MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N02 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY DOANH THI HONG CHUYEN AN INVESTIGATION ON WORD STRESS ERRORS COMMONLY MADE BY THE THIRD YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N02 AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI HA ANH, M.A HANOI, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Ha Anh, M.A., for her valuable instructions, advice, suggestions, as well as encouragement In addition, I would like to thank the teachers in the Foreign Language Faculty for their helpful suggestions and comments Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude towards the K39 English major students for their participation in the test survey and recording And I would like to thank all my friends who always encourage and support me to finish my thesis Lastly, I own a debt of gratitude to my family for their encouragement and endless support ABSTRACT It cannot be denied that word stress is one of the essential factors in Phonetic and Phonology Word stress is frequently used in speaking to help people communicate effectively Stress is put on the main syllable, so it helps listeners distinguish words which have similar form and understand the speaker’s purpose However, it is hard for learners to remember all the stress rules The subjects of the research were K39 English Bachelor and K39 English Pedagogy at Hanoi Pedagogical University N02 Because the third year English major students often make errors when they speak, this research work focused on analysis common errors in the pronunciation of word stress and aimed to help the students pronounce more effectively The author used test survey and recording method to find out the errors and suggested some solutions to improve that situation STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title: An investigation on word stress errors commonly made by the third year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University N02 and some suggested solutions I certify that no part of this thesis has been copied from other author’s works without acknowledgement and this thesis is written by me under the instructions from my supervisor Date submitted: May 2016 Student Supervisor DOANH THI HONG CHUYEN NGUYEN THI HA ANH, M.A TABLE OF CONTENT PART ONE INTRODUCTION I Rationales of the study II Research objectives .2 III Research presupposition IV Research scope V Research methods VI Significance of the proposed research VII Organization of the research work .3 PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Literature review in brief .5 I.2 Definition of pronunciation I.3 Aspects of pronunciation .6 I.4 Factors that affect pronunciation learning I.4.1 The native language I.4.2 The age factor I.4.3 Amount of exposure I.4.4 Phonetic ability I.4.5 Attitude and identity I.4.6 Motivation and concerns for good pronunciation .9 I.5 Concepts of English word stress I.5.1 Basic concepts related to English syllables .9 I.5.2 Definition of English word stress 10 I.5.3 Nature of stress and levels of stress 11 I.5.4 Function of stress 12 I.5.5 Placement of stress 12 I.5.5.1 Two-syllable words .13 I.5.5.2 Three-syllable words and more than three-syllable words 14 I.5.5.2.1 With verbs 14 I.5.5.2.2 With nouns 14 I.5.5.2.3 With adjective .15 I.5.5.3 Complex words 15 I.5.5.3.1 Suffixes and prefixes 14 I.5.5.3.2 Compound words 17 I.5.5.4 Word-class pairs 17 I.6 Concepts of sentence tress 18 I.7 How to pronounce English effectively 18 CHAPTER TWO THE STUDY II.1 Survey 22 II.1.1 Purpose of the survey 22 II.1.2 Population of the survey 22 II.1.3 Form of the survey 23 II.1.4 Construction of the test 23 II.1.5 Preparation of the survey 24 II.1.5.1 Test items 24 II.1.5.2 Arrangement of the test items 24 II.1.6 Data analysis procedures 25 II.2 Recording 26 II.2.1.Purpose of recording 26 II.2.2 Population of recording 26 II.2.3 Construction of recording paper .26 II.2.4 Preparation of recording 26 II.2.4.1 Recording paper 26 II.2.4.2 Arrangement of the recording paper .26 II.2.5 Data analysis procedures 27 II.3 Common errors in the placing English word stress and causes 27 II.3.1 Results of the survey .27 II.3.2 Common errors in the placing English word stress and causes 29 II.3.2.1 Errors and causes in putting stress on three-syllable verbs 29 II.3.2.2 Errors and causes in putting stress on the mixture of both two and three-syllable words 30 II.3.2.3 Errors and causes in placing stress on the syllable of two-syllable adjectives 31 II.3.2.4 Errors and causes in putting stress on the mixture of three-syllable words and more than three-syllable words 31 II.3.2.5 Errors and causes in placing stress on the syllable of two-syllable nouns .32 II.3.2.6 Errors and causes in putting stress on three-syllable and more than three – syllables nouns 32 II.3.2.7 Errors and causes in distinguishing part of speech based on stress of two-syllable words 32 II.3.2.8 Errors and causes in putting stress on three-syllable adjectives .33 II.3.2.9 Errors and causes in placing stress on the syllable of two-syllable verbs 33 II.3.2.10 Errors and causes in placing stress on the syllable of two-syllable adverbs and the mixture of two-syllable words 33 II.4 Recording 34 II.4.1 Results of recording 34 II.4.2 Common errors in the pronunciation of English word stress 34 II.4.2.1 Errors and causes in the pronunciation of three-syllable and more than three-syllable words .34 II.4.2.2 Errors and causes in pronouncing with equal stress for all syllables 35 II.4.2.3 Errors and causes in the pronunciation of two-syllable words .35 II.5 Suggested solutions 36 II.5.1 To the teachers 36 II.5.2 