Nguyen 2 Intonation CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION h Nguyen 3 Intonation 1 1/ Rationale Celce Murcia states in his book that, “Pronunciation is becoming increasingly recognized as a crucial area for language[.]
Nguyen…2 Intonation CHAPTER INTRODUCTION h Nguyen…3 Intonation 1.1/ Rationale Celce-Murcia states in his book that, “Pronunciation is becoming increasingly recognized as a crucial area for language learners” (Celce-Murcia, 1996; Rossiter, 2010) Many non-native speakers who have studied English for years share that, no matter how good their English-grammar skill are, they could not speak English fluently, and their accents are not native-liked speakers In fact, comprehensibility from speakers to listeners has a specific influence to the speaker’s confidence and others’ perception of them Leah Tweedy indicates that the people who had a shortage of intelligibility in their speech have a huge adversity in their professional, social, and educational lives (Leah Tweedy, 2012) Many cases of misunderstanding in communication caused by the mispronouncing of words, intonation or stress According to the Adult Migrant English Program (AMPE), the people who have great pronunciation in English, even if they make mistakes in other spaces, their speech are more likely understood Nonetheless, the people with the difficulty in pronunciation will not be understood, although their grammars are blameless Many adult learners find that pronunciation is one of the most difficult aspects of English to acquire They need explicit help from the teacher (Morley 1994) 1.2/ Scope of the study Intonation is very important for English learners who want to speak English in a natural way Even with perfect vocabulary and grammar skills, incorrect intonation still leads to misunderstanding about the intended meaning of the utterance This study will briefly compares the difference between Vietnamese intonation and English intonation as well as indicating some problems that Vietnamese students meet on the way of becoming a skillful non-native speaker h Nguyen…4 Intonation CHAPTER LITTERATURE REVIEW h Nguyen…5 Intonation 2.1/ What is intonation? One writer of Elserver magazine proposes that “intonation can be described using a sequence of rise, fall, and connection elements Pitch accents and boundary rises are described using the rise and fall elements and connection elements are used to describe everything else” (Elsevier journal vol 15) Another perspective, Daniel Hirst believes that the description of the intonation system of a particular language or dialect is a “difficult task” because intonation itself is paradoxical (Daniel 1998, 2) He also declares that intonation is “universal first of all” since every language in the world possess intonation Those ideas were the early descriptions of intonation in years of the 90s Marta J Sabbadini informes that intonation is not about the things a person says, but it is about the way he says them (Marta, 2006) She also believes that “without intonation, it's impossible to understand the expressions and thoughts that go with the words, when you listened to somebody, the “melody” in their voice is intonation” (Marta, 2006) Marta also discribes the feature of intonation as following ground: “It's divided into phrases, also known as 'tone-units' The pitch moves up and down, within a 'pitch range' Everybody has their own pitch range Languages, too, differ in pitch range English has particularly wide pitch range In each tone unit, the pitch movement (a rise or fall in tone, or a combination of the two) takes place on the most important syllable known as the 'tonic-syllable' The tonic-syllable is usually a high-content word, near the end of the unit These patterns of pitch variation are essential to a phrase's meaning Changing the intonation can completely change the meaning Example: o o Say: 'It's raining' Now say it again using the same words, but giving it different meaning You could say it to mean 'What a surprise!', or 'How annoying!',or 'That's great!' There are many possibilities” (Marta, 2006) h Nguyen…6 Intonation Those opinions are the glance of different descriptions by the writers in different time period about the universal intonation For now we will take a quick look about the intonation in Vietnamese 2.2/ Vietnamese tone and intonation 2.2.1/ Vietnamese tone According to Ms Luu Thi Kim Nhung, “Vietnamese is a tonal language, in which changes of the pitch level and/or contour signal a change meaning” (Le, 2010) Even though, there are some different perspectives on this topic Base on an opinion collected online, Vietnamese tones are considered different from other languages in the world The author says that, “Unlike many Native American, African, and Chinese languages, Vietnamese tones not rely solely on pitch contour Vietnamese often uses instead a register complex (which is a combination of phonation type, pitch, length, vowel quality, etc.) (Wikipedia, 2008) In other words, Vietnamese is a register language and not a "pure" tonal language” (Wikipedia 2008) In short, Vietnamese tone is still a controversial topic However, many linguists have a special concern on its prosodic and consider tone as a crucial part of a word as its consonant and its vowel To illustrate that follows, the words with different tone changes the whole meaning of them, and such words are likely to have unrelated meaning “ma” means ghost “mả” means tomb “má” means mother or cheek “mà” means (adversative conjunction) but, nevertheless, yet, however or then, in order to “mạ” means seed or to plate (silver, gold ) The Northern dialect of Vietnamese has six tone: mid-level, low-falling, high rising, low-falling- rising, high-rising broken and low-falling broken Except for the middle level, all the other