Strategies To Enhance The Understanding Of English Intonation For The Development Of Communicative Language Ability Among Second Language Learners.pdf

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** MAI THỊ HUYỀN STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE THE UNDERSTANDING OF ENGLISH I[.]

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** MAI THỊ HUYỀN STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE THE UNDERSTANDING OF ENGLISH INTONATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE ABILITY AMONG SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS Những chiến lược tăng cường hiểu biết ngữ điệu tiếng Anh nhằm phát triển lực ngôn ngữ giao tiếp người học ngôn ngữ hai M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Hanoi - 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** MAI THỊ HUYỀN STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE THE UNDERSTANDING OF ENGLISH INTONATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE ABILITY AMONG SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS Những chiến lược tăng cường hiểu biết ngữ điệu tiếng Anh nhằm phát triển lực ngôn ngữ giao tiếp người học ngôn ngữ hai M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn Hanoi - 2012 iv TABLE OF CONTENT Page Declaration of authorship i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of content iv List of tables vii PART A - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Methods of the study 1.4.1 Research questions 1.4.2 Research approach 1.4.3 The participants 1.4.4 Data collection methods 1.4.5 Data collection procedure 1.4.6 Data analysis 1.5 Organization of the study PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Literature Review 1.2 Theories of English intonation 1.2.1 Definitions of intonation 1.2.2 Systems of English intonation 1.2.3 Structure of English intonation 1.2.4 Basic tune shapes of English intonation 10 1.2.4.1 The falling tune 10 1.2.4.2 The first rising tune 11 1.2.4.3 The second rising tune 12 1.2.4.4 The falling-rising tune 13 1.2.5 Functions of English intonation 14 v 1.2.5.1 The organization of information 14 1.2.5.2 The realization of communicative functions 14 1.2.5.3 The expression of attitude 15 1.2.5.4 Syntactic structure 15 1.2.5.5 Textual structure 16 1.2.5.6 The identification of speech styles 16 1.3 Theories of language learning strategies 17 1.3.1 Definitions 17 1.3.2 Classification of Language Learning Strategies 17 1.3.2.1 Direct Language Learning Strategies 18 1.3.2.2 Indirect Language Learning Strategies 18 1.3.3 Characteristics of Language Learning Strategies 18 1.4 The relations between the competence of intonation and communicative language 19 ability 1.5 Strategies used to enhance the understanding English intonation for the development 23 of listening skill among second language learners in the study CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 26 2.1 Research questions 26 2.2 Research approach 26 2.3 Selecting subjects 27 2.4 Data collection 27 2.4.1 Data collection methods 27 2.4.1.1 Tests 27 2.4.1.1.1 Meta-linguistic tests 27 2.4.1.1.2 Listening comprehension tests 27 2.4.1.2 Questionnaire 27 2.4.2 Data collection procedures 28 2.5 Data analysis 29 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 30 3.1 Data analysis 30 3.1.1 Learners’ meta-knowledge of English intonation and the development of their 30 listening skill 3.1.1.1 Learners’ meta-knowledge of English intonation 30 vi 3.1.1.2 Learners’ development of listening skill 33 3.1.2 Strategies used by learners 35 3.1.2.1 Memory strategies 36 3.1.2.2 Cognitive strategies 36 3.1.2.3 Metacognitive strategies 37 3.1.2.4 Compensation strategies 37 3.1.2.5 Social strategies 37 3.1.2.6 Affective strategies 37 3.2 Discussions 37 PART C - CONCLUSION 39 Conclusion 39 Limitations of the research 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES vii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS No Table 3.1 Title Page Scores of two groups in the pre-teaching phase meta-linguistic 30 tests Table 3.2 Statistics of two groups scores in the pre-teaching phase meta- 31 linguistic tests Table 3.3 Scores of the experimental group‟s in the pre- and post-teaching 31 phase meta-linguistic tests Table 3.4 Statistics of the experimental group‟ in the pre- and post- 31 teaching phase meta-linguistic tests Table 3.5 Scores of the control group in the pre-and post-teaching phase 32 meta-linguistic tests Table 3.6 Statistics of the control group in the pre-and post-teaching phase 32 meta-linguistic tests Table 3.7 Scores of two groups in the post-teaching phase meta-linguistic 32 tests Table 3.8 Statistics of two groups in the post-teaching phase meta-linguistic 32 tests Table 3.9 Scores of two groups’ listening comprehension tests in the pre- 33 teaching phase Table 3.10 Statistics of two groups’ scores in listening comprehension tests in 33 the pre-teaching phase Table 3.11 Scores of the experimental group’s listening comprehension tests in 33 the pre- and post-teaching phase Table 3.12 Statistics of the experimental group’s listening comprehension tests 34 in the pre- and post-teaching phase Table 3.13 Scores of the control group in the pre- and post-teaching phase 34 listening comprehension tests Table 3.14 Statistics of the control group in the pre- and post-teaching phase 34 listening comprehension tests Table 