VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ------------------- LƢƠNG MINH TÍ N IN INVESTIGATION INTO INTONATION AWARENESS OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY ((KHẢO SÁT SỰ QUAN TÂM CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN TẠI KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ------------------- LƢƠNG MINH TÍ N IN INVESTIGATION INTO INTONATION AWARENESS OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY (KHẢO SÁT SỰ QUAN TÂM CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN TẠI KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP THÀ NH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Nguyễn Trƣờng Sa Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP TITLE: “An investigation into intonation awareness of students and teachers at Faculty of Foreign Languages in Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City.” Name:LƢƠNG MINH TÍN Supervisor’s Name: Dr.
NGUYỄN TRƢỜNG SA “I certify that this work is entirely my own and has not been accepted as part of a submission to another purpose elsewhere”. Signed: i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Every researcher who conducts a study owes a debt to his supervisor, to his counselors, to his respondents, to his friends, and to his supporters; I gratefully acknowledge my deep indebtedness to all of them. First and foremost, my sincerest thanks go to my supervisor, Doctor NguyễnTrườngSa, a great lecturer atFaculty of Foreign Languages (FFL), in Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH). He has spent a lot of time guiding me through how to approach the research and how to conduct it step by step with comprehensive instructions.
He also spends his valuable and limited time correcting my research and provides me with trustworthy feedback. Hopefully, I have applied exactly what he has told me; in case I failed to do so it was my fault. Secondly, I wish to express my particular thanks to respondents and teachers who have supported me with all their heart. The data collection is not without their support.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The purpose of the research is to look at English teaching and learning at tertiary education in Ho Chi Minh City. The university that I chose is Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City. The context makes me curious because it is still on its newly-born development. During my teaching and practice at this university, I have come to see that a lot of students find it difficult to use English, especially how to speak it.
One important factor that contributes much to speak English is intonation. I have always seen a lot of students use English without intonation. But more importantly, what is the cause of this? This research uses three research tools to investigate the case: questionnaire, recording journals, and interview. The data have been coded manually with the help of computers.
The research has revealed truths under the light of scientific research. With the results, the research has helped both teachers and learners really improve their teaching and learning English intonation. I refer readers to go chapter by chapter to fully comprehend what is behind those results. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration of authorship Acknowledgements .ii Table of contents.
iii List of chart, shape, extract. iv List of abbreviations. vi Chapter 1 Introduction. 1 1 Reasearch background and problem.
1 2 Context of the research. 3 5 Value of the research. 3 6 Definitions of terms. 3 7 Conclusion and overview of chapter.
4 Chapter 2 Literature review. 5 1 The nature of pronunciation .2 Tones in intonation of spoken English .3 Theoretical and practical importance of intonation .4 English intonation acquisitions.5 Ways into intonation. 11 2 Review of methodolody. 15 2 The research design.
17 4 The reason for choosing FFL, part of IUH as fieldwork. 17 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 Pilot the research tools. 18 Chapter 4 Results and discussions. 19 2 Students with their awareness of intonation.
19 3 Students‟ recording journals. 36 2 Essences of the research. 36 3 Research strengths and weaknesses. Recommendations for future research.
II Appendix 2 Recording journals .VI Appendix 3 Interview. VII v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHART, SHAPE, EXTRACT Chart 1 Respondent‟s academic year. 20 Chart 2 English learning important elements. 21 Chart 3 Which is more important: stress or intonation?.
21 Chart 4 Students‟ frequency of using intonation. 22 Chart 5 Intonation challenges. 24 Chart 6 Do you practice intonation at home?. 24 Chart 7 Using of the internet to help you with learning English intonation.
25 Chart 8 How do you often practice English intonation?. 26 Chart 9 Students‟ self-correction. 26 Chart 10 Do you learn intonation from your teachers?. 27 Chart 11 Teacher‟s care.
28 Chart 12 How do you get trained on English intonation?. 28 --- Shape 1 How do you think intonation is important to you?. 22 Shape 2 How do you think intonation is difficult to you?. 23 --- Extract 1 Intonation for Wh question.
29 Extract 2 Intonation for sentence reading. 30 Extract 3 Intonation for correction. 31 Extract 4 Intonation for listing. 31 Extract 5 Intonation for short presentation.