tones are distincted by the diacritic over or under one of the vowels in the syllable Each tone has its own speech We can present the range of the variation of pitches with a short vertical divided into five points, which represent five degrees as below chart h Nguyen…7 Intonation the high pitch the mid-high pitc the middle pitch the mid-low pitc the low pitch Chart The pitch levels of the Vietnamese tones The pitch levels of the six tones can be presented on such a five-degree chart (see Appendix 1) Luu.T.K.Nhung has once indicates how the various tonal designations are used in the Northern dialect of Vietnamese and parallel discriptions with English intonation (Appendix 2) 2.2.2/ Vietnamese intonation In fact, Vietnamese is not only a “word-pitch system (tone) but also a “phrasepitch system” (intonation) (Luu, 2010) Beside the syllabic pitch, there are the rises and falls of pitches which form intonation contour in the utterance as well Do (2009) indicates five main components of Vietnamese intonations, as follow: Components Pitch / register Intensity / loudness Duration / Length Tempo Contour Distinctive features high vs low strong vs weak long vs short pause vs continuous level vs unlevel Table Five main components of Vietnamese intonation h Nguyen…8 Intonation Kieu-Phuong Ha and Martine Grice claim that there is an interaction between syllabic tone and intonation (Ha, 52) According to Alan Cruttenden, there is not any difference between Vietnamese intonation and one of other languages To him, the difference tones are somehow “attracted” by the intonation movement (Cruttenden, 1986) As Nhung says, “Register tones are levelled, low tones widen their range, high tones are more strongly marked in interrogatives” (Luu, 2005) Although, intonation contour is seemed to be “heedfully used” in Vietnam than in other languages: In question, for example, there is nothing noticeable until the proximity of the sentence final question mark, where the rise appears; In declarative sentences, the tone is seemed to be higher and stronger In terms of the functions of Vietnamese intonation, Đỗ states, “intonation is one of the conditions of a sentence/utterance to exist and function communicatively” (Đỗ 2009) In communication, the Vietnamese intonation has such functions as grammatical, attitudinal, implicational/logic, pragmatic” (Đỗ 2009) 2.3/ English tone and intonation Although English employs tonal variation, the English intonation has the different usages from tones used in Vietnam In English, intonation contour mainly reflect the intention of utterance However, no matter how up or down the tones are, they can not change the meaning of whole sentence L.T.K.Nhung, in her journal finds out some different perspectives on English intonation According to her research, Crystal (1969) and Ladefoged (1982) identify four basic tone, Brazil et al (1980) and Roach (1983) assent five tones (fall, rise, rise-fall, fall-rise, and level) Whereas Cruttenden (1986) [16] even recognizes seven different tones of English This research will focus on the opinion of Ronald Carter ( ) expressed in their book, they endorsed that there are three main patterns of intonation in English are: falling intonation, rising intonation and fall-rise intonation Cambridge Dictionary has displayed their idea as follow: (Ronald et al 2011) h Nguyen…9 Intonation 2.3.1/ Falling intonation Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of a phrase or a group of words A falling intonation is very common in wh-questions Ex: - Where’s the nearest post-office? - What time does the film finish? People tend to use falling intonation when they say something definitely, or when they want to be very clear about something: Ex: - I think we are completely lost - OK, here’s the magazine you wanted 2.3.2/ Rising intonation Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence Rising intonation is common in yes-no questions: Ex: - I hear the Health Centre is expanding So, is that the new doctor? - Are you thirsty? 2.3.3/ Fall-Rise intonation Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises We use fall-rise intonation at the end of statements when we want to say that we are not sure, or when we may have more to add: Ex: - I don’t support any football team at the moment (but I may change my mind in future h Nguyen…10 Intonation - It rained every day in the first week (but things improved after that) Speakers use fall-rise intonation with questions, especially when they request information or invite somebody to or to have something The intonation pattern makes the questions sound more polite: Ex: - Is this your camera? - Would you like another coffee? Intonation does not exist in isolation so that it will make sense more clearly if we approach it with other factors According to Nhung, “there are four function namely attitudinal, grammatical, accentual and discourse.” (Nhung 2010) 2.4/ A brief comparison of Vietnamese intonation and English intonation In comparing Vietnamese intonation and English intonation, a big difference between them can be easily found First, Vietnamese two kind of pitch contour: the syllabic pitch for single syllable and intonational pitch for the whole sentence; whereas, English only hold the pitch level for the meaning of the utterance To clarify, English intonation simply can not change the “dictionary maning” of the sentence No matter how we change the pitch, the sentence will not be changed In Vietnamese, syllabic pitch can alter the whole meaning of your speech For example: “Ông tu” (He has become a priest/a monk) Versus “Ông tù” (He has been going to jail) Obviously, wa can say that the syllabic pitch decides the meaning of the sentence Secondly, in English, we can base on the intonation to identify the types of the sentence h Nguyen…11 Intonation