English Intonation Errors made by Third Year Students at English Department, Chu Van An University

1
English Intonation: Errors made by Third Year
Students at English Department,
Chu Van An University

Phan Thị Ngọc Anh

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: PGS. TS. Võ Đại Quang
Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract: This is a study on common errors in English intonation unit made by Vietnamese
learners of English as a foreign language with a hope to help the students to improve their ability
of dividing utterances into intonation units and help the teachers of English acknowledge their
students‟ difficulties in perceiving and producing tone units. The participants of the study involve
20 third year majors at English Department, Chu Van An University. The major source of data for
the research came from three sets of instruments including the academic results, the intonation
tasks, and the survey questionnaire. The results indicated that third year students still faced
numerous difficulties in speech division into word groups. The problems they had were caused by
both their mother tongue and the English intonation itself. However, the complicacy of the foreign
language item seemed to be far more problematic to Vietnamese learners. Apart from that, a
correlation between perceptive and productive ability and a close tie between learners‟ language
proficiency and their intonation ability were investigated in the study. The study also revealed that
most of participants kept positive beliefs in learning intonation but not most of them had positive
attitudes towards learning it due to its complicacy. Many students wished to find solutions to their
problems in tonality and almost needed more exercises and activities from their teachers.

Keywords: Ngôn ngữ; Tiếng Anh; Ngữ điệu

Content

PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Intonation is a helpful tool to achieve effective communication. Intonation, however, is a fairly
complicated subject. It is the reason why both Vietnamese teachers and students pay very little attention
to intonation. Thus, when it comes to speaking English, it is no surprise to find that many students sound
monotonous. This also prevents learners from comprehending spoken English. From the teaching reality,
I have realized that my students encounter no few problems in speaking English rhythmically and
intonationally. They even find it difficult to pause correctly after word groups and more difficult to put
the most prominent stress on the tonic syllable. As a result, their speech is either jerky or monotonous or
both. Apart from that, I myself find my spoken English not as good as my written English. Especially I do
have a couple of difficulties with English intonation. I am aware of the importance of English intonation.
Also, I have certain knowledge of English intonation. However, the amount of knowledge I gained before
my post graduate course is not sufficient for me to feel confident about communicating in English. With a
hope that I can make some contributions to solving my own problems and my students‟ difficulties in
communicating in English, I choose the study on “English Intonation: Errors Made by Third Year
Students at English Department, Chu Van An University.”

2
2. Scope of the study
The study will focus on the formation of intonation units – tonality and concentrates on a limited number
of 20 third year English majors of Chu Van An University
3. Aims of the study
The ultimate aim of this thesis is, to the possible extent within the findings established, to provide an
account of the errors in English intonation commonly committed by third year students at Chu Van An
University and on this basis, to facilitate the mentioned students in improving English intonation unit
usage.
4. Objectives of the study
 Detect common errors in relation to English intonation units made by Vietnamese EFL students;

 Find out the causes of these errors;
 Investigate the relationship between participants‟ perceptive and productive ability;
 Identify the correlation between third year students‟ language proficiency and their ability of
dividing speech into word groups;
 Explore learners‟ beliefs and attitudes towards learning English intonation as well as their
solutions to the problems they made with English intonation unit.
5. Research Questions
To achieve the aims above, research questions are addressed.
1. Common types of errors relating to English intonation
1.1 What are the common errors in dividing speech into tone units at the perception and production stage
encountered by third year majors of English Department, Chu Van An University?
1.2 What factors cause errors of English tonality?
2. Do the learners‟ perceptive ability relate to their productive ability?
3. What is the correlation between the students‟ language proficiency and their ability of speech
division into word groups?
4. Students‟ attitudes towards intonation learning and their solutions to problems?
4.1 What are students‟ beliefs and attitudes towards English intonation learning?
4.2 What do students do to resolve their own difficulties in learning intonation?
PART B. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 English Intonation
1.1.1 Definitions of intonation
In the present study, the researcher adopts the definition from the Longman Dictionary of Language
Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992: 190) that is
“When speaking, people generally raise and lower the pitch of their voice, forming pitch patterns.
They also give some syllables in their utterances a greater degree of loudness and change their speech
rhythm. These phenomena are called intonation. Intonation does not happen at random but has definite
patterns which can be analyzed according to their structure and functions. Intonation is used to carry
information over and above which is expressed by the words in the sentence”.
1.1.2 Tonality – Intonation Unit

1.1.2.1 Nature of tonality
Paul Tench (1996:31) considers tonality as the system in intonation that divides spoken discourse into its
separate individual intonation units, each of which represents one unit of information. The terms
“intonation unit” can be called by different names by different authors. In the present study the terms like
“tone unit” (according to Roach), “tone group” (in the word of Halliday), “word group” (stated by
Tench), “sense group” (called by O‟ Connor), and “pause group” (in the view of Pennington) are used to
refer intonation unit.
1.1.2.2 Identification of tonality
Halliday (quoted in Tench 1996:31) states that very often intonation units coincide with clauses.
Theoretically, neutral tonality can be founded on the basis that a single piece of information is handled in
the grammar typically by a single clause, and in pronunciation by a single intonation unit. However, in

