Intonation as a means to better english non majored students oral skills a case study at university of transport in ho chi minh city m a thesis 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
___________________________
NGUYỄN THỊ NGUYỆT ÁNH

INTONATION AS A MEANS TO BETTER
ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS’ ORAL SKILLS:
A CASE STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT
IN HO CHI MINH CITY

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL)

Supervisor
TÔ MINH THANH, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer

HO CHI MINH CITY - August, 2009



CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled

INTONATION AS A MEANS TO BETTER
ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS’ ORAL SKILLS:
A CASE STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT
IN HO CHI MINH CITY

in terms of the statements of requirements for Theses in Master’s Program issued by
the Higher Degree Committee.

This thesis has not previously been submitted for the award of any degree or
diploma in any other institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2009

NGUYEN THI NGUYET ANH

i


RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS
I hereby state that I, NGUYEN THI NGUYET ANH, being the candidate for
the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the university
relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University
Library.

I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the University
Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance
with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and
reproduction for theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2009

Signature ...................................
NGUYEN THI NGUYET ANH

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality ...................................................................................

i

Retention and use of the thesis ........................................................................

ii

Table of contents .............................................................................................. iii
List of abbreviations ........................................................................................

x

List of charts .................................................................................................... xi
List of tables ..................................................................................................... xiii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... xv
Abstract ............................................................................................................ xvi
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................

1

0.1 Rationale for the study ...........................................................................

1

0.2 Significance of the study .........................................................................

2

0.3 Statement of purpose ..............................................................................

2

0.4 Limitation ...............................................................................................

2

0.5 Delimitation ...........................................................................................

3

0.6 Methodology ..........................................................................................

3

0.7 Organization of the thesis .......................................................................

4

Chapter 1
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ................................................................

6

1.1 Curriculum and course book ...................................................................

6

1.2 Assessment .............................................................................................

8

1.3 Teachers .................................................................................................

9

1.4 Students .................................................................................................. 11
1.5 Summary ................................................................................................ 12

iii


Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................ 13
2.1 Intonation-related terms .......................................................................... 13
2.1.1 Stress ............................................................................................. 13
2.1.2 Stress-timed rhythm vs. Syllable-timed rhythm .............................. 13
2.1.3 Placement of main stress in sentences ............................................ 14
2.1.3.1 Content words vs. Function words ......................................... 14
2.1.3.2 Placement of major sentence stress ........................................ 15
2.1.4 Pitch ............................................................................................... 16
2.1.5 Intonation ....................................................................................... 16
2.1.6 Tone languages vs. Intonation languages ........................................ 16
2.1.7 Intonation units .............................................................................. 17
2.1.8 Prominence .................................................................................... 18
2.1.8.1 Tonic syllables........................................................................ 18
2.1.8.2 Placement of prominence in an intonation unit ....................... 18
2.1.9 Intonation patterns ......................................................................... 19
2.1.9.1 By Avery and Ehrlich [1995] ................................................. 20
2.1.9.2 By Bradford [1992] and Brazil [1997] .................................... 21

2.1.9.3 By Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin [2002] ..................... 21
2.1.9.4 By Halliday [1978] ................................................................ 23
2.1.9.5 By O’Connor [1986]............................................................... 24
2.1.9.6 By Roach [2000] .................................................................... 25
2.2 Roles of intonation ................................................................................. 26
2.3 Overall functions of intonation ................................................................ 27
2.3.1 Attitudinal functions ....................................................................... 27
2.3.2 Grammatical functions ................................................................... 27
2.3.3 Discourse functions ........................................................................ 27
2.4 Common intonation patterns and their communicative values ................. 28
2.4.1 The rising-falling ........................................................................... 28

iv


2.4.2 The rising ....................................................................................... 29
2.4.3 The falling ...................................................................................... 29
2.4.4 The falling-rising ............................................................................ 30
2.5 Issues related to intonation teaching and learning ................................... 30
2.5.1 Supra-segmentals in pronunciation class ........................................ 30
2.5.2 English teachers’ attitudes towards intonation teaching .................. 31
2.5.3 Learners’ misconceptions of intonation and their common problems 32
2.5.3.1 Learners’ misconceptions ...................................................... 32
2.5.3.2 Common problems facing Vietnamese learners of English .... 32
2.5.4 Basic principles in intonation teaching and learning........................ 34
2.5.4.1 When to start teaching and learning intonation........................ 34
2.5.4.2 How to teach and learn intonation........................................... 34
2.5.5 Techniques in intonation teaching .................................................. 35
2.6 Previous researches related to intonation and intonation teaching ........... 37
2.7 Summary ................................................................................................ 39

Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 40
3.1 Research questions ................................................................................. 40
3.2 Research design ...................................................................................... 41
3.3 Subjects .................................................................................................. 42
3.3.1 Teachers ......................................................................................... 42
3.3.2 Students ......................................................................................... 43
3.4 Instruments ............................................................................................. 44
3.4.1 Tests .............................................................................................. 44
3.4.1.1 Written tests ........................................................................... 45
3.4.1.2 Recordings ............................................................................. 46
3.4.2 Questionnaires ............................................................................... 46
3.4.2.1 Teachers’ questionnaire ......................................................... 47
3.4.2.2 Students’ questionnaire .......................................................... 47
v


3.4.3 Experimental teaching .................................................................... 48
3.5 Data collection procedure ....................................................................... 49
3.5.1 Via questionnaires .......................................................................... 49
3.5.2 Via Tests ........................................................................................ 49
3.5.3 Via Recordings .............................................................................. 49
3.6 Summary ................................................................................................ 49
Chapter 4
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS .............................................................. 50
4.1 Responses to students’ questionnaire ...................................................... 50
4.1.1 Responses for personal information ............................................... 50
4.1.2 Responses to research questions ..................................................... 51
4.2 Responses to teachers’ questionnaire ...................................................... 57
4.2.1 Responses for personal information ............................................... 57

4.2.2 Responses to research questions ..................................................... 59
4.3 Results from the two tests ....................................................................... 68
4.3.1 The pre-test .................................................................................... 68
4.3.1.1 Section I ................................................................................ 68
4.3.1.2 Section II ............................................................................... 69
4.3.1.3 Section III .............................................................................. 70
4.3.1.4 Section IV .............................................................................. 71
4.3.2 The post-test ......................................................................................... 72
4.3.2.1 Section I ................................................................................ 72
4.3.2.2 Section II ............................................................................... 72
4.3.2.3 Section III .............................................................................. 73
4.3.2.4 Section IV .............................................................................. 73
4.3.3 Comparisons of the two tests’ results ............................................. 74
4.4 Analysis of the two recordings ..................................................................... 76
4.4.1 Misuse of the rising tone in unmarked wh-questions ...................... 76
4.4.2 Misuse of the rising-falling tone in unmarked yes/no questions ...... 76
vi


4.4.3 Misuse of the rising tone in tag-questions for confirmation ............ 76
4.4.4 Misuse of the rising tone in closed-choice alternative questions ..... 77
4.4.5 Misuse of the rising tone in statements ........................................... 77
4.4.6 Misuse of the level tone ................................................................ 77
4.5 Comments on techniques applied in the experimental teaching .............. 78
4.6 Summary ................................................................................................ 79
Chapter 5
RECOMMENDATIONS, INTONATION TEACHING STRATEGIES
AND CONTRIBUTIONS ................................................................................ 80
5.1 Recommendations .................................................................................. 80
5.1.1 Recommendations to the administrators at UT-HCMC .................. 80

5.1.1.1 Intonation should be officially included as an obligatory part
in the English curriculum. ....................................................... 80
5.1.1.2 An intonation course should be systematically designed. ........ 81
5.1.1.3 Time for intonation teaching should be considered with great
care. ........................................................................................ 81
5.1.1.4 Intonation should be made one of the assessment criteria. ...... 82
5.1.2 Recommendations to the teachers at UT-HCMC ............................ 83
5.1.2.1 Teachers’ knowledge of intonation should be bettered. .......... 83
5.1.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards intonation and intonation
teaching at UT-HCMC should be changed in a positive way. .. 83
5.1.2.3 Teachers should help change their students’ attitudes towards
intonation and intonation learning at UT-HCMC. ................... 83
5.1.2.4 Teachers should increase their students’ involvement in
intonation lessons. .................................................................. 84
5.1.2.5 Teachers should make their students well aware of
communicative values of the intonation patterns. .................... 84
5.1.3 Recommendations to the students at UT-HCMC ............................ 85