3.15 Scores of two groups in the post-teaching phase listening 35 viii comprehension tests Table 3.16 Statistics of two groups in the post-teaching phase listening 35 comprehension tests Chart 3.1 Percentages of learning strategies used by the students 36 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Nowadays, English is more and more popular all over the world With the rapid pace of integration and globalization, English has become a golden key to opening the door of many fields such as commerce, communication, science and technology throughout the world That is why people want to learn English for their interests Therefore, to meet the demand of the society, it is very necessary to teach English in schools at all levels When teaching and learning, what teachers and learners desire to master English to reach the highest target is to get well in communication Apart from extra-linguistic factors, language users‟ competence in such intra-linguistic features as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation have an effect on their successful communication It is generally assumed that pronunciation is a direct factor participating in conversations between speakers and listeners and difficulties in communicating may be caused by improper pronunciation Thus the growing emphasis on communicative approaches to teaching English has placed higher demands for correct pronunciation When dealing with teaching pronunciation, we have to mention all its components such as sounds (vowels and consonants), intonation and so on, of which intonation is a main component Intonation exists in every language and is crucial for communication as a device to indicate the meaning intended and as a tool to indicate the feelings of the speaker Intonation plays a very important role in helping other people understand what the speaker believes to be the important aspects of the communication and thus helps them follow the structure of the communication Using English without knowledge of intonation can create troubles for learners of English in communication Incorrect intonation can result in misunderstandings and losing interest among interlocutors or may even cause unwanted offences Despite this fact, it seems that teaching and learning intonation has been paid inadequate attention to It may be because of some reasons In the official textbooks at schools used for teaching English, there are few exercises and there is little time for pronunciation practice, especially for intonation practice Intonation is a complex aspect of pronunciation, so it is not surprising that many teachers not feel confident about tackling it in the classroom; whereas, teaching grammar or lexis, they find ways of making the language accessible to their learners Besides, most students often end up learning correct pronunciation of individual words However they not always sound as natural as they want to The problem is most often the use of the wrong intonation of sentences As a teacher of English at Quang Ninh University of Industry, I have experienced problems in teaching English intonation The classes are not divided based on the students‟ English proficiency, and the number of students in each class is normally huge The time for intonation teaching and learning is limited Therefore, it is quite difficult to facilitate teaching and learning in general Coping with the fact, as a language teacher, I always think of how to find suitable methods to teach intonation and mediate what teachers should to teach intonation effectively and how teachers should make students become interested in this aspect of pronunciation For the above reasons, the study entitled: “Strategies to enhance the understanding of English intonation for the development of communicative language ability among second language learners” was chosen to carry out I hope that my work can help learners of English have greater awareness and understanding of intonation to facilitate their speaking and listening 1.2 Aims of the study This study is carried out in order to: 1.2.1 Help learners of English have a thorough knowledge of English intonation and its uses in daily communication 1.2.2 Make suggestions to help teachers of English give successful lessons on English intonation 1.3 Scope of the study This study only focuses on some domain as follows: - Only Southern British intonation - In the process of analyzing, intonation is mainly shown through descriptions based on given theories - The study is aimed at the learners of English at pre-intermediate level at Quang Ninh University of Industry to find out how much they know about intonation in English and applying some strategies in teaching and learning English to help the learners get the knowledge of English intonation for the development of listening in particular 1.4 Methods of the study 1.4.1 Research questions This study is to answer two questions: 1.4.1 Do the strategies suggested in the study help second language learners enhance their understanding of English intonation? 1.4.2 Is knowledge of English intonation helpful for the development of second language learners‟ communicative language ability? 