32 Extract 6 Intonation for role playing. 32 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FFL Faculty of Foreign Languages IUH Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter 1 Introduction 1. Research background and problem The development of English has been so dramatic over the past centuries and centuries beyond that Harmer (2006) called the language lingua franca. However, the biggest question that has even been asked by generations and generations is why a lot of students fail to interact effectively at workplace and even at interviews for job opportunities.
It is long believed that everything is there for reason; the same goes for the situation being discussed. Chomsky (1980) ever addressed the terms of competence and performance on discussing learner‟s learning ability. These two terms also account for speaking skill learning and acquisition. Cook (2003:41) points out that the formal systems of language consist of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.
When linguistic competence is taken into consideration, three above-mentioned areas of language seem to be placed at the center of language teaching and learning. However, only knowing the systems is one basic aspect of the invisible picture; another beneficial side of this picture may be hidden in language learners‟ ability to make use of the systems and put it into spoken language acquisition, especially that of speaking skill. When English-majored students make their voice heard through their oral performance, we do not want to admit this but they normally, in fact, have an obstacle in the path of speaking English with variant pronunciation and sometimes even incorrect intonation patterns. It is true that Pronunciation Course has been provided during their early years at tertiary education.
The course is a collocated combination of phonetic training of sound systems, including minimal pairs (like /p/ and /b/ as in pin and bin), stress (both at word level and sentence level), intonation patterns such as rising tone, falling tone, level tone, fall-rise tone and so on as Baker (1993) and other pronunciation text-book writers have put them onto the table for consideration; for example, Mortimer (1996) and O‟ Connor (1967). In some other discussions, 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Nunan(2006) and Hedge (2000) have also agreed that a student with good English pronunciation could make him understood and get his meaning crossed easily. However, in the light of this, it seems that these authors fail to address intonation correction in relation to sharpening speaking skill. Then it becomes doubtful whether it is required for students to be provided with intonation correction and does intonation really play an important role in improving oral performance inside and outside language classrooms? Can students be completely comprehensible without being trained about intonation patterns? Scientifically, intonation correction has not been much discussed; which leads to a potential fact, i.
whether intonation correction is one of the causes that leads to failure and corruption of English speaking students. With that background and problem, the thesis has been carried out. Context of the research Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City was upgraded into a university from a humble college known as Don Bosco for almost 10 years ago. Although the school name sounds industrial; however, it includes a number of approximately 30 institutions and faculties which are about Tourism and Management, Bio Technology, Food Technology, Environment, Electronics, Mechanics, Business Administration, English and the like.
The Faculty of Foreign Languages attracts as many as 900 students and 30 teachers. Most of students come from rural areas and are very studious with learning. The teachers follow pre-designed programs and take turn teaching students. The training program divides into 2 main kinds: four- year and three-year training programs.
In the former program, there are students as freshmen, sophomores, junior and senior. These students will be taken randomly as samples for the research. The sample will also be discussed more deeply in chapter three, Research Methodology. Research objectives 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The objectives of the research are to discover the awareness of students and teachers in language classrooms about intonation and how this awareness has helped them both to teach and learn English speaking skill.
Research questions With the hope of understanding the tangible role of intonation correction, this paper will also be used to answer the following research question: Does intonation awareness matter to both teachers and students? The research question will be solved through these three sub questions: (1) To what extent do teachers take care of intonation correction as part of their error correction and feedback provision in language classrooms? (2) What is students‟ awareness of intonation as part of their learning English for communicative purpose? (3) What could be challenges for both the teacher and students in teaching and learning English intonation as a foreign language? 5. Value of the research The paper will be practically and scientifically valuable. For practical aspect, it will grasp interest of those who are concerned with intonation correction yet fail to have chance to search it in detail in a particular situation like Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City; for scientific aspect, it helps to find out what kind of role intonation correction plays that text-book writers have not deeply considered yet. Definitions of terms Intonation Intonation is one of the three major branches of the language with grammar and vocabulary (Nunan 1999 143).
Intonation, as Nunan (1999) defines, is „raising and lowering your pitch to convey aspects of meaning‟, he also adds that intonation is the „suprasegmental aspect‟ of pronunciation. Pitch 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com As Carter and Nunan (2001) points out, pitch is „voice height‟, and it depends on the frequency of vibrations of the vocal cords. Conclusion and overview of chapter The first chapter of the research provides you with a short introduction of research background and research questions, some key terms that you might want to understand before reading the second chapter which deals with Literature Review.