vii


5.1.3.1 Students should have proper attitudes towards intonation and
intonation learning at UT-HCMC. ........................................ 85
5.1.3.2 Students should apply proper ways to learn and practice
intonation. ............................................................................ 85
5.2 Intonation teaching strategies ................................................................. 85
5.2.1 Employing concrete ways to explain abstract concepts ................... 86
5.2.2 Applying various visual techniques in intonation production
practice ........................................................................................ 86
5.2.3 Creating meaningful and interesting activities to arouse the

students’ interest .......................................................................... 86
5.2.4 Using audio-visual aids .................................................................. 87
5.2.5 Using games .................................................................................. 88
5.2.6 Telling stories ................................................................................ 88
5.2.7 Using sound recorders .................................................................... 88
5.3 Contributions .......................................................................................... 89
5.4 Summary ................................................................................................ 90
CONCLUSION .......................................................................................... 91
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................... 93
APPENDICES ............................................................................................ 96
Appendix 1

: Teachers’ personal information ............................................ 96

Appendix 2

: Test ..................................................................................... 97

Appendix 3

: Test’s suggested answers ..................................................... 99

Appendix 4

: Test’s CD ............................................................................. 102

Appendix 5

: Teachers’ questionnaire in Vietnamese ................................ 103

Appendix 6

: Teachers’ questionnaire in English ...................................... 106

Appendix 7

: Students’ questionnaire in Vietnamese ................................ 109

Appendix 8

: Students’ questionnaire in English ....................................... 111

Appendix 9

: Students’ scores from the two tests ...................................... 113
viii


Appendix 10 : CD used in the experimental teaching .................................. 115
Appendix 11 : Lesson plan 1........................................................................ 116
Appendix 12 : Lesson plan 2 ....................................................................... 120
Appendix 13 : Lesson plan 3 ....................................................................... 127
Appendix 14 : Lesson plan 4 ....................................................................... 134
Appendix 15 : Lesson plan 5 ....................................................................... 140
Appendix 16 : Lesson plan 6 ....................................................................... 146
Appendix 17 : Lesson plan 7 ....................................................................... 152
Appendix 18 : Lesson plan 8 ....................................................................... 161
Appendix 19 : Lesson plan 9 ....................................................................... 165

ix

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ED

English Department

EFL

English as a foreign language

ESP

English for Specific Purposes

GE

General English

HCMC

Ho Chi Minh City

UT-HCMC

Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport

VLE

Vietnamese learners of English

x


LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 4.1

: Students’ viewpoints on the role of intonation in English
pronunciation................................................................................... 51

Chart 4.2 : Students’ attitudes towards the necessity of teaching intonation at
UT-HCMC ..................................................................................... 52
Chart 4.3 : Students’ responses for teachers’ most focused part ........................ 53
Chart 4.4 : Students’ responses for the practice of intonation teaching at UTHCMC ............................................................................................ 54
Chart 4.5 : Students’ responses for time in class spent on intonation teaching
per unit ............................................................................................ 54
Chart 4.6 : Students’ responses for intonation features taught........................... 55
Chart 4.7 : Students’ responses for techniques employed in intonation teaching 55
Chart 4.8 : Students’ responses for their evaluations on the techniques
employed in intonation teaching ..................................................... 56
Chart 4.9 : Students’ responses for their attitudes towards intonation learning . 56
Chart 4.10 : Students’ evaluations on the influence of their intonation
acquisition on their English pronunciation ...................................... 57
Chart 4.11 : Teachers’ qualifications .................................................................. 58
Chart 4.12 : Teachers’ years of teaching English as a foreign language .............. 58
Chart 4.13 : Teachers’ viewpoints on the role of intonation in English
pronunciation .................................................................................. 59
Chart 4.14 : Teachers’ attitudes towards the necessity of teaching intonation at
UT-HCMC ..................................................................................... 59
Chart 4.15 : Teachers’ responses for their most focused part .............................. 60

