The effects of teaching intonation on english majored students listening comprehension at the university of social sciences and humanities ho chi minh city m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING INTONATION ON ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES – HO CHI MINH CITY A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By VO THI MAI VY Supervised by PHO PHUONG DUNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2019 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING INTONATION ON ENGLISHMAJORED STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES – HO CHI MINH CITY in terms of the statement of Requirements for the Thesis in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other situation Ho Chi Minh City, June 2019 Võ Thị Mai Vy i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Võ Thị Mai Vy, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis Ho Chi Minh City, June 2019 Võ Thị Mai Vy ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great debt of gratitude to those who have helped me complete this thesis First and foremost, I would like to express my gratefulness to my teacher and supervisor, Dr Pho Phuong Dung, for all her kindness, encouragement, sympathy and valuable guidance Without her support and thoughtful comments, I would have never come over the difficulty of time to finish this thesis I am greatly in debted to the Board of Administrators of the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, whose facilitation and assistance greatly contributed to the implementation of this thesis My sincere thanks especially go to Ms Dang Thi Van Di and Ms Nguyen Thi Thu for their support in assigning the two classes for me to conduct the quasiexperimental study I also wish to express my appreciation to Mr Nguyen Xuan Trieu, who has introduced me to serve as a part-time lecturer at EF This study would not have been completed without the encouragement from my friends, Mr Vo Huynh Thanh and Mr Nguyen Doan Vinh Trieu I have also learnt a lot from them about how to conduct a quasi-experimental study, how to look for articles and theses in database, and how to analyze data by the SPSS Last but not least, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my endlessly supportive father and my affectionately caring mother Their love and sympathy motivated me to complete this study iii ABSTRACT Intonation is one of the linguistic features which cause obstacles in EFL learners’ listening comprehension However, the learners are not usually instructed to apply their knowledge of intonation in comprehending spoken texts The current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the teaching of intonation on learners’ listening comprehension and examine the learners’ attitudes towards this teaching approach To these aims, forty-eight English-majored students were invited to participate in this quasi-experimental study The findings of this study indicated that the teaching of intonation was effective in enhancing the learners’ listening comprehension Especially, the experimental group outperformed the control group in the gap-filling questions and short-answer questions Additionally, the learners’ responses in the questionnaires showed they had positive attitudes towards the integration of intonation in listening lessons iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION…………….…………………………………1 1.1 Background to the study……………………………… ………………… …1 1.1.1 The role of listening comprehension and intonation in English learning …1 1.1.2 Courses of Listening skills at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature………………………………………………………………………… 1.2 Aims of the study………………………… …………… ………………….3 1.3 Research questions………………………………………….……………… 1.4 Significance of the study………………………………… …… ………… 1.5 Scope of the study……………………… … ………………………………4 1.6 The structure of the study………………………… …………………… ….5 CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW… ………………………………… 2.1 Theoretical issues on listening comprehension……………………… ……6 2.1.1 Definitions of listening comprehension…………………………… ……6 2.1.2 Causes of listening difficulties…………………………………… …… 2.1.3 Processes of listening comprehension………………………… …… … 2.2 Theoretical issues on English intonation………………………………… 12 2.2.1 Definitions of intonation…………………………… ………………… 12 2.2.2 Components of intonation…………………………………… ………… 13 2.2.3 Functions of intonation…………………………………… …………… 17 2.3 Review of previous studies…………………………………… ……….… 23 2.4 Conceptual framework of the study…………………………………… 26 v 2.5 Summary of the chapter……………………………….……………… ….27 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY……… …………… ……………….…….29 3.1 Context of the study…………………………………….…………….…… 29 3.2 Research design………………………………… ……………………… 30 3.3 Piloting study………………………………… ………………………… 35 3.4 Participants………………………………………… …………………… 37 3.5 Research instruments……………………………………… …………… 37 3.5.1 Listening tests…………………………… …………………………… 37 3.5.2 Questionnaire…………………………………… …………………… 39 3.6 Data collection procedure……………….