Investigation into the use of corpora in L2 teaching and learning in Vietnamese classroom of English ‘Raise/Rise’ and ‘Since/For’

A new kind of linguistic exercise based on concordances samples from BNC was first used experimentally in an English lecture at a Vietnamese university for two groups: one was using concordances, one not. The group using concordances could get more correct answers and devlop activeness in exploring word structures and rules

Vietnamese tones in the syllable /la/ in the North and South and tones in Vietnamese reduplications

The paper provides a description and a small investigation of the Vietnamese tonal system in different dialects in which six Vietnamese tones and tones in reduplications contribute to lexical function and tone harmony. The aim of the study is to further understand the tonal system in Vietnamese as well as the usages of tone registers in different patterns of Vietnamese reduplications. It also aims to analyze the similarities and differences in Northern and Southern Vietnamese tones in the syllable /la/ and the prominent syllable in reduplicative disyllables. The passage including six tones in /la/ and some reduplicative words created by the author was recorded by two Vietnamese males in Northern (NVN) and Southern (SVN) dialects. The analysis made use of Praat to see different prosodic elements; typically pitch contour/level, duration, intensity and voice quality (creak and modal voice) in six tones of /la/ and the prosodic prominence with a tone in the stressed syllable and tone registers in reduplicative disyllables. The results show that the falling huỵền, the rising sắc and the level ngang tones are similar in Northern and Southern dialects regarding pitch contour, intensity and duration. They are mostly different in the tones nặng, hỏi and ngã. Regarding voice quality, in both NVN and SVN sắc tone is creaky while ngã tone is modal. However, they are different in nặng, ngang and huỵền tones in which all three are slightly creaky in NVN but modal in SVN. One typical difference is that hỏi and ngã in SVN have merged into one tone with falling-rising contour. Moreover, the full and partial reduplicative words that create the meaning, being that of “intensification” or “attenuation” (Nguyen, 1997, p. 45), are tied with the tone harmony following strict rules on the tone registers (upper and lower), even though hỏi and ngã tones in SVN are spoken the same way. Additionally, it reveals that prosodic prominence is mostly on the second syllable in full reduplicative disyllables. Meanwhile, the prominence is on the syllable with high rising tones in partial reduplicative disyllables and in those cases they are the base. The prominence pattern found in the data is similar in both dialects. The analysis in the tonal system in NVN and SVN will, hopefully, further our understanding not only of how tones vary in Vietnamese dialects but also of how they relate to each other in Vietnamese reduplication disyllables within the phonological tonal system

Teaching English for young language learners at Grade 5: Teachers' beliefs in two contrasting national approaches compared, and pedagogical implications

The aim of the paper was to investigate EFL (English as a foreign language) primary school teachers’ beliefs regarding their teaching methods used in English at grade 5 in the classroom, which was a part of my PhD research (Son, 2018). Interviews (teachers at Grade 5 observed classes; Responses N=2, Sweden and N=3, Vietnam) and questionnaires to English teachers at grade 5 in Swedish and Vietnamese primary schools (additional teachers at Grade 5; Responses N=10, Sweden and N=52, Vietnam) were used. The content of the questionnaire was based on the COLT observation scheme (Spada & Fröhlich, 1995) and adapted to be suitable to the study (Son, 2018) of teaching methods at Grade 5. The teachers’ answers showed the major different degree of focusing on communication and grammar in teaching English classes at primary level between the groups, in spite of some similarities regarding classroom activities (group work), source of material and the languages used in the classroom. The results not only casted light on teachers’ beliefs in two contrasting national approaches in their English teaching methods for young language learners but also led the author to discuss further pedagogical implication

Similarities and Differences in Policies and Practices for the Acquisition of English as a Second Language: A Comparative Study of Sweden and Vietnam

The paper highlights differences in approaches to teaching English as a second language for primary school children (grade 5) in Sweden and Vietnam. The paper will draw on data collected from classroom, teachers and curriculum on English teaching that reflect the policy of English teaching in the two countries,. Implications for national policies and classroom practices for teaching and learning of English as a second language are suggeste

Preliminary study : English Language Acquisition and Classroom Activities of L2 in Vietnamese Children, Grade 5

This study attempts to determine how English Language teaching and learning methods in a Vietnamese classroom might affect learning output. A classroom observation using COLT (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching–part A) and recordings of four Vietnamese children at grade 5 made immediately after the lesson concluded have been analysed. The analysis of the children' transcript is made based on the Processability Theory (PT) by Manfred Pienemann (1998), with different stages of English acquisition as Second Language (L2), especially on stage 5 Subject verb agreement (3Sg-s). This was done to hopefully get an indication of how and if the children acquired the subject-verb agreement in their speech, as well as how they produce utterances with 3Sg-s in a natural setting. The result shows different issues. Three of the four children could not acquire agreement on singular verb at stage 5 by adding a ‘s’ to lexical verbs for singular subjects. Instead, there is learner variation according to PT in which the learners produce different linguistic features for subject-verb agreement, namely 3SG-s. There are cases that conventions of L1 (Vietnamese) such as not marking 3rd person singular and plural in verbs may cause the errors in subject verb agreement (3Sg-s) but there are also “induced errors” derived from “overextension” that made the children place the 3rd person singular –s in different words in their utterances. The learners’ “errors” also show their L2 learning strategies and how they build their own grammar on 3SG-s. Classroom observations helps to illustrate which classroom activities are teacher-centered or learner-centered, and if it would better help students to learn and retain the communicative skills in L2 learning. It is also pointed out that the verb ‘be’ is overused in the pattern of 3Sg-s due to the heavy stress of this grammatical structure from the lesson teaching

Is using concordances effective in teaching English grammar (Raise/Rise and Since/For) as a foreign language in Vietnamese classrooms?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of corpus linguistics, with a specific focus on the concordances in teaching and learning English in Vietnam. The concordance samples provide teachers and students with the information about the different patterns of use and structure that can be found for each word. I have designed a new kind of linguistics exercises on the basic of the selected list of concordances samples mainly from the British National Corpus (BNC). This kind of exercise was first experimented in an English lecture at Cantho University-Vietnam for the freshmen- English Education class. Such exercise consists of a grammatical part which purpose is to learn how to distinguish the uses of words like Raise/ Rise and Since/ For. In order to evaluate the differences in using concordances or not while doing these exercises, the teacher divided the students into two groups: one was using concordances, one not. Students from the second group whom used concordances, obtained more correct answers than those from the first group, whom did not, and the second group could develop the activeness in exploring the word structures and rules. The study reveals that it is still a challenge in applying concordances in English teaching and learning. However, the second group had good results and the feedback from the survey on evaluating the concordances use in language learning was highly appreciated. This helps us see more clearly the promising future of applying corpus linguistics (typically concordances) in English classrooms in Vietnam

Developmental stages of Swedish and vietnamese children in second language acquisition according to processability theory

The paper is to compare how Swedish and Vietnamese children acquire English as a second language, especially the morphology of subject verb agreement for habitual actions. The analysis on the children's speech helps to see in which morphological stages those children are according to the processability theory by Pienemann (1998