Chart 4.16 : Teachers’ responses for the practice of intonation teaching at UTHCMC ............................................................................................ 61
Chart 4.17 : Teachers’ responses for time in class spent on intonation teaching
per unit ............................................................................................ 62

xi


Chart 4.18 : Teachers’ responses for intonation features taught........................... 62
Chart 4.19 : Teachers’ responses for techniques employed in intonation
teaching .......................................................................................... 63
Chart 4.20 : Teachers’ responses for students’ evaluations on techniques
employed in intonation teaching ..................................................... 63
Chart 4.21 : Teachers’ responses for students’ attitudes towards intonation
learning ........................................................................................... 64
Chart 4.22 : Teachers’ responses for the influence of students’ intonation
acquisition on their English pronunciation ...................................... 64
Chart 4.23 : Factors preventing the teaching of intonation at UT-HCMC ........... 65
Chart 4.24 : Percentage of scores for students’ use of intonation in Sections I
and Section III ................................................................................. 66
Chart 4.25 : Percentage of scores for students’ use of intonation in the sections
marked II, IV and V......................................................................... 66
Chart 4.26 : Student’s compared cores from the two tests’ Section I .................. 74
Chart 4.27 : Student’s compared cores from the two tests’ Section II.................. 74
Chart 4.28 : Student’s compared cores from the two tests’ Section III................. 74
Chart 4.29 : Student’s compared cores from the two tests’ Section IV ................ 75

xii


LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1

: Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in elementary Lifelines ..

Table 1.2

: Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in the first eight units in
pre-intermediate Lifelines ...............................................................

7

7

Table 3.1

: Teachers’ personal information ..................................................... 43

Table 3.2

: Students’ levels of English ............................................................ 44

Table 3.3

: Apportionment of intonation features in experimental teaching .... 48

Table 4.1

: Students’ age ................................................................................ 50

Table 4.2

: Students’ years of learning English as a foreign language .............. 51

Table 4.3

: Students’ responses for time in class spent on pronunciation ......... 53

Table 4.4

: Students’ responses for time in class spent on grammar ................. 53

Table 4.5

: Teachers’ age ................................................................................ 58

Table 4.6

: Teachers’ responses for time in class spent on grammar ................ 60

Table 4.7

: Teachers’ responses for time in class spent on pronunciation ........ 60

Table 4.8

: Teachers’ viewpoints on the official inclusion of intonation in the
English curriculum ......................................................................... 67

Table 4.9

: Students’ results from the pre-test’s Section I ................................ 68

Table 4.10 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the pretest’s Section I ................................................................................. 68
Table 4.11 : Students’ results from the pre-test’s Section II ............................... 69
Table 4.12 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the pretest’s Section II ............................................................................... 70
Table 4.13 : Students’ results from the pre-test’s Section III.............................. 70
Table 4.14 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the pretest’s Section III .............................................................................. 70
Table 4.15 : Students’ results from the pre-test’s Section IV ............................. 71
Table 4.16 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the pretest’s Section IV ........................................................................... 71

xiii


Table 4.17 : Students’ results from the post-test’s Section I............................... 72
Table 4.18 : Students’ results from the post-test’s Section II.............................. 72
Table 4.19 : Common problems facing the student subjects as found in the posttest’s Section II ............................................................................... 73
Table 4.20 : Students’ results from the post-test’s Section III ........................... 73
Table 4.21 : Students’ results from the post-test’s Section IV ............................ 73
Table 4.22 : Student’s dominant problems as found in the two recordings......... 76

xiv


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and above all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis
supervisor, To Minh Thanh, Ph.D., who read my manuscript with great care and
devotion, gave me thoughtful and insightful comments and provided me with
valuable support and relevant materials in the preparation and completion of this
thesis, asserting her indispensable role as a wholehearted supervisor. I would not
have finished my thesis without her enthusiastic guidance and constructive critical

