(LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ) A comparative study on how hesitation and reservedness is expressed via prosodic means in English and the equivalent expressions in Vietnamese

Vietnam national university, hanoi University of languages and international studies FACULTY of post- graduate studies NGUYỄN THỊ HIỀN A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON HOW HESITATION AND RESERVEDNESS IS EXPRESSED VIA PROSODIC MEANS IN ENGLISH AND THE EQUIVALENT EXPRESSIONS IN VIETNAMESE (Nghiên cứu so sánh dự dè dặt thể thông qua phương tiện ngôn điệu tiếng Anh hình thức diễn đạt tương đương Tiếng Việt) M.A Minor Program Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 HANOI - 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Vietnam national university, hanoi University of languages and international studies FACULTY of post- graduate studies NGUYỄN THỊ HIỀN A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON HOW HESITATION AND RESERVEDNESS IS EXPRESSED VIA PROSODIC MEANS IN ENGLISH AND THE EQUIVALENT EXPRESSIONS IN VIETNAMESE (Nghiên cứu so sánh dự dè dặt thể thông qua phương tiện ngôn điệu tiếng Anh hình thức diễn đạt tương đương Tiếng Việt) M.A Minor Program Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Nguyễn Hương Giang, M.A HANOI - 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Aims of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Literature review 1.2 Hesitation and reservedness 1.2.1 Definition of hesitation 1.2.2 Definition of reservedness 1.2.3 Types of hesitation and reservedness in spontaneous speech 1.3 Prosody 10 1.3.1 Definition of prosody 10 1.3.2 Prosodic features 11 1.3.2.1 Pitch (or fundamental frequency) 11 1.3.2.2 Loudness (or intensity) 12 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com v 1.3.2.3 Tempo 12 1.3.2.4 Length (or duration) 13 Chapter 2: HESITATION AND RESERVEDNESS EXPRESSED VIA PROSODIC FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 14 2.1 Procedures 14 2.1.1 Collecting samples of spontaneous speech 14 2.1.2 Methods 15 2.1.3 Methodological difficulties 15 2.2 Data analysis 2.2.1 Prosodic feature analysis of hesitation and reservedness in the English samples 15 15 2.2.1.1 Pitch contour 16 2.2.1.2 Duration 18 2.2.1.3 Speaking tempo 19 2.2.1.4 Loudness (or intensity) 21 2.2.1.5 Summary 21 2.2.2 Prosodic feature analysis of hesitation and reservedness in the 22 Vietnamese samples 2.2.2.1 Pitch contour 22 2.2.2.2 Duration 24 2.2.2.3 Speaking tempo 25 2.2.2.4 Loudness (or intensity) 25 2.3 Comparison: prosodic cues for hesitation and reservedness in English 26 and Vietnamese 2.3.1 Similarities 26 2.3.2 Differences 27 2.3.3 Summary 28 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi Chapter 3: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPEAKING 30 3.1 Hesitation phenomena in English Language Teaching classroom (ELT) 30 3.2 Using filled pauses to gain processing time 32 3.3 Implications for improving students‟ speaking fluency 33 3.4 Summary 36 Chapter 4: SOME KEY FINDINGS 4.1 Hesitation and reservedness in English and Vietnamese speech 37 4.2 Hesitation strategies 38 PART C: CONCLUSION Concluding remarks 39 Suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX I TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Praat Editor showing waveform, spectrogram and TextGrid 16 Figure 2: Illustration of pitch contour of “No” on Praat Screen 17 Figure 3: Pitch contour of the sentence “Um…u…no I don‟t think so I can‟t 18 think of anything” Figure 4: Illustration of pitch contour of two hesitation points M and E 23 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Summary of vocalized fillers in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese Table 2: Speaking rate (syllables/second) before and after each pause 20 Table 3: Summary of prosodic features which contribute to the expression of 22 hesitation TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study For many people, learning English is uneasy and mastering it is more difficult Some people underestimate that a learner only needs to have a treasury of vocabulary or good knowledge of grammar, he can speak English fluently It is a concerning problem in teaching and learning a foreign language at schools, universities and centers because it causes learners to waste much more time and effort while the achievements are not up to their expectations At English lessons, there exist many situations in which teachers ask students to answer the questions or read a text aloud, the students feel embarrassed and shy even they only response in whisper or murmur It is not because they not have any vocabulary in their mind or they