- Nhung / VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages A brief comparison of Vietnamese intonation and English intonation and its implications for teaching English intonation. - to Vietnamese EFL learners. - Intonation is important for learners of English because even with satisfactory consonants and vowels, a phrase/sentence with an incorrect intonation contour may change the intended meaning of the whole utterance. - This study, basing its observation and formulation on earlier publications, will briefly compare Vietnamese intonation and English intonation as well as highlight some problems Vietnamese speakers are likely to have in learning English intonation due to the differences between these two language intonations, and to offer some implications for teaching English intonation to Vietnamese EFL learners.. - Justification of the study. - For beginners, or for those who have learnt mainly from written texts, poor pronunciation can be a obstacle to being understood. - Even with satisfactory consonants and vowels (phonemes), a phrase/sentence with incorrect melody may change the intended meaning of the whole utterance. - This study is an attempt to briefly compare Vietnamese intonation and English intonation as well as highlight some problems Vietnamese speakers are likely to have in learning English intonation due to the differences between these two language intonations, and to offer some implications for teaching English intonation to Vietnamese EFL learners.. - Method of investigation “The most effective materials are those that are based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner” (Fries . - Choice of dialects Of the various dialects of Vietnamese, the references made to Vietnamese pronunciation in this article for the most part describe the Northern dialect. - Outline of the article Part I is an introduction to the study, where a justification of the study, method of investigation and choice of dialects are presented. - Part II provides an overview of the tones and intonation of the Vietnamese language. - This lays the basis for comparing aspects of Vietnamese intonation with those of English intonation that follow. - In Part III, an overview of the tones and intonation of the English language is presented. - In Part IV, some aspects of intonation which are different in English and Vietnamese are addressed, and implications for teaching English intonation to Vietnamese learners are made. - The Vietnamese word structure and the Vietnamese tones, intonation Generally, there are two aspects in Vietnamese that make the language different from English. - Second, Vietnamese is a tonal language, that is, words with unrelated meanings may have the same sound combination but differ only in the tone of voice used to produce the sound combination. - In the Vietnamese language, the syllable is the minimal meaningful unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts. - in addition, three optional components may be present: an initial consonant, a sound indicating the labialization (rounding of the lips) of the syllable, and a final consonant or semivowel. - In case of the Vietnamese polysyllabic structure, the word is a combination of monosyllabic words. - Examples can be observed from Table 1: Table 1. - Examples of Vietnamese polysyllabic structure Polysyllabic structure. - Vietnamese tones Vietnamese is a tonal language in which changes of the pitch level and/or contour signal a change in meaning. - However, many linguists pay more attention to its prosodic aspect and consider tone to be absolutely as essential a part of the word as its consonant and its vowel. - In the instance that follows, the words differ lexically solely in the tone exerted to them, and such words are likely to have unrelated meanings. - “ban” means committee. - “bàn” means table or discuss. - “bán” means sell or half. - “bản” means mountainous village. - “bạn” means friend. - Except for the mid-level tone, all the other tones are denoted by diacritics over or under one of the vowels in the syllable in Vietnamese speech. - If we draw a short vertical line to present the range of the variation of pitch and divide it into four equal intervals with five points, these five points, counted from the bottom to the top, represent the five degrees as Chart 1 shows. - The pitch levels of the Vietnamese tones. - The pitch levels of the six tones can be presented on such a five-degree chart as in Chart 2 below (based on Tiee 1967 and Cù et al . - Table 2 below indicates how the various tonal designations are employed in the Northern dialect of Vietnamese, with comparatively parallel descriptions in English intonation. - Vietnamese tonal designations and parallel descriptions in English intonation. - “mơ” means dream Huyền (low-falling). - “mờ” means vague Ngã (high-rising broken). - “mỡ” means fat Hỏi (low-falling-rising). - “mở” means open Sắc (high rising). - “mớ” means bundle Nặng (low-falling broken). - “mợ” means father’s brother’s wife. - descriptions in English intonation 2.3. - Vietnamese intonation Vietnamese has not only a “word-pitch system” (tone) but also a “phrase-pitch system” (intonation). - In addition to the syllabic pitch (tone), undoubtedly there must be the rises and falls of pitch which constitute intonation contour in the utterances. - Five main components of Vietnamese intonation. - describes the operation of intonation in Vietnamese reduced sentences. - In this intonation pattern, the duration of the tone is shorter than its inherent duration.. - In this intonation pattern, the duration of the tone is longer than its inherent duration.. - In this intonation pattern, the pitch of the tone is one level higher than its inherent pitch.. - In this intonation pattern, the pitch of the tone is maximum.. - In this intonation pattern, the pitch of the tone is one level lower than its inherent pitch.. - In this intonation pattern, the pitch of the tone rises to the highest level (5), then followed by a fall.. - (1986), Vietnamese intonation is used the same way as in other languages. - Yet, intonation contours seem to be a bit more "cautiously used" in Vietnamese than in other languages: In questions, for example, there is normal declination until the proximity of the sentence final question marker, where the rise begins. - In terms of the functions of Vietnamese intonation, Đỗ (2009) states, “intonation is one of the conditions for a sentence/utterance to exist and function communicatively.” In communication, the Vietnamese intonation has such functions as