Souder u11a1
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The document discusses key differences between the Vietnamese and English languages and provides a case study of a Vietnamese student named Sam Johnson. Some key differences highlighted include: Vietnamese is a tonal language with six tones represented by diacritics, while English is not tonal; Vietnamese does not use suffixes but English does; and Vietnamese has one form of verbs while English has multiple forms. The case study notes Sam struggles with English verb tenses and endings, vocabulary, and nouns. It provides recommendations for Sam such as focusing on verb endings and minimal pair activities.
Souder u11a1
- 1. Vietnamese and English Language Comparison Amy Souder ESL 502 Wilkes University
- 2. History and Key Features of Vietnamese Austroasiatic language Official language of Vietnam Spoken in numerous other countries around the world (Omniglot, 2012)
- 3. Tonal Language Vietnamese consists of six tones: 2.Midlevel 3.Low-falling 4.High-rising 5.Low-falling-rising 6.High-rising broken 7.Low-falling broken (Ngo, 2011)
- 4. Vietnamese Alphabet Regular writing system Most of the letters (grapheme) represent one phoneme (Ngo, 2011) Vietnamese Alphabet Video (YouTube, 2009)
- 5. Vietnamese and English Comparison Vietnamese English 3 main dialects: northern, central, Dialects are countless and southern Non-tonal language Tone language Syllable is a sequence of sounds and Syllable is the minimal meaningful the smallest unit that cannot be unit that cannot be divide into divided into smaller parts is a smaller parts phoneme. Voiced and voiceless stops Voiced and voiceless stops Syllable-timed language and Stressed-timed language and the rhythms are fairly level accented syllable recurs at intervals (KrysTall, 2012; Ngo, pg. 7, 2011)
- 6. Vietnamese and English Comparison cont. Vietnamese English Tense markers are usually left out if Past, present, and future tense the time expression is clear from the markers context or sentence Suffixes are added to nouns, verbs, No suffix endings, such as s and es adjectives, and adverbs A word succeeds the noun it A word precedes the noun it modifies (cat white) modifies (white cat) Interrogative words are placed at the Interrogative words are at the beginning or end of a question, beginning of a question depending on the tense of time (Ngo, 2011, pg. 17-18; Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, 1991, pg. 19). )
- 7. Diacritics used in the Vietnamese Language Vietnamese is a tonal language Tones are represented by a diacritic (mark) positioned over or under a vowel in the syllable Each of the six tones has its own diacritic Diacritics are not used in English This may cause confusion for an ELL (Ngo, pg. 7, 2011; Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 5, 1991)
- 8. Aspiration English speakers aspirate when pronouncing the letters p, t, and k at the beginning of words Vietnamese speakers pronounce these same sounds and often do not aspirate, causing words such as pit, tie, and call to sound like bit, die, and gall (Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 9, 1991)
- 9. Suffixes English uses suffixes to show grammatical meaning Inflectional suffixes add meaning and agreement to the words they are attached to Vietnamese language does not add suffixes to words (Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 16-17, 1991)
- 10. Verbs In English, verbs are converted to nouns by adding ing to the base word English forms of the verb “to be”: am, is, are, was, were, be, and been In Vietnamese, words can be used either as verbs or as nouns without any changes being made to the base word Vietnamese only has one form of a verb, la (Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 21, 1991)
- 11. Case Study Sam Johnson Vietnamese decent Migrated to the US two years of age, when Sam was eight years old Neither of Sam’s parents speak English Vietnamese is the primary language spoken in the home Sam’s older sister is proficient in English Much L2 support is provided by Sam’s older sister
- 12. Sam Johnson 5th grade student Attending ESL since his enrollment in school ESL three days a week; totaling six hours of instruction Sam has made vast improvements in English since his enrollment two years ago
- 13. Verbs Sam is having difficulties with the correct tense of verbs Example: Commonly dismisses the ing ending of verbs or adds an ing ending when not needed Errors with using the correct helping verbs Example: Commonly used “are” when he should have chosen “is”
- 14. Vocabulary Sam struggles with phonemics In result, often gets frustrated and creates nonexistent words Example: He wrote “merred” when it should have been “purred” Difficulties with grammar rules; such as understanding when to drop the “y” and add an “ies”
- 15. Nouns Sam is having trouble with correct noun usage Subject pronouns are a major concern Example: Used “me” instead of “my” and “she” instead of “her”
- 16. Instructional Findings There are sounds which occur in English but not in Vietnamese, and there are sounds which occur in both languages but are produced differently and pattern differently Verb tense markers in English but not in Vietnamese English uses aspiration in some letter sounds and Vietnamese does not The result of Sam’s errors my be the cause of language transfer interference (Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 6, 1991)
- 17. Areas of Focus Sam would benefit from: More emphasis on verb endings More focus on aspiration of letter sounds Minimal pair activities (Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 10, 1991)
- 18. Correct the Errors? Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese states that “a student’s pronunciation should not be corrected when he or she is attempting to communicate an idea except by following a set of guidelines.
- 19. Guidelines 2. Only correct those aspects of pronunciation which the student is able to appreciate. Making the learner correct a sound in an unfamiliar context or in isolation is futile. 3. Stop a learner in the context of his utterance only when it is necessary for communication. Other interruptions will frustrate the learner and stifle the communication effort in progress. 4. Take note of the pronunciation problems of the learners from among those aspects which they have been taught and drilled on. Make reference not only to the nature of the error and its correction but also to the situation in which the aspect was practiced. This helps the learner put the error into perspective and take note of the things learned but not used correctly. 5. Correct no more than one or two things in a learner’s utterance or you will provide more feedback than the learner is likely to be able to retain as well as deflate the learner’s ego and confidence in learning the language. (Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, pg. 14, 1991)
- 20. References Center for Applied Linguistics. (1991). Teaching English to speakers of Vietnamese. Refugee education guide: General Information Series #23. Retrieved from: http://www. eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED208681.pdf KryssTal. (2012). The origin and history of the English language. Retrieved from: http://www.krysstal.com/english.html Ngo, B. (2011). The Vietnamese language learning framework. (Master’s thesis, Harvard University). Retrieved from: http://www.seasite.niu.e du/jsealt/past%20issues/volume%2010/VN%20LLF%20Part%20I.pdf Omniglot. (2012). The online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages. Retrieved from: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/vietnamese.htm YouTube. (2009). Vietnamese alphabet. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GB6iHi8qvM& feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLAA34FBF 61CDFB290