3
spoken English, intonation units do not always coincide with whole clauses. In such cases, marked
tonality will count to identify intonation units. Marked tonality occurs either when two (or more) clauses
fit into a single intonation unit, or when two (or more) intonation units are needed to cover a single
clause. Of the two cases, the latter is much more frequently than the former. To be more precise, tag
questions, listed items, marked themes, long themes, final adverbs modifying meaning of the whole
clause, initial and medical adjuncts have their own tone unit. The case of two (or more) clauses fitting
into a single unit can be found with report clause, negative domain, and when two transitive verbs have
one object complement in common.
1.1.3 Structure of intonation
Structure of intonation here is shown through structure of each intonation unit in an utterance. According
to Paul Tench (1996:12), structure of an individual intonation unit consists of pre-tonic segment and tonic
or nucleus and tail. Among those, the tonic is obligatory and the most prominent word; the head, pre-head
and tail are optional
Tonic syllable is the most prominent syllable in an intonation unit. Each intonation unit has one and only
one tonic syllable. The head extends from the first stressed syllable up to but not including the tonic
syllable. If there is no stressed syllable before the tonic syllable, there cannot be a head. The pre-head is
comprised of all the unstressed syllables in tone-unit preceding the first stressed syllable. Any syllables

between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone unit are called the tail.
1.1.4 Errors in intonation
There is much that can go wrong in intonation. However, the errors with tonality are the commonest. An
error of tonality can cause series of errors in tonicity and tone. Therefore, if the teacher detects an error in
intonation, he or she can check first with tonality then the tonicity and tone so as not to cause byproduct
errors in tonicity and tone.
Tonality errors emerge when learner utter the response as two intonation units instead of as one, or as one
instead of as two.
1.2 Contrastive analysis
Contrastive analysis (CA) is defined by James (1980: 3) as “a linguistic enterprise aimed at producing
inverted (i.e. contrastive, not comparative) two-valued typologies (a CA is always concerned with a pair of
languages), and founded on the assumption that languages can be compared.”
1.2.1 Intonation unit
English tonality
Vietnamese tonality
 English intonation unit normally is
associated with clauses. Each clause
constructs an intonation unit.
 Each intonation unit has one nucleus except
the case of dive tone.
 Each intonation unit has one intonation
contour
 Vietnamese intonation unit operates in
sentences. Different types of sentences have
different types of intonation.
 Simple sentence has one nucleus while other
kinds of sentences have 3 nucleuses.
 Each intonation unit involves a series of
falling and rising contours.
Great difference exists not only in tonality system but also in its elements including stress, rhythm, pause,

and pitch.
1.2.2 Stress
Stress in English
Stress in Vietnamese
 It is a key factor to discover the tonic
syllable which brings the most important
information in a given intonation unit.
 Stress is weak because of the appearance of
tones in all the words of utterance

1.2.3 Rhythm and pause
Rhythm and Pause in English
Rhythm and Pause in Vietnamese
 English is foot-timing language. Thus, the
rhythm is very strong and is a prominent
phenomenon.
 The pause in English can happen anywhere
 Vietnamese is syllable-timing language.
There is no rhythm group division or if there
is some, it is very weak.
 The pause is used if there exists punctuation

4
in a given intonation unit. It appears without
a comma.
including comma.
1.2.4 Pitch
English Pitch
Vietnamese Pitch
 Pitch is associated with utterances and

affects meaning of the whole utterance.
 Pitch variations don‟t form new words but
sentence meaning.
 Variations in pitch can convey different
purposes of the speakers.
 Pitch performs grammatical function
 Pitch is associated with syllables and
changes meaning of individual syllable.
 Pitch variations form new words.

 Variations in pitch cannot express different
purposes of the speakers.
 Pitch variations perform lexical function.

CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY
2.1 Error and error analysis
2.1.1 Definition of error
In this thesis, the researcher adopts Chaudon‟s definition. In his view (1986: 66), errors are defined as
“linguistic forms or content that differed from native speaker norms or facts and any other behavior
signaled by the teacher as needing improvement.” The researcher selected Received Pronunciation as the
norm in the present study.
2.1.2 Error Analysis
In the view of Corder (1967& 1974), error analysis is the study of the errors made by second language
learners. It provided a methodology for investigating learner language level. He also identified a model
for error analysis which included three stages:
1. Identification
2. Description
3. Explanation
Among the three stages, explanation is especially important because in order to arrive at effective
remedial measures, a full understanding the mechanism that triggers each type of errors is necessary.

According to Richard (1974), there appear two main types of errors. They are interlingual and intralingual
errors.
2.1.2.1 Interlingual Errors
Interlingual errors - interference errors occur when learners transfer one item or structure of their native
language into second language whereas the two languages are different in nature in many aspects.
2.1.2.2 Intralingual Errors
Intralingual errors are those due to the language being learned itself, independent of the native language.
Intralingual errors are caused by the deficient knowledge of the target language. Lack of knowledge is the
common reason why learners forget the exception (over-generalization), ignore the rules restriction, apply
the rules incompletely, or build up wrong hypothesis.
2.2 Subjects
Participants of the study are 20 third year students (17 female and 3 male students) with the average age
from 21 to 24. All are at English Department, Chu Van An University. All of them are exposed to the
same learning situation and teachers at university. They have gone through a minimum of five years of
English; three before college and two at college. While in University they have taken credits of English
language and literature including three in English phonetics and phonology that covered vowels,
consonants, stress, rhythm and intonation.
2.3 Instruments
2.3.1 The academic result
Refer to Appendix 6, this instrument was the academic results of first five semesters of the course. In this
kind of assessment, the students got 10% of the total mark from their regular attendance and active
participation during the class hour, 30% from the mid-term examinations, and 60% from the end-of-term
examination. After being calculated according to the appropriate proportion, marks ranging from 1 to 10

