Nghiên cứu sự nhận thức của sinh viên về sự đa dạng của các phương ngữ tiếng anh đối với sinh viên việt nam học môn ngoại ngữ tiếng anh tại trường cao đẳng nghề du lịch huế

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ AWARENESS OF VARIETIES OF ENGLISH DIALECTS: A CASE OF VIETNAMESE EFL STUDENTS AT HUE TOURISM COLLEGE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2016 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRAN LE PHUONG ANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ AWARENESS OF VARIETIES OF ENGLISH DIALECTS: A CASE OF VIETNAMESE EFL STUDENTS AT HUE TOURISM COLLEGE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.01.11 SUPERVISOR: HOANG TINH BAO, PhD HUE, 2016 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ TRẦN LÊ PHƯƠNG ANH NGHIÊN CỨU SỰ NHẬN THỨC CỦA SINH VIÊN VỀ SỰ ĐA DẠNG CỦA CÁC PHƯƠNG NGỮ TIẾNG ANH: ĐỐI VỚI SINH VIÊN VIỆT NAM HỌC MÔN NGOẠI NGỮ TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG NGHỀ DU LỊCH HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS HOÀNG TỊNH BẢO HUẾ, 2016 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Signed: Tran Le Phuong Anh Date: 19/12/2016 iii ABSTRACT Because of the varieties of English dialects around the world, there are also lots of differences among those English dialects And these are difficult not only for everyone but also for EFL students, especially for tourism students To realize that problem, a research aims to find out how EFL students and English teachers at Hue Tourism College feel about difficulties and significances in recognizing different dialects of English and to help EFL tourism students overcome those difficulties to be more self-confident in working and serving foreign guests With eight questionnaires for senior students specializing in Travel & Tour Guiding, Food & Beverage Management, Hotel Management and Tourism English Interpretation majors at Hue Tourism College, after collecting and analyzing the data by SPSS, the findings showed that the students face a lot of difficulties when they communicate in a working environment of different dialects of English With ten English teachers from Hue Tourism College explained why students still face the problems and they shared opinions in teaching English accents in the class At last, a number of suggestions and solutions were also made to help students improve their knowledge of different dialects and thus further their language competency They can help them overcome the diffculities in listening various dialects of English and be capable of identifying different English accents effectively and becoming excellent tourism staffs in the future iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Hoang Tinh Bao, who always gave me good advice, thoroughly corrected my mistakes, provided me with much helpful guidance and supported me to surmount difficulties during doing the research I also want to send my sincere thanks to my senior students at Hue Tourism College for their enthusiastic cooperation to complete my questionnaire and their active contributions to suggest effective solutions for my research topic My gratefulness similarly belongs to my colleagues who supported me and helped me in answering the interview Next, I want to thank all teachers in English Department for giving me an opportunity to the research and in creating every condition for doing it well Last but not least, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my family, my friends and my classmates, who always supported, encouraged me not only physically but also mentally overcome difficulties to finish the research successfully Thank you sincerely Tran Le Phuong Anh v TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF CHARTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CONTENTS OF THESIS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Rationale of the study 1.3 The aim and research questions about the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Structure of the thesis CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Listening comprehension and the difficulties in listening various accents of English 2.1.1 Listening comprehension 2.1.2 Listening difficulties and problems for foreign language learners 2.2 English as an International Language, various English dialects around the world and attitudes toward English as an International Language vi 2.2.1 English as an International Language 2.2.2 Various dialects of English around the world 11 2.2.3 Attitudes toward English as an International Language 14 2.3 The differences in pronunciation and lexicon between American and British accents, and Australian and British accents 15 2.3.1 The differences between American and British accents, and Australian and British accents 15 