questions to help me think over the problems.
My thanks also go to the authors for the ideas quoted in the thesis. Their
books are a great source for me to produce my M.A. thesis.
I am also grateful to Mr. Jake Cattlet, my colleague at Elite School and Mr.
John Norwell Usticke, a professor of Guildford College, who enthusiastically
helped me make the CDs which serve as essential materials for my experimental
teaching.
Thanks are also offered to Mr. Le Thanh Tu and Mr. Nguyen Tan Loc, my
dear classmates and also my helpful colleagues, who gave me useful ideas without
which it would be hard for me to find out the right way to develop my thesis.
I owe my thanks to the teaching staff of English Department and 52 students
of Class HH07B at University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City for their
responsiveness to the surveyed questionnaires.
Finally, I would also like to thank my husband, Le Quoc Tuan, for the loving
support and encouragements he gave me during the time I attended the course and
did the thesis.

xv


ABSTRACT
Although generally recognized as one of the significant constituents of
English pronunciation, intonation has been one of the most neglected areas not only
in classroom but also in materials purposely designed for teaching and learning
English, which inevitably leads to a worrying result — learners’ regular failure in
conversational exchanges with native speakers of English due to misunderstanding
and/or being misunderstood caused by their inadequate knowledge of intonation.
Without any exceptions, students at University of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City
(abbreviated to UT-HCMC) have to suffer the same problem. The thesis, therefore,
attempts to highlight the fact that teaching intonation to students at UT-HCMC does work

in enhancing their oral skills. Hopefully, this thesis will raise administrators’ and
teachers’ awareness of the significance of teaching intonation patterns to their
students, leading to the redesigning of the current English curriculum, which may
include intonation as one of its official components.
By systematically presenting key elements that make up English intonation
and carefully describing different intonation patterns shown in various ways by
various scholars as well as the communicative values conveyed by means of these
patterns, the thesis hopefully will give students a deeper insight into this
intrinsically complex aspect of supra-segmental phonology, which in its turn will
serve as a solid foundation on which their oral skills are based to develop.
By recommending some effective and applicable strategies for teaching
intonation which are drawn from a long process of study, observation and
experimental teaching, the thesis is hoped to bring to both teachers and students at
UT-HCMC a new way of teaching and learning intonation, which hopefully will
release both of the subjects from the burden of time- and effort-consuming process
of intonation teaching and learning.

xvi


INTRODUCTION
The introduction presents the rationale for choosing the topic, asserts the
significance of the study, identifies the aims of the thesis, shows the methodology
employed to conduct the research, draws a brief look of the study’s design, and states
the study’s limitation as well as delimitation.
0.1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
Intonation makes a linguistically significant role in English pronunciation.
Actually, it is “one of the many kinds of resources that are available in the language
for making meaningful distinctions” [Halliday, 1978: 21] since in English,
“different pitch patterns can signal very different meanings for the same sentence.”

[Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 77] With a good command of intonation, English
speakers can find it a bit easier to make themselves properly understood and to
precisely perceive “information over and above that which is expressed by the
words in the sentence.” [Richards et al, 1987: 148] Accordingly, “supra-segmental
features are far more important and central to communication than accurate
production of the individual sounds” [Avery and Ehrlich, 1995: 185]; as part of
supra-segmentals, intonation is indeed too important to be ignored in any English
teaching and learning. Thus, mastering communicative values of intonation patterns
and being able to naturally apply these patterns in conversational exchanges are
essential to any learners of English who aim at improving their communicative
competence. However, “English intonation is English, it is not the same as the
intonation of any other language.” [O’Connor, 1986: 108] Learning English
intonation, therefore, requires Vietnamese learners of English (abbreviated to VLE)
whose mother tongue’s tunes are quite different from those of English, a
considerable amount of time and effort to seriously learn and to regularly practice
the shapes as well as the meanings of the English tunes. Unfortunately, in spite of
the fact that intonation is among the first aspects of speech that infants attend to and
produce themselves, these same features are among the last to be mastered by adult

