Function Words Figure 2 Straightforward reductions

Figure 3 Ambiguous reductions

Figure 4 Rules of palatalization

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to thank Dr Đoàn Huệ Dung for her valuable guidance, great encouragement and insightful comments throughout the study Without her support, this M.A thesis could not be completed

My special thanks go to Dr Tô Minh Thanh for her devoted instructions of phonetics, which made me interested to produce this thesis

Additional thanks go to my Head of English Department of Phu Lam College, Mr Trần Xuân Ngọc Bách for his helpful motivation and advice

I would like to express my appreciation to the management at Branch 4 of HCM City University of Education Foreign Language Centre, without whose agreement and permission this thesis could hardly be carried out

Thanks also to EFL learners and my colleagues at HCM City University of Education Foreign Language Centre and Phu Lam College for their enthusiastic participation in the thesis

Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my family for their great love and support

ABSTRACT

Teaching pronunciation is currently not in favour of reaching the unrealistic goal that makes learners sound like native speakers of English but a more modest and realistic one that enables them to surpass the threshold level so that their pronunciation will not to detract from their ability to communicate with others (Celce-Murcia, 1996: 8).In fact, there is a tendency to balance teaching segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation since inability to distinguish both these features can have a negative impact on the oral communication On the other hand, it is said that the perceptual saliency of spoken English is often reduced creating variation in the way English is spoken very formal contexts from more naturally occurring English Reduced forms refer to basis elements of this naturally occurring English, integral and pervasive elements of spoken English, that are seriously neglected in research, materials development and teaching pronunciation

as well Therefore, this thesis is written to raise awareness of the role of reduced forms to improve learners’ listening and speaking skills

This study is carried out for this M.A thesis firstly work on the theory related to reduced forms as aspects of both segmentals and suprasegmentals, its relation to other suprasegmentals as well as its connection with the listening comprehension

in English The study secondly investigates the current teaching and learning of reduced forms at LCEU, the problems the learners encounter when they fail to recognize reduced forms in listening to any messages they get, the effects of teaching reduced forms on the learners’ listening skills, and the change in the teachers and learners’ attitude towards the role of teaching and learning reduced forms via questionnaires, class observation and tests

It is revealed that (1) the limited knowledge of reduced forms and its poor practice prevent the learners from identifying the stressed and unstressed words in listening and speaking, (2) the pronunciation and listening teachers do not have enough awareness of the significance of reduced forms to improve their learners’ perception and production in English, (3) most common problems the learners face

when they fail to recognize reduced forms is the modified sounds different from spellings that causes misunderstanding or inability to catch the intended messages they hear, (3) there is a little but noticeable improvement in the learners’ listening comprehension after the teaching of selective reduced forms, and (4) there is a positive change in the learners’ attitude towards the role of learning reduced forms after the experimental teaching

On the grounds of the findings, some recommendations are made to the learners, the teachers and the syllabus on teaching and learning reduced forms in particular and pronunciation in general to improve the learners’ listening and speaking skills

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter (1) presents the background of the study; (2) shows the problems facing EFL learners in listening comprehension at the language center of Education University of HCM city; (3) gives the rational for teaching and learning reduced forms; (4) asserts the aim of the study; (5) defines limitation and delimitation of the research; (6) briefly describes the methodology of the study, and (7) gives the overview of the study

1 The background of the study

Knowing a language is knowing its forms (sounds) and meanings When we speak

or understand someone speaking a language we know, the sounds produced or heard are related to specific meanings by the language system It is true that sounds of a language are considered as the significant signs to understand and be understood in oral communication Therefore, an accurate pronunciation as well as understanding its basic knowledge in English makes us good communicators Daniel Jones (1972) states

“No one can hope to be successful linguist unless he has a good ear If his ear is insensitive by the nature, it may be made more sensitive by training; and if his ear

is good by the nature, it can be made still better by training.”

