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

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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

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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.

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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.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 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…………………………………………………………………………...2
1.2 Aims of the study…………………………..……………...………………….3
1.3 Research questions………………………………………….………………...3
1.4 Significance of the study…………………………………..……...…………..4
1.5 Scope of the study………………………...…..………………………………4
1.6 The structure of the study…………………………..……………………...….5
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW…...…………………………………..6
2.1 Theoretical issues on listening comprehension……………………….....……6
2.1.1 Definitions of listening comprehension…………………………….....……6
2.1.2 Causes of listening difficulties…………………………………….....……..7
2.1.3 Processes of listening comprehension…………………………..……...…...8
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
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2.5 Summary of the chapter……………………………….………………....….27
CHAPTER 3 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 4 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

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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 5 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
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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

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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 3 students……………………38

Table 3.6: Comparison between pretest and posttest mean scores of 3 students..38
Table 3.7: Summary of functions of items of questions 1 and 2………..……….40
Table 3.8: Summary of functions of items of questions 3 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

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Table 4.8: Comparison in posttest mean scores between the experimental group
and the control group……………………………………………………………...48
Table 4.9: Summary of the comparison between the two groups’ pretest scores in
each type of question…………………………………………………………...…49

Table 4.10: The two groups’ mean scores in multiple-choice questions…..…..50
Table 4.11:

Comparison between two groups’ mean scores in multiple-choice

questions…………………………………………………………………………..50
Table 4.12: The two groups’ mean scores in gap-filling questions……………..51
Table 4.13:

Comparison between the two groups’ mean scores in gap-filling

questions…………………………………………………………………………..51
Table 4.14: The two groups’ mean scores in true/false questions………..……..52
Table 4.15:

Comparison between the two groups’ mean scores in true/false

questions…………………………………………………………………………..52
Table 4.16: The two groups’ mean scores in short-answer questions…….…..…53
Table 4.17:

Comparison between the two groups’ mean scores in short-answer

questions……………………………………………………………………..……53
Table 4.18:

The experimental group’s pretest and posttest scores in multiple-

choice questions…………………………………………………………………..54
Table 4.19:

Comparison of the pretest and posttest scores in multiple-choice

questions………………………………………………………………………….55
Table 4.20:

The experimental group’s pretest and posttest mean score in gap-

filling questions…………………………………………………………………...56
Table 4.21: Comparison between pretest and posttest mean scores in gap-filling
questions…………………………………………………………………………..56

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Table 4.22: The experimental group’s pretest and posttest mean score in true/false
questions…………………………………………………………………………..57
Table 4.23:

Comparison between pretest and posttest mean score in true/false

questions……………………………………………………………….………….57
Table 4.24:

The experimental group’s pretest and posttest mean score in short-

answer questions………………………………………………………………….58
Table 4.25:

Comparison between the pretest and posttest mean score in short-

answer questions………………………………………………………………….58
Table 4.26: The percentage of students’ choice in items of question 1…………61
Table 4.27: The percentage of students’ choice in items of question 2………....64
Table 4.28: The percentage of students’ choice in items of question 3…….…...66
Table 4.29: The percentage of students’ choice in the first three items of question
4……………………………………………………………………………….…..68
Table 4.30: The percentage of students’ choice in the last four items of question
4…………………………………………………………………………………...70

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1:

The Speech Reception Processing by Celce-Murcia & Olshtain

(2001)…………………………………………………………………..................11
Figure 2.2: The description of pitch movements by Pike (1945)……….………12
Figure 2.3: The Conceptual Framework of the study….……………………..…27
Figure 4.1: The test of normal distribution of the two groups’ pretest scores…..43

Figure 4.2: Summary of mean scores of items of question 1………………..….60
Figure 4.3: Summary of mean scores of items of question 2…………...……....63
Figure 4.4: Summary of mean scores of items of question 3…………………...65
Figure 4.5: The mean scores of listening sub-skills……………………....……..67
Figure 4.6:

The mean scores of question types……………………………..69

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the introduction to the study. It includes (1) background
to the study, (2) aims of the study, (3) research questions, (4) significance of the
study, (5) scope of the study, and (6) the overall structure of the study.
1.1 Background to the study
1.1.1 The role of listening comprehension and intonation in English learning
It cannot be denied that “knowledge of the English language has indeed acted
as a powerful tool for development and advancement throughout the world”
(Johnson, 2009, p. 133). It enhances our understanding in ample aspects of life
such as business, education, and politics. Therefore, more and more people wish to
learn English to better their lives. In order to be fluent, learners of English as a
foreign language (EFL) need to practice all four skills including listening,

speaking, reading and writing equally. It has been agreed by many researchers that
listening skills place a more decisive role than other skills in terms of the success
of communication. If they misunderstand their partners’ ideas, fostering the
communication is impossible (Taylor, 1981; Rost, 2002, as cited in Gao, 2014;
Ahmadian and Matour, 2014). However, listening skill was still ignored and taken
for granted in the field of research (Gilbert, 1995; Vandergriff, 2007; Gao, 2014).
Further, from the researcher’s observation, learners’ listening ability was found
insufficient for their daily communication. Therefore, the researcher wished to
look for some way to enhance their listening comprehension.
Possible causes to learners’ difficulties in listening have been investigated,
and intonation was mentioned as one of them (Richards, 1990; Dunkel, 1991 &
Brown, 1994). Generally, intonation is referred to the way speakers’ voice goes up
or down during their utterances. Through intonation, listeners are able to recognize
speakers’ feelings, implications as well as semantic ambiguation, which was
explained in detail in the next chapter. For example, if they say “Yes” with a
falling tone, they mean an assertion. If they say “Yes” with a rising tone, they wish

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for more information from other speakers. Additionally, if speakers say “I’m
happy” with a falling tone and level pitch, they mean they are truly happy.
However, if they say I’m happy” with a lower pitch, they may mean the opposite –
“I’m not really happy.” According to Tran (2011, p. 11), Vietnamese learners of
English “don’t always realize how much difference intonation makes”. Therefore,
learners should be instructed the relationship between intonation and listening

comprehension. In the research domain, little evidence about whether intonation
can assist learners to improve their listening comprehension has been found.
Hence, the researcher carried out this study to investigate the effects of teaching
intonation on learners’ listening comprehension.
1.1.2 Courses of Listening skills at the Faculty of English Linguistics and
Literature (EF)
The Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature (EF) design four courses of
listening and speaking skills (LS) with different levels from A2 to C1 based on
The Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) for firstyear and second-year English-majored students. Each LS course takes up twelve 5period class meetings. These courses aim to provide learners with ample listening
techniques and speaking practice for both academic and professional purposes. At
the end of each course, they are required to sit a final exam which consists of a
listening paper test and face-to-face speaking session with an examiner.
In terms of listening, learners practice with lectures and conversations in
different topics. They learn how to grasp the main ideas, the details, and speakers’
implications. In other words, they practice different listening skills including
listening for gist, listening for details and listening for inferences. The main
coursebooks are from the five-level series of “Inside Listening and Speaking”
published by Oxford University Press. There are ten units with ten topics in each
level. In each unit, there are two listening tasks with four or five comprehension
questions in different forms such as multiple choice, true or false, gap filling and
short answers. At the end of each unit, some phonological aspects are presented.
Teachers can employ this section to enhance learners’ listening and speaking
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skills. However, the books do not mention the relationship between intonation and

listening comprehension. In other words, the learners are not guided to use their
knowledge of intonation to comprehend spoken texts. Furthermore, it is observed
by the researcher that learners’ vocabulary and grammar knowledge are not
sufficient for them to answer questions about speakers’ inferences such as
attitudes, agreement or disagreement. As mentioned above, intonation may offer
useful hints for these kinds of questions. Therefore, integrating intonation
instruction into classes of listening skills is of great help, and this technique should
be studied for the sake of EFL learners. In the context of Vietnam, little research
about the impacts of teaching intonation on learners’ listening skills was
conducted. As a result, the researcher wished to conduct this study to examine
whether the teaching of intonation in listening courses can improve learners’
listening ability or not.
1.2 Aims of the study
The study was conducted in order to investigate whether integrating intonation
instruction in lessons of listening skills helps to improve learners’ listening
comprehension. In addition, the researcher collected the opinions of the learners in
the experimental group about this integration as well as activities in the classroom
so that listening lessons in the future can be designed more logically and usefully.
1.3 Research questions
With the above-mentioned aims of the study, two following research questions
were raised.
1. To what extent does the teaching of intonation improve learners’ listening
comprehension?
2. What are the learners’ attitudes towards the teaching of intonation in
listening lessons?