not know how to arrange words in a correct grammar But the fact that students are afraid of pronouncing words wrongly or making mistakes These phenomena directly or indirectly hinder the effectiveness and motivation of learning a foreign language It is common knowledge that among phonetic aspects, prosody is considered a crucial factor which helps learners master a communicative skill People usually talk much about intonation, stress or rhythm in language while prosody is rarely mentioned However, in linguistics, intonation, stress and rhythm mainly refer to prosodic components The title “a comparative study of how hesitation and reservedness is expressed via prosodic features and its equivalents in Vietnamese” was chosen for my M.A thesis because of some following reasons First of all, prosody is a new area and not many studies of students have been conducted on the basis of this theory because it is difficult and challenging Meanwhile, prosody plays an important role in the comprehension of spoken language, it helps human in recognition of spoken words, in resolving global and local ambiguities and in processing discourse structure Therefore, it will be worth conducting a study on this area Secondly, in the world of English language teaching (ELT), however, the communicative value of hesitation in speech has been largely ignored The prevailing view of hesitation seems to be that they are evidence of disfluency and should therefore be discouraged This view is inadequate when it assumes that fluency is directly related to communicative ability while disfuency is inversely related The present study examines the TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com evidence that speech hesitation sometimes supports and enhances communication and suggests the ways they may be dealt with in the ELT classroom Finally, there are few studies of hesitation across languages from the perspectives of prosody and using English I hope that my work can give more insight into the similarities and differences of hesitation via prosodic means between two languages in which English is a stress-timed language and Vietnamese is a tonal language Aims of the study The main aims of this study are: - To explore prosodic features in English which express hesitation and reservedness, - To provide a brief account of similarities and differences between hesitation and reservedness expressed via prosodic features in English and Vietnamese, - To give some proposals for further study and suggestions for improving speaking skill To fully achieve the stated aims, the study should answer the following basic questions: - What are the prosodic features used to express hesitation and reservedness in English spontaneous speech? - What are the similarities and differences in the expression of hesitation and reservedness by prosody in English and Vietnamese? - What tips are utilized to improve speaking fluency? Scope of the study Many fields relating to hesitation phenomena and prosodic features need to be explored However, due to the limited time and available facilities, this thesis only focuses on the following aspects: - Hesitation and reservedness in spontaneous speech; - Typical types of hesitation and reservedness in English and their equivalences in Vietnamese including silent pauses, filled pauses, repetitions, syllable lengthening - Only prosodic features of pitch, length, loudness and tempo are explored in the expression of hesitation and reservedness TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - Only British English is chosen for the standard sound and the Northern dialect in Vietnamese is utilized as the standard sound in this study - English non- major students at Ha Tinh Education and Information Center are chosen in the survey to find out how frequent hesitation phenomena occur in English language teaching classroom Thereby, some tips are suggested to improve speaking fluency with hesitation strategies Methods of the study In order to explore the differences and similarities in expressing hesitation and reservedness via prosodic features, comparative study (CS) is utilized as the key method of the study Here, English is employed as the instrumental language Besides, systemization and generalization from previous studies are also integrated as reference for this thesis To analyze exactly the expression of hesitation and reservedness via prosody, computer software such as PRAAT is applied despite the fact that transcribing prosodic features is really challenging and costly for a M.A student The information sources for analysis come from interviews at different situations recorded from Vietnamese