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


 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

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,

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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
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

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


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%

(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

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


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

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


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

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

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


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?

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. //

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

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

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 (

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