…… …… …………………… 41 3.7 Data analysis procedure……………………………… ………………….41 3.8 Summary of the chapter………………………….…………………………42 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION………….……………………43 4.1 Statistical analysis of listening tests’ results………………………….… …43 4.1.1 Test of normal distribution of the data…………………………….………43 4.1.2 Comparison between the pretest scores of the two groups……….……….44 4.1.3 Comparison between the pretest and posttest scores of each group…… 45 4.1.4 Comparison between the two groups’ posttest scores……………… ……47 4.1.5 Comparison between the groups’ posttest scores in each type of question………………………………………………………………………… 49 4.1.6 Comparison between the experimental group’s pretest and posttest scores in each type of question……………………………………………………… ……54 vi 4.2 Statistical analysis of questionnaire results…………………………… … 59 4.2.1 The usefulness of intonation in learners’ listening process……… ………60 4.2.2 The extent of necessity of instructing the functions in class ………………… ………………………………………………………… ……62 4.2.3 The usefulness of stages in listening lessons………………………… .65 4.2.4 The usefulness of different activities in classrooms…… ……….……….67 4.2.5 More suggestions made by the learners…………………… ………… 71 4.3 Summary of the chapter…………………………… …………… 72 CHAPTER CONCLUSION…………………………………… ………….73 5.1 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….73 5.2 Suggestions…………………………………………………………………75 5.2.1 Suggestions for English teachers…………………………………………75 5.2.2 Suggestions for syllabus designers………….……………………………76 5.3 Limitations of the study…………………………………………………….76 5.4 Recommendations for further studies………………………………………77 5.5 Summary of the chapter…………………………………………………….78 REFERENCES………………………………… ………………………………79 APPENDIX A Course syllabus of C1 Listening and Speaking Skills………………………………………………………………………… …84 APPENDIX B The listening test format of C1 Listening and Speaking Course……………………………………………………………………………90 APPENDIX C Pretest of listening……………………………………… ……92 vii APPENDIX D Sample listening lesson plan of the experimental group…………………………………….………………………………… ……95 APPENDIX E Sample listening lesson plan of the control group…………… ………………………….…………………………………99 APPENDIX F Posttest of listening……………………… …………………101 APPENDIX G Questionnaire………………………………….…… ………104 APPENDIX H Pretest of listening of the pilot study……… ………………107 APPENDIX I Posttest of listening of the pilot study ……………………….111 APPENDIX J Detailed statistics comparing pretest scores of the two groups in each type of question…………………………………………………… …115 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Summary of categorization of tones…………………………… …16 Table 2.2: Functions of intonation proposed by Kenworthy (1987) and Crystal (1995)……………………………………………………….…………………….19 Table 3.1: Summary of the experimental group’s lesson procedure……….……33 Table 3.2: Summary of the control group’s lesson procedure…….…………….34 Table 3.3: Piloting group’s pretest and posttest mean scores…………….…… 35 Table 3.4: Comparison between pretest and posttest mean scores of piloting group………………………………………………………………… ………… 35 Table 3.5: Mean scores of pretest and posttest of students……………………38 Table 3.6: Comparison between pretest and posttest mean scores of students 38 Table 3.7: Summary of functions of items of questions and 2……… ……….40 Table 3.8: Summary of functions of items of questions and 4…………… ….41 Table 4.1: The two groups’ pretest mean scores…………………………… ….44 Table 4.2: Comparison between the two groups’ pretest mean scores…… … 44 Table 4.3: The control group’s pretest and posttest mean scores………… … 45 Table 4.4: Comparison between the control group’s pretest and posttest mean scores…………………………………………………………………………… 45 Table 4.5: The experimental group’s pretest and posttest mean scores…….… 46 Table 4.6: Comparison between the experimental group’s pretest and posttest mean scores……………………………………………………………………….46 Table 4.7: The experimental and control groups’ posttest mean scores…… …47 ix 17 When he visited Debre Zeit, he was moved by what Fanti was doing to help people there 18 He has a big problem in collaborating with other writers PART 4: You are going to hear a talk about the English policeman Listen carefully and answer the questions 19-24 with NO MORE THAN WORDS 19 According to the speaker, what does the verb ‘to cop’ mean? => ………………………………………………………………………………… 20 What was founded by Sir Robert Peel? => ………………………………………………………………………………… 21 How visitors to England or Britain feel about the English policemen? => ………………………………………………………………………………… 22 What policemen in London usually do? => ………………………………………………………………………………… 23 What doesn’t an English policeman carry? => ………………………………………………………………………………… 24 Are the policemen the masters of the country? => ………………………………………………………………………………… END-OF-TEST 103 APPENDIX G: QUESTIONNAIRE Dear students, Thank you for spending your precious time completing this questionnaire! It serves as an instrument for the researcher to collect information for