The impact of Intonation enhancing the pronunciation

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DECLRATION
Tile: The impact of Intonation enhancing the pronunciation of the 1st
year English major students at University of Phan Thiet
I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced
by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgement and that
report is originally written by me under the strict guidance of my supervisor.
Date submitted: May 14th 2016
Student

Supervisor

(Signature)

(Signature)

Phan Gia Thịnh

Dr. Huỳnh Công Minh Hùng


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would to express my gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Huynh Cong Minh
Hung due to his supports and helps during the process of conducting my graduation
thesis.
I appreciate supports of the lecturers of the Faculty of Foreigner Languages.
Their supports help me completing the interviews.
I really thank the first year English major students who support me a lot to

collect data by filling all the questions in the questionnaire.
Finally, I want to thank the friends who encourage me when I have
depression. They give me more power to accomplish this study.
Phan Thiet, April 23rd, 2016


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The impact of Intonation enhancing the pronunciation of the 1st year
English major students at University of Phan Thiet
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATION
LIST OF FIGURES
Chapter I: INTRODUCTION...............................................................................1
1.1 Rationale........................................................................................................1
1.2 Aims of the study...........................................................................................2
1.3 Scope of the study..........................................................................................2
1.4 Research Questions........................................................................................3
Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................4
2.1 Definition of intonation..................................................................................4
2.2 Overview of intonation...................................................................................4
2.2.1 Tonality....................................................................................................4
2.2.2 Tonicity.....................................................................................................5
2.2.3 Tone..........................................................................................................6
2.2.4 Tune-text association..............................................................................13
2.3 Characteristics of intonation.........................................................................15

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2.4 Functions of intonation.................................................................................16
2.5. Basic intonation pattern...............................................................................19
2.5.1 Final intonation.......................................................................................19
2.5.2Non-final intonation.................................................................................20
2.5.3 Tag question............................................................................................21
2.6 Intonation variation...........................................................................................22
2.6.1 Intonation in Australian English and New Zealand English........................22
2.6.2 Intonation in the British Isles......................................................................23
2.7 Related studies.................................................................................................24
2.7.1 The study of Tran Thi Dieu Thanh..............................................................24
2.8 Summary........................................................................................................... 26
Chapter III: METHODOLOGY.........................................................................27
3.1 Instrument.........................................................................................................27
3.1.1 Questionnaire..............................................................................................27
3.1.2 Interview.....................................................................................................27
3.2 Research site.....................................................................................................27
3.3 How to design...................................................................................................28
3.3.1 Define the research aims.............................................................................28
3.3.2 Identify the population and sample.............................................................28
3.3.3 Decide how to collect replies......................................................................29
3.3.4 Design questionnaire...................................................................................29


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3.4 Hypothesis.......................................................................................................29

CHAPTER IV: RESULT AND DISCUSSION..........................................30
4.1 Discussion on questionnaire.............................................................................30
4.1.1 The research question 1...............................................................................30
4.1.2 The research question 2...............................................................................40
4.1.3 The research question 3...............................................................................54
4.2 Discussion on interviews..................................................................................55

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION....................................................................58
5.1 General conclusion......................................................................................58
5.2 Limitation of the research............................................................................59
5.3 Further research...........................................................................................60
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................61
APPENDIX


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LIST OF ABBREVIATION
IP: intonation phrase
HRT: high rising terminal
ToBI: tones and break indices
GlaToBI: Glasgow tones and break indices
HCMC: Ho Chi Minh City


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LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: The percentage of question 1

Figure 2: The percentage of question 2
Figure 3: The percentage of question 3
Figure 4: The percentage of question 5
Figure 5: The percentage of question 6
Figure 6: The percentage of question 7
Figure 7: The percentage of question 8
Figure 8: The percentage of question 9
Figure 9: The percentage of question 10
Figure 10: The percentage of question 11/1
Figure 11: The percentage of question 11/2
Figure 12: The percentage of question 11/3
Figure 13: The percentage of question 11/4
Figure 14: The percentage of question 11/5


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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale

English pronunciation is one of tough issues that learners have to cope with.
Sounds, word stress, intonation are typical example. They find English sounds are
too different from Vietnamese sounds and difficult to pronounce. Word stress is
even harder for them because English word stress does not have certain rules to
apply for all word. Therefore, English learners have to remember by heart almost of
vocabularies. However, these two problems are not the most difficult because
almost students can’t imitate exactly the intonation of native speakers. It is too
strange and not easy for them to speak like that. Unfortunately, intonation is the
extremely important factor to show how a student good in pronunciation and also
play a significant role in communicate.