This point of view shows that the relevance of training of listening phonetics pronunciation may be right for listening skill as well According to a number of EFL learners, listening is considered as the most important part of mastering a target language As to most of language learners, listening is really a challenging task in progress Teachers can also find that listening comprehension involves sounds, so it has very close relation to pronunciation

Pronunciation virtually plays a vital role in speaking and listening English It is said that we should practise listening the target language on the daily basic so that our listening comprehension is improving It is also advisable we might also

practise good pronunciation and have enough awareness of its importance to better our understanding daily spoken English

Brown (1990) suggests that students who come from English learning backgrounds in which they got used to slow speech are often shocked when they find themselves in a situation in which native speakers are talking to each other In this situation, they have difficulty in understanding what is said Natural English, whether formal or informal, fast or slow, is full of reduced forms and this creates a serious obstacle for students who have little or no exposure to reduced forms (Rosa, 2002)

2 Problems

In fact, listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life Researchers (e.g Morley, 1991; Rivers,1981; Weaver, 1972) estimate that we listen to twice as much language as we speak, four times as much as we read, and five times as much as we write It is the fact that a variety of factors impact on learners’ listening comprehension when they listen to a lecture, telephone conversation or broadcast, even daily conversations Among those are the listeners’ vocabulary is limited; they may lose control the “input” (what speakers say); that is, the listener is not always in a position to get the speaker to repeat an utterance; the ways of pronouncing sounds or accents of different communicators also have a great influence on comprehension as well and so on However, we cannot expect our learners understand all words they hear

For one of my listening class, my pre-intermediate learners in The Language Centre of Education University of Ho Chi Minh City seemed to have difficulty in understanding spoken English when I asked them to practise listening

to the pronunciation parts They worked very hard to repeat the whole sentences This surprised me because the sentences did not contain new words or complex structures I realized that they included several “reduced forms” which might hinder learners’ comprehension When being asked why they could not work well, they said, “I cannot follow the speech of the recording It was too fast and long.”

They, however, felt weird when I gave them the whole simple sentences with the words that seem familiar to them “I don’t know why I could not recognize them

in the speech,” said the students

On the other hand, pronunciation is designed as a supplementary part in the textbook International Express for courses of levels A, B and C in The language Centre of Education University of Ho Chi Minh City replacing Streamlines textbook used for more ten years However, it is not highly regarded in teaching and learning English Learners may have been focusing on individual sounds when learning the language because of a variety of reasons One of these is that they do not have enough awareness of reduced forms or connected speech In addition, instructions of the basic knowledge of linking sounds or reduced forms seem not

to be stressed much by teachers for lots of subjective and objective excuses

3 The rational for teaching reduced forms

It is found that there have been many reduced forms that occur in daily speech of educated native speakers Celce-Murcia [1996] explains “These forms involve unstressed vowels, omitted sounds, and other alternations of the full forms, such as assimilation, contraction, and blending”

While registers, the level and style of a piece of writing or speech and rate may contribute to some rules of appropriateness or production in general, reduced forms affect all areas and types of spoken English Weinstein (1982) has developed listening materials that help ESL/EFL learners recognize and comprehend commonly reduces verbal phrases using orthographic representations

of the reductions (cited by Celce-Murcia, 1996) Therefore, investigating their impacts on understanding ability seems to be one of useful ways to help learners improve their listening comprehension Furthermore, a foreign language learner who tries to understand every single word that is said to him will be unable to get success in mastering a target language Students should not be required to mimic native-speaker pronunciation exactly, but they do need to be guided toward recognizing reduced forms beside stressed patterns They need to be aware of

different ways of marking stress, and able to recognize stress rapidly and accurately enough as well as know how to “ignore” the reduced forms contained

in speech to figure out the structure of the message of an utterance

Teaching materials for listening comprehension and pronunciation take the importance of reduced forms into consideration (e.g., Dauer, 1993; Gilbert, 1984, 1993; Grant, 1993; Morley, 1987; Sheeler & Markley, 1991) However, those materials contain reduced forms only as one of various listening comprehension or pronunciation components Only few materials devote the entire focus to reduced forms (e.g., Kobayashi & Linde, 1984; Rost & Stratton, 1978; Weinstein, 1982)

In Vietnam, it is unlikely to find out much study on reduced forms in teaching and learning English Therefore, there is still much room for investigation of reduced forms in ESL/EFL pedagogy

4 The aim of the study

As a language teacher, the researcher has focused on the strong forms and stressed words to teach learners about listening comprehension on the regular basic However, when facing that the learners cannot concentrate on the informative details due to reduced forms of words the researcher would like to investigate whether those reduced forms have caused a lack of understanding spoken English and if our students should be taught these forms and these forms facilitate comprehension in listening class The nine-year experience of teaching English of mine raised the issues of how much attention my learners pay to reduced forms and how familiar they are to these forms as well as my colleagues’ attitudes towards teaching reduced forms and challenges they face when teaching reduced forms The researcher would like to use high-frequent reduced forms in spoken English as a useful and effective way of improving learners’ listening comprehension

Therefore, the aim of the study is:

(1) to investigate teachers’ and learners’ level of awareness of teaching and learning reduced forms in the progress of mastering a target language (2) to find out appropriate methods of teaching reduced forms to help learners improve their listening comprehension, which has impact on communicative skill as well

5 Limitation and Delimitation

5.1 Limitation

This study focuses on reduced forms to improve learners’ listening comprehension in The Language Centre of Education University of Ho chi Minh City As a result, the researcher would like to confine it to reduced forms in the listening activities and attitudes of EFL teachers and learners at this language center toward reduced forms With the limited time of over two months, the research is conducted in participation of the restricted number of learners by observing, interviewing and investigating

5.2 Delimitation

The research is carried out in cooperation with about 40 learners in the language centre and 15 teachers who have been teaching English listening class at intermediate level Therefore, the findings and recommendations in the research practically applied to learners in this language centre or learners who are at this level in English However, language centres are more and more increasing as the need of foreign languages at work and study is considered as a basic requirement, especially English If applied flexibly, teaching and learning reduced forms can help a variety of learners with different levels improve their communication- not only those who are learning the textbook International Express but students at high school or colleges, English major or non- major students, children or working adults accordingly

6 Methodology

Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used for carrying out the research As quantitative, the results of the three tests, one at the pre-experimental teaching the second one after four-week experimental teaching period and the last one at the post-experimental teaching are collected and synthesized for later findings of the study answers to the thesis’ research questions As qualitative, responses from the students’ questionnaire delivered to 60 student subjects at the first stage of the research are collected and provided as authentic and informative source to find out the learner’ experience, attitude and difficulties in learning pronunciation in general and learning reduced forms when listening in particular

In addition, the responses from the teachers’ questionnaire and interviews during the experimental teaching regarded as reliable information to cover problems in teaching and learning pronunciation generally and reduced forms when developing listening skill particularly As a result, the data are considered to be completely processed to learn the best answers to the research questions

7 The overview of the study

The study begins with the introduction part, which states the identification

of the problems and finishes with the conclusion that involves in some suggested teaching ways of reduced forms as practical solutions drawn from experimental teaching and the survey questionnaires

Besides, the main research is divided into five following chapters

Chapter 1 (1) introduces background information on reduced forms of pronunciation and its impacts on listening comprehension for intermediate learners; (2) shows the problems facing EFL learners at the language center of Education University of HCM city in listening comprehension without or with very few instructions of reduced forms; (3) gives the rational for teaching and learning reduced forms; (4) asserts the aim of the study; (5) defines limitation and delimitation of the research following (6) briefly describes the methodology of the study; and (7) finishes with the overview of the study

Chapter 2 presents a review of the literature that involves the study

Chapter 3 concentrates on the methodology obtained in the study, including its instruments, subjects, and research design accompanied by data collection procedures

Chapter 4 involves in the discussion and analysis of the research findings Chapter 5 concerns about the practical implications and recommendations for teaching methods and classroom activities

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter includes: (1) definitions of some language notions with an overview

of pronunciation, (2) some theoretical background to the concept of reduced forms, (3) short knowledge of listening comprehension and (4) the impact of pronunciation in general and reduced forms in particular on listening comprehension It also consists of a brief of some approaches and suggestions in teaching pronunciation, common techniques and activities of teaching suprasegmentals in general and teaching reduced forms in particular to improve listening comprehension The final part of this chapter mentions some prior researches on the teaching and learning of pronunciation and listening comprehension in Vietnam and other countries

2.1 An overview of language notions

2.1.1 Pronunciation

Jack C Richards, John Platt and Heidi Platt (1993) have defined pronunciation as

“the way a certain sound or sounds are produced Unlike articulation, which refers

to the actual production of speech sounds in the mouth, pronunciation stresses

more the way sounds are perceived by the hearer…”

Additionally, pronunciation is also defined in American Heritage Dictionary (1992)

as a way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally

understood It is a threshold level of pronunciation that if a given non-native

speaker’s pronunciation falls below this level, he or she will not be able to communicate orally no matter how good his or her control of English grammar and vocabulary might be (Celce-Murcia, 1987)

2.1.2 Phonetics and phonology

The study of pronunciation covers two fields, namely phonetics and phonology Phonetics refers to the study of speech sounds, which deals with the physical reality of speech sounds including three main areas: articulatory

phonetics, acoustic phonetics and auditory phonetics (Jack C Richards, John Platt and Heidi Platt, 1993: 274) In other word, phonetics is said to be the comparatively straightforward business of describing the sounds that we use in speaking (Peter Roach, 1983) Phonology, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with the system and pattern of the sounds, which exist within particular languages The study of phonology of English looks at the vowel, consonants and suprasegmental features of the language (Gerald Kelly, 2000) Marianne Celce-Murcia and Elite Olshtain (2000) also state “Phonology, the linguistic study of sound system, give us different types of information that is helpful for better

understanding what spoken discourse sounds like…”