2.3.1.1 The differences in pronunciation between American and British accents, Australian and British accents 15 2.3.1.1.1 The differences in the phonemic systems of accents 16 2.3.1.1.2 The differences in the phonotactic distributions of accents 19 2.3.1.1.3 The differences in the lexical realizations of words including phoneme substitution, deletion and insertion 19 2.3.1.2 The differences in lexicon among American, British, Australian English 20 2.4 The features in phonology and lexicon of Singapore English and Philippines English in Outer Circle 22 2.4.1 The features in phonology and lexicon of Singapore English (Singlish) distinguishing to Received Pronunciation 22 2.4.1.1 The differences in vowels between Singlish and Received Pronunciation 23 2.4.1.2 The differences in consonants between Singlish and Received Pronunciation 25 2.4.1.3 The differences in lexicon between British, American and Singapore English 28 2.4.2 The features in phonology and lexicon of Philippine English 40 2.4.2.1 The differences in vowels between Philippine English and General American English 41 2.4.2.2 The differences in consonants between Philippine English and General American English 42 vii 2.4.2.3 The differences in lexicon between Philippine English, American English and British English 44 2.5 The features in phonology of Thai English in Expanding Circle 47 2.5.1 Thai English vowels in distinguishing to English vowels 47 2.5.2 Thai English consonants in distinguishing to English consonants 48 2.6 Summary 49 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 50 3.2 Research approach 50 3.1 Participants 51 3.1.1 EFL students at Hue Tourism College 51 3.1.2 English teachers at Hue Tourism College 51 3.3 Instruments for data collection 52 3.3.1 Questionnaire 52 3.3.2 Interview 52 3.4 Data collection procedure 53 3.5 Data Analysis 53 3.6 Summary 54 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 55 4.1 The students’ problems in recognizing the differences in pronunciation and in lexicon among the varieties of English dialects 55 4.1.1 The difficulties facing of tourism students in listening to different English dialects in terms of pronunciation 55 4.1.1.1 Students’ opinions about listening comprehension 55 4.1.1.2 Students’ points of view about the importance of listening comprehension in listening English 56 4.1.1.3 Domains of learning English accents 57 4.1.1.4 Students’ frequencies of encountering listening problems 57 4.1.1.5 Students’ difficulties in coping with various English accents 60 viii 4.1.1.6 Causes of difficulties for tourism students with unfamiliar accents 61 4.1.1.7 Chances to speak to native speakers 62 4.1.1.8 Students’ difficulties in listening to native speakers 63 4.1.1.9 Some of English accents and students’ familiarity 64 4.1.1.10 Students’ ability in recognizing English accents 65 4.1.2 The difficulties facing tourism students in recognizing the differences in lexicon 67 4.1.2.1 The rates of students who are able to identify lexical differences between different English dialects 67 4.1.2.2 The abilities in handling differences in lexicon 69 4.1.3 Tourism students’ awareness of the English accents 69 4.1.3.1 Students’ viewpoints about knowledge of the differences in English dialects 69 4.2 The ways teachers raise students’ awareness of the differences in pronunciation and in lexicon among those English dialects and solutions tourism students to overcome those difficulties effectively 71 4.2.1 The ways teachers raise students’ awareness of the differences in pronunciation and in lexicon among those English dialects 71 4.2.1.1 In class 71 4.2.1.2 Outside class 72 4.2.2 Solutions for tourism students to overcome those difficulties 74 4.2.2.1 Some suggestions to address the problems 74 4.2.2.2 Some effective solutions to overcome the problems from students 74 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 76 5.1 Conclusions 76 5.1.1 The difficulties facing tourism students in listening to different English dialects in terms of pronunciation 76 5.1.2 The difficulties facing tourism students in recognizing the differences in lexicon 77 ix O'Malley, J.M., Chamot, A U., & Kupper, L (1989) Listening comprehension strategies in second language acquisition Applied Linguistics, 10(4), 418-437 Oppenheim, A.N (1966).Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement Pinter Publishers Pennycook, A (1994) The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language London: Longman Regala-Rlores, E (2014) Phonological features of Basilectal Philippine English: An exploratory study International Journal of English and Literature, 5(6), 128-140 Roach, P (1991).English Phonetics and Phonology Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2nd edition) Roach, P (2004).British English: Received Pronunciation Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34(2), 239–245 Rost, M (1994) Listening London: Longman Scarcella, R., & Oxford, R (1992) The tapestry of language learning: The individual in the communicative classroom Boston: Heinle & Heinle Smalley, W A (1994) Linguistic Diversity and National Unity: Language Ecology in Thailand Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press Smith, L E & Rafiqzad (1979) English for cross-cultural communication: the question of intelligibility In Smith,L (1983) Readings in English as an international language Pergamon Press Smith, L E (1976) English as an international auxiliary language RELC Journal, 7(2), 38–53 Tayao, M L G (2008) Philippine English: phonology In Mesthrie, R (ed) (2008) Varieties of English 4: Africa, South and Southeast Asia Mouton de Gruyter Tayao, M L G (2008) A lectal description of the phonological features of Philippine English In Bautisa, MA L,& Bolton, K (ed.)(2008) Philippine English: Linguistic and literacy perspectives Hong Kong University Press 83 Thompson, I., & Rubin, J (1996) Can strategy instruction improve listening comprehension? Foreign Language Annals, 29, 331-342 Trakulkasemsuk, W (2012) Thai English In Low, E L & Hashim, A (ed) (2012) English in Southeast Asia: Features, Policy and Language in Use John Benjamins Publishing Company Trifonovitch, G (1981) English as an International Language: an attitudinal approach In Smith, L.E (ed.) (1981) English for Cross-cultural Communication London: Macmillan Tsukada, K (2008) An acoustic comparison of English monophthongs and dipthongs produced by Australian and Thai speakers English World-Wide, 29(2), 194-211 Tsukada, K (2009) Duration characteristics of English vowels produced by Japanese and Thai second language learners Australian Journal of Linguistics, 29(2), 287-299 Underwood, M (1989) Teaching Listening New York: Longman Wells, J.C (1982) Accents of English Cambridge University Press Wolvin, A., & Coalkey, C (1985) Listening (2nded.).Dubuque, IA: William C Brown Yagang, F (1994) Listening: Problems and Solutions.English Teaching Forum 3(1) Yan, Q.,& Vaseghi, S (2002) A Comparative Analysis of UK and US English Accents in Recognition and Synthesis.IEEE Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), pp 413-417 INTERNET RESOURCES Australian English Retrieved on March 16th 2016 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English Australian English Retrieved on March 20th 2016 from: http://australianenglish1.narod.ru/ 84 British and English lexical differences Retrieved on March 24th2016 from: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/455459?uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&ui d=4&sid=21102179940191 British English and American English Retrieved on March 24th 2016 from: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/British_and_American_English British vs American vs Singapore English Retrieved on April 3rd, 2016 from: http://www.angmohdan.com/british-vs-american-vs-singapore-english/ Cambridge Dictionary Online Retrieved on July 20th 2016 from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ Comparison of American and British English Retrieved on March 20th 2016 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_British_English# Overview_of_lexical_differences Difficulties in listening comprehension Retrieved on March 8th 2016 from: http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/17609-difficulties-listeningcomprehension.html English American differences Retrieved on March 24th 2016 from:http://www.itsudparis.eu/lsh/cvs/differences.htm Faraci, B (2015) Singlish Pronunciation: here you are revealed the working of vowels and consonants Retrieved on March 25th 2016 from: http://www.singlish.it/singlish-pronunciation/ Filipinism Misunderstanding English: American vs British Retrieved on April 20th 2016 from: http://americanenglish.ph/misunderstanding-english-pinoy-vsamerican-vs-british/ Foreign tourists come to Vietnam in July and the first seven months of 2016 Retrieved on July 26th 2016 from: http://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/index.php/items/21052 85 Language interpretation Retrieved on March 30th2016 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_interpretation McLeod, S (2012) Information about Filipino speech Bathurst, NSW, Australia: Charles Sturt University Retrieved on March 23th 2016 from http://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual‐speech/languages Received Pronunciation Retrieved on March 30th 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation Regional accents of English Retrieved on March 12th2016 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accents_of_English Regional