5
were given for each individual subject of each student. For the purpose of this study, only the results of
the examinations for four English skills, general English, grammar, and phonetics and phonology were
recorded.
2.3.2 The Intonation tasks
As the main instrument to collect data on errors relating to English intonation units, a task with two stages

of perception and production was adopted in this research. This is an extract from conversational pages,
Better English Pronunciation (O‟ Connor, 1980: 128)
There were 32 intonation units of all types. In terms of the length of units, there were twelve short units,
four medium units and sixteen long units. According to the way of tonality division, there were 25 neutral
units, which left only 7 marked ones including unit 3, 5, 8, 14, 18, 25and 30. Of all the three groups in
term of length, it was a big potential for students to make errors of splitting with long units. On the
contrary, students by no mean split short units but might encounter the errors of joining them. Another
potential source of difficulties might be marked units.
The perception task was employed to help assess the students‟ ability to recognize and comprehend
system of intonation units in English. The production task was designed to examine the students‟ ability
to produce utterances in real context with right pause after sense groups.
2.3.3 Survey questionnaire
Part 1: The demographic information consisting of student number, age, gender, and duration of English
learning.
Part 2: (from question 1 to 6): Attitudinal data including the opinions, attitudes and interests of the
participants on English intonation and English intonation learning.
Part 3: (from question 7 to 9): Behavioral data detecting the problems in learning intonation and their
reactions to those problems
2.4 Data Collection and Analysis Procedure
At the first stage, the results of the first five semester‟s achievement test were collected. Scores of English
subjects were averaged, and then were used to place the students into three groups of ability. Then, one
day of April 2011, 20 students were gathered in their lecture hall and were required firstly to do
perception task. With the perception task, they were asked to divide the utterances into tone units while
listening to the tape three times. After the perception task came to the production task. At this stage,
students had time to rehearse the dialogue until they felt confident enough to act out the conversation in
pair twice. After each time, players in each pair would change their roles of the two speakers of the
dialogue. Participants‟ role-playing was recorded onto a tape for later analysis. The recordings were then
carefully checked and converted by the researcher and two other teachers at Chu Van An University to
detect errors in producing intonation units. Based on the results from the handouts and the recordings, the
researcher counted and categorized perceptive and productive errors related to intonation unit division

later.
When the task was completed, the researcher conducted a survey questionnaire (Appendix 5), which had
been carefully designed and delivered to all the 20 participants. The data collected from the instruments
were presented in tables and charts.
2.5 Data Analysis
Both qualitative and quantitative methods are exploited in the research
Qualitative analysis: analyzing the participants’ recordings and handouts
Quantitative analysis: analyzing the questionnaire and academic results
2.5.1 Data obtained by the academic results
The participants‟ average marks ranged from 6.14 to 7.90. Two groups of high and mid ability were
formed.
(1) Mid ability students had the average marks ranging from 6.14 to 6.67
(2) High ability students had the average marks 7.14 to 7.90

2.5.2 Data obtained by the intonation task

6
The data on intonation unit division was analyzed on two main areas: error analysis and correlation
investigation.
The error analysis was based on the three main steps. Within the first step of error identification, twenty
handouts and recordings were marked according to the transcription. The second step, errors
classification, looked into: (1) Splitting errors at perception and production stage and (2) joining errors at
the two stages. Based on the errors found in the area, the third step - error explanation- further looked into
the factors that caused the splitting and joining intonation units. The causes were identified by studying
the nature of the errors.
The correlation was investigated first between perceptive and productive ability of tone unit division to
discover how perceiving capacity supported producing ability, and second between learners‟ language
proficiency and their intonation ability to make out whether students with higher scores at university can
produce intonation unit better or not.
2.5.3 Data obtained by the survey questionnaire

Each survey questionnaire was analyzed by the researcher to avoid any mistakes. The frequency of the
responses given by the students was in the form of tables and percentages. Data from the survey helped
the researcher to determine the proper suggestions to assist teachers and students in teaching and learning
English intonation unit.
CHAPTER 3. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
The handouts of the perception task and the recordings of the production task were marked according to
the keys on the conversation pages, Better English Pronunciation (O‟Conner, 1980: 128). One error was
counted wherever students had wrong division or joined more than one unit into one. Therefore, there
existed a fact that more than one error might appear in one unit. The author counted the number the error
appeared and classified them into types. Otherwise, each correct division for one unit took one point. The
researcher would count the right tonality division then gave marks to every participant.
3.1 Research question 1 – Error analysis
3.1.1 Research question 1.1 – Error identification and description
Various sorts of errors were committed by students. The number of errors on the division of speech into
tone units is fairly high, and they are categorized into 12 groups of errors (refer to appendix 0, table 06).
They were errors of joining short units (Js), joining closely grammatically connected units (Jc), splitting
marked tonality at clause boundary without comma (Sbwc), splitting marked tonality at clause boundary
with comma (Sbc), splitting tonality at the place of the stressed
syllables in the head (Shs), splitting
at the place of the unstressed
syllables in the head (Shu), splitting
tonality after the nucleus (Sn),
splitting tonality after the direct
object (So), splitting tonality at the
changing point in the dive (Sd),
splitting tonality after the subject
(Ss), splitting tonality after the pre-
head (Sp), splitting tonality at
unstressed syllables in the tail (Stu).
Sbwc

Sbc
Shs
Shu
Sn
So
Js
Jc
Sd
Ss
Sp
Stu
Proportion of error types

3.1.2 Research Question 1.2 – Error explanation
What are the probable causes to the problems detected?
(Refer to appendix 0, table 07) The errors participants made with 32 units involve two types of errors
namely the interlingual (17.7%) and the intralingual (82.3%), but the main causes are faulty hypothesis
resulting in 35.4% errors in the total and over-generalization leading to 23.8% errors of the sum. Then
come to negative influence from the mother tongue which covers 17.1% of all errors made, and ignorance
of the rule restrictions which causes 14.7% of the total errors. The least frequent source of errors is
incomplete application of rules reaching to 8.4% of all. It can be said that the influence of the mother
tongue plays a little role in the division of utterances into intonation units. The most important factor,
however, lies in the tonality itself. It, therefore, is more fundamental to pay attention to make clear
intonation rules in order to help students acquire knowledge in the process of learning English intonation.

