VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*********

NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀI THU

INTEGRATING PRONUNCIATION ELEMENTS INTO LISTENING
LESSONS FOR FIRST YEAR NON ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS
AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
(KẾT HỢP DẠY CÁC YẾU TỐ NGỮ ÂM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NGHE
CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2015


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*********

NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀI THU

INTEGRATING PRONUNCIATION ELEMENTS INTO LISTENING
LESSONS FOR FIRST YEAR NON ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

extraordinary help, valuable advice and outstanding support.
Secondly, my special thanks go to all the teachers in the faculty of Post Graduate Studies,
University of Languages and International Studies for their useful lectures, materials,
guidance and enthusiasm during my course.
I also highly appreciate the cooperation of my students in class CK2.2- K9 at Hanoi
University of Industry, without them this thesis would not be at all possible.
Finally, my grateful thanks and gratitude extend to my family and my friend, who have
always encouraged me and supported me to fulfill this study.

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ABSTRACT
Proper pronunciation makes significant contribution to successful communication. Despite
its importance, it is often ignored and neglected in EFL classes. The study involves an
action research on integrating pronunciation elements into listening lessons. However,
since pronunciation comprises a variety of elements, in this study, the researcher just
concentrates on intonation teaching. The aim of this study is to investigate how integrating
intonation teaching into listening lessons improves students’ intonation and students'
attitudes toward the teaching method. The participants were 45 first year non English
major students at Hanoi University of Industry. The treatment was conducted in eight
weeks with eight intonation lessons which were integrated in the post-listening stage of the
listening lessons. The major source of data for the research came from two sets of
instruments including tests and questionnaire. The results of the study show that after the
treatment, students’ intonation significantly improved and the majority of them had
positive attitude toward intonation and the teaching method. Therefore, it can be said that
the intonation teaching integrated with listening lessons helped to improve the students’
intonation.

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2.3.3 Integrated approach......................................................................................... 18
2.3.4 Integrating teaching intonation into listening ................................................. 18
2.4 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... 20

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY................................................................................ 21
3.1. THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY ................................................................................. 21
3.2. SUBJECTS................................................................................................................ 22
3.3. THE ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ............................................................................ 22
3.3.1 Action research ................................................................................................ 22
3.3.2 Action research procedure ............................................................................... 24
3.4 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... 27
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ......................................................... 29
4.1. RESULTS FROM THE TESTS ...................................................................................... 29
4.1.1 Results from the pre-test .................................................................................. 29
4.1.2 Results from the pre-test and four progress tests............................................. 30
4.1.3 Results from the pre-test and post- tests .......................................................... 32
4.1.4 Discussion of the test results ............................................................................ 33
4.2 RESULTS FROM THE STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE .................................................... 34
4.2.1 Attitude toward studying English intonation ................................................... 34
4.2.2 Attitude toward the integrated approach of learning intonation ..................... 35
4.2.3 Other opinions.................................................................................................. 36
4.2.4 DISCUSSION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS ..................................................... 37
4.3 SPECIFY LEARNING .................................................................................................. 37
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 39
5.1 MAJOR FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS ...................................................................... 39
5.2 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .................................................................................... 40
5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ......................................................... 40


Table 2: Comparison of the scores of the pre-test and progress tests…………...

30

Table 3: Comparison of the scores of the pre-test and post-test ……………….

31

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Features of English pronunciation …………………………………..

6

Figure 2: Detailed action research model………………………………………

23

LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1: Student's mean sores in pre-test and progress tests …………………..

29

Chart 2: Attitude toward studying English intonation ………………………… 33
Chart 3: Attitude toward the integrated approach……………………………… 34

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Like many universities in Vietnam, Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) considers English
as a necessary skill beside other professional skills which the students should be welltrained. In order to help the students be able to communicate in English, the course
syllabus is designed with general objectives to get the learner to be mastered in oral
communication. The main content of syllabus focuses on improving students’ listening
and speaking skill. However, as my observation during two years teaching here, the poor
pronunciation is the big challenge for students to master those skills. Many teachers
complain that improper pronunciation leads students in being unconfident in speaking and
confused with listening comprehension. For two years working with non-English major
students at HaUI, the researcher recognizes that a large number of them mispronounce
separated words and words combined in a sentence. Other pronounces a sentence with
equal stress, flat intonation and no rhythm at all. Especially, with the flat intonation,
students speak English like reading their script. There was almost no emotion, no change
in pitch when they are speaking. Consequently, it is difficult to understand their
expressions and thoughts that go with words. In addition, with the limited knowledge of
intonation, many students have difficulty in understanding and interpreting speakers’
expression in listening tasks. For instance, if a positive sentence is spoken with the rising
tone, the speaker has tendency to put a query rather than make a statement. However, the
students hardly understand clearly speaker’s purpose so they generally give incorrect
answer.
Since pronunciation is the most complicated aspect of language to obtain, most English
teachers, especially non-native speakers like at HaUI, feel unconfident in teaching
pronunciation. Furthermore, because of some reasons such as the shortage of instructions
or guidance dealing with pronunciation in textbooks, too few pronunciation exercises as
well as the lack of time, teachers at HaUI often ignore pronunciation teaching. Therefore,
teaching pronunciation by integrating it into other lessons is suggested.