vocabularies of American English Retrieved on March 24th2016 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_vocabularies_of_American_English The differences between American, British and Australian English Retrieved on March 20th 2016 from:http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Differences-BetweenAmerican,-British,-and-Australian-English&id=1729247 86 APPENDICES APPENDIX BẢNG KHẢO SÁT Thân chào bạn sinh viên, Trần Lê Phương Anh – Giảng viên môn Tiếng Anh thuộc khoa Ngoại ngữ trường Cao đẳng nghề Du lịch Huế Hiện tại, tơi làm luận văn thạc sĩ có tựa đề “Nghiên cứu nhận thức sinh viên đa dạng phương ngữ tiếng Anh sinh viên Việt Nam học môn ngoại ngữ Tiếng Anh trường Cao đẳng nghề Du lịch Huế” Mục đích đề tài để tìm khó khăn đưa giải pháp cho bạn sinh viên trường Cao đẳng nghề Du lịch Huế việc nghe loại tiếng Anh khác Thế giới Tôi hy vọng câu trả lời bạn giúp cho tơi tìm phương án hữu ích để giúp bạn biết giao tiếp với khách du lịch nước ngồi tốt Tơi chân thành cám ơn bạn bớt chút thời gian quý báu để hoàn thành bảng khảo sát Bạn nghĩ kỹ nghe tiếng Anh? (chọn đáp án nhất) Dễ Bình thường Khó Rất khó Bạn nghĩ tầm quan trọng kỹ nghe việc học tiếng Anh? (chọn đáp án nhất) Khơng quan trọng Bình thường Quan trọng Rất quan trọng Bạn gặp vấn đề sau thường xuyên nghe tiếng Anh? (đánh dấu vào cột tương ứng) Các vấn đề thường gặp Dự đốn mà người nói nói đến (Making prediction what the speaker talks about) Đoán từ chưa biết trình nghe (Guessing unknown words while listening) Những chủ đề nói khơng phổ biến (unfamiliar 87 Không Thỉnh thoảng Thường Luôn xuyên topics) Thiếu kiến thức liên quan đến chủ đề nói (Lacking background knowledge) Tốc độ câu nói (Speed of speech) Tìm ý câu nói (Recognizing main points) Các âm nối từ (Linking sounds) Các giọng khác tiếng Anh (Different accents) Bạn có thường xuyên giao tiếp với khách nước ngồi khơng? (chọn câu nhất) Khơng Hiếm Thỉnh thoảng Thường xuyên Luôn Những khó khăn bạn hay gặp phải bạn giao tiếp với khách nước? (Bạn chọn nhiều đáp án) Tốc độ nói người (Speakers’ speed) Giọng tiếng Anh người nói (Speakers’ accents) Âm lượng người nói (Speakers’ volume) Ngữ điệu người nói (Speakers’ intonation and rhythm) Âm nối người nói (Speakers’ linking words) Từ vựng người nói dùng (Speakers’ word-using) Lý khác:…………………………………………………………………… Những giọng tiếng Anh mà bạn quen? (Bạn chọn nhiều đáp án) Giọng Anh Anh (British accent) Giọng Anh Mỹ (American accent) Giọng Anh Úc (Australian accent) Giọng Anh Singapo (Singapore English accent) Giọng Anh Philipin (Philippine English accent) Giọng Anh Việt (Vietnamese English accent) Giọng Anh Thái (Thai English accent) Ý kiến khác: …………………………………………………………………… 88 Bạn quen thuộc với giọng tiếng Anh cách nào? (Bạn chọn nhiều đáp án) Thông qua giao tiếp Thông qua học tập lớp Thông qua tự luyện nghe Bằng cách khác:………………………………………………………………… Bạn có nghĩ sinh viên học ngành du lịch gặp khó khăn giao tiếp với khách du lịch đến từ nhiều nước khác không? (Chọn câu trả lời nhất) Có Khơng Vì bạn nghĩ sinh viên ngành du lịch gặp khó khăn giao tiếp với khác du lịch đến từ nhiều nước khác nhau? Bởi vì: (Bạn chọn nhiều đáp án) Phát âm khách lạ Từ vựng khách dùng có khác biệt Khơng hiểu ngữ điệu cách nối âm khách Lý khác: ……………………………………………………………………… 10 Bạn cho vài ví dụ từ khách du lịch phát âm khác với cách mà bạn học dùng lâu bạn cho biết khách du lịch đến từ nước nào? 11 Bạn phân biệt cách dùng từ khác tiếng Anh Anh, tiếng Anh Mỹ, tiếng Anh Úc, tiếng Anh Singapore tiếng Anh Philipin không? (Các bạn điền vào cột tương ứng từ đồng nghĩa sử dụng nước cho sẵn đây) Aubergine Candy Apartment Unit 89 Pavement Chemist Underground Dushbin Wardrobe Garbage can British American Australian English English English Petrol station Singlish Drugstore Philippine E Lolly Sweet Eggplant Brinjal/eggplant Footpath Sidewalk Bin lorry Trash can Flat Chemist shop Pharmacy Servol Subway Gas station MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) Closet Cabinet 12 Sau làm tập trên, bạn có chắn biết khác ngữ âm dùng từ khơng hay bạn đốn? (chọn đáp án nhất) Có 13 Khơng Khơng Bạn có nghĩ sinh viên ngành du lịch cần biết khác cách phát âm cách dùng từ khơng? (chọn đáp án nhất) Có 14 Khơng Những cách giúp sinh viên ngành du lịch thiện vấn đề đó? (Bạn chọn nhiều đáp án) Học điểm khác phát âm cách dùng từ nhiều loại tiếng Anh Thế giới Nói chuyện nhiều với khách nước 90 Luyện nghe chương trình tiếng Anh tivi radio Đọc nhiều sách báo tiếng Anh để nhận cách dùng từ khác 15 Nhưng biện pháp mà bạn thấy hữu hiệu việc giúp sinh viên ngành du lịch khắc phục khó khăn đó? (Những ý kiến đóng góp bạn giúp ích nhiều cho sinh viên ngành du lịch, tơi mong bạn viết cho số cách khắc phục mà bạn thấy hiệu quả) Chân thành cám ơn bạn tham gia! 91 APPENDIX Questionnaire