To the students 33 PART THREE CONCLUSION References 42 Test survey Words for recording Key PART ONE INTRODUCTION I RATIONALES OF THE STUDY English, the international language, has been learned widely; it helps people communicate with other parts of the world Undoubtedly, English is required in many sectors such as educational sector, medical sector, private sector, bank, transportation, etc For students who are English learners, they can build up a good career by having good English; therefore, it is very essential to learn this language Vietnamese learners have met a lot of difficulties in learning English especially the pronunciation of English words To improve their speaking skill, learners can focus on every aspect of pronunciation One of the most effective aspects that can change significantly a person’s pronunciation is stress In order to improve pronunciation, speakers must know the placement of the word stress and sentence stress It is very difficult for listeners to listen to the words that are stressed incorrectly Some words might be misunderstood because they may have more than one meaning based on stress placement In addition, sentences are pronounced with wrong stress can bring different nuance and meaning If students are good at speaking, this skill could support to listening comprehension The third year English major students at HPU2 have been studying English for year as their major, but they still make mistakes in pronouncing word stress Additionally, observing the third year English major students while they are studying Phonetic and Phonology, I see that they still make mistakes in stress Therefore, being aware of the problems and hoping to help the third year English major students better in pronunciation, the topic named an investigation on word stress errors commonly made by the third year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University N02 and some suggested solutions was conducted II REASERCH OBJECTIVES The study aims to get the following targets: To help the third year English major students at HPU2 be better at pronouncing based on stress To point out the main errors in English stress commonly made by the third year English major students at HPU2 To find out the causes of the errors English stress commonly made by the third year English major students at HPU2 To propose some solutions to minimize the errors commonly made by the third year English major students at HPU2 III RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION To achieve the aims mentioned above, some questions are raised:  What are the most common word stress errors made by the third year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University N02?  What are the causes of these errors?  What should be done to limit the student’s errors in order to improve their pronunciation? IV RESEARCH SCOPE Stress, which is one of the most important parts of English pronunciation, includes word stress and sentence stress However, because of limited time and experience, the author only focused on the errors in the pronunciation of English word stress commonly made by the third year English major students at HPU2 The number of students involved in the research was 100 (69 students from K39 English Bachelor & 31 students from English Pedagogy) They were pronunciation Therefore, that becomes a bad habit and they are misunderstood about the correct stress placement Moreover, they not remember the rules or take care of stress when they speak due to many syllables in a word, not mention to pronouncing some syllables wrong Analyzing this word tested in the interview Purposeful /ˈpəːpəsfʊl/ The stress is on the first syllable because the last syllable and the middle syllable are short vowels, and the word ends with no more than one consonant In reality, a great of the third year English major students tend to put stress on the second syllable and pronounce it wrong /pəːˈpəʊfʊl/ II.4.2.2 Errors and causes in pronouncing with equal stress for all syllables There are 60.7% errors in pronouncing with equal stress for all syllables This percentage was counted by calculating the number of errors in the pronunciation of two-syllable words and the pronunciation of three-syllable and more than three-syllable words Totally, the questions tested are 10 for 10 students; it means there are 100 answers Those errors account for 56 answers in which 34 answers are pronouncing without stress When asked, they explained why they have such a tendency that stress does not exist in Vietnamese Additionally, they found pronouncing equal stress is easier II.4.2.3 Errors and causes in the pronunciation of two-syllable words This error makes up the lowest percentage of errors studied at 25% Although the teachers have always reminded the students to avoid, a small number of them still forget this A typical example is question 42 with the word autumn (/ˈɔːtəm/) They often put stress on the second syllable, but it is weak form Therefore, stress must be placed on the first one 35 II.5 Suggested solution for teachers and students To solve any problems, it is essential to indicate its causes and suggest solutions depend on these causes I, after a long time analyzing carefully the common errors and some causes in placing and pronouncing English word stress, would like to give some recommendations Hopefully, they will be helpful to the teaching and learning of English word stress of teachers and students Moreover, they can be useful for other people who take care of this topic II.5.1 To the teachers In order to help students to communicate effectively and correctly stress exercises, the teachers