As Morley

(1991:486) stated “the need for the integration of pronunciation with oral communication
was soon realized with a shift from specific linguistic competencies to broader

In order to fulfill the above aims, the research is designed to seek the answers of the two
following questions:
-

To what extent does integrating intonation teaching into listening lessons improve
students’ intonation?

-

What are the student’s attitudes toward integrating intonation teaching into
listening lesson?

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1.4. Scope of the study
This is an action research with a focused group of 45 first year Non English major students
at Hanoi University of Industry. There are a great number of pronunciation elements;
however, this study just focuses on intonation. The researcher integrates teaching
intonation into listening lessons with the aim at improving students’ intonation.
1.5. Significance of the study
Firstly, the study is conducted with the hope to help the students who participated in this
project improve their English intonation. Secondly, this research can be an interesting
reference material for EFL teachers, especially English teachers at HaUI about the ways
how to integrate intonation teaching into listening lessons. Lastly, the research may make
contribution to the overall literature picture of teaching intonation integrated into listening
lessons in Vietnamese context.
1.6. Organization of the study
The thesis is instructed in five chapters.
Chapter 1 includes rationale, the objectives, research questions, the scope, the significance

understood

breakdown

or

and
failure

understanding
may

occur

others’.
due

to

mispronunciation. When mentioning about the importance of pronunciation, Hewings
(2004:11) claims “difficulties with pronunciation might mean that students fail to get their
message across, even when the correct words are being used, or they may fail to
understand what is said to them”. In other words, problematic pronunciation possibly
prevents ESL learners expressing their thoughts clearly and comprehending others’
speech. To some extent agreeing with Hewings, Kelly (2000) also states that a learner who
consistently mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker
from another language community to understand. This can be very frustrating for the
learner who may have a good command of grammar and lexis but have difficulty in
understanding and being understood by a native speaker.
Mastering grammar, having a good knowledge of vocabulary, being able to read and write


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Consonants are sounds in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the
larynx to the lips. Consonant sounds can be voiced (a part of the mouth is closed and the
air behind it is released suddenly – for example, v as in van, b as in bun) - or unvoiced (air
is pushed through a narrow part of the mouth – for example, f as in fan, th as in thin).
Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the
larynx to the lips. Vowel sounds are articulated as single sounds. They can be short (for
example, æ as in cat) or long (ɑ: as in cart). Diphthongs are two vowel sounds put together
(for example, eɪ as in Kate or as in boy).
Suprasegmental features relate to sounds at the macro level. Linking, intonation and
stress are important features for effective pronunciation at the suprasegmental level.
Linking refers to the way the last sound of one word is joined to the first sound of the next
word. To produce connected speech, words are run together to link consonant to vowel,
consonant to consonant, and vowel to vowel. Some sounds are also shortened and others
are left out altogether.
Word stress relates to the greater prominence or loudness given to a particular syllable in
a word. For example: conDItion, JOYful (The syllables indicated in capitals are stressed
ones).
Sentence stress relates to the prominence given to certain words in an utterance. These
focus words are stressed (made long and loud) to convey the overall rhythm of the
utterance and the most meaningful part of the utterance. At the meaning level, some words
are given more prominence than others to foreground which meaning is important. For
example, compare:
Can YOU take the scissors? (not someone else)
Can you take the SCISSORS? (not the knife)
Intonation can be thought of as the melody of the language – the way the voice goes up
and down according to the context and meanings of the communication. For example, note

Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992:190) will be adopted

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“when speaking, people generally raise and lower the pitch of their voice, forming
pitch patterns. They also give some syllables in their utterance 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 that which is expressed by the word in the sentence.”

Obliviously, intonation cannot be defined in separation from pitch variation, stress and
speech rhythm. In other words, they are key elements forming three systems of English
intonation namely tone, tonicity, and tonality. Furthermore, it can be seen from the
definition that English intonation has its own structure and functions. The discussion of
system, structure, and function of English intonation will be made in the following parts of
the research.
2.2.2. System of intonation
English intonation comprises “three separated, though related, systems: tonality
(intonation units), tonicity (the tone syllables) and the tone (pitch movements) (Tech,
1996:73)
2.2.2.1 Tonality
According to Tench (2006:6) “the discourse – any discourse – will be segmented into a
sequence of units of information (unless there is only one unit). This segmentation is
called tonality”. Spoken discourse may consist of a whole text, a sentence, one word or
even only one syllable. Furthermore, Tech points out that tonality holds a unit of
information. The information is ‘encoded’ in units of grammar. Clause is the most obvious
unit of grammar so a unit of intonation coincides with a whole clause or a significant
element of clause structure. Clause is designed to convey a typical piece of information.