1.4.2 Research approach The approach adopted in the research is quasi-experimental in which both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis are applied Quasi-experimental is adopted because my study lacks random allocation of groups A variable involving learners‟ understanding of English intonation and their listening comprehension is compared between two different groups at the end of the experiment 1.4.3 The participants The participants in my study are 100 first-year students at Quang Ninh University of Industry, divided into two groups: experimental group (50 students) and control group (50 students) 1.4.4 Data collection methods Two methods of collecting data are applied: tests and questionnaire There are two kinds of tests administered in the study: meta-linguistic tests and listening comprehension tests The questionnaire consists of 10 questions to investigate the strategies used by learners when they learn English intonation Questions to are closed questions Question 10 is open ended for learners to give their own opinions about the strategies they used 1.4.5 Data collection procedure First, the participants of the two groups did a pre-test said that the tune belongs not to the word but to the group word The voice goes up and down and the different notes of the voice combine to make tunes Ky (2006: 33) also agreed that tune belongs to the utterance and can convey meanings Tune plays an important role in English because it represents the pitch variations in the whole utterance If an utterance has only one word, the term “tune” and “tone” will be overlapped In summary, O‟Connor also dealt with the pitch variation of the voice; however, in his definition English intonation is associated with the tune Some other authors such as Roach (1983), Kelly (2000), Every and Ehrlich (1992) also have the same point of view with Tench These writers thought that “the term intonation refers to the way the voice goes up and down in pitch when we are speaking” (Kelly, 2000: 86) or “intonation is often called the melody of language since it refers to the pattern of pitch changes that we use when we speak” (Every and Ehrlich, 1992: 76) Intonation is a fundamental part of the way we express our thoughts and it enables to understand those of others When we listen to someone speaking, we will notice that there are many changes in pitch These pitch changes play an important role in conveying meaning In my viewpoint, the most comprehensive definition of intonation is shown in the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992: 190) as follows: “When speaking, people generally raise and lower the pitch of their voice, forming pitch patterns They also give some syllables in their utterances a greater degree of loudness and change their speech rhythm These phenomena are called intonation Intonation does not happen at random but has definite patterns which can be analyzed according to their structure and functions Intonation is used to carry information over and above that which is expressed by the words in the sentence.” 1.2.2 Systems of English intonation English intonation comprises „three separate, though related, systems: tonality (intonation units), tonicity (the tone syllables) and tone (pitch movements)‟ (Tench, 1996: 73) Tonality is „the system in intonation that divides spoken discourse into its separate individual intonation units‟ (Tench, 1996: 31) Spoken discourse sometimes consists of only one message or piece of information, only one word, even only on syllable, e.g Yes, No However, it usually consists of more than one piece of information Each single piece of intonation is contained in each intonation unit, which also represents the speaker‟s management of the information, so an utterance may be composed of many intonation units Tench said that intonation units coincide with clauses, and this provides a very valuable starting-point for the description of tonality The clause is the most obvious unit of grammar to handle a typical piece of information: the subject represents the theme- what the message is about, the predicate represents the rheme- what the message actually is Theoretically, on this basis a single piece of information is handled in the grammar typically by a single clause and in pronunciation by a single intonation unit A clause that consists of one and only one tone group will be regarded as neutral in tonality This kind of tonality is called neutral one However, the management of the information of the whole message depends on the perception and the organisation of information by the speaker, so marked tonality exists In all cases where intonation units not coincide with whole clauses, marked tonality occurs either when two (or more) clauses fit into a single intonation unit, or when two (or more) intonation units are needed to cover a single clause The tonality division depends on the structure of the clause Thus, it is necessary to know where the intonation unit boundaries lie when we recognise intonation of utterances If an utterance consists of a single intonation unit, there is no problem because it is bounded by silence before and after If an utterance consists of two or more units of intonation with clear pauses which exactly coincide with sentences or clause boundaries, then it is not difficult to see the boundaries of the intonation units In other circumstances, especially in informal spoken speech, it is not easy to identify the boundaries However, there are principles based on certain regular patterns of features of phonetic cues we can use in the identification