channels such as VTV1 and textbooks such as TOEFL, NEW HEADWAY Other sources are also utilized in this study A survey is also conducted to find out how students express their hesitance and how they adapt to hesitation strategies to gain speaking fluency Then, the data are collected, analyzed and synthesized Design of the study This study is completed on the basis of three separating parts: introduction, development and conclusion Part A is “INTRODUCTION” which gives the readers an overview of the reasons for choosing the topic, the aims, the scope, the methods applied and the design of the study Part B entitled “DEVELOPMENT” which plays the most crucial role in the whole study It is considered as the backbone of the study This part consists of three main chapters Chapter shows the theoretical background of hesitation, reservedness and prosody Chapter explores the similarities and differences of hesitation and reservedness TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com expressed via prosodic features in English and Vietnamese equivalent expressions Chapter suggests some tips for the teacher to improve the students‟ English speaking fluency Part C is “CONCLUSION” in which the author will give the readers some concluding remarks as well as suggestions for further study TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 40 given conclusions mainly based on the initial analyses and the subjective experiences Therefore, further studies on this field should be encouraged to reconfirm or refute the hypotheses Secondly, the thesis limits studying some prosodic features which contribute to the expression of hesitant speech in spontaneous speech A further investigation on hesitations and their prosody modeling in simultaneous interpreting and read speech is worth studying Moreover, the various forms of hesitation (silent pauses, filled pauses, repetitions and final lengthening) in the corpus often appear to serve the same basic psycholinguistic purpose (stalling during processing) However, statistical analysis did not clarify their interrelationships In future, it is necessary to study the relationship between these hesitations In order to have more insight results, it is suggested that further studies should be analyzed simultaneously by many integrated software programs Finally, filtering of hesitation phenomena is worthy of greater study The author has suggested that some speakers may employ filled pauses and other hesitations to increase their apparent fluency by capitalizing on the listener's filtering Thus, this hypothesis needs to be confirmed or refuted in further studies TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 41 REFERENCES English reference Beattie, G W (1979) “Planning units in spontaneous speech: Some evidence from hesitation in speech and speaker gaze direction in conversation” Linguistics 17, 61-78 Bernstein, B (1962) “Linguistic codes, hesitation phenomena, and intelligence” Language and Speech, 5, 31-46 Boersma, P & Weenick, D (2002) Praat A system for doing phonetics by computer Available on http://www.praat.org Carlson R., Gustafson K., & Strangert E (2006) Cues for hesitation in speech synthesis In Proceedings of Interspeech, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Clark, H.H., & Fox Tree, J E (1997) “Pronouncing “the” as “thee” to signal problems in speaking”, Cognition, 62, 151–67 Cutler, A., Dahan, D., van Donselaar, W (1997) Prosody in the comprehension of spoken language: A literature review Language and Speech 40, 141-201 Davidson, J (1984) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Đào Thị Tâm (2007) A Contrastive Analysis of Intonation in English Yes- No Questions and Vietnamese Equivalent Expressions ĐHNN- ĐHQG Hà Nội Hirst, D.& Cristo, A Di (1998) Intonation Systems: A Survey of Twenty Languages Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Chapter 22, 398-420 10 Eklund, R (2004) Disfluency in Swedish human-human and human-machine travel booking dialogues Dissertation 882, Linköping Studies in Science and Technology 11 Goldman Eisler, F (1968) Psycholinguistics: experiments in spontaneous speech London: New York, Academic Press, 48-49 12 Hieke, A (1981) “A content-processing view of hesitation phenomena” Language and Speech, 24, 147-160 13 John Soars and Liz (2003) New Headway Intermediate Student’s Book (New Edition) Oxford Publisher TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 42 14 Lounsbury, F (1954) Pausal, Juncture and Hesitation Phenomena In Psycholinguistics: A Survey of Theory and Research (edited by C E.Osgood and T A.Sebeok) 15 Lövgren, T & Van Doorn, J (2005) Influence of manipulation of