1


EFL learners [Chun, 2003]. Students at UT-HCMC are not exceptions. They have
very little chance to be exposed to intonation, and thus, do not know how to employ
this aspect of supra-segmental phonology as one of the efficient means to avoid
regrettable breakdowns in their oral communication. It is strongly believed that the
inclusion of intonation in the English curriculum officially applied at UT-HCMC is
of urgent needs to brighten the current gloomy situation at this institution.
0.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Hardly can non-native speakers of English be regarded as good if they fail to

pronounce English intonation naturally enough to approach the so-called native-like
pronunciation. In other words, good command of intonation lays the foundation for the
subsequent development of oral skills. Therefore, a deep investigation into the issue of
how to teach intonation patterns as well as their communicative values is a matter of
great urgency. It is hoped that its findings may serve as a reference document to
teachers at UT-HCMC who are interested in improving their students’ oral skills in
general and precise pronunciation of English intonation in particular.
0.3 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The study done for and then reported in the M.A. thesis attempts to highlight
the fact that teaching intonation does work in enhancing students’ oral skills. Hopefully,
this thesis will raise administrators’ and teachers’ awareness of the significance of teaching
intonation patterns to their students, leading to the redesigning of the current English
curriculum, which may include intonation as one of its official components. Also
presented in the thesis are some practical teaching strategies applied to teach common
intonation patterns and their communicative values explicitly to students at UT-HCMC for
their oral improvement and more successful communication.
0.4 LIMITATION
Due to the constraints of time and resources, the research only deals with
common intonation patterns presented based on the viewpoint of Celce-Murcia et al
[2002] whose theory of intonation, as believed by the researcher, is clear, and thus,
2


approachable to UT-HCMC students who do not major in English, excluding all the
complex theories provided by other linguists. Also due to the distinctive features of
UT-HCMC where the study is conducted, the thesis’s generalizations and
recommendations will be limited to teaching intonation to English non-majored students
at UT-HCMC only, leaving other contexts of English teaching and learning out of
discussion.
0.5 DELIMITATION

Despite their differences in learning purposes, levels of intelligibility,
background knowledge, social status, and learning styles, VLE do share something
in common: their mother tongue, their culture, their social environment, etc. That is
why the results drawn from this research, if flexibly applied, can hopefully work
with other learners in other academic environments in Vietnam.
0.6 METHODOLOGY
The research is based on both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Quantitatively, the diagnostic test and the achievement test, which are in fact
exactly alike, are carried out at two different points of time in the study: the former
right at the beginning of the study and the latter almost at the end of the study, the
two times being nine weeks away from each other. The data collected and analyzed
will be statistically compared and contrasted for any potential findings of the study.
Qualitatively, data collected from the teachers’ and students’ responses to the
questionnaires which are delivered to the subjects right at the first stage of the study,
is another valuable source of information which helps the researcher figure out the
respondents’ attitudes towards teaching and learning intonation at UT-HCMC. In
addition, notes taken via the researcher’s careful observation during the experimental
teaching stage also serve as a reliable report on which she can rely when making
judgments on the students’ progress and the techniques employed. Finally, the result
obtained from the comparison between the two recordings of the students’ oral
performances, one of which is made after the diagnostic test is completed and the

3


other after the achievement test is done, will be carefully analyzed, giving the
researcher trustworthy evidence of the progress the students gain during the process
of systematically learning and seriously practicing English intonation.
Done for the M.A. thesis is the study that, as mentioned-above, is analytic
and statistical and that goes through the following steps:

 Step 1: Subjects are chosen.
 Step 2: Teachers’ and students’ questionnaires are delivered to the respondents
and the answered versions are collected on the spot.
 Step 3: The diagnostic test is done in class; the first recording of students’ oral
performance is made right after that.
 Step 4: Responses to the two sets of questionnaires are analyzed, compared
and contrasted; at the same time, students’ papers are marked, their
performance is evaluated, their problems are pointed out, and grade groups are
established.
 Step 5: The experimental teaching is carried out in the period of 9 weeks
during which good notes are taken via the researcher’s careful observation.
 Step 6: The achievement test is done; the second recording of students’
performance is then made.
 Step 7: Students’ papers are marked; results of the two tests and the two
recordings are compared; students’ progress and the effectiveness of the
techniques employed during the experimental teaching stage are judged.
 Step 8: Recommendations are given.
0.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
In addition to the introduction which identifies the problems giving rise to
the thesis and which provides an overview of the significance of the study and the
conclusion which restates the problems and then finds out their possible solutions,
the M.A. thesis consists of five main chapters.