of the boundaries Firstly, there is a perceivable pitch change at some point following a tonic syllable: either a stepping up after a falling tone, or a stepping down after a rise; if the pitch of the tonic syllable was level, the either a stepping up or down would signal the start of a new intonation unit Secondly, there is a (very) slight pause or a change of pace in the flow of syllables, syllables at the end of the unit tend to be relatively slower, but syllables at the beginning of a unit has a tendency to speed up (Tench, 1996) Tonicity is the focal point of intonation It means the choice of the places in an utterances or part of an utterance where a movement in pitch begins This change of pitch occurs on a syllable which is called the tonic syllable The tonic syllable is the most prominent, or salient, of the stressed syllables in any given intonation unit made by a combination of pitch, volume and length (Tench, 1996) The tonic syllable plays a very important role in the utterance because if speakers not reach the tonic syllable in any given intonation unit, then listeners not have enough clues to decide on the structure and the focus of information in the particular part of the message “The function of the tonic is to form the focus of information: to express what the speaker decides to make the main point or burden of the message” Halliday (1970:40)) When the tonic is changed, the focus of information is changed, too Therefore, the tonic syllable is the basis on which listeners can perceive the main information the speaker means Tone refers to pitch movements Tone has been defined as the contrastive pitch movement on the tonic syllable There are two types of tone: primary tone, and secondary tone (Tench, 1996) Primary tones are the basic contrastive pitch movements on the tonic, i.e whether the pitch of the voice moves up (rises), or moves down (falls), or combines a movement of down and then up (fall-rises) The primary tones in English comprise the fall, the rise, and the fall-rise They function in the organisation of information and produce contrasts in the communicative function which help to indicate differences between telling and asking, between commanding and requesting, between congratulating and wishing, etc Secondary tones are the finer distinctions of the primary tones, i.e the degree to which the pitch of the voice rises, falls ore combines a fall and a rise-whether there is, for example, a rise to a high pitch or a mid pitch, or a fall from a mid pitch or a high pitch, etc Secondary tones in English function in the expression of attitudes 1.2.3 Structure of English intonation The intonation of English not only displays system, it also displays structure Each intonation unit has a structure It consists of pre-tonic segment and tonic or nucleus The pre-tonic segment can be divided into the pre-head and the head The head is the part which begins with the first stressed syllable, the pre-head is the unstressed and precedes the head The stressed syllables are traditionally marked by, the tonic or nucleus is marked either in bold or in capitals or by underlining The tonic segment can have the tail which follows the tonic For example (Tench, 1996: 12-14): Pre-tonic segment Tonic segment Pre-head Head Tonic / Nucleus A „dog is a „man‟s „best „friend tail 10 „Dogs are „men‟s „best „friends The tonic (or nucleus) is obligatory, because it is the part of the intonation unit that bears the contrastive pitch movement, the tone and because of its essential prominence The other parts of the unit are optional 1.2.4 Basic tune shapes of English intonation According to O‟Connor (1980: 109), “The shape of a tune is decided partly by the number of important words in the group and partly by the exact attitude you wish to express” „Important words‟ here means the words which carry most of the meaning in a word group An important word always has a stressed syllable and a change of pitch connected to it Important words are not the same as stressed words Stressed words may not be important words, although important words must be stressed It is not only the normally stressed words which may be felt to be important by the speaker; any word may be important if the situation makes it important Thus, the important words and the number of important words in a group affect the shape of a tune The difference here is due to the speaker‟s attitude when saying the group There are some basic tune shapes in English (O‟Connor, 1980) 1.2.4.1 The falling tune The falling tune consists of a fall in the voice from a fairly high to a very low one The fall is on the stressed syllable or from the stressed syllable to the following one • E.g.: • * Two In the shortest word-groups, it is necessary to know that: ∙ ∙ ∙ *Definitely - On a single syllable the voice falls within the syllable - On more than one syllable the voice either falls within the stressed syllable or it jumps down from that syllable to the next - Unstressed syllables at the end are all very low When there is more than one important word in the group, the last one has the fall but the others are treated differently: E.g.: • ∙ • *What was *that? 11 - The stressed syllable of the first important word is high and any unstressed syllables following it are on the same pitch - The stressed syllable of the second important word is a little lower and