short silent pause duration on speech fluency Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University 16 Macmillan, T (2002) Macmillan Dictionary for Advanced Learners 2nd Edition (Online) Available on: http://www.macmillandictionary.com 17 Macwhinney, B and Osser, H (1977) “Verbal Planning Functions in Children's Speech” Child Development, 48, 978-985 18 Ngơ Như Bình (2001) Vietnamese Language: Teaching and Learning Framework The Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL) 19 Oxford University Press (1995) Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary (5th Edition) 20 Roach, P (1983) English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 21 Tench, P (1996) The Intonation Systems of English New York: Cassell 22 Võ Đại Quang and Hà Cẩm Tâm (2004) Lectures on English Phonetics and Phonology CFL-VNU 23 Website: http://escalate.ac.uk Vietnamese reference Cao Xuân Hạo (1998) Tiếng Việt vấn đề ngữ âm - ngữ pháp - ngữ nghĩa, NXB GD Chiêu Hoàng (2010) Con bé Gã lang thang Tuyển tập truyện ngắn hay Việt Nam, NXB Đà Nẵng Võ Đại Quang (2003) Các đặc tính Ngữ âm Âm vị học (Trên liệu Tiếng Anh) Tạp chí Khoa học ĐHQGHN, T.XXI, trang 52-61 Đoàn Thiện Thuật (2003) Ngữ âm tiếng Việt Nhà xuất đại học quốc gia Hà Nội, In lần thứ TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com I APPENDIX Appendix 1: Interview 1: The panel consists of two men The one on the right, Phil Prince, speaks to the candidate, Mike Phil Prince: Welcome Good journey? [The candidate is sitting opposite, with his chair tilted back a little and has his right foot rested on his left knee so his right knee is visible above the table His hands are linked together on his lap He begins to answer whilst looking at the interviewer on the left.] Mike: Yeah, no problem I left loads of time „cos you know what the trains are like nowadays [He turns his attention to the interviewer who asked the question.] M: And I wasn‟t really sure where the Heppleworth site was, but er… 10 [Nodding towards panel.] 11 M: the directions you er sent me were crystal clear 12 PP: Good I‟ll just introduce us I‟m Phil Prince, the graduate recruiter for Smith 13 Basil, and this is Gerry Peters from personnel 14 [Mike nods at Gerry] 15 M: Pleased to meet you 16 PP: So, Mike, why you want to work for Smith Basil? 17 [Mike gestures with his hands and nods During his answer he makes sure to make 18 eye contact with both interviewers.] 19 M: I‟m aware of how comprehensive the training scheme is here, also that the 20 candidates themselves are able to undertake additional training, which allows them 21 to move into other areas within the company Also the company has a policy of er 22 rewarding hard work with excellent promotional per-perspectives erm so, yeah… 23 [Raises his shoulders and drops them Nods.] 24 M: I think it‟s a really exciting opportunity for me 25 PP: Indeed it is We have hundreds of applications for our graduate training 26 schemes each year, but we only have 60 places Why should Smith Basil offer you TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com II 27 a position? 28 M: Well I‟m currently on course to get a 2.i., which I think shows academically that 29 I‟m on the right level… 30 [Gestures with hands.] 31 M: of what you‟re looking for Erm, my commitment to the rugby and cricket team 32 at university and before that at college show that I‟m a committed team player 33 Also I‟m highly motivated and enthusiastic to develop a career within the 34 pharmaceutical industry Ah, yeah… 35 [Makes thumbs up gesture with both hands and pumps them up and down.] 36 M: I‟m like gonna give it 110% commitment 37 Nods enthusiastically and drops hands back down.] 38 GP: Erm, I see from your application form that you‟re in your erm final year at 39 Hudderbridge university Why did you choose to go there? 40 [Mike is now sitting even more casually with his left shoulder leaning on the back 41 of the seat.] 42 M: That‟s what I keep asking myself! No, seriously, I knew I wanted to 43 chemistry „cos I got an A* at A-level Erm, also I went to the Hudderidge open day 44 and was really impressed with the department Erm, the, erm, the course there has 45 an excellent reputation for teaching and research and, er 46 [Mike uncrosses his legs, and leans forward on the desk with his left forearm 47 resting on the desk, then recrosses them in this new position.] 48 M: is really well structured Um the graduate kind of employment statistics is 49 within the top ten percent within the country 50 [Mike taps the desk with his left hand as he speaks.] 