4


Chapter 1 provides background information on how English has been taught
at UT-HCMC and such factors affecting the teaching and learning of English at UTHCMC as the teachers, the students, the curriculum, the course books and the way
in which students’ oral performance is assessed.
Chapter 2 reviews the literature relevant to the study in two separate

sections: theoretical background and previous researches related to intonation and
intonation teaching.
Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology employed in the study, including a
list of research questions, a discussion of research design, a description of the
study’s subjects, its instruments, and data collection procedures.
Chapter 4 analyzes all the data collected from (1) the students’ and teachers’
questionnaires; (2) the two tests; (3) the two recordings and (4) the observation of
the experimental teaching process for further discussion on the study’s findings.
Chapter 5 presents some recommendations to the administrators at UTHCMC on redesigning the current English curriculum, to the teachers and the
students at UT-HCMC for proper attitudes towards intonation and intonation
teaching and learning at this university. Some suggestions for teaching strategies
and classroom activities that can be applied at UT-HCMC are also included in this
chapter.

5


Chapter 1
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This chapter presents background information essential for a preliminary
understanding of the attitudes teachers and students at UT-HCMC have towards
intonation, the problems facing them as well as the main causes of these problems.
1.1 CURRICULUM AND COURSE BOOK
As a required subject, English is supposed to equip graduates of UT-HCMC
with sufficient knowledge of both General English (abbreviated to GE) and English
for Specific Purposes (abbreviated to ESP). Depending on their majors, students
attend between 300 and 615 forty-five-minute periods of English within their four
years at university. The first 240 periods, called the first stage, is devoted to GE
with Lifelines as the course books. The objective of this stage is to build up
learners’ confidence and English competence that are good enough for them to

comfortably interact with other people in English. During the remaining time, called
the second stage, students study ESP which is aimed at providing learners with
necessary technical terms relating to their majors and developing their reading
skills, which is of great significance to their future work. This stage, therefore,
contains nothing related to intonation.
During the first stage, students study the whole 14-unit elementary Lifelines
and the first eight units of the 14-unit pre-intermediate Lifelines, so each unit is
supposed to be covered within 10 periods on average. These 10 periods can be
theoretically subdivided as follows: 3 periods for grammar, 3 for vocabulary and
reading, 2 for listening, 1 for speaking and the last one for pronunciation, which
mainly focuses on individual sounds and the pronunciation practice of individual
words containing these sounds. Students are also taught stress in multi-syllabic
words, but they usually have word-level-based practice only. Rarely do they have
chances to practice pronunciation with long complete sentences. However, very

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little time is dedicated to intonation. Table 1.1 and Table 1.2 give more detailed
information on how different aspects of pronunciation are apportioned in Lifelines.
 Elementary Lifelines
Unit 1

No pronunciation lesson

Unit 2

The phonetic alphabet; word stress

Unit 3

Vowel sounds (1); “-es” endings

Unit 4

Vowel sounds (2); reduced vowels

Unit 5

Consonant sounds; word stress; /è/

Unit 6

Voiced/Voiceless sounds; present tense endings

Unit 7

/í/ and /8/

Unit 8

/1/ and /i:/

Unit 9

/å/ and /u:/; “-ed” endings

Unit 10

/æ/ and /e1/; and intonation of statements and yes/no questions

Unit 11

/ã/ and / èå/; intonation of wh-questions

Unit 12

/h/; sentence stress

Unit 13

/ê / and /tê/

Unit 14

Revision of pronunciation

Table 1.1: Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in elementary Lifelines

 Pre-intermediate Lifelines
Unit 1

The phonetic alphabet

Unit 2

Consonants; intonation of questions

Unit 3

“-ed” endings; word stress

Unit 4

/1/ and /i:/; sentence stress

Unit 5

/ã/ and /ä:/; reduced vowels

Unit 6

The pronunciation of “-a-”; word stress

Unit 7

/8/ and /í/; auxiliary verbs

Unit 8

Silent letters; sentence stress
Table 1.2: Apportionment of pronunciation aspects in the first eight units
in pre-intermediate Lifelines

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