any unstressed syllables following it are on the same pitch - The fall starts at the same pitch as the syllable just before it In groups with more than three important words the stressed syllable of each one is lower than the one before If there are any unstressed syllables before the stressed syllable of the first important word, these are all said on a rather low pitch: • ∙ was *glad Also, any stressed syllable near the beginning which belongs to a word which is not E.g.: ∙ I important is said on this same rather low pitch These low syllables at the beginning are not at the lowest possible pitch like the ones at the end, but they must be lower that the high pitch which follows • ∙ • ∙ • He *seems *very *nice We often use the falling tune for statements which are complete and definite, for strong E.g.: commands, strong exclamations, for short questions used as responses like Did you?, Has she? and for tag questions where the word not occurs in either the statement or the tag question to force the other person to agree with you 1.2.4.2 The first rising tune The first rising tune ends with a rise Both important and unimportant words before the rise are treated exactly as in the falling tune E.g.: • ∙ • ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ • ∙ But *is it *true that you‟re *changing your *job? Apart from this the tune is the same as in the falling tune: the unstressed syllable at the beginning is low, and there is a step at the stressed syllable of each important word 12 The stressed syllable of the last important word is low and that the voice jumps up to the unstressed syllable (each following unstressed syllable is a little higher, the last one of all being on the same fairly high note) E.g.: • ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ • • *Have you been at *work to*day, John? The first rising tune is usually used if the statement is intended to be soothing and encouraging, or intended as a question It is used for all Yes-No questions (which are not used as responses), for repetition-questions, for greeting and saying goodbye and for exclamations which refer to something not very interesting or unexpected If we want to show as much interest in the other person as in the subject an, we also use this kind of tune 1.2.4.3 The second rising tune The second rising tune also ends with a rise in the voice, like the first rising tune, but any words and syllables before the rise are low: E.g.: ∙ ∙ • ∙ • ∙ ∙ • I was *only *trying to *help This rise, as in the first rising tune, either takes place on one syllable or it is spread over several syllables: ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ • ∙ ∙ • I was *only *trying to *help him with it Before the rise any stressed word is felt to be important, even though there is no change of E.g.: pitch All the syllables before the rise are said on the same low pitch as the beginning of the rise, they must be not higher than this We normally use the second rising tune if the statement is a grumble, if the exclamation is questioning and when we don‟t want the other person to agree with you, but to give his opinion The second rising tone is also used for the repetition-questions (when we are repeating someone else‟s question or when we want the other person to repeat some 13 information), for tag questions after commands, for tag questions where neither the statement nor the tag-question have he word not in them 1.2.4.4 The falling-rising tune In its shortest form the falling-rising tune consists of a fall from rather high to low and then a rise to about the middle of the voice: • E.g.: *Five This fall-rise is connected with the stressed syllable of the last important word, like the fall and the rise of the other tunes But it is only completed on one syllable if that syllable is final in the group If there is one or several syllables following, the fall and the rise is separated: E.g.: • *Twenty The fall is on the stressed syllable of the last important word and the rise is on the last syllable of all Words and syllables before the fall are said in the same way as for the falling and the first rising tunes: E.g.: • • ∙ ∙ She was *quite *kind The fall of the fall-rise is always from a fairly high note This tune can be used if the statement is not completed but leading to a following word group, if the statement is a warning or a correction of what someone else has said, and if the statements has two parts, of which the first is more important than the second (with the fall at the end of the first part and the rise at the end of the second) It can be also used if statements show reservation on the part of the speaker and which might be followed by but…or by you must admit or I must admit, and if we want the command to sound ... help second language learners enhance their understanding of English intonation? 1.4.2 Is knowledge of English intonation helpful for the development of second language learners‟ communicative language. .. communicative language 19 ability 1.5 Strategies used to enhance the understanding English intonation for the development 23 of listening skill among second language learners in the study CHAPTER... understanding of English intonation for the development of communicative language ability among second language learners” was chosen to carry out I hope that my work can help learners of English have