INITIAL EXPERIMENT ON USING COOLEDIT AND PRAAT IN TEACHING VIETNAMESE TONES TO FOREIGNERS AND HARD-OF-HEARING CHILDREN

Abstract

There were two groups of learners in the experiment: three foreigners in Group 1 and three hard-of-hearing Vietnamese children in Group 2. During 30 minutes of each lesson, the author pronounced 18 syllables carrying six Vietnamese tones, namely tone 1 - high level tone, tone 2 - low level tone, tone 3 - high falling-rising tone, tone 4 - low falling-rising tone, tone 5 - high rising tone, tone 6 - low rising tone. The pronunciations were recorded, using CoolEdit Speech Analysis Software, and the contour of six tones in those 18 syllables were displayed, using PRAAT. The learners were asked to repeat the syllables by themselves. After four lessons, the participants in both groups reported that they felt more excited and found it easier to correct their own pronunciation of Vietnamese tones. This experiment, however, has not been proved to be useful for Vietnamese language beginners; it was initially applied only to foreigners learning Vietnamese and the hard-of-hearing children who speak Vietnamese quite well.