should find more methods to motivate students to learn and improve their knowledge of word stress In speaking lesson, they should correct the pronunciation of their students Together with modern learning facilities, they should make lesson more interesting Depending on student’s phonetic ability, teachers of English choose the suitable technique There are some requirements for the teachers:  Contribute student’s awareness of the significance of word stress The students need to understand the role of word stress in communication Being English major students, they have to talk with foreigners or using English in work and teaching after graduation If they speak wrong stress, they will fail, it may lead to confusion  Pronouncing accurately while teaching students A teacher is a person who affects directly student’s learning In general education, some teachers did not focus on phonetic and phonology and their pronunciation were not met the standard If the teachers have wrong articulation, students will misunderstand or imitate their way of pronouncing 36 and establish bad habits Therefore, it is necessary to teachers to improve their ability of pronunciation  Diversify curriculum Teachers can use visual aids in the lesson to help and make students interested in For example, they can design exercises or activity by using projectors and computer, using software such as potato, violet In addition, teachers should keep review on stress; they can ask students to read on various aspects of word stress such as two syllable word, polysyllabic word, phrasal verb, proper noun, number, etc and give them homework After that, students are checked orally in the class and received comments from teachers  Teaching students from accuracy to fluency level When teachers choose exercises and activities for their students, they should base on the degree of student’s ability There are two processes named accuracy and fluency in teaching a language When it comes to pronunciation, accuracy is being accurate at segmental and supra-segmental features The teachers should start at accuracy level first The satisfactory articulation of vowels, consonants, diphthongs, word stress, rhythm, and intonation is the basic requirement for students who are English major Teaching students at this level mean the teachers teach the nature of syllable, stress and stress rules with suitable lessons Tench (1981) defined the fluency: “Fluent pronunciation is the smooth joining of phonemes and larger elements at an acceptable speed of delivery” This is a higher level that teachers need to consider the way they teach students They should find some tactics and methods to teach pronunciation in general and stress in specific 37 II.5.2 To the students It is the fact that learners can take a very long time to upgrade their pronunciation, especially word stress If they spend lots of time on studying and practicing this subject, they could pronounce with better pronunciation There are some suggested solutions to the third year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University N02 to help them learn English word stress more effectively  Building up habits of self-study and discovering learning resources at home Self-study is the key in learning a foreign language; it means that students get to study at their own pace Students become less dependent on others to learn English Apart from learning at class, they need to learn by heart the theory of word stress and practice doing exercise and pronouncing words with stress at home They are supposed to find material and learning resources from books and on the internet They can watch video clips about English stress taught online by some teachers of English; additionally, they should search some tips to remember stress placement and some exercises on trusted quality websites such as violet.vn, www.tienganh123.com, www.bbc.edu.vn and so on  Studying word stress rules carefully and regularly The K39 students at HPU2 may consult some rules of stress placement in the book English Phonetic & Phonology written by Peter Roach He worked out the rules for two-syllable nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, three-syllable and more than three-syllable words, words with suffixes and prefixes, compound words When they learn these rules, they should very carefully and not get confused The rules can be divided into different groups based on part of speech Besides, the students should practice stress exercises and 38 pronunciation frequently However, the stress pattern is not always fixed in English words; stress position may vary for some reasons Therefore, they need to take care of variable stress  Building a habit of pronouncing with stress When learning a new word, it is better to learn all about related issues such as its part of speech, its pronunciation, its collocations, and especially word stress What’s more, the students should try to pronounce correctly the pronunciation of a word with stress in the first time they learn the word The reason is that it is very difficult to correct the wrong pronunciation which is their habit for a long time  Speaking without fear Most of the students are fear of speaking because they worry making mistakes, and they are scared being stupid However, learning English requires not being afraid of making mistakes Steps by steps, they can build their confidence in their privacy of their own house first and then try reading out loud until they feel comfortable hearing their own voice in English They also can use recording method in practicing stress to record their voice and listen again To sum up, the K39 English majors