grammatical, attitudinal, implicational/logic, pragmatic (see Đỗ 2009). - The English word structure and the English intonation 3.1. - English word structure English words can be monosyllabic or polysyllabic, each syllable with a vowel - either a monophthong or a diphthong. - English tones and intonation Although English employs tonal variations, the English intonation is different from tone as used in Vietnamese. - In English, intonation patterns reflect differences in the intention of the utterance, but they do not change the basic meaning of the word or words used.. - From the author’s own teaching experience, following are the four basic types of tone in English that can be efficiently taught to non-native speakers of English: a. - The Rising Tone In its shortest form, the Rising tone consists of a rise in the voice from a fairly low pitch to a high one. - The Dive can be used in statements uttered with hesitation:. - This tone can be used to correct something previously said:. - In statements said with sarcasm or irony, the Dive can be observed:. - The Rising-Falling Tone In the Rising - Falling tone, the pitch rises and then falls. - A: Isn’t the view lovely! B: ̂Yes. - Second, intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed and in particular the placing of tonic stress on a particular syllable marks out the word to which it belongs as the most important in the tone unit.. - Third, intonation can help the listener recognize the grammar and syntactic structure of what is being said by using the information contained in the intonation: phrases, clauses, sentences, questions vs. - Aspects of intonation that are different in English and Vietnamese In comparing Vietnamese intonation and English intonation, a big difference between the pitch feature of them can be found. - The English intonation patterns over longer stretches of speech have a fundamentally different function from those on individual syllables of Vietnamese speech. - In one respect, the intonation contours of both languages are similar in that they do not make any difference in the “dictionary meaning” of an utterance. - three basic intonation patterns (falling, rising, rising-falling) of both languages just tell the hearer something concerning the emotional attitude of the speaker or the apparent purpose of making the utterance. - However, the English intonation patterns are not completely apparent to the Vietnamese EFL learner. - In various situations in real-life communication, information, intentions and feelings expressed by a native English speaker through intonation may not be understood by the Vietnamese EFL learner. - Furthermore, the pronunciation aspect in Vietnamese of producing words with different tones may cause the Vietnamese speaker to make unnatural intonation contours when he/she produces English sentences. - In English, the pitch of voice in an assertive statement is usually dropped at the end. - In Vietnamese, the meanings of the sentences may completely change if the pitch is dropped.. - It can be observed that intonation in Vietnamese is strictly restricted by the tones. - Learners' attention should be drawn to the fact that the Vietnamese language uses certain grammatical patterns for assertive, negative and interrogative statements.. - for example, “He is coming.” versus “He is coming?” In Vietnamese, intonation is rarely used as a way to form questions. - If an assertive statement ends in a word with thanh sắc (the high-rising tone), the voice should be raised at the end of the sentence. - for example, “Hôm nay trời nóng lắm.” (It is really hot today.) On the other hand, if a question ends in a word with thanh huyền (the low-falling tone), the voice should be lowered at the end of the question. - for example, “Hôm nay trời nóng lắm à?” (Is it really hot today?) However, since the present literature on Vietnamese intonation is quite modest and the framework for describing Vietnamese intonation and that for describing English intonation are incompatible in some respects, not many aspects of intonation can be easily compared in this study.. - Implications for teaching English intonation to Vietnamese EFL learners The pronunciation mistakes made by people learning to speak a foreign language are almost always carry-overs from their native languages. - Through a comparison of the intonation of Vietnamese with that of English, an EFL instructor can anticipate potential problems for Vietnamese learners of English while learning this aspect of pronunciation. - It may be wise to do some perception practice on intonation patterns extended over a whole clause before encouraging students to produce English intonation in communicative situations. - Be aware of the teacher’s own pronunciation. - The Vietnamese EFL teacher’s accent is probably different from the Received Pronunciation or North American English which the learners may regard as ‘correct’. - Direct students’ attention to English basic intonation patterns - Alert students to similarities and differences in intonation between Vietnamese and English - Teach students to think in terms of the speaker’s intention in any given speech situation - Base the teaching firmly on communicative language teaching practice. - This can be a valuable awareness raising strategy. - Allow for student-centered classrooms and self-paced or self-directed learning - Create classroom exercises which promote learners’ cognitive ability to correct both themselves and their peers - Employ both perception and production tests Nearly all of the established EFL textbooks are designed to be used regardless of the native language of the learner. - They accomplish this by dealing directly with numerous problem areas with English intonation. - Conclusion This study has compared several intonational features of Vietnamese and those of English, and provided some implications for teaching English intonation to Vietnamese EFL learners. - Chao Yuen Ren, The Non-Uniqueness of phonemic solutions of phonetic systems, Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica . - Đỗ Tiến Thắng, Ngữ điệu tiếng Việt, NXB Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, 2009.. - Modelling the Interaction of Intonation and Lexical Tone in Vietnamese IfL Phonetik, University of Cologne, Germany. - Mehmet Celik, Teaching English intonation to EFL/ESL students, The internet TESL Journal, Vol. - So sánh ngữ điệu tiếng Việt - ngữ điệu tiếng Anh và ý nghĩa của so sánh này đối với việc dạy ngữ điệu tiếng Anh cho người Việt. - The presentation of pitch levels of the six tones in Vietnamese.