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 sự hiểu biết về ngữ điệu tiếng Anh nhằm phát triển năng lực ngôn ngữ giao tiếp của người học ngôn ngữ hai M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Hanoi - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 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 sự hiểu biết về ngữ điệu tiếng Anh nhằm phát triển năng lực ngôn ngữ giao tiếp của người học ngôn ngữ hai M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn Hanoi - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 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 1. Aims of the study 2 1. Scope of the study 2 1. Methods of the study 3 1.
Data collection methods 3 1. Data collection procedure 3 1. Organization of the study 4 PART B - DEVELOPMENT 5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5 1. Theories of English intonation 5 1.
Definitions of intonation 5 1. Systems of English intonation 7 1. Structure of English intonation 9 1. Basic tune shapes of English intonation 10 1.
The falling tune 10 1. The first rising tune 11 1. The second rising tune 12 1. The falling-rising tune 13 1.
Functions of English intonation 14 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The organization of information 14 1. The realization of communicative functions 14 1. The expression of attitude 15 1.
The identification of speech styles 16 1. Theories of language learning strategies 17 1. Classification of Language Learning Strategies 17 1. Direct Language Learning Strategies 18 1.
Indirect Language Learning Strategies 18 1. Characteristics of Language Learning Strategies 18 1. The relations between the competence of intonation and communicative language 19 ability. 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.
Data collection methods 27 2. Meta-linguistic tests 27 2. Listening comprehension tests 27 2. Data collection procedures 28 2.
Data analysis 29 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 30 3. Learners’ meta-knowledge of English intonation and the development of their 30 listening skill 3. Learners’ meta-knowledge of English intonation 30 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Learners’ development of listening skill 33 3.
Strategies used by learners 35 3. Discussions 37 PART C - CONCLUSION 39 1. Limitations of the research 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS No Title Page Table 3.1 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 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 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 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 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 do 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 do not always sound as LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 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 do 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. Aims of the study This study is carried out in order to: 1. Help learners of English have a thorough knowledge of English intonation and its uses in daily communication.
Make suggestions to help teachers of English give successful lessons on English intonation. 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. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Methods of the study 1. Research questions This study is to answer two questions: 1. Do the strategies suggested in the study help second language learners enhance their understanding of English intonation? 1. Is knowledge of English intonation helpful for the development of second language learners‟ communicative language ability? 1.
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. 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).
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 1 to 9 are closed questions.
Question 10 is open ended for learners to give their own opinions about the strategies they used. Data collection procedure First, the participants of the two groups did a pre-test. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 Then, after eight lessons on English intonation given to the experimental group, both groups did post-test. In addition to the post-test, the experimental group responded to a questionnaire.
Data analysis The data analysis is mainly quantitative. Quantitative analysis is based on results of the tests and participants‟ responses to the closed questions of the questionnaire, using SPSS software. In addition, qualitative analysis is also included It is based on question 10 in the questionnaire, which is an open-ended question, and on summaries of the discussions with my colleagues about their personal teaching experiences. Organization of the study The thesis consists of four main parts as follows: The first part is the introduction which includes the reasons for the study, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methods and the design of the study.
Secondly, the development consists of three chapters. Chapter one is the literature review and theoretical background relevant to the purpose of the study. Chapter two introduces the methodology of the study. Chapter three is where the data and the findings are presented with the implications built upon the basis of the evaluation in the previous chapters.
The third part is the conclusion, which provides the review of the study with concluding remarks and suggestions for further studies. Finally, the references list all the authors used for quotations and other issues related to language teaching and learning. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.