Intonation is used to carry a variety of information. It could be a grammatical
structure cues. This role of intonation is as the punctuation of spoken languages,
dividing utterances into separate units, and generally helping the listener to
understand what the speaker says. Intonation also conveys the speaker’s attitude
such as friendliness, enthusiasm, anger, or excitement. It is an important feature
when we communicate. Besides, different tunes and patterns of pitch serve different
grammatical purposes. If the speaker rises her voice at the end of the sentence, it
will just a simple question. Nevertheless, if the voice is fallen at the end of the
sentence, it will be an exclamation.
Almost Vietnamese students have trouble with pronunciation. Although they
have a certain time learning English, they cannot manage to pronounce English
well. In my point of view, there are some reasons for this problem. Firstly, from
secondary or even primary school to high school, they are taught by teachers who
also have trouble with pronunciation. As a result, it makes wrong habits, when
students pronounce words or sentences. Secondly, English has some sounds that
Vietnamese don’t have and English has some sounds sound like Vietnamese, but


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they are different. Since, almost student feel hard to utter the weird sounds. Because
of some similarity, they often use Vietnamese sounds instead of English sounds.
Last but not least, students don’t know where their voice should go up or down.
English doesn’t have tone as Vietnamese, so it could be one of reason of their
difficulty.
This course is designed to identify impacts of intonation of enhancing
pronunciation, find out the problems of the first year major English student in
pronouncing English and suggest some effective solutions. The author hope result
of this thesis could help student recognizing their mistake in pronunciation and
finding an appropriate way to develop and practice their English pronunciation.

2. Aims of the study
The purpose of this study is to find out impact of intonation on enhancing
pronunciation of the first year English major students at University of Phan Thiet.
As a result, the main aims of this thesis are:
Give a brief overview of the materials relating to intonation.
Raise some intonation problems encountered by the first year English major
students when pronounce English.
Identify the impacts of intonation on enhancing the pronunciation of the first year
students.
3. Scope of the study
Due to time limitation and the length of paper, I want to focus my knowledge on
intonation, some common intonation mistakes and problems of the student and
suggest some solutions to solve the mistakes and problems. That’s why I choose the
impact of Intonation enhancing the pronunciation of the 1st year English
major students at University of Phan Thiet as the subject for my thesis.


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4. Research questions
These objectives could be summarized into some research questions as follows:
To what extent, is intonation important for the first year students?
To what extent, is intonation the problem of the first year students in
pronouncing English?
If yes, what are the impacts of intonation on enhancing the pronunciation of
the first year students?

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

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2.1 Definition of intonation
There are different ways to define intonation. Avery and Ehrlich (1992)
consider in ‘Teaching American English Pronunciation’ that Intonation is normally
called the melody of language because it assigns to the tone patterns that we use
when we speak. By another way, Bartels (2013) defines intonation just as a line can
be express either in terms of its hills and its end-points, a pitch contour can be
illustrated either as sequence of pitch movements is up and down or as the
interpolations between a string of two or more target accents. Intonation can be
considered that it is how the voice goes up and down in pitch when we are speaking
(Kelly, 2000). Tench (1998) gives a firmer definition of intonation which is that
“intonation is the linguistic use of pitch in utterances”. By using linguistic, he wants
to avoid mention to uses of pitch such as signing and to personal and artistic
evaluations about how nice or ugly an accent’s intonation is. In general, intonation
is about changing of the voice following certain patterns.
2.2 The intonation system of English
2.2.1 Tonality
Tonality is the system in intonation that divides spoken discourse into its
separate individual units (Tench, 1998). Spoken discourse could be a syllable, a
word, a message or a piece of information, but it is usually more than a piece of
information. Wells (2006) also considers that tonality is “the division of the spoken
material into chunks.” He explains that each chunk has its own intonation pattern.
These chunks are known as intonation phrases or IPs (Various authors use various
other names for the IP, including ‘word group’, ‘tone group’ and ‘intonation
group’). In general, each clause is divided into a different IP. However, the speakers
do not need to follow the rule in all cases. They can divide a sentence or a clause in
various word groups.
For example:

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+ Each clause is divided into a different IP.
Because I love music,| I learn to play the guitar.
When I finish the course,| I can play many songs.
+ A sentence or a clause in various word groups.
They don’t know who she is.
They don’t know |who she is.
They |don’t know who she is.
They don’t |know who she is.
They |don’t know |who she is.
2.2.2 Tonicity
Halliday consider that “tonicity is the system by which an individual, discrete,
unit of intonation is shown to have a prominent word which indicates the focus of
intonation”. In a sentence, the important word is highlighted by using intonation.
The speaker accent or add the pitch prominence to the stressed syllable. “The
accents that result are also the ‘hooks’ on which the intonation pattern is hung.”
(Wells, 2006)
Wells (2006) give three questions that “Which words are to have attention
drawn to them by being accented? And which are not to be focused on in this way?
In particular, where is the speaker to locate the last accent (the nucleus) within the
intonation phrase?” The answers of these questions are explanation role and
position of the nucleus in a sentence. “The nucleus is the most important accent in
the IP. It indicates the end of the focused part of the material. In terms of pitch, it is
marked out by being the place where is the pitch change or pitch movement for the
nuclear tone begins.” (Wells, 2006)


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I think this hotel is spectacular.

I think this hotel is spectacular.

In this example the nucelus is the syllable ‘–tac-’. It is the point where tone
movement begins, although there is difference of using the nuclear tone. In this way
both the syllable ‘–tac-’ and the word ‘spectacular’ are accented.
2.2.3 Tone
According Ranali (2002), tone is “the pitch movements distinguished by their
particular direction or contour”. Celik (2001) consider that a tone is a certain
pattern of voice movement.
For example:
(fall)

They mustn’t go.

(rise)

They mustn’t go.

(fall-rise)

They mustn’t go.

Each tune has different meaning. Wells (2006) consider that “a fall tone
expresses that the information is revealed, or it is sent entirely. While a rise of fallrise tone implies there is something more to be said by the same speaker or a
different speaker. He adds “the default tone (= the tone used if there are no special
circumstances) for statements, exclamations, commands and ‘wh’ question is a fall,
but for ‘yes-no’ question it is a rise. A fall-rise often signals particular

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implications.” Celik (2001) also shows some means of tones in speech such as
“refer, proclaim, agree, disagree, question or hesitate, or indicate completion and
continuation of turn-taking.” Roach (1983) give an example to show the means of
tone. “If English speakers want to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in a definite, final manner they
will probably use a falling tone – one which descends from a higher to a lower
pitch. If they want to say ‘yes?’ or ‘no?’ in a question manner they may say it with a
rising tone – a movement from a lower to a higher one.”
Roach (1983) mentions some functions of English tone through limited
context of the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’. There are five tones in his example.
Fall \yes \no
According Roach, “this is the tone about which least needs to be said, and
which is usually regarded as more or less “neutral””. If a question is replied \yes or
\no, it will mean that the respondent has nothing to say more. The fall tone could be
a signal of “finality”.
A: Do you know John Smith?
B: \yes
In this case, B may mean that ‘I don’t want to know his story.’ The
conversation should be ended here or A should change other topics.
Rise /yes /no
In a variety of ways, this tone is a signal that the listener gives. It means the
listener is waiting something more that will be said by the speaker. The
conversation of A and B below is a typical example of this function:
A (wishing to attract B’s attention): Excuse me.
B: /yes
B replay ‘/yes’ may mean ‘what do you want?’ B could continue:

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A: Do you know John Smith?
In this case, there are two situations. First, B says /yes to invite A to continue
to what she wants to talk about John Smith further. Second, B says \yes to give a
feeling of “finality”. It means B doesn’t want to continue this conversation. It is
hard for A to continue saying about John Smith after B replies with a fall tone.
Fall-rise ˅yes ˅no
The fall-rise is used a lot in English and has some rather special functions. In
the present context we will only consider one fairly simple one, which could
perhaps be described as “limited agreement” or “response with reservations”.
Examples may make this clearer:
A: I’ve heard that it’s a good school
B: ˅Yes
B’s reply would be taken to mean that he would not completely agree with
what a said, and A would probably expect B to go on explain why he was reluctant
to agree. Similarly:
A: It’s not really an expensive book, is it?
B: ˅no
Rise-fall ˄yes ˄no
This tone shows fairly strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise.
Here are some examples:
A: You wouldn’t do an awful thing like that, would you?
B: ˄no
A: Isn’t the view lovely!
B: ˄yes


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Level _yes _no
This tone is used to convey a feeling of saying something routine,
uninteresting or boring. For example, when the teacher checks presentation of the
students, she will use level tone to call each name, and the students are likely to
respond with _yes when they hear their name called.
The fall, rise and fall-rise tone are various. There are three particular types of
fall: a high fall, a low fall and a rise-fall. The high fall and the low fall are simple
falls, while the rise-fall is complex fall. (Wells, 2006) Examples below illustrate
why they are simple and complex.
A high fall involves a falling pitch movement from a relatively high pitch to a
low pitch. (Wells, 2006)
Wonderful

A low fall involves a falling pitch movement from a mid pitch to a low pitch.
(Wells, 2006)

Wonderful

A rise-fall involves a complex pitch movement, starting with a rise from a mid
pitch to a high pitch and then a fall from high to low, finishing on a low pitch. The
initial mid pitch may be somewhat prolonged before the start of the upwarddownward movement. The most prominent part is the initial rise. (Wells, 2006)

Wonderful


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The fall-rise tone is used in some contexts such as “polite correction partial
correction, and negation, in commands warning” (Wells, 2006). The tone also has

three particular types: mid fall-rise, rise-fall-rise, and high fall-rise.
The mid fall-rise is the default type of the fall-rise tone. It begins from a high
fall on a high pitch to a low pitch, and then it has a mid rise, finally it ends on a mid
pitch. (Wells, 2006)
Wonderful

The rise-fall-rise starts with a rise on mid pitch to high pitch. Following it is
high fall to a low pitch. Finally, it rises from low pitch to mid pitch.
Wonderful

The high-fall-rise has a fall on mid pitch to a low pitch at first. Next, it rises
from low pitch to high pitch.
Wonderful

The rise tone has four particular types. There is three rise tones (high rise, low
rise, and wide rise) and mid level. Because of sharing same meaning with low rise,
mid level is classified as a rise tone. (Wells, 2006)
The high rise has a rise from amid pitch to a high pitch.
Wonderful


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The low rise tone begins from low pitch and rise to mid pitch.
Wonderful

The wide rise is a combination of low rise and high rise.
Wonderful

The level mid maintains on mid pitch. It is not rises or falls.

Wonderful

In Intonation of colloquial English, Connor and Arnold (1973) mention ten
tone groups. Commonplace situations are used to describe ten tone groups. Connor
and Arnold explain them vividly to help learners remember easily. Although the
tones are described by a different way, there are some identical points of ten tone
groups and tones mentioned by Wells.
1 The Low drop: imagine a small child, standing on the bottom stair and then
jumping down to the foot of the stair case: Low Fall

No. Nobody. I’m possible. It’s Arthur’s turn.
2 The High Drop: now imagine a parachutist descending from a great height and
finally landing: High Fall

No. Splendid! It’s a mazing. What’s that?


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3 The Take-off: your plane taxis along the runway as speed: Low Pre-head and Low
Head. Then finally it begins to rise into the air: Low Rise.

No. Sometimes. I think so.
4 The Low Bounce: first you hold a ball at arm’s length high in the air: High head.
Then, when you have thrown it to the ground, it rebounds into the air: Low rise.

What’s that? Try not to be late.
5 The Switchback: now you are enjoying a ride on the switchback at a fair. It takes
you down: Falling Head. Then up and down and up again: Fall-Rise