51 M: And they also have analytical chemistry, which for me was an absolute bonus 52 you know 53 [Mike drops back away from the table and into a casual position resting on the chair 54 back.] 55 PP: So tell us about your final year project What were the main conclusions? I 56 believe you looked at the effects of microwaves on condensed phase chemical 57 systems? Oh, sorry, Gerry is from an Arts background, so could you explain it in a TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com III 58 way we can all relate to? 59 M: Yeah of course Erm, we looked at how er, a system with a high number of 60 interfaces, for this we used a micro-emulsion, would reflect microwaves in a very 61 different manner than, to er, a simple solution like oil on water A microemulsion is 62 water, oil and a er… 63 [Leans in toward Gerry as if he is a small child.] 64 M: A surfactant 65 [Turns back to Phil, before continuing with looking at each of them in turn as he 66 speaks.] 67 M: We use this because it has a large surface area and is optically transparent which 68 allows us to monitor the reaction very easily using readily and simple apparatus 69 Erm… 70 [Mike sits back in chair.] 71 M: The findings showed that the erm micro-emulsion system heated up much 72 quicker than the simple system, and this was because the em microwaves were 73 [Mike uses his hands as a demonstration.] 74 M: reflected within, between the interfaces themselves and so, erm 75 [Mike drops his hands onto his knees.] 76 M: spent a lot longer in terms of the time it spent inside the sample Erm, pretty 77 easy really to understand 78 [Mike nods towards Gerry and points at him with an open hand.] 79 M: even for an Arts graduate like yourself Gary 80 GP: Yeah, erm, what would you say is the main thing that you learned from that 81 experience? 82 M: I think, erm, it was probably problem-solving Erm, I mean the course, the 83 apparatus we used, erm, weren‟t really explained within the course, so I had to erm 84 work out the best way to get the results that we wanted and calibrate the apparatus 85 accordingly Erm, also we had to be very adaptable 86 [Mike gesticulates toward Gerry.] 87 M: Like most research we kinda deviated from the original experiementation 88 outline, erm, „cos we wanted to incorporate some of the unexpected results that we TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com IV 89 got Erm, so we were always really adaptable and we had to think things through 90 really logically just to find the right solution to the situation 91 GP: What work experience you have, Mike? 92 M: Erm, I worked at Macwleys, serving food and stuff… 93 [Mike sits sideways on the chair so his right side is against the interview table, with 94 his right hand on the table and his left on the back of the chair His knee is still in 95 view.] 96 M: which is awful „cos you like smell of burgers and chips… 97 [Mike is now leaning over the table again.] 98 M: after every night so I hated it Erm, also I erm, coached for the rugby team, erm 99 got paid a little bit for that but nothing really that‟ll probably give me the edge in 100 this job 101 GP: Erm, you‟ve listed lots of positive things about yourself on your application, 102 and it all looks very impressive, erm, but can you tell us what you consider to be 103 one of your weaknesses? 104 M: Oh, yeah… 105 [Taps fingers on desk.] 106 M: Definitely Erm probably working too „ard 107 [Both hands are now on the desk, he is facing forward and leaning over.] 108 M: Yeah, or em, being too generous when it comes to getting the rounds in, 109 especially after I‟ve been offered a job! 110 [Cracks a huge smile and leans back triumphantly in his chair.] 111 GP: What can you tell us about Smith Basil? 112 M: Well, I know the company itself is one of the top ten pharmaceutical companies, 113 erm and although it‟s an internationally-based company the head office itself is 114 based in Hepplesworth, erm… 115 [Leans forward again.] 116 M: You sell a wide range of pharmaceutical products from cold and flu to beta- 117 blockers, depressants-anti-depressants, er and diuretics And perhaps your best 118 known product is the well known Flu-buster which is like a household name and 119 sales for that are at 13 billion per year Erm, oh yeah and despite the recent stock TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com V 120 market dips and stuff, Smith Basil shares are still excellent, which makes them a 121 really really attractive offer „cos of your share-scheming policy Erm, so you never 122 know, could be doubling my money within a couple of years! 123 [Big beaming smiles, nods and settles back in the chair.] 