In fact, phonology is the primary through which oral language processing

of semantic meaning and pragmatic functions take place Without sounds systems there would be no spoken language and no oral communication; thus language teachers- from the beginning level on- must ensure that their learners have every opportunity to develop an intelligible pronunciation and to comprehend a variety

of speakers and dialects in the target (Eisenstein, 1983)

2.1.3 Two types of phonology

The phonology of a language is often described by linguists in terms of segmental and suprasegmental system The former refers to the individual vowel and consonant sounds and their distribution, while the later refers to the patterns or

rhythm (i.e., the timing of syllable length, syllable stress, and pauses) and the intonation contours (i.e., pitch patterns) that accompany sound sequences when

language is used for oral communication

In the past, pronunciation instruction has often overemphasized segmental

distinction, for example ship/sheep We would rather focus on phonemes- the

smallest units of distinctive sound- known as segments to the exclusion of suprasegmentals, reduced forms, and other crucial generalizations about the pronunciation of real spoken English However, many researchers and teachers are

in favor of suprasegmentals in these days although Bloom (1970) and Peter (1977)

have agreed that analytical processing seems to be involved in the acquisition of segmentals Similarly, McNerney and Mendelsohn (1987) stated “A short term pronunciation course should focus first and foremost on suprasegmentals as they have the greatest impact on the comprehensibility of the learner’s English We have found that giving priority to the suprasegmental aspects of English not only improves learners’ comprehensibility but is also less frustrating for students because greater change can be effected.” (Cited by Marianne Celce-Murcia, 2000) This means that effective oral communication which requires control of prosody perhaps is considered as much as control of the target language’ vowel and

consonant sounds

In a speaker’s conversational performance, matters such as relinquishing the floor to another speaker, taking a turn, interrupting, or asking a confirmation question as opposed to making a statement are all things that are often signaled by prosodic features rather than by sound segments or by syntactic or lexical elements

(Dalton and Seidlhofer, 1994) In other words, the same pronunciation, grammar,

and vocabulary can mean a variety of things depending on stress, intonation, and voice quality relating to the suprasegmentals

2.2 The concept of Connected speech and Reduced forms

2.2.1 Definition of Connected speech

Crystal (1980: 81) defines connected speech as:

“A term used by linguists to refer to spoken language when analyzed as a continuous sequence, as in normal utterances and conversations Its significance lies in the contrast implied with studies of linguistic units seen in isolation, such as

an individual sound, word or phrase or forth, which were the subject matter of traditional linguistic enquiry It is now realized that important changes happen to these units when they are used in connected speech, as demonstrated by such processes as assimilation and elision, e.g and becoming /n/ in such phrases as

boys and girls.”

Celce-Murcia (1996:157) states connected speech is “the changes in pronunciation that occur within and between words due to their juxtaposition with neighboring sounds”, and it is “elaborate language system whereby sounds are influenced by other sounds in their immediate environment, taking on different characteristics as a result.”

2.2.2 Definition of Reduced forms

Reduced forms are defined in the introduction of “Whaddaya Say” by

Weinstein (2000:vii) as “the pronunciation changes that occur in natural speech because of the environment or context in which a word or sound is found That amount of reduction depends on how fast the words or sound is spoken.” In terms

of the speech forms, reduced forms are bunch of words shortened and changed as

wanna for “want to”, gonna for “going to”, whaddaya for “what do you” or “what

are you”, etc Besides, Brown and Hilferty (1989) also assert that reduced forms as native speakers' connected speech replete with its contracted forms, elision, liaison, and reduction In other words, they are the “real” English used in natural conversations Henrichsen (1984) says that this type of variation from written text

to spoken text can be described as sandhi-variation, “a phenomenon which reduces the overt markedness, or perceptual saliency, or morphemes” Moana Rosa (2002) states in the purpose of the questionnaire of her study that reduced forms refer to a common aspect of spoken English, and the another name for reduced forms could

be connected speech

Although many researchers have defined this occurrence as something that happens in “naturally occurring talk” or “real” spoken English (Buck, 1995: Norris, 1995: Brown & Hilferty, 1989: Pennington & Richards, 1986: Gimson,1974), the others have classified reduced forms and connected speech as something that occurs in “fast”, “informal”, “relaxed” or “casual” speech (Norris, 1993: Weinstein, 1982: Brown, G, 1976) Reduced forms are considered as a common and typical element of spoken English, found in all registers and rates of speech