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1.4 Significance of the study
The effects of teaching phonology on learners’ listening skills have been
continuously discussed. It is proved that knowledge of the features of phonology
may enhance their understanding of spoken texts. Intonation is one feature of
phonology. However, there is no clear evidence whether the teaching of intonation
can improve learners’ listening comprehension. This study provides detailed
analysis in the domain of the impacts of teaching intonation on learners’ listening
skills based on a quasi-experimental design. In addition, this study explored
learners’ attitudes towards the usefulness of integrating intonation into listening
lessons. As a result, suggestions for future listening lesson design can be made. In
sum, the significance of the study lies on its focus on the effects of the teaching of
intonation on learners’ listening comprehension which was not explored much
before. Moreover, it also presents learners’ viewpoints of teaching procedures and
activities utilized in the current study so that the listening lessons in the future may
be of more usefulness for their skills.
1.5 Scope of the study
The study was carried out to investigate the effects of the teaching of
intonation on EFL learners’ listening comprehension at the University of Social
Sciences and Humanities (USSH). The study was carried out in the academic year
2017-2018 at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature (EF). The current
study concentrates on the effectiveness of the intonation instruction in the
Advanced Listening and Speaking Course and analyzing quantitatively the
learners’ test scores to investigate the effectiveness of the teaching of intonation.
In addition to analyzing the learners’ test scores, the researcher administered
questionnaires to them for collecting their opinions about the teaching of
intonation in listening lessons. The learners’ responses in the questionnaires were
quantitatively analyzed. Based on the findings related to the learners’ test scores

and opinions about the teaching techniques of the current study, some
recommendations were made to teachers of English and course designers of
courses of listening skills at EF.
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1.6 The structure of the study
There are five chapters in the thesis. Chapter 1 presents background to the
study, theoretical issues about the role of intonation and listening comprehension
as well as the role of intonation in listening skills, aims of the study and the
research questions.

Chapter

2 provides

theoretical

issues

of

listening

comprehension and English intonation as well as previous studies related to
listening skills and the teaching of intonation. In terms of listening comprehension,

possible causes of difficulties in listening and suggested teaching approaches are
presented. In terms of intonation, chapter 2 provides definitions, components and
communicative functions of intonation. The relationship between intonation and
listening comprehension as well as the findings of previous studies are also
summarized in this chapter. Chapter 3 explains the methodology utilized in the
study. It consists of the procedure of recruiting participants, delivering pretests and
posttests as well as questionnaires to the participants. Also, the procedure of
analyzing data taken from the learners’ listening test scores and their responses in
the questionnaires are described. Chapter 4 displays findings from the learners’ test
results as well as their answers in the questionnaires. The findings are then
discussed to draw suggestions on how to apply the knowledge of intonation in
listening lessons effectively. Chapter 5 makes a general conclusion on the extent to
which teaching intonation assists the learners’ listening comprehension.
Recommendations

for

further

research

5

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also

suggested.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides the literature review of the study. It includes (1)
theoretical issues on listening comprehension, (2) theoretical issues on English
intonation, (3) review of previous studies, (4) the conceptual framework of the
study, and (5) summary of the chapter.
2.1 Theoretical issues on listening comprehension
2.1.1 Definitions of listening comprehension
Listening is considered the most difficult skill to a language learner.
However, not until 1970s was listening comprehension paid much attention and
explored (Osada, 2004). Many definitions of listening comprehension were stated
by different linguists and researchers. Lundsteen (1979, p. 1) asserted that listening
is a process in which “the spoken language is converted to meaning in the mind”.
However, the difference between ‘hearing’ and ‘listening’ is not clarified in this
definition. When the spoken language is accidentally heard, it can also be
converted to meaning in the hearers’ mind. The difference between ‘hearing’ and
‘listening’ was clarified in the definition stated by Underwood (1989, p. 1) that
listening is “the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from
something we hear”.
It should be born in mind that meanings of utterances consist of both literal
meanings and implied meanings. The former refers to the meanings listeners can
easily interpret from an utterance through the knowledge of vocabulary and
grammar. The latter is about what is not stated explicitly in the utterance and
listeners need to base on other cues like body language, or tone of voice to

understand speakers’ intention. Therefore, it was stated that listening
comprehension is not only about assigning a literal meaning to the utterance but
also inferring an implied one (Brown, 2001). Implied meaning includes speakers’
feelings, attitudes, whether they are posing a question or making an assertion, and
so on. It is true since meanings of individual words and grammar structures are not