students should comprehend the theory of English pronunciation first, and being aware of important of stress is also necessary Then they are better to learn by themselves with course books at the library; furthermore, students should find more sources with trusted quality 39 PART THREE CONCLUSION It is undeniable that Phonetic and Phonology are the essential parts of learning English English stress is a really difficult aspect of the study of English, and students often choose wrong stress placement, even third year English major students They have been learning word stress at university For this reason, the researcher decided to an investigation on word stress errors commonly made by the third year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University N02 and some suggested solutions to help the students pronounce more effectively The analysis has indicated that most of the students did not mention on the stress of three-syllable and more than three-syllable words However, they play an important role to make our words clear and more attractive though it is hard to remember the stress rules The most common errors was error in putting stress on three syllables verbs, and the most common reason for all the stress errors was the lack of carefulness and self-study From recording, the researcher found that students pronounced without stress It can be seen that the major causes were pointed out They make students confused and chose the wrong answer in placing stress and in the pronunciation of word stress Based on the study, some suggested solutions were released to the teachers and learners The teachers of English should design more activities in the classroom to help their students better in pronunciation They should introduce some ways to remember the rules Besides, students need study harder and practice more and more Like many other studies, there are some limitations In test survey, the subjects of study are 100 students; the questions are totally 34 I cannot avoid 40 that some students used the dictionary on their mobile phone to search the stress placement of words or asked and copied other students Therefore, the result may not reflect all the problems that students are facing In recording interview, they were not completely relaxing when reading words Moreover, the research did not cover all the areas and all the students As a result, the percentages above are not absolutely general true In conclusion, limitations are unavoidable because of time and experience I would like to welcome all suggestions and comments from readers to improve my work 41 REFERENCES An, T N (2010) An analysis on word stress errors commonly made by 12 th grade students in Le Quy Don High School, Hai Phong and some solution Hanoi: Hanoi University of languages and international studies Cook, A (2000) American Accent Training (2nd) Barron’s Educational Series Dauer, R M (1992) Accurate English Prentice Hall Regents Jones, D (1991) The pronunciation of English Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Kenworthy, J (1987) Teaching English pronunciation Longman Kredler, C W (2004) The Pronunciation of English (2nd.) Blackwell Publishing Mann, M & Knowles, S T (2008) Destination Grammar & Vocabulary B2 Macmillan Publicshers Nguyen, D H (2008) A research into word stress patterns in English Hanoi: Hanoi University of languages and international studies O’Connor, J D (1967) Better English Pronunciation Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Pennington, M.C (1996) Phonology in English Language Teaching – An International Approach Longman Quirk, R., & Greenbaum, S (1976) A University Grammar of English London: Long man Roach, P J (1983) English Phonetics and Phonology Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Tench, P (1981) Pronunciation Skills Macmilian Publishers 42 Tran, T T D (2013) Investigating the way of pronouncing English Stress and Intonation from Vietnamese people HCMC: University of Social Science and Humanities Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recording Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survey_methodology Retrieved from: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/ 43 44 TEST SURVEY This test survey aims to collect data for my research on investigation on word stress errors commonly made by the third year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University N02 and some suggested solutions I promise that all private information related to you will be kept secret I would like you to answer the question by circle the correct answer Exercise 1: Choose the word whose stress is different from the others: A Provide B Product C Promote D Profess A Polite B Precise C Complete D Heavy A Birthday B Cowboy C Disease D Pleasure A Seldom B Never C Often D Again A Intervene B Remember C Abandon D Determine A Ability B Engineer C Position D Computer A Adorable B Popular C Impossible D Acceptable A Director B Rarity C Primary D Applicant A Understand B Invitation C Industry D 10 A Happy B Global C Person D Decide 11 A Enjoyable B Recreation C Pursuit D Decision 12 A Sophisticated B Painting C Interesting D Popular 13 A Undertaken B Population C Entertainment D Spectator 14 A Pastime B Enormous C Activity D Important 15 A Important B Recreation C Improvement D Decision Computation Exercise 2: Choose the correct placement of stress: 16 Messenger A First B Second C Third 17 Success A First B Second 18 Expensive A First B Second C Third 19 Sincere A First B Second 20 Depend A First B Second 21 Gravity A First B Second C Third 22 Many A First B Second 23 Brilliant A First B Second C Third 24 Vacation A