As mentioned earlier in chapter one, reduced forms are also said to “involve

unstressed vowels, omitted sounds, and other alternations of full forms, such as assimilation, contraction, and blending” (Marianne Celce-Murcia, Donna M Brinton and Janet M Goodwin, 1996)

In brief, in addition to bunch of words shortened and changed straightaway

such as “gonna”, “hafta” etc mentioned above, reduced forms should be

supplemented with other several subcategories such as weak forms, linking, assimilation, and intrusion, which are categorized as the aspects of connected speech as well However, no matter what reduced forms are defined, these are relevant to teaching and learning pronunciation in particular and English in general

2.3 Reduced forms and Modifications of sounds in connected speech

2.2.3.1 Reduced forms relating to the weak forms of function words

Referring to Nina Weinstein’s listings on reduced forms in her book

“Whaddaya Say” published in 2001, approximately 95 percent of reduced forms

are function words Marianne Celce-Murcia, Donna M Brinton and Janet M Goodwin (1996) have identified function words as follow

“The distinction between stressed content words and unstressed function words and the corresponding reduction of vowels in function words underlies the concepts of reduced forms Function words, because they are unstressed in the stream of speech, tend to exhibit various forms of reduction…”

Celce-Murcia (1996) and her colleagues categorize words into two types: content words or lexical words, which carry information and function words or grammatical words, which signify grammatical relationships The former in a sentence or utterance tend to receive stress and the later do not It is true that words carrying the most information including the nouns, main verbs, and adjectives are usually stressed However, she further explained English speakers even stress the interrogatives (words that begin information questions) such as

who, what, when, and where, and demonstrative pronouns-words this, that, these,

those that point or emphasize Possessive pronouns like mine, yours, etc., adverbs always, very, almost and so on, adverbial particles following phrasal verbs take off,

do away with and negative contractions can’t, isn’t, and even the negative particle not when uncontracted usually receive stress because of their semantic as well as

syntactic salience in the particular context Therefore, depending on what message speakers would like to convey to listeners, they might put stress on content words or function words However, function words are usually unstressed

in sentences but stressed at the end of sentences, take the simple examples as follow to illustrate this point:

Can Mary swim? /kən/

Yes, she can /kæn/

In this situation, the first can is unstressed, but the second can in the final position

is stressed

This means that function words have both weak form and strong form (or full form), depending on their position in the sentences or what information speakers convey

To share this point of view, Gerald Kelly (2000) also presents the following

examples to show weak form and full form of the preposition ‘from’

She’s from /ƒɾəm/ Scotland

Where are you from /ƒɾɜm/?

As can be seen, the first from is the weak form, and the second form is the full

form

To summarize, content words are often stressed, including nouns, main verbs,

adjectives, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, interrogatives, negative

contractions, adverbs and adverbial particles; whereas function words are usually

unstressed unless in final position or when used emphatically, which include:

articles, auxiliary verbs, personal pronouns, possessive adjectives, demonstrative

adjectives, prepositions and conjunctions

It is obvious that maintaining a regular beat from stressed element to stressed element and reducing the intervening unstressed syllables like function words can

be very difficult for students whose native tongue has syllable-timed rhythm patterns like Vietnamese, which is discussed in the following parts

The most frequently cited examples of these words are as outlined in the following table to show the function words in both full forms and weak forms:

Grammatical

category

Word Full form Weak

form

Example of weak form

say

is ɪz əz/ z/s Where’s he from? /where is

he from?

were wɜ: wə That’s where my children

were born

have hæv əv/v He will have left by now has hæz həz/əz/z/s The baby has swallowed a

stone had hæd həd/əd/d He had already gone./

He’d already gone

can kæn kən I’m not sure if I can lend it

to you

could kʊd kəd Well, what could I say?

would wʊd wəd/əd Well, what would you have

him hɪm ɪm I’ll give it to him later

her hɜ: hə/ə I’ll give it to her later

us ʌs əs They’ll give it to us later them ðem ðəm I’ll give it to them later

Prepositions to tu: tə He’s already gone to work

from ƒrɔm ƒrəm She comes from Scotland

Conjunctions and ænd ən/ ənd She’s tall and fair

but bʌt bət She’s here, but Juan isn’t than ðæn ðən She’s older than you

the ði: ðə She’s the person I told you

about

Indefinite

adjectives

any eni: əni:/ ni: Have we got any biscuits? some sʌm səm There’s some tea in the spot such sʌtʃ sətʃ It’s not such a big deal,

really

Figure 1 adapted by Gerald Kelly (2000)