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sufficient for listeners to understand the speakers’ messages. The messages should
be interpreted together with contextual clues as well as speakers’ attitudes when
speaking. Henceforth, the researcher based on Brown’s (2001) definition to
instruct learners to comprehend both literal meanings and implied meanings of
spoken texts.
2.1.2 Causes of listening difficulties
Before discussing techniques to enhance learners’ listening ability, it is
necessary to explore why most of the learners are incompetent in this skill. In other
words, it is necessary to look into possible causes of listening obstacles.
Underwood (1989, p. 16) stated that “many English language learners believe that
the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is that the listener cannot
control how quickly a speaker speaks.” Another obstacle they face in listening is
that they cannot always listen to the speech again. To learners, just one or two
times of listening is not sufficient for them to take notes and understand speakers’
ideas. Further, they lack a range of vocabulary, so they cannot catch up with the
messages. Being unaware of signals which indicate that speakers are changing the
points by using pauses, discourse markers, altering pitch and tone of voice also

makes the speech hard to be followed. Last but not least, listeners who do not have
the background knowledge of the topics of the speech often feel tired to listen to it
since they are not familiar with the ideas related to the topics. Their concentration
span and habit of listening to every single word are other causes mentioned. In
sum, according to Underwood (1989), learners’ lack of linguistic knowledge,
background knowledge of the topics, fast pace of speech, short focus span and
listening techniques are major factors causing their misunderstanding in listening.
Brown (1994) also listed some causes including the use of colloquial
language and slang in the speech, the use of reduced forms, and the
suprasegmental features of the language. In his study, more than three quarters of
the participants assume intonation patterns as the cause of their incomprehension.
Dunkel (1991) and Richards (1990) also investigated some obstacles of listening
comprehension consisting of clustering, redundancy, reduced forms, performance
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variables, colloquial language, rate of delivery, stress, and intonation. In terms of
intonation, they explained the fact that learners cannot distinguish the difference
among intonation patterns makes them unable to recognize speakers’ attitudes as
well as whether the speakers are asking questions or making assumptions.
In conclusion, many linguists and researchers agreed that intonation is one of
the main factors which make the listening skill difficult to EFL learners. In other
words, it is crucial for teachers to instruct some theories of intonation to their
learners so that they are aware of the role of intonation on listening
comprehension. Therefore, the researcher focused on this linguistic element in this
study, and examined the impacts of teaching intonation on learners’ listening

competence.
2.1.3 Processes of listening comprehension
From cognitive viewpoints, listening comprehension is a process which goes
through three stages (Anderson, 1985). The first stage is “Perception” in which the
continuous speech stream is grouped into smaller parts. In other words, listeners
have to be able to segment a talk into separate simple utterances so that they can
avoid ambiguation and comprehend them. For example, in a talk like “a man was
approaching the house. Quickly, the owner recognized him and called the
policemen”, listeners will misunderstand the meaning if they misplace the adverb
“quickly”. To be more specific, if the adverb “quickly” is assumed to belong to the
first clause, the meaning of the utterances will be changed into ‘a man was
approaching the house quickly’. In no doubt, the listeners will misunderstand the
speakers’ messages. Furthermore, being able to separate a long speech into smaller
units assists the listeners to be more involved in the listening instead of being tired
and left behind. Thus, the “Perception” phase (Anderson, 1985) is important to the
listeners. During Anderson’s (1985) second phase - “Parsing”, the meanings of the
utterances will be interpreted based on linguistic cues including syntax, lexis, and
phonology. In terms of phonology, it refers to both segmental and suprasegmental
features, which would be discussed in detail in the next sections. In this phase of
listening, listeners will form a mental representation of the meaning of the speech
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and store it in their short-term memory. The final phase proposed by Anderson
(1985) is called “Utilization”. The listeners will match their mental representation
with real-world knowledge, or schemata in order to reach a decision on the