For example: - He’s coming! (the assertive sentence) - He’s coming? (interrogative sentence) In Vietnamese, intonation is rarely used as a way to form the sentence If it is an assertive sentence ending with sắc (high-rising tone), the speakers have to raise the voice at the end of the sentence, for example, “Em đói bụng lắm!” (I am so hungry!) Whereas, if an interrogative sentence ends with huyền (lowfalling tone), the voice should be lower at the end of the sentence, for example, “Em đói bụng à?” (Are you hungry?) h Nguyen…13 Intonation 3.1/ Survey questionnaires 3.1.1/ Participants All the related data that used to analyze for this research were collected from 10 students coming from some universities in Ho Chi Minh City, including Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University, Saigon International University, Hoa Sen University and Saigon University They will be asked questions Because this is the research of the attitude of Vietnamese students against the English intonation so that researcher chooses these students for several reasons First, they are all in the final year of universities, they are about to go into working environment so that they some-how understand the importance of English Secondly, those students are either in English major or not, thus it is correct and can be applied for the whole community Last, they come from different universities and many different areas of Vietnam so that none of the dialect is dominant here 3.1.2/ Purpose of the survey This survey is conducted for three main purposes Two first questions are to find the important role of English in social life The next question is about responsors‘ opinions of pronunciation in communication The last ones is purposed to figure out their attitudes toward intonation and their own thoughts about the reason why pronunciation is difficult to non-native English speaker 3.1.3/ Data collection instrument To collect data, some indirect observation is created right from the start Besides that, survey questionnaires, interview and tape-recording were also used Survey questionnaire and interview are the most necessary methods instrument to collect information The survey is conducted in English because the responsors’ pronunciation throughout the interview would be noticed and become a part of the database The questions are easy to undertand and answer During the survey, the participants are encouraged to feel free to express their thinking and knowledge After collecting answers from the students, in order to get more persuasive data, a h Nguyen…14 Intonation number of students were asked to pronounce All the interview was recorded to avoid data loss 3.2/ Data analysis 3.2.1/ The importance of English in students’ opinon The result of students’ opinion in the survey questionnaires show a positive point The collected data will be presented in the chart below ENGLISH'S IMPORTANT 10.00% Very important Important Not very important 20.00% 70.00% Chart Student’s opinion about the importance of English From the collected data, students agreed that English is important in social life nowadays They claim that English is very popular and is used in many majors and situations For example, not only the students who are in English major have worked with English In fact, the students who are in other majors such as medical branch and economics have to use English everyday In order to catch up with the world, many of their coursebooks are in English Thus, they are forced to use English almost everyday even if they like it or not Therefore, we can see in Chart 2, just one out of ten students believe that English is not important for our future h Nguyen…15 Intonation 3.2.2/ Student’s opinion about pronunciation The two next questions (question and 3) is about students’ opinion against pronunciation in general When being asked about their frequency of using English to communicate, the answers are displayed in the below chart Frequency of communication in English 30.00% 30.00% Usually Often Seldom 40.00% Chart Student’s opinion about frequency of communication in English In chart 3, we can realize a decrease of English dominant, particularly in pronunciation part Although English is expanding its influence, students not use English usually in their communication According to their reasons, they expose that the time they use English to talk in a week are very rare They just need to talk English in the speaking classes, and a class are just long for about 45 or 50 minutes Outside of the class, they seldom use English to talk to each other They explain that there are too much information that they need to tell each other, and with their English level, it must be take them forever to finish their speech This may takes more time than using Vietnamese mother-tongue language The survey also shows that many students not have any awareness of the importance of English communication Moreover, they not know the way how to practice speaking English outside the class h Nguyen…16 Intonation The next question (qudestion 4) shows students’ attitude about the native-liked speaking And the result is express in chart Student's attitude about native-liked speaking 10.00% 30.00% Very Important Important Not very important 60.00% Chart Students’ attitude about the native-liked speaking Most of the students in the survey think that they only need to speak English fluently Their accents or the sound of their voices is not necessary to be noticed These students claim that claim that their speakings make sense to native people is more sufficient However, as mentioned above, the intelligibility is very essential to make a conversation go smoothly The factor to create it is pronunciation skills The native speakers will love to talk to people whom they can understand Students