First B Second C Third 25 Ability A First B Second C Third D Fourth 26 Social A First B Second 27 Activity A First B Second C Third D Fourth 28 Successful A First B Second C Third Exercise 3: Word pairs Write down the placement of stress of these words with different parts of speech Words Record Present Conduct Desert Abstract Perfect Noun/Adjective Verb Thank for your participation! WORDS FOR RECORDING This method is used for my study to collect data on pronouncing word stress Sometimes, you can choose the correct placement of stress, but in speaking you forget the rules and you pronounce wrong or don’t put stress in the words Therefore, recording method helps researcher understand deeply the mistakes I promise your information will be kept confidential Exercise Read out loud these words: 35 Complain 36 Machine 37 Purposeful 38 Perspective 39 Hilarious 40 Particular 41 Forget 42 Autumn 43 Ambassador 44 Support Thank for your participation! KEY I SURVEY EXERCISE 1: 1.B 2.D 3.C 4.D 5.A 6.B 7.B 8.A 9.C 10.D 11.B 12.A 13.D 14.A 15.B EXERCISE 2: 16.A 17.B 18.B 19.B 20.B 21.A 22.A 23.A 24.B 25.B 26.A 27.B 28.B EXERCISE 3: Words Noun/Adjective Verb Record First Second Present First Second Conduct First Second Desert First Second Abstract First Second Perfect First Second II RECORDING EXERCISE 4: 35 Complain /kəmˈpleɪn/ 36 Machine /məˈʃiːn/ 37 Purposeful /ˈpəːpəsfʊl/ 38 Perspective /pəˈspɛktɪv/ 39 Hilarious /hɪˈlɛːrɪəs/ 40 Particular /pəˈtɪkjələ(r)/ 41 Forget /fəˈɡet/ 42 Autumn /ˈɔːtəm/ 43 Ambassador /æmˈbæsədə(r)/ 44 Support /səˈpɔːt/ [...]... have a research on word stress errors commonly made by the third year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University N02 and some suggested solutions to help the students pronounce more effectively I.2 DEFINITION OF PRONUNCIATION Pronunciation is the way a word or language is spoken or the manner in which someone utters a word Pronunciation plays a very important role in communication for learners... knowledge of word stress and point out common errors in placing stress of words among the third year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University N02 Additionally, the author analyzed their current ability in identifying English stress as the third year English major students at HPU2 II.1.2 Population of the survey The subject of study was K39 English major students, both English Bachelor and English. .. related to pronunciation such as language and speech, consonants, vowels and glides, the rhythm of English speech, intonation and in particular, predicting word stress 5 Throughout the book Teaching English Pronunciation, the author, Joanne Kenworthy emphasizes on pronunciation and developed speaking skill Part one mentions the basic principles of teaching pronunciation, intelligibility and its assessment,... the pronunciation of two-syllable words 2 Errors and causes in the pronunciation of three-syllable and more than three-syllable words 3 Errors and causes in pronouncing with equal stress for all syllables II.2.4.2 Arrangement of the recording paper 1 The test on errors in the pronunciation of two-syllable words: 35, 36, 41, 42 and 44 2 The test on errors in the pronunciation of three-syllable and more... putting stress on three-syllable and more than threesyllable nouns 7 Errors and causes in putting stress on three-syllable adjectives 8 Errors and causes in putting stress on the mixture of three-syllable words and more than three-syllable words 9 Errors and causes in putting stress on the mixture of both two and threesyllable words 10 Errors and causes in distinguishing part of speech based on stress. .. English and Received Pronunciation standard in the United Kingdom 19  Correct intonation Intonation is considered as essential criteria to assess speaking ability of speakers and English learners It is the raising and falling of speaker’s voice There are two types of intonation: the rising tune and the falling tune That pronouncing English effectively is that pronouncing with the correct intonation... word stress errors commonly made by 12th grade students in Le Quy Don High School, Hai Phong and some solution The study finds out the most common word stress errors and the causes of the errors then suggests possible solutions But, its subject is high school students, not English major students In the book The pronunciation of English, Charles W Kreidler (1989) mentions deeply all the issues related... adverbs and negative auxiliaries  Intonation Intonation is the way the voice goes up and down in pitch when we are speaking; it also is the way people express their thoughts and purposes In addition, it helps identify grammatical structure, and it shows what information is new in speaker’s utterance and what is known 7 I.4 FACTORS THAT AFFECT PRONUNCIATION LEARNING I.4.1 The native language The native language... background, then common errors in pronunciation of English stress Part three Conclusion summaries the whole research and suggests some solutions 4 PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF English stress has been defined and focused by several phoneticians, grammarians, and doctors Almost, they pay attention to the definition, rules and ways of pronouncing from... /three, and \four It’s a beautiful \TOWN, /ISN’T it?  Intelligibility When speaking or expressing an idea, speakers should make sure that their pronunciation is understandable It means that they do not make any confusion and gain communication purposes; listeners understand correctly speaker’s word and intention and react There are many factors that help speakers to get their aims, including accurate pronunciation,