7
Thus, it can be concluded that it is these errors that show the general characteristics of the students‟
learning how to divide speech into intonation units.
3.2 Research Question 2
Does the learners’ perceptive ability relate to their productive ability? In both stages, students

seemed to have the same problems. However, the number of students who encountered faults varied
greatly in perceiving and producing tone units. The frequency of order was not similar in the tasks. In
general, students have same difficulties with marked tone units composed by more than one clause.
Students tended to make more errors of splitting in producing tone units than in perceiving them.
However, with regard to the errors of joining short and closely grammatically connected units, it is a
problem of perceiving sense groups.
The participants have a better perceptive ability compared to the productive one but they are correlated to
each other. The better perceptive ability compared to the productive ability is demonstrated by the fact
that students get more good marks, less errors at perception stage, and fewer students faced difficulties in
perceiving tone units (Appendix 0, table 11, chart 03). The relation between the two abilities is proved by
the data that of 15 students who got above the average and good marks with perception task, 13 students
(representing 86.67%) attained the same ranges of grade with production task. Thus, those who perceive
tone units well will produce them well. (Appendix 0, table 09)
3.3 Research Question 3
What is the correlation between students’ language proficiency and their ability to produce
intonation units?
The students‟ language proficiency and their competence in English tonality had close ties. The higher the
proficiency is, the lower the number of errors is committed, and the lower the number of students makes
faults (Appendix 0, table 13, chart 05). This is demonstrated in the marks they attained, the errors they
make in their intonation tasks and the number of them with errors. It is the high ability students that
awarded the more good grades and committed fewer faults. In contrast, the mid ability students frequently
made errors and got lower marks. Therefore, the difference in the students‟ language proficiency and in
their intonation capacity should be taken into account in the process of teaching intonation in general and
in teaching intonation unit in particular. Thus, a teacher should apply different types of activities and
provide a wide range of exercises from easier levels to more difficult ones.
Despite the better performance in producing tone units, quite a large number of high level students have
problems with English tonality. For this reason, it is definitely that the process to eliminate tonality errors
among high ability students requires hardship and effort, let alone those in mid ability group. It is both
groups of students that are in need of great help from teachers for linguistic knowledge from structure of
clause with more attention to clause types formed by di-transitive and complex-transitive verbs to rules of

stress and rhythm with more explanations for strong form and weak form of words, and to tonality rules
with special focus on marked tone units. What‟s more, acquiring sufficient theoretical knowledge will
turn out to be useless if students are out of practice. Thus, together with equipping them theory, carefully
planned exercises and activities should be provided.
3.4 Research question 4
3.4.1 Students’ beliefs and attitudes towards learning English intonation
The statistic data shows students‟ positive belief in English intonation and English intonation learning.
Most of the participants find it important to learn intonation, and it is necessary to spend more time on
intonation at university because intonation helps them not only to communicate successfully but also to
represent themselves well in English. More importantly, their future job requires that they should be good
at intonation.
As shown in the following table, although most of them (90%) appreciate the important role of intonation,
not most of them like learning it. (60%) of students questioned assert that they like learning intonation
because it is necessary. Some of them (35%) believe learning intonation is interesting. No one thinks
learning intonation is easy. Those who either do not like or do not mind learning intonation attribute their
negative attitude to the complexity of English intonation itself (40% of the students) and the uneasiness in
the way of teaching (30% of the participants). Only a small number of students (10%) think learning
English is boring.
3.4.2 Students’ reactions to their problems

8
As a matter of fact, intonation is a complicated issue in the process of acquiring English, so it is
understandable that all of participants face difficulties in learning intonation. So as to overcome
difficulties, the first way most students (55%) use is asking for help from their teachers. 40% of the
participants search material and practice themselves, some others (15%) ask for help from friends. While
35% want to do something with tonality but do not know what to do and how to do, a few (10%) do
nothing. All mentioned data proved that many students wish to solve problems with tone units, so
teachers should do more to provide help. According to 90% of the participants, the most significant action
a teacher can take is providing students with activities and exercises to practice at class. Two third of the
participants asked emphasized the role of a teacher‟s listening to students and giving feedback. Half of the

students want their teachers to give lectures on intonation deeply and clearly and assign them exercises
for homework practicing

PART C. CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the thesis
Errors are obviously unavoidable in learning a foreign language, so error correction plays an essential role
in teaching a language, especially in teaching difficult language elements like intonation.
The thesis is carried out with the aims at finding out common errors in dividing speech into tone units
made by third year students at English Department, Chu Van An University and clarifying the causes to
these errors. Moreover, the thesis wishes to discover the relationship between participants‟ perceptive and
productive ability of tonality to find effective ways to support students‟ competence in English tonality.
Also, investigating the correlation between learners‟ proficiency and their tonality capacity is another
significant goal of the thesis to offer suitable tasks in need as possible suggestions to aid teachers in
delivering lectures on tonality and on its elements.
To achieve these aims, some literature review relating to the theme of the study is taken into
consideration. The study has been conducted with 20 third year students from Chu Van An University and
three sets of instruments namely academic results, intonation tasks, and a survey questionnaire. Data
collected from these tools are analyzed, which help to answer all the research questions thoroughly.
The analysis reveals important findings that third year students still face numerous difficulties in speech
division into word groups. The problems they have are caused by both their mother tongue and the
English intonation itself. However, the complicacy of the foreign language item seems to be far more
problematic to Vietnamese learners. Apart from that, a correlation between perceptive and productive
ability and a close tie between learners‟ language proficiency and their intonation ability are investigated
in the study.
2. Concluding remarks
From what has been analyzed above, in this part I would like to draw some conclusions for the objectives
set forth at the beginning as follow:
2.1. Concluding remarks on objective 1
My first objective is to detect common errors in relation to English intonation units made by third year
majors at English department, Chu Van An University. I think that this objectives is done successfully

with 12 types of errors that students commonly encountered. Of all the types, Sbwc, Sbc, Shs, and Shu are
four most serious ones with the largest number of errors and the biggest number of students who made
errors. From the above most frequently met problems, it can be implicated that marked tonality comprised
of two clauses, stressed and unstressed syllables are attribute to the most problematic factors which hinder
students from correctly dividing utterances into word groups.
2.2. Concluding remarks on objective 2
Errors coexist with learning a language. They are useful for learners, teachers and researchers as well.
Nonetheless, errors are taken advantage only when we acknowledge the core causes leading to them. That
is the reason why the second objective of the study concerns the causes of these problems, which is
tackled strictly with the most frequently sources of faults committed by the participants are false concepts
hypothesized and over-generalization. Having found out the underlined causes to the errors of tonality
committed, implications emerge that English intonation unit alone is rather complicated for learners to
acquire.