the study titled “The effects of teaching intonation on English-majored learners’ listening comprehension at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Ho Chi Minh City” This questionnaire will take no more than 15 minutes for you to complete ……………………………………………………………………………………………… In your opinion, how useful is the integration of intonation in listening lessons? Please tick  in the boxes below (1=not at all, 2=a little, 3=moderately, 4=much, 5=very much) Functions 1.1 Intonation helps you focus on important words 1.2 Intonation helps you mark the beginning and ending of a tone unit 1.3 Intonation helps you distinguish clause types such as statements and questions 1.4 Intonation helps you disambiguate grammatically ambiguous structures 1.5 Intonation helps you recognize speakers’ attitudes 1.6 Intonation helps you recognize which information is shared by speakers 1.7 Intonation helps you recognize which information is new to speakers 1.8 Intonation helps you predict what kind of information is expected to follow 1.9 Intonation helps you indicate speakers’ purposes of speaking (e.g ordering, contrasting, suggesting, etc.) 104 To what extent are functions of intonation necessary to be instructed in classrooms? Please tick  in the boxes below (1= not at all, 2=a little, 3=moderately, 4=much, 5=very much) Functions 2.1 focusing on important words in accentual function 2.2 identifying grammatical units from a long stretch of speech 2.3 distinguishing clause types 2.4 disambiguating grammatically ambiguous structures 2.5 recognizing speakers’ attitudes 2.6 recognizing shared knowledge between speakers 2.7 recognizing new information to speakers 2.8 predicting what kind of information is following 2.9 recognizing speakers’ purposes of speaking How useful are the following aspects in improving your listening comprehension? Please tick  in the boxes below (1=not at all, 2=a little, 3=moderately, 4=much, 5=very much) Aspects 3.1 Schemata / Background knowledge of topic 3.2 Intonation 3.3 Lexis / Vocabulary 3.4 Syntax / Grammar 3.5 Discourse 3.6 Vocabulary and grammar review 3.7 Topic personalization 105 How useful are the following activities for improving your listening comprehension? Please tick  in the boxes below (1=not at all, 2=a little, 3=moderately, 4=much, 5=very much) Activities 4.1 Listening for main ideas 4.2 Listening for detailed information 4.3 Listening for implied meanings 4.4 Answering multiple-choice questions 4.5 Answering true/false questions 4.6 Answering gap-filling questions 4.7 Answering short-answer questions Do you have any other suggestions for future listening lessons? ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your cooperation and contribution! 106 APPENDIX H: PRETEST OF LISTENING OF THE PILOTING STUDY SECTION A  CAE PART – SHORT EXTRACTS Extract One: You will hear two people talking about grandparents What kind of character is the man’s grandfather? A unsociable B quiet but friendly C moody but lively What did the woman’s grandparents use to do? A try to upset the children by exhausting them B get very tired when the children stayed with them C laugh because the children weren’t as fit as they were Extract Two: You will hear two people talking about their childhood What is the relationship between the speakers? A school friends B mother and son C siblings We learn that A the man is more highly qualified than the woman B the woman failed her degree C the man failed all his school exams Extract Three: You will hear two people talking about their partners Jenny A is engaged B is married C will probably get a divorce Paul thinks A Brian needs to make a decision soon B Jenny needs to be more positive C they should change their careers to make time for each other  CAE PART – MULTIPLE CHOICE You will hear part of a radio interview about fox hunting 107 What surprises the interviewer about the hunt? A The dogs are no longer allowed to run free B Nothing seems to have changed after the new law on hunting C The hunters seem to have adopted a strange system of hunting D The dog seemed to be losing their ability to find a fox According to Brian Hook, A he enjoys the thrill of the hunt as much as ever B the hunters try to deceive the public C it’s difficult to keep up with a hunt to see what is really happening D it is impossible for them to monitor all the hunts The new law A forbids dogs to chase foxes B allows dogs to kill a fox as long as the kill is monitored C has proved to be difficult to enforce D forbids foxes to be shot 10 What was done wrong in the case of Richard Black? A He should not have used dogs to flush the fox out of the hole B He was slow to intervene when the fox was caught C He realized too late that his dogs had caught a fox D He shot the fox and then gave it to the dogs 11 Hook believes that A the countryside will be overrun with foxes B the law was intended to make the killing of foxes less cruel C the fox could become an endangered species D traditional hunting methods