souder u11a1
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Vietnamese and Vietnamese and English Language English Language
ComparisonComparisonAmy SouderAmy Souder
ESL 502ESL 502Wilkes UniversityWilkes University
History and Key Features of Vietnamese
Austroasiatic language
Official language of Vietnam
Spoken in numerous other countries around the world
(Omniglot, 2012)
Tonal LanguageVietnamese 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)
Vietnamese Alphabet
Regular writing system
Most of the letters (grapheme) represent one phoneme
(Ngo, 2011)
Vietnamese Alphabet Video
(YouTube, 2009)
Vietnamese and English Comparison
Vietnamese
3 main dialects: northern, central, and southern
Tone language
Syllable is the minimal meaningful unit that cannot be divide into smaller parts
Voiced and voiceless stops
Syllable-timed language and rhythms are fairly level
English
Dialects are countless
Non-tonal language
Syllable is a sequence of sounds and the smallest unit that cannot be divided into smaller parts is a phoneme.
Voiced and voiceless stops
Stressed-timed language and the accented syllable recurs at intervals
(KrysTall, 2012; Ngo, pg. 7, 2011)
Vietnamese and English Comparison cont.
Vietnamese
Tense markers are usually left out if the time expression is clear from the context or sentence
No suffix endings, such as s and es
A word succeeds the noun it modifies (cat white)
Interrogative words are placed at the beginning or end of a question, depending on the tense of time
English
Past, present, and future tense markers
Suffixes are added to nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
A word precedes the noun it modifies (white cat)
Interrogative words are at the beginning of a question
(Ngo, 2011, pg. 17-18; Teaching English to Speakers of Vietnamese, 1991, pg. 19). )
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)
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)
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)
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)
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
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
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”
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”
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”
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)
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)
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.
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)
ReferencesCenter 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