need to pay more attention on their pronunciation skills, so that they can build their confidence and profession 3.2.3/ Students’ attitude toward intonation Two last questions are about what partipants think about intonation The first one is their point of view about the important of intonation comparing with other factors of speaking Table can show us the answers h Nguyen…17 Intonation Factors Sound Very important Important Not really important Gramma Intonation Table Students’ attitude toward intonation when comparing with other factor of speaking The table show that intonation is not highly evaluated when participants speak English Most of them proposed that we just need to keep our mind on the sounds Someone states that when speaking, it is not really important to notice on grammar, the native still understand what is expressed In the result, nearly 100% of students not find intonation is one of the essential factors in the speaking process In fact, the proficiency in intonation will help the speaker’s intention to be revealed much more clearly Many people not know that incorrect intonation may make other people misunderstanding what the speakers say The last question is about the reason that interfere their ability to use intonation correctly The below are the most common answers: Differrent from Vietnamese tone No habit of practicing intonation Too difficult to toake notice on intonation Shyness in making mistake when practicing (overdo) Interference of around people’s pronunciation We can see that most of the reason is about practicing Students not have the habit of paying attention to intonation whenever they use English to communicate Actually, when doing research, I found out there are many students not have perception of intonation in English h Nguyen…18 Intonation Chapter Discussion h Nguyen…19 Intonation The result of the survey display a reality of intonation unawareness in Vietnam Because Vietnamese is a tone language, speakers may have the tendency of being sensitive with the changes of pitch in speed, but over a single syllable, rather than a phrase or a long sentence Teachers should give more concern of intonation in class, introduce students the patterns of intonation and guide them how to practice it in communication To that, based on Nhung , here some reccommendation for ESL teachers to follow: Be aware of teacher’s own pronunciation Students usually tend to imitate the voice or accent of their teacher They will take for granted that their teacher’s pronunciation is always right Direct students’ attention to English basic intonation pattern Especially give them specific examples in specific situation of the social life They may find intonation interesting and practical Alert students to similarities and differences in intonation between Vietnamese and English This will help students build up the foundation of distinguish points of two languages, so that they will not feel strange and shy when they practice English intonation in communication Letting students to listen to the tape of native speakers using intonation in some specific intonation They will have the first step of intonation perception in their mind Letting students to listen to the recording of themselves This can be a valuable awareness rising strategy They may well hear and recognize their mistakes in using intonation, the factor they may overlook when actually speaking As a result, they may take notice on weak points conciously Create class room exercise and an environment in which students feel free to practice and use intonation without shaming Moreover, they can correct both themselves and their peers (Nhung 2010) [5] h Nguyen…20 Intonation Conclusion Intonation is not about what we say, it is about how we say it Because of the difference between tone of Vietnamese and English one, students feel difficult to consolidate intonation in speaking English daily Moreover, the limitation of practicing intonation in class has led to the shortage of students’ awareness of it From that point, we can conscious the important role of teachers in bringing the basic definition of intonation into class Teacher ought to open students mind and show them that proficiency in intonation is a requirement for a better communication with native-speaker of English h Nguyen…21 Intonation Referrence Crutt enden, Alan, Intonat ion (Cambri dge textbooks in linguistics), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986 Cruttenden, Alan, Intonation (Cambridge textbooks in linguistics), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ,1986 Cù Đình Tú, Hồng Văn Thung, Nguy ễn Nguyên Trứ, Ngữ âm học tiếng Việt đại, NXB Giáodục,1978 Daniel Hirst in Intonation Systems: A Survey of Twenty Languages (1998) Đỗ Tiến Thắng, Ngữ điệu tiếng Việt, NXB Đại học Quốc gia HàNội, 2009 Elserver.1994 “Speech Communication” Elsevier journal 15: 1-187 Kieu-Phuong Ha and Martine Grice.(…) Modellingthe Interaction of Intonation and Lexical Tone in Vietnamese IfL Phonetik, University of Cologne, Germany Leah Tweedy 2012 “Discovering factors that influence English pronunciation of native Vietnamese speaker” MA diss., Hamline University Luu Thi Kim Nhung 2010 VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages 26 (2010) 171-180 M Celce-Murcia, D.M Brinton, J M Goodwi n, “Teaching pronunciation”, Cambridge University press , 1996 Marta J Sabbadini 2006 “Intonation” Brtitish council https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/intonation Morley, J 1994 “Pronunciation pedagogy and theory” Scientific Rresearch P Ladefoged, A Course in phonetics, 2nd edition, Harcour t, Brace, Jovanovich, 1982 P Roach, English phonetics and phonology, Cambridge University Press, 1983 Ronald Carter, Michael McCarthy, Geraldine Mark, and Anne O’Keeffe English Grammar Today (2011) h