9
2.3. Concluding remarks on objective 3
Having investigated the relationship between participants‟ ability to perceive and produce tone units, it is
found that perceptual competence relatively affects producing capacity, which is stated in more details as
follow (1) students tend to perceive tonality better than producing tonality
and (2) those who perceive tone units well will produce them well.
2.4. Concluding remarks on objective 4
The next objective is to explore the relationship between third year students‟ language proficiency and
their ability of dividing speech into word groups. Participants were divided into two groups of ability, the
high and the mid one. Both groups had the same difficulties, and committed the same types of errors, but
the degree of their problems was not the same. Students with higher proficiency level performed better
than lower ones, which was represented by the following details:
 Higher ability students face less difficulties than mid ability students
 Fewer high ability students made intonation errors than do the others
The mentioned facts provide the answer to our third research question. That is speakers with higher
English proficiency will have better tonality ability.

2.5. Concluding remarks on objective 5
The final objective is to discover students‟ belief and attitudes towards English intonation and English
intonation learning. Data from the survey questionnaire indicates clearly that a majority of the participants
are aware of the important role of learning English intonation in their process of acquiring the language
and for the future career, and almost keep the positive attitude towards this issue. However, not most of
the students like learning English intonation since it is too difficult for them, so they are in need of
teachers‟ help with both theoretical knowledge and practice exercises and activities.
On the whole, the thesis has fulfilled its objectives of the study. Although it cannot fully cover all the
aspects and components of English intonation, I do hope that this thesis would be of some value for those
interested in English intonation in general and English intonation unit in particular.
3. Recommendations
So far, the errors found in the study have been discussed in much detail. The causes of the errors have
been found and explained clearly. The relation between perceptive and productive, the correlation
between language proficiency and tonality ability also have been discovered. The findings of the study
show that using English intonation is not easy any more for the third year students at English Department
of Chu Van An University. In the elementary system of intonation only – tonality – numerous errors are
detected. The question raised here is how to teach students English intonation effectively. Intonation is a
vast topic, so this section will nevertheless have given some ideas to tackle intonation in the classroom,
and some recommendations to help learners with tonality. I hope that they will be useful enough for
teachers and learners to deal with this problem.
(1) Concerning the errors made in the intonation tasks and the causes of these errors, it is suggested that
learners are in need of not only exercises and activities for further practice but also theoretical
knowledge of English intonation unit. As a result the teachers need to prepare for intonation lessons
deliberately, so that they should be competent in approaches, techniques, and principles to teach
English intonation (refer to appendix 7, 8 and 9) as well as prove their roles in the teaching process
(appendix 10). In order to make the process of comprehending English intonation unit less hard,
learners should be involved in lessons on components of a tone unit like stress, rhythm, and pause in
advance. And more attention and energy should be paid to these elements to make it easier for
learners to acquire the language items. During the process of lecturing, similarities and differences in
intonation unit and in its components between the two languages are required to be handled too but in

the form of warm up exercises to wake the awareness of the learners.
(2) Regarding the importance of the perception ability to the production ability, it is demonstrated that
they are related to each other to a certain extent. Normally, students perceive intonation units better
than producing, and those who perceive well tend to produce well. In other words, perceptual ability
plays a part in reinforcing the producing competence of tonality. The relation between perceptive and
productive ability recommends that if a teacher wishes to improve his students‟ ability to produce
intonation unit, he firstly need to consolidate their ability to perceive tonality with sufficient
theoretical knowledge. However, being good at perceiving word groups is not enough, even helpless,

10
since good capacity for tonality requires more than that. It is expected to produce tone units flowingly
without any hesitation or pause in between. The productive ability, nonetheless, involves much more
effort and attention of the teachers to design suitable exercises and activities.
(3) Although the students learn in the same groups, their tonality ability is not homogenous. This is due
to the differences in each person‟s language competence and his own background and learning
environment. Therefore, in teaching a group of students who are at different levels of language
proficiency, different tasks should be assigned to these different levels to ensure that all of the
students can practice. For higher ability students, the requirements should be harder. Also, constant
attention should be paid to low ability students to give any instant help so that they can catch up with
the higher ones.
(4) Learners are well aware of the importance of English intonation in the daily conversation, but the
time they are allowed to study this subject is extremely little compared to the time on English
practical subjects. I presume to think that English intonation should become a separate subject so that
both teachers and students have more time to investigate the nature of English intonation deeply
enough to become more and more successful communicators of English. Moreover, it is rather
complicated for students to acquire English intonation. It is the complicacy of intonation that
prevents the learners from being interested in learning English intonation in general and learning
English intonation unit in particular. Thus, teachers should facilitate them, enhance their confidence,
and make sure that they feel relaxed when they learn intonation. In this case, easy tasks at the
beginning and game will count.