124 GP: Yeah, well erm The graduate training scheme requires you to spend time at 125 our different sites around the UK So for a lot of the first year you‟ll be required to 126 spend, ooh, about six months or so based away from Hepplesworth Would that 127 cause you any difficulties? 128 M: No, no, I love travelling around I mean I‟ve got mates all over university at the 129 moment I‟ve been going to see them and having a good old time, you know But 130 er, yeah, I think it‟s important to see what, you know the company does in different 131 areas and you learn a lot about it like that 132 [Leans forward] 133 M: As long as the nightlife‟s good – play hard and work hard that‟s what I say 134 PP: If we were to offer you a place, where you see yourself in, say, five years? 135 M: Well, I‟d like to be a manager that‟s why I‟m doing the… 136 [Leans forward and performs the „air quotes‟ gesture in a rather patronizing 137 manner] 138 M: “management training scheme” Erm, yeah I reckon I could see myself running 139 my own department with, like, 40 or 50 people working for me 140 PP: Well I think that‟s covered everything for our initial interview today, are there 141 any questions you‟d like to ask us? 142 M: Yeah, yeah… 143 [Leans fully on the table.] 144 M: I was reading in your brochure, the graduate brochure you sent out and it says 145 that your rates are very competitive and stuff I was just wondering if you could 146 expand on that at all? I know that Jones & Jones offer a 24k start up and I was 147 wondering if you could beat that really Erm, also, you know the share scheme, is 148 that available to graduates or trainees or not? And, erm is there a relocation package 149 or is that instead of the er healthcare system 150 GP: Erm, well, perhaps we could leave the details of that until after our next TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VI 151 interview stage 152 M: Yeah, no problem, we‟ll negotiate later but I gotta tell ya I‟m a hard bargainer 153 you know what I‟m saying I‟m only joking with ya 154 [Leans back in chair, with huge grin.] Interview The female candidate sits hunched forward, head facing the desk When the interviewer speaks, she doesn‟t raise her head, instead she just lifts her eyes Opposite her are the panels, comprising of two men PP: Welcome Now I know you live locally, so I trust you didn‟t have to travel too far [Candidate shakes head nervously and answers to the table.] Candidate: No PP: Now let me introduce us I‟m Phil Prince the graduate recruiter for Smith Basil, and this is Gerry Peters from Personnel [Candidate forces brief smile, but still doesn‟t raise her head.] PP: I see from your application form that your degree is in analytical chemistry What made you decide to choose that course? 10 [Candidate takes a long time to answer and when she does, she produces a very 11 meek-sounding voice.] 12 C: errrr,… not sure really I think it was because I like problem-solving 13 [Produces tiny nervous giggle.] 14 C: That probably sounds ridiculous Well, I The other thing is that I know there 15 is a shortage of analysts at the moment, so I thought it‟d be a good idea if I went 16 into an area where I enjoyed it and also there was a demand I suppose that‟s why I 17 chose it, really 18 [Goes back to looking at the desk.] 19 PP: Tell us about your final year project What were the main conclusions? I believe 20 you looked at the effect of temperature on light emitting diodes Oh, er, Gerry‟s 21 from an Arts background, so could you explain it in a way we can all relate to? 22 C: Well, it wasn‟t my first choice of project, but it worked out alright I tried a lot of TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VII 23 different liquid crystal compounds, looking for one that was stable and emitted 24 phase when exposed to an EPL To determine the stability I used an electron 25 scanning microscope 26 PP: Right And what would you say was the main thing you learned from the 27 experience? 28 C: It was that meta three prime five prime dioic acid was the most stable 29 PP: No, no I mean what you feel you learned from the experience personally 30 rather than the experimental outcomes 31 C: Sorry, yeah, erm,… 32 [Time passes before she continues speaking.] 33 C: It was that research always takes a lot longer than you think it will 34 And…that…you don‟t always get the results you want 35 GP: Moving on then Why you want to work for Smith Basil? 36 [She is still looking at the table.] 37 C: I want to be laboratory based, and use the skills that I developed during my 38 course Working for Smith Basil will offer me a structured career path, and also I‟ll 39 be able to work in state-of-the-art laboratories and be involved in lots of different 40 projects and processes that will challenge and interest me, and develop new skills 41 GP: We‟re looking for graduates that have a range of skills Could you tell us about, 42 say, three important abilities that you consider we will be looking for in a graduate? 