(1982) identify four basic tones (fall, rise-fall, rise, and fail-rise) while O'Connor and
Arnold (1973) distinguish only two (rise and fall). In the context of this study, five tones
identified by Roach (1983) are chosen to teach for the students.

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Fall (

)

A falling tone is by far the most common used tone of all. A speaker, by choosing a falling
tone, also indicates to the addressee that that is all he has to say, and offers a chance (turntaking) to the addressee to comment on, agree or disagree with, or add to his utterance.
However, it is up to the addressee to do either of these. Overall, the fall could be said to
give an impression of “finality”.
For example, if someone ask a question and replies “ yes” or “no” with the fall tone, it will
be understood that question is now answered and there is nothing more to be said.
A falling tone may be used in referring expressions. E.g: I love your SMILE.
Questions that begin with wh-questions are generally pronounced with a falling tone. E.g:
Whose is this DICtionay?
Imperative statements often have a falling tone. E.g: Come and see a DOCtor.
Requests or orders have a falling tone too. E.g: Please come IN
Exclamations: E.g: Watch OUT!
Yes/No questions and tag questions seeking or expecting confirmation can be uttered with
a falling tone. And the response to it may be lengthened. Consider the following example:
A: You saw it, DIDN'T you?
B: Yes.
In a Yes/No question structure, if the speaker uses a falling tone, we assume that he
already knows the answer, or at least he is sure that he knows, and the purpose of asking
the question, as far as the speaker is concerned, is to put the answer on record. In the

and A would probably expect B to go on to explain why he was reluctant to agree.
Similarly:
A: It’s not really an expensive record, is it?
B: No
The fall-rise in B’s reply again indicates that he would not completely agree with A. Fallrise in such contexts almost always indicates both something “given” or “conceded” and at
the same time some “reservation” or “hesitation”.
Rise- fall

(

)

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This is used to convey rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise. It is not
usually considered to be a useful tone for foreign learners to acquire, though it is still
useful practice to learn to distinguish it from other tones. Here is example:
A: Isn’t the view lovely!
B: Yes
A: I think you said it was the best so far.
B: Yes
The rise-fall in the first B’s reply may convey the strong surprise with A’s statement. The
rise-fall in B’s reply again indicates that he strongly agree with A.
Level ( ̲ )
This tone is certainly used in English, but in rather restricted context: is almost always
conveys (on single- syllable utterances) a feeling of saying something routine,
uninteresting or boring. For example: a teacher calling the name of pupils from a register
will often do so using a level tone on each name, and the pupils would be likely responds
with _yes when their name was called.

syllable, there cannot be a head. For example: Give me those.
H

TS

The pre-head (PH)
The pre-head is composed of all unstressed syllables in a tone-unit preceding the first
stressed syllable. Thus, pre-heads are found in two main environments:
i) When there is no head (no stressed syllable preceding the tonic syllable). For example:
in an hour
PH

TS

ii) When there is a head. For example: in a little less than an hour
PH

H

TS

The tail (T)
It happens that some syllables follow the tonic syllable. Any syllables between the tonic
syllables and the end of the tone-unit are called the tail. For example: I might buy it.
H TS
2.2.4. Functions of intonation
According to Roach (2010), there are four intonation functions:

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another tone-unit and, in conversation, can convey to the listener what kind of response is
expected. Such functions are examples of intonation’s discourse function
2.2.5 The importance of intonation
In order to be more authentic and sound like a native speaker of English, it is important
that an EFL learner should learn how to use intonation. In today’s world, English is the
most widely spoken language and it is gaining more and more importance every other day
because of the technological developments and diplomatic reasons. It is also beneficial for
EFL learners to be familiar with intonation in that, knowing about usage of intonation in
English makes it easier to understand a communication between native speakers of
English. For example, when watching a movie, it helps us understand the situation even
though we are not sure about the meaning of some words used by the actors.
O’ Connor (1980) believes that intonation plays an important part in languages. In English,
with different intonation, we can say a word group definitely, hesitantly, angrily or kindly,
with interest or without interest. Although the words do not change their meaning, they are
added the speaker’s feelings by intonation we use. Kelly (2000:56) considers intonation as
a “fundamental part of the way we express our own thoughts” and it enables us to
understand those of others.” To some extent agreeing with Kelly, Bradford (1988:2)
claims intonation is a “feature of spoken language. It consists of the continuous changing
of the pitch of a speaker’s voice to express meanings”. People can mean different things
by using the same group of words, arranged in the same order, by saying them in different
ways. A speaker is able to make a group of words mean what he/she wants it to by
choosing the right intonation. Without intonation, it’s impossible to understand the
expressions and thoughts that go with words.
In short, so as for negotiation of meaning be present in a communication, being understood
by an English speaker is as important as understanding him/her. This makes another
reason showing that, apart from grammar and vocabulary, intonation is among the crucial

the vocal apparatus, contrastive information, and other aids to supplement listening,
imitation and production. It explicitly informs the learner of and focuses attention on the
sounds and rhythms of the target language. This approach was developed to complement

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