4. Suggestions for further study
For further development of the topic of the present study, the following directions should be considered in
the future research:
(1) The present study involved only a small sample size among third year students. There is a need for a
more representative sample to get a more comprehensive picture of the English major students‟
intonation ability.
(2) This study mainly looked at errors committed with the elementary system of English intonation,
tonality. It is also essential to examine the two other systems namely tonicity and tone.
(3) In order to discover underlined causes to errors relating to intonation, contrastive analysis between
English and Vietnamese intonation is in need to help well predict students‟ errors
(4) Intonation is considered as a vast topic which includes many minor components. A need is raised here
is that further researches on its elements as stress and rhythm should be conducted before hand.


I
REFERENCES
In English
Binghadeer, N. (2008). An Acoustic Analysis of Pitch Range in the Production of Native and Non Native
Speakers of English. Asian EFL Journal. 10 (4), from an-efl-
journal.com/December_08_nb.php
Brazil, D. (1994). Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English: Student’s book. The UK: Cambridge
University Press.
Brazil, D. (1997). The Communicative Value of Intonation in English. The UK: Cambridge University
Press.
Celik, M. (1997). Teaching English Intonation to EFL/ESL Students. The Internet TESL Journal, 7 (12),
retrieved December 26
th
, 2001, from Celik-Intonation.html.
Corder, S.P. (1967 & 1974). The Significance of Learner’s Errors. Error Analysis-Perspectives on
Second Language Acquisition. Longman Group Limited.

Cruttenden, A. (1997). Intonation. Cambridge University Press.
Dalton, C. & Seidlhofer, B. (1994). Pronunciation. Oxford University Press.
Dalton, D.F. (1997). Some techniques for teaching pronunciation. The internet TESL Journal, Vol.3,
No.1. Retrieved November 1, 2001, from
Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. (Second Edition). London: Arnord.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1967).
Hancock, M. (1995). Pronunciation Games. Cambridge University Press.
Hewings, M., (2004). Pronuciation Practice Activities. A resource book for teaching English
Pronunciation, Cambridge University Press.
James, C. (1980). Contrastive Analysis. Longman: Longman Group Limited.
Kelly, G. (2000). How to teach Pronunciation, London: Longman.
Nga, Vũ Thị. (2004). A Contrastive Analysis of Modality Markers in English ƯH-Questions and the
Vietnamese Equivalents. ĐHNN-ĐHQG Hà nội.
O‟Connor, J. D. (1980). Better English Pronunciation. (Second Edition). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
O‟Connor, J. D., & Arnold, G. E. (1973). Intonation of Colloquial English. A Practical Handbook,
London: Longman.
Ohata, K. (2004). Phonological Differences between Japanese and English: Several Potentially
Problematic Areas of Pronunciation for Japanese ESL/EFL Learners. Asian EFL Journal, 6 (4),
from an-efl journal.com/december_04_KO.php
Pennington, M.C. (1996). Phonology in English language teaching: an international approach.
Longman.


II
Richards, J. C. (1974). Error Analysis – Perspectives on second language acquisition. London:
Longman.
Richards, J. C., & Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied
Linguistics (Second Edition). London: Longman.
Roach, P. (1983). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.
Roach, P. (2001). Phonetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tâm, Đào Thị. (2007). A Contrastive Analysis of Intonation in English Yes-No Questions and Vietnamese
Equivalent Expressions. ĐHNN-ĐHQG Hà nội .
Tench, P. (1996). The Intonation Systems of English. New York: Cassell.
Tench, P. (1991). Pronunciation Skills, Essential language teaching series. Macmillan Publisher Ltd.
In Vietnamese
Chừ, Mai Ngọc. (2007). Nhập môn Ngôn ngữ học. Nxb. Giáo dục.
Kỷ, Nguyễn Huy. (2006). Intonation by the Vietnamese. Hà Nội: Nxb Văn hóa-Thông tin.
Quang, Võ Đại. (2009). Một số phương tiện biểu đạt nghĩa tình thái trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt. Nxb
Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội.
Thuật, Đoàn Thiện. (1980). Ngữ âm tiếng Việt. Hà Nội: Nxb Đại học và Trung học chuyên nghiệp.
Thắng, Đỗ Tiến. (2009). Ngữ Điệu Tiếng Việt. Sơ Khảo, Nxb Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội.


III
APPENDIX

Table 01: Types of Intonation Units
Short
Units
Unit
1
3
4
7
8
9
Number of Syllables
4

2
1
3
2
3
Number of Stresses
3
1
1
1
1
1
Unit
12
16
21
24
30
31
Number of Syllables
4
4
3
2
1
1
Number of Stresses
2
1
2

2
1
1
Medium
Units
Unit
2
15
17
20


Number of Syllables
6
6
5
5


Number of Stresses
3
2
2
3


Long
Units
Unit
5

6
10
11
13
14
Number of Syllables
10
11
7
8
8
8
Number of Stresses
4
6
4
4
4
3
Unit
18
19
22
23
25
26
Number of Syllables
7
9
8

7
8
8
Number of Stresses
4
4
3
5
5
4
Unit
27
28
29
32


Number of Syllables
9
9
8
9


Number of Stresses
5
4
4
4

IV
Table 06: Types of errors made in two intonation tasks

Types of errors
No. of
errors
Percentag
e
1
Errors of Joining
60
14.74%
1.1
Joining short units (Js)
35
8.6%
1.2
Joining closely grammatically
connected units (Jc)
25
6.14%
2
Errors of Splitting
347
85.26%
2.1

Splitting marked tonality at clause
boundary, without comma (Sbwc)
62
15.23%
2.2
Splitting marked tonality at clause
boundary, with comma (Sbc)
60
14.74%
2.3
Splitting tonality in the head, at the
place of the stressed syllables
(Shs)
47
11.54%
2.4
Splitting in the head, at the place of
the unstressed syllables (Shu)
37
9.1%
2.5
Splitting tonality after the nucleus
(Sn)
35
8.6%
2.6
Splitting tonality after direct object
(So)
34
8.35%