are the only way to control the fox population 12 The interviewer seems to think that A the issue is too emotive to be settled easily B the police aren’t really interested in the hunting laws C animal rights activists need to take a stronger stand D hunters and animals rights activists need to debate the issue further 108 SECTION B  CAE PART – SHORT EXTRACTS Extract One: You will hear two friends talking 13 Why did Karen want to go riding with Annie? A to improve her daughter’s riding skills B to strengthen her relationship with her daughter C to spend time with her friend who is a riding instructor 14 How did Karen feel when she rode her horse? A inadequate compared to the other riders B relieved that it had gone better than she’d expected C concerned about accidents Extract Two: You will hear part of an interview with an actor about how he tries to keep fit 15 Bob goes to the gym because A he isn’t disciplined enough to go running B he enjoys the social aspects of it C he is trying to lose weight for a particular event 16 Bob believes that New Year’s Resolutions A can never have a worthwhile effect on people B more harm than good C can inspire people to make a change Extract Three: You will hear two people talking about a new activity they have taken up 17 George decided to go ice skating A because he’d always wanted to try it B because he’d bought his daughter a pair of ice skates C to find out if he was still good at it 18 Alison was surprised when she went line dancing because A it was a better workout than she had expected it to be B the music during her first lesson was very contemporary C most people were wearing strange clothes 109  CAE PART – MULTIPLE CHOICE You will hear part of a radio interview in which a Japanese astronaut, Dr Takao Doi, talks about his work 19 What happened to Dr Doi in 1983? A He first decided he wanted to be an astronaut B He started having success in his career C There was a setback in his career D He founded the National Space Development Agency 20 How did Dr Doi feel emotionally after the Challenge incident? A hopeful for the future B frustrated with himself for not training harder C discouraged about the fate of the space programme D scared to go into space after such a tragedy 21 What advice does Dr Doi give about one’s psychological health? A Be true to your instincts B Don’t let anything surprise you C Exercise while on board D Follow orders diligently 22 What did Dr Doi while taking off to space? A panic B reassure Leonid Kadenyuk C reflect D question his sanity 23 What did Dr Doi in 1971? A He looked at sunspots B He got a telescope C He looked at a planet D He decided to become an astronaut 24 What is the next thing Dr Doi wants to do? A walk on the moon B study stars C retire D go on another space mission 110 APPENDIX I: POSTTEST OF LISTENING OF THE PILOT STUDY  PART 1: You will hear three different extracts For questions 1-6, choose the answer (A, B, or C) which fits best according to what you hear There are two questions for each extract (1.8 points) Extract One: You will hear part of a radio interview 25 What does Bob Aldridge currently? D He’s an executive E He’s a politician F He’s probably retired 26 What does Bob think about air travel? D It can be justified but travelers should pay more tax E Airports are big enough to cope with the number of air travelers F Rail travel could eventually replace air travel Extract Two: You will hear two friends talking about a trip one of them went on 27 What does the woman feel about travelling alone? D She gets a thrill out of taking big risks abroad E She believes that positive common sense keeps most people out of trouble F She believes that being abroad is bound to be more dangerous than being at home 28 When the woman was in Thailand, she D thought her life was in danger E was too interested in the coup to be frightened F realized immediately that there was nothing to be afraid of Extract Three: You will hear two people talking about digital cameras 29 What does the woman want a new camera for? D To take holiday snaps to show her friends and family when she returns E To take photographs to sell as cards in an art gallery F To try to create an original impression of the countries she visits 30 What does the man say about digital cameras? D Compact cameras are convenient for the casual photographer 111 E More creative photography demands a film camera F The bigger the camera, the better the quality of picture  PART 2: You will hear a radio report about an art exhibition For questions 7-14, complete the sentences with a word or a short phrase (2.4 points) History through portraiture (7) … are depicted in portraits of the 18th and 19th centuries The exhibition at the Royal Academy is called (8) … The new subject matter for portraits included (9) … , philosophers and naturalists Mary Anne Stevens is the (10) … at The Royal Academy Both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were (11) … during the French Revolution In the