43 [She takes a while to think about this.] 44 C: I, er, I suppose being able to work in a team is an important ability, er, perhaps 45 being adaptable, no, being adaptable is definitely important Also, I suppose you‟ll 46 be looking for someone with a good knowledge of science 47 GP: So, adaptability, being a team player, and having a good scientific knowledge 48 are qualities you consider to be important to Smith Basil Why did you choose 49 these? Why did you think they would be important in a role of analytical chemist? 50 C: Erm…obviously you need to know the science behind what you are doing Erm, 51 you need to be able to work well with other people, because to ensure that the 52 processes are developed efficiently is usually a team or group effort Being 53 adaptable is really important because you might have to work with different TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIII 54 solutions or develop new skills or take on new roles when you become a bit more 55 experienced 56 GP: Excellent Erm, could you give us an example of a situation where you‟ve 57 shown good teamworking skills, perhaps had to respond to a change in situation 58 C: Not sure really, um, unless you count my final year project… 59 GP: Yes, that would count of course But I was thinking of something else you 60 mentioned on your application form 61 [She sits thinking but fails to respond.] 62 GP: You have a gold Duke of Edinburgh award don‟t you? 63 C: Oh, um, yes I I should have thought about mentioning that 64 GP: We only have a few vacancies nationwide Why should Smith Basil consider 65 offering you a position? 66 C: I have good experimental skills, erm, and understand the science behind them…I 67 suppose that sounds a bit big-headed, but I was awarded the prize for the best final 68 year project student in our department Um, I‟m keen to keep on developing, 69 learning, and would enjoy the opportunity to work hard as part of a team on 70 different projects and processes Um, I work really well as part of a team, all my uni 71 work that was group work got really good marks and I really enjoyed it 72 [Is now making more eye contact with panel, but still hasn‟t raised her head.] 73 PP: We feel our new graduates benefit from spending time in different laboratories 74 in different group projects during their first year This would include spending some 75 time at different sites around the UK Would that cause you any difficulties? 76 [Candidate pauses for a while.] 77 C: I suppose, suppose not, as long as it wasn‟t for too long 78 PP: Finally, are there any questions you‟d like to ask us? 79 [She thinks for a while.] 80 C: Um…u….no I don‟t think so I can‟t think of anything Interview The female candidate is sitting up straight and looking directly at the panel She TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com IX smiles when they start speaking PP: Let me introduce us I‟m Phil Prince, the graduate recruiter for Smith Basil, and this is Gerry Peters, our technical specialist [Candidate smiles at Gerry as he is introduced.] C: Hi PP: Did you enjoy the tour of the laboratories? C: Yes I did, thanks I was impressed with the range of instrumentation you have on site PP: I know from your application form you‟d like to become involved in the drug development side of things Do you have a strong interest in organic chemistry? 10 C: Yes, absolutely 11 [Turns to include Gerry in her answering.] 12 C: My final year project was based in organic chemistry Erm, and the third year of 13 my degree was focussed on drug development 14 GP: So you‟ll be familiar with techniques such as mass spectrometry? 15 C: Yes, I used that to analyze most of my products It helped us to determine if 16 further synthesis was needed, and was a useful tool in determining structural 17 identification 18 GP: Can you explain the basic principles of that technique? 19 [Candidate explains, using hand gestures to help.] 20 C: The sample is hit by an electron beam This causes the molecule to break into 21 different fragments The positive fragments are accelerated through the vacuum, and 22 the larger fragments take a different route to the smaller ones because the magnetic 23 field causes them to deflect These are then detected 24 GP: And the output is? 25 C: It‟s a plot of relative intensity, versus the mass to charge ratio 26 GP: And what‟s the base peak? 27 C: The base peak is the highest weight molecular peak… 28 [Pauses for a second.] 