2.7
Splitting tonality at the changing
point in the dive (Sd)
24
5.9%
2.8
Splitting tonality after subject (Ss)
23
5.65%
2.9
Splitting tonality after the pre-head
(Sp)
22
5.41%
2.1
0
Splitting tonality at unstressed
syllables of tail (Stu)
3
0.74%
∑

407
100%




V
Table 07: Probable Causes to Tonality Errors

(A) refers to over-generalization, (B) to ignorance of the rule restrictions, (C) to incomplete application of
rule, and (D) to false concepts hypothesized.
Error Types
Interferen
ce
Errors
Intralingual Errors
A
B
C
D
Joining short units (Js)
-
35
-
-
-
Joining closely
grammatically connected
units (Jc)
25
-
-
-
-
Splitting marked tonality
at clause boundary,
without comma (Sbwc)
-
62

-
-
-
Splitting marked tonality
at clause boundary, with
comma (Sbc)
23
-
37
-
-

Splitting tonality after the
pre-head (Sp)
-
-
-
-
22
Splitting in the head, at
the place of the
unstressed syllables
(Shu)
-
-
-
-
37
Splitting tonality in the
head, at the place of the

stressed syllables (Shs)
-
-
-
-
47
Splitting tonality after the
nucleus (Sn)
-
-
-
-
35
Splitting tonality at
unstressed syllables of
tail (Stu)
-
-
-
-
3
Splitting tonality at the
changing point in the
dive (Sd)
24
-
-
-
-
Splitting tonality after

subject (Ss)
-
-
23
-
-
Splitting tonality after
direct object (Ss)
-
-
-
34
-
∑
72
(17.7%)
97
23.8
%
60
14.7
%
34
8.4
%
144
35.4
%
335 (82.3%)

VI
Table 09: The difference in the scores of two intonation tasks
Participant
Perception
task
Production
task
Difference
1
4.7
5.3
-0.6
2
6.5
6.0
0.5
3
7.5
7.5
0
4
5.6
5.0
0.6
5
7.2
7.0
0.2
6

6.9
6.0
0.9
7
5.6
5.9
-0.3
8
7.2
5.0
2.2
9
6.9
6.0
0.9
10
6.5
6.2
0.3
11
6.9
6.2
0.7
12
6.9
6.2
0.7
13
7.5
7.0

0.5
14
8.1
7.8
0.3
15
5.6
6.2
-0.6
16
7.8
7.2
0.6
17
7.5
7.5
0
18
8.8
8.4
0.4
19
7.8
6.6
1.2
20
8.8
8.4
0.4

Table 11: The allocation of Errors
Number of Students
Range of errors
Perception
Task
Production
Task
Below 10
(* ≤ 10)
15 (75%)
7 (35%)
Over 10 and below 20
(10 < * < 20)
5 ( 25%)
11 (55%)
Over 20
(* ≥ 20)
0
2 (10%)
Total
20 (100%)
20 (100%)

Table13: Errors Committed by Ability Groups Members
Participant
Error of splitting
Error of
joining
∑
Mid 1

26

26
Mid 2
15

12
Mid 3
9
1
10
Mid 4
21
1
22
Mid 5
10
1
11
Mid 6
10
3
13
Mid 7
16

16


VII

Mid 8
15
1
16
Mid 9
17
1
18
Mid 10
14

14
Mid 11
13
1
14
Mid 12
11
1
12
∑
177
10
187
High 1
11

11
High 2
5

1
6
High 3
17

17
High 4
8
1
9
High 5
2
3
5
High 6
6

6
High 7
5
3
8
High 8
6

6
∑
60
8
68

Sbc
Jc
Js
Sbwc
Shs
Sd
Sn
Ss
So
Shu
Sp
Stu
19
18
17
14
9
9
8
7
6
2
0
0
20
8
7
19

16
12
11
6
14
12
18
3
Chart 03: Number of students making errors
From the most to the least frequent in Perception task
Perception task
Production task




VIII
Sbc
Sbwc
Sp
Shs
So
Shu
Sd
Sn
Jc
Js
Ss
Stu
100

100
100
91,7
83,3
83,3
75
66,7
41,7
33,3
33,3
25
Chart 05: The number of students
made different types of errors in two groups
(According to Mid ability group)
Mid ability group
High ability group



IX
APPENDIX 1
PERCEPTION TASK
I would like you to take a few moments to complete the following tasks. Your answers will help
me with the error analysis of English intonation. All the information provided by you is of great
importance and solely used for the study purpose, not for any other purposes. You can be sure that you
will not be identified in any discussion of the data. Thank you in advance!


You will listen to the tape three times
For each time of listening, divide the utterances into tone units

The dialogue
A. That‟s a nice suit. I haven‟t seen it before, have I?
B. No. It‟s the first time I‟ve worn it, actually. I only got it about four days ago. You like it, do you?
A. Very much. Did you have it specially made, or did you buy it off the peg?
B. I had it made. I very rarely buy a suit, so I thought I‟d have it tailored, and I‟m quite pleased with
it.
A. I should think so. It‟s very handsome. May I ask where you got it?
B. The same place as I got my last one, nineteen years ago.
A. Nineteen years? Do you really mean to tell me you haven‟t had a suit since then?
B. That‟s right. I don‟t often wear a suit, you see, so they tend to last a long time.
A. Nineteen years is certainly a long time; and even if you don‟t wear them much, your old one must
have lasted well.
B. Oh, it did. They did a very good job on it.


X
APPENDIX 2
PRODUCTION TASK
I would like you to take a few moments to complete the following tasks. Your answers will help
me with the error analysis of English intonation. All the information provided by you is of great
importance and solely used for the study purpose, not for any other purposes. You can be sure that you
will not be identified in any discussion of the data. Thank you in advance!
You are expected to
1. Listen to the tape, divide the utterances into tone units
2. Rehearse the dialogue until you feel confident enough to act out the conversation. Your speech will be
recorded on to a tape.
3. Take turns to play roles of speaker A, then the speaker B, respectively.
The dialogue
A That‟s a nice suit. I haven‟t seen it before, have I?