Hi my dear students, my name is Tran Le Phuong Anh – an English teacher in Foreign Languages Department at Hue Tourism College Now, I am doing an MA thesis entitled “An Investigation into Students’ Awareness of Varieties of English dialects: A Case of Vietnamese EFL Students at Hue Tourism College”This aims to find out the difficulties and the solutions that most Vietnamese tourism students face when listening to varieties of English dialects Hopefully, the findings I get from this paper will possibly play a small part in helping the learners with better recognition in listening to different accents of English to communicate effectively with foreign guesses I would really appreciate if you spend your valuable time filling in this questionnaire How you think about listening comprehension? (tick out the best answer) Easy Normal Difficult Very difficult How you think about the importance of listening comprehension in learning English? (tick out the best answer) Not important Normal Important Very important How often you encounter these following problems? (put a tick in the appropriate column) Problems Never Making prediction what the speaker talks about Guessing unknown words while listening Unfamiliar topics Lacking background knowledge Speed of speech Recognizing main points Linking sounds 92 Sometimes Often Always Different accents How often you talk with native speakers? (tick out the best answer) Never Seldom Sometimes Usually Always What are the difficulties facing you may encounter when you listen to native speakers? (You can tick more than one) Speakers’ speed Speakers’ accents Speakers’ volume Speakers’ intonation and rhythm Speakers’ linking words Speakers’ word-using Others…………………………………………………………………………… Which regional accents have you been familiar with? (You can tick more than one) British accent American accent Australian accent Singapore English accent Philippine English accent Vietnamese English accent Thai English accent Others…………………………………………………………………………… How have you been familiar to those English accents? By communication By learning in the class By self-studying Do you think that it is hard for tourism students when hearing various regional accents of English? (tick out the best answer) Yes No Why you think that it is hard for tourism students when hearing an unfamiliar accent? Because of: (You can tick more than one) The speakers’ unusual & unknown pronunciation 93 The spearkers’ different regions words The misunderstanding about speakers’ intonation and the way of linking sounds Others…………………………………………………………………………… 10 Can you give some examples about the foreigners’ different pronunciation in comparison to what you have learned in class and where they are from if possible 11 Can you distinguish the different word-using in British, American, Australian, Singapore and Philippine English (write the words which are used in those Englishes in the appropriate column with the words from the box) Aubergine Underground British Candy Dushbin Apartment Wardrobe American English Unit Pavement Garbage can Australian English English Sweet Lolly Eggplant Chemist Petrol station Singlish Drugstore Philippine E Brinjal/eggplant Footpath Sidewalk Bin lorry Trash can Flat Chemist shop Pharmacy Servol Subway Gas station MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) 94 Closet 12 Cabinet After doing the exercise above, you definitely know those differences in pronunciation and in word-using or you just guess to tick or write? (tick out the best answer) Yes 13 Not sure No Do you think that tourism students must know those differences? (tick out the best answer) Yes No 14 What should you to improve those problems?(You can tick more than one) Learning more about the differences among various regional accents of English Speaking more to native speakers Listening to English programs on television or radio Reading many kinds of English books or articles to find out the different lexicon 15 What other solutions can be done to help tourism students overcome those difficulties effectively in your own opinion? Thanks for your participation! 95 APPENDIX INTERVIEW (FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS) Have you ever taught students about the varieties of English dialects (the differences in pronunciation and lexicon)? If yes, how you teach them in class? Do you think that tourism students facing the difficulties in listening to different English dialects? If yes, how and why are they facing those difficulties? Do you feel that it is necessary to teach tourism students about the varieties of English dialects? (if yes or no, please say why) How can you to raise students’ awareness of the differences in pronunciation and in lexicon between varieties of English dialects? 96