29 C: …no, sorry that‟s the molecular ion The base peak is…the most intense peak All 30 the other peaks are relative to this I can‟t believe I got them mixed up! TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com X 31 [Gives a small shake of the head and looks slightly embarrassed.] 32 GP: That‟s fine, it‟s fine At Smith Basil we utilise a complete range of techniques to 33 allow us to develop new products and maintain the standards of our current range 34 It‟s a collective effort from the synethetic and theoretical chemists and 35 pharmacologists through to the quality control and analysts We all work as a team to 36 ensure the high standards for our customers Now, could you suggest a few of the 37 other techniques that we might use? 38 [Answers to Gerry, whilst making regular eye contact with Phil] 39 C: Well, certainly MMR, mass spectrometry, UV visible spectrometry, um, gas 40 chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography I can‟t think of any 41 others 42 PP: Good Well we use all of those techniques and a few more You mentioned 43 HPLC, can you suggest some of the processes that might use HPLC? 44 C: Er, quality control 45 PP: Yes Can you give me an example of one of the products we might use HPLC 46 on? 47 [Thinks for a second then shakes her head.] 48 C: Um, no, not really I only covered HPLC very briefly in just one of my modules, 49 and then it was only one lecture I‟d hate to guess and get it wrong 50 PP: Don‟t worry about that But you must have used some kind of chromatography 51 during your laboratory classes 52 C: Well, yes, but that‟s different to HPLC 53 PP: Ok, so what‟s the principle behind that? 54 [Rests her hands on the table as she answers.] 55 C: Well, you have an absorbent I think I‟ve used silica This is packed into the 56 column and the different compounds you wish to separate are poured into the 57 column The different compounds bind to the surface at different strengths, this 58 means they move through the column at different rates This means they are 59 separated 60 PP: So how does this differ from HPLC? 61 [Thinks, then shakes head apologetically] TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com XI 62 C: Um, I don‟t know 63 GP: Ok, you‟ve just described a basic type of column Forgetting about the column 64 types, what‟s the main difference between chromatography and HPLC? 65 C: Well, HPLC is a system under pressure, which is more efficient for the types of 66 processes you would use 67 GP: Exactly that Well done 68 [Gives Gerry a big smile.] 69 PP: If we ask you to analyse the antibacterial content of our leading mouthwash, 70 Breathfresh, how would you go about getting started? 71 C: Um, well, the first thing I would is to determine what the antibacterial 72 component is This would help me to decide how best to analyse it For example, if I 73 was going to run an HPLC analysis on it, I would determine the column I would need 74 by looking in the manufacturers catalogue to see what they recommended for that 75 structural type 76 GP: Good answer Well done 77 PP: You‟re applying for a laboratory-based position Do you see yourself in a 78 laboratory in, say, five years‟ time? 79 [Smiles and nods.] 80 C: I think I‟d like to develop my career within the laboratory I know at Smith Basil 81 you have a structured career path that allows this I think I‟d like to keep my plans 82 fairly flexible as well, there may be other opportunities in different departments I‟d 83 like to consider 84 PP: Good, well thank you for coming along today We‟ll be in touch with you very 85 shortly Appendix Unit – I just love it (p 47) Practice Talking about you Ask and answer with a partner:  What you like doing at the weekend?  Who you look like in your family? TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com XII  How are your parents and grandparents?  What is your best friend like?  What‟s your school like?  What does your teacher look like? TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ... would want to is to apply the comparative study approach in analyzing English and Vietnamese samples The analysis is to uncover what prosodic features contribute to the expression of hesitation and. .. hesitation via prosodic features in both English and Vietnamese languages 4.2 Hesitation strategies The author has found that hesitation phenomena are quite popular in the English language teaching... between Vietnamese and English is that Vietnamese is a tone language in which the pitch levels are used to distinguish words; English is a non-tonal language in which pitch can change the sound of the