B. No. It‟s the first time I‟ve worn it, actually. I only got it about four days ago. You like it, do you?
A. Very much. Did you have it specially made, or did you buy it off the peg?
B. I had it made. I very rarely buy a suit, so I thought I‟d have it tailored, and I‟m quite pleased with
it.
A. I should think so. It‟s very handsome. May I ask where you got it?
B. The same place as I got my last one, nineteen years ago.
A. Nineteen years? Do you really mean to tell me you haven‟t had a suit since then?
B. That‟s right. I don‟t often wear a suit, you see, so they tend to last a long time.
A. Nineteen years is certainly a long time; and even if you don‟t wear them much, your old one must
have lasted well.
B. Oh, it did. They did a very good job on it.


XI
APPENDIX 3
KEYS TO INTONATION TASKS

A.
1
//That‟s a nice suit.//
2
I haven‟t seen it before, //
3
have I?//
B. //
4
No.//
5
It‟s the first time I‟ve worn it, actually. //
6

I only got it about four days ago.//
7
You like it,//
8
do you?//
A. //
9
Very much.//
10
Did you have it specially made, //
11
or did you buy it off the peg?//
B. //
12
I had it made.//
13
I very rarely buy a suit, //
14
so I thought I‟d have it tailored,//
15
and I‟m quite
pleased with it.//
A. //
16
I should think so. //
17
It‟s very handsome.//
18
May I ask where you got it?//
B. //

19
The same place as I got my last one,//
20
nineteen years ago.//
A. //
21
Nineteen years? //
22
Do you really mean to tell me //
23
you haven‟t had a suit since then?//
B. //
24
That‟s right. //
25
I don‟t often wear a suit, you see, //
26
so they tend to last a long time.//
A. //
27
Nineteen years is certainly a long time; //
28
and even if you don‟t wear them much, //
29
your old
one must have lasted well.//
B. //
30
Oh,//
31

it did. //
32
They did a very good job on it.//





XII
APPENDIX 4
PHONETIC TRANSCRITION OF INTONATION TASK

A:
1

\
ts nais
/
sju:t
2
 ahvnt
\
si:nt b f:
3
hva
B:
4

\
n

5
tsf:s  tam av
\
w:nt ktl
6
 anl
\
gtt bat f: dez  ga
7
 ju:
\
lakt
8
 du:ju:
A:
9
ver
\
mt
10
 ddju: hvt spel med
11
: ddju: bat f 
\
peg
B:
12
ahdt
\
med

13
 aver
\
real  ba  sju:t
14
 sa:t adhvt
\
teld
15
 namkwat
\
pli:zdwt
A:
16
ad
\
ks
17
 tsver
\
hnsm
18
 mea a:sk we ju: gtt
B:
19
sem  ples zagt ma
\
la:stwn
20
 nanti:n

\
jz   g
A:
21
nanti:n jz
22
 dju:rl mi:n t telmi:
23
ju: hvnt  hd   sju:t  sns en
B:
24
ts rat
25
 adnt fn
\
wer sju:t ju: si:
26
 setend tl:st l
\
tam
A:
27
nanti:n jz zs:tnl l tam
28
 ni:vn fju:dnt
\
wem mt
29
 j:rldwn
msv l:std wel

B:
30

\

31
 t
\
dd
32
edd ver dbnt







XIII
APPENDIX 5
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
I would like you to take a few moments to complete the following questionnaire. Your answers
will help me with the error analysis of English intonation. All the information provided by you is of great
importance and solely used for the study purpose, not for any other purposes. You can be sure that you
will not be identified in any discussion of the data. Thank you in advance!
Part 1: Please provide some information about yourself
Your age: ………………
Years of learning English:  5  9  12
Gender:  Male  Female
Please tick (


) right answers to the following questions
(You can tick more than one answer for each question)
Part 2: Attitudes towards the learning of intonation
1. How important is intonation in your English learning?
a.  very important b.  quite important c.  not very important
d.  unimportant
2. Do you think it necessary to have more time to learn English intonation in your course?
a.  yes b.  no
3. If you find it necessary to have more time to learn English intonation in your course, what are the
reasons?
a.  You need it to communicate successfully
b.  You need it for your future career
c.  It is included in your course at university
d.  It is a way to show your proficiency in English
4. How much do you like learning intonation?
a.  like b.  do not like c.  do not mind
5. If you like learning intonation, what are the reasons?
a.  It is easy to learn intonation
b.  Learning intonation is interesting
c.  Learning intonation is useful
d.  The conditions for learning intonation like cassette recorders, videos, and materials are good.
e.  The way your teacher gives lessons on intonation is easy to understand.
6. If you do not like or do not mind learning intonation, what are the reasons?
a.  It is difficult to learn intonation
b.  Learning intonation is boring
c.  Intonation is not paid much attention at university
d.  The conditions for learning intonation like cassette recorders, videos, and materials are still
deficient.
e.  The way your teacher gives the lesson on intonation is not easy to understand.

Part 3: Problems and Solutions
7. Do you face with any difficulties in learning English intonation?
 Yes  No
8. When you have faced problems, what have you done to solve them?
a.  Ask your teachers for help


XIV
b.  Ask your friends for help
c.  You yourself search materials to learn and practice
d.  You do nothing
e.  You want to do something but do not know what to do
9. At present, if your teachers are willing to help, what do you need them to help you?
a.  Give lectures on intonation deeply and clearly
b.  Provide you with activities and exercises to practice at class
c.  Assign you exercises for homework practicing
d.  Listen to you and give feedback
e.  All above
Thank you so much for your cooperation!


XVI
APPENDIX 6
Academic results