It is the fact that function words are reduced in the stream of speech in such cases Celce-Murcia (1996) also assumes function words can cause problems for the nonnative listeners since in their most highly reduced forms the representations for many common function words are virtually identical, such as

him

/əm/

them

as /əz/

is

or /ər/ are

Did you see (him/them)? /didʒəsiyəm/

Native speakers are said to be able to distinguish reduced him from them by the

quality of the reduced vowel-/i/ or /ə/, respectively However, there is very little difference between them, so most nonnative speakers or sometimes even native speakers will not hear a difference or will mishear one for another

In short, function words occur frequently in speech with full or weak forms

It is not surprising that weak forms of function words, which are unstressed, make nonnative or even native listeners have difficulty in recognizing them As a result, teachers and learners should raise awareness of simple function words, when

reduced, in teaching and learning English to better their listening comprehension

in real life

2.2.3.2 Common reduced form verbal phrases

Weinstein (1982) cited by Celce Murcia (1996) introduces the lists of

Straightforward reduction accompanied by Ambiguous reduction that are worth

teaching ESL/ EFL learners to help them recognize and comprehend spoken English better She says

“These nonstandard orthographic forms are a useful tool for introducing reduced speech in settings where the focus is on listening skills rather than pronunciation.”

The lists presented by Weinstein (1982) as follows:

Don’t know -> donno (dunno)

Should have -> shoulda

Would have -> woulda

Could have -> coulda

Must have -> musta

May have -> maya

Might have -> mighta

Used to -> usta Supposed to -> supposta Ought to -> oughta

Shouldn’t have shouldn’t’ve

Ambiguous reductions

What do you (mean)

whaddaya What are you (doing)

What do you (want) What have you (been doing) whacha (I don’t know) what you (mean) (whatcha)

Figure 3 adapted by Celce Murcia, Donna M Brinton & Janet M Goodwin

Reduced forms take place in utterances with a variety of levels basing on the relationship of the speaker, the formality of the setting, and the rapidity of the speech, for example:

I have got to go now I’ve got to go now I’ve gotta go now

I gotta go now Gotta go now

In addition, it is not necessary that nonnative speakers learn to produce all such common reductions automatically Importantly, they should become aware of these forms and be able to figure out the underlying forms mentioned above quickly so that they can improve their understanding spoken English in particular context and general communication

2.2.3.2 Reduced forms relating to Contraction and Blending

Underhill (1994:65) defines “In the stream of speech a weak form can occur together with another reduction and the two words are pronounced as one, often occupying only a single syllable This is contraction…” He shares the point of view with other researchers by stating “Common instances of contraction are

personal pronoun + auxiliary verb and verb + not” Hill and Beebe (1980) cited by

Celce Murcia also said that the two most frequently contracted forms are “is” and

“not” The following characteristics of contractions presented by Adrian Underhill

(1994):

 Two single-syllable words usually combine into one syllable

 An elision (omission) of sounds occur

 An omission of one or two letters also occur in the written form; their place marked by an apostrophe This is a special case of elision in that it is indicated in the written form

Gerald Kelly (2000) states “Contractions occur where two words combine to the extent that the two are pronounced as one word, or one syllable These have (for

the most part) become conventionalized in written language” such as I’m, you’re,

can’t, won’t, would’ve, etc Meanwhile, Celce-Murcia (1996:273) adds blending

with contractions as to this aspect She said:

“Both contractions and blendings are related to the large phenomenon of reduced speech The former is conventionalized written sequences and the other is spoken two-word sequences Contractions, however, are a subset of blending; in other words, all written contractions represent a spoken blending, but not all spoken blendings are conventionalized as orthographic contractions.”