meaning of the speech. These three stages of listening can occur simultaneously.
They are equally crucial in assisting the learners’ listening comprehension.
Clearly, a speech cannot be comprehended fully without either linguistic or
schematic knowledge.
Another framework of listening process was proposed by Rost (1990).
According to Rost’s (1990) framework, the listening process occurs in five stages
including “Hearing”, “Understanding”, “Remembering”, “Evaluating”, and
“Responding”. In comparison between Anderson’s (1985) and Rost’s (1990)
frameworks of listening, Rost’s (1990) “Hearing” stage is similar to Anderson’s
(1985) “Perception” phase in which listeners recognize and discriminate the
sounds or parts of spoken texts. Rost’s (1990) “Understanding” and
“Remembering” stages are equivalent to Anderson’s (1985) “Parsing” stage in
which the linguistic elements are analyzed and then the decoded information is
stored in memory. Finally, Rost’s (1990) “Evaluating” and “Responding” stages
refer to Anderson’s (1985) “Utilization” stage in which the listeners evaluate the
information based on specific contexts and their background knowledge to make a
conclusion about speakers’ messages and then answer comprehension questions.
Undeniably, no matter how listening phases are categorized, researchers all agree
that linguistic features are indispensible in learners’ listening process and they
need to be instructed.
Regarding teaching methodology in EFL classrooms, the idea of “bottom-up”
and “top-down” processing is more popular and it is often used to design listening
lessons. According to Oh and Lee (2014), these two processes are two
psycholinguistic approaches to comprehending other’s speech, and they need to
occur simultaneously. Nunan (2010) explained that teachers who wish to focus on
linguistic aspects prefer the bottom-up teaching approach while those who pay
much attention to learners’ thinking ability prefer the top-down one.
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In Harmer’s (2001, p. 201) description of the bottom-up process, “the listener
focuses on individual words and phrases, and achieves understanding by stringing
these detailed elements together to build up a whole”. In the process of stringing
individual words to create a longer stretch of language, grammar plays an
important role. If the words are connected with different syntactic structures, they
may mean differently. Therefore, Richards (2008) assumed that exercises based on
bottom-up processing should help learners to recognize word as well as clause
divisions, recognize key words, recognize key transitions in a discourse, recognize
grammatical relationships between key elements in sentences and use intonation to
recognize word and sentence functions.
In Van Duzer’s (1997) words, the listeners are able to utilize their
background knowledge to understand the messages. Background knowledge refers
to situations, discourse, and participants’ relationship. For example, the utterance
“good luck” can be interpreted in different meanings if it is said in different
circumstances such as going to the casino, going to the dentist or going to a job
interview. With the aid of top-down processing, learners are able to construct the
schema of the discourse, infer a setting for a text, infer the role of the participants,
infer unstated details of a situation, and anticipate questions related to the topic.
Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2001, pp. 103-104) proposed a Speech Reception
Framework describing the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processing of
listening comprehension. In terms of the top-down process, listeners’ schematic
knowledge and contextual knowledge should be activated before listening to the
spoken texts. Schematic knowledge refers to the listeners’ knowledge of the topics
as well as the discourse which means how discourse is organized. Contextual
knowledge refers to the speakers’ identity, the setting of their conversations or
talks, and the purposes of their conversations or talks. All of the above-mentioned

knowledge provides the listeners with pragmatic knowledge to interpret the
speakers’ messages.
In terms of bottom-up processing, the listeners will base on linguistic features
including phonology, vocabulary and grammar to grasp the speakers’ messages.
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First, the listeners base on phonology to recognize sounds of the words. Then the
vocabulary knowledge provides the listeners with the meanings of the words and
the knowledge of grammar allows them to recognize functions of the utterances
such as questions or statements. Finally, the coherence and cohesion of all of the
utterances are recognized through the discourse interpretation. However, in order
to comprehend the messages thoroughly, the listeners need to combine both the
linguistic cues and pragmatic cues. Figure 2.1 illustrates the listening process
framework proposed by Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2001, p. 104).

Expectations based
on prior knowledge
(Content schemata)

Expectations based
on the assessment of
context/speaker’s
intention

Expectations based on

discourse and sociocultural
knowledge
(Formal schemata)

Pragmatics
Interpretation of spoken
discourse (input)
Language knowledge
Phonology

Vocabulary

Grammar

Figure 2.1: The Speech Reception Processing by Celce-Murcia & Olshtain
(2001)
In sum, both linguistic knowledge and background knowledge are essential
for the learners to be able to comprehend a spoken text. Intonation is one of the
linguistic elements which can be useful for enhancing the learners’ listening
comprehension. Definitions and functions of intonation were discussed in the
following section.

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2.2 Theoretical issues on English intonation

2.2.1 Definitions of intonation
Several definitions of intonation were proclaimed, and it is impossible to
make a decision which one is the best. According to Roach (2002, p. 150),
“intonation refers to the variations in the pitch of a speaker’s voice used to convey
or alter meaning.” Pitch refers to the height of a speaker’s voice, and it is the only
mentioned component of intonation. According to this definition, the speaker will
make his/her voice sound higher or lower while uttering. However, the way he/she
can change the voice was not stated clearly in this definition. To put it differently,
whether the intonation includes a continuous changing from one syllable to
another or it is analyzed with one by one syllable with different pitch height
separately was not clarified. Tench’s (1996) definition was also similar to Roach’s
(2002) definition when stating that intonation is related to how pitch is used in
utterances. This was made clearer with the definition stated by Bradford (1988). It
was stated that “intonation consists of the continuous changing of the pitch of a
speaker’s voice to express meanings” (Bradford, 1988, pp. 1-2). When intonation
is considered a ‘continuous’ stream, it will create a movement. If the change of a
speaker’s voice is described explicitly through line drawing, it can be seen not only
whether the voice pitch is low or high but also whether it is moving downwards or
upwards from one syllable to another. In other words, the speaker’s voice will
move in a falling or rising way. Pike (1945) illustrated the pitch movements as
follows:

Figure 2.2: The description of pitch movements by Pike (1945)

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