portrait of George Washington, he is holding (12) … Within just one year great (13) … can be seen by comparing the portraits of two women The scientist, James Hutton is depicted standing next to (14) …  PART 3: You will hear part of a radio interview with the comedian, Lenny Henry For questions 15-20, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear (1.8 points) 15 Why did Lenny decide to a degree? E He was self-conscious because he didn’t have one F Other actors persuaded him that it was a good idea G He needed one to further his acting career H He was impressed by other actors who had been to university 16 What effect has studying for a degree had on Lenny? E It has developed his ability to think more clearly about his work in general F It has made him think more seriously about his career G It has given him the confidence to try for more challenging acting roles H It causes him a lot of stress when he has to write an essay 112 17 According to Lenny, how does comedy affect the way people feel? E It hinders their appreciation of the seriousness of a situation F It helps them deal with disturbing images G It makes people more sensitive H It enables them to laugh at heartbreaking stories 18 What does Lenny say about the work of Comic Relief in Africa? E People in Africa now have new ways of raising money for themselves F The task they are facing is too big for them to make a real difference G People aren’t committed enough yet to the cause H It should be a steady process to help the local communities 19 What does Lenny say about his visit to Debre Zeit? E He enjoyed working as a care worker for a while F He was impressed by Fanti’s bravery despite his illness G He was moved by the way the people there handled their situation H He was impressed by the way Fanti praised Comic Relief 20 What does Lenny say about writing comedy? E He hopes that he will soon be a more self-confident writer F He finds it really easy since starting his degree G He doesn’t think he’ll ever have the confidence to write something on his own H He no longer likes working with other writers  PART 4: You will hear five short extracts in which people are talking about their experiences travelling abroad While you listen you must complete both tasks (4 points) Task One For questions 21-25, choose from the list A-H the person who is speaking A a travel writer 21 Speaker 1: … B a hotel owner 22 Speaker 2: … C a chef 23 Speaker 3: … D an inadvertent adventure tourist 24 Speaker 4: … 113 E a farmer 25 Speaker 5: … F a tour guide G a politician H a pilot Task Two For questions 26-30, choose from the list A-H what each speaker is expressing A a lack of certainty over whether or not a goal would be achieved B a hesitancy when it comes to trying new and different foods C doubt about whether or not to journey somewhere new D the requirement to have a good head for heights on a visit somewhere E discomfort with a mode of travel F failure to be persuaded not to something by family members G a requirement to trust one’s life to others H the need to convince others something was safe 26 Speaker 6: … 27 Speaker 7: … 28 Speaker 8: … 29 Speaker 9: … 30 Speaker 10: … 114 APPENDIX J: DETAILED STATISTICS COMPARING PRETEST SCORES OF THE TWO GROUPS IN EACH TYPE OF QUESTION Group Statisti cs pretest scores of groups in multiple-choice questions group experiment N control Mean St d Dev iation St d Error Mean 23 852 4870 1015 25 934 4450 0890 Independent Samples Test t-t est f or Equality of Means Sig (2-tailed) Lev ene's Test f or Equality of Variances F Sig pretest scores of groups in multiple-choice questions Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances not assumed 052 821 546 548 Group Statistics pretest scores of groups in true/f alse questions group experiment control N Mean Std Dev iat ion Std Error Mean 23 1.513 6025 1256 25 1.276 2818 0564 Independent Samples Test Lev ene's Test f or Equality of Variances F Sig pretest scores of groups in true/f alse questions Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances not assumed 18.213 0.000 t-test f or Equality of Means Sig (2-tailed) 083 095 115 Group Statisti cs pretest scores of groups in gap-f illing questions group experiment N control Mean St d Dev iation St d Error Mean 23 1.000 7084 1477 25 1.156 4831 0966 Independent Samples Test t-t est f or Equality of Means Sig (2-tailed) Lev ene's Test f or Equality of Variances F Sig pretest scores of groups in gap-f illing questions Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances not assumed 4.832 0.033 374 382 Group Statistics pretest scores of groups in short-answer questions group experiment control N Mean Std Dev iat ion Std Error Mean 23 1.357 6148 1282 23 1.126 3720 0776 Independent Samples Test Lev ene's Test f or Equality of Variances F Sig pretest scores of groups in short-answer questions Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances not assumed 4.646 037 t-t est f or Equality of Means Sig (2-tailed) 131 133 116 cxvii