She further explained the difference between contractions and blendings

Contraction is known as a written convention, e.g it’s, doesn’t, you’ll… while blending related to spoken phenomenon , e.g Bob’s (Bob is/ Bob has), this’s,

According to her point of view, I’m (I am) and let’s (let us) are considered as special and interesting contractions as well as the word o’clock for the phrase “of

the clock” as the interesting contraction of the language, which derives from American history about telling the time In addition, reductions may take place by the number of the combinations with auxiliary verbs in spoken English, for

example wh -words (why’s, who’ll, when’d…), proper names (Al’s, Jane’ll…),

demonstratives (this’s, that’ll, these’d…) Learners should take account of these

reductions due to their influence on comprehension of spoken language

To share this point of view, Celce-Murcia (1996) sates that blending or contractions in spoken English present a learning obstacle for many students Furthermore, Odlin (1970) together with some researchers supposes frequency of contracting correlates with English proficiency It is, however, found that speech

of advanced learners can be marked by the infrequent use of contractions and blending in otherwise fluent speech Celce-Murcia (1996:273) also supposes

“Whether or not nonnative speakers choose to use blendings, contractions, and reduction, they must be exposed to the way native speakers use them if they wish

to comprehend informal spoken English”

In short, the significance of contractions and blending is presented in “How to

teach pronunciation” by Kelly (2000) as follow

“Contraction are probably given the greatest amount of attention of all the features of connected speech because they are presented differently in

writing from full forms (aren’t versus are not, for example) Since

contractions are easy to represent in written forms, and as students will have develop a written competence in them, they might as well develop a spoken one as well…… speech without the use of contractions can sound rather over formal in certain situations and indeed at times unfriendly.”

2.2.4 Reduced forms relating to word stress

Crystal (2003: 435) defines the stress in word stress as:

“A term used in phonetics to refer to the degree of force used in producing

a syllable The usual distinction is between stressed and unstressed syllables, the former being more prominent than the later…”

Additionally, Celce-Murcia (1996: 131) asserted words stress as “syllables within

an utterance that are longer, louder, and higher in pitch… From the listener’s point of view, the most salient features of stress are probably vowel duration in the

stressed syllable and higher pitch.” She also stated that the three levels of stress are referred as strongly stressed, lightly stressed, and unstressed As a result, non-native speakers may feel difficult in recognizing unstressed syllables

To share this idea, Kelly (2000) says that stress can fall on the first, middle or last syllables of words, for example: QUAlify, baNAna, underSTAND (the syllables indicated in capitals are the stressed syllables) The linguist states “if students are first made aware of stress, and then given practice in identifying stressed syllables, they will be better able to work towards using it appropriately when speaking.”

In brief, Celce-Murcia (1996) assumes “learners should understand that even if all the individual sounds are pronounced correctly, incorrect placement of stress may cause misunderstanding.” Besides, nonnative speakers who may feel difficult in recognizing unstressed syllables should be given instructions of word stress, not only stressed syllables but unstressed syllables so that learners can be familiar with reduced pronunciation of words

2.2.1 Reduced forms relating to Vowel reduction

As to the subject of unstressed syllables, Kelly (2000) mentioned to the phoneme known as ‘schwa’ with the phonemic transcription /ə/ This sound can be heard in

the first syllable of about, in the second syllable of paper, and in the third syllable

It is obvious that vowel reduction is an obstacle to identify vocabulary for to identify vocabulary in listening comprehension because not only most of English words contain vowels which are usually reduced depending stress put on them, but also there is an occurrence of linking between final vowels of receding words and

beginning consonants of the following words, which is discussed later in linking in this chapter

2.2.2 Reduced forms relating to Sentence stress

Celce-Murcia (196:151) refers to sentence stress as “the various stressed elements

of each sentence.” To share this point of view, Kenworthy (1987: 32) assumed sentence stress is “to put stress on the words which carry the most information” in spoken English It is vital for listeners to be able to spot points of focus in the stream of speech and for speakers to highlight points in their messages they would like to convey

Kelly (2000) also claimed for putting sentence stress into perspective as follow

“Sentence stress is an integral feature of language which provides listeners with vital clues as to the salient points of the speakers’ message.”

In brief, there are stressed and unstressed words in the sentence While the stressed words convey the information of the message, unstressed words play grammatical function Learners should identify not only the major sentence stress, which is also called prominent by Celce-Murcia (1996) but also unstressed words (*) in order not to be confused or missed the information in speech

2.2.3 Reduced forms relating to Rhythm

Murcia (1996: 152) assumed “Word and sentence stress combine to create the rhythm of an English utterance, which is the regular, patterned beat of stressed and unstressed syllables and pauses.”

As to the notion of rhythm, Roach (1983) said that rhythm “involves some

noticeable event happening at regular intervals of times” He further explained any language is categorized into two groups:

 Syllable timed rhythm tend to produce each syllable with approximately the

same prominence, take Vietnamese as an example “In these languages, 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 t the number of unstressed syllables.” (Roach, 1983:135)

 Stress-time rhythm such as English tends to produce each stress group with

approximately the same prominence Hence, an utterance like, "When'll Tom be coming back?" is timed in two stress groups: "When'll Tom" and

"be coming back" (Roach, 1983:135)

2.2.4 Reduced forms relating to Assimilation

Kelly (2000) defined the term assimilation “describes how sounds modify each other when they meet, usually across word boundaries, but within words too” This is often misunderstood as “lazy” or “sloppy” speech as the organs of speech involved appear to be taking the path of least resistance However, Celce-Murcia (1996) states about assimilation is “a universal feature of spoken language”, and

“it by no means marks a speaker as inarticulate or nonstandard” She asserted the process of assimilation as “given sound (the assimilating sound) takes on the characteristics of a neighboring sound (the conditioning sound).” In fact, three

types of assimilation in English are referred as (1) progressive (or perserverative), (2) regressive (or anticipatory), and (3) coalescent

 In progressive assimilation, the conditioning sound precedes and affects

the following sounds It is most found in the regular plural /s/ vs /z/ alternation (in which the final sound of the stem conditions the voiced or voiceless form of the suffix), in the regular past tense /t/ vs /d/ alternation,

in some contractions and some reductions For instance, in Northern American English, after the voiceless /t/, the pronunciation of s is a

voiceless /s/ as in cats, whereas the pronunciation of s is a voiced /z/ when

it follows a voiced consonant like /g/ as in dogs; contraction of it + is ->

it’s /it + iz -> its/; reduction of had to -> / hædə/

 In regressive assimilation, the assimilated sound precedes and is affected

by the conditioning sound It is formulated some rules by Kelly (2000) as follow:

(*) function words can be seen in figure 1

+ Rule 1: The phonemes /t/, /d/ and /n/ often become bilabial before bilabial consonants /p/ /b/ and /m/, for example:

+ Rule 2: /t/ assimilates /k/ before /k/ or /g/ /d/ assimilates to /g/ before /k/ or / g/, for example:

that cat (/t/ assimilates to /k/)

good concert (/t/ assimilates to /g/)

+ Rule 3: /n/ can assimilate to /ŋ/ before /g/.or /k/, for example:

+ Rule 4: /s/ can assimilate to /ʃ/ before /ʃ/, for example:

I love this shiny one over there

+ Rule 5: /z/ can assimilate to /ʒ/ before /ʃ/, for example:

We found this lovely little cheese shop in Paris

Regressive assimilation also commonly occur in the periphrastic

modals have/has to (when expressing obligation) and used to (when

expressing former habitual action) For example:

As can be seen in the above examples, the voiceless /t/ of to is the conditioning

sound that causes the voiced /v/, /z/, and /d/ preceding it to assimilate and become voiceless /f/, /s/, and /t/

 Coalescent assimilation is a type of reciprocal assimilation It is found

that the first sound and the second sound in a sequence come together and mutually condition the creation of a third sound with features from both original sounds Kelly (2000) says that coalescent assimilation occurs

“where two sounds combine to form a different one”

It is found that this process occur most frequently in English when final alveolar consonants such as /s,z/ and /t,d/or final alveolar consonant sequences such as /ts, dz/ are followed by initial palatal /y/ They become palatalized fricatives and affricative, respectively Here are some rules of palatalization

Figure 4 adapted by Celce-Murcia (1996)

He’s coming this year

Does your mother know?

Is that your dog?

She lets your dog in

Would you mind moving?

She needs your help

Besides, she assumes that assimilation frequently occurs in native speaker speech depending on the number of variables such as the formality of the situation, the rate of speech, and the style of the speaker

2.2.5 Reduced forms relating to Deletion of consonants

In connected speech, final consonant clusters are often simplified The final consonant of the cluster will be linked with the following words that begin with a vowel and, therefore, cannot be deleted as the examples below show

hand_ out last_ offer left_ out However, if the following words begins with a consonant, the final consonant of cluster is usually unreleased and can be deleted as the following examples in which the underlined is deleted

next month past president Similarly, this phenomenon occurs in words that have suffixes or are compounds

as the examples

kindness postman textbook

2.2.6 Reduced forms relating to Linking and Intrusion

Celce-Murcia (1996) assumes the ability to speak English smoothly entails the use

of liking in connected speech, which is “the connecting of the final sound of one word or syllable to the initial sound of the next”

Avery and Ehrlich (1992:84) define ‘words within the same phase or sentence often blend together Connecting groups of words together is referred to as linking” (cited in the thesis by Phan Thi Lan Anh, 2010)

Linking is stressed in the following cases: